Sojourners: Petition for Independent Investigation

[Blue State Blues]

I got an email today from a very religious friend of mine who comes from a military family. I hesitated to read it, assuming that my friend was forwarding me a flag-waving "support our President" message, but instead it is petition by and for people of faith to send to their elected officials demanding an independent investigation into the administration's conduct in the build-up to the Iraq war.

I thought this might be an excellent email/petition to circulate among people of faith and it might be a good way to communicate with religious friends or relatives who have been getting their information about the issue from right-twisted news sources.

The petition is here:
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/demand_truth?rk=27SupE11PXdxW

Full text of the email here (I think this is the email auto-generated by the sojourner's website when you forward the petition to your friends):

In the week we mourned the death of the 2,000th U.S. soldier in
Iraq, I. Lewis Libby, vice presidential chief of staff, was
indicted today on five felony charges of perjury, obstruction of
justice, and making false statements to the FBI in the grand
jury investigation into the leak of the name of covert CIA
officer Valerie Plame, whose husband, former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, had been critical of pre-war intelligence on Iraq.
According to news reports, the investigation of White House
deputy chief of staff Karl Rove will continue.

This case goes well beyond petty intrigue and personal revenge.
As people of faith, it is time to raise our voices and demand
the truth about actions that - if proven in court - were threads
of misinformation and manipulation that pushed our nation into
war with Iraq and punished those who discovered credible
evidence against it. With the prophet Isaiah we cry out: "No one
calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth" (Isaiah 59:4).

Click the link below to ask Congress for an independent
investigation to determine if and how the Bush administration
manipulated intelligence to justify war in Iraq.

The indictment of Libby raises the possibility that top White
House officials deliberately attacked someone who questioned the
validity of the intelligence the White House used to claim there
were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq - intelligence that
has now been discredited. More importantly, this indictment
provokes further questions about whether going to war was simply
an honest mistake based on bad intelligence. Are the alleged
actions of Libby isolated incidents of revenge, or are they the
tip of the iceberg in a conspiracy to mislead the American
people into war?

We demand a truly independent commission that will investigate
whether the Bush administration deliberately misled our nation
into going to war. Although creating an independent commission
will not bring back the 2,000 American soldiers and tens of
thousands of Iraqis who have died as a result of this war, it
will nevertheless be a step toward restoring honesty and
integrity to the nation's highest office.

This is not a matter of partisan politics, nor of political
revenge. It is a matter of uncovering the truth about why we
went to war. Sojourners has worked for peace with justice for
more than 30 years. We have been consistent and vocal opponents
of the war in Iraq, and we take it seriously when voices of
dissent become targets of intimidation for political gain. We
have a long and consistent history of demanding integrity from
our national leaders - from Nixon, to Reagan, to Clinton, and
now the Bush administration.

As people of faith, we believe that the authority for governance
balances on a commitment to truth when leading a nation into war
and putting at risk our lives and those of our "enemies." We
will not stand by while our nation's elected officials "trust in
empty words and speak lies; conceive evil and bring forth
iniquity" (Isaiah 59:4b).

We need your help to get 25,000 people to sign this petition by
Wednesday. After you sign the petition, follow the instructions
to forward this message to 10 or more of your friends, family,
fellow churchgoers - anyone who believes in our call as people
of faith to be prophetic voices of truth and peacemaking.

Sign a petition asking Congress for an independent investigation
of President Bush's administration to determine if and how
intelligence was knowingly manipulated leading up to the war in
Iraq.

Blessings,
The staff at Sojourners

Take action today:
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/demand_truth?rk=27SupE11PXdxW


Edited to fix typo.

[elshiva]

1. Done and thanks!