"Hegseth’s order, which has not been previously reported, adds another dimension to the campaign
against suspected drug traffickers. Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts
have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date —
is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution."
"Trump and the Pentagon said the Sept. 2 strike targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua
but have not provided evidence to support those claims. In subsequent strikes, the administration has referred
to the alleged smugglers as members of 'designated terrorist organizations' — a blanket term that lacks detail."
"The alleged traffickers pose no imminent threat of attack against the United States and are not,
as the Trump administration has tried to argue, in an 'armed conflict' with the U.S., these officials
and experts say. Because there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men
in the boats 'amounts to murder,' said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised
Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign."
https://archive.ph/Dnq8a
Comments
with committing war crimes or murder in my opinion.
But Trump has flagrantly abused his pardon powers, for example,
by granting pardons for the Jan. 6 perpetrators.
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants the president pardon powers
and will be extremely difficult to change.
who is serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking, just as Hondurans prepare to head to the polls
to elect a new president on Sunday.
Trump said on Truth Social that Hernández has been treated 'very harshly and unfairly.'”
"In his first term, Trump publicly embraced Hernández as a partner on migration and security,
praising him for 'stopping drugs at a level that has never happened.'
At the same time, federal prosecutors in New York were quietly building a sprawling drug-trafficking case
against the president."
"Hernández was convicted last year for helping drug cartels ship hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S.
in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes, a rare instance of a former foreign head of state being prosecuted
on U.S. soil. Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time that Hernández
abused his position as president to 'operate the country as a narco-state.'"
“'He is responsible for the deaths of countless American citizens,
and will now be pardoned by Donald Trump,' Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) said on Friday.
'Don’t tell me Donald Trump is killing people in boats in the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking.'”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-to-pardon-honduran-ex-president-serving-45-year-drug-sentence/ar-AA1RmecS
personally issued orders to 'kill everybody' aboard a civilian vessel suspected of narcotrafficking.
The attack on 2 September 2025 targeted a vessel carrying 11 civilians and, allegedly,
an unknown quantity of drugs.
The first strike resulted in near-total destruction of the vessel.
However, two survivors were apparently observed via surveillance video clinging to wreckage,
whereupon the commander directing the operation ordered a second strike.
The second strike killed both survivors."
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution
of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both.
Our group was established in February 2025 in response to the SECDEF’s firing of the Army and Air Force
Judge Advocates General and his systematic dismantling of the military’s legal guardrails.
Had those guardrails been in place, we are confident they would have prevented these crimes."
https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/former-jag-working-group-no-quarter-statement.pdf
I'm more concerned with the troops that carried out the orders will suffer. Granted they should, but it's a damn tough decision to say NO. That said, war crimes are war crimes. Whether they should exist or not is not part of this discussion. AT this point in time, they exist.
and so it goes,
peace,
rono
interesting commentary on pbs by military legal scholar on how killing survivors on any sea-unworthy craft is a specific example of an illegal order in the law books.
MAGA again celebrating the challenge of outdated traditions!
50% chance this takes down kegsbreath.
100% chance no direct risk for trump.
the country is the same , it only matters going forward if trump is on the ticket or there is some unlikely transfer of cult powers.
vance, rubio, etc...already trying to calculate the value of future endorsements by trump...but its not like they have anything else going for them. (anyone remember the brief enthusiasm by foxnews for desantis as a better choice?)
At this point, they're throwing the Admiral under the bus. Trump says he knows nothing. Let this be a lesson to every other commander in our military.
Oh, and damnit, it's about the oil. Nothing else. Just the oil.
alas,
and so it goes,
peace,
rono
dammit, the gop just wasted >$1Billion of taxpayer money on the MAGA entertainment name change and hegseth's propaganda rally. (all detrimental to actual defense posture)
now we have to change the name again already?!
Dept. of WarCrimes
renewed for another 3 seasons
of Pete Hegseth's Signal chat regarding a Yemen strike earlier this year.
The damning conclusion will not be surprising to most.
"And according to a person who has read this document, the inspector general found
that the messages that the secretary transmitted were — quote — 'secret/no foreign.'
The definition of that classification level is that unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected
to cause serious damage to national security and it can't be shared with foreigners."
"And the inspector general went on to say, if those messages had been intercepted,
it would have endangered U.S. service members and the mission."
"And this was just echoed by the Senate Armed Services Committee top Democrat,
Jack Reed, that if a lower-level service member provided that level of information before the launches
of manned aircraft with pilots inside those cockpits, that service member
would have been court-martialed and discharged."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/hegseths-signal-chat-put-u-s-personnel-at-risk-pentagon-watchdog-finds
Comments: It's peculiar that the Commander in Chief doesn't seem to be concerned about this reckless act!