Top Dem Says Video of Military 'Attacking Shipwrecked Sailors' Among 'Most Troubling Things' He Has Ever Seen
"Two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, were killed by the United States."
US Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, expressed horror on Thursday after watching a video of the September 2 double-tap strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking to reporters after a briefing on the strike delivered by Adm. Frank Bradley, Himes (D-Conn.) called the video he saw of the attack "one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service."
Himes proceeded to describe the video, which showed the US military firing missiles at two men who had survived an initial attack on their vessel and who were floating in the water while clinging to debris.
"You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, [who] were killed by the United States," he said.
Himes then started to walk away before a reporter asked him to describe more of what he saw in the video. The Connecticut Democrat then said the video showed a clear "impermissible action," according to the laws of armed conflict.
"Any American who sees the video that I saw will see its military attacking shipwrecked sailors," he said. "Now, there's a whole set of contextual items that the admiral explained. Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in position to continue their mission in any way... People will someday see this video and they will see that that video shows, if you don't have the broader context, an attack on shipwrecked sailors."
Himes finished his talk with reporters by saying that Bradley told lawmakers there had not been a "kill them all" or “no quarter” order given to him by higher-ups. Asked by a reporter if he thought the full video should be released to the public, Himes said, "I do."
Himes' reaction to the video stood in stark contrast to the reaction of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who praised the military for its actions.
According to HuffPost reporter Jen Bendery, Cotton described the strikes on the two survivors as "righteous strikes" that were "entirely lawful."
Cotton also claimed that the video showed "two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs, bound for the United States, back over, so they could stay in the fight."
Reports from the US government and the United Nations have not identified Venezuela as a significant source of drugs that enter the United States, and the country plays virtually no role in the trafficking of fentanyl, the primary cause of drug overdoses in the US.
Additionally, many legal scholars have said that a strike on the two men who survived the initial attack on the boat is very likely either an act of murder or a war crime, regardless of whether they were intending to traffic illegal drugs in the US.
