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Article XVII
ILLEGAL DETENTION: DETAINING INDEFINITELY AND WITHOUT CHARGE PERSONS BOTH U.S. CITIZENS AND FOREIGN CAPTIVES
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional
oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional
duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed",
has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice President,
violated United States and International Law and the US Constitution by illegally detaining indefinitely
and without charge persons both US citizens and foreign captives.
In a statement on Feb. 7, 2002, President Bush declared that in the US fight against Al Qaeda, "none of
the provisions of Geneva apply," thus rejecting the Geneva Conventions that protect captives in wars
and other conflicts. By that time, the administration was already transporting captives from the war in
Afghanistan, both alleged Al Qaeda members and supporters, and also Afghans accused of being
fighters in the army of the Taliban government, to US-run prisons in Afghanistan and to the detention
facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The round-up and detention without charge of Muslim non-citizens
inside the US began almost immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, with some being held as long as nine months. The US, on orders of the
president, began capturing and detaining without charge alleged terror suspects in other countries and
detaining them abroad and at the US Naval base in Guantanamo.
Many of these detainees have been subjected to systematic abuse, including beatings, which have been
subsequently documented by news reports, photographic evidence, testimony in Congress, lawsuits,
and in the case of detainees in the US, by an investigation conducted by the Justice Department's Office
of the Inspector General.
In violation of US law and the Geneva Conventions, the Bush Administration instructed the
Department of Justice and the US Department of Defense to refuse to provide the identities or locations
of these detainees, despite requests from Congress and from attorneys for the detainees. The president
even declared the right to detain US citizens indefinitely, without charge and without providing them
access to counsel or the courts, thus depriving them of their constitutional and basic human rights.
Several of those US citizens were held in military brigs in solitary confinement for as long as three
years before being either released or transferred to civilian detention.
Detainees in US custody in Iraq and Guantanamo have, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, been
hidden from and denied visits by the International Red Cross organization, while thousands of others in
Iraq, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, ships in foreign off-shore sites, and an unknown number of so-called
"black sites" around the world have been denied any opportunity to challenge their detentions. The
president, acting on his own claimed authority, has declared the hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo
Bay to be "enemy combatants" not subject to US law and not even subject to military law, but
nonetheless potentially liable to the death penalty.
The detention of individuals without due process violates the 5th Amendment. While the Bush
administration has been rebuked in several court cases, most recently that of Ali al-Marri, it continues
to attempt to exceed constitutional limits.
In all of these actions violating US and International law, President George W. Bush has acted in a
manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional
government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of
the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable
offense warranting removal from office.
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