The American plane used in the submarine strike was converted as a civilian plane, contrary to Pentagon rules
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A plane used by the US military to attack a suspected drug-trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela last season was painted to look like a civilian aircraft, a move that appears to be at odds with the Pentagon’s manual on the rules of war.
The plane, which is part of a secret US fleet used for surveillance missions, also carried weapons in the fuselage, rather than under the plane, raising questions about the extent to which the operation was concealed in ways contrary to military protocol.
Details about the plane’s whereabouts, first reported Monday by the New York Times, were confirmed by two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement that “the U.S. military uses a variety of conventional and unconventional aircraft depending on mission needs.”
The Trump administration is facing renewed pressure from some Republican lawmakers who want to reveal the controversial second strike on a Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean.
The new details come after the Trump administration’s crackdown on Venezuela — which began with a massive military deployment to Latin America and attacked a series of suspected drug-trafficking boats, killing at least 115 people — culminated this month in a surprise raid that captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro. He and his wife are eager to go to the United States to face drug trafficking charges, which they deny.
Alarmed by this action, the US Senate is preparing to vote this week on a military power resolution that would prevent further military action in Venezuela without the approval of lawmakers.
Trump ‘furious’ over possible slap
US President Donald Trump is so angry about the Senate’s attack on his war powers that he has been calling out many Republican senators who joined the Democrats in voting to continue the resolution last week. It is headed for a final vote as soon as Wednesday.
“He was very angry,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who did not vote on the resolution. He described Trump as “alive” on the issue when they spoke before last week’s vote.
In justifying the boat strikes since September, the Trump administration has argued that the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the region and that those operating the boats are illegal militias.
The White House has confirmed it authorized a second airstrike on a suspected drug boat off Venezuela in September, but denied it ordered the killing of everyone on board, which would be considered a war crime.
Military guidelines forbid civilian camouflage
However, US military guidelines on the laws of war prohibit soldiers from impersonating civilians while fighting. This practice is officially known as “perfidy.”
The US Department of Defense manual, which runs to more than 1,000 pages, specifically notes that “impersonating and attacking” is an example of this practice. An Air Force manual says the practice was prohibited because it means the enemy is “neglecting to take precautions otherwise required.”
A US Navy manual explains that “attacking enemy forces while posing as civilians puts all civilians at risk,” and sailors must use offensive force “within the bounds of military honor, especially without resorting to perfidy.”
Wilson said each aircraft goes through a “rigorous procurement process to ensure compliance with domestic law, department policies and regulations, and applicable international standards, including the law of disputes.”
The plane, which was painted as a civilian plane, was used in the September 2 strike, the first in what would become a deadly months-long operation by the US military on drug boats suspected of political and policy implications for the Trump administration.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior officials have been called by Congress to answer questions and concerns about the operation – especially the first one, because it involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of the ship that crashed during the initial attack.
Legal experts said that the subsequent strike may have been illegal because the shipwrecked sailors were considered to be in violation of the laws of war. Some lawmakers have asked the Pentagon to publicly release unedited video of the operation, which Hegseth said he would not do.
At a December 1 meeting of Trump’s Cabinet, Hegseth said he “watched that first strike live” but left before the follow-up strike.
Lawmakers pointed to legal grounds for Maduro’s ouster
On Tuesday, senators were able to review, in a classified situation, the White House’s yet-to-be-disclosed official opinion on using the military to oust Maduro. It was described as a lengthy document outlining the foundation of the Trump administration.
Coming out of this secret facility in the Capitol, Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who has long opposed US military campaigns abroad, said no legal reason should be kept secret.
“Legal debates and constitutional debates should all be in public, and it’s a bad thing that any of this is hidden because the debates are not fair at all,” said Paul.
Democratic Senator Peter Welch said he no longer trusts the legality of the operation in Venezuela and especially Trump’s plans to “manage” the South American country. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the controls would come from enforcing the quarantine on oil tankers allowed to be tied up in Venezuela as the U.S. asserts control over the country’s oil.
“There’s an ongoing question of whether the use of military force would bring someone to justice,” Welch said, calling Maduro “a really bad guy.”
The legal rationale talked about military action “but not the current reality that the president is saying we’re going to be there for years and that we’re in charge of Venezuela,” Welch said.
