Sen. Mark Kelly says reported 2nd strike on suspected smugglers ‘seems to’ be a war crime

PHOENIX – Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said that if new reports about a secondary military strike to kill suspected drug smugglers at sea are true, it “seems to” be a war crime.

During an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kelly was asked if killing the survivors of an initial missile strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea would constitute a war crime.

“It seems to,” Kelly responded. “If that is true, if what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command and stepping over a line that they should never step over.”

The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to “kill everybody” during a Sept. 2 operation targeting suspected drug traffickers in a boat off the coast of Trinidad. Sources told the newspaper a second strike to kill two survivors clinging to the boat’s wreckage was ordered to comply with Hegseth’s instructions.

Others in Congress share Sen. Mark Kelly’s concerns

Kelly isn’t alone in his concerns, and it’s not just Democrats who think a legal line may have been crossed.

“Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Kelly, a retired Navy pilot, said it “would be very disturbing” if the reports are true, and he doesn’t trust the Pentagon to investigate them properly, if at all.

“I think there needs to be an inspector general investigation,” he said. “Pete Hegseth, who is totally unqualified to be secretary of defense, he fired a bunch of the IGs within the department. That makes this more challenging. I don’t have a lot of confidence that he’s going to investigate that.”

However, Kelly said the Senate and House Armed Services Committees will hold hearings about the Pentagon’s attacks on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

“We’ll have public hearings; we’ll put people under oath,” said Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We need to get to the bottom of this. Hey, the U.S. military is the most powerful and effective military in the world, and we’ve got to be precise, and we have to be operating in accordance with U.S. law and international law. Always.”

Sen. Mark Kelly mentioned strikes in connection with ‘illegal orders’ video

Kelly and the Trump administration have been at odds since he appeared in a Nov. 18 video with five other Democratic members of Congress telling military and intelligence members they have a duty to refuse illegal orders.

President Donald Trump called the video “seditious behavior at the highest level” by “traitors” and said it was “punishable by death.” Additionally, the Pentagon said it was investigating Kelly and that he could face court-martial proceedings for interfering with military loyalty, morale or discipline.

Even before the new report of a secondary attack on survivors, Kelly questioned the legality of military strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats.

“The decision that he made to have members of the military use kinetic action and kill drug smugglers is really close to going over a line — and perhaps crossed it into illegal activity,” Kelly told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Nov. 19.

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