After three months of deadly U.S. military strikes against civilian boats in international waters, the Trump administration has generated a great many questions, though a simple one has hovered near the top of the list: Are these operations legal?
A great many experts have argued that the White House policy of extrajudicial killings is plainly illegal. Evidently, the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes came to the same conclusion, as did a variety of other legal voices within the administration.
These questions grew considerably louder late last week, with striking reporting from The Washington Post. In an article published on the day after Thanksgiving, the Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to military personnel to kill everybody on a vessel carrying 11 people. From the piece:
A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack … ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.
The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, emphasized the fact that the men targeted in the second strike posed “no imminent threat of attack” and were not in an “armed conflict” with the United States.
Hegseth has struggled for months with leaks from within the Defense Department, with insiders who have appeared eager to undermine the former Fox News host, but this takes matters to a new level.
Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised special operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign, told the Post that this second deadly strike “amounts to murder.” This is not an uncommon reaction to the allegations.
Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the Pentagon, described the allegations as a “textbook” example of a war crime. Jack Goldsmith, who led the Office of Legal Counsel under George W. Bush, added that if the Post’s reporting is accurate, “it appears that Special Operations Forces committed murder.” A group of former military lawyers issued a joint statement that concluded that the allegations raised in the Post’s report “constitute war crimes, murder, or both.”
This, among other things, also adds fresh context to the hyperaggressive response to Democratic veterans who advised service members not to follow illegal orders.
Complicating matters for the White House, some congressional Republicans have raised related concerns.
Late Friday, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement with Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the panel’s ranking member, noting that the committee was aware of the reporting and adding, “we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
A day later, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a related statement with Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the panel’s ranking member, which added, “This committee is committed to providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean. We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”
Appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, also said, “Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act.”
For the administration, this is not good news. Donald Trump has grown accustomed to GOP lawmakers simply turning the other way in response to scandalous allegations. That the bipartisan leadership of the Armed Services committees, in both chambers, plan to put these allegations under the microscope will lead to scrutiny the White House would likely prefer to avoid.
For his part, Hegseth, who downplayed the importance of war crimes before joining the White House Cabinet, posted a carefully worded statement to social media late Friday, which noted in part, “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law.” (The word “current” appeared to be doing a lot of work in the sentence.)
As for the president, Trump spoke briefly with reporters on Sunday night while on Air Force One, and when asked about the allegations raised by the Post, he said, “I don’t know anything about it,” adding that Hegseth denied the accuracy of the reporting.
It was of interest, however, that the president also told reporters, “We’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, issued a challenge to Hegseth. “[R]elease the full, unedited tapes of the strikes so the American people can see for themselves,” the New York Democrat wrote in an online statement. “Your recklessness demands full transparency and strict congressional oversight. We will hold you accountable.”
The Pentagon has not yet responded to the challenge. Watch this space.
