Ryan Goodman
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rgoodlaw.bsky.social
Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw.bsky.social

https://www.youtube.com/@RGoodLaw

Co-editor-in-chief @justsecurity.org. Chaired Prof at NYU Law. Former Chaired Prof Harvard. Former Special Counsel Defense Dept.

https://www.justsecurity.org/author/goodmanryan

Ryan Goodman is an American legal scholar who is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and is the founding co-editor-in-chief of its website Just Security, which focuses on U.S. national security law and policy. Goodman joined the NYU faculty in 2009. .. more

Political science 68%
Sociology 13%
Pinned
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6/ Want to understand this issue better?

See updated answer to #10 in this Expert Q&A (with links to all the sources of authority).

Q&A by @tessbridgeman.bsky.social, @mikeschmitt.bsky.social and me.
Expert Q&A on Operation Southern Spear and Seizure of Sanctioned Vessels
Expert Q&A on the U.S. lethal strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats on the high seas and more.
www.justsecurity.org

5/ In short, the new "explanation" by DoD does not survive scrutiny.

Even if the second strike targeted the cocaine, it would be patently illegal and presumably in direct defiance of the standard Methodology that the military applies to planned lethal operations.

Did they apply it on Sept 2?

4/ 2021 Joint Staff Methodology for Combat Assessment states:

Persons who “would not be lawful military targets in the circumstances ruling at the time” must be considered in a collateral damage assessment.

Universally understood shipwrecked cannot be lawful military targets.

3/ As shown in the screen shot, the Methodology states:

The laws of war (LOW) require anticipated "noncombatant" deaths must not be excessive in relation to expected military advantage to be gained (the possible cocaine).

Noncombatants defined to include shipwrecked.

2/ The Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology goes to the heart of the latest DoD claims about the strike.

The claim is that the second strike was targeting the (possible) cocaine, not the shipwrecked.

I do not see how that could have possibly complied with the Methodology.

With Admiral Bradley's lawyer speaking to Congress this upcoming week.

Threshold question is how ANY of these strikes are legal.

On Sept 2 strike: question is whether they applied standard Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology.

Because look what it says (declassified 2012)⤵️
1/

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

"Secretary Hegseth’s zeal to have the military punish Senator Kelly is a worst-case scenario of this problem."

National Institute of Military Justice Statement Against Secretary Hegseth’s Threats to Punish a Senator

(disclaimer: I'm a NIMJ Distinguished Fellow)
www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/u...

Good to see for checks and balances and interests of the country. Sen. Wicker has been very good multiple times.

Senate Pushes Forward With Boat Strike Probe as House Pulls Back
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker said he would “listen to his colleagues.”
Senate pushes forward with boat strike probe as House pulls back
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker said he would “listen to his colleagues.”
www.politico.com
GLASHEEN: Antifa is our primary concern right now. That's the most immediate violent threat we're facing

BENNIE THOMPSON: Where is antifa headquartered?

GLASHEEN: ... ... ... we are building out the infrastructure right now

THOMPSON: What does that mean?

NEW: This is an exquisite Expert Backgrounded on the laws and U.S. military practices that would apply to the survivors of a boat strike.

Many thanks to @marknevitt.bsky.social.

Especially valuable in light of WaPo's reporting today, which raises more questions than answers imo.
Expert Backgrounder: Law on Targeting Shipwrecked Traffickers
Expert Backgrounder on how, under different scenarios, international law and U.S. past practices apply to Sept. 2 boat strike on survivors.
www.justsecurity.org

2/ Report on the contingency plan:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...

Report on operations on the day of the Sept. 2 attack:

Last line in today's WaPo
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors
The controversial order given by Adm. Frank Bradley is under scrutiny from Congress. Inside the most consequential deliberation of his career.
www.washingtonpost.com

"Hegseth approved contingency plans...The military would attempt to rescue survivors who appeared to be helpless, shipwrecked."

Except:

"On the day of the attack, the U.S. military had no personnel or equipment on hand to rescue anyone."

I agree with all of this⬇️
The fundamental problem here--even if there were some legal basis for using such force to destroy the cocaine headed to Suriname (there's not)--is that Bradley accepted at face value ... [1]

@justsecurity.org
Take this in.

"[Admiral] Bradley ... affirmed having sought real-time legal advice, but that he did not say whether his military lawyer considered the survivors shipwrecked and out of the fight."

Reposted by Ryan Goodman

The fundamental problem here--even if there were some legal basis for using such force to destroy the cocaine headed to Suriname (there's not)--is that Bradley accepted at face value ... [1]

@justsecurity.org
Take this in.

"[Admiral] Bradley ... affirmed having sought real-time legal advice, but that he did not say whether his military lawyer considered the survivors shipwrecked and out of the fight."
How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors
The controversial order given by Adm. Frank Bradley is under scrutiny from Congress. Inside the most consequential deliberation of his career.
www.washingtonpost.com

Take this in.

