'Not a denial': Experts say Trump's Pentagon chief could be prosecuted for 'war crimes'
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader at the National Palace, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic November 26, 2025. REUTERS/Erika Santelices
November 28, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed a bombshell Washington Post article that he rreportedly ordered the killing of defenseless passengers adrift in the Caribbean Sea following a boat strike in early September, he noticeably didn't refute the allegations.
In a Friday post to his official X account, Hesgeth referred to the Post's reporting as "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland." He maintained that it was his intent to carry out "lethal, kinetic strikes" against alleged "narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people." The Pentagon chief continued to defend the strikes as "lawful under both U.S. and international law."
"The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence," Hegseth wrote. "The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them."
The defense secretary's statement was met with skepticism from foreign policy experts and journalists. The Bulwark's Sam Stein tweeted: "This is not just a non denial - it's a quasi endorsement." Former CNN reporter John Harwood responded to Hegseth's post by accusing him of "committing heinous crimes."
"This is not a denial," wrote National Review podcast host Jeff Blehar. "He intends to brazen it out."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reminded Hegseth that nothing in the classified memo he personally read pertaining to the September 2 strike permitted "a second kinetic strike against defenseless survivors." He also hinted that Hegseth could face prosecution under a future administration.
"If the reports are true, then a war crime was committed," Lieu posted to X. "Also, there is generally no statute of limitations for war crimes."
"The United States Armed Forces and [United States Southern Command] are not your sicarios," tweeted Adam Isacson, who is the director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America. "You can't just order them to carry out illegal hits on noncombatants and kill survivors. Issue all the secret memos you want, granting immunity through legal contortions. These are still crimes, and won't stand."
Hegseth's defense of the attack on alleged drug traffickers came on the same day that President Donald Trump announced he was pardoning former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year federal prison sentence for drug trafficking. Hernández was convicted of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
'Kill everybody': Bombshell Pete Hegseth order blasted by lawmakers as 'blatantly illegal'
Travis Gettys
November 28, 2025
Travis Gettys
November 28, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, after a meeting of NATO Defence Ministers at the Alliance headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly delivered an order in the first attack on a suspected drug boat that lawmakers have blasted as excessive and "blatantly illegal."
President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief ordered a missile attack on the boat Sept. 2 off the Trinidad coast, but intelligence analysts and military leaders watching drone footage of the strike realized after the smoke cleared there were two survivors clinging to the wreckage – and the Washington Post reported that Hegseth gave another verbal directive.
“The order was to kill everybody,” said a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered another strike at Hegseth's instruction, and the two men were blown apart in the water – which a former military lawyer said "amounts to murder."
An order to strike the defenseless men "would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,” said Todd Huntley, who advised Special Operations forces during U.S. counterterrorism campaign is now director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law.
The elite SEAL Team 6 led the attack, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the matter, and the operations commander, Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, told others on the secure conference call that the survivors were legitimate targets because they might have been able to call other traffickers to come get them and their cargo.
The Pentagon has since struck at least 22 more boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing another 71 alleged drug smugglers.
Later the same day, Trump released a redacted 29-second video of the Sept. 2 attack, which didn't show the follow-up strike, but one person who saw the live feed said people would be horrified if the entire video was made public.
Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, reported to the White House that the “double-tap,” or follow-on strike, was intended to sink the boat and remove a possible hazard to other ships, and not to kill survivors, and a similar explanation was given to lawmakers in closed-door briefings.
“The idea that wreckage from one small boat in a vast ocean is a hazard to marine traffic is patently absurd, and killing survivors is blatantly illegal,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Marine Corps veteran and Trump critic who was briefed on the strikes with other members of the House Armed Services Committee. “Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, after a meeting of NATO Defence Ministers at the Alliance headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly delivered an order in the first attack on a suspected drug boat that lawmakers have blasted as excessive and "blatantly illegal."
President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief ordered a missile attack on the boat Sept. 2 off the Trinidad coast, but intelligence analysts and military leaders watching drone footage of the strike realized after the smoke cleared there were two survivors clinging to the wreckage – and the Washington Post reported that Hegseth gave another verbal directive.
“The order was to kill everybody,” said a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered another strike at Hegseth's instruction, and the two men were blown apart in the water – which a former military lawyer said "amounts to murder."
