N.Y. Rep.: Bush may have committed crime (Rep. Maurice Hinchey)

[sabra]

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060406-090503-8317r

N.Y. Rep.: Bush may have committed crime

WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A member of Congress says President George W. Bush may have committed a crime if he authorized the leak of classified information to a reporter.

...

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., said Thursday if Libby's testimony is true, the case goes "much deeper" than the CIA leak.

"The heart and motive of this case is about the deliberate attempt at the highest levels of this administration to discredit those who were publicly revealing that the White House lied about its uranium claims leading up to the war," said Hinchey on his Web site.

Hinchey said Bush may have "knowingly lied about uranium to the Congress, which is a crime."

[DanCa]

1. "May have?"

Hell there is so much to jail the monkey for I don't know where to start.

[Daylin Byak]

2. Hey, it's a start

We got a maybe, it ain't like he said we must wait until after this year to decide.

Remember impeachment is a big deal, something you must weigh in.

[bemildred]

3. Yeah, "Pope reported to have Catholic tendencies". nt

[Occulus]

8. That my gut reaction, but at the same time

THIS is one concept we want to allow time to 'sink in', as it were.

It can't be abrupt. That could cause Certain Parties to actually do violence. It must be something very carefully floated, and proven, in an airtight way, such that not even Satan himself could find a loophole in the 'contract' to exploit.

[luckyleftyme2]

19. reply to kgfnally

when u say the devil can't get out of are you refering to "carl rove" ?

[lumpy]

27. Makes no difference to me whether

the leak was 'legal' or not. The motive to discredit Joseph Wilson's Niger report (so the lies about Saddam's nuclear ambitions could be aired) is reason enough to hang criminal blame on Bush/Cheney. As if other crimes of deception, brutality and war mongering is not enough to hang this crooked administration.

[Godspeed_Democrats]

13. At least

they got the nerve to mention his name and the word crime in the same sentence.

That is progress in itself!!

[Trevelyan]

15. Senator Harkin Resolution of Censure petition

Dear Senator Harkin:

We, the undersigned, support your principled stand with Senators Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer in favor of holding President Bush accountable, and we urge you to bring the Resolution of Censure to the floor of the Senate for a vote. The President has brazenly, arrogantly and unapologetically broken the law - the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which prohibits warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. Despite getting caught red-handed, he refuses to stop.

Government must protect Americans' security, and that's why the FISA law allows intelligence services to listen to terrorists' conversations legally - by going to the secret espionage and terrorism court to get a warrant AFTER listening.

We are a nation of laws, not of men. No American is above the law. That most certainly includes the President. If Congress fails to hold him to account through censure, then he will believe that he can continue breaking laws with impunity. This is profoundly dangerous to our democracy.

We admire your courage in standing up to President Bush and saying enough! Now, we urge you to take the next step. We - ordinary Americans deeply concerned for the country we love - ask you to work with your colleagues to support and pass the Resolution of Censure in the Senate.
http://www.tomharkin.com/nl/CensurePetition.htm

[CCBeck]

28. I signed and added some comments

"Senator Harkin as news continues to unfold about the information that the Bush administrator choose to disclose about Iraq, I am becoming deeply troubled. I think it would behoove you to help force this issue more into the limelight by forcing your fellow members of the Senate to have thier voices counted. Right now there is little evidence of wrong doing but serious allegations have been raised and it is the duty of Congress to remind the Executive Brach that they are only one branch of the government. It is time for a public call of accountability. Please request in session from your fellow Senators the drafting of a summons to the President of the United States to answer allegations that have recently been brough to light. I am well aware that such an action will fail however I believe that this will help to demonstrate to the people of this nation where exactly the democratic party stands. Thank you for reading this."

Thanks for pointing this out.

[wordpix]

31. so did I

[LilyLibber]

35. I did, as well. n/t

[ProudDad]

38. I added some comments too

"Censure first, Impeachment next after the Dems recapture the House and Senate."

[wordpix]

30. "may have" & "appear to be" are often used to protect person making public

accusation before a criminal is nailed,legally speaking. Since in our legal system one is considered innocent until PROVEN guilty, these terms are used by an accuser when he makes a public accusation to protect him/herself from being sued for defamation of character or slander.

In our DU opinions (based on a multitude of facts), BushCo---all of them---are clearly guilty but we are not judge or jury in a legal sense. If we were in Congress, we would have to be careful about calling someone guilty of a crime if that person has not yet been found guilty in a court or in this case, impeached in Congress.

Maurice is just being careful so he won't be sued by Dirty Tricky Dickhead and his band of dangerous * morons. Give Maurice a break. He is a leader in the cause of truth and getting rid of BushCo.

