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Bush Article of Impeachment XV

Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2008-06-13 20:46.

Article XV
PROVIDING IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION FOR CRIMINAL CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ

In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed", has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice President, established policies granting United States government contractors and their employees in Iraq immunity from Iraqi law, U.S. law, and international law.

Lewis Paul Bremer III, then-Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for post-war Iraq, on June 27, 2004, issued Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 17, which granted members of the U.S. military, U.S. mercenaries, and other U.S. contractor employees immunity from Iraqi law.

The Bush Administration has chosen not to apply the Uniform Code of Military Justice or United States law to mercenaries and other contractors employed by the United States government in Iraq.

Operating free of Iraqi or U.S. law, mercenaries have killed many Iraqi civilians in a manner that observers have described as aggression and not as self-defense. Many U.S. contractors have also alleged that they have been the victims of aggression (in several cases of rape) by their fellow contract employees in Iraq. These charges have not been brought to trial, and in several cases the contracting companies and the U.S. State Department have worked together in attempting to cover them up.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which the United States is party, and which under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution is therefore the supreme law of the United States, it is the responsibility of an occupying force to ensure the protection and human rights of the civilian population. The efforts of President Bush and his subordinates to attempt to establish a lawless zone in Iraq are in violation of the law.

In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

Documentation:

Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 17.

The Fourth Geneva Convention.

April 2006 Video of President Bush.

Joanne Mariner, Private Contractors Who Torture, FindLaw, May 10, 2004.

Ammar Karim, Middle East Online, October 24, 2007.

Massimo Calabresi, Time Magazine, February 13, 2008.

Ellen McCarthy, Immunity Provision Extended for U.S. Firms With Reconstruction Contracts, Washington Post, page A18, June 29, 2004.

BBC - October 30, 2007.

Alex Koppelman and Mark Benjamin, What happens to private contractors who kill Iraqis? Maybe nothing, Salon, September 18, 2007.

John Byrne and Gavin McNett, US quietly demands Iraq give defense contractors, US military immunity from prosecution, RawStory, January 25, 2008.

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