The US has now killed over 100 civilians in unlawful boat strikes in Latin America. CIVIC condemns these executions, which occur against civilian drug trafficking suspects outside any recognized armed conflict, and urges Congress to act. Our statement: civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...

Now Senate Armed Services Committee and House Armed Services Committee - vow "vigorous oversight" and "full accounting" of Secretary Hegseth's alleged "kill them all" order and double-strike operation. Rare joint statements by GOP Chairman and Ranking Member on both committees

Useful explainer for media covering the boat strikes. Here’s the gist: It’s not an armed conflict, so the boat strikes are murder. If it were an armed conflict, targeted killing of civilians is a war crime. EVEN IF these are combatants in an armed conflict, killing the shipwrecked is a war crime.

Annie Shiel highlighted how the humanitarian sector is being stretched beyond its limits due to the effects of explosive weapons in populated areas. #StopBombingCivilians

We’re about to begin the Protection Forum in Costa Rica, a space to discuss civilian harm, share experiences, and strengthen action under EWIPA. Stay tuned for updates, speakers’ insights, and highlights throughout the day. #StopBombingCivilians

NEW: CIVIC is launching the new Guiding Principles on Community-Based Amends, an accessible guide to thinking about post-harm assistance to conflict-affected communities. Read the principles here: civiliansinconflict.org/publications...

CIVIC joined over 60 organizations to express alarm at the US' unlawful killing of civilians in the Caribbean and to call on Congress to block further unauthorized strikes. Read the letter: civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...

Rand Paul: "I think blowing up speedboats in the Caribbean isn't necessarily the answer."

Today, Senator Kaine and I will force the Senate to vote on the administration’s decision to blow up ships in the Caribbean. If a president can unilaterally put people or groups on a list and kill them, there is no meaningful limit to his use of force.

1/ Trump officials reportedly told Congress the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations.” Here’s why that’s wrong: the U.S. is not at war. 🧵

Gaza enters its third year of a war against civilians. 66,000+ killed. 19,000+ children. Famine declared. Recognition of genocide. CIVIC reiterates its call for a permanent ceasefire, arms embargo, accountability, and humanitarian access. Our statement: bit.ly/46wUT31

[email protected] introduced an amendment during the ongoing State Dept Reauthorization markup in the House Foreign Affairs Committee that would condition $1 billion of the $3.3 billion in US military aid to Israel on human rights benchmarks. A 🧵

At stake in the president's decision to summarily execute alleged cartel members in the Caribbean is whether he can murder people outside of war with impunity. From me & colleagues in @justsecurity.org: www.justsecurity.org/120794/legal...

Analyzing the legal and moral stakes of the Caribbean strikes – and how Congress could respond. From Annie Shiel, @jwrchappell.bsky.social, Priyanka Motaparthy, Wells Dixon and Daphne Eviatar: www.justsecurity.org/120794/legal...

“All people, no matter where they live or what crime they have been accused of, have fundamental human rights, including the rights to life and due process,” said @annieshiel.bsky.social. theintercept.com/2025/09/10/t...

NEW: CIVIC is alarmed by the US strike on a vessel in the Caribbean that killed 11 people. An attack like this, outside of armed conflict, is an extrajudicial execution, not an act of war. Congress must demand transparency & accountability: civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...

This is not a thorny issue. This is not fraught. It is extrajudicial killing. It is the killing of civilians under any standard of law. He killed them on the basis of his-say so that they are drug smugglers, mere criminals. It was premeditated. And he's saying he's going to do it again and again.

No pretense that US is somehow engaged in an armed conflict that might justify lethal targeting in this manner. As I told @npr.org this morning, we have a word for premeditated killing outside of armed conflict: murder. (Also the administration has not substantiated any of its factual claims.)

I've read and coded every War Powers Report ever sent to Congress (check them all out, with interactive graphics and a searchable database 👇), and this one on #Trump's attack on an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the Caribbean stands out. I'll explain below: warpowers.lawandsecurity.org

Your reminder that lethal strikes outside of armed conflict are just extrajudicial executions.

All kidding about this nonsense answer aside: The regime is asserting the power to murder without trial a boat full of people suspected of drug trafficking, who easily could have been intercepted and arrested instead. That is unconscionable and horrifying even assuming everyone aboard was guilty.

1/ I worked at DoD. I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat. Hard to see how this would not be "murder" or war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable. Read expert analysis by @bcfinucane.bsky.social⤵️

"those 11 drug trafficker are no longer with us" Drug traffickers as such are not lawful military objectives.

Your reminder that lethal strikes outside of armed conflict are just extrajudicial executions.

The scenes from Israel's double tap strikes on Nasser Hospital are horrifying beyond words - yet another on the daily growing list of atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza. Stop sending arms. Ceasefire now. CIVIC's statement: civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...

The threshold for a #famine according to the IPC is very high. To get there the human suffering must be immense. Only months of lies about humanitarian access to #Gaza & extreme cowardice in Western capitals made this possible.

The Gaza Famine is the world’s famine. A preventable, predictable famine. Enough. Ceasefire. Open all crossings, north and south. Let us get food in, unimpeded and at massive scale.

