GOP Congressman accuses Bushco of criminality UPDATED
by Inky99
Sun Mar 09, 2008 at 01:04:50 AM PDT
I kid you not. Right on the floor of the House, Dana Rohrabacher, (R) from California, seems to have finally had it with the Bush administration, accusing them of criminality, obstruction of justice, and lying to Congress.
I was shocked. You probably will be, too, especially when you read what one of his main complaints is.
* Inky99's diary :: ::
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The speech Rohrabacher made is up on the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) site. I read about it at AfterDowningStreet.org in an article titled "Republicans in Congress Can't Take White House Criminality Anymore - Maybe Democrats Could Join in and Act."
Indeed, why does it take a Republican to finally blow his top against the criminality of the Bush administration. Has anyone seen words to this affect coming from any Democrat?
Later on, he goes even farther:Mr. ROHRABACHER. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor tonight with a
heavy heart. The nature of the allegations I make speaks poorly of this
administration. In my heart of hearts, I have always wanted this
administration to succeed, but the issue at hand is of such magnitude
that the American people need to know what is being done and what
precedents are being set.
In my tenure as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, both as chairman and ranking member of an investigative
subcommittee, I have witnessed firsthand behavior by the Bush
administration which I find deeply troubling.
The disdain and uncooperative nature that this administration has
shown toward Congress, including Republican Members, is so egregious
that I can no longer assume that it is simply bureaucratic incompetence
or isolated mistakes. Rather, I have come to the sad conclusion that
this administration has intentionally obstructed Congress' rightful and
constitutional duties.
Tonight I will discuss some serious examples of this administration's
contemptuous disregard for the authority delegated to Congress by the
Constitution. This bad attitude has consistently manifested itself in a
sophomoric resentment toward Congress' constitutional role as an equal
branch of government. The result has been an executive branch too
insecure to let Congress do its job, an executive branch that sees
Congress, even when Republicans held the majority, as a rival and a
spoiler, rather than as elected representatives of the American people
playing a rightful role in establishing policy for our great country.
Unfortunately, when the President of the United States rejects the
legitimacy of congressional prerogatives, there are serious
consequences. Tonight, I will provide examples of how this
administration for the past 7 years has undercut congressional
investigators, has lied to Members of Congress, and has forged ahead
with secret deals in spite of efforts and pleas by Congress to be
informed, if not involved.
A crime. Wow, finally somebody said it out loud. The Bush administration is criminal. And who finally said it? A Republican???This administration ends up lying in a briefing to Congress and
shrugs it off. To this day, absolutely nothing has been done about this
crime. And yes, lying to Congress, especially about an issue of this
magnitude, is a crime.
Now check this out. This is the first case he brings up regarding the obstruction and the lying of the Bush Administration. It's a pretty good jolt.
Can you say "wow"? I knew you could.I learned that in the time immediately leading up to the
bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, convicted Oklahoma
City bomber and murderer Terry Nichols had been in Cebu City in the
Philippines. His stay in Cebu City coincided with another visitor to
that city, al Qaeda's terrorist leader Ramsey Yousef. Interestingly,
both Nichols and Yousef used similar bombs and methods just 2 years
apart to blow up two American targets. Yousef was the mastermind of the
first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Nichols was a
coconspirator in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in
1995.
By the way, I would like to acknowledge that today happens to be the
15-year anniversary of that first devastating attack on the World Trade
Center.
These individuals, one American and one Arab, were responsible for
planning two of the most lethal terrorist attacks on our countrymen in
our history. We are to believe that by coincidence they ended up in an
off-the-beaten-track city in the Southern Philippines? One doesn't have
to be a conspiracy nut to understand that this coincidence is certainly
worth looking into.
I started an official congressional investigation sanctioned by Henry
Hyde, then the chairman of the International Relations Committee, to
see whether Terry Nichols or his accomplice, Timothy McVeigh, had
foreign help in their murderous terrorist bombing of the Alfred Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City.
In light of the fact that Terry Nichols and Ramsey Yousef were both
in Cebu City at the same time prior to hauntingly similar terrorist
attacks, it was no stretch for a congressional investigative committee
to be looking into this matter. However, the Bush administration felt
quite differently. To those I had to deal with, it was ``case closed,
don't bother us.'' They had looked into the matter, and Congress should
simply and blindly accept their conclusion that there was no Nichols-
Yousef connection. ``Don't bother us.'' This was at times bureaucratic
laziness, and at other times it was clearly based on a disdain for
congressional investigations and authority.
During my investigation, I secured Ramsey Yousef's cell phone
records. The records were part of the phone calls that he made when he
was in that New York City area in the months just prior to the bombing
of the World Trade Center in 1993.
The phone records show that Ramsey Yousef made at least two phone
calls to a row house in Queens, New York.
Page H1066
That row house was occupied by the cousin of Terry Nichols' Filipina
wife. Let me repeat that. The terrorist bomber of the first World Trade
Center attack, the nephew of al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh
Mohammad, made phone calls to the same row house that was occupied by
Terry Nichols' cousins-in-law just 2 months before he exploded the bomb
in the garage of the World Trade Center 15 years ago. Another
coincidence?
Rohrabacher has a great deal more to say, but I won't put it all here. What's so funny is he's such an idiot tool of the administration in so many ways, saying how great he thinks the Iraq war was, what a great idea "the surge" was (which we now know is yet another lie, "the surge" was only a surge of money, in the form of bribes) and is in full support of other Republican fantasies.
So imagine if someone who was actually smart had the audacity to call a spade a spade, and make the case as to the TRUE criminality, the war-criminality, of the Bush Administration.
Was Pelosi even paying attention to this? Or was she instead busy writing nasty letters to her local homeowner's association about all those dirty protesters camped out in front of her house?
Did any Democrats hear this speech?
Were they embarrased about it?
They sure as HELL should have been.
Maybe now they can feel comfortable criticizing Bush, since a Republican has taken the goddamn LEAD on it.
Assholes.
UPDATE: Here's another section I just have to add for those who might not click on the link and read the whole thing:
Wow ...Ramzi Yousef has been in Federal prison for over a decade. He is a
prisoner with a unique understanding of the al Qaeda terrorist
structure. He is the nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of
the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
In 2006, when I was the chairman of the House Oversight
Investigations Subcommittee on the Foreign Affairs Committee, I was
investigating Yousef's movements and activities not only in the United
States but in the Philippines. I even traveled to the Philippines to
question authorities who had captured Yousef's roommate and
coconspirator in the Bojinka plot.
In spite of that fact and in spite of the fact that I was looking
into Yousef's terrorist activities and in spite of the fact that I had
obtained new information about Yousef's phone calls right here in the
United States and new information about his associates while he was in
the United States, the Department of Justice still dismisses the effort
and, more than that, they are obstructing a legitimate congressional
investigation, refusing to permit this elected Member of Congress, a
ranking member of a congressional investigating committee, to interview
a Federal prisoner. They refused access to Yousef claiming that there
is a ``ongoing investigation.''
This prisoner has been in jail for over 10 years. It is more likely
that what we have here is an ongoing coverup and not an ongoing
investigation. In fact, I have been told recently by a former member of
the Justice Department that they were told routinely simply to give
answers that there is an ongoing investigation even if no ongoing
investigation was underway, but simply using it as a phrase to dismiss
a request from Congress.
'Wow' indeed, Mister Griffin. After this, I need a drink too.
