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“Kill them all”: Hegseth ordered strike on survivors of US attack – via yahoo.com
Such a charming command from a snake of a Secretary of War. The Trumpster cult are shitting themselves over the bravery it took to order regular enlisted men and women to send innocents to the great beyond. Less narco-terrorists, don’t you know. This is why we need a strong and deranged Secretary of War. Who else but a psychofuck could give such orders?
A bombshell Washington Post investigation revealed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth personally ordered U.S. forces to “kill them all” during a September 2 maritime strike off the coast of Trinidad, an unprecedented escalation in America’s counter-drug operations and one that legal experts say may violate international law.
According to officials with direct knowledge of the mission, U.S. special operations forces targeted a small vessel suspected of transporting narcotics. After the first missile strike destroyed the boat and killed most of the crew, observers reported seeing at least two survivors clinging to debris. Hegseth allegedly directed forces to launch a second strike to eliminate the remaining survivors, a move experts describe as potentially unlawful under long-standing rules of armed conflict, which prohibit killing combatants who are “hors de combat,” or out of the fight.
The strike was not part of any declared war, raising even more questions about how the administration has justified such lethal operations. A Justice Department memo reportedly classifies drug trafficking networks as part of a “non-international armed conflict,” effectively granting the executive branch sweeping authority to kill suspected traffickers on the high seas. Critics argue that this interpretation is legally flimsy and dangerously broad.
Human rights groups and former military lawyers warn the decision could set a precedent for unchecked lethal force far beyond U.S. borders. “If this stands, the U.S. is claiming the right to kill anyone, anywhere, based on secret intelligence and no transparency,” one legal expert told the Post.
Hasn’t the US had that ‘right’ to kill anyone, anywhere for a very long time now? Of course it has, and if you believe differently, you may be a terrorist.
Hegseth took to his official social media account to respond and defend the strikes on Friday. He called the reports “fabricated” and framing the operations as lawful efforts to stop narco-terrorists and destroy drug-trafficking vessels, with all actions reviewed by military and civilian lawyers. He emphasized his support for the Southcom forces carrying out the missions.
Trump Declares Closure of Venezuela’s Airspace – via antiwar.com
by Dave DeCamp
President Trump on Saturday declared that the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela is to be closed, a sign that he might soon launch an attack on the country with the aim of ousting President Nicolas Maduro.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Yeah….he can legally do this. He just did, and that makes it legal, okay! Whatever this brave, brave Mob Boss slimes out of his mouth on any given day, it’s law. If he can declare a no-fly zone over his estate in Mar-a-Lago, then he can damn well impose a no-fly zone over any country as well.
It’s unclear if the declaration means that the US will impose a no-fly zone on Venezuela, which would be an act of war. Such a step or any military strikes on Venezuela would be illegal without congressional authorization, per the US Constitution.
The order came after the president said that he may “very soon” expand the bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the region to strikes on Venezuelan territory.
The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump spoke to Maduro by phone last week and discussed the possibility of meeting in person, but it doesn’t appear that the conversation did anything to slow the US military buildup in the region and push toward the US launching a regime change war.
The Times report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been leading the campaign against Venezuela, joined Maduro and Trump in the phone call. They spoke a few days before Rubio’s State Department declared the Cartel of the Suns, or Cartel de los Soles, a group that doesn’t actually exist, a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.”
The US claims that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, a term first used in the early 1990s to describe Venezuelan generals with sun insignias on their uniforms who were involved in cocaine trafficking and were actually working with the CIA at the time.
Today, the Cartel of the Suns is used to describe a network of Venezuelan officials allegedly involved in the drug trade, but it doesn’t exist as a structured organization. The Trump administration appears set to use the designation as a pretext to launch an illegal war, one that Americans overwhelmingly don’t want.
Does it matter in the least what most Americans overwhelmingly don’t want?
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Tonight’s musical offering:
Dispatches from the Asylum 