Ramon Marks
On September 2, Special Operations Command launched a drone strike against drug boat runners in the Caribbean. After two strikes, the boat was sunk with no survivors.
Before that attack was publicly reported, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and other members of Congress released a video on November 18, reminding service members that they are not obliged to execute “illegal orders.” At the time, it was unclear why the senator and his colleagues chose this particular moment to remind troops of that rule.
About 10 days later, the likely rationale became clearer: on November 28, The Washington Post broke the story about the September 2 attack. Citing unnamed sources, it alleged that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had issued orders to the Special Operations Command to “leave no survivors” during the attack.
The accusation was profoundly serious. If true, it meant that the secretary’s order was a war crime. The US Department of Defense Law of War manual, Section 5.4.7, could not be clearer: “[i]t is prohibited to order that there shall be no survivors.” The Beltway hunt was on with Secretary Hegseth as the target.
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