The next wars were always here, quietly expanding through secrecy, fear, and legal loopholes the public was never allowed to see. Today, that machinery has reached the Caribbean, where the Trump administration is carrying out lethal strikes near Venezuelan waters under a classified legal theory that no one, not Congress, not the American people, has been permitted to read. A memo we cannot see cannot be the basis for taking human lives. If we allow “narco-terrorism” to become the new “weapons of mass destruction,” if we stay silent while the executive hides the very document used to justify killing, we let the Monroe Doctrine and the post-9/11 war framework fuse into a blank check for endless violence in our hemisphere.
Nearly 70% of people in the United States oppose a war with Venezuela, but opposition means nothing if we don’t act. Join us in demanding that ISCAP declassify the memo, restore democratic oversight, and stop this unchecked slide toward another war.
To the members of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP):
We are writing to request the immediate declassification and public release of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo that the Trump administration is using to justify the new wave of lethal military strikes in the Caribbean.
In early September 2025, the United States launched missiles at small boats near Venezuelan waters, killing dozens. A follow-up strike targeted survivors who were struggling to stay afloat. Washington described the operation as “counter-narcotics,” a claim that collapses under growing evidence and that would be legally indefensible even if the boats had been carrying drugs.
Local fishermen and relatives of the victims in Trinidad, Colombia and Venezuela say the men killed were not cartel operatives. Maritime workers have confirmed that the route near Venezuela’s waters is simply not a fentanyl corridor into the United States. UN experts have warned that the killings appear to be extrajudicial.
Despite this, the administration continues to brand the victims as “narco-terrorists” and uses that manufactured label to justify the attacks, including the most recent one on December 4, 2025. All while relying on a legal theory so secret that neither the public or all members of Congress are allowed to read it.
The American public, Congress and the international community cannot evaluate the legality of these killings without access to the memo that is being used to justify them. This undermines democratic oversight and obstructs any meaningful assessment of whether U.S. actions comply with domestic and international law.
Nearly 70% of people in the United States oppose a war with Venezuela.
ISCAP has the authority to review and overturn improper classification. That authority matters more when a secret legal document is being used to justify taking human lives.
For that reason, we request that ISCAP declassify the memo and restore public oversight.
Sincerely,