--Violation of the oath of office to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution, specifically the Sixth Amendment right of American citizens, in criminal matters, to be told of the charges against them, to counsel, and a to speedy and public trial by a jury of their peers.  The rights of foreign nationals may be debated, but the rights of Americans are not open to debate.  Declaring an American an "enemy combatant" overturns the Bill of Rights.  The enemy combatant designation was meant to apply to wars of limited duration.  They have never before been applied in a war which, by definition, has no end.   Jose Padilla was presumed guilty until proven innocent.  He was tortured, given LSD, and after 4 years released to be given a civilian trial upon Bush's whim.  Padilla was found guilty even though his lawyers say he was too damaged to assist in his own defense.
 
--Seeking to overturn the Bill of Rights of the Constitution by the transparent device of claiming wartime powers which would last forever.

--Violation of the oath of office to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment right to freedom from search without a warrant, in the NSA warrantless surveillance scandal.  The media helps the administration by twisting the issue to be whether the government can spy, when in fact the government has always been able to spy on anyone as long as it is within the law.  What this administration craves is not the authority to spy on terrorists.  It has always had that.  Even though it has 48 hours to apply for a warrant after initiating surveillance, the administration consistently lies and says it is hamstrung by the need to apply for a warrant.  What this administration craves is the power to spy on anyone, anytime, without ever applying for a warrant, before or after.  This kind of power is un-American, and was clearly forbidden by the Founding Fathers.  Referring to the NSA scandal, John Dean says Bush is the only president in history who has openly admitted an "impeachable offense."

--Lying to Congress and the American people to draw the country into the invasion and occupation of Iraq.  "High-level contacts" between Saddam and Bin Laden?  They hated each other!

--Treason in the War on Terror: Revealing secrets to the enemy in wartime by ordering the public identification of American intelligence agent Valerie Plame.  Plame was engaged in tracing weapons of mass destruction before they reached American shores.  Also the public identification of Al Qaeda double agent Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who in the words of one expert "might have led to bin Laden himself." Khan was trotted out to bolster the 2004 NYC Financial District terror alerts just before the election.  Also the leak of the Bin Laden video in October 2007, which according to the group which obtained the video, means "a rare window into the world of Al Qaeda has now been sealed shut."

The evidence:

WMD:
--"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." Vice President Cheney at VFW 103rd National Convention, August 26, 2002

--"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." George Bush, March 17, 2003

--"Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda" National Journal

--"[Iraq] had no . . . strategy or plan for the revival of WMD after sanctions ended." CIA Duelfer Report Sept. 2004

Iraq and 9/11:

--"His regime has had high-level contacts with Al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to Al Qaeda terrorists."  Speech of Vice President Cheney at the Air National Guard Senior Leadership Conference, December 2, 2002

--"I have also determined that the use of armed force against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organiza-tions, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." -George Bush, certification to Congress to authorize the use of force in Iraq

--"No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th,"  -George Bush, Sept. 18, 2003, Meet the Press

--"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.   Sir Richard Dearlove, Head of British Secret Intelligence Service, the "Downing Street Memo", July 23, 2002

--"We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida cooperated on attacks against the United States." 9/11 Commission

Constitution Sixth Amendment:

--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  Presidential Oath of Office.

--"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."  Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution, the "Bill of Rights"

--"I, GEORGE W. BUSH, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, hereby DETERMINE for the United States of America that...Jose Padilla, who is under the control of the Department of Justice and who is a U.S. citizen, is, and at the time he entered the United States in May 2002 was, an enemy combatant...Accordingly, you are directed to receive Mr. Padilla from the Department of Justice and to detain him as an enemy combatant. "  June 9, 2002 Presidential Order to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to take military custody of Jose Padilla as an "enemy combatant"

Constitution Fourth Amendment:

--"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."  Fourth Amendment, Bill of Rights

--"I have reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups."  George Bush, Dec. 17, 2005, President's radio address

