Good morning to our coverage of United States politics. The White House has stated that a high-ranking US Navy commander directed a follow-up series of kinetic actions on an alleged Venezuelan drug craft on September 2, not Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
Secretary Hegseth sanctioned Vice Admiral Bradley to execute these kinetic strikes. Vice Admiral Bradley worked completely within his jurisdiction and the law overseeing the mission to guarantee the ship was neutralized and the danger to the US was removed.
Amidst accusations that the defense secretary had instructed a war crime, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Hegseth approved the attacks but did not give an directive to “eliminate all survivors”.
When asked by a correspondent to explain how the attack was not an example of a international law violation, Leavitt again justified the actions, saying it was “executed in global seas and in accordance with the rules of war”.
US Navy vice admiral Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley, who was head of JSOC at the time of the strike, will provide a classified report to legislators on the coming Thursday.
Hegseth pledged his backing for Bradley in a social media post which cast the decision as one arrived at by the officer, not him.
“To be absolutely unambiguous: Vice Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a consummate professional, and has my complete backing. I back him and the battlefield judgments he has made – on the 2 September assignment and all others since. The United States is fortunate to have such people protecting us.”
Each of the Senate and lower chamber armed services committee leaders have declared investigations into the allegations, with few particulars currently made public on who or which cargo was on board the vessel.
Starting from this past September, US air attacks have struck suspected contraband-running vessels in the Caribbean region and the eastern Pacific, resulting in the deaths of at least 83 people.
The incumbent executive branch has presented no concrete proof to substantiate the assertions behind its lethal operations, and many specialists have questioned the legality of the actions.
In a related development, the revelation that Trinidad and Tobago has sanctioned the installation of a US military monitoring system has stoked fears that the Caribbean could be sucked into the escalating conflict between the US and Venezuela.
In spite of an seeming readiness to keep dialogue open, strains between Washington and Caracas remain significant as US operations against suspected narco-vessels in the Caribbean have been proceeding for several months.
The state of affairs remains fluid, with additional briefings and legislative examination anticipated in the days ahead.
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