Matt Blaze

Aside from the war crime of attacking survivors of a shipwreck, we must now add the war crime of perfidy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/us/politics/us-boat-attacks-law.html?unlocked_article_code=1.EFA.7xgP.qIPINOLUNg8W [gift link]

Perfidy is considered a serious crime in war because, among other things, using civilian cover for offensive missions casts suspicion on all civilians in the theatre, putting non-combatants at risk.

U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane

Even accepting the Trump administration’s claim that there is an armed conflict with suspected drug runners, the laws of war bar “perfidy.”

The New York Times
Jan 13 at 1:31amWeb
Show threadMatt BlazeJan 13
The irony is that the only person the Pentagon is trying to hold to account here is the retired astronaut and war hero who said that illegal orders like this shouldn't be followed.
Show threadRobertJan 13
@[email protected] It's not irony, it's a travesty.
Show threadQueJan 13
@mattblaze we have civvy painted birds with internal weapons bays? Of course we do…
Show threadNonya BidnissJan 13
@mattblaze All the officers in that chain of command know the law. They know that was illegal.
Show threadFugue State Machine MotoJan 13

@mattblaze I feel like ICE impersonating utility workers probably falls under this heading, too?

re: https://masto.ai/@GhostOnTheHalfShell/115877308170415789

GhostOnTheHalfShell (@[email protected])

2 min Impersonating utility workers or any other city official should be made a felony offense by US states if they aren’t already. Unless there’s something going on with a warrant undertake these kinds of impersonations, arrest them, throw the book at them and lock them up for life https://youtu.be/baCXjMYPyPY

Mastodon
Show threadTed AronsonJan 13
@mattblaze It's a heinous crime, but I also can't get over how stupid it is. All of that for a fishing boat?
Show threadBill ZaumenJan 13
@mattblaze Not sure if this technically qualifies as perfidy because that might apply only to warfare (the possibly erroneous impression I got from the Wikipedia page). While I wouldn't want low level people punished because they couldn't afford to have a lawyer on retainer, people higher in the chain of command are a different story. Let's have a full investigation, particularly of Hegseth, and forward all the evidence to the ICC. A Trump pardon doesn't apply outside the U.S.
Show threadBill ZaumenJan 13
@mattblaze One complication: they could have used a civilian-painted, slow aircraft as a "spotter" and a fighter jet for the attack. So how does perfidy work in that case?
Show threadGreg HallJan 13

@mattblaze

There's really no excuse for this, some teenage dudes on a boat have no fucking chance whatsofuckingever against any kind of military aircraft.

At best they could have an RPG launcher, which I'm sure the aircraft could foil easily with countermeasures.

Show threadrexiJan 13

@mattblaze

If it's not war, it can't be perfidy.
Murder, straight up then.

So, ignorance of perfidy may be his best defense.

Didn't our Fox Weekend genius fire all the the top lawyers at Defense?

Show threadHelgi CrookehorneJan 13
@mattblaze as if mobsters cared about civillians, look at what Russian criminals do. They could hit some 5 storey with a ballistic missiles because of crappy CEP and claim there was a NATO base. It was a week ago in my city
Show threadFediThing Jan 13

@mattblaze

Where is this spin coming from that any of these were war crimes?

Surely all these strikes were simply mass murders?

-There was no war going on
-The boats were civilian
-The people on the boats were civilian
-They were in international waters
-They presented no threat to anyone
-There has been no evidence presented against any of the murdered people
-All of the survivors who were arrested by US forces were quickly released without charge (strongly suggesting no sealed evidence)

...why are people focusing just on potential "war crimes" by Hegseth?

*ALL* of these strikes were murders by Trump, he ordered all of them.

Show threadFediThing Jan 13

@mattblaze

p.s. Almost makes one wonder if this "was it a war crime?" spin is coming from the White House itself. Casting it as an act of war and focusing on a tiny percentage of the strikes lets Trump off the hook for ordering the strikes in the first place, and turns Hegseth into a scapegoat, protecting Trump.

Trump is a mass murderer, he ordered the deaths of innocent civilians on civilian boats in a time of peace without any reason or evidence.

Why is the media in denial about this? Why are they so eager to cover up murder?

Show threadAaronJan 13

@FediThing

> Trump is a mass murderer

Was long before he started this term in office, too. Go back to his handling of the pandemic. The only difference is now he's using weapons instead of letting a virus do the dirty work.

@mattblaze

Show threadKarma Sahne - R.I.P @natenomJan 13
@FediThing @mattblaze Wasn't this terrorism?
Show threadFediThing Jan 13

@neuimneuland

Terrorism by whom?

Show threadMatt BlazeJan 13

@FediThing That’s the problem for the administration here. If this was a military conflict, they violated the laws of war. If it wasn’t, it violated international law in other ways. Either way, it was criminal.

The article I linked to explains this in some detail.

Show threadFediThing Jan 13

@mattblaze

Thanks 🙏

The article implies that Trump is committing murder:

"A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of force have said the orders by Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth to attack the boats (were) murders."

"The administration has argued that the strikes are lawful ... because Mr. Trump decided the situation was a so-called noninternational armed conflict."

"The legitimacy of that claim is widely disputed. Still, it has put attention on ways particular attacks might have violated the laws of war."

...so why aren't the headlines about Trump committing 123 murders? Why are they instead focusing on Hegseth?

Show threadOrinJan 13
@mattblaze I think the jet was a Boeing P-8 Poseidon. Their normal colour is light enough that many people could mistake it for an airliner.
Show threadTom DB 🦣Jan 13
@mattblaze We already know they don’t like to play by the rules.
Show threadMatt BlazeJan 13
@TomDB I know they don’t care. The reason to call out their lawlessness isn’t because I think they care. It’s because I think YOU should care.
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanJan 13
@mattblaze 💯 @TomDB
Show threadAsta [AMP]Jan 13

@mattblaze Does that subheading feel... different, tone wise, from what the media has been doing lately?

Even accepting the Trump administration’s claim that there is an armed conflict with suspected drug runners, the laws of war bar “perfidy.”I can't think of the last time... or the FIRST time, for that matter, that I've seen the NYT come from a position of doubt re: the administration's claims while also stating that it's a crime.

(well, "the laws of war bar..." isn't exactly "this is a crime", but I'd still say that feels like a substantial shift in tone)

Show threadRainer ZufallJan 13
@mattblaze
"But he noted that the United States considers perfidy to be a crime in noninternational armed conflicts: 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."
Show threadTed HermanJan 13
@mattblaze "The home of the brave"
Show threadティージェーグレェJan 13
Long ago, I started taking that phrase and turning it on its head (aka "correcting" it) to:

"Land of the fee, home of the slave."

Still rhymes with the original! ;)

Maybe, someday, the USA will close the loophole intentionally left in the 13th Amendment that facilitates carceral slavery, but even "progressive" Californians didn't pass such a measure in 2024 when they were able to vote on it, so I'm not very optimistic.
Show threadTed HermanJan 13
@teajaygrey I recommend the David Graeber book "Debt: The First 5000 Years" for its explanation of slavery.
Show threaddonJan 13
@mattblaze just another example of their cowardice.
Show threadResistor McResistanceFaceJan 13

@mattblaze

"Another day, another war crime" - another empty bottle of booze