- White House defends Navy admiral's second strike.
- Admiral acted within authority and law.
- September operation targeted Caribbean drug boat.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt presented the explanation for the Sept. 2 strike as lawmakers said there will be legislative review of the U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The MPs referenced a published story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat.
Navy Vice Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who Leavitt said ordered the second hit, is set to offer a confidential briefing Thursday to lawmakers supervising the military.
In her remarks to reporters, Leavitt did not refute a Washington Post article claiming that survivors had survived the initial attack. Her response came after President Donald Trump a day earlier declared he “wouldn’t have wanted that not a second strike” when pressed about the event.
“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,”
said Leavitt.
“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.”
Late Monday, Hegseth posted:
“Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
A month after the strike, Bradley was promoted from commander of Joint Special Operations Command to commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.
Concern over the Trump administration’s military strikes against purported drug-smuggling boats has been increasing in Congress, but the specifics of this subsequent strike astonished many lawmakers from both parties and raised stark questions about the lawfulness of the attacks and the overall approach in the region, and particularly toward Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reported attacking of survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious concerns and merited further scrutiny.
After Trump vigorously defended Hegseth on Sunday, the White House responded.
“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,”
Trump said. He added,
“And I believe him.”
Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have raised some concerns about the news over the weekend.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke over the weekend with the two Republican and two Democratic legislators controlling the Senate and House Armed Services committees. He underlined “his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon,” Caine’s office said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday broadly backed the operations, reflecting the Trump administration argument that they’re required to curb the flow of illegal narcotics entering the United States.
Congress's committees will investigate what transpired, according to Thune. Regarding the walkout on September 2, he stated,
"I don't think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts."
“We’ll see where they lead.”
After the Post’s revelation, Hegseth said Friday on X that “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,”
Hegseth wrote.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer labeled Hegseth a “national embarrassment” after his response to critics. Schumer insisted that Hegseth testify under oath about what transpired and make the strike footage public.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's chairman, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, promised that his panel's inquiry will be "done by the numbers."
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, who also urged for the administration to share the video of the strike, said its inquiry will start “with briefings about what actually happened” from the officials involved.
“If they’ve done nothing wrong, then that video should exonerate them completely. Why don’t they release it?”
he asked.
In the House, Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of its Armed Services Committee, said he was “satisfied” following a talk with Hegseth on the attack, but that he also wanted to hear from Bradley.
Trump met later Monday with his national security staff to discuss the current operations and potential next moves against Venezuela.
The U.S. administration says the strikes are directed at drug cartels, some of which it thinks are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is evaluating whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.
Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he had just had a phone call with Maduro, but he did not provide specifics.
The September operation was one in a series taken out by the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the building of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier. The strikes have claimed the lives of almost 80 people.
An investigation into the deadly strikes has been announced by the National Assembly of Venezuela. For the first time, a Maduro administration official publicly admitted that Venezuelans had been killed in months-long U.S. military operations with the declaration made on Sunday by the Assembly's president, Jorge Rodríguez.
Rodríguez, Maduro’s main negotiator, said a panel of parliamentarians will join together to investigate
“the serious events that led to the murder of Venezuelans in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.”
What legal standards govern use of force in international waters?
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea( UNCLOS) governs reconciliation conditioning in transnational waters, proscribing the trouble or use of force( Composition 301) except for tone- defense or UN Security Council authorization. Maritime law enforcement( e.g., boarding suspected vessels) requires force to be necessary, reasonable, and necessary, with hot pursuit limited to territorial swell.
Under UN Charter Article 51, force is legal in tone- defense against imminent fortified attack, subject to necessity and proportionality. In counter-narcotics oranti-piracy (e.g., 46 U.S. Code §8107), murderous force is exceptional, reserved for pitfalls to life;non-lethal options preferred.
During fortified conflict, the San Remo Manual applies transnational philanthropic law force must distinguish combatants from civilians, be commensurate, and necessary." Double- valve" strikes on survivors threaten to violate protections for the wounded unless they pose ongoing pitfalls.