All posts tagged "Boat Strike"

Despite bombing small boats, Trump's aggressive military operations outside South America have made zero progress towards stopping the flow of cocaine, according to reporting by The New York Times.

Nine months ago, the Trump administration started attacking dozens of small boats, killing nearly 200 people in the process. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth touted the strikes as "highly effective" at stopping drug trafficking into the United States.

However, epidemiologists, addiction scientists, and public health experts are saying that cocaine is just as easy to get in the United States as it was before those strikes began, according to the Times. ...

The Trump administration continued its illegal bombing of small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two and leaving one survivor in its third such strike in five days.

US Southern Command announced the attack on social media, claiming that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”

“Under [President Donald] Trump’s illegal orders, the US military conducted its third boat strike in five days against supposed drug smugglers, killing at least two. Each of these is a murder. Drug suspects should be arrested and prosecuted, not summarily executed,” former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth wrote on social media Saturday in response to the news....

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) was among several lawmakers grilling Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the US attacks on Venezuela.

Kaine called out Rubio and the Trump administration for not seeking congressional approval or consulting lawmakers in the five months since initiating strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, sending troops into the conflict and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

"We started this operation on September 2nd with the attack on Venezuelans and boats in open waters, and now we are nearly five months in. Next week is five months. Finally, a public hearing! Wow! How novel," Kaine said. "Finally, a public hearing in the Senate or House. This is the first public hearing we've had. Two hundred folks who are on secret designated combatant lists have been killed, U.S. troops have been injured, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent, an armada amassed the announcement of a new Monroe Doctrine, which does not land well in the Americas. Democrats have been asking over and over again, can we have a public hearing? Can we share what we know with the American public? Finally, a public hearing. But even that hearing is constrained."...

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar called out a Republican for using President Donald Trump's talking points during a fiery interview Thursday.

Keilar was interviewing Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) about the ongoing questions surrounding lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, just off the coast of Venezuela, and whether Congress was readying for an escalated offense against the country. That's when the conversation got heated.

"He has said no less than 17 times in recent months that land strikes could be coming soon," Keilar said, referring to Trump signaling that the United States could advance attacks on land. ...

Stephen Miller shifted the Trump administration's attack on Mexican drug cartels to its "unorthodox lethal campaign" on Venezuela, according to a new report.

The White House Deputy Chief of Staff and architect of Trump's aggressive immigration policy reportedly took a leading role through the Homeland Security Committee in September, according to a new Washington Post report Thursday.

The strategy change stemmed from Miller's original plan to target drug cartels — and apparently "Miller, and other senior officials were looking for a fight."...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) got into a fiery argument Tuesday over the Trump administration's lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela.

The two were at a classified briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth and House lawmakers when Kelly, who was apparently sitting in the front row, asked about the ongoing operations, Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on X.

Hegseth — whose Department of Defense is investigating Kelly over a video he made with other Democratic lawmakers warning active military members not to follow unlawful orders — reportedly responded and referenced the difference between lawful and unlawful orders. The lawmakers in the video, including Kelly, are all veterans. ...