{"id":3355,"date":"2020-01-05T09:06:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T13:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=3355"},"modified":"2020-01-05T09:11:06","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T13:11:06","slug":"epsteingate-this-is-how-deep-state-controls-the-legal-scholars-and-can-manipulate-their-opinions-about-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=3355","title":{"rendered":"EPSTEINgate is how <i>Deep State<\/i> controls the &#8216;legal scholars&#8217; and can manipulate their opinions about war."},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Exclusive \u2013 Dershowitz: Trump Had Even More Legal Justification Eliminating Soleimani than Obama Had with Osama Bin Laden<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3356\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3356\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3356\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/president-donald-trump-640x480-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/president-donald-trump-640x480-1.jpg 640w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/president-donald-trump-640x480-1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3356\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AP Photo\/ Evan Vucci<\/p><\/div>\n<p>by Robert Kraychik<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"subheading\">Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Thursday evening that President Donald Trump had even more legal authority to eliminate Qassem Soleimani than former President Barack Obama had to take out Osama bin Laden in 2011.<\/h3>\n<p>Dershowitz, speaking with host Joel Pollak and guest host John Hayward on SiriusXM\u2019s\u00a0<em>Breitbart News Tonight<\/em>, dismissed arguments that Trump lacked constitutional authority to act against General Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.<\/p>\n<p>Presidents have lawful authority to direct the killing of enemy combatants, explained Dershowitz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Soleimani] was a combatant,\u201d explained Dershowitz. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that he fit the description of \u2018combatant.\u2019 He [was] a uniformed member of an enemy military who was actively planning to kill Americans; American soldiers and probably, as well, American civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>LISTEN<\/strong>:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/737679937&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was the right thing to do,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was legally justified, and I think we should applaud the president for his decision. We send a very powerful message to the Iranian government that we will not stand by as the American embassy is attacked \u2014 which is an act of war \u2014 and we will not stand by as plans are being made to attack and kill American soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>Dershowitz continued, \u201cI think every president who had any degree of courage would do the same thing, and I applaud our president for doing it, and the members of the military who carried it out, risking their own lives and safety. I think this is an action that will have saved lives in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Obama would have done the same thing if the shoe were on the other foot, if he could prevent the killing of American soldiers by killing a combatant,\u201d estimated Dershowitz. \u201c[The president doesn\u2019t] need congressional authorization, or any legal authorization \u2026 The president, as the commander-in-chief of the army is entitled to take preventative actions to save the lives of the American military. [Donald Trump] didn\u2019t threaten a war. He didn\u2019t start a war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked to respond to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2020\/01\/02\/ben-rhodes-death-of-irans-soleimani-a-really-frightening-moment\/\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0of the attack by the likes of former Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes,\u00a0Dershowitz said, \u201cThis is very similar to what Barack Obama did with Ben Rhodes\u2019s authorization and approval \u2014 without Congress\u2019s authorization \u2014 in killing Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, that was worse, in some ways, because that was a revenge act. There was no real threat that Osama bin Laden would carry out any future terrorist acts. Moreover, he was not a member of an official armed forces in uniform, so it\u2019s\u00a0<em>a fortiori<\/em>\u00a0from what [Barack Obama] did and Ben Rhodes did that\u00a0President Trump has complete legal authority in a much more compelling way to have taken the military action that was taken today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Breitbart News Tonight\u00a0broadcasts live\u00a0Monday through Friday on SiriusXM\u2019s Patriot channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/radio\/2020\/01\/03\/exclusive-alan-dershowitz-president-trump-had-even-more-legal-justification-in-taking-out-iran-soleimani-than-obama-had-with-osama-bin-laden\/\">https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/radio\/2020\/01\/03\/exclusive-alan-dershowitz-president-trump-had-even-more-legal-justification-in-taking-out-iran-soleimani-than-obama-had-with-osama-bin-laden\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive \u2013 Dershowitz: Trump Had Even More Legal Justification Eliminating Soleimani than Obama Had with Osama Bin Laden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}