Pentagon Used Disguised Aircraft to Strike Alleged Drug Boat

The U.S. military used an aircraft disguised as a civilian airplane to strike a suspected drug boat operating in the Caribbean, The New York Times reported Monday.

Unnamed officials confirmed the aircraft didn't have weapons visible from the outside. The aircraft was painted in usual military gray but had no military markings.

The strike allegedly took place in September as the Trump administration ramped up its campaign against drug traffickers operating off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. Eleven people were killed in the attack.

A former deputy judge advocate general for the U.S. Air Force told the Times that disguising combat aircraft as civilian could qualify as perfidy, a violation of international law.

The Defense Department didn't comment directly on the report but said its aircraft are vetted for compliance with domestic laws and applicable international standards, including the laws of armed conflict.

Since early September, the U.S. military has switched to using clearly marked aircraft, including the MQ-9 Reaper drone, to carry out airstrikes in the Caribbean, the Times noted.

Trump's Selective View on Protests

Trump has repeatedly floated military intervention in Iran to "rescue" protesters targeted and killed by the regime. But at home, Trump has wielded a very selective view of the sanctity of protests and free speech.

Trump struck Iran's nuclear program last year and has spent the past 10 days playing up protests there. He said on January 2 that if Iran "violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue."

"We are locked and loaded and ready to go," he added on social media.

He also told Fox News' Sean Hannity last week: "I've told them that if they do anything bad to these people, we're going to hit them very hard."

The protest death toll in Iran has now topped 500, according to a U.S.-based human rights group. Trump said late Sunday night aboard Air Force One that his administration was studying the causes of death and would "make a determination" about how to proceed.

Different Rules at Home

Trump's record when it comes to protests and free speech is inconsistent and often seems to depend on whether he agrees with the protesters' message.

Trump and his administration leapt to paint the woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis as a dangerous provocateur engaged in "domestic terrorism" despite a lack of evidence that Renee Nicole Good deliberately targeted the agent with her car.

Social media has featured widely shared videos for months of federal agents getting aggressive not just with their targets but also with apparently peaceful protesters.

The New York Times asked Trump about aggressive tactics being used against protesters last week. He appeared largely unbothered, repeatedly dodging the question.

"Well, I think that ICE has been treated very badly," he responded.

When millions protested against him at "No Kings" rallies across the country in October, Trump and top Republicans repeatedly and baselessly derided those involved as antifa, terrorist sympathizers, even terrorists themselves. Some predicted significant unrest.

The protests were almost wholly peaceful.

A month earlier, Trump floated a federal crackdown on left-wing groups, baselessly accusing them of having something to do with Charlie Kirk's assassination. This despite federal law enforcement having said the suspect appears to have acted alone.

Trump's also exaggerated violence at anti-ICE protests to justify domestic deployments of troops. Judges, including Republican-appointed ones, repeatedly rejected those claims.

Earlier this year, he described some protests as "illegal" and targeted legal immigrants who expressed pro-Palestinian views for deportation.

History of Comments on Repression

Trump's former defense secretary said he advocated shooting protesters in the legs during his first term. Around the same time, as racial-justice protesters took to the streets in 2020, Trump promoted a video of a supporter saying, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat."

Perhaps most striking were Trump's 1990 comments about China's handling of Tiananmen Square demonstrators.

"When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it," Trump told Playboy back then. "Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak."

Trump claimed during his 2016 campaign he hadn't been advocating China's crackdown. But it's hardly the only evidence he judges these things through a lens about power and whether he likes what the protesters are saying rather than a consistent pro-civil liberties lens.

Did you find this information useful? Feel free to bookmark or to post to your timeline to share with your friends.