Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a letter to the White House that the military has “exceeded” the parameters of President Donald Trump’s orders in striking alleged drug-smuggling vessels as a part of its counternarcotics operation.
Kaine, who wrote to Trump that he had reviewed a so-called “execute order” signed by the president, which includes targeting criteria for the boat strikes, said the strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, which began last September, have likely “killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking.”
Briefings and notifications provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which Kaine is a senior Democrat, include information on the targets, he said. Kaine said the military had struck and killed people who did not fit the order’s criteria.
“You selected numerous organizations for targeting,” Kaine wrote, addressing Trump. “That target list is classified so I cannot reveal it.”
“Importantly, the classification of the list means that those you have asked the Department of Defense to target are entirely unaware that they are marked for execution,” he said.
The strikes have killed at least 218 people, according to ABC News’ count.
The Pentagon has spent over $820 million on the campaign, which is known as Operation Southern Spear, according to a recent inspector general report.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has strongly defended the military’s strikes, arguing that the operations are lawful under domestic and international law. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also defended the military strikes, saying at a Senate hearing in June that the Defense Department determined the strikes’ legality and based its decisions on intelligence information.
