Officials from the Pentagon reportedly admitted that they were unable to verify who was on alleged drug boats before launching strikes killing everyone aboard the vessels. After carrying out strikes on more than a dozen boats in the Pacific and Caribbean, the Pentagon gave lawmakers from both partie...
  • Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    2·
    3 days ago

    They still have to give some veneer of accountability to Congress to keep the Republican Representatives in line. This wasn’t a Pentagon spokesperson going to the media, this was a legislator talking to the media after being briefed by the Pentagon.

    “They said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes,” Rep. Sarah Jacobs (R-CA) told CNN following the briefing.

    The lawmaker pointed to the Pentagon’s admission to explain why the Trump administration “could not actually hold or try the individuals that survived one of the attacks is because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.”