Why Hegseth's Alleged War Crime Will Never Be Revealed
Lethal strike on alleged drug boat in Caribbean is shrouded in an above-top secret world
We will never know the full truth about the Trump administration’s military strikes in the Caribbean. That’s because the attacks on alleged drug smuggling boats are taking place under a task force of the Joint Special Operations Command (or JSOC, pronounced “jay-sock”).
JSOC, which most famously controls the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, lives in an above-top secret world parallel to the vanilla military, with its own chain of command, and often with its own set of rules.
For many in the military, and even for experts, untangling JSOC operations is a near impossibility, even from wars going as far back as the first Gulf War in 1991. That’s because Delta and SEAL Team 6, like other special operators, work covertly (often hand in hand with the CIA and foreign governments), the “operators” themselves lurking in the grey world of civilian cover and deniability, facilitating missions that the conventional military can’t do.
I’ve confirmed with senior military and intelligence officers that SEAL Team 6 had the lead in the targeted killings of those aboard an alleged drug boat on September 2. The attack has in recent days been labeled a possible war crime by many in Congress.
The controversy began when The Washington Post reported last week that War Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the military to carry out the September strike and “Kill them all,” as story’s headline blared. The article alleges that military interpreted this directive such that, after an initial strike, a second was carried out to finish off two survivors — a war crime, experts quoted in the story said.
Congress is scheduled to receive a classified briefing from Admiral Frank Bradley, the new commander of Special Operations Command (SOCOM) who served as commander of JSOC during the September 2 attack.
The fact that Bradley is testifying rather than the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) commander responsible for the Caribbean, or the Northern Command (NORTHCOM) commander responsible for the defense of America, should signal to the news media that this was no regular operation. Forget the aircraft carriers deployed near Venezuela as part of a buildup for a supposed invasion. That, again, is the vanilla military. JSOC is where the high-value target killers are located. They operate around the world, often accountable directly to the Secretary of War and the President.
To understand the secrecy (even from much of the Pentagon!), consider this: JSOC operates under a number of above-top secret “special access programs,” communicates through its own compartmented network, has its own intelligence agency, its own aviation, its own navy, and its own killer drones. More often than not, it occupies its own bases (or restricted areas on regular military bases) in locations where the U.S. does not admit a presence — a secret that host nations are more than happy to keep or not even ask about themselves.
To give a sense of the absurd degree of secrecy involved here, on November 25, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Daniel Caine went to Trinidad and Tobago to meet with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to calm nerves regarding the ongoing boat strikes. The official readout states: “Gen. Caine expressed appreciation for Trinidad and Tobago’s continued leadership and partnership in advancing mutual objectives and reaffirmed that the United States remains committed to working closely with Trinidad and Tobago to address shared threats and deepen collaboration across the Caribbean.” Translation: U.S. task forces are likely operating in the country. (Bissessar emerged as one of the only leaders in the region to praise the boat strike.)
Congress, meanwhile, doesn’t know what exactly happened and it’s nearly certain they will never find out, their pledges to get to the truth notwithstanding.
“We’re going to have all of the audio and all of the video,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker said this week, referring to the September 2 strike. “We’re going to find out what the true facts are.”
Not likely. Some basic facts will be divulged but not the secret methods and actual execute orders. When a select few like Wicker are briefed on the details, they won’t be able to talk about much of it because of the classifications involved — a system they’ve long ago blessed legislatively.
They could, of course, change the law; but that seems unlikely, to say the least. Senator Mark Kelly, when asked about the classified justification for the boat strikes, said that he had read it, that it shouldn’t be classified, and called on the Trump administration “should release it to the American people.” He himself can do this (in Congress) due to the legal immunity he has as a Senator. But when I asked Kelly’s spokesperson, Jacob Peters, if he would do so, he did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The message seems clear: Congress isn’t willing exercise its power, even in response to what politicians like Kelly say could be war crimes.
As ridiculous as it sounds, even Hegseth and Trump are limited in what they can legally say.
