The Trump administration, through Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, has decided not to release to the public the complete, top-secret video of a September 2 U.S. military strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, including a disputed second strike on survivors, even as lawmakers from both parties press for greater transparency over the operation.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on December 16 that the Trump administration will not make public the full, unedited video of U.S. forces’ September 2 strikes on a suspected drug-running boat in the Caribbean, citing longstanding War Department and Defense Department policies governing top-secret material, according to the Daily Wire report.
Hegseth spoke to reporters after he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a classified, closed-door briefing to senators. He said the complete video would be shown only to members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Wednesday, December 17.
“In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course we’re not going to release a top-secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth said, according to the Daily Wire.
The September 2 operation targeted a suspected drug boat that U.S. officials say was transporting narcotics that the Trump administration believed were ultimately bound for American shores. The attack involved an initial strike and a second strike ordered after survivors were seen in the water. The Daily Wire reports that the strikes killed 11 suspected “narcoterrorists.” The second strike was authorized by Admiral Frank Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, who is also scheduled to brief the Armed Services Committees.
Hegseth praised Bradley’s handling of the mission, saying the admiral “has done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls,” according to the Daily Wire article.
President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he had “no problem” with the War Department releasing “whatever” it had from the mission. But last week he reversed course, saying, “Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me,” effectively deferring the decision to his War secretary, the outlet reports.
Shortly after the September 2 strike, the administration released a 29-second video clip of the operation. The publicly released footage shows the attack on the suspected drug boat but omits the second strike on survivors, raising questions among some lawmakers as to why that follow-up strike was necessary.
Members of both parties in Congress have urged the administration to provide more transparency about the mission. Some Democrats have gone further, arguing that ordering a second strike after survivors were spotted in the water could constitute a war crime, the Daily Wire reports.
Several lawmakers have already seen classified footage of the second strike. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said he would not object to releasing the video publicly but acknowledged that officials might want to keep it classified so as not to reveal U.S. tactics to drug cartels. “It’s not gruesome. I didn’t find it distressing or disturbing,” Cotton said. “It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we’ve seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years,” according to the Daily Wire.
House Democrat Adam Smith, who also viewed the video of the second strike, described it as “deeply disturbing,” the outlet reports.
According to the Daily Wire’s tally, nearly 100 suspected drug-runners have been killed in at least 25 U.S. strikes ordered by the Trump administration in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean since September. The most recent strike, carried out on Monday, December 15, killed eight men and destroyed three boats that U.S. officials said were engaged in narco-trafficking.
The growing list of operations, combined with the administration’s refusal to release the full September 2 footage, has kept tensions high on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers continue to debate how much of the campaign’s underlying intelligence and video evidence should be made public.