[sakabatou]

33. Here, here!

[JWS]

34. Yeah, he and his cronies

will squirrel around with the truth for a while, and the die hard 32% that still supports him will be like, "Oh, that makes sense!" He's a crook, and everyone knows he's a crook, but a large part of society is willing to look the other way.

[Lindacooks]

4. How many crimes does he have to commit before this country

DOES something about it?

[Amonester]

5. 1

Clear Evidence of 1 crime.
1 email, then 1 lie to the FBI.

BJ ain't 1...

[rodeodance]

6. we need all congresscritters to be speaking out!

[lostnfound]

7. Impossible! CNN said "no one is saying the president committed a crime"

haha. I heard that an hour or so ago while flipping channels.

[saigon68]

11. He can and will do anything he wants

He after all, is the CHIMPANZEE

[jsamuel]

9. betraying national security to attack political enemies

sounds like high crimes to me

[Theduckno2]

10. Yep, selling out your subordinates for political gain.....

Sounds like an admirable executive quality to me. :sarcasm:

Government workers must feel good knowing their careers (possibly lives) are cannon fodder for the political machinations of this President.

High crimes indeed!

[lumpy]

26. The political gain ?

An attempt to suppress the truth so Bush/Cheney could go ahead and plant nuclear fear into the minds of the American people and further the phony reasons for invading Iraq. This wasn't the first time the fear of mushroom clouds have been used politically.

[heirs_of_liberty]

37. It's about betrayal, dummies....

the leak of a aencies source's identity under any circumstancs other than an insurrection or other counter-espionage justification is simply treason,

The abuse of the basic, most rudimentary and direct process of diplomacy before the question of war ahould have arose, and the selective abuse of 'top secret' 'intelligence' rumors to justify it, even going so far as to cite deliberately misleading fantasies as being sourced to British Intelligence was transpatently a deliberate hoax to wag the dog of national insecurity by this policy incompetent "misunderadministration".

We hae now alienated even our most natural allies in the Arab world and doing nothing to find peace.

[Lochloosa]

12. Is there one person on this site

that is surprised by this. I have been screaming about this for three years. Always falling on deaf ears. It's gloating time.

[Trevelyan]

14. some CIA offical 'accidentally' outed all the Iranian CIA agents

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/6/233723/9065

Chalabi told the Iranians we had cracked the code but early in 2004 some CIA offical 'accidentally' outed all the Iranian CIA agents, according to James Risen in "State of War" page 190. (Also posted in HoundDog's Diary)

[Tight_rope]

16. Oh No Doubt that Son-of-a-Bitch committed a crime...

He's been committing since childhood. Hell it was a crime that he was even born. I say we send Barbara and George Sr. to the Hague for bestowing a group of piss poorly raised thugs into this society.:spank:

[stop the bleeding]

17. This is the kind of talk that I was expecting

let it begin

[debbierlus]

18. EXACTLY

Ultimately, this was about presenting a bogus case to America to start a war.

THAT should be repeated again & again & again.

Wilson's wife was outed for two reasons:

Retaliation

Intimidation (Silence the REST of the intelligence community).

This is TREASON, at its absolute worst.

Unprecedented in our history. A deliberate conspiracy to lead the American people into war under false premises.

Impeachment should be the very LEAST that should happen. What we need our CRIMINAL charges?

And, wouldn't Bush be subject to the death penalty for such crimes under the laws that he has championed?

Surreal and soooooo sad.

[confludemocrat]

20. this is providing cover for silent, gutless Dems by couching as "may have"

in this case and others. He's been told to keep it that way, since saying it outright makes the rest of his party look appropriately weak-EVEN WITH A PREZ AT 34%-THATS HOW GUTLESS THEY ALL ARE!!!!!!

and as usual, I'll bet this Hinchey guy is black.

[Trevelyan]

23. Nope. Hinchey is a white guy. He has a very courageous press release on

bush's latest crimes and Rep. Hinchey led the 39 democrats to write a letter and meet with Fitzgerald last Oct/Nov to ask Fitz to investigate the Niger forgeries and, I think, to help with the impeachment inquiry in Congress.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usleak0407,0,3224186.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Do you think the Libby indictment will bring down the Bush administration?
58.8%
Yes, the CIA leak scandal is the last straw. (1551 responses)

23.3%
No, Bush will made a comeback just like Reagan did. (616 responses)

17.9%
I'm not sure, only time will tell. (472 responses)

2639 total responses

http://www.newsday.com:/news/nationworld/nation/ny-cialeak-board,0,209735.graffitiboard?coll=ny-top-headlines=Talk Back: CIA leak
Post a comment

[MrBlueSky]

21. Jeez

May have committed a crime??!?!?!?!!?

