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Se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts are push­ing back against Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s claim that an un­flagged ves­sel can be treat­ed as a pi­rate ship and at­tacked in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters, ar­gu­ing that her ex­pla­na­tion does not align with mar­itime or in­ter­na­tion­al law.

For­mer di­rec­tor of the Na­tion­al Coastal Sur­veil­lance Radar Cen­tre and Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) po­lit­i­cal leader, re­tired Coast Guard com­man­der Nor­man Din­di­al, said that the Prime Min­is­ter’s claim is legal­ly un­sound. He said fla­g­less ves­sels are clas­si­fied as state­less, not pi­rates, and can­not be con­sid­ered law­ful tar­gets.

His com­ments fol­low re­newed ques­tions about the Sep­tem­ber 2 strike near Trinidad and To­ba­go’s wa­ters, now un­der scruti­ny for al­leged­ly killing two sur­vivors in a sec­ond hit. Speak­ing out­side Par­lia­ment on Tues­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the in­ci­dent “had lit­tle to do with Trinidad and To­ba­go” and sug­gest­ed the un­reg­is­tered ves­sel may have been viewed as car­ry­ing pi­rates. Din­di­al dis­missed that in­ter­pre­ta­tion.