Military Official Involved In Boat Strikes Feared They Were Illegal

Early last September, the U.S. military made good on President Donald Trump’s promise to kill suspected drug smugglers when it bombed a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela and then fired another missile at survivors clinging to the wreckage. Two weeks later, the U.S. sank another boat and four days after that, a third vessel.

With the death toll at 17 by month’s end, a member of the U.S. military involved in these strikes expressed fear that the campaign was illegal and sought legal advice. Steve Woolford, a resource counselor with the GI Rights Hotline, took the call from the service member he described as having an important role in the approval process for the strikes. He declined to give specific details about the person’s exact role because the hotline, which provides free counseling services as a nonprofit organization, is confidential. The person told Woolford they were questioning whether the U.S. was engaged in a “legal military operation.”

“This doesn’t look like what the military is supposed to be doing, and the military is doing it,” Woolford recalled the service member expressing, adding that “they didn’t want to be doing it.” He referred them to legal counsel.

On Monday, The New York Times from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Holsey stepped down last month, less than a year into his tenure leading Southern Command, with no explanation given for his sudden departure and the Pentagon dismissing reports of internal conflict as “fake news.” The top lawyer for the command had warned in August, before the strikes were carried out, that they could amount to extrajudicial killings, according to multiple reports. He was ultimately overruled.

Such killings are prohibited by law and subject to prosecution in the U.S. military’s justice system. Woolford said the service members were referred to The Orders Project, a nonprofit organization that provides legal guidance to military personnel. Brenner Fissell, a law professor at Villanova University who helps run The Orders Project, said no service members currently involved in the strikes had contacted the project.

“People are really scared of at all stepping out of line,” Fissell said. “I mean, when you see someone like Adm. Holsey lose his position, and he’s one of the top five people in the military, do you really want to reach out?”

The service member’s call to the GI Rights Hotline came months before the public learned details from the first strike, when Hegseth allegedly ordered the killing of any survivors and the military did so with another missile strike. Adm. Frank Bradley, who commanded the strike, reportedly told congressional lawmakers in a private briefing that the boat was on its way to transfer drugs to a larger vessel bound for Suriname, a small South American country that is typically on trafficking routes destined for Europe. Lawmakers viewed classified footage last month that left one “deeply disturbed.” Hegseth, who denied giving the second order, has refused to release the full footage of the strike to the public.

The description of the video — two shipwrecked survivors were waving before they were incinerated — has drawn accusations that the second strike was either a war crime or murder and that the same is true for the 123 people killed so far, according to Southern Command. There’s no legal rationale, many legal experts say, that can turn boats suspected of carrying drugs into an “armed attack” against the U.S., and even under international law governing armed conflict, the boat passengers would be considered civilians.

While framing the operation as a matter of self-defense, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has gone further and stated the goal is to instill the “fear of the reaper” in would-be drug traffickers. Senior Trump aide Stephen Miller reportedly pushed for strikes that would attract attention and serve as a deterrent to traffickers.

What’s more, the administration has not released any of the evidence it says proves the people targeted in the boat strikes were working for drug cartels. At least one of the fatalities was identified by the Colombian president as an innocent fisherman whose boat had broken down.

The Pentagon has not reported any new boat strikes since the capture of Maduro, though Trump has said he’s ready to use more military force if Venezuela’s leaders there “do not behave” and crack down on drug smuggling, among other U.S. demands.

Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, said the Maduro operation officially initiates a state of international armed conflict, triggering the Geneva Conventions and thereby raising the stakes of boat strikes if those targeted are affiliated with Venezuela.

“These individuals involved in mere criminality are civilians who are not directly participating in the hostilities, and therefore not legally targetable,” he said.

The service members tasked with carrying out these strikes are left in a “terrible bind,” Fissell said.

“They are going to take the fall if the shit hits the fan. Because the way that this works is if they follow an unlawful order, they can be prosecuted for that if it’s clearly unlawful,” he said. “If they don’t follow it, the hammer drops on them from Hegseth and Trump.”