\n<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump<\/span> has shattered the limits of executive authority by ordering the summary executions of individuals he deems members of designated terrorist organizations. He has also tested the bounds of his presidential powers by creating a secret list<\/a> of domestic terrorist organizations, established under National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7<\/a>.<\/p>\n Are Americans that the federal government deems to be members of domestic terrorist organizations subject to extrajudicial killings like those it claims are members of designated terrorist organizations? The White House, Justice Department, and Department of War have, for more than a month, failed to answer this question.<\/p>\n Lawmakers and other government officials tell The Intercept that the pregnant silence by the Trump administration has become especially worrisome as the death toll mounts from attacks on alleged members of \u201cdesignated terrorist organizations\u201d in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, and as Trump himself makes ever more unhinged threats to imprison<\/a> or execute<\/a> his political adversaries.<\/p>\n In early September<\/a>, The Intercept revealed<\/a> that elite Special Operators <\/a>killed the shipwrecked victims<\/a> of a September 2 attack on a suspected drug smuggling boat. They have since struck more than 20 other vessels. The administration insists the attacks are permitted because the U.S. is engaged in \u201cnon-international armed conflict<\/a>\u201d with \u201cdesignated terrorist organizations<\/a>\u201d it refuses to name. Experts<\/a> and lawmakers<\/a> say these killings are outright murders<\/a> \u2014 and that Trump could conceivably use similar lethal force inside the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump Administration is trying to justify blowing small boats out of the water by arbitrarily calling them \u2018designated terrorist organizations\u2019 \u2014 a label not grounded in U.S. statute nor international law, but in solely what Trump says,\u201d Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told The Intercept. \u201cIf Trump is using this justification to use military force on any individuals he chooses \u2014 without verified evidence or legal authorization \u2014 what\u2019s stopping him from designating anyone within our own borders in a similar fashion and conducting lethal, militarized attacks against them? This illegal and dangerous misuse of lethal force should worry all Americans, and it can\u2019t be accepted as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n For almost a quarter century, the United States has been killing people \u2014 including American citizens<\/a>, on occasion<\/a> \u2014 around the world with drone strikes. Beginning as post-9\/11 counterterrorism operations, these targeted killings in Afghanistan<\/a>, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and other nations relied on a flimsy legal rationale that consistently eroded respect for international law<\/a>. Details of these operations were kept secret<\/a> from the American people, and civilian casualties<\/a> were ignored, denied, and covered up<\/a>. The recent attacks on alleged drug boats lack even the rickety legal rationale of the drone wars, sparking fear that there is little to stop the U.S. government from taking the unprecedented step of military action against those it deems terrorists within the nation\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n The military has carried out 22 known attacks in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing at least 87 civilians<\/a>. Last week, footage of the September 2 double-tap strike<\/a> shown to select <\/a>members of Congress ignited a firestorm<\/a>. Trump announced, on camera, that he had \u201cno problem<\/a>\u201d with releasing the video of the attack. This week, he denied<\/a> ever saying it, in another example of his increasingly unbalanced behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public deserves to know how our government is justifying the cold-blooded murder of civilians as lawful and why it believes it can hand out get-out-of-jail-free cards to people committing these crimes,\u201d said Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s National Security Project, on Tuesday, as the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit for the immediate release of a classified Justice Department\u2019s opinion<\/a> and other documents related to the attacks on boats. \u201cThe Trump administration must stop these illegal and immoral strikes, and officials who have carried them out must be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since October, The Intercept<\/a> has been asking if the White House<\/a> would rule out conducting summary executions of members of the list \u201cof any such groups or entities\u201d designated as \u201cdomestic terrorist organization[s]\u201d under NSPM-7, without a response. Similar questions posed to the Justice and War departments have also been repeatedly ignored, despite both departments offering replies to myriad other queries. The Justice Department responded with a statement that did not answer the question. \u201cPolitical violence has no place in this country, and this Department of Justice will investigate, identify, and root out any individual or violent extremist group attempting to commit or promote this heinous activity,\u201d a spokesperson told The Intercept.