Thursday, June 30, 2011

Harold Koh:Hostilities is an ambiguous term of art

Facing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, legal adviser Harold Hongju Koh laid out a flurry of legal arguments to justify the [war in Libya.]
When is an illegally waged war really not a war at all? When president Barry Hussein Soetoro redefines reality and preposterously attempts to suggest that bombing Libya and attempting to assassinate Moammar Gadhafi are not hostile war actions.

Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to “hostilities.” Under the War Powers Resolution, according to the New York Times

The president rejected his top legal advisor’s counsel and selected opinions of known Democrat partisans working in his administration the White House counsel, Robert Bauer, and the State Department legal adviser, Harold H. Koh.

Harold Hoh a former professor of international law and dean of the Yale Law School is a Radical Left-wing Liberal. Hoh argued before Congress the ambiguous stance that the hostiles in Libya were not hostiles at all. Hoh’s argument stated that the word hostility has not been legally defined therefore the word hostilities is an “ambiguous term of art.” Huh? (see story)

No wonder American courts are a wreck, this kind of nonsensical argument is made in courts all of the time and Liberal judges are prone to agree with such dribble. In both the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars president George W. Bush sought and received authorization from Congress before one bullet was fired or one bomb was dropped in either war in accordance with the war powers resolution. Even so, Liberals called the wars, which Congress approved illegal.

SEC. 2. (a) It is the purpose of this joint resolution to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and to the continued use of such forces in hostilities or in such situations.-- Joint Resolution, Concerning the War Powers of Congress and the President.


It is absolutely astonishing that this president according to Liberal blogger Andrew Sullivan is conducting two illegal wars, Libya and Yemen, with no outcry from the left. In fact the silent hypocrisy of the Left is deafening (see source)

War Powers Resolution


“I think you’ve undermined the credibility of this administration. I think you’ve undermined the integrity of the War Powers act,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “You’ve done a great disservice to our country.”--Sen. Corker reply to Harold Koh's argument that the president doesn't have to get congressional approval.


What is so amazing is the Soetoro administration is arguing simultaneously that they do not need Congressional approval to wage war in Libya but Congress should give them authority to do so anyways.

Why this president would waste time making this outrageous argument is beyond reason. He could have ask Congress for authority to wage war against Libya and been compliant within the law.

Mind you, this is the same administration that just forced Americans to buy government-mandated healthcare, which has been ruled, unconstitutional in several federal courts.
This administration rather play legal gymnastics with words and meaning rather than comply with the constitution and the rule of law. However, if Americans, that don’t receive one of the over 2,000 waivers, don't comply with government-mandated healthcare there is written in the law heavy fines and even jail.

The hypocrisy of the Barry Hussein Soetoro presidency and administration is amazing. For this president hostility against the constitution and the American people is an unambiguous term of art.