War Secretary Pete Hegseth greenlit the deadly Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug-runner’s boat in the Caribbean, but did not order the killing of survivors, according to a new report that immediately set off alarms in Washington.
The New York Times, citing five U.S. officials, reported Tuesday that Hegseth authorized the destruction of the vessel, its alleged narcotics stash, and everyone aboard, but his order didn’t spell out what should happen if anyone lived through the initial blast.
Adm. Frank Bradley, who leads U.S. Special Operations Command, ultimately approved the opening strike and the follow-up hits that left 11 people dead.
The Washington Post reported last week that the later strike—aimed at two survivors clinging to wreckage—was carried out in direct response to Hegseth’s “kill everybody” directive.
Sources who spoke to the Times pushed back hard, insisting Hegseth never issued Bradley any orders during the mission and wasn’t aware in real time that anyone had survived the first hit.
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narcoterrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Adm. Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes.”
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Bradley, she added, “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.”
President Trump publicly backed his war secretary on Sunday night.
“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed back to Washington from Mar-a-Lago. “And I believe him.”
Republican leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have opened investigations into the operation, with some lawmakers warning that executing survivors could cross into war-crime territory.
“It’s a long-held rule that survivors of the ship attack are no longer combatants, and an air crew member in a parachute is no longer a combatant,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a former Air Force JAG officer, told CNN on Monday. “You’re out of the fight.”
“I don’t know what the facts are, but that’s general law. We’ll see what the facts are.”
