9/11/CONGRESS/IRAN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WAR: “In public remarks and classified briefings, Trump administration officials keep emphasizing purported ties between Iran and Al Qaeda. Some lawmakers suspect that the executive branch is toying with claiming that it already has congressional authorization to attack Iran based on the nearly 18-year-old law approving a war over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pressed to say on Wednesday [6-19-19] at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing whether the administration thinks the Sept. 11 war law could be used for military action against Iran, Brian Hook, the senior State Department official on Iran issues, was coy, saying that ‘we will comply with the law’ without saying what the administration interprets “the law” to be. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been similarly evasive on the topic. Against that backdrop, some lawmakers who think the Sept. 11 war law cannot be legitimately stretched to include Iran have proposed amending the annual defense authorization act to bar the administration from making any such claim.”
–Charlie Savage, “Could Trump Use the Sept. 11 War Law to Attack Iran Without Going to Congress?,” The New York Times online, June 19, 2019