The Constitution in crisis : the high crimes of the Bush administration and a blueprint for impeachment / House Democratic Judiciary Committtee [sic] Staff ; foreword by Elizabeth Holtzman ; introduction by John Conyers, Jr.
The Downing Street minutes and deception, manipulation, torture, retribution and coverups in the Iraq war -- Chronology : last throes of credibility -- Detailed findings -- Determination to go to war before congressional authorization -- Avenging the father and working with the neo-cons -- September 11 and its aftermath : beating the drums for war -- The Downing Street minutes and documentary evidence of an agreement to go to war -- Description and analysis of various Downing Street minutes materials -- Confirmation and corroboration of Downing Street minutes materials -- Manipulating public opinion -- Using the United Nations as a pretext for war -- Misstating and manipulating the intelligence to justify pre-emptive war -- Links to September 11 and Al Qaeda -- General linkages between Iraq and Al Qaeda -- Meeting between Mohammed Atta and Iraqi officials -- Iraq training Al Qaeda members to use chemical and biological weapons -- Resumed efforts to acquire nuclear weapons -- General assertions -- Claims regarding Hussein's son-in-law -- Statement that Iraq was six months from obtaining a nuclear weapon -- Aluminum tubes -- Acquisition of uranium from Niger -- Chemical and biological weapons -- General assertions regarding chemical and biological weapons -- Assertions regarding buried chemical and other weapons -- Assertions regarding mobile biological weapons -- Unmanned aerial vehicles -- Encouraging and countenancing torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment -- Documented instances of torture and other legal violations -- Torture and murder -- Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment -- Other possible violations of international treaties -- Bush administration responsibility for torture and other legal violations -- Department of Justice -- Department of Defense -- Cover-ups and retribution -- The Niger forgeries and the "sliming" of Ambassador Wilson and his family -- Disclosure and panic -- Retribution and damage -- Delays, conflicts, and more lies -- Other instances of Bush administration retribution against its critics -- Former General Eric Shinseki and others in the military -- Former Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill and economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey -- Richard Clarke -- Cindy Sheehan -- Jeffrey Kofman -- International organizations--the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the IAEA -- Bunnatine greenhouse -- The Central Intelligence Agency and its employees -- Ongoing lies, deceptions and manipulations -- Efficacy of the occupation -- Cost of the war and occupation -- Ongoing deceptions regarding weapons of mass destruction and the decision to go to war -- Impact of the Iraq war on terrorism -- Thwarting Congress and the American public : the death of accountability under the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress -- Determination to go to war without Congressional authorization -- Manipulation of the intelligence to justify the war -- Encouraging and countenancing torture -- Post-war cover-ups and retribution and more deceptions -- Unlawful domestic surveillance and the decline of civil liberties under the administration of George W. Bush -- Chronology : democracy without checks and balances -- Detailed findings -- Domestic surveillance : spying on innocent Americans without court approval and outside of the law -- The warrantless surveillance program violates FISA and the Fourth Amendment, the NSA database program appears to violate the Stored Communications Act and the Communications Act of 1934, and the programs have been briefed in violation of the National Security Act -- September 11 use of force resolution -- Inherent authority as commander-in-chief -- Fourth amendment -- NSA domestic database program -- Additional non-legal justifications -- Intelligence briefings in violation of the National Security Act -- The legal justifications used to justify the NSA programs threaten to establish a constitutionally destabilizing precedent -- President Bush and other high ranking members of the Bush administration appear to have made a number of misleading statements concerning the NSA programs -- Statements that the government was only intercepting communications involving American citizens pursuant to court approved warrants -- Statements that no purely domestic communications were intercepted under the warrantless wiretapping program -- Statements that the government is not monitoring telephone calls and other communications within the U.S. -- Statements that members of Congress briefed by the Bush administration had not questioned the legality or appropriateness of the NSA programs -- There is little indication the domestic spying programs have been beneficial in the war against terror, while there is a significant risk the programs may be affirmatively harming terrorism prosecutions and tying up law enforcement resources -- The NSA programs appear to have been implemented in a manner designed to stifle objections and dissent within the administration -- Continued stonewalling of Congress and the American people -- Addendum -- Analysis -- Recommendations -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- Legal standards and authorities -- Major reports.
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