Democrats call for releasing classified video of deadly boat attacks

WASHINGTON – Top Democrats called on Dec 7 for the release of classified video of the US military’s first operation targeting a boat in the Caribbean in early September, an attack that has faced heavy scrutiny in part for its follow-up strike that killed two survivors.

Democrats and Republicans have offered starkly different descriptions of the video, which was seen by some members of Congress but has not been made public.

Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said it was “simply not accurate” that the video of the Sept 2 strike on the boat carrying 11 individuals
showed the survivors trying to flip a capsized boat, rescue its cargo and continue trafficking drugs, as Republicans in Congress have maintained.

“It seems pretty clear they don’t want to release this video because they don’t want people to see it, because it’s very, very difficult to justify,” Mr Smith, who saw the footage last week, said in an interview with ABC’s This Week on Dec 7.

Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who, like Mr Smith, saw the video in a closed-door briefing last week, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Dec 7 that the two survivors “were barely alive, much less engaging in hostilities”, when the follow-up strike took place.

“When you actually watch the video, you realise they don’t have a radio,” he said. “They’re barely hanging on.”

Top Democrats, including Mr Himes, have said they are confident in US intelligence indicating that the boats struck in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific were involved in drug trafficking. But Mr Himes said on Dec 7 that he did not believe the Trump administration knew the identity of all 11 people killed in the Sept 2 attack on the boat.

President Donald Trump said Dec 3 that he would have “no problem” making the classified video public. But Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he might not release the footage because he did not want to “compromise sources and methods”.

“We’re reviewing the process, and we’ll see,” Mr Hegseth said at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Dec 6.

Mr Smith pushed back on Hegseth’s reasoning, saying the video was “no different than any of the dozen plus videos” that Mr Hegseth and the Defence Department have posted on social media. NYTIMES