[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 799 Introduced in House (IH)]
1st Session
H. RES. 799
Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, of
high crimes and misdemeanors.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 6, 2007
Mr. Kucinich submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, of
high crimes and misdemeanors.
Resolved, That Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United
States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the
following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States
Senate:
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives
of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people
of the United States of America, against Richard B. Cheney, Vice
President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support
of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Article I
In his conduct while Vice President of the United States, Richard
B. Cheney, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully
execute the office of Vice 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 to take
care that the laws be faithfully executed, has purposely manipulated
the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the
United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces
against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national
security interests, to wit:
(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice
President actively and systematically sought to deceive the
citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged
threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction:
(A) ``We know they have biological and chemical
weapons.'' March 17, 2002, Press Conference by Vice
President Dick Cheney and His Highness Salman bin Hamad
Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain at Shaikh Hamad
Palace.
(B) ``. . . and we know they are pursuing nuclear
weapons.'' March 19, 2002, Press Briefing by Vice
President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon in Jerusalem.
(C) ``And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons
at this time . . .'' March 24, 2002, CNN Late Edition
interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ``We know he's got chemicals and biological and
we know he's working on nuclear.'' May 19, 2002, NBC
Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(E) ``But we now know that Saddam has resumed his
efforts to acquire nuclear weapons . . . Simply stated,
there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons
of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is
amassing them to use against our friends, against our
allies, and against us.'' August 26, 2002, Speech of
Vice President Cheney at VFW 103rd National Convention.
(F) ``Based on intelligence that's becoming
available, some of it has been made public, more of it
hopefully will be, that he has indeed stepped up his
capacity to produce and deliver biological weapons,
that he has reconstituted his nuclear program to
develop a nuclear weapon, that there are efforts under
way inside Iraq to significantly expand his
capability.'' September 8, 2002, NBC Meet the Press
interview with Vice President Cheney.
(G) ``He is, in fact, actively and aggressively
seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.'' September 8,
2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President
Cheney.
(H) ``And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted
nuclear weapons.'' March 16, 2003, NBC Meet the Press
interview with Vice President Cheney.
(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice
President was fully informed that no legitimate evidence
existed of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Vice
President pressured the intelligence community to change their
findings to enable the deception of the citizens and Congress
of the United States.
(A) Vice President Cheney and his Chief of Staff,
Lewis Libby, made multiple trips to the CIA in 2002 to
question analysts studying Iraq's weapons programs and
alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an environment in
which analysts felt they were being pressured to make
their assessments fit with the Bush administration's
policy objectives accounts.
(B) Vice President Cheney sought out unverified and
ultimately inaccurate raw intelligence to prove his
preconceived beliefs. This strategy of cherry picking
was employed to influence the interpretation of the
intelligence.
(3) The Vice President's actions corrupted or attempted to
corrupt the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, an
intelligence document issued on October 1, 2002, and carefully
considered by Congress prior to the October 10, 2002, vote to
authorize the use of force. The Vice President's actions
prevented the necessary reconciliation of facts for the
National Intelligence Estimate which resulted in a high number
of dissenting opinions from technical experts in two Federal
agencies.
(A) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research dissenting view in the October 2002
National Intelligence Estimate stated ``Lacking
persuasive evidence that Baghdad has launched a
coherent effort to reconstitute its nuclear weapons
program INR is unwilling to speculate that such an
effort began soon after the departure of UN inspectors
or to project a timeline for the completion of
activities it does not now see happening. As a result
INR is unable to predict that Iraq could acquire a
nuclear device or weapon.''.
(B) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research dissenting view in the October 2002
National Intelligence Estimate also stated that
``Finally, the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural
uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment, highly
dubious.''.
(C) The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence
and Research dissenting view in the October 2002
National Intelligence Estimate references a Department
of Energy opinion by stating that ``INR accepts the
judgment of technical experts at the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq
seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas
centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds
unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make
the case that they are intended for that purpose.''.
The Vice President subverted the national security interests of the
United States by setting the stage for the loss of more than 3,800
United States service members; the loss of more than 1 million innocent
Iraqi citizens since the United States invasion; the loss of
approximately $500 billion in war costs which has increased our Federal
debt; the loss of military readiness within the United States Armed
Services due to overextension, lack of training and lack of equipment;
the loss of United States credibility in world affairs; and the decades
of likely blowback created by the invasion of Iraq.
