Funmurphys: the Blog

Legal Authority?

The 9-11 Commission is faulting mainly the FAA -- although no one escapes the finger pointing -- for the inability of the Air Force to shoot down the hijacked aircraft that day. Charles Austin demonstrates his knowledge of government contracting (and sarcasm) by asking about the FAA's failure to have proceedures in place to address a multi-plane suicide bombing hijacking scheme.

What makes me wonder, given the current preoccupation with the Bush administration's accountability on torture or consignment of US citizens to Gitmo without formal trial, is the total lack of comment about the authority the Vice President had to order the destruction of American owned property, let alone the murder of American citizens. Am I the only one who wonders about the disconnect? The Vice President suddenly has the power of life and death in a crisis, but the Bush administration can't determine the status of captured al Qaeda operatives? In that felicitous legal phrase, what was the legal controlling authority that allows Dick Cheney to call up the Air Force and order them to shoot down passenger jets owned and operated by American companies in American airspace that will certainly kill American citizens? I really am curious if there is any legal basis whatsoever for such an order.