An order to strike the defenseless men "would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,” said Todd Huntley, who advised Special Operations forces during U.S. counterterrorism campaign is now director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law.
The elite SEAL Team 6 led the attack, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the matter, and the operations commander, Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, told others on the secure conference call that the survivors were legitimate targets because they might have been able to call other traffickers to come get them and their cargo.
The Pentagon has since struck at least 22 more boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing another 71 alleged drug smugglers.
Later the same day, Trump released a redacted 29-second video of the Sept. 2 attack, which didn't show the follow-up strike, but one person who saw the live feed said people would be horrified if the entire video was made public.
Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, reported to the White House that the “double-tap,” or follow-on strike, was intended to sink the boat and remove a possible hazard to other ships, and not to kill survivors, and a similar explanation was given to lawmakers in closed-door briefings.
“The idea that wreckage from one small boat in a vast ocean is a hazard to marine traffic is patently absurd, and killing survivors is blatantly illegal,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Marine Corps veteran and Trump critic who was briefed on the strikes with other members of the House Armed Services Committee. “Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.”
'Heinous crimes': Hegseth's combative lash out sparks instant backlash
Erik De La Garza
November 28, 2025
Erik De La Garza
November 28, 2025
RAW STORY
U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attend a meeting of senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparked a wave of online backlash Friday after posting a defiant and combative statement defending ongoing U.S. military operations targeting alleged cartel-linked traffickers in the Caribbean.
In his social media post Friday, Hegseth accused the media of reporting “fake news,” and insisted the controversial missions are both lawful and in compliance with “armed conflict.”
But the pushback was immediate and uniform across journalists, national security analysts and military reporters.
“You are committing heinous crimes,” former CNN White House correspondent John Harwood wrote Friday on X.
“This is not just a non denial - it's a quasi endorsement,” said MS NOW contributor Sam Stein of The Bulwark in his own social media post.
CNN national security reporter Natasha Bertrand added: “No denial here that a second strike deliberately killed survivors on Sept 2, as we and the Post reported today.”
Tufts University international politics professor Daniel Drezner appeared to mock the defense secretary, who now refers to himself as the United States "Secretary of War."
“Just call him Pete Hagueseth from now on,” Drezner wrote on X.
Joey Schmitt, a Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration analyst, noted that Hegseth “does not deny ordering war crimes.”
“The military should refuse carrying out these orders because they are illegal,” he added.
While Washington Post military reporter Dan Lamothe told his followers on X that Hegseth’s response was relief on “old tropes.”
“When there is accurate reporting that senior officials do not like, they often 1) falsely claim it's meant to discredit rank-and-file troops 2) falsely claim it's 'fake news.' In fact, it scrutinizes decision-making at senior levels of the U.S. government,” Lamothe wrote.
U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attend a meeting of senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparked a wave of online backlash Friday after posting a defiant and combative statement defending ongoing U.S. military operations targeting alleged cartel-linked traffickers in the Caribbean.
In his social media post Friday, Hegseth accused the media of reporting “fake news,” and insisted the controversial missions are both lawful and in compliance with “armed conflict.”
But the pushback was immediate and uniform across journalists, national security analysts and military reporters.
“You are committing heinous crimes,” former CNN White House correspondent John Harwood wrote Friday on X.
“This is not just a non denial - it's a quasi endorsement,” said MS NOW contributor Sam Stein of The Bulwark in his own social media post.
CNN national security reporter Natasha Bertrand added: “No denial here that a second strike deliberately killed survivors on Sept 2, as we and the Post reported today.”
Tufts University international politics professor Daniel Drezner appeared to mock the defense secretary, who now refers to himself as the United States "Secretary of War."
“Just call him Pete Hagueseth from now on,” Drezner wrote on X.
Joey Schmitt, a Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration analyst, noted that Hegseth “does not deny ordering war crimes.”
“The military should refuse carrying out these orders because they are illegal,” he added.
While Washington Post military reporter Dan Lamothe told his followers on X that Hegseth’s response was relief on “old tropes.”
“When there is accurate reporting that senior officials do not like, they often 1) falsely claim it's meant to discredit rank-and-file troops 2) falsely claim it's 'fake news.' In fact, it scrutinizes decision-making at senior levels of the U.S. government,” Lamothe wrote.
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