Trump admin tells Congress the US is in ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump has determined that the US is in an “armed conflict” with the drug cartels his administration has designated as terrorist organizations, according to a notice the Pentagon provided to Congress on Wednesday obtained by CNN.

The notice also says the president has determined that smugglers for the cartels are “unlawful combatants,” and therefore the Defense Department was legally authorized to strike a boat in the Caribbean last month believed to be transporting members of a group the administration has designated a terrorist organization.

The US military has carried out at least three such strikes over the last month, which have killed 17 people in total, CNN has reported. But the notice provided to Congress only mentioned one of the strikes, which took place on September 15. It is not clear why the other strikes were not mentioned.

The notice did not name the group, but Trump said the first strike in early September targeted suspected smugglers affiliated with the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua.

The Pentagon’s general counsel Earl Matthews and uniformed representatives from the department also briefed lawmakers on Wednesday about the legal justification for the strikes, a source familiar with the briefing told CNN. The briefing largely echoed the written notice, the source said.

“The cartels involved have grown more armed, well organized, and violent. They have the financial means, sophistication, and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity,” the notice says. “These groups are now transnational and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere as organized cartels. Therefore, the President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.”

The New York Times first reported on the notice to Congress.

Describing the US military strikes as part of an armed conflict suggests that the attacks are part of a longer-term campaign and not just one-off strikes in self-defense. CNN has reported that at least one boat struck by the US military last month had turned around and was heading away from the US when it was hit, suggesting it did not pose an imminent threat to the US or US forces.

“Although this strike was limited in scope, U.S. forces remain postured to carry out military operations as necessary to prevent further deaths or injury to American citizens by eliminating the threat posed by these designated terrorist organizations,” the notice says.

The president has the authority under Article II of the Constitution to use military force when it is in the national interest, and when it does not amount to “war” in the constitutional sense, which requires an act of Congress. But he is still required to establish that the targets of a US military attack are legitimate ones who should be treated as combatants under both international and domestic law.

The new legal justification is significant because cartel members and drug smugglers have traditionally been treated as criminals with due process rights — not enemy combatants, which strips them of due process and allows a country to lawfully kill them. CNN reported in May that the administration was weighing applying the “enemy combatant” designation to suspected narco-terrorists both outside and within the US to justify imprisoning them indefinitely or carrying out lethal strikes against them.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement to CNN that “the Trump Administration has offered no credible legal justification, evidence, or intelligence for these strikes.”

“Drug cartels are despicable and must be dealt with by law enforcement,” he added. “But now, by the President’s own words, the U.S. military is engaged in armed conflict with undefined enemies he has unilaterally labeled ‘unlawful combatants,’ and he has deployed thousands of troops, ships, and aircraft against them. Yet he has refused to inform Congress or the public. Every American should be alarmed that their President has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he calls an enemy.”

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