Congress urged to halt Trump’s unauthorized maritime “war on terror”

As September marks both the 25th year since al Qaeda’s attacks and a year since the Trump administration began lethal strikes on vessels it labels “narco-terrorists,” the author contends that this maritime campaign is a sham war invented to justify killings. The strikes lack any trigger of an armed attack on the United States, and drug trafficking does not meet the legal definition of such an attack under international law.

No congressional authorization exists, and the operations have violated the 60-day limit of the War Powers Resolution. The administration’s justification relies on a secret Justice Department memo that claims the U.S. is at war with undisclosed “designated terrorist organizations,” a claim the author says has no factual foundation. By framing the boat bombings as counter-terrorism, the administration masks what the author describes as unlawful murder. The piece urges Congress to cut funding for the program, halt the related “Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere,” and launch thorough investigations to expose the process behind the strikes.