Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon will not release the full, unedited video of the U.S. military’s September strike on an alleged drug boat, when 11 “narco-terrorists” were killed, including two survivors in a follow-up strike.
“In keeping with long-standing Department of War policy … Department of Defense policy, of course, we’re not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters after briefing senators on the U.S. military’s ongoing, lethal strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
On Sept. 2, the U.S. military conducted four strikes on a vessel. The first strike killed nine people on board. The second strike, which was authorized by Adm. Frank Bradley, now the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), killed the two survivors — who, according to some lawmakers, were waving their hands. The third and fourth strikes ultimately sank the vessel, which was likely carrying cocaine.
Bradley is set to brief lawmakers on the House Armed Services and Senate Armed Services Committees about the operation on Wednesday, a congressional aide told The Hill on Monday.
Hegseth said Tuesday that both panels will view the full, unedited video of the Sept. 2 strikes, which has prompted pushback from Democrats, while some law-of-war experts have argued that it potentially violates international law.
Democrats have been calling on the Trump administration to release full footage from the strikes. President Trump initially expressed support for the clip to be shown to the public but has since deferred to the Defense secretary to make that call.
Senators were not shown the video during the Tuesday closed-door briefing.
“It is hard to square the widespread routine prompt posting of detailed videos of every strike with a concern that posting a portion of the video of the first strike would violate a variety of classification concerns,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who attended the briefing, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
He added, “It is hard to square that.”