Today I sent the following e-mail message to my Congresswoman, Diana Degette (D), CO-01.
Over the past seven years, the President, Vice President and other present and past members of the Bush administration have:
broken international law by invading Iraq. International law specifically outlaws aggressive war. Waging aggressive war, by standard, is a crime under customary international law and refers to any war not engaged in out of self-defense or sanctioned by Article 51 of the UN Charter. Article 51 provides for: the right of countries to engage in military action in self-defense, including collective self-defense (e.g. under an alliance).
defied the Geneva Convention regarding treatment of prisoners of war and/or treatment of civilians by engaging in torture. The Bush administration regards combatants and non-combatants captured in Afghanistan to be "unlawful combatants". However, the Geneva Convention does not recognize "unlawful combatants" to wit: "Every person in enemy hands must be either a prisoner of war and, as such, be covered by the Third Convention; or a civilian covered by the Fourth Convention. Furthermore, "There is no intermediate status; nobody in enemy hands can be outside the law,"
abrogated Habeas Corpus for Guantanamo detainees. The Bush administration denied detainees the right to: have access to counsel, the right to a trial or knowledge of the charges against them. In a ruling on June 28th 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution entitled the detainees to challenge the validity of their detention.
exceeded his powers under the constitution. The oath of office of the President states: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. President Bush has broken this oath regarding the fourth amendment by authorizing wireless wiretapping.
And finally, President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military based in Iraq that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill. Bush targeted a statute that forbids spending taxpayer money "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq." The negotiations have drawn fire in part because the administration has said it does not intend to designate the compact as a "treaty," and so will not submit it to Congress for approval.
Through the use of semantics, President Bush again seeks to add further acts to his destruction of international law and convention and US law and the US Constitution.
Enough is enough Congresswoman.
Impeach. Now.
Sincerely,
Please feel free, if you like, to send the same e-mail to your Congressman or congresswoman; or to add to, delete from or otherwise change the basis of this e-mail to suit yourself.