Video footage of a U.S. military strike on alleged drug smugglers on a boat in the Caribbean shows two people stranded and “in clear distress” after their boat was “destroyed” in a Sept. 2 strike, a leading House Democrat said Thursday after meeting with the Navy admiral who oversaw the mission.
Rep. Jim Himes (Connecticut), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, described the footage that was shown during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”
The meeting in which the footage was shown was part of a series taking place on Thursday with Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the U.S. Special Operations commander who oversaw the Sept. 2 attack on a boat from Venezuela, alleged to be smuggling drugs. The operation killed 11 people, including two survivors who died in a second strike.
Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, were among the first lawmakers to publicly express their concerns about the strikes last week. Each said they had no comment when leaving Thursday’s meeting with Bradley.
Bradley was expected to tell lawmakers that he considered the survivors who clung to the wreckage in the Caribbean Sea after the initial strike to be viable targets, not shipwrecked, defenseless mariners, said a person familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private or otherwise sensitive conversations.
The Washington Post reported Friday that Bradley ordered a second strike after survivors were identified to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spoken directive before the first strike to kill everybody.
The four-star head of U.S. Special Operations Command is scheduled to meet with top Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate armed services committees and each chamber’s Intelligence Committee. Lawmakers intend to ask the admiral who ordered the second strike on the damaged vessel and about the extent of Hegseth’s involvement in the operation, people familiar with the matter said.
Bradley is expected to tell lawmakers that U.S. personnel observing the Sept. 2 operation believed the survivors possessed communications equipment and might have been capable of calling others for help recovering their cargo, although it is unclear whether they made contact with anyone, said a person familiar with the admiral’s plans. This person added that the survivors were observed in live surveillance footage dragging bundled narcotics back aboard the remains of the vessel.
The military’s assessment, this person said, was that the survivors appeared singularly focused on their goal — to transport drugs — even minutes after their boat erupted in flames, killing several other occupants. Lawmakers are likely to scrutinize that suggestion along with the extent of Hegseth’s involvement and which of the operation’s core objectives — kill the suspects, destroy their boat and sink it — took precedence when Bradley weighed his next moves once it was apparent that people had survived the initial strike.
Bradley is meeting with lawmakers at a time when Republican-led committees are escalating their oversight over Hegseth and the U.S. military’s targeting of alleged drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere, part of a campaign that has included nearly 20 strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September.
Lawmakers and law-of-war experts have questioned whether a war crime was committed, and two congressional panels have opened inquiries to determine whether Hegseth or Bradley might be culpable for orders they issued during the operation.
Hegseth and members of the Trump administration have offered evolving explanations for what happened during the operation since the second strike was revealed. In recent days, the defense secretary has sought to distance himself from the controversy, saying that he left the room where live footage of the operation was being streamed after the first strike and that he heard about the second strike hours later.
Hegseth has placed the responsibility of the second strike on Bradley and defended the admiral’s decision. Hegseth said at a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday that Bradley “made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.”
Bradley’s meetings on Capitol Hill could be the first step toward a more formal investigation, lawmakers and congressional aides said. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also expected to attend, two people said.
While some Republicans have continued to defend Hegseth’s leadership, several members of Congress and aides have said Republican support for the secretary and other top Pentagon officials has atrophied. Hegseth’s ability to lead the department, some people said, could be weakened even if Congress ends up clearing him of wrongdoing in the boat strike inquiries.
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