Lawfare › The 2001 AUMF: From Associated Forces to (Disassociated) Successor Forces

Lawfare › The 2001 AUMF: From Associated Forces to (Disassociated) Successor Forces: To be sure, there was a time when this would have been a perfectly fine argument; IS is the descendant of AQI, after all, and for many years it would be easy to show that AQI was an associated force of AQ engaged in hostilities against the US. But so far as I know no one seriously denies that it has since had a fundamental rupture with AQ, and indeed engages in combat at times with AQ’s Syrian outfit, the al Nusrah Front. For the administration to claim, as Marty Lederman reports here, that IS nonetheless remains subject to the 2001 AUMF both because of this past and because IS though now independent in some fashion claims to be the “true inheritor” of “bin Laden’s legacy” (and because AQAP and other AQ associated forces have made ambiguous statements, for whatever reason, applauding IS’s claims and achievements) is just stunning from a legal perspective.