SCOOP: For the Trump admin's Sept. 2 strike targeting 11 men on a boat suspected of ferrying drugs, SecDef Hegseth gave an order, officials say, to kill them all. When two men were still alive, orders were given to strike again, finishing them off. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

NEW: White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats. Work began on secret CIA finding early in the administration, prompting pushback re use of lethal force. Officials persisted in seeking, military and covert options. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

A former top State Dept lawyer, Brian Finucane, assesses the Trump admin is using "creative lawyering" in dismissing War Powers Res application to cartel strikes. "It is a power grab in the service of killing people outside the law based solely on the President’s own say so." shorturl.at/8AKIS

Scoop: Trump’s OLC head tells lawmakers the War Powers Act doesn’t apply to cartel strikes, and the administration does not need to cease strikes by Monday. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Exclusive report by @johnphudson.bsky.social on how a U.S. govt watchdog has found that Israeli military units committed “many hundreds” of potential violations of U.S. human rights law in the Gaza Strip that would take the State Dept multiple years to review. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Cool story! Bubbes volunteer to do what they do best: Counsel troubled souls. By Sophia Solano, who was hanging out at the Sixth and I synagogue. www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/1...

The entire NSC legal team-some half-dozen-has been emptied out, inc Paul Ney Jr.,a onetime DOD GC who served briefly as NSC legal adviser. Lawyers at NSC, State, DOJ & DOD earlier questioned the legal basis for military cartel strikes, and were able for awhile to forestall action. shorturl.at/dBKDZ

GOP hawks are feeling the whiplash of Trump’s China policy. So far they've largely failed to stiffen his spine on China competition. It's a "WIP: work in progress," Rep. Young Kim (CA) told my colleague Noah Robertson. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

While legal experts say military operators are not likely to be prosecuted for involvement in the cartel strikes, junior officers are nervous, sources say. Some have asked military lawyers for written sign-off before taking part; such sign-off hasn't happened, said one source. shorturl.at/0u6Ge

The president has long attacked the media as “fake news,” but the White House has found ways to bring a new crop of friendly journalists into curated presentations that have the look and feel of news to advance its policy priorities, Sarah Ellison reports. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

None of the people who spoke with The Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns. "People are very concerned," one told me. "They have no idea what it means." wapo.st/4nidndf

BREAKING: Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Former intelligence analyst Joseph Francescon is named NSA deputy director. “Francescon has an understanding of the mission and would be able to champion the workforce to carry it out,” said a former senior NSA official. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

US scrambles to bring back VOA’s Persian service amid Iran-Israel conflict politi.co/3HHsTQ4, via @politico.com

Former Manhattan U.S. attorney Damian Williams leaves Paul Weiss, which cut a deal w the Trump administration, for Jenner & Block, which didn't and chose to fight. wapo.st/3HIdsXK

The MAGA faithful celebrate the end of the Trump-Musk bromance. Patrons of the pro-Trump Butterworth’s Restaurant hope that a feud that broke out between the two men marks the end of Musk’s influence in Washington. wapo.st/4jBvtEk

NEW: DNI Gabbard has placed a top adviser inside the ODNI’s watchdog office, U.S. officials say. The move potentially compromises the integrity of the Intelligence Community Inspector General as it is conducting an investigation of Signalgate, they say. wapo.st/4dUcEey

NEW: “Any country that has strategic bombers, strategic missiles and silos, or strategic nuclear submarines at port is looking at [Ukraine's drone] attack and thinking the risk to our arsenal from a containerized set of drones disguised as a semitrailer poses a real risk." wapo.st/4mJRALK

“Some of our best recruits aren’t going to tell you what Xi Jinping thinks,” a former senior U.S. intel official said.“They work in communication departments & have access to those key systems.That’s why we target them.'' NEW: CIA faces stiff test in bid to revitalize human spying. wapo.st/4jpfaKO

NEW: The WH has rebuffed Pegasus spyware-maker, NSO Group, which is in town this week, in its effort to get off a trade blacklist that has dented its financial fortunes. U.S. officials tell WaPo they are not seeking to get NSO off the Entity List. wapo.st/4jaClsk

Trump’s actions are pushing thousands of experts to flee government. NIH. FAA. Treasury. First round saw 75k fed workers leave. Second round could potentially hit hundreds of thousands, reports hannahnatanson.bsky.social and colleagues. wapo.st/43fc1aw

Trump is repeatedly bypassing Netanyahu on urgent issues like Iran nuke talks, Houthi rebels conflict, hostage talks with Hamas, stoking dismay among Israelis.Trump is visiting 3 countries in the MidEast this week - Israel is not among them. WaPo's Gerry Shih reports from Jerusalem. wapo.st/4mbKn6Z

Qatar is discussing with the Pentagon donating an aircraft for POTUS to use as his new Air Force One, an idea that ethics experts say violates the Constitution. No final agreement has been reached. Trump will visit Qatar on his Middle East trip this week. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

NEW: How a little-known Japanese American battalion freed Jews from a Nazi death march 80 years ago. Some of the soldiers had been in relocation camps in the U.S. In Europe, they helped liberate prisoners on a Dachau death march. Their example resonates today. wapo.st/44x0Ig6

Joseph Nye, who extolled ‘Soft Power,' died this week. “Seduction is always more effective than coercion,” he said in 2005. “And many of our values, such as democracy, human rights and individual opportunity, are deeply seductive.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/u...

