SCOOP: For the Trump admin's Sept. 2 strike targeting 11 men on a boat suspected of ferrying drugs, SecDef Hegseth gave an order, officials say, to kill them all. When two men were still alive, orders were given to strike again, finishing them off.
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NEW: White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats. Work began on secret CIA finding early in the administration, prompting pushback re use of lethal force. Officials persisted in seeking, military and covert options.
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A former top State Dept lawyer, Brian Finucane, assesses the Trump admin is using "creative lawyering" in dismissing War Powers Res application to cartel strikes. "It is a power grab in the service of killing people outside the law based solely on the President’s own say so."
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Scoop: Trump’s OLC head tells lawmakers the War Powers Act doesn’t apply to cartel strikes, and the administration does not need to cease strikes by Monday.
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Exclusive report by @johnphudson.bsky.social on how a U.S. govt watchdog has found that Israeli military units committed “many hundreds” of potential violations of U.S. human rights law in the Gaza Strip that would take the State Dept multiple years to review.
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Cool story! Bubbes volunteer to do what they do best: Counsel troubled souls. By Sophia Solano, who was hanging out at the Sixth and I synagogue.
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The entire NSC legal team-some half-dozen-has been emptied out, inc Paul Ney Jr.,a onetime DOD GC who served briefly as NSC legal adviser. Lawyers at NSC, State, DOJ & DOD earlier questioned the legal basis for military cartel strikes, and were able for awhile to forestall action.
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GOP hawks are feeling the whiplash of Trump’s China policy. So far they've largely failed to stiffen his spine on China competition. It's a "WIP: work in progress," Rep. Young Kim (CA) told my colleague Noah Robertson.
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While legal experts say military operators are not likely to be prosecuted for involvement in the cartel strikes, junior officers are nervous, sources say. Some have asked military lawyers for written sign-off before taking part; such sign-off hasn't happened, said one source.
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The president has long attacked the media as “fake news,” but the White House has found ways to bring a new crop of friendly journalists into curated presentations that have the look and feel of news to advance its policy priorities, Sarah Ellison reports.
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None of the people who spoke with The Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.
"People are very concerned," one told me. "They have no idea what it means."
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BREAKING: Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Former intelligence analyst Joseph Francescon is named NSA deputy director. “Francescon has an understanding of the mission and would be able to champion the workforce to carry it out,” said a former senior NSA official.
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US scrambles to bring back VOA’s Persian service amid Iran-Israel conflict politi.co/3HHsTQ4, via @politico.com
Former Manhattan U.S. attorney Damian Williams leaves Paul Weiss, which cut a deal w the Trump administration, for Jenner & Block, which didn't and chose to fight. wapo.st/3HIdsXK
The MAGA faithful celebrate the end of the Trump-Musk bromance. Patrons of the pro-Trump Butterworth’s Restaurant hope that a feud that broke out between the two men marks the end of Musk’s influence in Washington.
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NEW: DNI Gabbard has placed a top adviser inside the ODNI’s watchdog office, U.S. officials say. The move potentially compromises the integrity of the Intelligence Community Inspector General as it is conducting an investigation of Signalgate, they say.
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Beyond air bases, U.S. energy grids, transportation hubs, shipyards and civilian critical infrastructure in general are also vulnerable to unconventional attacks using unmanned vehicles.
NEW: “Any country that has strategic bombers, strategic missiles and silos, or strategic nuclear submarines at port is looking at [Ukraine's drone] attack and thinking the risk to our arsenal from a containerized set of drones disguised as a semitrailer poses a real risk."
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“Some of our best recruits aren’t going to tell you what Xi Jinping thinks,” a former senior U.S. intel official said.“They work in communication departments & have access to those key systems.That’s why we target them.''
NEW: CIA faces stiff test in bid to revitalize human spying.
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Officials also tell WaPo that they have no plans to revoke a Biden-era executive order on spyware, though they might modify it. Any modifications, they say, however, will not be aimed at doing any favors for NSO Group.
NEW: The WH has rebuffed Pegasus spyware-maker, NSO Group, which is in town this week, in its effort to get off a trade blacklist that has dented its financial fortunes.
U.S. officials tell WaPo they are not seeking to get NSO off the Entity List.
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Trump’s actions are pushing thousands of experts to flee government. NIH. FAA. Treasury. First round saw 75k fed workers leave. Second round could potentially hit hundreds of thousands, reports hannahnatanson.bsky.social and colleagues.
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Trump is repeatedly bypassing Netanyahu on urgent issues like Iran nuke talks, Houthi rebels conflict, hostage talks with Hamas, stoking dismay among Israelis.Trump is visiting 3 countries in the MidEast this week - Israel is not among them. WaPo's Gerry Shih reports from Jerusalem.
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Qatar is discussing with the Pentagon donating an aircraft for POTUS to use as his new Air Force One, an idea that ethics experts say violates the Constitution.
No final agreement has been reached. Trump will visit Qatar on his Middle East trip this week.
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NEW: How a little-known Japanese American battalion freed Jews from a Nazi death march 80 years ago.
Some of the soldiers had been in relocation camps in the U.S. In Europe, they helped liberate prisoners on a Dachau death march.
Their example resonates today.
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What became known as the “Nye initiative” affirmed America’s military commitment to Asia and the U.S.-Japan alliance as a bulwark against China and North Korea.
Joseph Nye, who extolled ‘Soft Power,' died this week. “Seduction is always more effective than coercion,” he said in 2005. “And many of our values, such as democracy, human rights and individual opportunity, are deeply seductive.”
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