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Published on Thursday, May 16, 2013 by Common DreamsPentagon 'Rewrites Constitution ' Af firming Endless War

Senate hearing on the Authorization for Use of Military Force confirms congressional war powers

rendered 'null and void '

- Lauren McCauley, staff writer

The United States is truly engaged in an endless war.

In a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces Thursday morning entitledOversight:

The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authori zation for Use of

Military Force, Pentagon officials argued that the wide-ranging counter-terrorism laws implemented after

9/11 will continue to be the law of the land until "hostilities with al-Qaeda," or any individuals potentiallyassociated with the group, come to an end.

"This is the most astounding and astoundingly disturbing hearing I have been to since I have been here.

You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today"

- Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)During the hearing, lawmakers questioned the panel on the legality of the

Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and weighed further actions. It was the first Senate

hearing on the potential rewriting of the AUMF.

The rule empowers the president to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations,

organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacksthat occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future

acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

This widespread directive has enabled the Commander in Chief to oversee everything from the rendition,

transfer and indefinite detention of "suspects," to the authorization of lethal drone strikes.

Further, Pentagon officials argued Thursday that under the AUMF troops could be sent to Syria, Yemen

and the Congo without new congressional authorization.

Testifying before the panel, Michael A. Sheehan, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations,

defended the rationale saying that if a terrorist organization outside of al-Qaeda, the Taliban or any other

"associated forces" began to threaten the United States, "Then we might have to look at different

authorities or extended authority or adjustment of authority to go after that organization."

Sheehan added that "when hostilities with al-Qaeda end, the AUMF will no longer be in force," ignoring

the verified, self-perpetuating nature of the "global war on terror" in that American militarism has only

increased hostilities worldwide.

"This is the most astounding and astoundingly disturbing hearing I have been to since I have been here.

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You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today," said Senator Angus King (I-Maine) at the

hearing Thursday.

"You guys have invented this term, associated forces, thats nowhere in this document," he added. "Its

the justification for everything, and it renders the war powers of Congress null and void."

Encouraging the lawmakers to retire the AUMF, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights

Watch, explained that there is "no more important distinction than the line between peace and war,"because during peacetime a suspect can only be detained after full due process. Whereas in war,

governments can kill at will.

He continued:

[T]he combination of a declared global war and the newly enhanced capacity to kill individual

targets far from any traditional battlefield poses new dangers to basic rightsones that will

only grow as the US role in the Afghan armed conflict winds down. That leaves only al-Qaeda

and similar armed groups but without the elements that traditionally limit use of the war power:

the control of territory and a recognizable battlefield. To paint the problem most starkly, might a

government that wants to kill a particular person simply declare war on him and shoot him,

circumventing the basic due-process rights to which the target would ordinarily be entitled?

Calling the AUMF a "blank check written in advance," Roth added that although President Obama has

formally dropped the Bush administrations use of the phrase "global war on terror," he noted that their

interpretation of the rule "looks very similar."

Democracy Now!posted this excerpt from Thursday's hearing:

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