Hegseth said boat military destroyed was carrying drugs to the US. It was actually heading to Suriname
Stephen Groves And Lisa Mascaro
Updated ,first published
Washington: A drug boat allegedly destroyed in a deadly US “double-tap” attack in the Caribbean earlier this year was heading to Suriname, a small country east of Venezuela, to rendezvous with a larger ship, according to two sources familiar with the operation cited by CNN.
The U.S. admiral who oversaw the operation said in closed Senate briefings this week that, according to U.S. intelligence, the boat planned to transfer drugs to the second ship, but the military was unable to locate the second ship.
The US military shot the boat four times; In the first, the boat broke in half and the two survivors clung to part of the capsized hull. CNN reported on Thursday. The second, third and fourth attacks killed them and sank the ship.
The September 2 attacks were the first time the US military targeted ships allegedly carrying drugs.
But this particular attack and the broader military action in the Caribbean, which has so far destroyed more than 20 boats and killed more than 80 people, are under intense scrutiny by Congress, which is trying to clarify its legal basis.
Republicans largely supported the operation, which the Trump administration said was aimed at deterring the flow of drugs into the United States. But lawmakers and military experts said recent events were concerning and potentially violated the laws of armed conflict that protect human rights and protect American soldiers.
Operations commander Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley stated that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth did not issue a “kill them all” order on the survivors of the September 2 attack. But Democrats say the scope of the mission is clear: destroy the drugs and kill the 11 people on board.
Hegseth defended the attacks on Saturday and said President Donald Trump had the authority to take military action “as he deems appropriate” to defend the country.
“If you work for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs into this country on a boat, we will find you and sink you. Make no mistake about it,” Hegseth said in his speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum.
‘Deeply worrying’
A video of the attack was shown to members of Congress behind closed doors on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Bradley told deputies he ordered a second attack on the boat because bales of cocaine were believed to still be in the hull, according to a person with knowledge of the briefing who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
For several minutes, two men, shirtless and waving at one point, climbed onto the still-floating part of the boat.
Congressman Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said they were “adrift in the water until the missiles came and killed them,” adding that the killings were “deeply concerning.”
But Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he believed the video showed two men trying to flip part of the boat over. To him, this was an indication that the survivors were trying to “stay in the fight” and were therefore still legitimate targets.
Bradley told MPs that the rationale for the second strike was to ensure that the cocaine on the boat was not later taken by cartel members. MPs had previously been told that a second attack had been ordered to sink the boat.
According to CNN, the admiral also argued that the drug shipment may have ultimately reached the US from Suriname, saying that this justified the attack on the boat even if it did not go directly to US shores at the time of the attack.
Under the Trump administration’s legal opinion, drugs and drug traffickers heading to the United States are essentially viewed as terrorist threats and can be targeted under the same rules that apply to the global war on terror.
This is a dramatic shift from the traditional practice of viewing drug trafficking as a serious criminal activity, but one that must be handled by law enforcement, usually the Department of Homeland Security Coast Guard, rather than the military.
“The people on the boat are not combatants under the law of armed conflict,” said Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force attorney and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College.
“All they do is move drugs.”
Democrats say the implications of the Trump administration’s legal argument are problematic. “I think that this incredibly broad definition is what drives all these issues around using lethal force and using the military,” Smith said.
That prompted lawmakers to call for public disclosure of the legal argument supporting the military campaign, a nearly 40-page opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
“This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump administration’s military activities,” Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services committee, said in a statement. “This should and will only be the beginning of our investigation into the incident.”
AP, Reuters
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