House Speaker Mike Johnson, after viewing a video of the U.S. military’s controversial Sept. 2 boat strikes and receiving a briefing from the commander who oversaw the mission, said Thursday that two initial survivors who were killed in a follow-on strike were “able-bodied,” and the attacks were “entirely appropriate.”
He reviewed the classified video of the follow-on strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat and was briefed by Adm. Frank Bradley on the operation. Afterward, Johnson told reporters he’s satisfied with the intelligence and legality of the operation and said the strikes were conducted in accordance with the law and established protocol.
Only a handful of lawmakers — the leaders of the House and Senate armed services and intelligence committees — have seen the video of the strikes. The lawmakers agree that two men survived the initial strike and were seen clinging to a piece of the boat and waving, but they disagree about the condition of the survivors and what they may have been trying to do after the strike.
Some Democrats and legal experts have argued that a follow-up strike to kill shipwrecked survivors could constitute a war crime. They believe the waving by the survivors could be interpreted as a call for help or an attempt to wave off another strike. Republicans who have seen the video say the men were uninjured and trying to signal other drug vessels so they could continue their alleged drug running and were therefore legal targets.
Adm. Bradley, after consulting a military lawyer who was in the room where the operation was being conducted, ordered another strike that killed the men.
Johnson rejected characterizations of the men as helpless survivors and said of them, “They were able-bodied, they were not injured, and they were attempting to recover the contents of the boat, which was full of narcotics.”
“The individuals on that vessel were not helpless castaways,” Johnson said. “They were drug runners on a capsized drug boat, and by all indications, attempting to recover it so they could continue pushing drugs to kill Americans.”
Johnson also told reporters the U.S. had “exquisite intelligence” showing “there was another vessel in close proximity that was headed their direction.”
“They seemed to be waving their arms at some point to indicate that that vessel that was off outside of the video that we have was headed that way, and so that they could continue their mission,” Johnson said of the two men.
He said of the operation, “I’m satisfied with the intelligence, with the way that this was conducted. I think it was entirely appropriate.” Johnson referred to Bradley as “one of the most honorable men serving in the U.S. military,” and he said that legal counsel had been consulted “at every step of this operation, and when the secondary strikes were made, it followed the law; it followed protocol.”
“I’m fully confident that it was done the right way,” Johnson said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-johnson-boat-strike-video-survivors-able-bodied-venezuela/
