“Trump Has Appointed Himself, Judge, Jury, and Executioner” |
In September, The Intercept broke the story of the U.S. military ordering an additional strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
Since then, U.S. boat strikes have expanded to the Pacific Ocean. The Intercept has documented 22 strikes as of early December that have killed at least 87 people. Alejandro Carranza Medina, a Colombian national, was one of the dozens of people killed in these strikes. His family says he was just out fishing for marlin and tuna when U.S. forces attacked his boat on September 15. On behalf of Medina’s family, attorney Dan Kovalik has filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“We’re bringing a petition alleging that the U.S. violated the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, in particular, the right to life, the right to due process, the right to trial, and we’re seeking compensation from the United States for the family of Alejandro Carranza, as well as injunctive relief, asking that the U.S. stop these bombings,” Kovalik told The Intercept.
In the midst of this massive scandal, the so-called Department of War is cracking down on journalists’ ability to cover U.S. military actions. Back in October, Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced major new restrictions on reporters covering the Pentagon. In order to maintain press credentials to enter the Pentagon, journalists would have to sign a 17-page pledge committing to the new rules limiting press corps reporting to explicitly authorized information, including a promise to not gather or seek information the department has not officially released.
This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington speaks to Kovalik about Medina’s case. Intercept senior reporter Nick Turse and Gregg Leslie, executive director of the First Amendment Clinic at Arizona State University Law, also join Washington to discuss the strikes off the coast of Latin America, subsequent attacks on shipwrecked survivors, and the administration’s response to reporting on U.S. forces and the Pentagon.
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“Americans should be very concerned because President Trump has appointed himself, judge, jury, and executioner,” says Turse of the administration’s justification for targeting individuals it claims to be in a “non-international armed conflict” with. “He has a secret list of terrorist groups. He decided they’re at war with America. He decides if you’re a member of that group, if he says that you are, he says he has the right to kill you.”
Leslie raised concerns about the administration’s attempts to erase press freedoms. “It’s just that fundamental issue of, who gets to cover the government? Is it only government-sanctioned information that gets out to the people, or is it people working on behalf of the United States public who get to really hold people to account and dive deep for greater information? And all of that is being compromised, if there’s an administration that says, ‘We get to completely put a chokehold on any information that we don’t want to be released,’” says Leslie. “You just don’t have a free press if you have to pledge that you’re not going to give away information just because it hasn’t been cleared. It just shouldn’t work that way, and it hasn’t worked that way. And it’s frightening that we’ve gotten an administration trying to make that the norm.”
“What’s to stop a lawless president from killing people in America that he deems to be domestic terrorists?”
With a president who regularly targets journalists and critics, Turse adds, “What’s to stop a lawless president from killing people in America that he deems to be domestic terrorists? … These boat strikes, the murders of people convicted of no crimes, if they become accepted as normal. There’s really nothing to stop the president from launching such attacks within the United States.”
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
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License to Kill
Transcript
Jessica Washington: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I’m Jessica Washington.
Back in September, President Donald Trump made public that he and his administration had ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean. On social media Trump claimed that members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, were transporting drugs on the vessel.
Reporter: And also the vote that you mentioned yesterday where 11 people were killed. What was found on that boat and why were the men killed instead of taken into custody?
Donald Trump: On the boat, you had massive amounts of drugs. We have tapes of them speaking. There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that. In fact, you see it. You see the bags of drugs all over the boat and they were hit. Obviously, they won’t be doing it again.
JW: Since then, U.S. strikes targeting boats allegedly carrying drugs to the U.S. have expanded to the Pacific Ocean. The Intercept has counted 22 strikes as of early December. Those strikes have killed at least 87 people.
Members of Congress from both parties say these strikes are nothing short of extrajudicial killings targeting civilians that do not pose an eminent threat to the U.S. The administration has yet to provide the public any evidence that these boats are carrying drugs or affiliated with drug cartels, which the administration has also designated as “narco-terrorists.”
The family of one of those victims, Alejandro Carranza Medina, a Colombian national, says he was out fishing for marlin and tuna when a targeted strike on September 15 killed him. Attorney Daniel Kovalik has filed a human rights petition on behalf of his family. Kovalik filed the petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. And he joins me now.
Daniel Kovalik, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.
Daniel Kovalik: Thank you, Jessica. Thanks for having me.
JW: Daniel, I want to start with you telling us a little bit about Alejandro. Who was he?
DK: He was a fisherman. He was a father of four children, one adult child, three minor children. He was married, though he was separated at the time of his death.
He was close to his parents as well. And he was poor. They were a poor family and they relied on Alejandro to make ends meet through fishing. He was also, by the way, a member of the Fisherman’s Association in Santa Marta.
JW: What is known about the strike that killed Mr. Medina?
DK: It’s as much as we know about any of these strikes, he was out fishing for marlin and tuna and his boat was the victim of what the U.S. is calling a kinetic strike, which I think essentially means it was bombed and virtually obliterated. The president of the Fishermen’s Association recognized from the video that it was one of their fishermen association boats that Alejandro would normally use. And of course Alejandro never came back. That’s what we know about it.
JW: What is the complaint that you’re making?
DK: First of all, we’re bringing it against the United States as a state party to the organization of American States. They are subject to the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is a body of the organization of American states. And we’re bringing a petition alleging that the U.S. violated the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, in particular, the right to life, the right to........