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Article IV
MISLEADING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO BELIEVE IRAQ
POSED AN IMMINENT THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional
oath to faithfully execute the office of 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 under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed",
has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice President,
executed a calculated and wide-ranging strategy to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United
States into believing that the nation of Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States 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, thereby interfering with and obstructing Congress's lawful functions of
overseeing foreign affairs and declaring war.
The means used to implement this deception were and continue to be, first, allowing, authorizing and
sanctioning the manipulation of intelligence analysis by those under his direction and control, including
the Vice President and the Vice President's agents, and second, personally making, or causing,
authorizing and allowing to be made through highly-placed subordinates, including the President's
Chief of Staff, the White House Press Secretary and other White House spokespersons, the Secretaries
of State and Defense, the National Security Advisor, and their deputies and spokespersons, false and
fraudulent representations to the citizens of the United States and Congress regarding an alleged urgent
threat posed by Iraq, statements that were half-true, literally true but misleading, and/or made without a
reasonable basis and with reckless indifference to their truth, as well as omitting to state facts necessary
to present an accurate picture of the truth as follows:
(A) Notwithstanding the complete absence of intelligence analysis to support a claim that Iraq posed
an imminent or urgent threat to the United States and the intelligence community's assessment that Iraq
was in fact not likely to attack the United States unless it was itself attacked, President Bush, both
personally and through his agents and subordinates, made, allowed and caused to be made repeated
false representations to the citizens and Congress of the United States implying and explicitly stating
that such a dire threat existed, including the following:
(1) "States such as these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil,
arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose
a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to
match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of
these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic." President Bush's State of the Union
Address, January 29, 2002.
(2) "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. He is
amassing them to use against our friends our enemies and against us." Speech of Vice President
Cheney at VFW 103rd National Convention, August 26, 2002.
(3) "The history, the logic, and the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave
and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence. To assume this regime's
good faith is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble. And this is a
risk we must not take." Address of President Bush to the United Nations General Assembly, September
12, 2002.
(4) "o terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the
regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq." Statement of Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to
Congress, September 19, 2002.
(5) "On its present course, the Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency. . . . it has developed weapons
of mass death." Statement of President Bush at White House, October 2, 2002.
(6) "But the President also believes that this problem has to be dealt with, and if the United Nations
won't deal with it, then the United States, with other likeminded nations, may have to deal with it. We
would prefer not to go that route, but the danger is so great, with respect to Saddam Hussein having
weapons of mass destruction, and perhaps even terrorists getting hold of such weapons, that it is time
for the international community to act, and if it doesn't act, the President is prepared to act with
likeminded nations." Statement of Former Secretary of State Colin Powell in interview with Ellen
Ratner of Talk Radio News, October 30, 2002.
(7) "Today the world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq. A dictator
who has used weapons of mass destruction on his own people must not be allowed to produce or
possess those weapons. We will not permit Saddam Hussein to blackmail and/or terrorize nations which
love freedom." Speech by President Bush to Prague Atlantic Student Summit, November 20, 2002.
(8) "But the risk of doing nothing, the risk of the security of this country being jeopardized at the
hands of a madman with weapons of mass destruction far exceeds the risk of any action we may be
forced to take." President Bush Meets with National Economic Council at White House, February 25,
2003.
(B) In furtherance of his fraudulent effort to deceive Congress and the citizens of the United States into
believing that Iraq and Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States, the President
allowed and authorized those acting under his direction and control, including Vice President Richard
B. Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Lewis Libby, who reportedly directly to
both the President and the Vice President, among others, to pressure intelligence analysts to tailor their
assessments and to create special units outside of, and unknown to, the intelligence community in order
to secretly obtain unreliable information, to manufacture intelligence, or to reinterpret raw data in ways
that would support the Bush administration's plan to invade Iraq based on a false claim of urgency
despite the lack of justification for such a preemptive action.
(C) The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq
By U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated By Intelligence Information, which was released on
June 5, 2008, concluded that:
(1) "Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared
to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were
contradicted by available intelligence information."
Thus the President willfully and falsely misrepresented Iraq as an urgent threat requiring immediate
action thereby subverting the national security interests of the United States by setting the stage for the
loss of more than 4000 United States service members; the injuries to tens of thousands of US soldiers;
the deaths of more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens since the United States invasion; the loss of
approximately $527 billion in war costs which has increased our Federal debt and the ultimate costs of
the war between three trillion and five trillion dollars; the loss of military readiness within the United
States Armed Services due to overextension, the 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 these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his
trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the
prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting
removal from office.
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