Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The NSA Spied on U.N. Diplomats Prior to Iraq War (or, Why Bush Should Be Impeached)

Linked above is an article about how the administration used the NSA to spy on U.N. diplomats in New York before the invasion of Iraq to help the White House gain leverage, by any means possible, for a resolution from the U.N. Security Council authorizing the war. Now I'm certain somewhere in the archives I've mentioned this before (fellow blogger Xanthippas recently informed me that I had two years ago predicted scooter Libby was behind the Valerie Plame leak!), but obviously this is a much more mainstream story now, as Congressional leaders are calling for an investigation into the NSA's expanded domestic spying powers ordered by President Bush.

Xanthippas has done a good job of gathering many of the details of this developing story, and I won't rehash what Normon Solomon does a good job of explaining in the article. However, I will say that I fully believe that with what we have seen that should Democrats regain control of Congress articles of impeachment should be drawn up and President Bush be put on trial. I really don't see how this is not a blatant abuse of power that spits on our Constitution in the league of Nixon, and definitely worse than Clinton, not even to be partisan about it. What must Bush do to deserve at least censure? Sometimes I feel as if anything short of a ridiculous crime such as child murder would not suffice in the Congress' and media's eyes. But I digress.

So there you have it. One of the wise men endorses Bush's impeachment. Something tells me I will not be the last one to do so, either in the blogging arena or outside...

2 comments:

Alexander Wolfe said...

My earlier posts may have left you with the impression that I merely implied support for the impeachment of Bush. But I'll be clear here; I fully support impeachment. As I stated before the acts that have caused others to seek his impeachment have been political in nature, and I do not beieve essentially political acts deserve impeachment however reprehensive they may be. Sadly, it is the President's prerogative to "spin" facts to get a war he wants. But what we have here is at least a violation of American's constitutional rights without any Congressional or Judicial oversight, and it may arise to a violation of FISA. In my mind, if Clinton can be impeached for lying under oath, then so can a President be impeached for violating constitutional rights and breaking the law. I support impeachment fully.

Nat-Wu said...

Ugh, that article made me sick. How could our own newspapers not report on this story? Well, that's not the point, anyway.

The Constitution says:
Article II: Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

I'm not certain that "misdemeanors" necessarily requires a crime so much as egregiously bad behavior. Either way, Bush must be impeached and his actions investigated. If he's broken any laws, he must be convicted and removed from office. If his behavior is found to be morally reprehensible, he should be forced to resign.

Either way, impeach him and start the process. Every President must learn the lesson that they are answerable to the law and the will of the people.