Hegseth did not issue ‘kill them all’ order during Venezuela strikes, admiral tells Congress

Admiral Mitch Bradley confirmed to lawmakers that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth did not order all survivors of counter-narcotics strikes to be killed — even as they had mixed opinions on whether the so-called “double tap” strike was justified. 

An initial Washington Post report had claimed that Hegseth ordered those in charge of the counternarcotics strikes to “kill them all,” leading Bradley to interpret this as orders to kill remaining survivors. 

“The Admiral confirmed that there had not been a kill them all order and that there was not an order to grant no quarter,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, told reporters after a briefing with the admiral. 

“Admiral Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, not to give no quarter or to kill them all,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said.

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Still, he said the full video footage of the Sept. 2 strikes showed that the two survivors were “shipwrecked sailors.”

“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,” Himes went on. “Now there’s a whole set of contextual items that the admiral explained. Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in the position to continue their mission in any way.”

Democrats and Republicans seemed to have strikingly different impressions of the video they’d been shown of the strikes.

Cotton said video of the strikes showed the survivors “trying to flip their boat back over and continue their mission.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., ranking member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, said, “I think it’d be hard to watch the series of videos and not be troubled by it.” 

“I am deeply disturbed by what I saw this morning. The Department of Defense has no choice but to release the complete, unedited footage of the September 2nd strike,” said Sen. Jack Reed, R.I., top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, appeared to take aim at Democrats for claiming he was “troubled” by the video. 

“Those who appear ‘troubled’ by videos of military strikes on designated terrorists have clearly never seen the Obama-ordered strikes, or, for that matter, those of any other administration over recent decades. I am deeply concerned by the public statements made by others that seek to ignore the realities of targeting terrorists to score political points. I call upon them to remember their own silence as our forces conducted identical strikes for years — killing terrorists and destroying military objectives the same as in this strike — and ask themselves why they would seek to attack our forces today.”

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“There is [another] example where survivors actually were shipwrecked and distressed and not trying to continue on their mission, and they were treated as they should be, as noncombatants. They were picked up by U.S. forces,” Cotton said.

“It’s just an example of how, of course, our military always obeys the laws of war. Our military also acts with an appropriate, lawful authority to target these narcoterrorists.”

In another Oct. 16 strike that killed two, two survivors were captured and sent back to Colombia and Mexico. In a series of four strikes on Oct 27 that killed 14, one survivor was left for retrieval by the Mexican coast guard.

Cotton said the protocol for handling survivors remains the same since the strikes began in early September. 

After reporting that a September 2 strike on alleged narcoterrorists had left two survivors who were killed in a follow-up strike, lawmakers and legal analysts expressed concern that top military brass had violated the Pentagon’s Law of War manual, which deems attacking persons rendered “helpless” due to “wounds, sickness or shipwreck” is explicitly prohibited and described as “dishonorable and inhumane.” Shipwrecked individuals are protected unless they resume hostile action or otherwise regain the capacity to pose an immediate threat.

But Pentagon officials have suggested the survivors may have been in a position to call for backup and that Bradley viewed that as a threat.

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Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he viewed the initial strike in real time, but was not present to view the second strike. He’s said he had no involvement in the decision to call for a second strike but stands by Bradley’s decision.

Bradley is now locked in a whirlwind day of meetings on Capitol Hill to explain his decision — he’s given separate briefings to the top lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, Senate Intelligence Committee, House and Senate Armed Services Committees and top members on the defense appropriations subcommittees.