House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that the U.S. military’s controversial Sept. 2 attacks on Venezuelan drug boats were “entirely appropriate” and that the two original survivors who were killed in the subsequent attack were “capable.”
Johnson made the comments after viewing video of the Sept. 2 boat strikes and receiving a briefing from the commander overseeing the mission, CBS News reported.
The Sept. 2 strike was the first of at least 22 known Trump administration strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that killed at least 87 people.
It marked the start of a new policy of killing suspected drug traffickers that has come under fire from critics who say it is illegal and unnecessarily inhumane.
Johnson reportedly said he was satisfied with the intelligence and legality of the operation.
He added that the strikes were conducted in accordance with the law and established protocol, CBS news reported.
According to the report, only a handful of lawmakers — the leaders of the House and Senate armed services and intelligence committees — saw the video of the strikes.
Lawmakers agree that two men survived the initial strike and were seen clinging to a piece of the boat and waving, but disagree on what condition the survivors were in and what they may have been trying to do after the strike.
‘War crime’
Some Democrats and legal experts argued that the subsequent strike to kill the surviving castaways could constitute a war crime.
According to CBS News, they believe the waving of the survivors could be interpreted as a call for help or an attempt to wave off another blow.
Republicans who saw the video say the men were unharmed and were trying to signal other drug vessels to continue their alleged drug use and were therefore legal targets.
Admiral Bradley, after consulting with a military lawyer who was in the room where the operation was taking place, ordered another strike that killed the man.
“Healthy Men”
Johnson reportedly rejected the characterization of the men as helpless survivors, saying of them, “They were able-bodied, uninjured, and trying to retrieve the contents of a ship that was full of narcotics.”
“The individuals on that ship were not helpless castaways,” Johnson said. “They were drug runners on an overturned drug ship and by all indications they were trying to recover it so they could continue pushing drugs to kill Americans.”
Johnson also told reporters that the US had “excellent intelligence” showing that “there was another vessel in close proximity heading in their direction”.
“It appeared that at some point they were waving their arms to indicate that the craft that was off the video that we have was headed that way and to continue their mission,” Johnson said of the two men.
“I’m happy with the intelligence, the way it was done. I think it was entirely appropriate,” he said. “I have full confidence that it was done the right way,” Johnson said.
