00:00I don't see how it applies to me or what it has to do with me or Trinidad and Tobago.
00:05The United States is a sovereign nation and they are free to exercise their sovereignty in manners that they seem or deem fit.
00:13I cannot be judge and jury here to determine whether they are right or whether they are wrong.
00:18Those are not within our jurisdiction or my remit.
00:21Prime Minister Kamala Pesabrissa's response to questions from the media outside of the Red House in Port of Spain about the U.S. military lethal strike on September 2nd involving a second strike on a boat that killed survivors of the first strike.
00:35The so-called double-tap strike has now become a source of controversy in the U.S. but has been defended by the U.S. government.
00:42It's U.S. action. It is not from Trinidad and Tobago.
00:45If it's happening in that manner and I don't have that information, contrary to the view, they don't tell me when they're going to strike a ship or a boat.
00:53We are not advised. We are not given that information.
00:55They're free to hold that information. Those are security issues for them.
00:59So, yes, I say it must be done within the law.
01:02And so far, I have no evidence that Trinidad and Tobago is acting unlawfully.
01:07While there has been strong criticism within and outside of the U.S. about the recent U.S. military airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean,
01:16the U.S. government says the boats being targeted were being used by narco-traffickers and contained illegal drugs destined for the U.S.
01:25I would say this, however, that if there is a boat or a ship out in international waters and it doesn't carry a flag,
01:34it doesn't carry a flag, so you don't know does it belong to TNT, does it belong to U.S. to whom, does it belong to,
01:41then my advice is that within the law, they are treated like pirates and therefore will not have the protection
01:48that others carrying a flag, identifying who they are and where they're going.
01:53So they're basically pirates at sea.
01:55The Prime Minister has expressed her government's support for the new U.S. war on drugs in the region.
02:02Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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