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Echoes of Obama Libya Strikes as Trump Argues Boat Bombings Are Immune From War Powers Law
"It is a power grab in the service of killing people outside the law based solely on the president's own say so," said one expert.
Nov 03, 2025
The Trump administration reportedly told members of Congress that the president's deadly, unauthorized airstrikes on vessels in international waters can continue indefinitely, deploying a rationale that the Obama administration applied to its 2011 bombing of Libya.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that "T. Elliot Gaiser, head of the Trump administration's Office of Legal Counsel, made his remarks to a small group of lawmakers this week amid signs that the president may be planning to escalate the military campaign in the region, including potentially hitting targets within Venezuela."
Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the president has 60 days to terminate military operations not approved by Congress. The 60-day clock starts when the president notifies Congress of military action.
Monday marks the 60th day since Trump informed Congress of his first strike on a boat in the Caribbean in early September. The strike killed 11 people whom the administration accused without evidence of trying to smuggle drugs from Venezuela to the United States.
Trump has since authorized more than a dozen other strikes on boats in international waters, killing more than 60 people in what human rights organizations and United Nations experts have described as blatant violations of US and international law.
The Trump administration has told lawmakers that the US is engaged in "armed conflict" against drug cartels that the president has designated as "terrorist organizations."
But the White House is insisting that Trump's military actions in international waters are not constrained by the War Powers Resolution, claiming the operations "do not rise to the level of 'hostilities'" because the administration says American troops are not likely to be put in danger.
Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser at the State Department who now works at the International Crisis Group, observed Monday that the Trump administration's narrow definition of hostilities echoes "arguments made by the Obama administration in 2011 with respect to the military intervention in Libya."
"The Obama administration's interpretation of 'hostilities' was not well received, including by the US Congress," Finucane wrote, pointing to a May 18, 2011 letter that Republican senators sent to Obama accusing him of flouting the War Powers Resolution.
One of those GOP senators—Rand Paul of Kentucky—is backing a bipartisan war powers effort to prevent Trump from unilaterally and unlawfully attacking Venezuela.
Finucane stressed that the implications of the Trump administration's decision to interpret hostilities narrowly "are significant," noting that it paves the way for the US government to "continue its killing spree at sea, notwithstanding the time limits imposed by the War Powers Resolution."
"Second, the executive is arrogating to itself greater power over the use of force that constitutionally is the prerogative of Congress," Finucane added. "It is a power grab in the service of killing people outside the law based solely on the president's own say so."
On Saturday, Drop Site reported that the Trump administration has expanded its "drug cartel target list" to include sites inside Colombia and Mexico amid concerns that the president could soon attack Venezuela and launch an effort to overthrow the nation's president, Nicolás Maduro.
"At an Oval Office meeting in early October, Trump administration officials and top generals discussed escalating the pressure on Venezuela to go beyond the semi-regular attacks on boats in the Caribbean," the outlet reported. "The discussed plans include striking on land inside Venezuela... The same October 2 meeting included a previously reported directive from President Trump, who dialed his special envoy Richard Grenell into the call, telling him to cut off diplomatic communications with Maduro."
Asked during a newly aired "60 Minutes" interview if he believes Maduro's days as Venezuela's president are "numbered," Trump responded, "I would say yeah."
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UN Human Rights Chief Says Trump Must Halt 'Extrajudicial Killing' in International Waters
"None of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law," said Volker Türk.
Oct 31, 2025
The United Nations' top human rights official said Friday that US President Donald Trump's deadly strikes on boats in international waters in recent weeks amount to "extrajudicial killing" that must stop immediately, remarks that came as the White House appeared poised to expand the unlawful military campaign to targets inside Venezuela.
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said of the administration's boat strikes that "these attacks—and their mounting human cost—are unacceptable."
"The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them," said Türk, noting that the administration has not substantiated its claim that those killed by the strikes in waters off Central and South America were smuggling drugs.
The Trump administration has also kept secret a US Justice Department memo purportedly outlining an internal legal justification for the deadly strikes.
Türk noted that "countering the serious issue of illicit trafficking of drugs across international borders is—as has long been agreed among states—a law-enforcement matter, governed by the careful limits on lethal force set out in international human rights law."
"Under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a last resort against individuals who pose an imminent threat to life," said the UN human rights chief. "Based on the very sparse information provided publicly by the US authorities, none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law."
The Trump administration's strikes have killed more than 60 people thus far. At least one of the targeted vessels appeared to have turned around before the US military bombed it, killing 11 people.
Türk's statement came as the Miami Herald reported that the Trump administration "has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment."
Trump has said publicly that land strikes inside Venezuela would be the next phase of the military assault, which he has described as a "war" on drug cartels. The president has not yet received—or even sought—congressional authorization for any of the military actions taken in the Caribbean and Pacific.
In a statement last week, a group of UN experts denounced the Trump administration's strikes and belligerent posturing toward Venezuela as "an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region."
"The long history of external interventions in Latin America must not be repeated,” the experts said.
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Democrats Shut Out of Briefing on Trump 'Murder Spree' in International Waters
"Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party," said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner.
Oct 30, 2025
The Trump administration on Wednesday cut Senate Democrats out of a classified briefing on the US military's string of deadly strikes on boats that the president and his underlings claim—without any publicly disclosed evidence—were smuggling drugs across international waters.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Trump administration held a "partisan military briefing" with Republican senators on Wednesday and continues to withhold "legally requested information" from Democratic lawmakers.
"Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on US military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous," Warner said in a statement. "Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party."
"For any administration to treat them that way erodes our national security and flies in the face of Congress' constitutional obligation to oversee matters of war and peace," he added.
At Wednesday's briefing, Trump administration officials reportedly showed Republican senators a classified memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), purportedly detailing the administration's legal case for the strikes in waters off Central and South America.
Warner said disclosing the memo only to members of the president's party "is a slap in the face to Congress' war powers responsibilities" that "sets a reckless and deeply troubling precedent."
"The administration must immediately provide to Democrats the same briefing and the OLC opinion justifying these strikes, as Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio personally promised me that he would in a face-to-face meeting on Capitol Hill just last week," said Warner. "Americans deserve a government that fulfills its constitutional duties and treats decisions about the use of military force with the seriousness they demand."
The existence of the OLC memo has been known for weeks, but the administration has ignored calls for its release and the president has publicly expressed contempt for Congress' role in authorizing military action.
"I don't think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war," Trump, who has said that "we are waging war against" drug cartels, told reporters earlier this month. "I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead."
"The administration has not even named its victims, nor provided evidence of their alleged crimes."
So far, the Trump administration has killed more than 60 people with at least 14 strikes on boats in international waters, and the president has said land strikes are "going to be next."
Administration officials have repeatedly cited unspecified "intelligence" to justify the strikes, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did on Wednesday after the US military bombed a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least four people.
Daphne Eviatar, Amnesty International USA's director for human rights and security, said in a statement Wednesday that "in the last two months, the US military's Southern Command has gone on a murder spree by following the Trump administration's illegal orders."
"The administration has not even named its victims, nor provided evidence of their alleged crimes," Eviatar said. "But even if they did, intentionally killing people accused of committing crimes who pose no imminent threat to life is murder, full stop."
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