A veteran US lawmaker on Tuesday introduced legislation urging Vice President Dick Cheney's impeachment for allegedly manipulating intelligence used to justify the US invasion of Iraq.
Cheney "has purposely manipulated
the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States," said the resolution introduced by House of Representatives Democrat Dennis Kucinich.
Kucinich, a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, said Cheney did so "by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq."His bill further accused the vice president of trumping up "an alleged relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda," and having "openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States."
The bill, if passed, would go a long way in restoring America's world standing, which has suffered because of the Iraq debacle, Kucinich told a news conference."Something has to be done to reclaim our country's goodness, to reclaim a government that American people want to be honest, want to be just," he said.
His remarks came on a day when Cheney accused Democrats of "defeatism" for their just-concluded Iraq war funding bill, which sets an October deadline to begin pulling out US combat troops.
In rare remarks delivered at the US Capitol where he held meetings with fellow Republicans, Cheney roundly criticized the bill hammered out late Monday between House and Senate Democratic leaders, which sets an April 2008 target date to complete the troop pullout.
The vice president was particularly scornful of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has led the charge for a quick US troop drawdown.
"What's most troubling ... is his defeatism," Cheney said.
"The timetable legislation that he is now pursuing would guarantee defeat," Cheney said in the continuing war of words between congressional Democrats and the George W. Bush administration over the way forward in Iraq.
Democrats said they hope to have the bill on President George W. Bush's desk early next week, but Bush on Tuesday restated his intention to veto it. Neither side has shown any willingness to back down in the standoff."
For their part, Democrats dismissed the remarks by the vice president, whom they said was clearly speaking in his familiar role as Bush's "attack dog."
"The president sends out his attack dog often. That's also known as Dick Cheney. And he was here again today," Democratic senator Chuck Schumer told reporters.
And to Cheney's charge that he was "defeatist," Reid shot back: "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a nine percent approval rating."
Photo: Mannie Garcia / AFP
