Rachel VanLandingham says international condemnation makes it clearer the boat strikes are unlawful
Rachel E. VanLandinghamRetired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former chief of international law at U.S. Central Command, quoted by Task & Purpose
In comments to Task & Purpose published September 25, VanLandingham said "the growing international condemnation makes it clearer that these strikes are unlawful", while adding that it does not create "a legal duty for any service member to disobey their boat strike-related orders". She also referred to "the illegal boat strikes".
“For the vast majority of service members, except perhaps the senior-most commanders, there is both no safe recourse for them to disobey orders related to the illegal boat strikes and at the same time, there is no exposure to criminal liability for them either … Yes, the growing international condemnation makes it clearer that these strikes are unlawful, but doesn’t overcome the White House’s own legal sanitization process and doesn’t create a legal duty for any service member to disobey their boat strike-related orders”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Was the U.S. military's September 19 Caribbean boat strike justified by evidence of narcotics trafficking?
On September 19, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced that Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere had struck a go-fast vessel in the Caribbean Sea and killed four people it called "narco-terrorists". The command said "Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking". According to The Associated Press, the military did not provide evidence that the vessel was carrying drugs. On September 20, U.N. Special Rapporteur Ben Saul posted a briefing note concluding that U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats since September 2025 amount to "serial extrajudicial killings" and that there are "reasonable grounds to believe" the 68 attacks he counted through August 2026 "constituted crimes against humanity of murder". White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said on September 22 that the strikes have been "against designated narcoterrorists". The dispute is whether the intelligence Southern Command cites, which it did not release with its announcement, justified the September 19 strike.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Task & Purpose report on what the U.N. special rapporteur's findings mean for troops carrying out the strikes. It quotes Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former chief of international law at U.S. Central Command.
Before the quotation
VanLandingham spoke to Task & Purpose after U.N. Special Rapporteur Ben Saul's briefing note, which the outlet reported found reasonable grounds to believe the strikes were murders under international law and could constitute crimes against humanity. The report was published on September 25, 2026.
After the quotation
Task & Purpose reported that she said the administration's legal review of the boat strikes complicates the standard for troops. The outlet also reported that service members are being told through their chain of command that the operations have been legally reviewed and are lawful, and that Southern Command disputed the U.N. expert's conclusions in a statement.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to the strike campaign that includes the September 19 strike and its legal basis, VanLandingham says the strikes are unlawful and refers to them as illegal. Her caution that service members have no safe recourse to refuse orders concerns troops' legal exposure, not whether the strikes are lawful, so the label is a condemnation.
- Recorded on
- Published here
More from this case
Read the full caseSouthern Command tells Task & Purpose its operations have been conducted lawfully
U.S. Southern Command
“have been conducted lawfully, fully complying with the law of armed conflict”Read statement
Chuy Garcia calls the Caribbean and Pacific boat strikes illegal extrajudicial killings
“Donald Trump is dropping bombs across the Caribbean and Pacific in blatant violation of the law and of fundamental human rights … This has done nothing to stop the flow of drugs or to make Americans safer. Instead, it has left hundreds dead, families devastated, and communities in fear. Let us call these attacks what they are: illegal extrajudicial killings.”Read statement
Trump tells the U.N. General Assembly the U.S. has struck dozens of cartel drug boats
“The cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere, not good people. They're enemies at war with civilization, using murder, rape, torture, and extortion as instruments of terror. … they should be killed, exiled, or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release, which is what we're doing. To that end, the United States has carried out dozens of strikes on cartel drug boats, destroying 97% of the drugs coming into the ocean and sea.”Read statement
Cite this record
- Publisher
- The Dispute Index
- Title
- Rachel VanLandingham says international condemnation makes it clearer the boat strikes are unlawful
- First published
- Last updated
- Permalink
- https://disputeindex.com/events/2745-in-comments-to-task-purpose-published-september-25
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Rachel VanLandingham says international condemnation makes it clearer the boat strikes are unlawful". First published: 2026-09-26. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/2745-in-comments-to-task-purpose-published-september-25