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[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.
                                 <all>
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