The D Brief: ‘Perfidy’ in boat strike?; Pentagon’s new AI plan; Venezuela’s broken air defenses; Quantum space cameras; And a bit more.

Did Trump’s attacks on boats off Latin America involve a second type of war crime? The Defense Department is accused of killing shipwrecked survivors after a strike on an alleged drug-running boat on Sept. 2 in the Caribbean Sea near Trinidad and Tobago. But the New York Times reported Monday that the attack may also have involved a second war crime: “perfidy”—that is, disguising military equipment as civilian in order to sneak up and kill someone. 

The Pentagon’s first strike that day used a secret plane disguised to look like a civilian aircraft, officials briefed on the matter told the Times. The exact aircraft has not been revealed, though Reddit users reportedly spotted one such apparently-modified 737 at an airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands in September. 

In search of a precedent, “the United States considers perfidy to be a crime in noninternational armed conflicts,” one legal expert told the Times. To this end, “It charged a Guantánamo detainee before a military commission with that offense over Al Qaeda’s 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole, in which militants in a small boat floated a hidden bomb up to the side of the warship while waving in a friendly manner,” said Geoffrey Corn, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former judge advocate general officer. Several other legal experts and JAG officials offered additional insight. Continue reading (gift link), here. 

The U.S. military’s last known strike on alleged drug-trafficking boats occurred on New Year’s Eve. Those strikes, 35 reported in total, have killed at least 123 people, according to the Defense Department. Mutilated bodies and broken boats have washed ashore in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago, along with traces of what appear to be marijuana, the Times reported in October and December. 

We have new insight into one lingering post-invasion question: How did the U.S. military get so close to Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro without losing any troops during its surprise attack and abduction on Jan. 3? The Russians had supplied Maduro with air-defense equipment, but they appeared to have been almost entirely ineffective on the morning of the attack. American officials now allege “Venezuela was unable to maintain and operate the S-300” Russian system, “as well as the Buk defense systems, leaving its airspace vulnerable,” the New York Times reported separately on Monday. 

What’s more, “photos, videos and satellite imagery found that some air defense components were still in storage, rather than operational, at the time of the attack,” the Times reports. Read more—including video clips and annotated post-attack photos—here (gift link).

Venezuelan blockade analysis: After the U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on Jan. 7, the incident raises several questions for international observers and U.S. allies, Kevin Rowlands and Caroline Tuckett wrote Monday in a commentary for the London-based Royal United Services Institute. They write, “Legally, it will all come down to a simple question: was the ship Russian or not?” And “Geopolitically, it will come down to a simple statement: might is right.”

“Sanctions are not just paper declarations; they need to be enforced and how this incident is eventually legally assessed will affect how other states justify similar action,” Rowlands and Tuckett advise. However,” If that assessment takes place in an international tribunal, will the losing party honour the outcome? If it is settled ‘out of court’ then others will take note.” Read the rest, here. 

See also: “What the Bella-1 Teaches Us About Targeting Shadow Fleets,” via Jose Macias of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, writing Thursday. 

And for what it’s worth, “We are now 25 days beyond the statutory deadline for the full release of the Epstein files,” justice reporter Scott MacFarlane observed Tuesday on social media. To date, less than 1% of those files have been released by the Justice Department, in apparent contravention of bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act. The day of Maduro’s capture, January 3, was the statutory deadline for the Department of Justice to provide Congress with a written justification for any redactions in the Epstein files, as required by the law. The Trump administration has missed both deadlines without consequence. 

Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter focused on developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so we’d like to take a moment to thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 2021, President Trump was impeached for a second time, this time on charges of inciting insurrection during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

Around the Defense Department

The Pentagon says it has a new artificial-intelligence implementation plan intended to “unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, [and] focus our investments,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday. 

During a visit to SpaceX in Texas, Hegseth said Elon Musk’s xAI platform, Grok, will be added into Pentagon networks as part of the military’s new AI strategy—though this has been known publicly since at least July. “Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said Monday. Reuters has a bit more.

The Defense Department also announced a $1 billion investment in L3Harris’ Missile Solutions business as part of new “multi-year procurement framework agreements for solid rocket motors.” The idea is to bolster the Pentagon’s “critical missile programs, such as PAC-3, THAAD, Tomahawk, and Standard Missile,” according to a statement Monday. More, here. 

Update: Sen. Kelly sues Hegseth for seeking to demote him over “illegal orders” video. In a 46-page lawsuit filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., alleges that efforts by the Trump administration to punish him for a video (in which he and others tell troops that they need not follow illegal orders) violate the First Amendment, the separation of powers, due-process protections, and the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution. Read on, from States Newsroom.

In a separate statement, Kelly said Hegseth’s “unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”

Additional reading: In case you missed it, “GSA’s procurement chief is attending negotiations for Ukraine and Gaza,” Nextgov’s Natalie Alms reported Friday. 

Etc.

Quantum cameras could remake space-based intelligence. In a month or two, a Boston-based startup Diffraqtion will test a “quantum camera” for space-based imaging. If it works, it could slash the cost of missile defenses and give smaller NATO allies and partners spy-satellite capabilities that were once exclusive to major powers, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported Monday. 

One of Diffraqtion’s cameras is the size of a small suitcase, and is launchable for just half a million dollars. That just might be the key to shooting down highly maneuverable hypersonic missiles, as envisioned by the White House’s Golden Dome effort. The method proposed by Diffraqtion might lower the cost of the imaging systems on space-based interceptors, or even reduce the number needed to do the job. Continue reading, here.