[Peace-discuss] letter in the Washington Post: Sept. 11 authorization not applicable to Mali

[Robert Naiman]

[Unfortunately, it seems clear from press reports that Panetta still hasn't
gotten the memo, e.g.  <Still, he said the U.S. would have sufficient legal
authority to help out because the enemy in Mali is al-Qaida "They are a
threat to our country, they are a threat to the world," Panetta said.>
 http://news.yahoo.com/us-helping-hesitant-mali-intervention-075210491.html]

---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sept-11-authorization-not-applicable-to-mali/2013/01/18/0611d8be-60c1-11e2-bc4f-1f06fffb7acf_story.html

Sept. 11 authorization not applicable to Mali
Published: January 18

The choices that U.S. officials are reportedly considering for a military
intervention in Mali have grave implications [“U.S. weighs military aid for
France in Mali<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-weighs-military-support-for-frances-campaign-against-mali-militants/2013/01/15/a071db40-5f4d-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html>,”
news story, Jan. 16]. The Post reported that a senior U.S. official said,
“Contingency plans for the use of armed drones were already in place and
are being reevaluated.” Congress has not authorized U.S. military action in
Mali. Without such authorization, the Obama administration cannot send
armed drones to Mali under the War Powers Resolution.

The administration might be tempted to try to invoke Congress’s 2001
authorization for the use of force after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But
as a Post editorial<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/us-drone-war-demands-accountability/2012/11/01/56627964-2380-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_story.html>
noted
in November, “The further — in geography, time and organizational
connection — that the drone war advances from the original al-Qaeda target
in Afghanistan, the less validity it has under the 2001 congressional
authorization. . . . [M]ost of the world is unlikely to accept an argument
that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks justify drone strikes more than a decade
later in Northern Africa.”

As The Post reported, some of the fighters likely to be targeted by France
have nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the Sept. 11 attacks and are not a
threat to the United States, so U.S. military action against them cannot be
justified under the 2001 authorization.

*Robert Naiman, Urbana, Ill.*

The writer is policy director for Just Foreign
Policy<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/>
.

-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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