donald Triumph has asked for more deadly attacks of small fishing boats, killing all occupants, including one incident off the coast of Colombia. That was the ninth American attack against alleged drug traffickers in international waters, just since September.
Another strike was announced on Friday, raising the number of people Trump calls “narcoterrorists” perished in these attacks up to 43.
Trump previously said fox news“We take them out” and then he joked about how people, mostly extremely poor, are now afraid to fish off certain coasts.
Without publishing credible evidence, Trump calls for the victims‘The vessels were “filled with bags of white powder which is mainly fentanyl and also other drugs.”
Trump says they were “smuggling a deadly weapon that poisons Americans” on behalf of several “terrorist organizations.”
Trump is calling the victims terrorists so he can treat them as enemy combatants in a war that doesn’t exist, just as he is doing at home. Nationally, we know that Trump calls groups that oppose him politically “domestic terrorists.” We know that he invented a domestic terrorist organization that he calls “antifa“to sell their plan of violence. We also know their the administration is lying about peaceful protesters threatening ICE agents to justify ICE brutalityand that ICE refuses to use warrantless body cameras.
Trump’s barrage of lies about domestic “terrorists” will not help his claims about “terrorists” on the high seas.
Is Trump confusing South America? Porcelain and Mexico?
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has credibly expressed accused Trump of murder. In response, instead of offering a legal justification, Trump said he was Cut foreign aid to Colombia.apparently confusing that nation with Democrat-governed states from which it is also illegally withholding funds.
“By bragging about the murders, Trump falsely claimed that all transport ships exploded”saves 25,000 Americans lives.”
In the real world, approximately 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, mainly fentanylwhich does not come from Venezuela, Colombia or any South American country.
The fentanyl that kills Americans comes from laboratories in Mexico and Porcelain. given his difficulty with geographyTrump may not notice the difference. In any case, South America produces marijuana and cocaine, not fentanyl. Most of the kill fentanyl is smuggled into the country by US citizenson land.
The legal arguments do not hold up
He White House states that strikes are a matter of self-defense. To get there, Trump “determined” that drug cartels like the Tren de Aragua are “terrorists.” But officials say the Aragua Train is not operating on the targeted shipping routes, and that the route Trump and Hegseth are targeting transports cocaine and marijuana to Europe and Africanot the United States.
Legal experts on the use of armed force say Trump’s campaign is illegal because the The military cannot attack civilians. who do not directly participate in hostilities. Key legal instruments that prohibit extrajudicial executions and murder include the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), he Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Statute of the International Criminal Courtand customary international humanitarian law. The Trump administration has not publicly offered a legal theory that fits any of these laws.
Instead, the White House has argument that the attacks are governed by the law of armed conflict (LOAC), which limits methods of war and establishes what is legally required protections for non-combatants and civilians during conflict. The United States is not in such a conflict; We are not under attack in the United States or anywhere else, and Congress has not declared any war.
Designating drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” is also objectively suspicious. Drug cartels exist for profit; All illicit drug suppliers are in the business of making money. Instead, ““Terrorists” by definition are motivated by ideological objectives. They often involve politics or religion, not profits. Even if they were terrorists, international law would only allow the executive branch to respond through legal methods such as asset freezing, trials, and imprisonment.
Hegseth and others to face court martial
Trump and Hegseth’s legal arguments have been universal refused by military legal experts, including former Justice Department lawyers Office of Legal Counsel, who have condemned the attacks as illegal under both domestic and international law. However, Hegseth has fixed with enthusiasm that the military will continue with these executions.
In February, Hegseth fired the JAGs whose job was to evaluate the legality of military actions. You may have done this deliberately to engage in illegal conduct and then claim an “error of law” defense, but that maneuver will not save you. In Exposure of US military to criminal liability for lethal attacks against narcoterroristsJust Security exposes it under the Manual for courts martialetc Article 118 of Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), concluding in the Venezuelan strikes that:
Despite the clear absence of an “imminent threat of death or serious injury” or “serious threat to life,” the United States Coast Guard did not interdict the alleged criminal drug trafficking in the manner in which this conduct occurred. has historically been (and recently) approached.
These alleged criminals were not arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced through regular criminal proceedings and a neutral court decision. They were killed extrajudicially for conduct that could not plausibly be classified as a military attack, use of force, or even threat of imminent harm to anyone in the United States or any other nation, and despite the opportunity and ability use non-lethal force to stop ships.
An extrajudicial, premeditated execution without justification or excuse and without the legal authority linked to an armed conflict, is properly called “murder.” And murder remains a crime for the uniformed men who carried out the attack, even if their targets are dangerous criminals, and even if their superiors, including the President of the United States, ordered the military to do it.
Under this analysis, “every officer in the chain of command who…directed downward the initial order of the President or the Secretary of Defense” would likely fall within the meaning of tradition. complicit liabilityand could be charged with murder under Article 118.
Even if a corrupt Supreme Court gave Trump criminal immunity for murder (an open issue), someone should tell Hegseth that immunity does not extend to him, or other service members who fly the drones or fire the missiles under orders that are obviously illegal.
- Sabrina Haake is a columnist and federal trial attorney with more than 25 years of experience in 1st and 14th A defense. Her substack, Haake’s takeit’s free.