The U.S. Congress is poised to give the Trump administration’s military strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats more scrutiny than at any point since the start of the operation off the South American coast.
Both the U.S. House and Senate committees on armed services have announced they’ll look into allegations that two shipwrecked survivors of an initial strike in the Caribbean in early September were killed in a second targeted attack.
Republican and Democratic members of the committees have said if it’s accurate that a strike was ordered on people who were defenceless after their boat had already been destroyed, the order could have been illegal, or even a war crime.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the allegation when it was first reported by the Washington Post last week as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory.”
But on Monday, the White House confirmed that multiple strikes were ordered during the operation in question, against a Venezuelan boat on Sept. 2.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Admiral Frank Bradley gave the order, on authorization from Hegseth.
“Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” Leavitt told reporters.
Attributing the order to the admiral is notable in the wake of earlier comments from U.S. President Donald Trump.
‘Pete said that didn’t happen’
“I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.
“If there were two people around, but Pete said that didn’t happen,” Trump added. “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
The legality of the second strike will be central to the investigations by the two congressional committees.
Until now, the Republican-led oversight committees have not used their full authority to scrutinize the ongoing military operation, which has killed 83 people in three months, according to the Pentagon’s tally.
Trump has characterized the operation as a targeted campaign against foreign terrorist organizations that doesn’t require congressional approval.
Daniel Maurer, a retired judge advocate general and now an associate law professor at Ohio Northern University, says the law on attacking someone incapable of fighting is clear.
”Whether they are narco-terrorists designated by the president or not, whether they are war criminals or not, it doesn’t matter,” Maurer told CNN on Monday.
“Killing them while shipwrecked, while they’re hors de combat — they’re out of the fight — is a war crime,” Maurer said.
The armed services committees have the power to hold hearings into the military operation, subpoena documents and call for testimony from Hegseth on down in the chain of command.
Such hearings typically put a sharp media spotlight on an issue and can result in significant political pressure on an administration, potentially forcing resignations.
Sen. Mark Kelly, the Arizona Democrat and retired navy veteran who sits on the Senate armed services committee, is promising a serious investigation.
“We’re going to have a public hearing. We’re going to put these folks under oath, and we’re going to find out what happened, and then there needs to be accountability,” Kelly told host Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Both committees promise oversight
The Senate committee’s Republican chair, Sen. Roger Wicker, issued a rare joint statement with the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Jack Reed, noting reports of “follow-on strikes” on vessels suspected of trafficking narcotics.
“The committee has directed inquiries to the Department [of Defence], and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances,” said the statement.
A similar statement promising “rigorous oversight” came from the Republican chair and top Democrat of the House armed services committee.
“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,” said the statement from Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Adam Smith.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. carried out a military strike in the southern Caribbean, killing 11 people aboard what he said was a drug-carrying vessel operated by the Tren de Aragua gang that departed from Venezuela.
Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who’s on the House armed services committee, says if Hegseth ordered the second strike as reported by the Washington Post, it would be illegal.
“I don’t think he would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, ‘Kill everybody, kill the survivors,’ because that’s a clear violation of the law of war,” Bacon told host Jonathan Karl on the ABC program This Week.
“I’m very suspicious that he would’ve done something like that, because it would go against common sense,” Bacon said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat member of the Senate Armed Services Committee says the attack “rises to the level of a war crime” if it happened as reported.
“If that reporting is true, it’s a clear violation of the DOD’s own laws of war, as well as international laws,” Kaine told host Nancy Cordes on the CBS program Face the Nation.
It’s not clear yet that either congressional committee will examine the legality of the overall military operation against the alleged drug trafficking boats.
By declaring drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, the Trump administration has given itself the same justification for the targeted attacks that the Obama administration had for lethal drone attacks on people linked to the al-Qaeda and ISIS militant groups.
A group of former judge advocate generals issued its own opinion concluding that there is no legal basis for strikes on boats carrying narcotics, saying the president has no authorization to use military force against the cartels.
The Pentagon has not made public its legal opinion backing the campaign, but has presented it to members of Congress in confidential sessions.
