The United States military says it destroyed another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the waters off Latin America on Thursday. “The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and three male narco-terrorists—who were aboard the vessel—were killed,” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced on social media, accompanied by a 20-second video of the violence, which legal experts and critics describe as “extrajudicial killings.”
This means the U.S. military has killed more than 60 people in at least 17 strikes, according to information shared by Hegseth and President Trump dating to when these strikes began in early September. (Want more information on each of the prior 16 strikes? Just Security has that covered, here.)
Due process? As we’ve noted before, Hegseth did not provide evidence to support the claim that those in the boat were trafficking drugs, where they were headed, nor—on a more trivial level—how the secretary’s subordinates determined the gender of those on the vessel before the attack.
However, the Associated Press looked into “the identities of four of the men—and pieced together details about at least five others” killed by U.S. troops, reporting Friday from Venezuela. “One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus driver.”
“Most of the nine men were crewing such craft for the first or second time, making at least $500 per trip…One was a well-known local crime boss who contracted out his smuggling services to traffickers,” AP’s Regina Garcia Cana writes. “We talked with several people in multiple communities who knew the men at different stages of their lives. We used social media posts and publicly available information to corroborate some of the information,” she said in a brief, separate report about her investigative process.
New: The U.S. military began operating an AC-130J Ghostrider attack plane out of El Salvador in mid-October, the New York Times reported Thursday. “It is operated by the Air Force Special Operations Command, a unit that carries out sensitive missions for the military.”
But that’s not all: “The New York Times also identified a Navy [P-8A Poseidon] reconnaissance plane and a rarely seen, unmarked Air Force [C-40 Clipper] jet at the airport,” located in the Cooperative Security Location Comalapa, a small American military outpost at El Salvador’s main airport. More, here.
Update: When it comes to Venezuela, the White House told Congress it “doesn’t have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets right now,” and that “the US is not currently planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela” at the moment, CNN reported Thursday.
Notable: The White House’s legal framework “includes a list of 24 different cartels and criminal organizations based around Latin America it says the administration is authorized to target, according to one of the sources familiar with the document. But the Trump administration is seeking a separate legal opinion from the Justice Department that would provide a justification for launching strikes against land targets without needing to ask Congress to authorize military force,” according to five CNN reporters.
By the way, Senate Republicans on Thursday voted down legislation that would have limited White House attacks inside Venezuela. “The joint resolution, which was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) last month, was quelled in a 49-51 Senate vote,” The Hill reports.
Some Republicans wanted to have it both ways: Indiana’s Todd Young voted against the measure, then said afterward that his vote was “not an endorsement of the Administration’s current course in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.” North Carolina’s Thom Tillis acted similarly Thursday, voting against the measure, then later telling reporters “he still has doubts about the campaign,” according to AP. Tillis also “pointed out that it was expensive to change the deployment location for an aircraft carrier and questioned whether those funds could be better used at the U.S.-Mexico border to stop fentanyl trafficking.”
Democrats dissent: “You cannot bomb your way out of a drug crisis,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told reporters, while Virginia’s Tim Kaine, who co-authored the legislation voted down Thursday, said, “We should not be going to war without a vote of Congress.”
Bigger picture: Why Venezuela? Four writers at The Atlantic took a stab at the question, featuring input from anonymous White House sources and Ryan Berg, an expert on the region who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. According to Berg, “Trump instinctively understands that if the U.S. is not the top dog in the Western Hemisphere, it can’t be an effective global power.” A senior administration official added, “If the goal is increasingly to have U.S.-aligned leaders, or at a minimum leaders that are not actively aligned with China, Russia, and Iran, then Venezuela sticks out like a sore thumb.”
Trump himself said six years ago in Miami, “When Venezuela is free, and Cuba is free, and Nicaragua is free, this will become the first free hemisphere in all of human history.”
Also notable: “Trump has a history of deploying deception in his dealings with foreign adversaries,” the four reporters caution, and note that “In June, the White House announced that he would give Tehran two additional weeks to engage in diplomacy about its nuclear program; three days later, Trump sent warplanes far into Iranian airspace to bomb atomic facilities. He may be employing a similar tactic with Venezuela.” Continue reading, here.
Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson with Thomas Novelly and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1983, NATO began its large-scale Able Archer 83 exercises, which the Soviets interpreted as possible opening moves in a nuclear war with the alliance.
Around the Defense Department
Today, 2 pm ET: Hegseth’s “Arsenal of Freedom” speech at the National Defense University. A Pentagon press release said it would be livestreamed at war.gov, but as of press time, the “Live Events” page had nothing scheduled. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams is heading to NDU to cover it; look for her story later today.
ICYMI: Experts, officials, industry reacted to a six-page draft of a memo expected to be released after the speech. And here’s a draft list of industry CEOs slated to attend.
Related: Defense tech companies will weather the shutdown. But what happens next? “From DOGE’s initial descent to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, defense contractors are weathering policy changes at different rates during the first leg of the second Trump administration. But while larger companies are thriving, smaller companies—the very ones the White House and Pentagon want to court—have a bumpier ride,” Williams reports off recent earning calls and more.
