The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo that is claimed to provide the legal basis for the Trump Administration’s campaign against boats it claims are smuggling drugs to the U.S. has already drawn comparisons to the 2002 OLC memo that attempted to justify the “enhance interrogation techniques” later applied in Iraq under orders of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Reporting on the memo by both The Intercept and the New York Times on Nov. 14 brought out another element in common with the strategy of the G.W. Bush Administration in Iraq. In 2002-2003, there was no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, so the administration constructed fake intelligence to fit the policy already decided on, that is, the policy of regime change by invasion.
The tactic being used by the Trump Administration is the same. There is no legal basis for using military force to attack and destroy boats carrying civilians without due process, but that is the policy that was already decided on earlier in the year. So, the OLC memo constructed a fake legal basis to fit the policy.
