Blessing ship attack memo said to be based on President Trump’s claims about cartels

WASHINGTON — A secret Justice Department memo authorizing attacks on President Donald Trump’s ships as lawful is based on the idea that the United States and its allies are under legitimate attack. state of armed conflict Those who have read the book say its premise stems primarily from arguments put forward by the White House itself.

Memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel, Department of State 40 pagesauthorized a military operation that has already claimed 80 lives in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

It has been stated that extrajudicial execution The suspected drug traffickers were legal under wartime powers granted by President Trump.

In reaching this conclusion, the memo contradicts a wide range of critics who reject the idea that an armed conflict exists and accuse President Trump of illegally ordering the military to take action. Murder case.

The administration maintains that Trump has the legal authority to order the attack under the laws of war, but has released little legal analysis supporting that conclusion.

The report on the memo provides a glimpse into how executive branch lawyers approved President Trump’s desired course of action and even wholeheartedly accepted the version of reality presented by the White House.

The memo, completed in late summer, shows that drug cartels are intentionally trying to kill Americans. destabilize the western hemisphere.

These groups claim that they are terrorists selling drugs to finance violence, rather than unscrupulous companies seeking to profit from drug trafficking.

The memo is based on such assertions, according to people who have read the document, arguing that President Trump has legitimate authority to determine that the United States and its allies are legally in a state of formal armed conflict with drug cartels.drug terrorist”.

The rest of the memo’s reasoning is based on that premise.

For example, these officials said, the memo states that ships believed to be transporting drugs are legitimate military targets. This is because the shipments generate revenue that the cartels can use to purchase military equipment to wage armed conflicts.

They said a long section at the end of the memo lays out possible legal defenses if prosecutors charge government officials or military with involvement in the killings.

The memo states that any person in the chain of command who follows orders in accordance with the laws of war; enjoy immunity On the battlefield, given that it is an armed conflict.

The person who wrote about this memo did so on condition of anonymity as it is a confidential document.

The White House said in a statement that President Trump ordered the attack based on his constitutional authority and in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Since September 2, the U.S. military has attacked 20 vessels in both the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean that the government says were smuggling drugs.

In announcing the attack, the government said: intelligence information, However, no concrete evidence was presented.

The Trump administration insists the ship attacks are legal.

In September, Trump told Congress that he had “determined” that the United States was in a non-international armed conflict, or war with non-state actors such as drug cartels, and that the people who died on the ship were “determined.”fighter jet”.

Outside lethal force legal experts have widely criticized this argument, and the government has not provided a detailed public explanation of the legal analysis behind it.

What is left out includes how conceptual links between drug trafficking and related crimes, no matter how serious, are established, and the types of armed attacks needed to create a state of war.

However, the government clarified that a memorandum from the government: Legal consultation room Approved the strategy.

And while the memos have not been made public, they have begun allowing members of Congress and their staff to read copies, making it easier to view them. T. Elliot Geyserthe person who runs the office will answer questions at several information sessions.

The memo is said to revolve around the following questions posed by the White House:

Whether limited lethal force can be used to interdict ships in international waters that are not registered in any country to prevent the influx of drugs from drug cartels designated as terrorist groups.

The memo is an unqualified acceptance of the White House’s claims by supporting Trump’s assertion that an armed conflict exists, according to people familiar with the memo.

For example, they said the memo cites the White House’s claim that cartels are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans each year.

However, it does not address the fact that the increase in overdoses over the past decade has been caused by: FentanylIt comes from a research institute. Mexico It’s controlled by Mexican cartels, not South American cocaine.

The memo also references drug cartel violence against security forces in other governments in the region, including Colombia and Mexico, and says the United States can attack cartels in collective self-defense, according to people with access to the document.

But it did not say whether foreign governments had asked the United States to defend them through military strikes against ships in the Caribbean or the Eastern Pacific.

battle of columbia National Liberation Army (ELN), although not traditionally considered a drug cartel, is a Marxist guerrilla group that traffics drugs to finance the purchase of weapons.

