Three days after 9/11 Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). That authorization gave the president the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force against those involved in 9/11 and anyone who harbored the perpetrators. AUMF has served as the basis for the Afghan War and the retention of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay for the past 10 years. Now there are those who want to revise and expand AUMF’s reach.
Led by Representative Mac Thornberry (R-TX), the revisions to AUMF would drop the reference to 9/11. The thinking is that, as 9/11 becomes more distant and relation to that event more remote, AUMF might be less and less effective as a tool, requiring future presidents to use other means to combat terrorism. Other means would likely mean international and national law enforcement.
The revisions would affirm a state of armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban and “associated forces”. It would also extend AUMF until the “termination of hostilities”. Thornberry reasons that al-Qaeda is increasingly decentralized, and that violent splinter groups have no connection to 9/11.
Critics are concerned that the proposed revisions would give the president carte blanche to go after any person or invade any nation without congressional approval. Chris Anders of the ACLU says the revisions amount to a declaration of worldwide war at a time when the U. S. is withdrawing from Iraq and preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Read more at Politico.
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Meanwhile at a Senate hearing the Obama administration’s Department of Justice is asking for a new law requiring ISP’s to track and retain information on smart phone users. It seems the feds are having trouble tracking back to specific smart phone users. DOJ called such records “an absolutely necessary link in the investigative chain.”
The Justice Department’s Jason Weinstein, in prepared remarks, complained that current records “do not retain records that would enable law enforcement to identify a suspect’s smartphone based on the IP address collected by websites the suspect visited…” DOJ’s request for the new legislation was not directly linked to the war on terror but referenced federal investigations generally.
Opponents, fresh from the dust up over Apple’s iOS 4 devices’ location tracking and storing ability, believe the DOJ proposal would allow companies and the government invasive access to personal consumer information including the websites users visit.
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.