RE: Drug cartels pose no imminent
Posted on: August 8, 2025 at 10:34:47 CT
FIJItiger
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It is not clear what rules of engagement would govern military action against cartels. But any operation that set out to kill people based on their suspected status as members of a sanctioned cartel, and outside the context of an armed conflict, would raise legal issues involving laws against murder and a longstanding executive order banning assassinations, said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in the laws of war.
“Under traditional executive branch lawyering, it would be hard to see some random drug trafficker meeting the threshold for the self-defense exception to the assassination ban,” he said.