Hegseth says Pentagon gained’t launch unedited video of double-tap boat strike
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Department of Defense will not publicly release unedited footage of the U.S. military’s strikes on an alleged drug-carrying boat that killed two survivors.
“In keeping with longstanding [Pentagon] policy, of course we’re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters after a closed-door briefing with senators Tuesday alongside State Secretary Marco Rubio.
Members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees will see the footage, “but not the general public,” he added.
Hegseth and Rubio then left a scrum of reporters who continued shouting questions at the Capitol.
Donald Trump’s administration has killed at least 95 people in a series of strikes targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Pacific and Caribbean.
When two survivors emerged from the wreckage of the first strike on September 2, the commander overseeing the operation ordered officials to fire again. That order was reportedly in response to Hegseth’s alleged instructions to “kill everybody” on the vessels, according to The Washington Post, citing officials with direct knowledge of the operation.
News of Hegseth’s alleged command has heightened intense legal and political scrutiny into the Trump administration’s deadly campaign and allegations that the attacks amount to illegal extrajudicial killings, which law-of-war experts speaking to The Independent in recent months have labeled outright murders and war crimes.
Speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s briefing, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Hegseth and administration officials came to the meeting “empty handed.”
“If they can’t be transparent on this, how can they be transparent on all the other issues swirling about the Caribbean?” Schumer said.
“All senators are entitled to see it,” he added. “I also believe every American should see an appropriate version … of what happened September 2. I saw it. It is deeply troubling. … We don’t want another endless war. We don’t want to stumble into something, and given Trump’s erratic back-and-forth on this issue — I worry about that, and so do many Americans.”
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff plans to issue a resolution that compels the release of the full footage.
“The public should see this,” he said. “I found the legal explanations and the strategic explanations incoherent. But I think the American people should see this video, and all members of Congress should have that opportunity.”
This is a developing story
Source: independent.co.uk
