War Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s first ordered strike on alleged drug boats operating in the Caribbean is now under “vigorous oversight” from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-RI) announced on Saturday.
“The Committee is aware of recent news reports — and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” the senators wrote in a joint statement. “The Committee has directed inquires to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances.”
Wicker and Reed were referring to a Washington Post report that revealed Hegseth gave a verbal order on Sept. 2 to “kill everybody” in a second strike on an alleged drug vessel after the first left two survivors clinging to the damaged boat.
Hegseth denied the story, calling it “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”
“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes,’” he said in a statement on Friday. “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.”
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The Senate committee’s inquiry only adds to scrutiny of the drug boat strikes, a tactic the Trump administration has been using for months to target drug trafficking in the region and exert pressure on Venezuela, whose president they see as illegitimate and complicit in the illegal drug trade.
Earlier this week, 13 Democratic senators requested “expeditious declassification and public release” of the legal opinion used as the justification for the strikes, which have killed at least 83 people. The Trump administration has yet to fulfill the request.