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Impeach Clinton Now!
An Interview with Professor Francis A. Boyle on the US Bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan
Interview of 9/15/98, on "Flashpoint," KPFA Radio Station in San Francisco.
...Certainly if I were to identify an abuse of power, an impeachable act, high crimes and misdemeanors by President Clinton, a good example would be the recent gratuitous bombings of Sudan and the attack on Afghanistan. In the Gonzalez impeachment resolution there were five articles against Bush for going to war against Iraq. And the test set forward generally in each article, "Bush acted in manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice to the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." That language of course is also taken from the Nixon impeachment resolution. So it seems to me that under that test you need more than simply sexual escapades by the president-- let us remember John F. Kennedy. You need "subversive of constitutional government."
And clearly for the President to go to war against two states, to launch military attacks in the middle of the night, without any authorization by Congress, to destroy the civilian pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, and we still don't know exactly what he destroyed in Afghanistan-- to me subverts our constitutional system of government. You first have the war powers clause of the United States Constitution that expressively requires some kind of authorization by Congress before the president can engage in hostilities, unless there is a direct attack upon the United States itself or its forces, which of course, the president can defend. Second is the war powers resolution, and that too was mentioned by Congressman Gonzalez in his impeachment resolution of President Bush. Bush had violated the war powers resolution. Put in there to prevent a repetition of the Vietnam war where we got in stages with lies, misrepresentations, deceits, falsehoods, and certainly starting with Kennedy but continuing with Johnson. Culminating in the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that we now know was procured by fraud. And to try to prevent this from happening again.
The War Powers resolution was adopted by two-thirds of both Houses, over Nixon's veto. There was an attempt to repeal the War Powers Resolution during the summer of 1995 under the Republican-controlled Congress, and it failed. And so the War Powers resolution is still on the books. In addition, The Gonzalez Impeachment Resolution pointed out a violation of article 2 paragraph 4 of the UN Charter... Violations of the Geneva Protocol of 1977, also mentioned by Gonzalez, prohibiting the targeting of civilian facilities or civilian objects, and also the Nuremberg Charter, prohibiting waging a war of aggression or war in violation of treaties and agreements. All these issues were raised in the Gonzalez impeachment resolution. Similar issues can and should be raised with respect to the case of Pres. Clinton.
If there is an abuse of power here, it was the President using this attack on Sudan and Afghanistan to deflect public attention and to diffuse public pressure over the Monica Lewinsky matter. The New York Times had a time line, literally day by day, how the President made his decisions on the appearance before the Grand Jury, and the attacking of Sudan and Afghanistan. Clearly in my assessment of the situation, this was orchestrated. The tip off here of course was Clinton going off on vacation, then finally approving the attacks and coming back to Washington in order to appear Presidential. This exactly what he did in early 1992 up in New Hampshire after the Jennifer Flowers allegations became public. He flew down from New Hampshire, down to Arkansas, executed some poor black man, who was retarded, then came back to New Hampshire and told everyone: see I am tough on crime. He was condemned by Jesse Jackson. It is a repeat of the exact same scenario, trying to deflect attention from his sexual escapades by abusing power. There is remarkable similarity in this attack on the Sudan and Afghanistan.
This is not actually a matter of the past. We now have the very serious danger of a wounded president. Knowing full well he got away with this once and he could well get away with this again by orchestrating an attack on Iraq, just as he authorized and approved an attack on Sudan and Afghanistan. If you look in today's wire services you already see that Madeline Albright saying that she is consulting with other members of the Security Council for some type of punitive resolution against Iraq. And Jamie Rubin, the State Department, spokesperson is already threatening the use of force against Iraq. So Clinton knows full well that if he were to start a new crisis with Iraq culminating in use of military force a lot of the public pressure would dissipate. And remember, Congress goes out of session on Oct. 9 for the November election...
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Ill. 61820
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
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