In early September I wrote a piece on the first lethal strike on a small boat in the Caribbean carried out by the U.S. entitled “On the Presidents Orders, We Blew it Up.” The administration released grainy video of the attack as officials, including the President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense (War) celebrated the event as a success. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went on Fox News the morning after the attack, proudly stating:
I watched it live. We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented.
Eleven people, declared without confirmation or evidence by the administration to be narco-terrorists, were killed in the strike.
Since then, despite numerous questions about the legality, constitutionality, and efficacy of these actions, the strikes off the coast of Venezuela have continued unabated.
As of today there have been a reported 20 strikes by the US military that have killed 83 people. As the death toll has grown, the questions I raised in my September 7 piece have mounted, as have calls for more transparency from the administration.
Thanks to the good work of The Washington Post and The Intercept, additional details regarding these attacks have emerged recently. This includes evidence which suggests that Hegseth may (this is unsubstantiated as of yet) have played a role in ordering the second, lethal strike against survivors clinging to rafts in the ocean water.
If so, legal experts argue this constitutes a war crime (even if you accept the administration’s suggestion we are at war with Venezuela, which I do not) and the penalties for it are serious, life in prison or death. If like me, you do not accept that these are enemy combatants, and even if they were criminals doing exactly what the administration has said (without proof at this point) it is murder under both US and international law. In the US we do not use lethal force to kill suspected drug runners, particularly those floating defenselessly in the water. As noted in my previous column, we do not attack first than ask questions later for many reasons, including the fact that data shows 25% of the time our information regarding who is on a boat is wrong. Sometimes those on the boats are innocent civilians. This is why, as a law abiding country, we have follow procedures to stop and search suspected vessels, which allows us to take action if anything illicit is uncovered.
Since these serious questions have been raised, Hegseth - a father/step-father of seven children - has responded defiantly; including on social media where on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend he turned to a popular children’s book character to defend his and the administrations actions.
In response, the Toronto-based Kids Can Press which publishes the Franklin books released a statement condemning the post. Franklin, the wrote is a
beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.
As questions have mounted and the Republican led House and Senate have promised an investigation into the strike, both Trump and Hegseth have tried to minimize their roles in and knowledge of the attack. During a cabinet meeting yesterday, Hegseth said he left for a meeting before the second attack occurred and that the person responsible for the strike was Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the commanding officer who oversaw the mission.
I watched that first strike live, as you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around ... a couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made ... the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat… [I ] did not personally see survivors, the thing was on fire and exploded. This is called the fog of war.
Bradley - a respected Admiral who many say is being scapegoated by the White House and Secretary - is scheduled to give his side of the story to House and Senate investigators when he speaks with them this week.
In the meantime and in addition to exercising its important oversight function, Congress should also put a stop to all boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela until they get answers regarding the strike in early September, as well as those carried out subsequently. This was made all the more important this weekend when it was learned that at the same time we were attacking boats as part of a drug war, the president was busy issuing a pardon for one of the most notorious drug runners in the Western hemisphere, the former President of Honduras, who had been sentenced to 45 years in jail for “creating a cocaine superhighway to the United States.”