Commentary: As it seeks to improve acquisition, the Pentagon should do more with MOSA—that is, modular open systems architecture. “The law already requires MOSA to be used in major warfighting programs ‘to the maximum extent practicable’ and Secretary Hegseth’s own Systems Engineering and Architecture office has been pushing the approach since February,” writes Andy Green, who leads the Mission Systems division of HII, the nation’s largest warship builder. “It is direction that, if enforced, could do more to speed acquisitions and cut costs than any process reform under consideration.” Read his argument, here.
Pentagon policy shop shifts story on pause in Ukraine aid again. “A senior advisor and former deputy to the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy told senators on Thursday that his office ‘neither ordered nor even recommended a pause to any weapons shipments to Ukraine’ over the summer, contrary to the press reporting from the time, but also in contrast to testimony from his colleague on Tuesday and statements from the Pentagon on July 2,” writes Defense One’s Meghann Myers, here.
ICMYI: It’s been a rough week for would-be Pentagon policymakers on the Hill. On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the office was producing a “Pigpen-like mess.”
Developing: A federal judge is set to rule later today on Trump’s order to send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, which the president has claimed is a “war-ravaged” city due to persistent but largely peaceful protests outside an immigration detention facility at the southern end of the city.
Why it matters: The judge’s decision “could be the first to permanently block Trump from using troops to quell protests against federal immigration authorities, which he is also attempting to do in Democrat-led Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C.,” Reuters reports, and notes, “The case could ultimately go to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
For a bit more background on the case, Oregon Public Broadcasting has this from Sunday.
Update: The cost to dispatch about 200 Texas Guard troops to Chicago (against the wishes of state officials) could rise above $12 million by December, the San Antonio Express-News reported Thursday. Even though the Texas soldiers are already staged in Illinois, “a court order issued nearly a month ago has blocked them from deploying to the streets or guarding a Chicago-area immigration facility,” the Express-News reminds readers. “In the meantime, [Northern Command officials say] the troops are training on deescalation, crowd control and use-of-force rules.”
Related: “Michigan National Guard chief: No troops needed in Detroit.”
Newly confirmed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach is getting the band back together. The four-star general has selected Chief Master Sgt. David Wolfe as the service’s next top-enlisted leader, Defense One’s Thomas Novelly reports. Previously, Wolfe was Wilsbach’s top enlisted advisor when the general led Air Combat Command.
Wolfe takes over the role from Chief Master Sgt. David Flosi, who announced his retirement last month following the death of his wife Katy. The service’s new top enlisted leader began his military career in 1992 with a background in missile security, elite guard duty, protective services, and space warning security. In an August press release, Wolfe also detailed he received non-judicial punishment early in his Air Force career.
“I didn’t exactly start my Air Force career on the right foot,” Wolfe said in the news release. “An Article 15 and a stint in correctional custody made it clear I needed to change course. It was a rough start, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed.”
Space Force astronauts? “Today, guardians go to space only in popular misconception, but tomorrow? There might be solid tactical reasons to put Space Force personnel in orbit, argues a new report from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, writes Defense One’s Thomas Novelly, here.
Additional reading:
Around the world
At the president’s order, the Pentagon is drawing up plans for war in Nigeria even though military officials told the New York Times this week “U.S. forces are unlikely to be able to end a decades-long insurgency that has claimed lives across sectarian lines in Africa’s most populous country.”
Courses of action with the presumed highest likelihood of success include drone strikes “on the few known compounds in northern Nigeria inhabited by militant groups” and joint operations “with Nigerian soldiers to raid…rural hamlets in the country’s north,” Helene Cooper reported Wednesday.
A third and more serious option involves “mov[ing] an aircraft carrier group into the Gulf of Guinea” for a campaign of “strikes deep in northern Nigeria” using fighter jets and long-range bombers. Continue reading, here.
From the region: “Russia could buy leftover uranium from Niger, France warns,” Semafor reported Friday.
And lastly this week: China’s third aircraft carrier just entered service during a ceremony at Yulin Naval Base on Wednesday. However, “security analysts and regional diplomats say tough challenges lie ahead before it can be made fully operational,” Reuters reported Friday from Hong Kong.
It’s an 80,000-ton, diesel-fueled carrier named CS Fujian, and it “brings catapult-launch capabilities to Chinese naval aviation,” USNI News explains. “The first two PLAN carriers, CS Liaoning (016) and Shandong (017), used Russian-styled short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) designs. [But now] With the vessel’s three electromagnetic catapults, Chinese forces can sortie fighter jets with heavier payloads and larger aircraft—including the new KJ-600 airborne early warning and command aircraft.”
In recent sea trials, “the Chinese navy launched its new carrier version of the J-35 stealth fighter and an early-warning aircraft, the KJ-600, as well as a variant of its established J-15 fighter,” Reuters reports.
Expert reax: “Despite nine sea trials this year, they are working with almost entirely new platforms top to bottom,” which is why “I think it will be at least another year before it reaches full operational capability,” said Ben Lewis, of the open-source data platform PLATracker.
Read the full article here