U.S. Military Willing to Attack “Designated Terrorist Organizations” Within America, General Says

The commander of the arm of the U.S. military responsible for President Donald Trump’s illegal military occupations of American cities said he is willing to conduct attacks on so-called designated terrorist organizations within the U.S. This startling admission comes after months of extrajudicial killings of alleged members or affiliates of DTOs in the 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 his orders from War Secretary Pete Hegseth, made clear his position 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 had questions, I would elevate that to the chairman and the secretary. … And if I had no concerns and I was confident in the lawful order, I would definitely execute that order.”

Guillot’s openness about the potential for unprecedented military action within U.S. borders comes as the White House, Pentagon, and Justice Department continue to refuse to rule out summary executions of Americans on Trump’s secret enemies list, after weeks of requests for clarifications from The Intercept.

The military has carried out 25 known attacks in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing at least 95 civilians whom it claims are narco-terrorists affiliated with DTOs. The most recent strikes, three on Monday in the Pacific Ocean against “vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” killed a total of eight people, according to U.S. Southern Command.

The questionable legal justification for these attacks makes Guillot’s response all the more concerning, said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s liberty and national security program.

“The problem with General Guillot’s answer is that it elides the concerns that have already been raised about the lawfulness of conducting military attacks against drug trafficking operations,” Goitein told The Intercept.

When The Intercept asked if Guillot would be willing to refuse orders if, after elevating his concerns to the chair and the secretary, he was still not confident in the legality of the orders, Teresa C. Meadows, the U.S. Northern Command Media and Plans chief, replied: “NORTHCOM does not designate terrorist organizations.”

“That is one of the concerns with the administration asserting that the President essentially has a license to kill outside the law based on his own say so,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war. “That prerogative might be wielded elsewhere — including inside the United States.”

“After the military has conducted 95 summary executions of civilians in the Caribbean at the direction of Trump and Hegseth, it is not sufficient anymore for commanders to say to lawmakers that they will run any legal concerns up the chain — at the top of which are those who would be giving the order,” said Sarah Harrison, who previously served as associate general counsel at the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel, International Affairs. “Rather, to make clear they will uphold the rule of law, they should be definitive in saying that they will disobey patently unlawful orders, which include the scenario Senator Reed laid out for Gen. Guillot.”

Trump told reporters last week that terrestrial strikes are imminent. “Now we’re starting by land, and by land is a lot easier, and that’s going to start happening,” he said. “It’s land strikes on horrible people.”

When asked if the land strikes would be limited to the administration’s regime-change project for Venezuela, Trump offered a much broader threat. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be in Venezuela,” he said. The White House did not respond to a request for clarification if such attacks would occur in the United States.

Guillot attended an address in September by Trump and Hegseth at which the president told the NORTHCOM chief and hundreds of other generals and admirals that the United States was involved in a “war from within” and that a “major part” in it would be played by “some of the people in this room.” Guillot pleaded ignorance when questioned about who he might be ordered to attack. “I do not have any indications of an enemy within,” he said last week.

NORTHCOM, which provides command and control of “homeland defense” and manages military activity in North America, has overseen troop deployments in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, that federal judges have ruled were illegal because Trump administration claims of rampant civil unrest were found to be overblown or fictional. Trump has even falsely claimed, for example, that members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have engaged in hand-to-hand combat with U.S. troops on the streets of D.C. The White House has, for weeks, failed to address this falsehood.

“The founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances. Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in a 35-page opinion last week, ordering Trump to end the Los Angeles troop deployment. “It defies the record — and common sense — to conclude that risks stemming from protests — in August, October, or even present day — could not have been sufficiently managed without resorting to the National Guard.”

“Within the context of the Federal Protection Mission, forces under the command and control of NORTHCOM protect federal property and federal personnel as they enforce federal law,” said Meadows, despite the statement having little to do with questions posed by The Intercept.

The Pentagon refused to say if DTOs are operating in America, directing The Intercept to the White House and Justice Department.

The Justice Department pointed The Intercept to comments made on Monday by Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, as he announced the weekend arrests of members of what he called “a far-left, anti-government, domestic terror 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 due to the September 2025 executive order signed by President Trump to root out left-wing domestic terror organizations in our country, such as Antifa and other radical groups,” he explained, referencing National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, under which Trump instructed his administration to target U.S. progressive groups and their donors as well as political activists who profess undefined anti-American, anti-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 “domestic terrorist organization[s]” and Bondi has ordered the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,” according to a December 4 Justice Department memo, “Implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” which the Justice Department shared with The Intercept. Essayli also referenced that memo, stating that it mobilized “federal law enforcement to prioritize and counter domestic terrorism and political violence investigations.” He added, “As a result of those directives, we built this case.”

Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre did not respond to repeated requests for clarification about whether the Turtle Island Liberation Front and a supposed more militant faction known as the Order of the Black Lotus were on either the domestic or designated terrorist lists.

Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller issued an ominous pronouncement about the administration’s crackdown on dissent in America on Monday. “Following the issuance of NSPM-7 vast government resources have been unleashed to find and dismantle the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists clandestinely operating inside the United States,” he wrote on X.