The mysterious strikes targeting multiple Ecuadorian fishing boats near the Galápagos Islands this year were carried out as part of a covert CIA program, The Washington Post has learned.
While many details about the agency’s involvement were not clear, one person with knowledge of the matter said the strikes were part of a “covert action” program, a type of secret operation overseas that is approved by the president but where the role of the U.S. government is not publicly acknowledged. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.
No agency or government has claimed responsibility for the incidents, including the disappearance in January of a fishing vessel and eight of its crew members.
The CIA’s involvement adds a new and secretive dimension to the Trump administration’s otherwise highly publicized campaign against alleged drug traffickers at sea.
If it's true that there was a Presidential finding justifying a covert CIA program, there is no legal recourse. The CIA is authorized to break any foreign or international law under those circumstances, nor can the troops be prosecuted if they were transferred to CIA command for the duration of the action. So it's legal under US law -- the law supports covert programs as long as they're outside the territorial USA and authorized by a Presidential finding. All other laws are allowed to be violated under that section of our law.
This is how the Bin Laden assassination -- er, I mean, 'targeted killing' -- was legal. It violated Pakistani law completely, as well as Pakistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty and probably our treaty obligations. However, the SEALs who carried it out were officially CIA employees for the hours when operating under this law, and the CIA was authorized by a Presidential Finding.
So that is actually the plot of the novel and move summarized by the Wiki link above: the President and CIA Department of Operations is running a covert program dropping bombs on people and deploying snipers, while CIA Department of Intelligence doesn't know about it because they don't need to know about it.
Notice the ending: all hero Jack Ryan can do is testify to Congress about it. Nobody can do anything else.
Congress could impeach of course. I’ll pause while you stop laughing.
I said this would once have been a blockbuster story, and obviously Clancy assumes in his novel that the testimony to House Oversight would have some sort of serious consequences. How quaint an artifact of that age!
That movie is from 1994. The Monica Lewinsky story broke in 1998. I remember people still believed that such public revelation of Presidential wrongdoing was going to end Clinton's career. I vividly recall a roundtable discussion involving some of the biggest news anchors, and they agreed that if the story was true he'd have to resign.
NOPE! Suckers. The Party had the votes, so no consequences.
That ball has rolled down hill to here, where they can just do the plot of the novel and laugh at Congress from across town. Nobody else can do anything at all. Nobody has standing to sue, and no laws were violated -- the law specifically authorizes this. Arguably it is forbidden by international law, but that's just a phrase that means nothing because it's unenforceable especially against the President of the United States. The Party has the votes to block impeachment. No consequences will befall anyone even if it's completely true.
Too bad, in a way. I recall it was a pretty good movie, but the newly anticlimactic ending kills a lot of the plot.
5 comments:
For several decades I have purchased canned sardines. Omega-3 and all that. Many from Ecuador. Canned sardines that claim to be Chinese in provenance are most likely caught by Chinese fishing fleets off the Ecuadorean coast.
Which makes the covert action even more interesting.
Gringo
Indeed. That could also constitute a clear and present danger -- those illegal Chinese fishing fleets have been heavily used to pressure several nations in southeast Asia and, as you note, South America.
Some of the canned sardines say they are from Ecuador. Some say they are from China. At least, Chinese fishing fleet. I buy if they say they are from Ecuador. Though one I recently purchased took 10 minutes to open. Poor can design. A way to finesse this is to purchase canned mackerel from Chile. No problem opening cans from Chile.
Gringo
Gringo
Not that I'm missing your point but for an operation that looks more like the disappearing fishing boats, read The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth. IIRC the operation in that book was not CIA but military and set up by the President directly - or at least his Chief of Staff.
Here is an update on Ecuadorean fishing vessels. USDOS: Sanctioning Ecuador-Based Cocaine Network Linked to Violent Gangs and Mexican Cartels
Stopping the flow of drugs to the United States is one of the Trump Administration’s highest priorities. Today, the United States sanctioned an Ecuador-based network of 15 individuals and entities and identified 10 Ecuador-based fishing vessels as blocked property for their role in trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine each month from South America to Mexico, destined for distribution in our homeland.
Today’s actions expose and disrupt the deepening convergence between Ecuador’s most violent terrorist organizations and major Mexico-based cartels, including the Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) Sinaloa Cartel and Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), which have accelerated the flow of cocaine into the United States. The network targeted today also maintains ties to two Ecuador-based terrorist organizations – Los Choneros and Los Lobos – that the Department of State designated as FTOs in September 2025.
These trafficking operations generate billions of dollars annually for cartels responsible for a significant share of the deadly drugs flowing into our communities. The United States will continue to use all our tools to dismantle the cartels profiting at the expense of American lives.
This link is from PJM: Cocaine Networks and Communists — Marco's Been Busy Today.
Included in the articles are news of sanctions against "Businesses" owned and operated by the Cuban government. You know, according to the Cuban government, only the Commies in charge are permitted to make money.
At the same time that these Cuban government-owned businesses are making money, milk production has cratered. Milk production more than tripled from 1961 to 1989, primarily from Cuban importing corn from the USSR (Ukraine) to feed its milk cows. From 1989 to 2024, Cuba's milk production has fallen by 80%, such that 2024 milk production was about 30% lower than 1961 milk production. (By comparison, Latin American's milk production in 2024 was over 4 times what it was in 1961). And the land that could produce either milk or grass to feed the milk cows has turned fallow, infested by the marabu weed. The Cuban government owns that fallow, marabu-infested land.
Gringo
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