FOREIGN POLICY/STATE/TERRORISM: “The Trump administration on Wednesday [8-2-17] told Congress it didn’t need a revision of the law underpinning the global war on terrorism and ongoing armed conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing the Pentagon already has the legal authority it needs under a war authorization passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In a letter to the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, a State Department official said that the administration ‘is not seeking revisions’ the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, also known as an AUMF, nor is it seeking additional congressional authority to fight terrorist groups across the globe.
‘The United States has sufficient legal authority to prosecute the campaign against al Qaeda and associated forces, including against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),’ wrote Charles Faulkner, an official with the State Department’s bureau of legislative affairs, to Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.).
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also traveled to Capitol Hill Wednesday to brief the Foreign Relations committee on the administration’s position on the AUMF. Emerging from the classified meeting, members of both parties said they believed they could work with the administration to find an acceptable compromise.”
-Byron Tau, “Trump Administration Urges Congress to Retain 2001 War Powers Law,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 2, 2017 04:50pm