By John McCormack,Kevin Dietsch

Copyright thedispatch

First, start with the administration’s claim that the boat blown up on September 2 was destined for the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially said that “these particular drugs were probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean,” then later changed his story to align with the official administration claim that the boat was headed to the United States. A State Department spokesman did not reply to a request from The Dispatch to explain Rubio’s changing story. Trinidad, located just 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela, is a far more plausible destination than a 2,000-mile journey by sea to the United States for such a small boat. On September 10, the New York Times reported the boat was not even heading north at the time it was destroyed. The boat “appeared to have turned around before the attack started,” the Times reported, according to officials familiar with the matter, and “the military repeatedly hit the vessel before it sank.”