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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators introduced bipartisan legislation on Wednesday to repeal decades-old authorizations for the use of military force used to justify years of attacks in the Middle East, an effort to shift back the authority to declare war to Congress from the White House. The measure, led by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and Republican Senator Todd Young, would repeal 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq, citing the “strong partnership” between Washington and the government in Baghdad. Under the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the right to authorize war. But those...

Republicans are fuming over a planned move by Democrats to consider Iran legislation alongside a commemorative coin bill, saying the floor maneuver is designed to prevent changes to the Democratic-backed measures reining in President Trump’s ability to wage war. The legislative maneuver would prevent House Republicans from using a procedural tool to alter the two Iran bills at the eleventh hour since the measures would be tacked on as amendments to the coin bill. GOP lawmakers accused Democrats of attempting to silence them and said the move would set a bad precedent. “If that's the games they're going to play,...

Every time a terrorist gets blown up, the lefty/libertarian caucus cries, "AUMF". That stands for Authorization for Use of Military Force. In other words, they want Congress to take a vote and declare war and whatnot. There are two things wrong with this argument. 1. The 9/11 AUMF vote (the one Obama wanted Congress to withdraw on his way out) covers a whole range of Islamic terrorists. It was a bipartisan authorization that covers the use of "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred...

U.S. troops could continue fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda and would be given explicit new permission to battle the Islamic State — but would not be authorized to attack the capabilities of any nation state, such as Syria — under updated rules of war proposed by a bipartisan group of senators Monday. Led by Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, the new Authorization for the Use of Military Force would replace 2001 and 2002 AUMFs that started the war on terror and paved the way for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The commander in chief —...

The Left's romance with the Islamic Republic ensues. The Senate debated on Tuesday a resolution introduced by Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders that would require the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Yemen. The surprising support the resolution won from 44 U.S. Senators handed a big win to Iran, which is engaged in a hot war with Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula. And it was a huge slap in the face to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who was meeting with President Trump in the White House as the Senate debated the motion on the floor. It also showed the...

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved an amendment that would revoke a 2001 law giving the president authority to undertake war against Al-Qaeda and its affiliates unless a replacement provision is created. Lawmakers applauded when the amendment was added by voice vote to the defense spending bill, highlighting the frustration many members of Congress feel about the Authorization of Use of Military Force, which was initially approved to authorize the response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It has since been used to justify the Iraq War and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Despite...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has asked Speaker Paul Ryan to call the House back in session immediately to begin debate on an Authorization of the Use of Military Force for any further action in Syria. She sent him the following letter on Friday urging him to disrupt the two-week recess.

Hillary Clinton refused to send help as the terrifying Benghazi attacks unfolded, according to messages allegedly hacked from her email server and distributed by Russian operatives.RadarOnline has obtained a report about the allegedly hacked messages that was created by Italy’s foreign intelligence agency, or the Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna, after a meeting with their Russian counterparts on October 22. (These files were written in Italian, and then translated by a respected New York City professor of the language.)One section of the report deals with September 2012 — the same month as the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya...

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook announced on Monday that President Obama had authorized new air strikes to help rid Libya of Islamic State terrorists who have spread into that country. “Under what legal authority are these strikes being conducted?” a reporter asked Cook at Monday’s Pentagon briefing. “The 2001 authorization for the use of military force, similar to our previous airstrikes in Libya,” Cook responded. …

The National Journal is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has introduced a blank check Authorization for the Use of Force (AUMF) bill for President Barack Obama in the war against ISIS. McConnell has commenced a fast track procedure so that he can move to commence a debate on this issue at his discretion. McConnell is pushing an AUMF in a way that promotes bad politics and policy. The politics are complicated. It is possible that McConnell on reason why McConnell sprung this AUMF on the Senate was because he wants to seize control of the debate on...

Recently we reported on retired Lt. Gen. and former DIA Chief Mike Flynn’s devastating criticism of the terms of President Obama’s Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS. Another prominent retired member of America’s armed forces who has emerged as an outspoken opponent of the Obama administration’s foreign policy is four-star admiral James “Ace” Lyons. During the Center for Security Policy’s recent Defeat Jihad Summit, the naval officer of 36 years, who served most recently as the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, made some simply astounding comments about Islam and President Obama’s foreign policy strategy:

On Wednesday, President Obama proposed for Congress’s consideration an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). The jihadists are already being fought — albeit not nearly vigorously enough — under existing AUMFs. So Obama’s proposal, which would gratuitously repeal one of the prior AUMFs, is unnecessary. It is, in addition, so pathetic a concoction of lawlessness and aimlessness that, in a healthier political climate, Congress would not give it the time of day.The document defies the reality of war. Phrased as a license for the “limited” use of force, it suggests that...

Why is President Obama asking for “Authorization for Use of Military Force against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”? Why ask for permission to carry on with operations that have been underway for more than six months and that are permitted under a 2001 authorization that is still in place? Because he doesn’t know what else to do. Mr. Obama is being hammered by many on the left and the right for his wavering efforts to destroy the terrorists who have killed and pillaged their way across large swaths of Iraq and Syria. He has been mocked for...

The authorization for the use of military force against ISIS that the Obama administration sent Congress this week is not worthy of the name. Its language is far more about what the president won’t do against the terrorist army that controls much of Syria and Iraq—limits on ground troops and a sunset provision for the authorization after three years—than what he will do. Congress should reject it. If the threat of ISIS is as dire as the president says it is in the preamble of his resolution, if ISIS really does pose “a grave threat to the people and territorial...

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, has allowed the President to conduct counterterrorism operations overseas. Long derided as overbroad (yet still used by President Obama to justify questionable foreign decisions) by opponents, two Democrats now want to repeal it. As the Associated Press reported: Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chris Murphy of Connecticut say Congress never intended to authorize a perpetual war when it passed the legislation more than a decade ago. They introduced a bill Friday and said the president and Congress should...

The president's request for the authorization to use military force against the Islamic State has landed in a Congress as divided as the country. That division was mirrored in the disparate receptions Obama's resolution received from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. To the Times, Obama's AUMF is "alarmingly broad. It does not limit the battlefield to Syria and Iraq." Moreover, Obama "seeks permission to attack 'associated persons or forces.'" This would give the White House "virtually unrestricted power to engage in attacks around the globe as long as it can justify a connection, however tenuous, to...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is asking Congress to formally authorize war against Islamic State militants, offering a draft resolution that says the Islamic State "poses a grave threat."

President Obama is going before Congress to request authorization for the limited use of military force in a battle of up to three years against the Islamic State. On the surface, this looks like a welcome recognition of Congress’s ultimate authority in matters of war and peace. But unless the resolution put forward by the White House is amended, it will have the opposite effect. Congressional support will amount to the ringing endorsement of unlimited presidential war making. Whatever else they decide, the House and Senate should revise the White House initiative to guarantee that it won’t have this tragic...

The White House is poised to send a formal request to Congress asking for a new authorization to use military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The request, expected within the next week, would come days after ISIS released a video showing a caged Jordanian pilot being burned alive — a further display of the group’s brutality that one Republican lawmaker described Wednesday as a “game-changer.” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he would be “disappointed” if President Obama did not make the request very soon. “I do think it’s forthcoming,” Corker said in...

In last night's State of the Union, President Obama reiterated his call upon Congress to pass a new "AUMF" -- or Authorization for Use of Military Force -- against ISIS, rather than continuing to wage war pursuant to the original 2001 AUMF against al Qaeda and its collaborators. But despite the president's words, his actions make clear that he actually wants no such thing -- as Harvard Law's Jack Goldsmith observes at Brookings's widely read Lawfare blog: