The New York-based American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said on Wednesday that it has joined the Center for Constitutional Rights in filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) guidance and other related documents regarding President Donald J. Trump’s lethal strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.
The ACLU noted that, in testifying last week before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to confirm such guidance’s existence (or nonexistence).
But the ACLU said on the same day, in a different hearing, Charles Young, who is nominated to serve as the US Army’s general counsel, acknowledged the existence of this opinion in an exchange with Senator Jeanne Shaheen, explaining that the “opinion was derived through an interagency lawyers working group” including representatives from the White House and several executive branch agencies.
The ACLUC said public reporting also indicates that the OLC has issued an opinion, and that it asserts “sweeping, unprecedented claims of presidential authority to use military force against people alleged to be affiliated with drug cartels.”
Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said: “All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple.
“The public deserves to know how our government is justifying these attacks as lawful, and, given the stakes, immediate public scrutiny of its apparently radical theories is imperative,” he added.
The ACLU said that, since early September, Trump has ordered five strikes on private boats traveling in the Caribbean Sea, reportedly killing at least 27 people.
In attempting to defend the legality of the strikes, the ACLU noted that the Trump administration has stated that drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations are “non-state armed groups” whose “actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.”
“But the United States is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels, and the people the government’s strikes have killed are civilians under international law,” the ACLU said. “For this reason, members of Congress from across the political spectrum, former government officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations, legal experts, civil society groups, and international bodies say the attacks appear to violate both international and domestic law.”
Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said that, “in a constitutional system, no president can arbitrarily choose to assassinate individuals from the sky based on his whim or say-so.
“The Trump administration is taking its indiscriminate pattern of lawlessness to a lethal level,” he said. “The public understanding of any rationale supporting such unprecedented and shocking conduct is essential for transparency and accountability.”
In responding to Trump’s Oct. 14 announcement of an airstrike killing six people in the Caribbean, Amnesty International USA’s Director for Security and Human Rights, Daphne Eviatar, described the airstrike as “murder — plain and simple.
“There is no plausible legal justification for the Trump administration to use the US military to kill whoever it unilaterally deems a ‘terrorist,'” she said. “This was the fifth US strike in the Caribbean since early September, bringing the body count — by the administration’s own admission — to 27.
“These airstrikes outrageously flout international law and set a dangerous precedent for other leaders around the world,” Eviatar added. “Congress must do everything in its power to stop these murders and hold those responsible accountable.”
She noted that, on Sept. 3, the US claimed it bombed a boat allegedly departing from Venezuela, killing 11 people.
On Sept. 15, Eviatar said Trump claimed responsibility for another lethal strike on a boat in the Caribbean, reportedly killing three people.
Days later, she noted that Trump announced a third strike, killing three more people.
On Oct. 2, Eviatar said US media reported that President Trump had declared drug cartels as “unlawful combatants” and that the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with them.
“Such pronouncements reveal an incorrect understanding and application of international law, and do not change the fact that these airstrikes are clearly illegal under international human rights law,” Eviatar said.
The next day, she noted that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a fourth strike that he said killed four people near Venezuela.
