<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<big><b>Congresswoman Lee Introduces Bill to Repeal the
Authorization to Use Military Force</b></big><br>
By David Swanson<br>
<small><small><a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://warisacrime.org/content/congresswoman-lee-introduces-bill-repeal-authorization-use-military-force">http://warisacrime.org/content/congresswoman-lee-introduces-bill-repeal-authorization-use-military-force</a></small></small><br>
<div class="node">
<div class="content">
<p><span style="font-size:16px;">Congresswoman Barbara Lee, like
Jeanette Rankin before her, bravely stood alone in Congress
against a vote for war, the vote in 2001 for the so-called
Authorization to Use Military Force, a Constitutionally
dubious passing of the war decision buck to President Bush
and his successors. A majority of Americans now believes
that the Afghanistan War that followed that authorization
never should have been begun and should, in fact, be ended.
So, the Congresswoman, along with initial cosponsors Jones,
Woolsey, Grijalva, Conyers, and Honda, is offering us a
second chance, a chance to get our response to 9-11 right,
to restore war powers to the Congress, and to impose the
will of the people on that body.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:16px;">Congresswoman Lee has sent her
colleagues this letter, which we should each send them
ourselves by email, fax, phone, carrier pigeon, and by
nailing it to their cathedral doors:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p>"<font face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif">Dear Colleague: </font></font></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify; "><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"> "Please join me as an original cosponsor of
the 'Repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military
Force Act of 2011.' This legislation repeals the joint
resolution providing overly-broad authorization to the
President to use all necessary and appropriate force
against those involved in attacking our nation and to
prevent any future acts of international terrorism
against the United States.</font></font></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify; "><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif"> "This broad authorization of force has had
far-reaching implications which shake the very
foundations of our great nation and democracy. It has
been used to justify warrantless surveillance and
wiretapping activities, indefinite detention practices
that fly in the face of our constitutional values,
extrajudicial targeted-killing operations, and an
ever-growing and indefinite pursuit of an ill-defined
enemy abroad.</font></font></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify; "><font
face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif">"We must repeal this authorization for use
of military force, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and re-focus our energy and efforts into those actions
which truly improve our national security, including
developing emerging economies and diplomatic efforts.
Please join me as an original cosponsor of this
legislation to remove this overly-broad blank check for
war anytime, anywhere. </font></font></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; "><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif" size="2"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif">"For
more information or to cosponsor this measure, please
contact Teddy Miller in my office at <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:teddy.miller@mail.house.gov"><font
color="#0000FF"><u>teddy.miller@mail.house.gov</u></font></a>
or 5.2661.</font></font></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; "><font face="Calibri,
sans-serif" size="2"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif">"Sincerely,<br>
Barbara Lee<br>
Member of Congress" </font></font></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;">The
legislation itself is shorter than the above letter,
powerful in its simplicity, approaching in fact the populist
wisdom of the long-forgotten Kellogg-Briand Pact, and
offering far more than a technical readjustment within a
government rotten to its core. At the risk of revitalizing
the utterly discredited and poisonous notions of hope and
change, I would suggest that this bill offers the nearest
possible approximation of the time-altering repeal, not of a
law, but of the past decade of collective insanity and
self-righteous mass-murder. Read this carefully:</span></div>
<blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;">To repeal Public Law 107–40.<br>
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES<br>
Ms. LEE of California introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on _______<br>
A BILL<br>
To repeal Public Law 107–40.<br>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,<br>
<br>
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.<br>
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Repeal of the Authorization
for Use of Military Force’’.<br>
<br>
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDING.<br>
Congress finds that the Authorization for Use of Military
Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note), signed into
law on September 18, 2001, has been used to justify a broad
and open-ended authorization for the use of military force
and such an interpretation is inconsistent with the
authority of Congress to declare war and make all laws for
executing powers vested by the Constitution in the
Government of the United States.<br>
<br>
SEC. 3. REPEAL OF PUBLIC LAW 107–40.<br>
Effective 180 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law
107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) is hereby repealed.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;">The
AUMF is to be repealed here for two reasons: because
Congress is Constitutionally bound to decide matters of war
and cannot legally hand off that responsibility to its
executive, and because Congresswoman Lee's tearful
predictions when she stood alone against this madness a
decade ago, and was subsequently obliged to hire security
protection, have been proved right; the Authorization has
been used and abused to an ever greater extent as an
aggrandizement of executive power and a justification for
the erosion of our civil liberties. This proposal comes on
the heels of a successful public push by RootsAction.org,
the ACLU, and others to strip out of the 2012 Defense
Authorization Act language that would have radically
expanded, rather than repealed, the 2001 AUMF. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;">Of
course, the sponsorship of this proposal by a handful of
Congress Members, any number of them capable of losing their
spine at the command of their parties' leaders, does not
suggest the likelihood of quick passage. But it does give a
somewhat floundering peace movement a point around which to
rally, educate, organize, and pressure. Rather than joining
Congressional progressives in lobbying the 12-member Super
Congress, even for top priorities like ending the wars and
moving the money to human needs, rather than focusing purely
on appealing to an all-powerful president to end particular
wars (important as that is), we have an opportunity here to
shift the country away from both the idea of presidential
war making and the idea, recognized now even by the <em>Washington
Post</em>, of war without end, war as normality, with
peace having become the state of affairs requiring
particular justification.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;">As
popular movements begin to bring nonviolent resistance to
Washington, D.C., including this October ( <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://october2011.org">http://october2011.org</a>
) perhaps one appropriate measure would be the shutting down
of the congressional offices of each member who has not yet
joined the good Congresswoman from Oakland on this bill -- a
step I'm sure she would never recommend to us and which it
is not her role to recommend to us, but a step which
morality requires of us as clearly as the blood of our
innocent victims is crying out from continents day after
day.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<title></title>
<meta name="Generator" content="Cocoa HTML Writer">
<meta name="CocoaVersion" content="949.54">
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Times New Roman}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Times New Roman; color: #001af9}
span.s1 {text-decoration: underline}
</style>
<p class="p1">David Swanson is the author of "War Is A Lie"<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://rootsaction.org">http://rootsaction.org</a></p>
<p class="p1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org">http://warisacrime.org</a></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/">http://davidswanson.org</a></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319">http://facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319</a></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson">http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson</a></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>