IMPERIALIST ASSAULT ON VENEZUELA
Senators: Pentagon Has Not Given “Any” Justification for Caribbean Boat Strike“There is no evidence — none — that this strike was conducted in self-defense,” said Sen. Jack Reed.
By Sharon Zhang ,
September 12, 2025
Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) listens as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testifies at a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.Tom Williams - Pool / Getty Images
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee has said that the Pentagon has provided Congress with “no evidence” to back its claims on the legitimacy of the boat strike in the Caribbean that killed 11 people who experts say were civilians.
The Defense Department briefed congressional staff on the strike on Tuesday, CNN reports. The officials did not present any evidence backing the Trump administration’s claims that the people targeted were affiliated with a gang or cartel, according to Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island).
“They have offered no positive identification that the boat was Venezuelan, nor that its crew were members of Tren de Aragua or any other cartel,” said Reed after the briefing, per CNN.
Nor did the Pentagon officials provide intelligence showing that the strike was done in self-defense, he said, despite Trump’s assertion in a letter to Congress after the strike last week.
“There is no evidence — none — that this strike was conducted in self-defense,” Reed said. “That matters, because under both domestic and international law, the US military simply does not have the authority to use lethal force against a civilian vessel unless acting in self-defense.”
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The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee has said that the Pentagon has provided Congress with “no evidence” to back its claims on the legitimacy of the boat strike in the Caribbean that killed 11 people who experts say were civilians.
The Defense Department briefed congressional staff on the strike on Tuesday, CNN reports. The officials did not present any evidence backing the Trump administration’s claims that the people targeted were affiliated with a gang or cartel, according to Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island).
“They have offered no positive identification that the boat was Venezuelan, nor that its crew were members of Tren de Aragua or any other cartel,” said Reed after the briefing, per CNN.
Nor did the Pentagon officials provide intelligence showing that the strike was done in self-defense, he said, despite Trump’s assertion in a letter to Congress after the strike last week.
“There is no evidence — none — that this strike was conducted in self-defense,” Reed said. “That matters, because under both domestic and international law, the US military simply does not have the authority to use lethal force against a civilian vessel unless acting in self-defense.”
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The Pentagon has denied Reed’s account.
In a letter sent after the briefing, Reed and 19 Democrats also noted that they have been provided with no information to back the legality of the strike.
“The Trump Administration has yet to provide Congress or the American people with any legitimate legal justification for the strike, or any evidence to support its claims regarding the basis for this strike or the future strikes it has openly threatened to launch across the region,” the senators wrote.
Officials reportedly also indicated that the Pentagon did not know where the boat was headed; President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have offered differing narratives on where the boat was going. Trump has said that the boat was “heading to the United States,” while Rubio said the boat “probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean.” However, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that officials say that, in reality, the boat had turned around and was potentially headed back toward shore before the military launched the strike, even further undercutting the administration’s self-defense narrative.
The Venezuelan interior minister said this week that none of the people on the boat were affiliated with the gang, according to their own investigations.
“We have done our investigations here in our country and there are the families of the disappeared people who want their relatives, and when we asked in the towns, none were from Tren de Aragua, none were drug traffickers,” said Diosdado Cabello. “A murder has been committed against a group of citizens using lethal force.”
Legal experts have said that the U.S.’s strike likely violated numerous domestic and international laws.
“I’m not aware of any basis for the extraordinary notion that either the Commander-in-Chief Clause or any implied constitutional ‘foreign relations’ authority affords the President the power to order the military to kill any and all persons around the world who might (in the President’s view) be planning to commit crimes in the United States,” wrote Marty Lederman, Georgetown University Law Center professor and former Office of Legal Counsel Deputy Assistant Attorney General, for Just Security.
“That’s why there’s virtually no historical precedent of any president ordering lethal force in a situation such as this,” Lederman wrote.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) has introduced a war powers resolution to prevent the Trump administration from escalating its aggression against Venezuela or conducting future strikes in relation to the Caribbean strike.
“There was no legal justification for the Trump Administration’s military escalation in the Caribbean,” Omar said, per The Intercept. “That is why I am introducing a resolution to terminate hostilities against Venezuela, and against the transnational criminal organizations that the Administration has designated as terrorists this year.”
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