June 10, 2008, Washington, DC – At 1:00pm, June 11, in room 1629, Longworth House Office Building, members of a national veterans’ organization will hold a news conference to display the 22,000 names they collected on a petition to impeach President Bush, then go directly to Representative John Conyers’ office to deliver them. After trying for two months to get a 10-minute meeting with the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Veterans For Peace (VFP) members from New York, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio and the District of Columbia decided to conduct a sit-in until he agrees to meet with them.
VFP Executive Director, Michael McPhearson, said, “By invading and occupying Iraq, the Bush administration every day violates legally binding international treaties and domestic laws. Congressman Conyers and his colleagues must hold them accountable and our Constitution prescribes how: impeachment. It’s not enough to simply watch the Bush administration retire. Unless we hold them accountable we and Congress are complicit in their war crimes and put U.S. soldiers at risk of retaliation.”
In letters requesting the meeting and transmitting the signatures, VFP president, Elliott Adams, emphasized that the Bush administration has committed numerous impeachable offenses by violating domestic laws, binding international treaties and the U.S. Constitution by condoning torture in Iraq, violating the Geneva Conventions, U.N. Charter and resolutions, the Nuremberg Principles and the Laws and Customs of War on Land. Attached to his transmittal letter, the former Army paratrooper and Viet Nam combat vet included the VFP “Case for Impeachment” consisting of “six single-spaced pages documenting claims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace committed or encouraged by the Bush administration.” He also included a video CD of testimonies selected from the Iraq Veterans Against the War’s “Winter Soldier” hearings held in March of this year documenting many additional violations.
Adams wrote, “Having taken an oath to defend the Constitution ‘from all enemies foreign and domestic,’ our members take the obligation to impeach George W. Bush most seriously. We must hold this administration accountable for waging a war of aggression against Iraq.”
He reminded the 21-term Detroit Democrat that “You have taken the same oath, Congressman Conyers, and we expect you will hold it just as sacred as we do and begin impeachment hearings at the soonest possible moment. To do any less is to disgrace the memory of the thousands of U.S. troops killed and wounded in this illegal war, and mocks the millions of Iraqis who have died and suffered in George Bush’s war of aggression.”
The VFP president concluded, “Congressman Conyers, you have stood on the side of justice in battles too numerous to mention during your long career in the House. At this point in history, when the Executive Branch is usurping powers it may never relinquish, we ask you to not sit on the sidelines or be a keeper of the status quo like those who stood in your way when you demanded action for what is right. The time for justice is always now.”
### Founded in 1985, Veterans For Peace is a national organization of men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations spanning the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts cold or hot. It has chapters in nearly every state in the union and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary. Veterans For Peace is an official Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the U.N.
