Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Sunday angrily denounced the war in Iraq and called for the impeachment of US President George W Bush in an appearance billed as his final public address. “What should they do about a man who has been lying to America?” Farrakhan said. Then, turning to face Rep John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and shared the stage in Detroit, he added: “If you won’t impeach him, sanction him.”
Farrakhan, 73, was released from a hospital last month after undergoing a 12-hour abdominal surgery related to prostate cancer. There had been widespread speculation Farrakhan would use what supporters called a farewell speech to name a successor or to shift his movement closer to mainstream Islam. But Farrakhan instead devoted much of a wide-ranging, two-hour address to a critique of Bush’s foreign policy, which he linked to prophecy of the apocalypse. “Why did they invade Iraq? Why did they kill Saddam? Why did they kill his sons?” Farrakhan said. “The real story is Saddam Hussein became an economic threat.” |