Raw video of second strike on drug boat called | Political News

Jim Himes, a Democratic Congressman on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday that the video of the Pentagon’s double-tap strikes on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean is ‘deeply, deeply troubling.’

Himes, one of the handful of lawmakers briefed on the strikes by Admiral Frank Bradley, said it’s clear that the U.S. forces focused survivors who posed no menace to American security. Lawmakers had been shown the united video footage of the episode.

“I reviewed the video, and it’s deeply, deeply troubling,” Himes said. “The fact is that we killed two people who were in deep distress and had neither the means nor obviously the intent to continue their mission.”

Bradley, the top of U.S. Special Operations Command, who ordered the follow-up strike against survivors of the initial strike, declined to remark as he left the assembly. He is also assembly individually with the bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” Himes said. He added: “You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who are killed by the United States.”

The Washington Post first reported that Bradley directed a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s order that no one be left alive.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing three Pentagon officials, surveillance video of the operation did not reveal two survivors until an hour after the initial hit, after Hegseth stopped monitoring the video feed, leaving Bradley to decide if the pair should be considered combatant subject to further attacks or to order a rescue attempt.

Bradley ordered the additional strikes after noting that other suspected drug boats were nearby and the survivors were thought to be attempting to communicate with their cohorts by radio, the officials told the Journal.

The Post’s report of the additional strikes to eliminate survivors, reported Nov. 28, triggered an uproar in Washington.

On Tuesday, the New York Times followed up with a report that Hegseth’s initial order did not specify what should happen if anyone survived the initial strike.

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On Wednesday, President Trump indicated that he would support releasing full surveillance video of the Sept. 2 strike, of which only snippets have been made public.

“Whatever they have, we will certainly release,” said Trump.

The U.S. has carried out at least 21 strikes on suspected drug vessels working in the Caribbean, miles away from the Venezuelan coast. The strikes have killed at least 83 people in latest months.

The Trump administration has provided no concrete evidence to assist the allegations behind its marketing campaign.

“You will find that this is war,” the president said on Wednesday. “They were killing our people … we know where they are, we know where they manufacture it, we know where they put it all together. I think you will see it very soon on land.”