– For todayNow you can listen to FOX news headlines!
The Pentagon’s Sept. 2 account of “A double-strike that kills two survivors of the first attack on a Venezuelan drug boat takes place under a refueled submarine after ABC News reported that a military attorney it was like that Launch there ADM. Frank “Mitch” Bradley authorized the next strike. The new information raises a sharp legal question: If real-time legal advice is available, what advice did the judge give when Bradley was acquitted of the second round of deadly force?
Pentagon authorities have identified this operation as a counterterrorism mission targeting members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua Criminal Network. Experts say that in a different way because the activities of the Unitedterrorism often embed jag in the center of operation to find out that the target is always with the law – supervision is not common in the court-narcotic patrols of the counter-narcotic patrols.
Todd Huntley, a former Navy Jag officer at the US Air Force Command, said the attorney’s presence would fit the bill.
“In a typical Maritime Counter-Narcotics operation, the jag does not advise in real time because those devices rarely involve lethal force,” Huntyy said. “But these strikes are handled as counterterrorism strikes. The target happened to be on the water.”
For those workers, he said, the jag participates directly in the real-time guidance cycle. “The jag works with intelligence and operations staff to make sure the target is legal, that the planned strike is authorized, and that the commander has the authority to authorize it or need to send it higher.” He insisted that the money, not the lawyers, make the call in the end. “Jags only enrich. They cannot override the commander’s decision.”
Trump announces US military is conducting a ‘fatal strike’ on a Venezuelan fruit boat in the Caribbean
A Venezuelan ship destroyed during the US Strip off of Venezuela September 2, 2025. (@realdoldonaldstrump on social reality)
The current legal dispute concerns the status of survivors during the second strike. According to ABC news, American workers believe that the two men in the water may have been looking for help, trying to bring reinforcements. The Pentagon did not respond to FOX News Digital’s requests for comment.
Under the US Law of War Manual, attacking people who say they are “attacking” is not helpful “because” wounds, sickness or shipwreck is “clearly prohibited and described as” dishonorable. ” Shipwrecked people are protected unless they resume hostile actions or regain immediate threat capability.
Calling for help does not automatically remove those who are protected. Legal experts say the main question is whether the American forces have reliable evidence that the survivors were trying to direct the majority of the war – or whether they just stuck to the rubble and making phone calls.
The US has conducted more than 20 strikes against narcotraffickers. (Trump / TRUEKCH)
The Pentagon said Bradley authorized the second strike that killed both suspected dealers, and that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was not involved in that decision. Authorities say Shegseth watched the first strike but did not watch the footage of the next strike.
Rachel vanlandingham, a former Jag of the Air Force who advised the operation at the US central command, said that “you will be surprised that there is no Jag” if the commanders consider the mission as an armed conflict. With the ABC now reporting that a lawyer was in the room, he said attention is turning to what the Operations Center understands about the condition of the men in the water.
Spec Ops Chief orders deadly Caribbean strike in ‘self-defense’ over Hegseth’s sign-off, White House says
But he cautioned that the presence of a lawyer does not change the official legal standards. Shipwrecked crews, they say, remain protected unless they take concrete steps to join the fight. “The fact that it was discussed with a jag is almost inappropriate here,” he said. “You don’t need a lawyer to know you can’t kill shipwrecked survivors. This is a good example that we use in proper military training for an illegal order.”
“Even if they’re the worst criminals in the world, you don’t kill them as long as they’re not helping and sticking to the side of the boat,” he said. “Killing shipwrecked people is a war crime.”
He also rejected the Pentagon’s claim that the survivors could have called for more boats. “The idea that the survivors wanted them to use the backup completely,” he said. “Unless they were actively shooting, they remained protected and could not be legally targeted.”
Hegseth and Bradley have continued to defend the performance. Hegseth wrote in X that Bradley is “America’s hero, a true professional, and has 100% support,” adding that he stands by Bradley’s decisions “on the September 2 Mission and all others since.”
President Trump has repeatedly mentioned the strikes, releasing a video of the second social engagement and praising the campaign against what he called “Narcoterrorists.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, left, with ADM. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, right. Hegseth wrote in X that “Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has 100% support,” and, “I stand by him and the decisions to fight you and everyone else since.” (Yasin Ozturk / Anadolu via Getty Images; USSOCOM)
With a new report by jag physical, and legal experts insisting that shipwrecked workers maintain protection without having to repeat the intelligence that the work depends on when Bradley agrees to the second strike where the second strike is agreed.
Did the jag conclude that the survivors were regaining the power to threaten? Did you do the lawyer thing? Did the task force interpret the request for help as an effective step in a hostile environment?
Click here to download the FOX News app
Until the Pentagon issues a full accounting, the next Strike Act — and the role of the military attorney he reportedly envisioned — remains highly contested.
