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Items tagged with: Murder
Landry Ayres offers a "collection of clips on the White House's brutal boat strikes—and what they reveal about this president's governing ethos."
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #Murder #DoubleTap
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theunpopulist.net/p/the-trump-…
The Trump Administration’s Killing Rampage on Open Seas: A Video Roundup
Our mid-December collection of clips on the White House's brutal boat strikes—and what they reveal about this president's governing ethosLandry Ayres (The UnPopulist)
"Here’s what we’ve been reminded of by yesterday’s [seizure of a Venezuelan vessel]: The U.S. government has the ability to seize boats, sailors, and cargo without killing anyone. The Coast Guard does this routinely and has for years. The military is able to coordinate with and support law enforcement in such efforts. Steps can be taken ahead of time to ensure such efforts are legal."
~ William Kristol
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #Murder #DoubleTap
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thebulwark.com/p/the-caribbean…
The Caribbean Killings Were Unnecessary. Trump Just Proved It.
If we can seize an oil tanker, why did eighty people have to die?William Kristol (The Bulwark)
"If Pete Hegseth believes the strike was lawful and necessary, why is he so afraid to let the country see the video? Until that question is answered, his refusal will worsen his standing, if that is even possible."
~ Mark Mansour
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #Murder #DoubleTap
/3
mmansour.substack.com/p/why-co…
Why Congress Must Compel Hegseth To Release The Entire Video
he is literally getting away with murderMark Mansour (America’s Fractured Politics)
"Defense Department officials were keen to make sure survivors didn’t end up in a U.S. court where the administration’s insistence that the men were an immediate danger to the U.S. because they were trafficking drugs would come under legal scrutiny.
Shocked, lawyers for the State Department refused, and the two men were sent back to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador."
"Yesterday, Damien Cave, Edward Wong, and Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times reported that lawyers for the Pentagon proposed sending two survivors from an October strike against a small boat in the Caribbean to the notorious CECOT terrorist prison in El Salvador, where prisoners previously rendered there reported widespread torture and abuse."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #Murder #DoubleTap
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heathercoxrichardson.substack.…
December 10, 2025
Today is Human Rights Day, celebrated internationally in honor of the day seventy-seven years ago, December 10, 1948, when the United Nations General Assembly announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)
"AN OFFICIAL U.S. MILITARY social media account on Monday shared a photo collage that included a symbol long affiliated with extremist groups — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
In a post on X trumpeting the deployment of troops to the Caribbean, U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM, shared an image that prominently displayed a so-called Jerusalem cross on the helmet of a masked commando."
~ Noah Hurowitz
#Hegseth #ChristianNationalism #WarCrimes #murder
/9
theintercept.com/2025/12/09/cr…
Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes “Crusader Cross”
The “Jerusalem cross” appeared prominently in Pentagon propaganda for boat strikes and the Venezuela military buildup.Noah Hurowitz (The Intercept)
"The Trump Administration is pressuring the International Criminal Court to grant immunity to Trump and his inner circle from potential war-crimes prosecutions—an extraordinary move driven by deep concern among senior officials about possible legal exposure in 2029."
~ Aaron Parnas
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
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aaronparnas.substack.com/p/new…
NEWS: Trump Administration Threatens International Criminal Court With Sanctions to Secure Immunity for Trump and Top Officials
Trump demands ICC give him immunity for war crimes. DHS prepares to ask foreign tourists to hand over 5 years worth of social media data. U.S. seizes Venezuelan oil tanker in escalation.Aaron Parnas (The Parnas Perspective)
"When a government is so afraid of its nation’s own judicial system that it feels that any survivors of military attacks on boats hundreds of miles from its own territory, if picked up, must be remanded to a notoriously brutal prison in a third country, never to be seen again, rather than have any access to the judicial system back at home, what does that tell you?"