--"[This is a] pretty straightforward case where the president is acting illegally... When Congress speaks on questions that are domestic in nature, I really can't think of a situation where the president has successfully asserted a constitutional power to supersede that... This is domestic surveillance over American citizens for whom there is no evidence or proof that they are involved in any illegal activity, and it is in contravention of a statute of Congress specifically designed to prevent this."  Robert Reinstein, Dean of Law School at Temple University

Treason, Plame:

--"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."  U.S. Constitution

--"Somebody in his administration leaked the name of that person"  George Bush on Valerie Plame, July 12, 2007

--"The possibility of penetrating these groups, the possibility of knowing that they're going to carry 10-pound bags of explosive in the subway stations, will go right down the drain."  Special Forces Col. Patrick Lang, on the damage to the national security done by Plame's identification, Dorgan-Waxman Committee Hearings July 22, 2005

--"A former diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday that every foreign intelligence service would run Plame's name through its databases within hours of its publication to determine if she had visited their country and to reconstruct her activities."  Former diplomat quoted in Walter Pincus, Washington Post, October 4, 2003

Treason, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan:

--"the problem is that when you're trying to strike a balance between giving enough information to the public so that they know that you're dealing with a specific, credible, different kind of threat than you've dealt with in the past, you're always weighing that against kind of operational considerations."  Condoleeza Rice on the leaking of double agent Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan's name by "senior administration officials" to bolster the administration's August 2004 NYC Financial District Terror alerts.

--"A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested in Lahore secretly last month, had been actively cooperating with intelligence agents to help catch al Qaeda operatives when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers."  Reuters Aug. 6, 2004

--"Pakistani interior minister, Faisal Hayat, as well as the British home secretary, David Blunkett, had "expressed displeasure in fairly severe terms that Khan's name was released, because they were trying to track down other contacts."  Sen. Charles Schumer, CNN, Aug. 9, 2004

--"British and Pakistani intelligence officials are furious that the Administration unmasked Mr. Khan and named other captured terrorist suspects. Yesterday’s editions of the Daily News in New York reported Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat is dismayed that the trap they hoped would lead to the capture of other top Al Qaeda leaders, possibly even Osama Bin Laden."  Sen. Charles Schumer, Aug. 9, 2004, letter to administration on leaking identity  of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan.

Other crimes

The impeachment movement is in the midst of a healthy debte over how to approach the articles of impeachment for both Cheney and Bush.  There are many opinions.  Bush's torture of prisoners in Guantanamo and violation of UN Charter are crimes, since all treaties ratified by the Congress have the full force of U.S. law.  But how much time are we willing to spend getting off the track talking about Clinton's bombing of Kosovo, which was without the approval of the U.N. Security Council?  How much do we give to Congress to talk about, when we already know they can't walk and chew gum at the same time?

The torture of prisoners in Guantanamo would be a strong addition to the articles, only if Congress does a good job of explaining that many of these prisoners are innocent.  But if we get into an argument over whether someone who has knowledge of a terrorist attack should be tortured, we're going to lose that one on Main Street.

If impeachment wins, the world will not know the details, only that we have in Scott Ritter's words "repudiated"  Bush and everything he stands for.  If impeachment fails, the world will know nothing of our best of intentions.

Articles citing Bush's response to Katrina are also trouble.  Although the response was possibly criminally negligent, right-wing radio will twist this to mean that "Acts of God" are being "blamed" on the president.  

The charge of "threatening" Iran in the Kucinich articles against Cheney may be counterproductive.  Saber-rattling is as old as the hills, and if we impeached presidents every time one sent an aircraft carrier steaming near another country, none of them would finish out a term.

The deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq, PTSD, missing eyes, limbs, orphaned children, the U.S. treasury looted for the benefit of Halliburton and Blackwater, the horrors unleashed by 9/11 in the politically skillful, fear-mongering hands of George Bush could go on and on.  But a prosecutor goes to trial with a limited case.  He knows juries have limited attention spans, prejudices, and fall asleep like everyone else.  He puts together what will "stick."  Either you put your man away or you don't.  It doesn't matter if it's for one life term or a hundred.