The Obama administration is engaged in a debate about the extent of the president’s powers to use lethal force against terrorist organizations, and the deliberations have been accelerated by al-Qaeda’s recent decision to sever ties with a violent Islamist group in Syria.
The focus of internal discussions is whether a law giving the president authority to attack al-Qaeda affiliates still applies to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group that was disavowed last week.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/al-qaedas-excommunication-of-islamist-group-in-syria-prompts-high-level-us-debate/2014/02/10/339d8654-8f4e-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html