~ Timothy Burke
"The strong take what they want, the weak suffer what they must. That was the world prior to the end of World War II. And that world led to endless wars, terrible poverty, mass death, 70 million people died in World War II at the culmination of that way of looking at the world. No rules, just power. That’s the world that Trump wants to create…."
~ Rep. Adam Smith
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/19
contrarian.substack.com/p/vene…
Venezuela, Western Dominance, & Regime Change: Rep. Adam Smith's Striking Updates
"The capsized bow of the boat...probably wasn't any bigger than your average kitchen table."The Contrarian
"It’s not just in tension with longstanding Defense Department guidance on what is lawful and unlawful—it’s a paradigmatic example of the latter. If there are facts that vindicate the decision to pursue it, they are far from evident in the public record currently available. Until that changes, the issue demands further scrutiny."
"For much of the world, the entirety of the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged narcotics traffickers is a serious violation of international law. But even if one accepts every unorthodox element of the Trump administration’s international legal justification, the second strike pursued on Sept. 2 is still a problem."
~ Scott R. Anderson and Natalie K. Orpett
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/17
lawfaremedia.org/article/the-t…
The Troubling Defense of the Second Strike
Even absent an order to “kill everybody,” the Trump administration’s actions—like its broader military campaign—raise serious legal concerns that demand further scrutiny.Default
"Donald Trump says that he never said that he would commit to releasing the video of the boat strikes."
Parnas then offers a video of Trump saying he had never committed to releasing this footage, and then Parnas offers another clip, noting
"This is him five days ago saying he would release the video."
"Congress inserted language into the annual defense bill withholding a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon hands over unedited videos of U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, escalating scrutiny of a controversial Sept. 2 follow-up strike that killed survivors and prompting calls for a full investigation as lawmakers dispute what the footage shows."
~ Aaron Parnas
"And the enlisted sailors and Marines on that ship knew immediately it was wrong. They fought it. They went to JAG. And they were overridden. ...
This is a top-down moral collapse under Pete Hegseth and whoever in the Trump orbit green-lit these illegal strikes. And let’s be clear: if a private citizen killed 85 people with no legal authority, we wouldn’t debate terminology — we’d call it murder."
"And the law — U.S. law, military law, international law — could not be clearer: you document everything. You collect biometrics. You record medical status. You keep chain-of-custody logs. You do not delete evidence. You do convene a competent tribunal. None of that happened.
Instead, someone — almost certainly above the Admiral level — ordered everything wiped."
"Nick [Paro]— Army sergeant, trained interrogator, expert on detainee procedures — breaks down just how profoundly illegal all of this is. The United States is not in a congressionally authorized armed conflict with Venezuela. No war declared, no authorization, no oversight, no nothing.
Which means every person seized at sea is legally a civilian until proven otherwise, not some magically self-justifying 'narco-terrorist.'”
Blue Amp continues its reporting on a story I noted here yesterday re: two survivors of a US attack on a boat on 17 October who were rescued by the US military. They were then photographed and videotaped in accord with law — but someone somewhere apparently then gave an order to destroy this documentation in contravention of law.
#Trump #Hegseth #TomCotton #Arkansas #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/11
blueamp.co/p/deletegate-blows-…
The #DeleteGate Scandal: What Really Happened on the USS Iwo Jima
New revelations in #DeleteGate expose unlawful military orders to delete evidence of rescued survivors from U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean.Melissa Corrigan, she/her (Blue Amp Media)
"Even the U.S. military leaders who briefed Congress sheepishly acknowledged the boat carried no missiles, no explosives, and no plausible path toward any U.S. shore. ...
Some day when a future archaeologist digs up the remains of this once respected republic, he or she will undoubtedly find among the ruins a MAGA plaque, signed by Trump and Hegseth, honoring Tom Cotton for his gallant stand against a capsized and burned speedboat."
"One of the saddest jokes of our time is that Arkansas, a state once primarily known for rice, Wal-Mart founders, and the Clintons, has now given our nation a U.S. Senator whose chief distinction is an instinct for the most primitive idea in any room.
