Iraqi politician Saleh Muhamed al-Mutlaq says his country’s political condition won’t be settled by troop withdrawal, but can be settled by dialogue between the two countries. (0:16)
By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service
Legal experts on Monday offered their views on H.R. 743, the Executive Accountability Act of 2009 during testimony before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
The bill would place criminal penalties on the executive branch for willingly misleading Congress in order to persuade it to use armed forces.
Said Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC) who introduced the legislation, “Members of Congress must be able to trust our President at his word, especially when making decisions to go to war.”
Jones used the behavior of former presidents Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush during the Vietnam and Iraq Wars as examples of “arrogance of power,” which he hoped could be mitigated by this legislation. However, Jones emphasized that “the bill is not about the past,” and emphasized that it would not be applied retroactively.
Dr. Louis Fisher, a specialist in constitutional law, said that the founders who wrote the Constitution knew that “single executives go to war not for the national interest; they go to war for reasons of military glory.” He said that the authority to “take the country from a state of peace to a state of war was to be given to Congress alone.”
Bruce Fein, a legal consultant and constitutional expert who served in the Department of Justice under President Reagan, said that the President could avoid criminal penalties by simply “sharing all of the information he relied upon to Congress.”
Jonathan F. Cohn, a partner at Sidley and Austin who worked in the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush, disagreed with the previous testimonies. He said that presidents should be “truthful and candid always, and especially in the context when the country makes the grave decision to send its children off to war.”
Cohn said the legislation could “impede inter-branch cooperation,” arguing that it could create a chilling effect due to the “fear of potential prosecution.”
“Punishing the ousted regime may be the preferred course of certain banana republics of the past, but with respect, this should not be the United States’ path in the 21st century.”
By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service
America must invest more time, money, and human resources to help those displaced by the ongoing Iraq War, according to human rights advocates from the Washington, D.C.-based Refugees International.
The presence of 2.6 million displaced Iraqis persons is overwhelming to neighboring Middle East countries and is “undermining” to the social fabric of Iraq, said Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International, at a speech made today at the National Press Club.
President Barack Obama talked about displacement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.
Bacon is happy at what is being seen as a distinct change from the “little attention” that the Bush Administration paid to Iraqi displacement.
It is estimated that since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, 2.6 million Iraqi’s have lost their homes and have fled other parts of the country. An additional 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
Bacon said that greater American and international support in receiving refugees and providing financial-aid can help stop the crisis.
Displacement of that many people “affects the whole region”, said Bacon, which results in educated citizens and specialized workers fleeing the country.
There are only 18,000 practicing doctors in Iraq, down from 32,000 doctors in 2002. There are more Iraqi doctors in Jordan than in Iraq’s capitol city of Baghdad, Bacon said.
Last year Democratic Senators Robert Casey (PA) and Benjamin Cardin (MD) introduced a bill to increase aid to Iraqi refugees and allow more of them to enter the United States. Since the FY2010 Budget has been approved by Congress, any appropriated funds to help Iraqi citizens would have to come through additional legislation, Bacon said.
A spokesman for Senator Cardin said it has not been decided yet if similar legislation would be introduced in this Congress.
Refugee International’s Field Report on the Iraqi refugee situation said that the Iraqi government is trying to keep more of its citizens from fleeing their homeland. It is feared by the Iraqi government that the existence of so many refugees tarnishes the image of overall security within the country.
The report also said Iraq violated international refugee laws in 2007 by asking Syria not to accept any more Iraqi refugees.
Many refugees have fears of returning home, the report says, because many of those that returned already have been killed.
Kristele Younes, an advocate with Refugees International, says that security is a major issue in Iraqi neighborhoods, with each little borough acting as its own walled off “fiefdom”.
Younes said that the United Nations is trying to place a tourniquet on the flow of persons out of the country by the end of the year, but significant challenges remain in Iraq, including budgetary shortcomings due to low oil prices, corruption within the government and sectarianism.
The Refugees International’s report on Iraq can be found here.
Talk Radio News, Victoria Jones, interviews author, James Bovard at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. Bovard talks about why he thinks President Obama’s new Iraq war strategy is a step in the right direction and talks about the U.S. budget. Bovard says, “Obama acts like federal spending is a magic wand.” (09:47)
In a hearing today, Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the Bush administration has cost the United States “moral authority” in the eyes of the international community. Albright said that while America is still “the world’s mightiest power,” America needs to reestablish respect from abroad.
