The Intercept reports: “Biden’s Strikes in Yemen Are Unconstitutional, Bipartisan Members of Congress Say.”
JEHAN HAKIM, yemenialliancecommittee@gmail.com, @jehan_hakim
Hakim is chair of the Yemeni Alliance Committee. She was featured on an IPA news release: “Biden Threatens Houthis in Yemen as They Try to Force Israeli Ceasefire.” See interview with Shireen Al-Adeimi on “Democracy Now” Friday morning.
BRUCE FEIN, bruce@feinpoints.com, @BruceFeinEsq
Fein is a noted lawyer. His books include Constitutional Peril and American Empire Before the Fall.
He said today: “The Declare War Clause is dispositive — only Congress can authorize the offensive use of the military. The President may respond to sudden attacks on the United States that have already broken the peace. Biden was not reacting to an attack on the United States in bombing Yemen. He was defending naval traffic in the Red Sea for which he needed a declaration of war against Yemen or the Houthis to conduct his bombing raids. What Biden has done is indistinguishable from what the UK, France, and Israel did in 1956 in attacking Egypt over nationalizing the Suez Canal. President Eisenhower rejected the use of force, and the UK, France, and Israel backed down tacitly acknowledging their illegal acts of aggression against Egypt. …
“The Constitution’s Declare War Clause is supreme over the War Powers Resolution. The latter ambiguously suggests the President can initiate and fight a war for 60 days unless Congress by statute calls a halt. To the extent the WPR purports to authorize 60-day presidential wars, to that extent it is unconstitutional.” (Many argue that that is not what the War Powers Resolution says, as noted in the above piece in The Intercept.)
“Biden can be hoisted on his own petard.” Fein notes Biden’s 2007 statement about then-President George W. Bush attacking Iran without a congressional declaration of war in on Hardball with Chris Matthews: “the president has no constitutional authority to take this nation to war against a country of 70 million people, unless we’re attacked or unless there is proof that we are about to be attacked. And if he does, I would move to impeach him. The House obviously has to do that, but I would lead an effort to impeach him.”
Said Fein: “Biden should be impeached and removed from office by his own yardstick.”
Biden also made similar statements regarding Trump.
Fein adds: “The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the crime of aggression, which easily covers Biden’s attack on Yemen, as follows:”
“Article 8 bis3 Crime of aggression 1. For the purpose of this Statute, “crime of aggression” means the planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations. 2. For the purpose of paragraph 1, “act of aggression” means the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations. Any of the following acts, regardless of a declaration of war, shall, in accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974, qualify as an act of aggression: (a) The invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof; (b) Bombardment by the armed forces of a State against the territory of another State or the use of any weapons by a State against the territory of another State; (c) The blockade of the ports or coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State; (d) An attack by the armed forces of a State on the land, sea or air forces, or marine and air fleets of another State.”
