A high-ranking military lawyer expressed serious legal concerns about the Trump administration's strikes on suspected 'drug boats' but was disregarded by senior officials, a new report has revealed.
Legal Warnings Issued and Overlooked
The senior judge advocate general (JAG) stationed at US Southern Command in Miami raised alarms that the airstrikes targeting alleged 'narco-terrorists' might constitute extrajudicial killings. This could potentially expose American service members involved in these operations to legal jeopardy.
According to sources who spoke to NBC News, these concerns were formally raised in August, before the first strikes occurred against small vessels in the Caribbean on September 2.
The lawyer has been identified as Marine Colonel Paul Meagher. In typical military operations of this nature, missions proceed based on the JAG's legal opinion, though administration officials at higher levels possess the authority to override such advice.
Expanding Operations and Mounting Casualties
Since the initial strikes, the campaign has significantly expanded to include assaults on boats in the eastern Pacific. In total, at least 80 people have been killed across 20 separate strikes targeting alleged smuggling craft.
The reported concerns from Colonel Meagher align with warnings from human rights organisations and international law experts, who have similarly declared the strikes illegal. The governments of both Venezuela and Colombia have accused the Trump administration of engaging in extrajudicial murder.
Internal Fallout and Official Denials
The controversy has triggered significant internal repercussions, including the impending resignation of the head of Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey. He announced in October that he would step down this month after serving for less than a year in a post that usually lasts approximately three years.
In a statement to The Independent, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell strongly denied that the operations were unlawful.
'The War Department categorically denies that any Pentagon lawyers, including SOUTHCOM lawyers, with knowledge of these operations have raised concerns to any attorneys in the chain of command regarding the legality of the strikes conducted thus far because they are aware we are on firm legal ground,' Parnell stated.
He further asserted that 'Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.'
The report emerges shortly after a secret memo from the Department of Justice, obtained by The New York Times, revealed that the legal justification for the strikes rests entirely on assertions made by the president. The memo argues that the US is in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels, thereby bringing such killings within the lawful scope of the president's wartime powers, a rationale reminiscent of the 'War on Terror' declared after the 9/11 attacks.
