READING, Pa.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0 A U.S. strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat near Venezuela and, according to multiple sources, a reported second strike that killed survivors has set off a political firestorm in Washington.<\/p>\n
The controversy is growing in part because the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela, raising questions about the legal authority behind the operation.<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the mission, saying the strikes are part of a broader effort to target drug-smuggling networks in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
“We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats\u2026 and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they\u2019ve been poisoning the American people,” Hegseth said during a recent Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, who recently appeared in a viral video reminding service members they can refuse unlawful orders, says what’s emerging now highlights why that message was important.<\/p>\n
“If you assume that this war is a legal war, that would be considered to be a war crime,” Houlahan, who represents parts of Berks and Chester counties, said. “If you assume that this is not a legal war, it’s a murder.”<\/p>\n
Hegseth, however, maintains that the operation, including the decision to sink the boat, was lawful and carried out under proper command authority.<\/p>\n
“Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat…and it was the right call. We have his back,” he said.<\/p>\n
Houlahan says the next step is ensuring full transparency.<\/p>\n
“We don’t really know. We don’t have all the information now,” she said. “But what we have is Congress\u2026the ability in Congress to provide oversight.”<\/p>\n
Congressional committees in both chambers have now requested records, intelligence and any video of the strike as investigations move forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0 A U.S. strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat near Venezuela and, according to multiple sources, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[17670,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-51875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-chrissy-houlahan","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}