Impeach-Obama movement surges on Bergdahl deal

The charge that President Obama has committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" and should be impeached because of the deal he arranged to set free five top Taliban leaders in exchange for an American soldier whose behavior is under investigation is gaining traction.

Lots of traction.

Including a request from a former member of Congress, Allen West, to current House Speaker John Boehner and others "to draft articles of impeachment as no one is above the law in America."

"I call upon the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives; Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to draft articles of impeachment," West wrote Tuesday.

West argues Obama signed into law only months ago the National Defense Authorization Act, which makes it a crime against the nation to offer or provide any material support to terror groups.

The problem was explained by Fox News judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, who supported West's opinion.

"We have a federal statute which makes it a felony to provide material assistance to any terrorist organization. It could be money, maps, professional services, any asset whatsoever, include human assets," he said.

Napolitano argues it is likely the five terrorist leaders will rejoin the campaign against the United States, which constitutes material support.

Just a day ago, Andrew McCarthy, the former federal prosecutor who brought the evidence that convicted perpetrators of the first Islamic terror bombing of New York's World Trade Center, said Obama likely broke the federal law against supporting terror.

The definitive case for removing Barack Obama from office is presented in "Impeachable Offenses" by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

Transferring the five terrorists to Qatar in exchange for the release of Bergdahl "violates the law against material support to terrorism," Andrew McCarthy told the the Daily Mail of London.

McCarthy was assistant U.S. attorney in New York. He led the 1995 prosecution of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and nearly a dozen others charged with the bombing, which failed to bring down the towers but killed six and injured more than a thousand.

West wrote Tuesday that Obama used an Article 2 signing statement to deem unconstitutional a measure he had signed into law contained in the National Defense Authorization Act.

"The law stated that he must advise Congress within 30 days about any plans to transfer detainees from Gitmo," West wrote. "Obama basically stated that this was 'unconstitutional' and that his unilateral action fell within his purview. Once again Obama used selective discretion as to what law he feels he must adhere to — in this case it has severe ramifications for our national security."

He said the five Guantanamo Bay detainees "were senior Taliban officials, basically members of Mullah Omar's inner circle."

"This is aiding and abetting the enemy, which goes along with the collusion of this administration with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations and supplying weapons and arms to Islamists," West wrote. "Obama just released the leadership of a terrorist organization, and what did we get in return? A deserter, who by his own self-proclamation harbors anti-American sentiments – which it seems that Susan Rice, our esteemed national security adviser, didn't even realize his heinous actions – or maybe as usual she just lied about it again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that Barack Hussein Obama's unilateral negotiations with terrorists and the ensuing release of their key leadership without consult – mandated by law – with the U.S. Congress represents high crimes and misdemeanors, an impeachable offense."

Napolitano said it's clear Obama did "the very thing that government is prohibited from doing under federal law."

The action, Napolitano said, "defies" Obama's oath of office, which is to "faithfully" enforce federal law.

"He may very have committed a federal crime by giving material assistance to a terror organization," he said.

Impeachment, he said, is "a very, very valid argument."

Roll Call reported the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee also joined the conversation.

"My perception is he broke the law by not informing Congress 30 days before," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said in an appearance on MSNBC.

McKeon was referring to a 2013 law that requires the administration to notify Congress before detainees from the detention camp are released.

"We will be holding hearings. I'm sorry that this is being portrayed as a Republican issue. Democrats also voted for this law. It was important for our national security," he said.

McKeon noted the law passed overwhelmingly in both chambers of Congress and the president signed it.

"And although he said now he had a disclaimer along with it that he apparently didn't support the law, he did sign it," the congressman said.

WND's report Monday explained that McCarthy differed slightly. He said Obama's actions in releasing the five terrorists were not impeachable based on not notifying Congress, because he said that law itself was flawed.

But the law, he said, specifically forbids any "material support to terrorism." And he said the president actions likely violated that provision.

"And because high crimes and misdemeanors (the offenses cited in the Constitution as reason for impeachment) are not statutory offenses but political wrongs that endanger the United States, the return of senior terrorists to the Taliban while we still have soldiers in harm's way is, in my view, a 'high crime and misdemeanor,'" McCarthy told the Mail.

A book also has made a case for impeaching Obama. "Impeachable Offenses," by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott, has been called a blueprint for impeaching Obama, outlining the high crimes, misdemeanors, bribery and other offenses committed against the U.S. Constitution.

The Daily Mail itself called "Impeachable Offenses" "explosive," saying the book contains a "systematic connect-the-dots exercise that the president's defenders will find troublesome."

Among the offenses enumerated in the book before the Bergdahl deal erupted:

Obamacare not only is unconstitutional but illegally bypasses Congress, infringes on states’ rights and marking an unprecedented and unauthorized expansion of IRS power.
Sidestepping Congress, Obama already has granted largely unreported de facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens using illicit interagency directives and executive orders.
The Obama administration recklessly endangered the public by releasing from prison criminal illegal aliens at a rate far beyond what is publicly known.
The president's personal role in the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, with new evidence regarding what was transpiring at the U.S. mission prior to the assault – arguably impeachable activities in and of themselves.
Illicit edicts on gun control in addition to the deadly “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation intended, the book shows, to collect fraudulent gun data.
And more.

The definitive case for removing Barack Obama from office is presented in "Impeachable Offenses" by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.