Crisis In Libya Too Urgent To Wait For Congress, White House Says

The U.S. intervention into the Libyan civil war is constitutional even without congressional authorization, the White House spokesman said Friday.

Further, had President Barack Obama waited for Congress to return from recess, more Libyans would have been murdered by the regime of Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

“It is well within, as he described and others described, well within the president’s constitutional authority to take this military action,” Carney said. “The list of precedents is quite long. But he believes that consultation with Congress is important and wants to hear their thoughts about the mission, about the situation in Libya and about our overall policy there.”

As a candidate for president, Obama told The Boston Globe in an article published Dec. 20, 2007 the president must seek authorization by Congress before taking military action.

“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” Obama told the newspaper.

The constitution vests the power of declaring war with Congress.

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