Albright said that the first thing the next president should do is withdraw troops from Iraq. She said that having troops in Iraq has contributed to a negative view of America globally. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) disagreed and said “Our work has elevated our reputation.” Albright said a withdrawal would look favorable internationally because the United States can “steer credit to responsible Iraqi leaders.” She emphasized that the military has been brilliant, but the problem in Iraq is political. Albright said that this admistration has had an “overemphasis on military aspects of missions.”
Energy policy has not been addressed by the United States enough, according to Albright. She said that our future energy policies should focus on innovation and finding alternative sources. Albright said that offshore drilling is not a solution. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) said that our energy policy is a “vital component of our grand strategy.”
Albright specified the five major issues for the next president would be nuclear non-proliferation, fighting terrorism without creating more terrorists, promoting democracy without forcing it on other nations, the growing gap between the poor and wealthy, and establishing new energy policy. Albright that she hoped that the next president would work closely with Congress and advocate bipartisanship.
The Obama Campaign held a conference call today with veterans of the war in Iraq to discuss why they have chosen to support the Illinois Senator (26:24).
The Obama Campaign held a conference call today with veterans of the war in Iraq to discuss why they feel the Illinois senator will best lead our military to victory in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Christopher McGurk, a former Army Staff Sergeant and Infantryman, as well as an Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran said he supports Obama because he believes the senator has the best plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq. He also cited Obama’s commitment to supporting veterans and active soldiers as another primary reason for supporting him. In particular, Obama’s support for the new GI Bill and increased funding for soldiers has been especially important when deciding whom to support.
John McCary, an Iraq veteran who served as both an enlisted soldier in the US Army and an intelligence specialist, said Obama is the kind of leader that understands the strategic vision our military needs to be successful in the Middle East. McCary went on to emphasize the importance of cultural understanding among our members of the military, as well as a commitment to civilian reconstruction and rebuilding alliances. He feels Obama will best accomplish these goals.
Koby Langley, a former Army JAG officer and veteran of both Iraq and the Balkans said that our next president will need a clarity of judgment when deciding how to restore America’s moral authority in the world, and that Sen. Obama is the best man to do that. He said that by restoring this authority in the eyes of other nations, the United States can be a driving force in global politics.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a discussion with former Iraqi prime minister and current Parliament member of Iraq, Ayad Allawi. Allawi said the American military surge caused some successes, but the situation in Iraq is still very fragile. He said the Iraqi government needs to capitalize on whatever fleeting stability the surge may have caused to make progress towards peace and trust.
He said the current sectarian government will not be able to uphold the nation. He said the prevalent sectarianism in the Iraq only encourages the spread of terrorism and extremism. He hopes Iraqis will one day be seen as just Iraqis, and not by their ethnicities. He said activation of the UN and other regional organizations could encourage the international community to be involved in promoting stability. His most emphatic point was that stability must be established first, before bureaucratic details can be considered.
At a discussion hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former Iraqi Prime Minister and current member of Parliament, Ayad Allawi, describes the failures of the Parliament to create democracy. He says millions of Iraqis would not be fleeing their country if it was a free democracy. He says fourteen-year-old Iraqi girls fled the country to be prostitutes in Syria rather than remain in unstable Iraq. (1:03)
Republicans told the House Judiciary Committee that political disagreements, no matter how large, are not grounds for impeachment proceedings at a hearing discussing appropriate Congressional responses to Bush abuses of power. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said the hearing served no purpose other than anger management, stating that no evidence exists which supports grounds for impeachment and that the hearing’s lack of bipartisanship affected Congress’s already low credibility.
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said the Bush White House is unprecedented in its distortion of executive privilege, noting Bush’s alleged falsification of pre-Iraq war intelligence and approval of certain interrogation techniques. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) stated that the committee was attempting to solve an institutional problem,acting in a deliberative manner, not an accusatory manner. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) earlier had called Bush “the worst President our country has ever seen.”
In his testimony before the committee, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said pre-war justifications provided to Congress were untrue and that Congress had relied on the White House’s false statements while authorizing the Iraq war. Kucinich also said that Iraq posed no security threat to the United States and, since Iraq lacked a weapons program, Saddam Hussein was unable to harm the United States or arm terrorists. Congress’s decision now, Kucinich said, is whether it should defend the Constitution and prevent abuses of power in the Executive and Judiciary Branches.
Rep Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) said the White House has been dominated by corruption and incompetence, stating that the Bush administration ignored numerous warnings prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s decision to scale back troop levels in Afghanistan aided Osama bin Laden’s escape into the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. Hinchey suggested that it would have been more difficult to justify an attack against Iraq if bin Laden had been apprehended by the US military. Recognizing that impeachment had been referenced by many, Hinchey said the Bush administration, through the ways it violated the law, is “probably the most impeachable administration in the history of America.”