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration should answer all questions about the terrorist lists,\u201d Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told The Intercept. \u201cThe American people have a right to answers about who is on them and what that means for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca Ingber, a former State Department lawyer, notes that while the designated terrorist organization label as a targeting authority is \u201centirely manufactured,\u201d the administration is relying on it to summarily execute people in the boat strikes, making their application of the terrorist label on the domestic front especially concerning. \u201cMany of us have warned that there seems to be no legal limiting principle to the Administration\u2019s claims of authority to use force and to kill people,\u201d Ingber, now a law professor at Cardozo Law School in New York, told The Intercept. \u201cThis is one of the many reasons it is so important that Congress push back on the President\u2019s claim that he can simply label transporting drugs an armed attack on the United States and then claim the authority to summarily execute people on that basis.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, members of Congress spoke up against Trump\u2019s increasingly authoritarian measures when a group of Democratic lawmakers posted a video on social media in which they reminded military personnel that they are required to disobey illegal orders. This led to a Trump tirade that made the White House\u2019s failure to dismiss the possibility of summary executions of Americans even more worrisome.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really bad,\u201d the president wrote<\/a> on Truth Social, \u201cand Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???\u201d A follow-up post<\/a> read: \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!\u201d Trump also reposted <\/a>a comment that said: \u201cHANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,\u201d the six lawmakers \u2014 Sens. Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Chrissy Houlahan<\/a> \u2014 all of them former members of the armed forces or the intelligence community \u2014 replied in a joint statement<\/a>. \u201cEvery American must unite and condemn the President\u2019s calls for our murder and political violence.\u201d Trump later claimed<\/a> he did not call for the lawmakers\u2019 executions.<\/p>\n For decades, Trump has called for violence against \u2014 including executions of \u2014 those he dislikes, including a group of Black and Latino boys<\/a> were wrongly accused of raping a white woman jogger in New York\u2019s Central Park in 1989; immigrants at the southern border<\/a>, those who carry out hate crimes and mass shootings<\/a>; demonstrators<\/a> protesting the death of George Floyd; the chief suspect in the fatal shooting<\/a> of a Trump supporter in Portland, Oregon; former chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley<\/a>; and former Rep. Liz Cheney<\/a>. In August, Trump also called for \u201cCapital capital punishment<\/a>,\u201d explaining: \u201cIf somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, we\u2019re going to be seeking the death penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, immediately after being sworn in, Trump also signed an order to expand the death penalty<\/a>, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has spent the year carrying <\/a>out orders<\/a> to put more Americans to death. Eleven states have executed 44 people<\/a> since January, according to the Death Penalty Information Center<\/a> \u2014 the highest<\/a> annual total in more than a decade.<\/p>\n White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers failed to answer questions about Trump\u2019s history of threatening to kill people and his recent unhinged behavior.<\/p>\n As Trump lobs<\/span> threats at political foes and his administration seeks to put convicted and supposed criminals to death at home and abroad, NSPM-7 directs hundreds of thousands of federal officials to target U.S. progressive groups and their donors as well as political activists who profess undefined anti-American, antifascist, or anti-Christian sentiments. The memorandum harkens back to past government enemies lists and efforts that led to massive overreach and illegal acts of repression to stifle dissent<\/a>. That includes the House Un-American Activities Committee<\/a>, which began in the 1940s, the FBI\u2019s secret Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, which began in the 1950s, and the Patriot Act, enacted in the wake of 9\/11, which led to abuses of Black, brown, and Muslim communities<\/a>, along with racial, social, environmental, animal rights, and other social justice activists and groups.<\/p>\n \u201cNSPM-7 is a greater infringement on freedoms than the Patriot Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s NSPM-7 represses freedom of speech and association. Investigating any organization with anti-capitalism or anti-American views is<\/em> anti-American. NSPM-7 is a greater infringement on freedoms than the Patriot Act,\u201d said Khanna. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing the greatest erosion of civil liberties and human rights in our modern history.\u201d<\/p>\n NSPM-7 directs Bondi to compile a list \u201cof any such groups or entities\u201d to be designated as \u201cdomestic terrorist organization[s]\u201d and Bondi has ordered the FBI to \u201ccompile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,\u201d according to a Justice Department memo disclosed<\/a> by reporter Ken Klippenstein on Saturday. The department also shared the December 4 memo, \u201cImplementing National Security Presidential Memorandum-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,\u201d with The Intercept.<\/p>\n The Justice Department memo notes that under Section 3 of NSPM-7, \u201cthe FBI, in coordination with its partners on the [Joint Terrorism Task Forces], and consistent with applicable law, shall compile a list of groups or entities engaged in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism\u201d and \u201cprovide that list to the Deputy Attorney General.