Now there's the understatement of the decade.

[Octafish]

22. Treason?

"Since when is that against the law?"

[Supersedeas]

24. Lying to Congress re: War--no biggie...Lying about BJ-impeachable

[Supersedeas]

25. Lying to Congress re: War--no biggie...Lying about BJ-impeachable

[Trevelyan]

29. Thank you for signing Senator Harkins' petition for Censure CCBeck

I think we need to show the Congress we are behind any action they take against the bush/cheney cabal. I don't know what the military is doing or Bilderberg and the other PTBs (powers that be) but we can indirectly aid Fitz and others who may be working behind the scenes to stop this insanity by contacting media and congress and even posting our outrage on DU and other messageboards shows that the will of the people is to stop the runaway bush train NOW!!

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny22_hinchey/morenews/040606bushleakauthorization.html

http://www.house.gov/hinchey/=Hinchey Statement On Revelation That

President Bush Authorized Leak Of Classified Information To Bolster Administration's Public Case For War

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today released the following statement in response to news reports that President Bush authorized Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to disclose highly classified information regarding Iraq intelligence.

"If what Scooter Libby said to the grand jury is true, then this latest development clearly reveals yet again that the CIA leak case goes much deeper than the disclosure of a CIA agent's identity to the press. The heart and motive of this case is about the deliberate attempt at the highest levels of this administration to discredit those who were publicly revealing that the White House lied about its uranium claims leading up to the war. The Bush Administration knew that Iraq had not sought uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapon, yet they went around telling the Congress, the country, and the world just the opposite.

When Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Valerie Wilson's husband, publicly spoke out with proof that the administration was not telling the truth on uranium, the administration engaged in an orchestrated plot, which now reportedly includes President Bush, to discredit Ambassador Wilson and dismiss any notion that they had lied about pre-war intelligence.

"It is an absolute disgrace to the institution of the presidency that President Bush authorized members of his administration to disclose select parts of highly classified information from a National Intelligence Estimate in order to make political advances and gain public support.

How dare President Bush and Vice President Cheney say they want to prosecute those who leaked the NSA domestic surveillance program when they themselves authorized the disclosure of information from some of the most highly sensitive documents in the government. The White House opposes leaks when the disclosed information hurts them politically, but supports leaks when information advances their political cause.

:applause: :thumbsup:"Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald recently responded to my request for him to expand his investigation to include the motive behind the leak, which I believe was to discredit Ambassador Wilson's revelation that Iraq never sought uranium from Africa. If so, President Bush and other top members of his administration knowingly lied about uranium to the Congress, which is a crime. It is my belief, as well as the belief of my 39 House colleagues who signed my original letter to Special Counsel Fitzgerald, that he has the authority and obligation to expand his investigation to investigate the lies about uranium, which are the true heart of this case. :thumbsup: :applause:

"Scooter Libby's camp is currently engaged in a legal proceeding to remove Patrick Fitzgerald from his post and have the case dismissed. This is just further evidence that Scooter Libby doesn't have a leg to stand on. I'm confident that the latest Libby motion will be rejected and that the case will move forward. As such, I am formulating a response to Patrick Fitzgerald's letter to me and will aggressively pursue every avenue needed to ensure that an investigation is conducted into the administration's uranium lies. The heart of the CIA leak case cannot and must not be ignored."

=Hinchey, like most Congresspersons, will only let constiutent from his state email him but you can sign up for his email alerts to show support and Cynthia McKinney has a guestbook on her official House site where you can give her feedback on any subject and her courage in standing up to the bush/cheney cabal and demanding answers to the corrupt awarding of contracts to Dyncorps slave labor, what really happened on 911 and the $2 Trillion that the Pentagon lost are certainly deserving of a note of thanks!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[New Government]

32. While I agree......there is a problem.....

The only crime in lying to Congress is if you do it under oath....Be that as it may, the bastard should still be called to the carpet and impeached for numerous other things. Lying to Congress is actually minor and, as I noted, probably not a crime since a SOTU message is not delivered under oath.
(edit: What I meant was minor compared to other things he's done.)

[whopis01]

36. kick n/t

[galatea]

39. lol

this headline applies to any period of this cancer's pitiful life.

MAY have committed a crime? How about HAS committed several crimes?

Paying for an illegal abortion, drunk driving, insider trading, fleeing Vietnam, cocaine sniffing, perjury, mass-murder, outing of a CIA operative, election theft. OMG what a vomit-inducing record!