This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
Several significant developments this week have paved the way for more likely US military escalation off the coast of and in Venezuela, at a moment of unprecedented numbers of Pentagon assets parked in the Caribbean.
First, President Trump has called off diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, The New York Times reported Monday. The president called his special envoy, Richard Grenell, who had been leading the efforts to negotiate with Maduro, informing him that the US was halting all diplomatic outreach with the Venezuelan government.
Via Associated Press
As of about two weeks ago, Grenell confirmed that contacts with the Maduro government had been ongoing; however, this statement caught other top members of the administration – especially Secretary Marco Rubio – off guard.
Another big development, following the Pentagon’s at least four strikes thus far on boats believed to be involved in drug smuggling operations, is the revelation of a classified legal opinion from the DOJ providing cover to use military force against an expanding list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers.
“The opinion, which was produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and has not been previously reported, argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans,” CNN reports. “The list of cartels goes beyond those the administration has publicly designated as terrorist organizations, the people familiar with the opinion said.”
It essentially gives the US carte blanche for an open-ended war against these groups on the secret list, which hearkens back in parallel to the Obama years of secret drone wars in the Middle East, particularly Yemen.
Indeed, analysts cited in the CNN report, which broke the story, compared the classified list to similar ones in the immediate years after 9/11.
“If the OLC opinion authorizing strikes on cartels is as broad as it seems, it would mean DOJ has interpreted the president to have such extraordinary powers that he alone can decide to prosecute a war far broader than what Congress authorized after the attacks on 9/11,” Sarah Harrison, a senior analyst at the Crisis Group, told the outlet.
“By this logic, any small, medium, or big group that is trafficking drugs into the US – the administration could claim it amounts to an attack against the United States and respond with lethal force,” added Harrison. So far, the US has been engaged in shoot-to-kill actions of the Venezuelan coast targeting ‘narco-terrorists’ and traffickers.
According to the NY Times, there are plenty of officials in the administration who are outright gunning for full regime change in Caracas. “Some top aides to Mr. Trump want him to approve a military operation to remove Mr. Maduro from power,” it reports.
“The proponents of a regime-change push include Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s chief domestic policy and homeland security policy aide,” the report adds.
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