Whiskey Pete’s “double tap” is an effort to keep boat survivors out of court

Pete Hegseth (Joshua Sukoff/shutterstock.com)

Pentagon lawyers working under Defense Secretary “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth appear to be less interested in justice and more concerned with cover-ups: namely, keeping the survivors of U.S. military boat strikes far away from any courtroom that might ask awkward questions like, “Did you have evidence?” or “Is this a war crime?” The New York Times spills the beans:

Behind that policy was a quieter goal: to ensure survivors did not end up in the U.S. judicial system, where court cases could force the administration to show evidence justifying President Trump’s military campaign in the region.

The previously unreported calls demonstrate the haphazard and sometimes tense nature of the process within the Trump administration to weigh what to do with the survivors of U.S. attacks on boats that the military asserts — without presenting evidence — are drug-smuggling vessels posing an immediate threat to Americans.

Pentagon officials largely kept State Department counterparts in the dark about strike operations, then scrambled to try to enlist diplomats to help deal with survivors, whom military officials referred to by specific terms that included “distressed mariners.” That phrase is usually used in a peacetime and civilian context.

NYT

After drone and warplane attacks left survivors bobbing in open water, the Pentagon’s solution wasn’t to rescue them; it was to murder them. Officials reportedly pushed to dump survivors in a notorious Salvadoran prison already known for torture. When that plan flopped, they pivoted to quietly repatriating survivors or convincing other countries to take them. Why? Because if they land in a U.S. court, the government would actually have to prove the people it blew up were drug traffickers and not just poor souls on the wrong boat at the wrong time. When you don’t have the evidence to justify your actions, you certainly don’t want to end up in a court of law, expected to prove you aren’t a criminal.