Congress is back from recess soon. What are your representatives doing to end US support for carnage and starvation in Gaza? From @jwrchappell.bsky.social & me on why cosponsoring the Block the Bombs Act should be a benchmark in the House: responsiblestatecraft.org/house-vote-i...

Congress is back from recess soon. What are your representatives doing to end US support for carnage and starvation in Gaza? From @jwrchappell.bsky.social & me on why cosponsoring the Block the Bombs Act should be a benchmark in the House: responsiblestatecraft.org/house-vote-i...

In our latest article for Responsible Statecraft (above), @annieshiel.bsky.social and I make the case for the Block the Bombs Bill, and you can also find out more about it here. 3/ www.blockthebombs.org

Congress finishes August recess soon, and for weeks they've been facing constituents in their home districts asking: what are you doing to stop atrocities in Gaza? The benchmark for House members is cosponsoring the Block the Bombs bill. 1/ responsiblestatecraft.org/house-vote-i...

Can Congress Stop Trump From Starting a War in Mexico? More than 30 human rights groups urge congressional leaders to block Trump’s attempt to target Mexican cartels. theintercept.com/2025/08/15/t...

We and 36 other organizations today urged Congress to block Trump’s reported plans for unauthorized military strikes in Latin America. The strikes would be dangerous, illegal, and useless in stemming our synthetic drug crisis. Read more here: theintercept.com/2025/08/15/t...

CIVIC and 80+ humanitarian, human rights, & arms control groups asked Congress to uphold US law and suspend security assistance to Israel in light of the catastrophic suffering imposed on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Read our letter to Congress: civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...

Congress must uphold US law & suspend security assistance to Israel. We joined 80+ organizations calling on the US to end support for atrocities in Gaza and secure a surge in humanitarian aid. Read our letter to Congress: mideastdc.org/publication/...

We at Center for Civilians in Conflict have been closely tracking civilian protection in the US-Nigeria security relationship, and I recently visited our teams in Abuja and Maiduguri digging into civilian protection issues. 1/

🚨 The Senate will vote TODAY on @sanders.senate.gov's resolutions to block new arms sales to Israel. ☎️ Call 1-833-STOP-WAR or visit NoWeaponsforWar.org to reach your senators after entering your zip code. Gaza is starving. Aid seekers are being shot. End U.S. complicity NOW!

These votes present Senators with a choice between backing up their condemnations of starvation and killing in Gaza with concrete action, or continuing to unconditionally send Israel the arms it is using to enforce its siege, fire on Palestinian civilians, and forcibly displace them from their land.

The time is long overdue for Congress to stop funding Israel’s illegal and horrific war against the Palestinian people. The U.S. must not support a government which is starving children. Tomorrow, I will force votes in the Senate to block the sale of weapons to Netanyahu.

🚨 The US Senate will vote TODAY on resolutions to block certain arms sales to Israel amid catastrophic civilian harm and starvation in Gaza. Learn more and ask your Senators to vote YES: armssalesaccountabilityproject.com/take-action/

As starvation worsens by the day in Gaza, the Netanyahu government has been using food as a weapon of war — with complicity from Trump and U.S. taxpayer dollars. This is painful to listen to but here’s what a U.S. Army veteran and Green Beret who witnessed it first-hand recounted to me:

It is also US law. www.justsecurity.org/93589/no-mil...

"In my entire career, never have I witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population." - former US special forces officer & GHF contractor Anthony Aguilar www.bbc.com/news/videos/...

“Children are dying while 6,000 trucks with food wait a few miles away,” say CPC leaders Reps. Greg Casar, Ilhan Omar and Chuy Garcia. “We demand Trump use U.S. leverage to ensure that Israel fully restores international aid access to Gaza. It is not too late to save millions of lives.”

NEW— "A lot of children have passed the point of no return...The gut lining has started to auto-digest & will no longer [absorb] water or nutrition. Death is imminent for 1000s" An American doctor who just returned from Gaza on where US-Israeli policy is taking us: www.huffpost.com/entry/gaza-s...

NEW from @senangusking.bsky.social on Gaza: “I cannot defend the indefensible…I am through supporting the actions of the current Israeli government and will advocate—and vote—for an end to any United States support whatsoever until there is a demonstrable change in the direction of Israeli policy.”

Israeli-Palestinian human rights group B’Tselem declares Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide in its latest report.

Families in Gaza are starving to death. Meanwhile, Trump & Netanyahu are using US taxpayer dollars to replace international aid orgs in Gaza with mercenaries — leading to even more deaths. ENOUGH. I led 20 Senators in calling on Trump to stop supporting this barbarity:

I am sickened by what we’re seeing in Gaza right now. The IDF has blocked aid while shooting people waiting in food lines for what little aid is actually coming from the sham Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Israel needs to lift its blockade and the U.S. needs to stop sending bombs.

Israel’s siege on Gaza is causing mass starvation. People are being killed while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families. States must act to save lives now, before there are none left to save. #StopStarvingGaza #EndTheSiege #LetAidIn #CeasefireNOW