Defense Department officers briefing congressional workers on Tuesday about final week’s US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean didn’t present conclusive evidence that the targets of the assault were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, in keeping with the senior Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and three folks accustomed to the briefing.
“They have offered no positive identification that the boat was Venezuelan, nor that its crew were members of Tren de Aragua or any other cartel,” Sen. Jack Reed, the rating member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, mentioned on Tuesday after his workers were briefed by DoD.
The briefers additionally acknowledged that they might not decide precisely the place the targets were headed, two of the sources mentioned. Whereas Trump has mentioned they were en path to the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially mentioned, “these particular drugs were probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean, at which point they just contribute to the instability these countries are facing.”
Another of the sources mentioned the briefers disclosed that the boat rotated at one level after showing to identify a navy plane above that had been watching them. The boat turning round, reported earlier by the New York Times, raises extra questions on whether or not it posed an instantaneous risk to the US that necessitated navy motion.
The briefers additionally mentioned they didn’t have intelligence that the people were armed combatants or posed a imminent risk to US forces, the sources mentioned.
“There is no evidence – none – that this strike was conducted in self-defense,” Reed mentioned. “That matters, because under both domestic and international law, the US military simply does not have the authority to use lethal force against a civilian vessel unless acting in self-defense.”
In a press release, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned: “Representatives from the Department of War clearly relayed to congressional staff how the operation was within President Trump’s and the DOW’s legal authority to carry out the strike. DOW representatives also presented information that proved the government knew exactly who the terrorists on the boat were, which foreign terrorist organization they were connected to, and where their final destination was.”
NCS has requested the Republican Chairman of the Committee Sen. Roger Wicker to touch upon the briefing.
Reed and 19 different Democrats additionally despatched a letter to the Trump administration following this week’s briefing, elevating extra questions on the legal justification for the strike and intelligence associated to the alleged gang affiliation of these onboard the boat.
“The Trump Administration has yet to provide Congress or the American people with any legitimate legal justification for the strike, or any evidence to support its claims regarding the basis for this strike or the future strikes it has openly threatened to launch across the region,” the senators mentioned.
President Trump posted final week that the US navy had struck “positively identified Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” And administration officers have sought to make the argument that the 11 folks on a speedboat that the US blew up in worldwide waters were legit navy targets as a result of they were members of the gang, which the US has designated as a terrorist group, they usually were headed to the US.
The protection division briefers introduced intelligence the administration had obtained of the targets talking to one another, one of many sources mentioned, which Trump alluded to final week when he mentioned the administration had “tapes” of them. And that intelligence did recommend that the targets were drug traffickers carrying medicine on board the boat, that particular person mentioned.
But the briefers acknowledged that they didn’t have ample intelligence to definitively conclude that the people were members of TdA, somewhat than simply unaffiliated, low-level drug traffickers, the sources acquainted mentioned.
On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reiterated on Fox News that the alleged gang members were “narcoterrorists” and mentioned, “We knew exactly who it was, exactly what they were doing, exactly where they were going, what they were involved in.”
Pressed repeatedly on the authorized justification for the strike, the briefers invoked the president’s authority beneath Article II of the Constitution to make use of navy pressure when it’s in the nationwide curiosity, the sources mentioned. The briefers mentioned that legal professionals had signed off on the assault however wouldn’t disclose which legal professionals or what their reasoning was, the sources added.