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by Barbara Bellows-TerraNova
May 29, 2007

This morning I added the following as a comment at the Washington Post, Richard Cohen's column, "The Case Against Cheney". It is time this information hit the spotlight. Mr. Cohen's article finishes with his belief that the case against Cheney brought by Dennis Kucinish, though certainly warranted, does not represent crimes that are "impeachable." He does say they are still "unforgiveable."

This is what I wrote (though I do not know if it will post):

Causing the deaths of over 3000 Americans, and the long-term disabilities of tens of thousands more, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and the destruction of a society, an environment, and a culture -- AND creating hundreds of thousands of orphans who have lost their parents by murder and suicide, who will grow up to be embittered citizens of the world -- must be impeachable. It is murder, it is assault, it is theft, and it is endangerment for the remaining population of the world for generations to come.

All because Dick Cheney was determined.

All because there were contracts ready.

All for profit. For greed.

In addition to impeachment, it seems appropriate to locate all Mr. Cheney's assets, hidden and otherwise, and set those billions aside to begin to handle the liability costs for damages.

On that note, it would also be time to hold Cheney accountable for the damages from the Depleted Uranium contamination he first caused (and continues to newly cause with each bombing raid in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.) when he, as Secretary of Defense in the senior Bush administration, dropped hundreds of tons of DU rounds on Iraq in 1991.

He has managed to keep the truth squashed or discredited on some level in the United States, even pressuring the UN’s World Health Organization in 2001 to shelve the report of Dr. Keith Baverstock, its radiation expert, regarding the health effects of the vaporized DU particles -- particles that will continue to radiate and destroy for hundreds of millions of years.

Across Europe and the Middle East, the people know. They’ve witness first hand the multiple cancers, the birth defects, the vulnerability of their children.

It makes the Bush attacks on Iran's development of nuclear energy that much more deeply hypocritical.

Sixteen years of poisoning the planet with carcinogenic particles -- particles which have erupted in the place known for the greatest windstorms on the planet. It is no coincidence that Halliburton got itself a contract to manage the atmospheric testing stations in Great Britain that measure radiation increases.

But such an enormous lie can only fester for so long.

Not impeachable? "Merely unforgivable"? Hmmm.

Like Gonzales, Cheney must be held to his own punitive standards.

Waterboard, anyone?

Barbara Bellows-TerraNova
Salt Lake City

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