leader The arm of the US military responsible for President Donald Trump’s illegal military occupation of US cities said it was prepared to launch attacks on so-called designated terrorist organizations within the United States. The stunning admission comes months after extrajudicial killings of alleged members or affiliates of DTOs in waters near Venezuela, which experts and lawmakers say are outright murders.
Gen. Gregory Guillot of U.S. Northern Command, a four-star general who takes orders from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, made his position clear in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. When asked about his willingness to attack DTOs within U.S. borders by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. He replied: “If I have questions, I will raise that with the President and the Secretary… If I have no concerns and I am confident about the legal order, I will definitely implement that order.”
Guillot’s openness about the possibility of unprecedented military action within US borders comes as the White House, Pentagon and Justice Department continue to refuse to rule out summary executions of Americans on Trump’s list of secret enemies, following weeks of requests for clarification from The Intercept.
The military has carried out 25 known attacks in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific since September, killing at least 95 civilians allegedly narco-terrorists affiliated with counter-terrorism organizations. The most recent strikes, three of them on Monday in the Pacific Ocean against “ships operated by terrorist organizations,” killed a total of eight people, according to US Southern Command.
The questionable legal justification for these attacks makes Guillot’s response even more troubling, said Elizabeth Goitein, director of the Brennan Center’s Freedom and National Security Program.
“The problem with General Guillot’s answer is that it ignores the concerns that have already been raised about the legality of launching military attacks against drug trafficking operations,” Goitein told The Intercept.
When The Intercept asked whether Guillot would be willing to refuse orders if he was still not confident in the legality of the orders, after raising his concerns with the president and the secretary, Teresa C. Meadows, chief of media and plans at US Northern Command, responded: “Northcom does not designate terrorist organizations.”
“This is one of the concerns of the administration that the president has a license to kill extrajudicially based on his own judgment,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who specializes in counterterrorism and laws of war issues. “This privilege may be exercised elsewhere – including within the United States.”
“After the military conducted 95 summary executions of civilians in the Caribbean at the direction of Trump and Hegseth, it is no longer enough for commanders to tell lawmakers they will raise any legal concerns higher up the chain — above all those who would issue the order,” said Sarah Harrison, who previously served as assistant general counsel in the Pentagon’s Office of the General Counsel for International Affairs. “Instead, to make clear that they will adhere to the rule of law, they must be unequivocal in saying that they will disobey patently illegal orders, which includes the scenario that Senator Reid laid out for General Gilot.”
Trump told reporters last week that ground strikes were imminent. “Now we start with righteousness, and righteousness is much easier, and this will start to happen,” he said. “These are wild hits on terrible people.”
When asked whether ground strikes would be limited to the administration’s regime change project in Venezuela, Trump offered a much broader threat. He added: “It does not have to be in Venezuela.” The White House did not respond to a request to clarify whether such attacks would occur in the United States.
“I have no indications that there is an enemy within.”
Gilott attended a speech by Trump and Hegseth last September, in which the president told the head of Northern Command and hundreds of other generals and admirals that the United States was embroiled in a “war from within” and that a “major part” of it would be played by “some of the people in this room.” Guillot claimed ignorance when asked who he might be asked to attack. “I have no indications that there is an enemy within,” he said last week.
Northern Command, which provides command and control for “homeland defense” and manages military activity in North America, oversaw troop deployments in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, which federal judges ruled were unlawful due to the Trump administration’s claims of rampant civil unrest. Found He is Exaggerated or imaginary. Trump even falsely claimed, for example, that members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang engaged in hand-to-hand combat with US forces in the streets of the capital. For weeks, the White House failed to address this falsehood.
“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances. However, the defendants have made it clear that the only check they want is a blank check,” said U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. books In a 35-page opinion last week, Trump ordered an end to the troop deployment in Los Angeles. “It defies the record — and common sense — to conclude that the risks posed by the protests — in August, October, or even today — could not have been adequately managed without recourse to the National Guard.”
“In the context of the federal protection mission, forces under NORTHCOM’s command and control protect federal property and federal personnel while enforcing federal law,” Meadows said, though the statement was unrelated to questions posed by The Intercept.
The Pentagon declined to specify whether DTOs operate in America, directing The Intercept to the White House and the Justice Department.
The Justice Department cited The Intercept comments Bill Essay, who heads the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, made the announcement on Monday, announcing weekend arrests of members of what he called a “far-left, anti-government domestic terrorist cell,” known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front, for allegedly planning a series of bomb attacks across Southern California on New Year’s Eve.
“This investigation was initiated in part because of a September 2025 executive order signed by President Trump to root out left-wing domestic terrorist organizations in our country, such as Antifa and other extremist groups,” he explained, referring to National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, under which Trump instructed his administration to target American progressive groups and their donors as well as political activists who profess unspecified anti-American, fascist, or anti-Christian sentiments.
NSPM-7 also directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to compile a list of “any such groups or entities” to be designated as a “domestic terrorist organization.”[s]Bundy ordered the FBI “to compile a list of groups or entities involved in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,” according to a December 4 Justice Department memo, “Implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum No. 7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” which the Justice Department shared with The Intercept. Al-Asili also referred to that memo, noting that it mobilized “federal law enforcement authorities to prioritize and combat domestic terrorism and political violence investigations.” He added: “As a result of those directives, we built this case.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Natalie Baldassare did not respond to repeated requests for clarification about whether the Turtle Island Liberation Front and a supposed more militant faction known as the Black Lotus are on domestic or specific terrorism lists.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller issued an ominous statement about the administration’s crackdown on dissent in America on Monday. “Following the issuance of NSPM-7, enormous government resources were unleashed to find and dismantle violent fifth columns of domestic terrorists operating covertly within the United States.” books On X.