In all of this, Vice President Richard B. Cheney has acted in a
manner contrary to his trust as Vice President, and subversive of
constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and
justice and the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty
of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.
Article II
In his conduct while Vice President of the United States, Richard
B. Cheney, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully
execute the office of Vice 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 to take
care that the laws be faithfully executed, purposely manipulated the
intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United
States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in order
to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation
of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests, to
wit:
(1) Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vice
President actively and systematically sought to deceive the
citizens and the Congress of the United States about an alleged
relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda:
(A) ``His regime has had high-level contacts with
Al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training
to Al Qaeda terrorists.'' December 2, 2002, Speech of
Vice President Cheney at the Air National Guard Senior
Leadership Conference.
(B) ``His regime aids and protects terrorists,
including members of Al Qaeda. He could decide secretly
to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists
for use against us.'' January 30, 2003, Speech of Vice
President Cheney to 30th Political Action Conference in
Arlington, Virginia.
(C) ``We know he's out trying once again to produce
nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing
relationship with various terrorist groups, including
the Al Qaeda organization.'' March 16, 2003, NBC Meet
the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(D) ``We learned more and more that there was a
relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched
back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it
involved training, for example, on biological weapons
and chemical weapons . . .'' September 14, 2003, NBC
Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.
(E) ``Al Qaeda had a base of operation there up in
Northeastern Iraq where they ran a large poisons
factory for attacks against Europeans and U.S.
forces.'' October 3, 2003, Speech of Vice President
Cheney at Bush-Cheney '04 Fundraiser in Iowa.
(F) ``He also had an established relationship with
Al Qaeda providing training to Al Qaeda members in
areas of poisons, gases, and conventional bombs.''
October 10, 2003, Speech of Vice President Cheney to
the Heritage Foundation.
(G) ``Al Qaeda and the Iraqi intelligence services
have worked together on a number of occasions.''
January 9, 2004, Rocky Mountain News interview with
Vice President Cheney.
(H) ``I think there's overwhelming evidence that
there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi
Government.'' January 22, 2004, NPR: Morning Edition
interview with Vice President Cheney.
(I) ``First of all, on the question of--of whether
or not there was any kind of relationship, there
clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to; the
evidence is overwhelming.'' June 17, 2004, CNBC:
Capital Report interview with Vice President Cheney.
(2) Preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq the Vice
President was fully informed that no credible evidence existed
of a working relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, a fact
articulated in several official documents, including:
(A) A classified Presidential Daily Briefing ten
days after the September 11, 2001, attacks indicating
that the United States intelligence community had no
evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the September 11th
attacks and that there was ``scant credible evidence
that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with
Al Qaeda''.
(B) Defense Intelligence Terrorism Summary No. 044-
02, issued in February 2002 by the United States
Defense Intelligence Agency, which challenged the
credibility of information gleaned from captured al
Qaeda leader al-Libi. The DIA report also cast
significant doubt on the possibility of a Saddam
Hussein-al-Qaeda conspiracy: ``Saddam's regime is
intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary
movements. Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide
assistance to a group it cannot control.''.
(C) A January 2003 British intelligence classified
report on Iraq that concluded that ``there are no
current links between the Iraqi regime and the al-Qaeda
network''.
The Vice President subverted the national security interests of the
United States by setting the stage for the loss of more than 3,800
United States service members; the loss of more than 1 million innocent
Iraqi citizens since the United States invasion; the loss of
approximately $500 billion in war costs which has increased our Federal
debt; the loss of military readiness within the United States Armed
Services due to overextension, lack of training and lack of equipment;
the loss of United States credibility in world affairs; and the decades
of likely blowback created by the invasion of Iraq.
In all of this, Vice President Richard B. Cheney has acted in a
manner contrary to his trust as Vice President, and subversive of
constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and
justice and the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is
guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.