SCOOP by @mradamtaylor.bsky.social: Trump team urged Ukraine to take U.S. deportees, documents show --an extraordinary request of a nation at war & dependent on U.S. military & financial support. w/ Sarah Blaskey and @siobhanogrady.bsky.social wapo.st/430jcmO

NEW: FBI, security agencies using polygraphs for ‘leak’ hunts as part of what current and former officials say is a crackdown that is creating a climate of fear and intimidation -one that jeopardizes national security. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

WaPo Exec Editor Matt Murray on AG Bondi's new media guidelines: "The 1st Amendment is central to our democracy & an enshrined constitutional right for all Americans.Any govt effort to subpoena reporters and their records threatens those constitutional rights for the indpt press." shorturl.at/k9YbB

The 21-year-old son of a senior CIA official and an Iraq war vetran was killed last year fighting with Russian army in Ukraine. The young man, passionate about saving the environment, struggled with mental illness. His family is devastated. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

It is unclear precisely when Musk will leave; his status as a special government employee is expected to expire at the end of May. He is tired of fielding what he views as a slew of nasty and unethical attacks from the political left, a source tells @hannahnatanson.bsky.social wapo.st/42H9aab

SCOOP by @gregjaffe.bsky.social: Hegseth said to have shared Houthi attack details in a second Signal group chat - only this group chat is one that he set up. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/u...

How to use your ancestry to get dual citizenship abroad. Citizenship specialists often mention Ireland and Poland as relatively easy, especially compared with France, Scandinavia and Italy. wapo.st/3Ro6PM3

Three senior Trump admin officials recently fired contend that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks,” escalating a standoff that increasingly has raised concerns about dysfunction under SecDef Hegseth, @danlamothe.bsky.social reports. . wapo.st/44zWiFc

SCOOP by @hannahnatanson.bsky.social‬: Dozens of immigrants falsely labeled dead by the Trump administration have shown up at Social Security offices to prove they are alive, forcing the agency to reverse the declaration. They include an asylum seeker and a minor. wapo.st/3Y4H9I1

As President Trump pushes to deport more immigrants this year, one aspirational number keeps coming up in private conversations: 1 million. Analysts say such a target is unrealistic, @mariasacchetti.bsky.social and @jacobbogage.bsky.social report. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Also fired on Friday, per Trump order, was the chief technology officer at the Pentagon Office of the Undersecty of Intel & Security, WaPo reports. wapo.st/4i5pKpT

NSA director, Gen. Timothy Haugh, was fired w/his deputy on Thursday, a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer urged Trump to have them removed for perceived disloyalty. Haugh also led U.S. Cyber Command, and played a key role in defending against Russian interference in 2018. wapo.st/3RD4U68

NEWS: NSA Director and head of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Timothy Haugh, was fired on Thursday. No immediate reason was given. The surprise dismissals came on the heels of the firings of at least 5 key aides on the WH National Security Council staff. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

NEW: Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.)& Trump's former NatSec Advisor Matt Pottinger make the case that funding for scientific R&D isn't a gift to academia. It's vital to U.S. national security, as China, the United States' primary strategic adversary, is already investing heavily in R&D. shorturl.at/PgUK0

U.S. Judge Orders Halt to Trump’s Effort to Dismantle Voice of America www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/b...

The world might never have gotten the whole story about the Signal chat discussing Houthi strikes. But the administration tried to paint Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg as a liar, so he felt compelled to prove them wrong — and he had the receipts. www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/...

Autocrats roll back rights and rule of law around the world — and cite President Trump’s example. His statements, policies and actions are providing cover for attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, freedom of expression and rule of law in Hungary, Serbia, Turkey. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Pentagon spokesman is sidelined after an uproar over the removal of a Jackie Robinson article from a DOD website. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Amid ‘DEI’ purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser - a Pima Indian who was one of the six Marines photographed hoisting a US flag on Iwo Jima in 1945. Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers were also erased. 1/ wapo.st/4bzcQPe

Defense Secretary orders “disestablishment” of the Office of Net Assessment. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Trump’s Justice Dept. ousts at least 3 top national security officials in its latest purge, amounting to a complete gutting of leadership in the highly sensitive National Security Division. wapo.st/3Xz8amy

NEW: Inside U.S. spy agencies, workers fear a cataclysmic Trump cull wapo.st/3Du3Tde

SCOOP: Trump's foreign aid demolition hits major Christian charities that see him as an ally. @johnphudson.bsky.social wapo.st/41HJDhA

Absolutely fabulous piece by @monicahesse.bsky.social , about splinters and carrying on, despite it all. Oh - and on writing about personal liberties for The Post's opinion pages. Do read. wapo.st/43hxEZr

NEW: U.S. pauses sharing intelligence Ukraine uses for strikes on Russia wapo.st/4buVGSD