[NYTr] Nancy Pelosi Reads the Constitution!

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters via The Washington Post - Oct 14, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101400518.html

Congress must approve U.S. attack vs Iran: Pelosi

By Andrea Shalal-Esa
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush must seek congressional
approval before taking any military action in Iran, unless Tehran
attacks the United States first, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on
Sunday.

"We don't believe that any authorities that the president has would
give him the ability to go in without an act of Congress," Pelosi told
ABC's "This Week" program.	

"Any president, if we are attacked, if our country is attacked has --
even under the War Powers Act -- very strong powers to go after that
country. But short of that, he must come to the Congress," said the top
Democrat in the House of Representatives.

Pelosi said Bush had not requested any congressional authority to take
military action in Iran, despite growing U.S. concern over Iran's
nuclear ambitions and its support for militant groups in Lebanon and
Gaza.

Republican presidential candidates last week said it may be necessary
to attack Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it from developing a
bomb, but they were cautious about a preemptive strike, saying Congress
should be consulted first.

Iran denies trying to build a nuclear weapon, but the United States,
France, Britain and other countries fear Iran's stated pursuit of
nuclear-generated electricity is a precursor to learning how to build
atom bombs.

Bush this month said the United States was working to resolve the
nuclear standoff with Iran diplomatically but was keeping all its
options open.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week said Washington was
considering sanctions against the Qods force, the elite unit of Iran's
Revolutionary Guard, which it accuses of inciting violence against U.S.
troops in Iraq.

The Senate last month passed a resolution urging the Bush
administration to "combat, contain, and roll back" Iran's "violent
activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq," and to designate
the entire Guard a "terrorist" organization.

The House passed a similar measure, but it told the White House to
determine if the Guard should be labeled as such.

Iran condemned the congressional resolutions, saying any U.S. move to
brand the Guard a terrorist group would amount to a confrontation with
the entire Islamic Republic.

"Whatever Iran's impact is on our troops in Iraq should be dealt with
in Iraq," Pelosi said.