US lawmakers shown video of Caribbean drug boat strike, hear admiral confirm no kill order issued

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers Thursday in a closed-door session on Capitol Hill on the second strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat in September and testified that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not issue an order to "kill them all,” several lawmakers said.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Frank Bradley, commander of the United States Special Operations Command, showed the video of the second boat strike in classified briefings to the leaders of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees for both the House and the Senate.

The briefings focused on the Trump administration’s operations targeting suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, including the disputed Sept. 2 follow-on strike that has ignited controversy in Congress.

The Pentagon has faced scrutiny after a report emerged that a follow-up missile strike killed two survivors from the first attack, with Hegseth stating that Admiral Bradley, who commanded the operation, authorized the second strike.

A report by The Washington Post said Hegseth ordered a follow-up strike on the suspected drug vessel after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board. On Tuesday, Hegseth said he was not in the room when Bradley ordered a follow-up attack.

- 'There's no vocal order either'

Sen. Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters after the briefing that all of the Sept. 2 strikes were "entirely lawful and needful."

“Admiral Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all. He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail, as our military always does," Cotton said.

"There's no vocal order either," he added.

Cotton said he is hoping that these strikes against "narco-terrorists" will continue.

Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that he is "deeply disturbed" over what he saw in the video.

"The Department of Defense has no choice but to release the complete, unedited footage of the September 2nd strike, as the President has agreed to do.

"This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump Administration’s military activities and demonstrates exactly why the Senate Armed Services Committee has repeatedly requested – and been denied – fundamental information, documents, and facts about this operation," he said.

- 'Very troubling'

Rep. Jim Himes, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters that the video should be released publicly.

He called the footage "one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen in my public service."

"People will someday see this video, and they will see that that video shows, if you don't have the broader context, an attack on shipwrecked sailors.

"The last thing I'm going to say, is that the admiral confirmed that there had not been a 'kill them all' order and that there was not an order to 'grant no quarter'," Himes added.

Sen. Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described the video as "very troubling."

"I think more people need to see it, but I want to better understand the process, justification and some of the items," Warner told reporters.

Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that there is "no doubt in my mind about the highly professional manner in which the Department of War conducted, and is conducting the operations our nation has called them to do to protect the homeland from these dangerous cartels who have for too long poisoned the American people, destabilized and corrupted our neighbors, and tortured and killed thousands throughout our hemisphere.”

"I am deeply concerned by the public statements made by others that seek to ignore the realities of targeting terrorists to score political points," Crawford added.

The follow-up strike has drawn bipartisan alarm from lawmakers, many of whom have pledged to launch investigations. While the administration maintains that the strike was lawful and necessary, members of Congress and legal experts have raised doubts, with some Democrats warning that targeting survivors could amount to a war crime.

Several Senate Democrats on Wednesday filed a war powers resolution to prevent the US from using its armed forces to engage in hostilities with Venezuela without congressional approval.

Some lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also called on Hegseth to testify under oath about the orders to strike suspected Venezuelan drug boats.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that to date, there have been a total of 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Western Hemisphere with 82 "narco-terrorists" killed.