Click to Tell Congress they must impeach Bush and Cheney if the Petraeus Report is fraudulent.

The war criminals and their enablers in Washington DC - both in the Corporate Congress and the Corporate Media - are waiting breathlessly for the Petraeus Cheney Report on the achievement of Bush's January benchmarks for Iraq to justify throwing yet another $200 billion into a living hell.

But if the preliminary Petraeus Cheney report is any indication, the final report will be full of lies, as emptywheel points out.

The GAO has quantified just how much lying Bush has already been doing in his assessments of success in Iraq.

It's instructive, too, to see where there are variances.

• GAO says Iraq has failed to form a Constitutional Review Committee; BushCo says it has fully satisfied this benchmark
• GAO says Iraq has partially met benchmarks on forming semi-autonomous regions; BushCo says it has met this objective
• GAO says Iraq has failed to establish provincial authorities; BushCo says it has partially met this benchmark
• Rather than judge Iraq as failing to pass amnesty and disarmament, BushCo says simply that "conditions are not present for these benchmarks"
• GAO says Iraq has partially met its goal of three Iraqi brigades in Baghdad; BushCo says it has met this objective (on Thursday the report said Iraq had failed to meet this objective)
• GAO says Iraq has partially met its goal of "not providing a safe haven for outlaws"; BushCo is satisfied with Iraq's progress on this score (on Thursday the report said Iraq had failed to meet this objective)
• GAO says Iraq has failed to eliminate militia control of local security; BushCo gives it partial credit
• GAO says Iraq has partially met its spending goal; BushCo gives it full credit

The key part of the GAO report is not just that it shows that the surge has been a failure. It also quantifies [how] much BushCo is lying to us to make us believe that it has succeeded.

As we all know, lying to Congress is a crime - and therefore an impeachable offense, if Congress wants to hold Bush and Cheney accountable for their lies. (Yeah, I know).

And for those purists who don't believe lying to Congress is a crime unless the lies are knowing and intentional (like they're ignorant and accidental?), it's also a crime to defraud Congress, as former prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega has repeatedly argued about the pre-war lies.

After analyzing this evidence in light of the applicable law, I've determined that we already have more than enough information to allow a reasonable person to conclude that the President conducted a wide-ranging EFFORT TO DECEIVE the American people and Congress into supporting a war against Iraq. In other words, in legal terms, there is probable cause to believe that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Powell violated Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, which prohibits conspiracies to DEFRAUD the United States. Probable cause is the standard of proof required for a grand jury to return an indictment. Consequently, we have more than sufficient evidence to warrant indictment of the President and his advisers...

So if the Petraeus Cheney Report is either false (a lie) or purposefully misleading (a fraud), it would constitute yet another impeachable offense.

Congressional Democrats, are you listening?

Update 1: emptywheel is using her incomparable eagle eye to spot Petraeus' lies when he testifies under oath before Congress on Monday.

General Petraeus, lying to Congress is a crime.

Let's just repeat that fact over and over. Because that's what Petraeus is planning on doing on Monday, as Karen DeYoung (in an article buried on page A16) explains clearly. Go read the whole article, closely, for a description of the many methods of the Administration's hocus pocus.

Hopefully emptywheel will broaden her definition of "lies" and incorporate Betsy de la Vega's argument about the crime of deceiving Congress through fraud (Title 18, United States Code, Section 371), even if it's hard to prove a bald-faced lie.

Update 2: Devilstower praises NPR's Guy Raz for debunking various military lies about the insurgency and sectarian violence.