One of the 19 attacks announced so far on October 19 targeted a ship that the Trump administration said was transporting cargo linked to the ELN.

however, president of colombia They called on the US to stop the attack on the ship, calling it murder.

The memo appears to highlight the U.S. government’s designation of several Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

The Trump administration itself took this step several months ago, following orders from President Trump.

Because terrorists are violent groups with ideological or religious motivations, applying that label to drug cartels and general criminal organizations was unprecedented and controversial. Al Qaeda.

According to this standard, the ELN, which was designated a terrorist organization in 1997, meets the definition, but groups traditionally thought of as drug cartels do not.

The focus of the memo, which describes attacks on ships as targeted efforts to destroy cargo, has a different emphasis than the message used by the government to justify the attacks.

The attack has been widely condemned as murder or a war crime. Even criminal suspects are considered civilians, and the military cannot intentionally attack them unless they pose an immediate threat.

The United States has traditionally combated maritime drug trafficking by seizing ships and arresting their crews if inspections reveal illegal cargo.

In response to this criticism, President Trump and members of his administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, declared that the ship’s crew were “narco-terrorists” and that the Trump administration called them “combatants.”

However, the memo focuses on suspected drug shipments on board the ship, which are said to be presented as specific targets for attacks. You can earn money by selling The cartel would use it to finance the supposed war effort.

Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and law of war expert who has criticized the Trump administration’s strategy, said there was a historical practice of invoking international law to justify attacks on targets used by enemies to finance war operations.

He cited attacks on oil facilities by armed groups as an example. Islamic State in Iraq and Syriaand drug trafficking operations linked to the Taliban. Afghanistan.

However, he criticized the idea that there was an actual armed conflict with cartels.

He added that it was questionable whether the particular drug shipments seized met the standards of international law to be considered legitimate military targets, and argued that their link to specific military operations appeared weak.

“It would be difficult to prove that the cargo on these ships was for military purposes under the laws of war. obvious connection “There is a problem between the transportation of drugs and military operations by these suspected groups,” he said.

“Instead, ISIS used profits from oil sales to fund combatants in actual armed conflicts.”

(Optional trim end).

Elsewhere in the memo, sources said: no approval from Congress for surgery.

They say the memo asserts that Trump has the constitutional authority as commander-in-chief to personally order an attack because he deems it to be in the national interest and the intended nature, scope, and duration do not amount to a “war” in the constitutional sense.

Despite concluding that an armed conflict is underway, the memorandum also indicates that the operation is not subject to legal action. war powers resolutionThe law, enacted in 1973, requires the president to stop sending troops to conflict areas after 60 days unless Congress authorizes them.

This part of his reasoning has already been made public and is based on the idea that airstrikes that pose no risk to U.S. military personnel should not be construed as an act of conflict.

The final section will reportedly discuss arguments that could be made in the event of future prosecutions, and is extensive, specifically addressing the idea that U.S. military personnel enjoy immunity when they kill enemy combatants in armed conflict.

The memorandum argues for the need to protect society from dangerous drug-terrorist cartels, and likens military forces participating in attacks to police officers exceeding the speed limit in pursuit of suspects who pose a threat to public safety.

These agents are not considered guilty of any crime.

There are increasing signs that the campaign may be intensified. Ground attack.

Some members of the Trump administration are pushing for the overthrow of Venezuela’s president. Nicolas MaduroHe is believed to be the leader of a drug-terrorism cartel.

The Pentagon has been moving significant amounts of naval firepower to the region, which is better suited for large-scale land attacks than against small vessels, and President Trump has publicly hinted that this capability could be expanded to land attacks as well.

In such cases, the General Counsel’s Office may be required to issue a separate memorandum.

Sources say the current document does not mention Venezuela or a ground attack anywhere.

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