Bush’s Uranium Lies: The Case For A Special Prosecutor That Could Lead To Impeachment
Written by Francis T. Mandanici, June 29, 2005,
revised December 27, 2005
In the indictment of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald charged that Libby violated various criminal statutes when he made false and fraudulent statements to FBI agents and when he basically repeated those statements to a grand jury and thereby obstructed grand jury proceedings.
President Bush and senior officials in his Administration made far more serious false and fraudulent statements not to FBI agents but directed at members of Congress and by making those statements they also obstructed Congressional proceedings, and they should face the same scrutiny as Libby. Lying to Congress surely is as serious as lying to FBI agents.
As set forth in this article based on the public record, in January 2003 President Bush and his senior officials made five false and fraudulent statements that Iraq had sought uranium and they made those statements either to or directed at members of Congress. Earlier in October 2002 Congress had passed the resolution that authorized President Bush to use military force in Iraq. President Bush did not start the war until March 2003. However, prior to the start of the war and at the time that President Bush and his officials made their uranium claims in January 2003 there were Congressional efforts to delay the start of the war until after the United Nations finished its weapons inspections program in Iraq which had so far found no weapons of mass destruction. The purpose of the uranium claims that the Administration made prior to the war was to scare Congress into believing that Iraq had sought the uranium for an existing nuclear bomb and hopefully that would thwart any attempts by Congress to repeal the earlier war resolution or modify it to delay the start of the war until after the completion of the UN weapons inspections. After the Administration made the uranium claims, the Congressional efforts to delay the war stalled and soon thereafter President Bush took the nation to war.
Fitzgerald charged Libby with violating three criminal statutes including 18 U.S.C., Sec. 1001, which prohibits making false and fraudulent statements in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of the government. Clearly that statute not only prohibits making false and fraudulent statements to agents of the executive branch but also prohibits making false and fraudulent statements to members of Congress. Another criminal statute, 18 U.S.C., Sec. 371, makes it a crime to obstruct the functions of Congress, which would include obstructing the efforts of Congress to delay the start of the war. Since Libby was indicted for making false and fraudulent statements to agents of the executive branch and for obstructing grand jury proceedings, then surely there should be at the very least a criminal investigation into the Administration’s false and fraudulent statements to members of Congress and its obstruction of Congressional efforts to delay the start of the war.
The Justice Department pursuant to its regulation 28 CFR, Sec. 600.1 should appoint an outside special counsel to investigate these matters. Such a special counsel investigation could possibly then lead to impeachment proceedings, as well as expand to cover other possible false and fraudulent claims.
The five uranium claims that President Bush and his senior officials made, along with other similar claims that they made, were catalogued and analyzed in the report Iraq On The Record (IR) that the Minority Staff of the House Committee On Government Reform prepared for Congressman Henry Waxman and released on March 16, 2004.[n1]
Concerning the uranium claims, that report including its database reveals that (1) President Bush on January 20, 2003 in a communication to Congress stated that Iraq’s disclosure to the UN (which was supposed to reveal all of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction) “failed to deal with issues which have arisen since 1998, including … attempts to acquire uranium and the means to enrich it