the Trump administration has released no evidence that any of the suspected narco-trafficking boats carried drugs or that their occupants worked for drug cartels. It has never identified the people it killed – just a handful of names have been published in news reports. Family members also filed a federal lawsuit naming their relatives, whom they allege were murdered by the United States.
The military has published dozens of videos of the attacks on social media – grainy, black and white videos taken from above of boats speeding through the water before they explode into balls of flame.
Since the first strike on Sept. 2, scores of legal experts and former military lawyers have characterized the strikes as extrajudicial killings or murders. Members of the military are required by U.S. law to refuse illegal orders.
While there is no record of troops refusing to follow these orders, at least a handful of service members grappling with these questions have sought legal advice, according to anonymous hotlines for U.S. military members.
Trump officials continue to say the attacks are lawful.
Steve Woolford, a resource counselor with Quaker House and the GI Rights Hotline, said he spoke with about four service members involved in the operation who were seeking legal and ethical guidance. One discussed helping plan a strike, and two others were ordered to execute strikes, he said.
Woolford said some of these callers were connected to lawyers, but he wasn't aware of anyone who had refused an order or taken legal action. Callers are "more scared now that they'd be punished if they did bring something up," he said.
Brenner Fissell, the vice president of the National Institute for Military Justice, said the Institute's Orders Project, which also advises service members questioning if their orders are legal, receives a "steady but small number of calls," including from service members concerned that the boat strikes are illegal, he said.
Some have expressed a "sense of being asked to do things that one is deeply conflicted with the morality of doing," he said.
"There's a general perception that no one is ever going to be prosecuted for this because Trump will be able to issue pardons preemptively," he added.
