The Trump administration is promising legal cover for military personnel who carry out lethal attacks on the alleged drug smugglers in the waters surrounding Latin America.
Amid mounting questions from senior military and civilian lawyers about the legality of proposed strikes on civilian boats, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel this summer produced a classified opinion intended to shield service members up and down the chain of command from prosecution, according to three government officials.
The legal theory advanced in the finding, two sources said, differs from some of President Donald Trump’s public statements on the killings. It claims that narcotics on the boats are lawful military targets because their cargo generates revenue for cartels whom the Trump administration claims are in armed conflict with the U.S.
One senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, blasted the opinion. “I don’t know what’s more insane – that the ‘President of Peace’ is starting an illegal war or that he’s giving a get out of jail free card to the U.S. military,” said the official, referencing President Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed moniker. “Hopefully they realize there’s no immunity for war crimes. Nor is there a statute of limitations.”
The Trump administration continues to keep the OLC memo from the American people but, this week, finally allowed members of Congress and their staffs to read the document. On Wednesday, just 20 copies were made available in a secure room, causing delays among lawmakers and staffers who have been waiting months to understand the legal reasoning underpinning the attacks.
On Thursday evening, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the campaign of attacks is called Operation Southern Spear. Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and Southern Command, “this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” he wrote on X. Southern Spear kicked off earlier this year as part of the Navy’s next-generation effort to use small robot interceptor boats and vertical take-off and landing drones to conduct counternarcotics operations.
The military has carried out 20 known attacks, destroying 21 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing at least 80 civilians. The most recent attack, on a vessel in the Caribbean on Monday, first reported by CBS on Thursday, reportedly killed four people. Following most of the attacks, Hegseth or Trump have claimed that the victims belonged to an unspecified designated terrorist organization, or DTO.
A list of DTOs, consisting of Latin American cartels and criminal organizations, is attached to the OLC opinion which claims that attacks on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific are lawful and that personnel involved are immune from prosecution.
“The strikes were ordered consistent with the laws of armed conflict, and as such are lawful orders. Military personnel are legally obligated to follow lawful orders and, as such, are not subject to prosecution for following lawful orders,” a Justice Department spokesperson told The Intercept.
Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress say the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement arrested suspected drug smugglers.
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