WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy admiral commanding the U.S. military strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but a stark video of the attack left grave questions as Congress scrutinizes the campaign that killed two survivors.
Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley appeared for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the Capitol as lawmakers conduct an investigation after a report that he ordered the follow-on attack that killed the survivors to comply with Hegesth’s demands. Legal experts have said such a strike could be a violation of the laws of military warfare.
“Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.
Two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according to a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.
The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters.
The pair desperately tried to turn a severed section of the hull upright before they died. “The video follows them for about an hour as they tried to flip the boat back over. They couldn’t do it,” one source said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was defiant in the face of criticism over his handling of strikes on alleged drug boats—including accusations, strongly denied, of war crimes—after the U.S. military announced its 22nd such strike on Thursday.
Andrew Kolvet, spokesman for the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, had posted to X: “Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean.”
After U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said it had struck another suspected drug-running vessel, this time in the eastern Pacific, Hegseth replied directly to Kolvet, saying: “Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.”
https://www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth-drug-boat-strikes-caribbean-pacific-11160554
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) on Thursday announced he will file articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is at the center of two scandals at the Defense Department.
“This secretary has to go,” Thanedar told Fox News host Josh Breslow. “He’s incompetent. He’s, you know, violated — he has committed war crimes. He must go.”
He added, “And if both parties, if Republicans are willing to look at this for the merit of this case and not just their loyalty to President Trump, this can be done.”
Thanedar pointed to Hegseth’s use of the encrypted messaging app Signal with other administration officials to discuss a pending strike on Houthi targets in Yemen as one reason to oust the Defense chief. A report from the Pentagon’s inspector general, released publicly on Thursday, found that Hegseth put the lives of U.S. troops at risk and violated department policy through the use of the app.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5633631-shri-thanedar-pete-hegseth-articles-of-impeachment/