Greens Call for Impeachment of Bush, Withdrawal of Troops by the Winter Holidays.
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
For Immediate Release: Monday, July 21, 2003
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,
nallen@acadia.net Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty@greens.org At the Green Party's national meeting, state delegates endorse resolutions calling for impeachment and an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the final day of the 2003 national meeting of the Green Party of the United States, delegates from state Green Parties represented in the national party's Coordinating Committee approved two major proposals:
(1) The Green Party endorsed a call to Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings and resolved to take political leadership in the growing movement for impeachment.
The resolution cites President George W. Bush's and Vice President Dick Cheney's "pattern of making false statements to Congress, the American people, and the world to win support for actions by the American government and military forces" in violation of the U.S. Constitution, Charter of the United Nations, and other international laws; "[s]quandering the resources of the American people to serve the interests of transnational corporations"; and war crimes, including the use of depleted uranium and cluster bombs in the preemptive invasion of Iraq.
According to the resolution, "Evidence has emerged that the intelligence agencies of the United States had repeatedly informed the President that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction nor means to threaten the United States, and that alleged evidence produced by the administration was fraudulent." The resolution also authorizes the Green Party's Peace Action Committee (GPax) to coordinate party activities with other organizations that have called for impeachment.
"The problem isn't 16 erroneous words in the President's January 28 State of the Union address, but dozens of false statements on dozens of issues," said Elizabeth Shanklin, chair of the Bronx County Green Party and a New York delegate at the national meeting.
(2) Greens endorsed a "Home by the Holidays" campaign calling for the U.S. to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, and the Philippines, with this year's winter holidays as a deadline for total return of military personnel. The resolution demands the removal of U.S. troops from harm's way, citing the rising number of combat deaths (over 340) and injuries and numerous non-combat fatalities and the damage to health and the environment from the deployment of chemical, nuclear, and ecological weapons.
According to the resolution, the White House's policy of invading other countries "is hostile to the democratic traditions of the American Revolution, and must be actively resisted by all patriotic Americans."
The texts of both resolutions will be posted at the Green Party's web site
http://www.gp.org shortly.
The meeting took place from Friday, July 18 through Sunday, July 20 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. During the meeting, the Green Party of Alabama was admitted to the national party, bringing the number of accredited state parties to 43.
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org National office: 1314 18th St., NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-296-7755,866-41-GREEN
Articles of Impeachment, by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark
http://www.votetoimpeach.org/articles_rc.htm "A Threat to Democracy: Bush's Deceptions About Iraq"
Rep. John Conyers, speech in the House of Representatives, June 10, 2003
http://www.opednews.com/Conyers_a_threat_to_democracy.htm "Reason to Deceive: WMD Lies Could Be the New Watergate"
By Cynthia Cotts, The Village Voice, June 18-24, 2003
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0325/cotts.php "Will Congress Impeach George Bush over WMDs?"
By Mark Dunlea, The Albany Times Union, July 9, 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0709-04.htm Conference information
http://www.gp.org/conference2003.html