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The Washington Post is standing by a report that has been facing growing scrutiny regarding the Pentagon’s strike of an alleged drug boat.
Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Adm. Mitch Bradley have been inundated with accusations of committing war crimes after the Post published a Nov. 28 report claiming Hegseth had given a “kill them all” order for a September bombing of a boat allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean, something the Trump administration had strongly denied.
“The Washington Post is proud of its rigorous, accurate reporting,” a spokesperson for the paper told Fox News Digital.
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The Post printed the headline last month, “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. ‘The order was to kill everybody,’ one of them said,” according to the story.
“A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck,” the Post wrote.
“The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.
“Hegseth’s order, which has not been previously reported, adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers. Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution.”
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According to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Bradley testified in a closed-door hearing Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order issued by Hegseth.
“Adm. Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, not to give no quarter or kill them all,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told reporters.
“The admiral confirmed that there had not been a ‘kill them all’ order, and that there was not an order to grant no quarter,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said.
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Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called on the Post to retract its story, calling it a “hoax” against Hegseth.
“It’s an insult to the American People & to everyone who wears the uniform of our country,” Parnell posted on X.
Hegseth previously indicated that Bradley authorized the additional strikes, writing in a statement on X, “Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
He also said he had not seen the second strike because he had left the room after the initial strike.
“This is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don’t understand,” Hegseth told reporters at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “You sit in your air-conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick, and you plant fake stories in the Washington Post about ‘kill everybody’ phrases on anonymous sources not based in anything, not based in any truth at all.
“And then you want to throw out really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made.”
When pressed on the comments made by the lawmakers and the Pentagon’s call for a retraction, a spokesperson for the Post referred back to its statement and declined to comment further.
Lawmakers have called for investigations into the boat strikes and some, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., are calling on Hegseth to testify.
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Since the Post’s report ignited a political firestorm, critics have pointed to reporting from other news outlets they say undermines what was initially alleged as well as the narrative being pushed broadly that war crimes had been committed.
On Tuesday, The New York Times published a story headlined, “Hegseth Ordered a Lethal Attack but Not the Killing of Survivors, Officials Say.”
“According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs,” the Times wrote.
“But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.”
The Times went on to report that Bradley “ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat,” noting Hegseth “did not give any further orders to him” as the operation unfolded.
Additionally, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz reported Wednesday, “According to a source familiar with the incident, the two survivors climbed back onto the boat after the initial strike. They were believed to be potentially in communication with others and salvaging some of the drugs. Because of that, it was determined they were still in the fight and valid targets. A JAG officer was also giving legal advice.”
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