US Revives 'Signature Strikes' for Drug War: Officials Tell Congress No Need for Individual IDs Before Lethal Action.

 In a stark echo of the post-9/11 drone wars, US national security officials briefed Congress on November 13, 2025, that they do not require identification of specific individuals before authorizing lethal strikes against suspected drug trafficking networks in Latin America. This "signature strike" approach—targeting based on behavioral patterns and network affiliations rather than names—mirrors justifications used by the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations to dismantle al-Qaeda and ISIS cells in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The revelation, first reported by CNN, has reignited debates over executive overreach, civilian casualties, and the blurring of counter-terrorism with counter-narcotics, as President Donald Trump's incoming administration gears up for an aggressive "America First" campaign against fentanyl flows from Mexico and Central America.The closed-door session, attended by members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, focused on a series of US military drone and naval strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific since October 2025. Officials from the Department of Defense (DoD), CIA, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) described operations that neutralized at least 12 "go-fast" boats and semisubmersibles smuggling cocaine and fentanyl precursors. Briefers labeled the deceased as "enemy KIA" (killed in action) and "enemy combatants," terms straight from the Global War on Terror lexicon, even though no terrorism charges were involved.

A senior DoD official reportedly stated: "We assess threats based on patterns of activity—vessel type, evasion tactics, and ties to known cartels. Individual identification is not a prerequisite when the intelligence indicates an imminent threat to US national security." This aligns with "signature strikes," where targets are selected for fitting profiles like "military-age males in terrorist hotspots" or, here, "crewmembers on vessels matching smuggling signatures." Congress was assured that strikes comply with the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which presidents have stretched to cover non-state actors beyond al-Qaeda, including drug cartels designated as "significant foreign narcotics traffickers" under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.The operations, which began under President Biden but accelerated post-Trump's November 5 victory, have destroyed over $500 million in narcotics without reported US casualties. However, local reports from Colombia and Ecuador claim at least five civilian deaths, including fishermen misidentified as smugglers.This isn't new—it's a revival. Signature strikes debuted under President George W. Bush in 2008 for CIA drone campaigns in Pakistan's tribal areas, where positive identification was often impossible due to remote terrains and fluid networks. The Obama administration formalized them in a 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG), allowing strikes on "persons whose actions fit the intelligence of terrorist activity" without names, provided there was "near certainty" of no civilians. By 2016, an internal review upheld their use despite admitting the US "does not always know how many civilians it kills."

Trump's first term (2017-2021) expanded them, loosening Obama-era restrictions and boosting strikes by 50% in Somalia and Yemen. Biden paused new signature approvals in 2021 for review but resumed limited ops in 2023. Now, with Trump's return, officials are adapting the model to drug lords like Sinaloa Cartel operatives, whom he has called "terrorists" poisoning America.