Military Official Admits Boat Strike May Have Murdered Human Trafficking Victims

from the have-we-tried-being-less-evil? dept

The US military has engaged in extrajudicial killings via drone strikes since it was first shown this tech could be used to murder people. The War on Terror has given us more than two decades of drone strikes — all of which have used war-related justifications to excuse them without the actual authorization of Congress.

The War Powers Act was written specifically to prevent presidents from doing what they have done pretty much since its passage: engage in foreign military actions without seeking approval from Congress. If we were actually engaged in declared wars, these drone strikes would still be problematic, but possibly supported by law. But since every president has routed around this act, the killings of people in foreign lands and foreign waters looks a lot more like murder than the justifiable defense of the nation against foreign threats.

We’ve moved on from double-tap strikes targeting Yemeni wedding parties to sinking pretty much any non-commercial vessels spotted heading from South America in the general direction of the United States. The administration’s Office of Legal Counsel says this is all very legal, even as it struggles to explain how targeting boats allegedly loaded with drugs is something the military should be handling with deadly force, rather than the way this has been handled for decades: with law enforcement interception of drug traffickers.

This administration doesn’t care. Trump likes seeing stuff get blown up and Defense Department secretary Pete Hegseth likes being crassly violent. What already looked like murder now looks a whole lot like war crimes. The military isn’t content to disable boats containing alleged drug merchants. It keeps firing until boats are sunk, even though it’s legally obligated to rescue people who refused to immediately die after being hit with a drone strike.

We’re now killing nearly a person a day in international waters near South America. And it’s up to journalists to figure out who’s being killed because we certainly can’t trust the government to care enough about the targets of its drone strikes to perform this minor due diligence.

But there are also admissions by government officials that make it clear the boat strikes are wandering past the vaguely-defined limits of the administration’s horrific new twist on the Drug War. In testimony that has yet to officially be made public, a military official admitted one of Trump’s first boat strikes likely killed more crime victims than alleged criminals.

In almost all the strikes, between one and four people lost their lives. In only one strike did the death toll of a single boat reach double digits: the first attack on September 2, 2025.

“Why would 11 people be on board a boat carrying drugs?” said a government source who attended a classified briefing where the large crew on the first boat attacked was discussed. “It’s a high risk for the cartels. That always stood out.”

It’s a good question. But that answer is only surfacing now, despite being given months ago. According to this report by The Intercept, the truth was told by military official in a closed-door meeting with congressional oversight.

During a classified briefing on Capitol Hill last fall, Rear Adm. Brian H. Bennett — a military officer overseeing Special Operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff — was asked if any of the people aboard the boat on September 2 could have been human trafficking victims. “They could be,” Bennett replied, according to two people present at the briefing.

The government refuses to officially discuss this likely possibility. In the run-up to publication, The Intercept made multiple efforts to obtain comment from Bennett, as well as from the Defense Department itself. These requests were refused.

Meanwhile, the commander who authorized the second strike that killed the survivors of the first strike — Admiral Frank Bradley — continues to claim the US government identified all eleven people aboard the boat before initiating the first strike. But that seems incredibly unlikely, given what’s known about the “intelligence” the DoD relied on to engage in this strike.

JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command] did not know the names or supposed affiliations of all persons aboard the vessel struck on September 2, numerous government sources told The Intercept.

Two sources specifically mentioned that some passengers were identified only by an obvious nom de guerre. “I don’t think we knew the identities of any of the people in the boat. We might have known one or two. … But we certainly didn’t know the identities of all 11,” Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said in December. “I don’t think we have any idea, who precisely, any of the individuals in these boats are.”

That’s not acceptable, not when you’re killing people. While it’s impossible to be 100% accurate in all cases, the rule should be to not pull the trigger unless you’re absolutely sure. And since drug interdiction efforts that involve seized and boarded boats are wrong 20% of the time, the standard should be even higher when it involves trying to straight-up kill people. But this is a shoot-first, ask questions never administration. It is an inarguable fact that innocent people are being killed in these boat strikes. And we can be doubly-sure of that because this administration has never expressed any concern whatsoever about collateral damage or shown any restraint when it comes to engaging in extrajudicial killings.

Filed Under: boat strikes, defense department, drug war, extrajudicial killings, mass deportation, murder, pete hegseth, trump administration