US EditionTrump Says Survivors of Scrutinized US Strike Were Trying to Right Boat Before 2nd Missile Was Fired
President Trump justified the second strike on survivors trying to right a drug-laden capsized boat amid a campaign killing at least 87 in 22 strikes, officials said.
- On Monday, President Donald Trump justified firing a second missile at a capsized boat in the Caribbean Sea, saying two suspected drug smugglers tried to right the vessel after the Sept. 2 operation.
- The Sept. 2 operation launched a monthslong campaign against smuggling vessels, targeting drug cartels including those tied to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to stem fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
- Lawmakers who viewed the classified strike video described it as deeply troubling, with Jim Himes and Adam Smith calling the footage profoundly shaking while legal experts warned it might violate laws of war and Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley said there was no 'kill them all' order.
- On Capitol Hill, lawmakers demanded the Pentagon hand over unedited strike video and threatened to withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget while he reviewed the footage; the Pentagon did not immediately respond.
- At least 87 people have been killed across 22 known strikes, Sen. Tom Cotton supports footage release despite partisan splits, and the $900 billion defense bill includes a related provision the House will vote on later this week.
111 Articles
111 Articles
'It's going to consume them': Ex-lawmaker predicts scandal that will take Trump admin down
Claire McCaskill, the former Democratic senator from Missouri, warned Wednesday that the Trump administration’s controversial boat strike last month may become the catalyst that brings it down.In September, the Trump administration carried out a follow-up strike on a boat suspected of carrying narco...
Pete Hegseth’s Extreme Plan on Where to Send Boat Survivors Exposed
The Department of Defense didn’t have a plan to deal with survivors after launching its boat bombing campaign in the waters around central America. The New York Times reports that after a mid-October strike in the Caribbean Sea left two survivors in U.S. military custody, Pentagon lawyers asked their legal counterparts at the State Department if the pair could be sent to the infamous Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where the Trump a…
Pressure Builds on Hegseth for Killings of Helpless Boat-Strike Survivors
Democratic lawmakers are demanding that “War Secretary” Pete Hegseth release footage of a strike that killed two helpless survivors of an air attack on a boat in the Caribbean. So far he’s refused. “We’re reviewing the process, and we’ll see,” Hegseth said at a press conference in California on December 6. On November 28, the Washington Post had reported that the initial strike left two men clinging to the wreckage of the vessel. After roughly 4…
Jason Willick: How political middle ground in the US evaporated with drug-boat bombings
Since reports that the US military executed a follow-on strike on an alleged drug boat on September 2 – hitting the boat once, then hitting it again after survivors were seen in the wreckage – the administration’s allies have offered two lines of defence.
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