House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called for public congressional hearings on the Trump administration’s decision to authorize an airstrike that killed top Iranian commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Schiff said in an interview with CNN that the airstrike may “increase the risk to Americans around the world,” before stipulating that he hasn’t “seen the intelligence that taking out Soleimani was going to either stop the plotting that is going on or decrease other risks to the United States.”
Soleimani’s death was prompted by a series of events in Iraq, which included the siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo linked the activity to Iran and Soleimani.
The White House sent a notification to Congress on Jan. 4 regarding the strike, as required under the 1973 War Powers Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was briefed on the airstrike in its aftermath, said the classified White House notification raised more questions.
“This classified War Powers Act notification delivered to Congress raises more questions than it answers. This document prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner, and justification of the Administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran,” Pelosi wrote on Jan. 4. “The highly unusual decision to classify this document in its entirety compounds our many concerns, and suggests that the Congress and the American people are being left in the dark about our national security.”
The public wrangling over whether Trump should have told Congress has prompted a debate about the White House’s legal requirements. But former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, an Obama appointee, said Trump was right.
Soleimani “was a lawful military objective” because he was either “a terrorist or a general in a military force that was engaged in armed attacks against our people,” Johnson said.