Obama Administration Pushing 9-11 Authorization Far Beyond Reason Or Original Intent

[bigtree]

from the WaPo:


____ The Authorization for Use of Military Force, a joint resolution passed by Congress three days after the strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has served as the legal foundation for U.S. counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda over the past decade, including ongoing drone campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen that have killed thousands of people.

But U.S. officials said administration lawyers are increasingly concerned that the law is being stretched to its legal breaking point, just as new threats are emerging in countries including Syria, Libya and Mali.

“The farther we get away from 9/11 and what this legislation was initially focused upon,” a senior Obama administration official said, “we can see from both a theoretical but also a practical standpoint that groups that have arisen or morphed become more difficult to fit in.”

The waning relevance of the 2001 law, the official said, is “requiring a whole policy and legal look.” The official, like most others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

The authorization law has already been expanded by federal courts beyond its original scope to apply to “associated forces” of al-Qaeda. But officials said legal advisers at the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies are now weighing whether the law can be stretched to cover what one former official called “associates of associates.”


read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/administration-debates-stretching-911-law-to-go-after-new-al-qaeda-offshoots/2013/03/06/fd2574a0-85e5-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_print.html

[ProSense]

1. "“The farther we get away from 9/11 and what this legislation was initially focused upon"

Repeal it.

I have to add, the title of this article and the way it's framed seems more like the MSM trying to force a policy. This is buried at the end of the article:

Working with Congress to update the AUMF is another option. The Senate Intelligence Committee has already begun considering ways to accomplish that. But Obama, who has claimed credit for winding down two wars, is seen as reluctant to have the legislative expansion of another be added to his legacy.

Repeal the damn thing.

[bigtree]

2. Precisely

Congress needs to repeal it and provide separate guidance for drones. I'm afraid I see zero chance they'll ground them or disarm them, but they can make significant changes like putting the program under the military control and getting it out of the CIA's control. Then, they'll need to set up some sort of mechanism or process of accountability and approval outside of the Pentagon and administration for their use.

[Bolo Boffin]

3. Amen.

Get the last troops out of Afghanistan and repeal the thing.

[bigtree]

4. (on your edit) fair enough

. . . but I have no problem at all in their intent to put the onus on the WH. It isn't Congress who is making these calls where and when to use the drones. It's been the administration, so far, which has insisted on their ability to direct their use independent of any prior or even subsequent approval from outside of the Pentagon or WH.

Pres. Obama may well be reluctant to expand the authorization, but I think it's pretty clear that it's already been stretched beyond reason or original intent - even without further justifications offered for their use against 'associates of associates.'

[Arctic Dave]

5. They should repeal it and maybe

Obama should stop thinking it gives him unlimited power.

Ya think?

Don't just blame them when he has just as much blood on his hands as the rest of them.