"[Admiral] Bradley ... affirmed having sought real-time legal advice, but that he did not say whether his military lawyer considered the survivors shipwrecked and out of the fight."
How a U.S. admiral decided to kill two boat strike survivors
The controversial order given by Adm. Frank Bradley is under scrutiny from Congress. Inside the most consequential deliberation of his career.
www.washingtonpost.com

D.A. v Noem (refugee protections)

On left:

DOJ opposed unsealing USG declaration - "any information regarding those active discussions necessarily has the potential to impact those ongoing [diplomatic] discussions"

On right:

Unsealed document reveals no ongoing discussions.

Reposted by David R. Miller

2/ “Defendants confirmed their position that, after an initial federalization, all extensions of federalization orders are utterly unreviewable, forever.

That is shocking. Adopting Defendants’ interpretation ... would permit a president to create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops"

Reposted by David R. Miller

With national implications:

"Defendants have sent California Guardsmen into other states, effectively creating a national police force made up of state troops."

DOJ's claim that re-federalization is "completely, and forever, unreviewable by the courts ... is contrary to law."
BREAKING

Trump’s troops must get out of Los Angeles, a federal judge rules.

(Ruling paused until Monday.)

Look out for more coverage soon at All Rise News.

This looks like a ploy for US domestic political purposes⤵️

To try to FALSELY pit the Int'l Criminal Court v. Trump administration.

One of the reasons there's no prospect of ICC war crimes prosecutions for boats strikes is that NO prosecutor or judge would consider it an armed conflict!
Exclusive: US threatens new ICC sanctions unless court pledges not to prosecute Trump
President Donald Trump's administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document to ensure it does not investigate the Republican president and his top officials, a Trump ...
www.reuters.com
BREAKING

Trump’s troops must get out of Los Angeles, a federal judge rules.

(Ruling paused until Monday.)

Look out for more coverage soon at All Rise News.

2/2 "SAN’s source issued a similar prompt to the chatbot in an effort to verify the post’s claims. The source said they were given a response that likewise described the actions as illegal."

Screenshot via www.reddit.com/r/AirForce/c...

Reposted by Juan Cole

This is extraordinary and extraordinarily revealing if true.

“An artificial intelligence chatbot unveiled by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday appears to have described airstrikes against suspected drug smugglers at sea as 'unambiguously illegal.'”

report by @mikaelthalen.bsky.social
1/2
The military's new AI says 'hypothetical' boat strike scenario 'unambiguously illegal’
An AI chatbot unveiled by the Pentagon appears to have described airstrikes against suspected drug smugglers at sea as “illegal.”
san.com
What Senator Cotton says here would be a bad defense for the Germans convicted in WWI and WWII war crimes trials -- including for firing on shipwrecked in fully operational lifeboats.

This line of response hurts the US and US servicemembers. It will cause long-term damage unless we get this right.
WELKER: Lawmakers say the 2 men appeared to raise their arms potentially to surrender. Why did Admiral Bradley interpret these actions as anything other than them trying to survive?

TOM COTTON: They were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren't floating helplessly in the water
WELKER: Lawmakers say the 2 men appeared to raise their arms potentially to surrender. Why did Admiral Bradley interpret these actions as anything other than them trying to survive?

TOM COTTON: They were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren't floating helplessly in the water

"We are told there is a legal opinion from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel justifying the lethal boat strikes, but the opinion is classified ...

Any such opinion must discuss constitutional law, and constitutional law is not classified."

- Jeh Johnon op-ed
Opinion | Not All Targeted Killings Are the Same. Hegseth’s Boat Strikes Are Illegal.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Robert C. Richards

For policymakers, lawmakers, commentators and the public:

We provide a detailed review of the international law relevant to lethal operations against suspected drug boats

I teamed up with @mikeschmitt.bsky.social and @tessbridgeman.bsky.social
Operation Southern Spear: Why the Crews, Drugs, and Boats are Not Targetable
A deep dive on the international law applicable to the U.S. military's lethal operations against suspected drug boats
www.justsecurity.org

6/ Finally, your reminder that Hegseth said Bradley acted within the authority Hegseth gave him and that, in retrospect, Bradley made the "correct decision."

5/ Why is Bradley saying his decision was based on this?:

<<while the survivors were not armed, he said the mission identified the drugs as the threat to the U.S., effectively deeming the cocaine as the weapon that could endanger Americans>>

He told lawmakers the drugs were headed to Europe/Africa

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet

4/ Also why is Bradley saying they were not visibly injured but were still on the list of approved targets.

Hors de combat is hors de combat. List doesn't affect that.

WWII Germans could have a list of American soldiers who can be killed. But if they're shipwrecked, killing them is a war crime.

3/ If this reporting is correct, DoD killed 2 shipwrecked (hors de combat) just to eliminate remaining possible bags of cocaine that might be picked up.