Article III
In his conduct while Vice President of the United States, Richard
B. Cheney, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully
execute the office of Vice 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 to take
care that the laws be faithfully executed, has openly threatened
aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the
United States, and done so with the United States proven capability to
carry out such threats, thus undermining the national security of the
United States, to wit:
(1) Despite no evidence that Iran has the intention or the
capability of attacking the United States and despite the
turmoil created by United States invasion of Iraq, the Vice
President has openly threatened aggression against Iran as
evidenced by the following:
(A) ``For our part, the United States is keeping
all options on the table in addressing the
irresponsible conduct of the regime. And we join other
nations in sending that regime a clear message: We will
not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.'' March 7,
2006, Speech of Vice President Cheney to American
Israel Public Affairs Committee 2006 Policy Conference.
(B) ``But we've also made it clear that all options
are on the table.'' January 24, 2007, CNN Situation
Room interview with Vice President Cheney.
(C) ``When we--as the President did, for example,
recently--deploy another aircraft carrier task force to
the Gulf, that sends a very strong signal to everybody
in the region that the United States is here to stay,
that we clearly have significant capabilities, and that
we are working with friends and allies as well as the
international organizations to deal with the Iranian
threat.'' January 29, 2007, Newsweek interview with
Vice President Cheney.
(D) ``But I've also made the point and the
President has made the point that all options are still
on the table.'' February 24, 2007, Vice President
Cheney at Press Briefing with Australian Prime Minister
in Sydney, Australia.
(2) The Vice President, who repeatedly and falsely claimed
to have had specific, detailed knowledge of Iraq's alleged
weapons of mass destruction capabilities, is no doubt fully
aware of evidence that demonstrates Iran poses no real threat
to the United States as evidenced by the following:
(A) ``I know that what we see in Iran right now is
not the industrial capacity you can [use to develop a]
bomb.'' Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of
International Atomic Energy Agency, February 19, 2007.
(B) Iran indicated its ``full readiness and
willingness to negotiate on the modality for the
resolution of the outstanding issues with the IAEA,
subject to the assurances for dealing with the issues
in the framework of the Agency, without the
interference of the United Nations Security Council''.
IAEA Board Report, February 22, 2007.
(C) ``. . . so whatever they have, what we have
seen today, is not the kind of capacity that would
enable them to make bombs.'' Mohamed ElBaradei,
Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency,
February 19, 2007.
(3) The Vice President is fully aware of the actions taken
by the United States towards Iran that are further
destabilizing the world as evidenced by the following:
(A) The United States has refused to engage in
meaningful diplomatic relations with Iran since 2002,
rebuffing both bilateral and multilateral offers to
dialogue.
(B) The United States is currently engaged in a
military buildup in the Middle East that includes the
increased presence of the United States Navy in the
waters near Iran, significant United States Armed
Forces in two nations neighboring to Iran, and the
installation of anti-missile technology in the region.
(C) News accounts have indicated that military
planners have considered the B61-11, a tactical nuclear
weapon, as one of the options to strike underground
bunkers in Iran.
(D) The United States has been linked to anti-
Iranian organizations that are attempting to
destabilize the Iranian Government, in particular the
Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), even though the State
Department has branded it a terrorist organization.
(E) News accounts indicate that United States
troops have been ordered into Iran to collect data and
establish contact with anti-government groups.
(4) In the last three years the Vice President has
repeatedly threatened Iran. However, the Vice President is
legally bound by the U.S. Constitution's adherence to
international law that prohibits threats of use of force.
(A) Article VI of the United States Constitution
states, ``This Constitution, and the Laws of the United
States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and
all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the
Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
Law of the Land.'' Any provision of an international
treaty ratified by the United States becomes the law of
the United States.
(B) The United States is a signatory to the United
Nations Charter, a treaty among the nations of the
world. Article II, section 4 of the United Nations
Charter states, ``All Members shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force
against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner
inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.''
The threat of force is illegal.
(C) Article 51 lays out the only exception,
``Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the
inherent right of individual or collective self-defense
if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the
United Nations, until the Security Council has taken
measures necessary to maintain international peace and
security.'' Iran has not attacked the United States;
therefore any threat against Iran by the United States
is illegal.
The Vice President's deception upon the citizens and Congress of
the United States that enabled the failed United States invasion of
Iraq forcibly altered the rules of diplomacy such that the Vice
President's recent belligerent actions towards Iran are destabilizing
and counterproductive to the national security of the United States.
In all of this, Vice President Richard B. Cheney has acted in a
manner contrary to his trust as Vice President, and subversive of
constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and
justice and the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrants impeachment
and trial, and removal from office.
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