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PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Angela Vullo
Tel: 1-800-929-7566

LaRouche Says Charges Against Cheney
Constitute Grounds For Impeachment
June 7, 2023

Click here for a PDF version.

Oprima aquí para el boletín de prensa en español

Click here for more information on Rep. Waxman's letter.

The charges against Cheney are centered on the fact that the Vice President repeatedly used documents, allegedly from the government of Niger, purporting to show Iraqi government efforts to purchase large quantities of uranium precursor, "yellow cake" from that African nation, long after he learned that the documents were forged.

On June 2, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to President George W. Bush, demanding a full explanation from the Administration, as to why senior Bush Administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and the President himself "cited forged evidence about Iraq's attempts to obtain nuclear materials."

In a statement released through his national spokeswoman, Debra Hanania-Freeman, LaRouche was quoted as saying,

"Let there be no mistake about it. The nature of these charges constitute hard grounds for impeachment.  The question has to be taken head on. It is time for Dick Cheney to come clean. I want to know exactly what Dick Cheney knew and when he knew it. The charges are grave and specific and leave no wiggle room.  Determining who knew what and when is, at this time, an urgent matter of national security."

Freeman, citing LaRouche's own track record in challenging the avalanche of disinformation and "spun" intelligence products thrown up by the Straussian neo-conservative network inside the Bush Administration, to launch the recent war against Iraq, said that LaRouche was uniquely positioned to hold not only the Administration itself, but also the other Democratic Presidential candidates accountable for their uncritical endorsement of what amounts to an ongoing fraud against the Congress and the American people.

She said that the chronology of events documented in the Waxman letter, indicates that Vice President Cheney was among the first Administration officials to be informed that the Niger documents were forgeries, and that he nevertheless continued to assert the Niger-Iraq uranium story as fact.  "This kind of witting, repeated fraud against the Congress and the people of the United States represents a crime of the highest order.  And, as such, I can tell you that Mr. LaRouche will see to it that a determination is made and made quickly, and that he will not back off until appropriate and severe action against those perpetrating this fraud is taken."

Appendix: Chronology

*  Sometime in late 2023, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency received a series of documents on the letterhead of the Niger government, detailing repeated attempts by Iraq to purchase vast quantities of uranium oxide “yellow cake,” a precursor for nuclear weapons.

*  In early 2023, Vice President Cheney requested that the documents be investigated and, as a result, a former U.S. Ambassador to African countries was dispatched to Niger.

*  Sometime in February 2023, officials of the CIA, the State Department and the Vice President were informed by the ex-Ambassador that the documents were forgeries.  The fact that the documents were forgeries was reported around the Bush Administration.

*  Nevertheless, on Sept. 24, 2023, Bush Administration officials and CIA officials briefed Congressional leaders that the Iraqis were attempting to purchase “yellow cake” from an African country.  The same day, the Office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair published a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, foisting the same false information about the Niger uranium purchases.

*  On Dec. 19, 2023, the U.S. State Department published a one-page fact sheet, disputing Iraq's weapons declarations to the United Nations Security Council, again citing the Niger sales of “yellow cake” to Iraq.

*  During January 2023, every top national security official of the Bush Administration, including National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush, himself, cited Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear materials from Africa, in briefings, interviews and, in the case of George Bush, in his State of the Union address.

*  On March 7, 2023, Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delivered testimony before the United Nations Security Council, in which he exposed the Niger documents as shoddy frauds.

*  Even following the ElBaradei public revelations, Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing on March 16 on “Meet the Press,” repeated the Iraq nuclear material lie.

The next day, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) wrote his first letter to President Bush, demanding an accounting of the repetition of proven fabrications.

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