A Fox News legend has admitted that Donald Trump faces a “big problem” if his administration ordered the killing of the survivors of a boat strike in the Caribbean.
The strike in question took place on September 2, off the coast of Trinidad, with U.S. officials claiming that the boat was smuggling drugs into the United States from Venezuela.
However, a report by The Washington Post claimed that Pete Hegseth had ordered officials to “kill everybody” onboard, leading Admiral Frank Bradley to bomb the survivors of the initial strike, as they clung to the boat’s wreckage.
Brit Hume, Fox News’ Chief Political Analyst, told the Special Report program that the legality of the second strike is dependent on the military’s intentions.
“That’s what it comes down to, is what the intention of the second strike was,” he said. “Was it to demolish the rest of the boat that had been hit but not completely destroyed, or for was it for the principal purpose of eliminating the survivors?”
“Eliminating the survivors would be a big problem if that’s what it was all about,” he continued. “If they were killed in the course of the rest of the boat being destroyed, if it was sufficiently intact caused military personnel to think that the job had not been finished, that’s another matter.”
The White House has defended the military action, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declaring that Bradley was “well within his authority and the law” when he gave the order for the second strike.
“He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat from narco terrorists was eliminated,” she added.
Leavitt also claimed that the strikes were “conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”
Legal questions surrounding the entire bombing campaign also remain. So far, the United States has carried out at least 21 strikes on 22 vessels and has killed at least 83 people in the attacks.
Although the United States is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the military’s legal advisors say that it is “the policy of the United States to act in a manner consistent with its provisions.”
That means interfering with ships in international waters, except when pursuing a vessel, or using lethal force against a boat, except in self-defence, is illegal.
The United States has declared the Tren de Aragua cartel, members of which were allegedly aboard some of the vessels bombed by the U.S., as a terrorist group.
However, Professor Michael Becker, a human rights specialist at Trinity College Dublin, told the BBC that designating a group as a terrorist organization does not legitimize them as a military target.
"The fact that U.S. officials describe the individuals killed by the U.S. strike as narco-terrorists does not transform them into lawful military targets," he said. "The U.S. is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organisation."
Tensions between Venezuela and the United States have soared in recent months, with Trump warning that land operations could commence “very soon” and that pilots should avoid Venezuelan airspace.
The president has also claimed that Venezuela is “not a very friendly country” and has overseen a substantial military build-up in the Caribbean, which includes the world’s biggest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
Meanwhile, President Nicolás Maduro, who refused to concede his country’s elections in 2024, has vowed to defend “every inch” of Venezuela from any “imperialist threat.”
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