Tillerson, Mattis Say Wars on Terrorism Don’t Need New Vote
- The officials say long-standing authorizations still apply
- Mattis said troops killed in Niger were there to train, advise
This article is for subscribers only.
President Donald Trump’s secretaries of state and defense pushed back against lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who questioned whether authorizations for military actions dating back to 2001 give the U.S. legal cover for counterterror operations in more than a dozen countries.
In testimony Monday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said existing authorizations for the use of military force -- passed after the 2001 terrorist attacks to combat al-Qaeda and its affiliates, and in the run-up to the Iraq war -- are sufficient to continue the U.S. fight against groups such as Islamic State that have emerged since then.