The D Brief: US hits 70 ISIS targets; Another tanker seized; Army seeks common C-UAS controller; More firms cleared for Golden Dome work; And a bit more.

Developing: U.S. Coast Guard chases third oil tanker with alleged ties to Venezuela. The vessel was reportedly fleeing the Caribbean Sea on Sunday carrying oil from Venezuela as the U.S. Coast Guard worked to intercept it, U.S. officials told multiple media outlets, including Associated Press, CBS News, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. U.S. Coasties seized their first tanker with alleged Venezuelan ties on December 10. 

U.S. forces seized their second tanker on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on social media along with a more than seven-minute video of the interception. “It was a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said on social media. That crude oil tanker is called Centuries and it travelled with the Panama flag when it was reportedly intercepted east of Barbados.  

Venezuelan officials called the U.S. interception a “serious act of international piracy,” and accused the U.S. military of “the forced disappearance of its crew,” Reuters reported.  

Also worth noting: The vessel has allegedly not been sanctioned by the U.S., according to Jeremy Paner of the law firm Hughes Hubbard and a former investigator at the Office of Foreign Assets Control. If true, that “runs counter to Trump’s statement that the U.S. would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers,” Paner told Reuters. 

Coming soon: President Trump is expected to make an announcement with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this afternoon from Palm Beach, Fla., according to the New York Times. 

New: Trump nominated special operations Marine Lt. Gen. Frank Donovan to lead Southern Command, the Defense Department announced Friday. He’s currently serving out of the Pentagon as vice commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. His Senate confirmation is still pending. 

The news came one week after SOUTHCOM's previous chief, Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, retired two years ahead of schedule amid Trump’s pressure campaign on Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. The Times previously reported Holsey stepped down after raising “concerns early in the mission about the attacks on the alleged drug boats, which started in September.”

• Additional reading: “Top lawyer for military joint chiefs told chairman that officers should retire if faced with an unlawful order,” CNN reported Friday.

Notable: On December 8, Trump alleged, “The drugs coming in through the [Caribbean] sea are down to—they’re down by 92 percent,” he said in an interview with Politico. Later that day, he said the figure was “92 or 94 percent.” Three days later, it was back again. “Drug traffic by sea is down 92 percent,” he said in the Oval Office. 

Trump uses that number a lot when he lies. After a bit of digging, Marie-Rose Sheinerman of The Atlantic noticed on Saturday that Trump uses “92 percent” for a whole lot of things, including: 

• Elections: “I won that county by 92 percent.” (In fact, he won the county in question—Wayne County, N.C.—by 16 percentage points.)
• Percentage of the U.S. shoreline along the Gulf of Mexico. (It’s really about 46%.)
• Veterans’ vote. (Estimates put it closer to 65%.)
• Farmers’ vote. (Estimates place that closer to 78%.)
• Decline of egg prices. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 12.7 percent.)
• And, as noted, the alleged decline of drugs being trafficked through the Caribbean. 

In this context, it’s notably “unclear how many of the destroyed vessels were actually carrying narcotics,” Sheinerman reminds readers. “The administration has not specified or released evidence of the types or quantities of drugs on them.” And the U.S. military has destroyed the boats, eliminating the chance of verification. 

The broader takeaway may be, “more often than not, the number seems to serve as a clue that the commander in chief might be reaching for a number he can easily remember, caring little whether it is accurate,” Sheinerman writes. Read the rest (gift link), here. 

By the way, Utah Sen. Mike Lee wants U.S. privateers like Blackwater founder Erik Prince freed up to attack alleged drug traffickers on the high seas. Lee sponsored a bill to advance this cause, which he calls “Patriots of the Caribbean,” his office announced last week. 

For what it’s worth, Lee’s critics have equated his bill to greenlighting piracy in the Caribbean and off the Latin American coasts. And back in February, Breitbart reported that Prince said he put the idea in Lee’s head.

Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 2010, President Barack Obama signed legislation repealing a ban on homosexuals serving in the military. 

Middle East

U.S. forces struck more than 70 ISIS targets across central Syria on Friday in retaliation for a Dec. 13 attack on a convoy that killed three U.S. personnel. More than 100 precision munitions were delivered by F-15 and A-10 jets, Apache helicopters, and HIMARS rocket systems were used in the strikes, U.S. officials said. (CENTCOM, Reuters.)

Jordanian fighter jets supported the attack; Associated Press has a bit more about that.

Dubbed “Hawkeye Strike,” the operation was intended to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites, SecDef Pete Hegseth said on social media, framing it explicitly as an act of "vengeance."