If the news media paid attention to the central role JSOC plays in this and related strikes, we might actually be having a debate about the broader operation, what it means, and if we should be doing any of this at all. But by narrowing its interest to solely the alleged war crime on September 2 instead of, you know, the war, Congress is missing the whole point here. They’re passing up the chance to litigate the most brazen part of all of this: the administration’s conviction that it is waging a whole new war on terrorism.
The Trump administration hasn’t been particularly subtle about its belief that the drug war is the new war on terror, combined with the fact that it is taking place in the Western Hemisphere, which they have also made clear is their absolute top priority. To this administration, the Osama bin Laden of today isn’t some bearded Saudi in the Middle East. It’s El Chapo. Rather than Al Qaeda sleeper cells of the Bush era, the administration sees the flow of illicit drugs and the narcos moving them as tantamount to an invasion, as I’ve reported in detail.
“A foreign terrorist organization poisoning your people with drugs coming from a drug cartel is no different than al-Qaida,” Hegseth said shortly after the boat strike.
Hegseth emphasized this point again in an October social media post, saying: “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people.”
If there’s a bad guy we can be sure of here, it’s the system of institutionalized secrecy that Admiral Bradley represents as head of all global special operators. But instead of criticism, Bradley has been the beneficiary of a Washington media lovefest absurd beyond measure. Here are some representative examples from just one New York Times article earlier this week:
“The master chief, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to invite backlash for speaking publicly, said the admiral was ‘a top-notch fellow’ who looked after his sailors.”
…
“Dave Cooper, a retired SEAL who served at Development Group from 1994 to 2012, said that Admiral Bradley was ‘as smart as he is ethical.’
‘If there has ever been a SEAL who is above reproach, it’s Mitch,’ Mr. Cooper added. ‘I have yet to meet a finer person, much less a finer SEAL.’”
Embarrassing. If the author, the Times’ Pentagon correspondent Helene Cooper, is reading this: have some self respect.
The love letters from journalists like Cooper seem to be cover for the true target of the war crimes investigation: Pete Hegseth. Democrats and Republicans alike have grown weary of his incompetence. They’d better act quick, for now that the belligerent Adonis has his own war to fight, more trouble, wasted resources, and controversy is sure to follow. All as the supply and allure of drugs remains the same, as it has through now 50 years of the “war on drugs.”
After the congressional briefing tomorrow, hearings, and inevitable responses from Bradley that unfortunately he can’t talk about this or that, the public won’t ever learn what exactly SEAL Team 6 did and why.
Until Congress grows a spine or has one surgically implanted by a sufficiently pissed off American public, the supremacy of the national security state will continue to dominate, as it has been for years.
— Edited by William M. Arkin
Cool cool, so a drunkard with supremacist tattoos gets to order kills that defy military law for alleged drug smuggling while the president pardons drug traffickers we've also prosecuted... Makes sense. No amendments needed there.
I just saw an article that one of El Chapo's sons pled guilty to trafficking, I wonder when we will see the pardon come through for him.
Must be a 4-D chess move in Op: Southern Spear that I'm not seeing. Absolutely ridiculous.
I wholeheartedly endorse this letter to the editor that appeared in today's NY Times. Please do not say "war crime" when it's straight-up murder.
Charlie Cooper
To the Editor:
Your article says the suggestion that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Adm. Frank M. Bradley targeted shipwrecked survivors in the Sept. 2 attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea “has been galvanizing because that would apparently be a war crime.”
No, it would not be a war crime. No responsible expert in international law could conclude that these attacks are part of a war, despite the Trump administration’s claims to the contrary.
The use of epithets like terrorist and narcoterrorist to describe alleged drug traffickers changes nothing. These killings are simply murder — extrajudicial killings in violation of United States and international human rights law because the boats’ occupants are not attacking the United States, nor do they pose an imminent threat of attack.
Whatever risk of harm they do pose can be neutralized by interdiction and arrest, as has been the practice for years. While it is true that killing an incapacitated person is an especially heinous human rights violation, the initial use of lethal force against these boats is just as unlawful.
Gabor Rona
New York
The writer is a professor of practice at Cardozo Law School and a former international legal director of the nonprofit organization Human Rights First.