The Trump administration on Monday defended the legality of a Sept. 2 attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea as calls grew in Congress to examine whether a follow-up missile strike that killed survivors amounted to a crime.

The lethal attack was the first in President Trump's legally disputed campaign of killing people suspected of smuggling drugs at sea as if they were combatants in a war. It has started coming under intense bipartisan scrutiny in recent days amid questions about the decision to kill the initial survivors and what orders were issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

At the White House on Monday, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, read a statement that said Mr. Hegseth had authorized the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, "to conduct these kinetic strikes."

She said that Admiral Bradley had "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."

According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs.

But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth's directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.

Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him.


Firing on the shipwrecked survivors is illegal.

Edited: 12/01/2025 at 06:51 PM by 3rdworldlover

1. Trump and his simps don't take responsibility for anything bad, ever.

2. This is why there is an investigation. If Kegsbreath didn't give that order, then so be it. The Admiral should bear the responsibility....but as SECDEF it is really Kegsbreath's responsibility no matter who gave the order, but he isn't that type of leader.
He is, after all, a Trump simp.

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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

"Kill Em All"

- Petey "Like & Subscribe" Hegseth

-------------------------


Moved on to the new one...

It appears Hegseth did give the order.

Open murder on the open sea.

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I was right.

Still, the order was followed and like the massacre at My Lai, shit will roll downhill. Trump was already distancing himself from Hegseth saying lying Peter told him it didn't happen and he believed him. It did happen, that's beyond dispute. Now lying Peter looks like he lied to Trump. Lying Peter has already laid the groundwork for establishing that this decision was the Admirals. The blame game will work its way down the chain of command.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Yep, just like in "A Few Good Men," 'ole Col. Jessup and all the crew that followed the "Code Red" will have to face the music.

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The GOP are now:

Guardians
Of
Pedophiles

"Just following orders" is no defense since 1945.

-------------------------
"Are you a Communist?"
"No I am an anti-fascist."
"For a long time?"
"Since I have understood fascism."

-Protagonist Robert Jordan, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Hemmingway)

Admiral Alvin Holsey made a wise choice when he resigned.

Hegseth is doing wonders for troop moral.

Doesn't the president have the final say?

If he isn't making the decisions, why is he in the White House?



-------------------------
I was right.

The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and their corporate oil cartel backers have plans for controlling Venezuela's reserves.

Iraqganistan 2.0

Turns out we're the baddies after all.



-------------------------
"Are you a Communist?"
"No I am an anti-fascist."
"For a long time?"
"Since I have understood fascism."

-Protagonist Robert Jordan, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Hemmingway)

Looks like some dotard feet found the dogshit pile yet again..

-------------------------


Moved on to the new one...

A clown show, but these clowns commit murder.

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I was right.

The clown show really sucks to watch as they lie, deny, distract, delay and whine. Even Fox is trying to nail the jello to the tree in this case.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

I saw a clip on Fox that said taking naps in a good thing. I was wrong to call it a clown show. This shit is a full-on circus.


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I was right.

Edited: 12/04/2025 at 06:56 AM by Cole

Progs have bought in to the latest media hoax? What a surprise.

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I :heart; Q

Admiral Bradley told the committee that there was no indication that the two survivors tried radio anybody, or even had a means to communicate with anybody.

Also, Cotten said they were trying to flip the boat back over.
1. Kegsbreath said it was destroyed and exploded.
2. Trying to flip back over a 40-ish foot boat over is fking impossible for only two people in the water.

The GOP's stories on this are obvious fabrications.

Why didn't they have a USCG boat in the area to sweep up any survivors or collect evidence?
Why not let the USCG do what they have been doing for decades effectively, which doesn't include just killing boat drivers and who really knows who with hellfire missiles.

One thing for sure, Kegsbreath won't take any blame or responsibility for anything.
He will find someone else and make them a scapegoat.
Why?
Because that is the type of leader he is.

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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV


Edited: 12/05/2025 at 06:57 AM by Bamboo

Those ghouls watched those two guys struggle in the water for two fucking hours, probably wounded and clinging to wreckage.

Then they decided to murder them in cold blood.

This shit is beyond the pale. G-D war criminals.



"...if the media reporting is accurate, this military operation is a "dishonorable strike" that is illegal under international law and the laws of war. This sentiment and logic was echoed by former U.S. military lawyers. The illegal order also runs contrary to longstanding U.S. military doctrine and U.S. Navy Regulations governing the treatment of survivors at sea. (See, also, this analysis by Michael Schmitt, Ryan Goodman and Tess Bridgeman.)

But beyond the troubling legal issues associated with the strike, killing unarmed and vulnerable survivors is stunningly shortsighted. Killing survivors of a military strike is not just patently illegal and morally reprehensible; it is strategically reckless.

The United States, which has military forces deployed around the globe, cannot build a safer world for its own servicemembers by discarding basic laws of war. History shows that when America blatantly abandons humane norms and the law of war, it ultimately endangers its own people.

Compliance with international law - including the laws of war - is built, in many respects, on reciprocity. If the United States abandons these rules, it cannot expect its adversaries to follow them when Americans are the ones captured, isolated, shipwrecked, or shot down. And it's not just reciprocity. Weakening the legitimacy of such fundamental rules also corrodes the underlying foundation of a system that serves U.S. servicemembers time and again. As the world's most widely deployed maritime power, the United States relies on these protections more than any other nation. And what's more, illegal orders create moral, reputational, and strategic harm long after the violations of law have ceased.

-------------------------
"Are you a Communist?"
"No I am an anti-fascist."
"For a long time?"
"Since I have understood fascism."

-Protagonist Robert Jordan, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Hemmingway)

Edited: 12/05/2025 at 07:12 AM by RustyTruck

I saw it on Fox News. LOL!



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I was right.