U.S. officials have rarely used that word, because it is not among the legal reasons a country may take military action. “Too much reliance or emphasis on the non-legal justification of retaliation endangers our ability to transparently comply with basic premises and requirements of the law of war,” Lt. Col. Dan Maurer, a judge advocate who has served as an Assistant Professor of Law at the U.S. Military Academy, wrote in 2017. Read that, here.

Rewind: “We defeated ISIS ‘100 percent,’” Trump announced back in 2019.

Commentary: “To foster Middle East peace and prosperity, help Kurdistan fend off extremists,” writes Treefa Aziz, the Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States, in an oped for Defense One.

Around the Defense Department

Another 1,000 more defense companies cleared to compete for up to $151 billion in Golden Dome work. On Thursday, the Missile Defense Agency announced that another 1,086 companies (of 2,463 that applied) would be added to the 1,014 already cleared to compete for awards under the historically large contract vehicle for the wildly ambitious missile-defense program. The list of the latest defense firms in the competition is available here. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly reported Friday, here.

The Pentagon wants a common network for its counter-drone systems. The Army-led task force is looking for a single command-and-control system that can run any of the counter-unmanned aerial systems equipment that government agencies can buy through their online marketplace. Defense One’s Meghann Myers reported Friday.

Additional reading: 

• “Pentagon fails financial audit for 8th year in a row,” Military Times reported Friday; 
• “Pentagon preps to enforce ban on companies with ‘indirect’ ties to China,” Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports.
• “Investigation underway after 26-year-old Marine dies at Parris Island,” the Hilton Head Island Packet reported Friday; 
• And “WWII Navy veteran Ira ‘Ike’ Schab, one of last remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, dies at 105,” the Associated Press reported Saturday. 

Trump 2.0

Trump’s acting CISA director failed a polygraph this Summer. Now at least six career staff members are under investigation, Politico reported Sunday. 

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called it “an unsanctioned polygraph test,” which Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting director at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the employees in question have now been placed on administrative leave, she said in a statement. According to Politico, “When asked for clarification on what is considered an ‘unsanctioned’ polygraph, McLaughlin said that ‘random bureaucrats can’t just order a polygraph. Polygraph orders have to come from leadership who have the authority to order them.’” Read more, here. 

Trump says he’s appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as “special envoy” to Greenland. “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World,” he wrote in a social media post late Sunday. 

Background: “Trump has advocated for Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, to become part of the United States, citing its strategic importance and mineral resources,” Reuters reminds readers. 

Denmark’s foreign minister on Monday called the appointment “completely unacceptable.” Speaking to Danish TV on Monday, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, “As long as we have a kingdom in Denmark that consists of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, we cannot accept that there are those who undermine our sovereignty.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her counterpart from Greenland Jens-Frederik Nielsen were united in dismay. “We have said it before. Now, we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law,” they said in a joint statement. “They are fundamental principles. You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security.”

“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland,” they said in the statement, according to AP. “We expect respect for our joint territorial integrity.”

Related reading: “Trump removes nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial positions,” AP reported separately on Sunday. 

Meanwhile back stateside, another migrant has died while in ICE custody, the El Paso Times reported Friday from Guatemala. His name was Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, age 48, and he was arrested in Florida over the Labor Day holiday. ICE confirmed his death on Dec. 5. 

He passed away amid liver and kidney complications while being held at the largest immigration detention center in the U.S., known as Camp East Montana located inside the military’s Fort Bliss at El Paso. He passed away on Dec. 3—reportedly the first immigrant to die in custody at Fort Bliss. 

Panning out: “At least 30 people have died in ICE detention this year,” which is “the highest level since 2004,” Reuters reported Friday. That figure included four more deaths in ICE custody between Dec. 12 and 15. 

Related: The New York Times reported Saturday in a 25-minute video “How ‘Turn and Burn’ Immigration Operations Unleash Chaos — and Sweep up U.S. Citizens.” 

Also in video: “ICE agent drags woman through Minneapolis street,” AP reported late last week. 

Dig deeper: From 2021, homelessness inside the U.S. increased largely due to immigration, wherein many people arrived without setting up housing. There are at least two notable reports documenting this link, including a study published in April and this September report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 

Related reading: 

• “Trump Administration Says Maryland Woman's Birth Certificate Is Fake In Dystopian Move,” HuffPost reported Thursday; 
• “Dallas Police to expand controversial facial recognition tech to less serious crimes,” Dallas’s WFAA8 ABC News reported last week;
• “Redactions and Unanswered Questions: A Look at the Epstein Files,” via the New York Times reporting Friday and updated Sunday; 
• Trump’s 2024 criminal defense attorney Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “defends partial release of Epstein files as Democrats cry foul,” AP reported Sunday; 
• And “GSA backs off planned layoffs within its technology team after court order,” Natalie Alms and Eric Katz reported Friday for Nextgov.