\u201d (The FBI\u2019s Joint Terrorism Task Forces are located in each of the FBI\u2019s 56 field offices and specifically \u201csupport President Trump\u2019s executive orders,\u201d according to a top FBI official<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The Justice Department memorandum offers a fictitious apocalyptic vision of urban America which the Trump administration has previously employed to justify its military occupations<\/a>, including \u201cmass rioting and destruction in our cities, violent efforts to shut down immigration enforcement, [and] targeting of public officials or other political actors.\u201d While Trump has even falsely claimed, for example, that members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have engaged in hand-to-hand combat<\/a> with U.S. troops <\/a>on the streets of Washington, D.C., state attorneys general have repeatedly and successfully argued that troop deployments in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, were illegal because Trump administration claims of rampant civil unrest were found<\/a> to be overblown or fictional<\/a>.<\/p>\n The December 4 Justice Department memo also claims that \u201ccertain Antifa-aligned extremists\u201d profess \u201cextreme viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti-American sentiment\u201d and \u201ca willingness to use violence against law-abiding citizenry to serve those beliefs.\u201d Over the last decade, Republicans have frequently blamed<\/a> antifa for violence and used it as an omnibus term for left-wing activists<\/a>, as if it were an organization with members and a command structure.<\/p>\n In September, Trump signed an executive order designating antifa<\/a> as a \u201cdomestic terror organization,\u201d despite the fact that it is essentially a decentralized<\/a>, leftist ideology \u2014 a collection of related ideas and political concepts much like feminism<\/a> or environmentalism.<\/p>\n Last month, the State Department designated<\/a> four European groups \u2014 Antifa Ost, based in Germany; Informal Anarchist Federation\/International Revolutionary Front, a mostly Italian group; and Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense, both Greek organizations \u2014 as \u201cforeign terrorist organizations<\/a>\u201d because of their alleged threats and attacks against political and economic institutions in Europe. The State Department announced<\/a> that the FTO designation specifically supports NSPM-7. The Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated<\/a> the groups as \u201cspecially designated nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Glasheen, a longtime FBI agent serving as operations director of the bureau\u2019s national security branch, was flummoxed by questions about antifa<\/a> while testifying on Thursday before the House Committee on Homeland Security. He said antifa was the \u201cmost immediate violent threat<\/a>\u201d facing the United States, but could not answer basic details about the movement, including its size or where it is headquartered. The FBI, Glasheen said, has conducted more than 1,700 domestic terrorism investigations this year, including \u201capproximately 70 antifa investigations<\/a>,\u201d and logged a 171 percent increase in arrests. He also drew attention<\/a> to a \u201cconcerning uptick in the radicalization of our nation\u2019s young people,\u201d specifically \u201cthose who may be motivated to commit violence and other criminal acts to further social or political objectives stemming from domestic influences.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, a federal grand jury in Fort Worth, Texas, indicted nine alleged \u201cNorth Texas Antifa Cell operatives<\/a>\u201d \u2014 one of them a former Marine Corps reservist<\/a> \u2014 on multiple charges, including attempted murder, stemming from a shooting<\/a> during a July 4 protest at the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado in which a local police officer was injured. The Justice Department claims that the North Texas Antifa Cell is \u201cpart of a larger militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to an ideology that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.\u201d<\/p>\n The December 4 Justice Department memo states that within 60 days, the FBI \u201cshall disseminate an intelligence bulletin on Antifa and Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremist groups,\u201d including their \u201corganizations\u2019 structures, funding sources, and tactics so that law enforcement partners can effectively investigate and policy makers can effectively understand the nature and gravity of the threat posed by these extremist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n The memo calls for bounties and a network of informants.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The memo also calls for bounties and a network of informants<\/a>. The \u201cFBI shall establish a cash reward system for information that leads to the successful identification and arrest of individuals in the leadership of domestic terrorist organizations,\u201d reads the document, noting that the bureau also aims to \u201cestablish cooperators to provide information and eventually testify against other members and leadership of domestic terrorist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither NSPM-7 nor the December 4 memo mentions summary executions, and both speak explicitly in terms of \u201cprosecution\u201d and \u201carrest\u201d of members of domestic terrorist organizations. Attacks on members of designated terrorist organizations are justified by another document \u2014 a classified opinion<\/a> from the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel \u2014 that claims that narcotics on supposed drug boats are lawful military targets because their cargo generates revenue for cartels whom the Trump administration claims are in armed conflict with the United States. Attached to that secret memo is a similarly secret list<\/a> of designated terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
\n