US destroyed 2nd Venezuelan vessel | Pentagon focus on Latin America

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BoonetheAiredale said:
Am I to assume that Americans are now at the whim of other countries? If accused of drug smuggling, or whatever we're just gonna have to accept death penalties with no trials? What's good for the goose and all that. I feel safer already.
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I asked this in a slightly different way earlier but haven’t yet gotten a response from a Trump voter yet.
 
wmheel1287 said:
Did he take paper towels to throw to the locals?
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Treats the Puerto Ricans like crap, holds out and drags his feet on aiding them after one of the most massive hurricanes it its history, publicly states that he wants to give away Puerto Rico and eliminate its commonwealth status and now looks to ask those some people for help.
 

Gabbard Retracted Intelligence Report on Venezuela​

The report, which remains classified, described work by Richard Grenell, a former top intelligence official in the Trump administration.

www.nytimes.com

Gabbard Retracted Intelligence Report on Venezuela

The report, which remains classified, described work by Richard Grenell, a former top intelligence official in the Trump administration.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

“… The report, which remains classified, described work on Venezuela by Richard Grenell, a former top intelligence official in the Trump administration who is now leading the Kennedy Center.

News of the recall came amid a debate over the Trump administration’s policy toward the country. Mr. Grenell, who serves as an envoy to Venezuela, has advocated negotiations with its authoritarian government, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pushed for a more hard-line approach.

But other officials said the recall of the report had little to do with competing camps in the Trump administration and was more about improperly identifying a senior official in an intelligence document.…”
 
nycfan said:
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“A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

… While the White House has not provided a detailed legal rationale, it has put forward the outlines of a novel argument that using lethal military force was permissible under the laws of armed conflict to defend the country from drugs because 100,000 Americans die annually from overdoses. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said people suspected of smuggling drugs toward the United States pose “an immediate threat.” Mr. Trump, in a letter to Congress, justified the attack as a matter of self-defense.

Many legal specialists, including retired top military lawyers, have rejected the idea that Mr. Trump has legitimate authority to treat suspected drug smuggling as legally equivalent to an imminent armed attack on the United States. Even if one accepted that premise for the sake of argument, they added, if the boat had already turned away, that would further undermine what they saw as an already weak claim of self-defense.

“If someone is retreating, where’s the ‘imminent threat’ then?” said Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002. “Where’s the ‘self-defense’? They are gone if they ever existed — which I don’t think they did.”…”
 
nycfan said:
“A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

… While the White House has not provided a detailed legal rationale, it has put forward the outlines of a novel argument that using lethal military force was permissible under the laws of armed conflict to defend the country from drugs because 100,000 Americans die annually from overdoses. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said people suspected of smuggling drugs toward the United States pose “an immediate threat.” Mr. Trump, in a letter to Congress, justified the attack as a matter of self-defense.

Many legal specialists, including retired top military lawyers, have rejected the idea that Mr. Trump has legitimate authority to treat suspected drug smuggling as legally equivalent to an imminent armed attack on the United States. Even if one accepted that premise for the sake of argument, they added, if the boat had already turned away, that would further undermine what they saw as an already weak claim of self-defense.

“If someone is retreating, where’s the ‘imminent threat’ then?” said Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002. “Where’s the ‘self-defense’? They are gone if they ever existed — which I don’t think they did.”…”
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“… Mr. Trump, in announcing the attack, posted a 29-second video on social media that edited together several clips of aerial surveillance. It showed a speedboat cutting through the water, with a number of people onboard, before an explosion.

But officials briefed on the strike said that the video does not tell the entire story. It does not show the boat turning after the people aboard were apparently spooked by an aircraft above them, nor does it show the military making repeated strikes on the vessel even after disabling it, the officials said.

… One open question is where the boat was headed. Mr. Rubio initially told reporters last week that it was probably headed toward Trinidad and Tobago or some other country in the Caribbean, but administration officials have since characterized it as destined for the United States.

Another is what it was carrying. Some have expressed doubts that a vessel of its size would need an 11-member crew. Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who has called it “despicable and thoughtless” to glorify killing people accused of crimes without trials, has argued that if there were drugs, it was more likely cocaine than fentanyl — the drug most responsible for overdoses….”
 
nycfan said:
“A Venezuelan boat that the U.S. military destroyed in the Caribbean last week had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it, according to American officials familiar with the matter.

… While the White House has not provided a detailed legal rationale, it has put forward the outlines of a novel argument that using lethal military force was permissible under the laws of armed conflict to defend the country from drugs because 100,000 Americans die annually from overdoses. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said people suspected of smuggling drugs toward the United States pose “an immediate threat.” Mr. Trump, in a letter to Congress, justified the attack as a matter of self-defense.

Many legal specialists, including retired top military lawyers, have rejected the idea that Mr. Trump has legitimate authority to treat suspected drug smuggling as legally equivalent to an imminent armed attack on the United States. Even if one accepted that premise for the sake of argument, they added, if the boat had already turned away, that would further undermine what they saw as an already weak claim of self-defense.

“If someone is retreating, where’s the ‘imminent threat’ then?” said Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002. “Where’s the ‘self-defense’? They are gone if they ever existed — which I don’t think they did.”…”
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Impeachable for 45 of the 47 presidential administrations.
 
This boat attack appears to be the military equivalent of the guy in Houston that shot the kid running away after a dingdong ditch.

The fascist is really starting to like playing with “his” military toys.
 
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