WASHINGTON(National Times)- Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they support congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a Sept. 2 attack. The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week\u2019s Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical, but they said attacking survivors of an initial missile strike poses serious legal concerns. \u201cThis rises to the level of a war crime if it\u2019s true,\u201d said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, said Congress does not have information that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations. \u201cObviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,\u201d Turner said. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Sunday evening while flying back to Washington from Florida, where he celebrated Thanksgiving, confirmed that he had recently spoken with Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The U.S. administration says the strikes in the Caribbean are aimed at cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland. Trump declined to comment on details of the call, which was first reported by The New York Times. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it went well or badly,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked about the call. The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the call with Trump. Turner said there are concerns in Congress about the attacks on vessels that the Trump administration says are transporting drugs, but the allegation regarding the Sept. 2 attack \u201cis completely outside anything that has been discussed with Congress and there is an ongoing investigation.\u201d The comments from lawmakers during news show appearances come as the administration escalates a campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S. On Saturday, Trump said the airspace \u201cabove and surrounding\u201d Venezuela should be considered as \u201cclosed in its entirety,\u201d an assertion that raised more questions about the U.S. pressure on Maduro. Maduro\u2019s government accused Trump of making a \u201dcolonial threat\u201d and seeking to undermine the South American country\u2019s sovereignty. After the Post\u2019s report, Hegseth said Friday on X that \u201cfake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.\u201d \u201cOur current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict\u2014and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,\u201d Hegseth wrote. Trump said on Sunday the administration \u201cwill look into\u201d the matter but added, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have wanted that \u2014 not a second strike.\u201d The president also defended Hegseth. \u201cPete said he did not order the death of those two men,\u201d Trump said. He added, \u201cAnd I believe him.\u201d Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee \u201cwill be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.\u201d That was followed Saturday with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, and the ranking Democratic member, Washington Rep. Adam Smith, issuing a joint statement saying the panel was committed to \u201cproviding rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense\u2019s military operations in the Caribbean.\u201d \u201cWe take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,\u201d Rogers and Smith said, referring to U.S. Southern Command. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., asked about the Sept. 2 attack, said Hegseth deserves a chance to present his side. \u201cWe should get to the truth. I don\u2019t think he would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, kill everybody, kill the survivors because that\u2019s a clear violation of the law of war,\u201d Bacon said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m very suspicious that he would\u2019ve done something like that because it would go against common sense.\u201d Kaine and Turner appeared on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d and Bacon was on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON(National Times)- Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they support congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a Sept. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n