Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley appeared for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the Capitol as lawmakers conduct an investigation after a report that he ordered the follow-on attack that killed the survivors to comply with Hegesth’s demands.
Legal experts have said such a strike could be a violation of the laws of military warfare.
“Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Senator Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.
While Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, defended the attack, Democrats who were also briefed and saw video of the survivors being killed questioned the Trump administration’s rationale and said the incident was deeply concerning.
“The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” said Washington Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Smith, who is demanding further investigation, said the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water – until the missiles come and kill them.”
The classified sessions with Bradley, alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, provided fresh information at a crucial moment as Hegseth’s leadership comes under scrutiny.
But they did little to resolve growing questions about the legal basis for President Donald Trump’s extraordinary campaign to use war powers against suspected drug smugglers. So far more than 80 people have been killed in some 20 strikes.
Lawmakers have not yet specifically authorised the use of military force against the alleged drug boats, and the Republican-controlled Congress has turned back attempts to put a check on Trump’s power to engage in the missile campaign, which Hegseth has vowed will continue. Several Democrats have called for Hegseth to resign.
Congressional investigation gets underway
Lawmakers want a full accounting of the September 2 strike, which was the first in what has become a months-long series of US military attacks on vessels near Venezuela believed to be ferrying drugs. The Washington Post had reported that Bradley ordered the follow-on attack on the survivors.
But lawmakers who lead the House and Senate’s national security committees in Congress came away with different descriptions of what the two survivors were doing when they were killed.
Cotton said he saw them “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”
He said there were “several minutes” between the first and second attacks, which consisted of four missile strikes. He said it was “gratifying” that the US military was taking “the battle” to cartels.
But Connecticut Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “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,” he said, and who “were killed by the United States.”
The survivors did not issue any distress call or other communications, though lawmakers were told it appeared the people had a hand raised, “waving” at one point during the attacks, Smith said.
Smith acknowledged there was likely cocaine on the boat, but he objects to the Republican administration’s rationale for continued attacks on alleged drug runners who may or may not be heading to the United States. “That’s really the core of the problem with all of this,” he said. “That incredibly broad definition, I think, is what sets in motion all of these problems about using lethal force and using the military.”
At the time of the attack, Bradley was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, overseeing coordinated operations between the military’s elite special operations units out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. About a month after the strike, he was promoted to commander of US Special Operations Command.
His military career, spanning more than three decades, was mostly spent serving in the elite Navy SEALs and commanding joint operations. He was among the first special forces officers to deploy to Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks.
His latest promotion to admiral was approved by unanimous voice vote in the Senate this year, and Democratic and Republican senators praised his record.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has described Bradley as among those who are “rock solid” and “the most extraordinary people that have ever served in the military.”
But lawmakers like Tillis have also made it clear they expect a reckoning if it is found that survivors were targeted. “Anybody in the chain of command that was responsible for it, that had vision of it, needs to be held accountable,” he said.
What else are lawmakers seeking?
Underpinning Trump’s campaign against suspected traffickers is his argument that drug cartels amount to armed combatants because their cargo poses a threat to American lives.
Democrats are demanding the release of the full video of the September 2 attack, as well as written records of the orders and any directives about the mission from Hegseth. None of the written orders or audio of verbal commands was shared with the lawmakers.
A White House Office of Legal Counsel memo providing a rationale for the strikes was dated after the fact, on September 5. That memo remains undisclosed, and Democrats want it released.
Obtaining further information, though, will largely depend on action from Republican lawmakers, who have majority control of the committees, a potentially painful prospect for them if it puts them at odds with the president.
Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said that he and the Senate Armed Services Committee chair, GOP Senator Roger Wicker, have formally requested the executive orders authorising the operations and the complete videos from the strikes, among other items. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied their requests for basic information about the operation, Reed said.
Republican lawmakers who are close to Trump have largely stood by Hegseth and the administration’s decision to conduct the strikes.
Many, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, see the US military operation as part of an effort to prompt a government change in the South American country. Maduro on Wednesday acknowledged speaking last month by phone with Trump, who confirmed the call days earlier.
