The US used a disguised plane in the first drug boat strike — some experts say it’s a war crime

The United States used a military aircraft disguised as a civilian plane in an attack on a boat last September, the first of a series of attacks on boats the Trump administration said were drug smuggling boats. This attack killed 11 people according to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump.

Passing a military craft off as a civilian plane to confuse adversaries and attack is considered a war crime called “perfidy.” Legal experts and a former general have weighed in on the matter and do not believe the Pentagon was within its right to disguise the plane in this strike.

According to a New York Times report on Monday, the plane was painted to look like a civilian vessel and the munitions were hidden in the main body of the plane instead of being visible on the wings, which is standard for military planes.

“Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,” retired Maj. Gen. Steven J. Lepper told the New York Times. “If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity.”

Two survivors of the Sept. 2 attack waved at the plane before being hit with a second strike. This was not initially reported and the unclassified video of the initial strike released by Trump on Truth Social did not show the second hit.

It is unclear what the plane looked like exactly, but the Times reported officials familiar with the strike said it was not painted with usual military colors and markings. They said the plane was broadcasting its military number through the transponder, but the boat targeted in the strike likely lacked the equipment to read the radio signal identifying the plane.

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A retired Navy captain, Todd Huntley, who deployed with the Joint Special Operations Command as a judge advocate general (JAG) said this signal does not resolve the perfidy.

Since the Sept. 2 strike, the U.S. has killed at least 123 people in 35 attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, according to the Times. The Trump administration argues these killings are legal and not murder because they are “combatants” in a non-international armed conflict — meaning the enemy is not another nation, but a list of “narcoterrorists.”

A former JAG and current professor at Texas Tech University, Geoffrey Corn, said the U.S. has considered perfidy a crime in non-international armed conflicts. The U.S. charged a Guantanamo Bay detainee for Al-Qaeda’s 2000 attack on a navy vessel in which combatants acted in a friendly manner while floating a hidden bomb to the boat.

“The critical question is whether there is a credible alternative reason for using an unmarked aircraft to conduct the attack other than exploiting apparent civilian status to gain some tactical advantage,” Corn said.