The Trump administration may have committed a war crime when it carried out strikes on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean last year.
The Pentagon used an aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane and carried its weaponry inside the fuselage rather than under its wings, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Legal experts say that could amount to the war crime of “perfidy,” which prohibits such tactics of disguise.
“Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,” Retired Maj. Gen. Steven Lepper, a former judge advocate in the Air Force, told the Times. “If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity.”
The September missile strikes killed 11 people, two of whom had survived the initial strike and were clinging to wreckage. Footage showed them waving at the plane before being killed, according to lawmakers who were briefed on it last year. Striking those who are shipwrecked is forbidden by international law.
That incident had already caused many to raise questions about the legality of the strike, which was reportedly preceded by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth giving an order to “kill everybody.”
Even some Trump administration officials had recognized the issue there.
“I’m not even a military lawyer and I knew this would be illegal,” one official told Zeteo. “I have said as much to several colleagues… there’s defending the homeland, and then there’s criminal behavior.”
The Times reports that the Pentagon has since switched to using aircraft that is identifiable as belonging to the military. It’s unclear what exactly the plane used in the early September strike looked like, but three people familiar with the matter said the plane lacked military markings and wasn’t the traditional military gray. The plane was transmitting its military tail number over the radio, they added.
The U.S. Special Operations Command didn’t comment to the Times on the type of aircraft used.
The Pentagon told the paper that every aircraft is in compliance.
“The U.S. military utilizes a wide array of standard and nonstandard aircraft depending on mission requirements,” said Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson. “Prior to the fielding and employment of each aircraft, they go through a rigorous procurement process to ensure compliance with domestic law, department policies and regulations, and applicable international standards, including the law of armed conflict.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon and the White House for comment.
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