Senior members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees were briefed by the commander and watched video of the September 2 drone strikes.
In closed-door briefings with lawmakers today, Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley confirmed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give a “kill them all” order in connection with the drone strikes against a suspected narcotics trafficking boat on September 2, Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin reports.
Nor was there an “order to grant no quarter,” according to Representative Jim Himes (D., Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.
As I’ve previously detailed, the Washington Post report that caused a stir over the weekend did not actually claim that Hegseth said, “Kill them all”; rather, it cited an unidentified source who described that sentiment as the gist of the secretary’s directive — a written order on which Hegseth also orally briefed commanders.
With additional reporting, particularly from the New York Times, it appears that the order was to engage the suspected drug vessel with lethal force, which is what our military does when it attacks. (See our editorial.) Hegseth’s order did not elaborate on what to do if there were survivors, a matter that would ordinarily be left to the discretion of the commander running the operation — in this instance, Admiral Bradley. Hegseth watched only the first strike from the viewing area; he did not give an additional order, nor did he view the second strike or know there were survivors from the first strike.
At today’s Capitol Hill briefings, the senior members of the intelligence committees were also shown video of the September 2 attacks. As is par for the Washington course, opinions divide along partisan lines, according to the Times.
Congressman Himes said the video was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” because it showed “two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel who were killed by the United States.” By contrast, Senator Cotton, a decorated combat veteran, said the attack was “highly lawful and lethal,” and described the so-called double tap (second strike) as “exactly what you’d expect our military commanders to do.” Representative Rick Crawford (R., Ark.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, asserted that the strikes were carried out in a “highly professional manner.”