The Unknown Candidate: The Conyers Report: An Interview

Thursday, August 17, 2006

The Conyers Report: An Interview

In an interview conducted by William Rivers Pitt, Congressman John Conyers reports:

"We have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their administration; and approved domestic surveillance that is both illegal and unconstitutional. We also have found there has been no independent review of the circumstances surrounding the Bush administration's domestic spying scandals."

Also See:

Recently Released 350-Page Report: "The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance"

Bush Versus the Constitution By David Swanson
Last December, when Congressman John Conyers released a huge report documenting the evidence that Bush and Cheney had lied us into a war, he also introduced a bill (H. Res. 635) to start a preliminary investigation of the matter and make recommendations on impeachment. This showed far more courage, not to mention long hours of work, than any other member of Congress had mustered at that time or since. But it was disingenuous. Impeachment is itself an investigation; a preliminary investigation is redundant. And any investigation is unnecessary when the impeachable offenses are part of the public record.

Last week, Conyers released an expanded report, including new superfluous evidence of proven crimes related to the war, plus a lengthy Section 2 focused on illegal spying programs. The evidence of blatant criminality and threat to the Constitution in this new section is devastating. And the crimes have been confessed to. Bush has merely offered a series of completely implausible claims that his actions are legal, a series of claims carefully refuted in this report. So, the situation of last December has grown more extreme. Impeachable offenses are public knowledge, backed by overwhelming evidence and public confession....