CIA playing ‘most important part’ in US strikes in the Caribbean, sources say

The Central Intelligence Agency is providing the bulk of the intelligence used to carry out the controversial lethal airstrikes by the Trump administration against small, fast-going boats in the Caribbean Sea suspected of carrying drugs from Venezuela, according to three sources familiar with the operations. Experts say the agency’s central role means much of the evidence used to select which alleged smugglers to kill on the open sea will almost certainly remain secret. ... The sources say the CIA is providing real-time intelligence collected by satellites and signal intercepts to detect which boats it believes are loaded with drugs, tracking their routes and making the recommendations about which vessels should be hit by missiles. ... Two sources said that the drones or other aircraft actually launching the missiles used to sink the boats belonged to the US military, not the CIA. Information the agency gathers against any of the alleged smugglers – dead or alive – is likely to remain classified and out of public view. That is in spite of the worldwide public interest and debate over the killing of civilians. The agency’s intelligence, unlike information gathered by the DEA or the US Coast Guard, which used to handle maritime interdiction operations against smugglers, is not designed as legal evidence. “We do not produce evidence,” Mark Lowenthal, a former assistant director for analysis for the CIA, said. “We have intelligence. It is not the same thing as evidence. It’s a different milieu. Sometimes it’s cold hard fact and sometimes lots less.” ... CIA intelligence is not designed for disclosure, in court or in public hearings – it is designed to “never see the inside of a courtroom”, one source said, because the CIA goes to great lengths to protect its sources and methods. Lowenthal said he believed it was unlikely the CIA intel on drug boat targets could ever be released. ... Trump announced what appears to have been the first strike on a boat on 3 September, releasing a brief video of the attack. Since then, the administration has publicly announced six more without ever disclosing details about the targets other than the number of people killed, and the allegation that the boats carried narcotics. Several sources say CIA officials have been trying to play a more central role in the foreign policy objectives of the Trump administration in the hemisphere. ... The White House also hasn’t disclosed details of any legal basis for strikes against civilian targets. Experts in international humanitarian law say it’s a violation to use deadly force against civilians who aren’t engaged in a war, whether or not they are suspected of smuggling drugs. ...