CIA conducts a drone strike on a port facility on the Venezuelan coast; the strike is the first known U.S. attack on a target inside the country.

The Central Intelligence Agency, by reporting first published Tuesday morning across multiple wire services, conducted a drone strike on a port facility on the Venezuelan coast earlier this month. The strike was the first known kinetic action by the United States inside Venezuelan territory. Prior strikes in the campaign had been on vessels in international waters in the Caribbean.

Hon. I want to walk through three things.

One. The territorial threshold. The Caribbean campaign, since the late summer, has been conducted entirely on vessels at sea. Strikes on vessels at sea, within certain international-law frames, can be defended as actions in international waters. The territorial threshold is the coast. Once the strike crosses the coast, the action is on the territory of another sovereign state. That is a different legal posture. That is the posture, by Tuesday’s reporting, that has been crossed. Crossed by way of the CIA. The Pentagon, on the public record, declined comment.

Two. The war-powers notification. The War Powers Resolution of 1973, on the books, requires the President to notify Congress within forty-eight hours of introducing the U.S. armed forces into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated. The notification, by the publicly available filings, has not been made for this strike. The administration’s position, by the reporting, is that covert action by the CIA does not, in their reading, fall under the resolution’s definition. That reading is contested. The reading has been contested by every administration that has used it, in court and in committee, going back to Iran-Contra.

Three. The disclosure mechanism. The strike was disclosed not by the White House. Not by the Pentagon. Not by the CIA. The strike was disclosed by reporting. The reporting cited unnamed officials. The unnamed officials, in the calculus of the disclosure, made the decision that the strike was a story that should be on the record before the New Year. The President, in his subsequent press availability the same day, on the question, said he could neither confirm nor deny the operation, which is the standard formula for yes. The standard formula for no is no.

Hon. I have been a waitress for thirty years. I will tell you something about covert. The thing about covert is if it works, no one knows. The whole point is no one knows. Once the Times and the Post and the Wall Street Journal are running the story by Tuesday lunch, the operation is no longer covert. It is publicly known intelligence-agency action. That is a different category. That is war.

That ought to concern you.