01.12.2016 - 08:41 [ Techdirt ]

In His Final Days, Obama Quietly Expands War Powers Before Handing Them Off To Trump

If you don‘t recall, the AUMF granted the President the power to use „all necessary and appropriate force“ to go after those who „planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.“ That‘s already fairly broad, but over the years basically our entire government has pretended that (1) the AUMF included the ability to also target „associated forces“ (even though it does not) and (2) it allowed the President to simply lump in anyone he wanted as an „associated force“ allowing him to bomb them without any Congressional authorization.