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George McGovern Calls for Impeachment of George Bush And Dick Cheney

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Mike Bock

Saying that urging impeachment is a “rightful course for an American patriot” to endorse, George McGovern, now 85 years old, the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Richard Nixon in 1972, is calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

In a Washington Post article, McGovern says, “Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ to use the constitutional standard.” Excerpts from the article:

In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion — by far the highest in our national history.
All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election.
How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness? It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an “imminent threat” to the United States. The administration also led the public to believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks — another blatant falsehood. Many times in recent years, I have recalled Jefferson’s observation: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”
Another shocking perversion has been the shipping of prisoners scooped off the streets of Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other countries without benefit of our time-tested laws of habeas corpus.
Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies — especially the war in Iraq — have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States.
Today, after five years of clumsy, mistaken policies and U.S. military occupation, Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife. It is no secret that former president Bush, his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, all opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.
I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century. This recovery may take a generation and will depend on the election of a series of rational presidents and Congresses. At age 85, I won’t be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I’d like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin.

From The Washington Post, “Why I Believe Bush Must Go,” written by George McGovern

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Note to Iowa Democrats: Pleeeeease, Not Hillary

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Mike Bock

Iowa Democrats, if you are thinking of voting for Hillary, in part, I understand. You are thrilled at the thought of advancing a talented and perceptive woman to the nation’s highest office. I like that thought too. And, if Hillary’s last name was Brown or Smith — anything, but Clinton — I’d be her supporter. But Hillary comes with Bill and with a whole boatload of bad feelings that are the residue of an earlier time. Do we really want a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton continuation? Can’t we move on?

Would-be Hillary voters might argue that it is cruel and unfair, but, regardless, certainly they must know that there are voters who simply hate the Clintons’ guts. This is a big block. Some in this block are Republican voters who are now ready to switch sides and vote Democratic. But never in a million years would these Clinton haters vote for Hillary.

John McCain, I believe, would probably defeat Hillary but, McCain would probably not defeat any other Democratic candidate. The point is to choose a great candidate who can win. And more importantly, the point is to choose a candidate that when elected will have the opportunity to be an effective president. Hillary, I fear, if nominated would not be elected. But if she were elected, I think her presidency would be needlessly hampered.

Iowa voters — Pleeease, not Hillary.

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Senior Qaeda Theologian Urges His Followers To End Their Jihad

Posted on December 21, 2007 by Mike Bock

The New York Sun reports that, “one of Al Qaeda’s senior theologians is calling on his followers to end their military jihad and saying the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a ‘catastrophe for all Muslims.’”

The article says that from a prison in Egypt, Sayyed Imam al-Sharif has released a manifesto blasting Osama bin Laden for deceiving the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and for insulting the Prophet Muhammad by comparing the September 11 attacks to the early raids of the Ansar warriors. The article says that Sharif is calling for the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and his old comrade Ayman al-Zawahri and that some analysis see the defection of Sharif as a “beginning of the end for Al Quada.” Thanks to the web-site Ohpinion for bringing attention to this report. Excerpts from the article:

The author of “Inside Al Qaeda,” Rohan Gunaratna said in an interview this week, “There is nothing more important than a former jihadist as important as Dr. Fadl criticizing the jihadist vanguard.” Mr. Gunaratna, who acts at times as a consultant for American and Western intelligence, described the reformed theologian as “both an ideologue and operational leader, but he was primarily an ideologue.”
An expert on Islamic terrorism with the Jamestown Foundation, Steven Ulph, also said the defection of Mr. Sharif could hemorrhage support for Al Qaeda. “The important point to make, when you have the combination of a respected ideologue, plus someone who was in the field, say these things it is more important than having a Saudi sheik that moderates his message,” he said.
The director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Frank Cilluffo, said, “Here you have someone with the stature and credibility, who more or less wrote the book on jihadism and is oft cited by other jihadists, making the case against it. This is someone with the heft on legal and religious grounds to make the counter argument that we can’t.”
Mr. Sharif, currently serving a life sentence in an undisclosed Egyptian prison, wrote in the 1980s two of the modern seminal texts for Sunni jihadism and in particular Al Qaeda, in “Fundamental Concepts Regarding Jihad” and “The Five Ground Rules for the Achieving of Victory or Its Absence.” Those books are scholarly justifications, citing the Koran and Hadiths, for joining a war against Muslim apostates such as the Egyptian ruling class and for a broader jihad against the far enemy of America.
Originally rounded up in the arrests following the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, Mr. Sharif served in an Egyptian jail with Ayman al-Zawahri, who would later go on to be the deputy to Mr. bin Laden. In 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, Mr. Sharif was arrested in Yemen and was later sent to Egypt in 2003 or 2004.
His latest texts are a renunciation of his earlier work, saying the military jihad or war against apostate states and America is futile. But the ex-jihadist also calls into question the virtue of Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri. In some ways the manifesto reads in parts like a spicy Washington memoir by an embittered former official.
On Monday, an American intelligence official familiar with the interrogation of Mr. Sharif said that in 2004 the Al Qaeda cleric was tortured. “All I am saying is that screw drivers were involved,” this official, who asked to be anonymous, said. When asked if Mr. Sharif was tortured, Mr. Gunaratna responded by saying, “He spent time in an Egyptian prison.”
But (regardless of an Al Qaeda charge that Sharif’s manifesto is the result of Egyptian torture) Mr. Gunaratna said he believed Mr. Sharif’s conversion was genuine. “He has had a genuine change of heart because we are seeing a trend today in Egypt where the original members of both of the major jihadist organizations are turning, the senior members of these groups, many have gone back and been remorseful,” he said. “He is not an exception because there is a trend. . . The traditional jihad movement is almost coming to an end. What has it accomplished in more than 25 years?”

From the New York Sun, written by Eli Lake, Staff Reporter of the Sun