US’ Pete Hegseth defends decision to kill survivors in Caribbean strike
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On Dec 6, Mr Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is reviewing the video but declined to say whether the Pentagon will release the full video.
PHOTO: EPA
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WASHINGTON – Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on deadly US air strikes against alleged drug-running boats off the Venezuelan coast, saying he would have made the same call as the admiral who ordered survivors to be killed.
The nearly two dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific have come under bipartisan scrutiny, but recent reports that a September strike included a second one to kill two survivors
“From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike,” Mr Hegseth said on Dec 6. “I would have made the same call myself.”
His remarks during and after a speech at the Reagan Defence Forum in Simi Valley, California, went a step further than his comments at the White House earlier in the week, when he appeared to lay responsibility on Admiral Frank Bradley, who ordered the second strike on the same boat.
Mr Hegseth praised the policy of sinking boats and killing alleged drug-runners whom the Trump administration considers enemy combatants and not criminals.
That policy has led to serious debate in Congress and among legal experts about whether they are legal, and whether the boats are actually headed for the US.
“The days in which these narco-terrorists, designated terror organisations, operate freely in our hemisphere are over,” Mr Hegseth said. “These narco-terrorists are the Al-Qaeda of our hemisphere.”
Democratic lawmakers who saw video of the attack called it disturbing and demanded the full footage.
US President Donald Trump has said he would allow the video to be released publicly after it was shown to members of Congress.
On Dec 6, Mr Hegseth said the Pentagon is reviewing the video but declined to say whether the Pentagon will release the full video.
Mr Hegseth has said he wasn’t watching when Adm Bradley ordered a second strike on the boat and had sought to distance himself from it.
White House and Pentagon officials have insisted it was a lawful use of force.
Adm Bradley, a Navy SEAL, told US lawmakers on Dec 4 that there was no “kill all” order from Mr Hegseth regarding a second strike on a drug-running boat meant to kill two survivors clinging onto the wreckage, as The Washington Post had reported.
Mr Hegseth has said he was not in the room for the follow-on strike but that he fully supports Adm Bradley’s decision. On Dec 6, he added that he would have ordered a second strike himself.
Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican whose vote was key to Mr Hegseth’s narrow confirmation in January and is retiring from Congress, called the second strike “a violation of ethical, moral and legal code”.
Mr Hegseth vigorously touted the administration’s military moves and vision in the year since Mr Trump returned to office, including air strikes in Yemen, an attack on Iran’s nuclear programme
“Past administrations perpetuated the belief that the Monroe Doctrine had expired,” Mr Hegseth said. “They were wrong. The Monroe Doctrine is in effect, and it is stronger than ever under the Trump corollary, a common-sense restoration of our power and prerogatives in this hemisphere, consistent with US interests.”
Mr Hegseth also came under criticism this week after the Pentagon’s internal watchdog found that he had endangered US troops
While Mr Hegseth called the report a total exoneration, the internal Pentagon watchdog said he had violated Pentagon regulations by using his personal cell phone to relay the plans.
But on Dec 6, Mr Hegseth said he doesn’t “live with any regrets” about the Signal incident. BLOOMBERG
