The sharks aren’t attacking yet, but there’s blood in the water and they can smell it.
Politico ran an article early yesterday in which it reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s strategy for survival is the following: “Attack your enemies, revamp your story and never say you got it wrong.” The point of the piece is that this strategy is starting to wear thin. The developments of yesterday might be evidence that this is indeed the case.
Adm. Frank Bradley briefed senior members of the Armed Services and Intelligence committees of both the House and the Senate behind secured doors yesterday on the Sept. 2 boat strike–the briefing apparently included a showing of videos of the strike–and the reviews afterwards were not fully supportive of Hegseth’s story. Some were, some were not, but the divide did not fall entirely along partisan lines.
Two unnamed defense officials told The Wall Streeet Journal ahead of the meeting that Bradley was expected to tell lawmakers that he and his legal adviser concluded the two survivors were attempting to continue their drug run, making them and the already-damaged vessel legitimate targets for another attack. The first part of the strike set the boat on fire and killed nine people, the officials said. It took an hour before the survivors were visible on the live feed, a third defense official said.
Bradley, in making his decision, considered that other “enemy” vessels were nearby and that the survivors were believed to be communicating via radio with others in the drug-smuggling network, the officials said.
