On Friday night, President Trump ordered the U.S. military to conduct a bombing attack against the government of Syria without congressional authorization. How can this be constitutional, given the fact that Article I, Section 8 of America’s founding document declares that “The Congress shall have Power … To declare War”?
The deeply bizarre and alarming answer is that Trump almost certainly does have some purported legal justification provided to him by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — but no one else, including Congress, can read it.
The Office of Legal Counsel is often called the Supreme Court of the executive branch, providing opinions on how the president and government agencies should interpret the law.
We know that Trump received a top secret OLC opinion justifying the previous U.S. strike on Syria on April 6, 2017. Friday’s bombing undoubtedly relied on the same memo or one with similar reasoning.
You can read the rest @
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/14/donald-trump-ordered-syria-strike-based-on-a-secret-legal-justification-even-congress-cant-see/
Secret evidence, secret courts, secret "justifications" for war - the US has become everything it SHOULD NOT be. And "our" government does not seem to care.
The only remedy against Trump's actions is impeachment, but that is not likely to happen. And THAT is a real shame.
US armed forces have the right and obligation to refuse to follow illegal orders. Keeping the justification for war "secret" interferes with their ability to do so. Congress needs to stop this, but I doubt they have the balls to do it.
ReplyDelete