{"id":165085,"date":"2025-12-02T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/165085\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:34:08","slug":"hegseth-cites-fog-of-war-in-defending-double-tap-strike-on-alleged-drug-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/165085\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth cites ‘fog of war’ in defending double-tap strike on alleged drug boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited the \u201cfog of war\u201d in defending a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean Sea earlier this year.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s cabinet meeting at the White House, Hegseth said that he did not see that there were survivors in the water when the second strike was ordered<\/a> and launched in early September, saying that \u201cthe thing was on fire\u201d and citing the \u201cfog of war\u201d in defending the strike. <\/p>\n

Hegseth also said he \u201cdidn\u2019t stick around\u201d for the remainder of the mission following the first strike, and said that the admiral in charge had \u201cmade the right call\u201d in ordering it, which he \u201chad complete authority to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post first reported that Hegseth issued a verbal order for the second strike that killed survivors on the boat. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the White House said that Navy Vice Adm Frank \u201cMitch\u201d Bradley acted \u201cwithin his authority and the law\u201d when he ordered the second strike.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers have announced congressional reviews of the US military strikes against vessels<\/a> suspected of smuggling drugs, and Bradley is expected to provide a classified briefing on Friday to lawmakers overseeing the military. <\/p>\n

Asked if he supported the second strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea in September, President Donald Trump said he \u201cdidn\u2019t know anything\u201d and \u201cstill haven\u2019t gotten a lot of information because I rely on Pete\u201d, referencing Hegseth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited the \u201cfog of war\u201d in defending a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28708,65,42,43,64,40,38,41,39,66],"class_list":["post-165085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-central-south-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}