Overview
- New reporting says the senior JAG at U.S. Southern Command warned in August that planned strikes on suspected drug boats could constitute extrajudicial killings and legally expose service members, then was overruled by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
- Three sources identified the command’s top lawyer as Marine Col. Paul Meagher, whose advice would typically guide whether such operations proceed.
- Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said no Pentagon or SOUTHCOM attorneys raised legal objections through the chain of command and maintained the strikes are lawful under the law of armed conflict.
- The operation began on September 2 in the Caribbean and expanded to the eastern Pacific, with roughly 20 strikes reported and at least 80 people killed on alleged smuggling craft.
- A secret DOJ memo reportedly bases the legal rationale on the president’s assertion of an armed conflict with cartels, while human-rights groups and the governments of Venezuela and Colombia contend the killings are illegal and internal fallout includes the planned resignation of SOUTHCOM chief Adm. Alvin Holsey.