I am talking, of course, about Republican Tom Cotton."
~ David Shuster
#Trump #Hegseth #TomCotton #Arkansas #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
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blueamp.co/p/the-double-tap-do…
Two Drowning Men, Three Missiles, and Tom Cotton’s Moral Void
Tom Cotton defends a U.S. “double-tap” strike that killed drowning survivors—revealing the MAGA era’s moral collapse and dangerous contempt for human life.David Shuster (Blue Amp Media)
"CNN reported: 'The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname.' The boat was not headed to the U.S., so Trump’s attenuated logic that it threatened the homeland collapses."
"Attention has focused on the United States’ shocking, illegal, and reprehensible action in murdering unarmed civilians whose ship our military had already destroyed. No justification exists for killing shipwrecked civilians. …
Throughout last weeks, even more disturbing facts emerged."
~ Jennifer Rubin
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
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contrarian.substack.com/p/the-…
The second strike isn’t the only problem
Extrajudicial killings may lead to another regime-change warJennifer Rubin (The Contrarian)
"Instead, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who was overseeing Special Operations on that day, told Congress that the intelligence he received said the boat was on its way to meet a larger vessel bound for Suriname, a small South American country to the east of Venezuela, to transfer drugs to it. Bradley told the lawmakers that the military could not find the second, larger vessel."
"On Friday, Natasha Bertrand of CNN reported that the boat the U.S. military struck on September 2 was not, in fact, headed for the U.S., a claim from the president that had always seemed doubtful because of how far away from the U.S. the small boats the U.S. has been hitting are."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
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heathercoxrichardson.substack.…
December 7, 2025
“I think it’s really important that this video be made public,” Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) said today on Face the Nation. Himes was referring to a video of the September 2 U.S. military strike on a small boat with 11 people on it.Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)
"The 'double-tap' boat strike scandal seems to get more complicated by the hour. Not because the facts of what took place that September day are complicated, but because it’s getting difficult to keep track of all the lies, distortions, and whiplash-inducing story revisions the Pentagon and its Republican allies have floated the last few weeks."
~ Andrew Egger
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
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thebulwark.com/p/all-gas-no-br…
All Gas. No Brakes. Trump Quakes.
It’s dark out there, literally and politically. But there is hope, too.William Kristol (The Bulwark)
"If the evidence were as overwhelming as DoD claims, following established legislative, legal, and military protocol would not present a problem and would have been followed by SECDEF. His refusal to follow established protocols, code, and international law, as well as essentially redefining what constitutes 'hostile action', places our entire military in an extraordinarily compromised position."
"Although [Hegseth] has produced no evidence to Congress to justify these actions or the classification of these individuals, much less requesting and gaining approval for acts of hostility upon those individuals, he has then proceeded with lethal strikes on civilians in open international waters."
But in this case when shipboard personnel insisted on following this policy, the Marines staffing the Iwo Jima protested, saying that their commander had forbidden the documentation.
Video was taken, but less than two hours later was deleted. The prisoners were classified as unprivileged belligerents. Though the US is not at war, this classification allows circumvention of policies governing treatment of prisoners apprehended by the military.
(continued from /1)
"one in which video and photographic material is deleted, US military service members are asked to defy standing protocol and code, and human beings disappear from record as they are summarily and without trial returned to what is purported to be their native countries."
Official policy requires photo and video documentation of such prisoners.
Melissa Corrigan and David Shuster report on a US military strike on a boat on 17 October when two survivors were retrieved from wreckage and brought on board USS Iwo Jima:
"What transpired after those individuals were brought on board proves that we are in an entirely new paradigm within the US military," (continued in /2)
#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
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blueamp.co/p/exclusive-us-navy…
EXCLUSIVE: US Navy Deleted Video of October Boat Attack Survivors
Leaked document reveals effort to coverup aftermath of Oct 17 strikeMelissa Corrigan, she/her (Blue Amp Media)