Pentagon Pete’s Embarrassing New Boat Strike Blunder Exposed
Turns out, bombing “terrorists” without due process makes it difficult to arrest said “terrorists.”
Reports indicate that Pete Higseth’s “bomb first, ask questions later” strategy, applied to drug-related terrorism suspects, is actually contributing to their impunity.
An airstrike ordered by Higseth against a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Ecuador destroyed crucial evidence needed to prosecute the survivors, according to a damning Washington Post article.
Andrés Fernando Tufino Chela, a 42-year-old Ecuadorian known for drug trafficking, was among the survivors of a U.S. strike on October 16 against a submarine that the Pentagon accused of transporting drugs abroad. Two other people were killed in the strike, and a fourth was handed over to Colombia.
U.S. forces arrested Chela and returned him to Ecuador for trial. However, the U.S. provided the Ecuadorian government with no evidence that could have led to his arrest. Any evidence that Chela was committing a crime aboard the vessel, such as seized drugs, GPS data, or cell phones, was destroyed and submerged.
The Ecuadorian government was forced to release Chela, according to the Washington Post.
The failure to secure a conviction, even for an alleged drug-related terrorist, stands in stark contrast to the 45-year-old Defense Secretary’s tough rhetoric on drug-related terrorism.
“If these people are drug traffickers and deserve to die, how can you arrest them and then release them?” Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees, told the Washington Post.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to the Washington Post, the Pentagon asserted: “We have consistently stated that our intelligence confirmed that these vessels were transporting drugs destined for the United States. This same intelligence also confirmed that the individuals involved in these operations were terrorists linked to drug trafficking, and we stand by that assessment.”
Higgseth had staked his reputation, and perhaps his job, on the effectiveness of the airstrikes against the boats. He recently found himself at the center of a controversy following an alleged “kill them all” order aboard a Venezuelan drug-carrying vessel. This order resulted in the deaths of survivors of an initial strike on September 2, an incident that critics have called a potential war crime.
When details of the incident surfaced in late November, Higgseth boasted, “Biden has been soft on terrorists, and we’re killing them.”
This “double tap” strike constituted the most serious scandal Higgseth faced during a year marked by numerous embarrassing incidents, fueling speculation about his imminent dismissal.
President Trump, 79, blamed Higgseth for the attack, stating, “I wasn’t aware of the second strike. I didn’t know anything about these people. I wasn’t involved.” However, he publicly supported Higgseth throughout the ordeal.
