Slotkin Statement on New York Times Report on the Pentagon’s Handling of Boat Strike Survivors

WASHINGTON, D.C.
– Today, U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) released the following statement regarding
a report from the New York Times
uncovering details of the Pentagon’s handling of survivors of U.S. strikes on boats suspected of drug smuggling:
“This new story about how the Department of Defense is treating survivors of U.S. strikes in the Caribbean tells us a lot:
1. The Pentagon appears to have changed its policy on survivors between the September 2nd double tap strike — in theory because there was angst about how the September 2 survivors were handled. Picking up survivors after a strike is what following the law looks like.
2. If these drug traffickers are terrorists, why are we letting survivors go free? Why not see if they have intelligence on the trafficking network? We have laws that prescribe what happens next: detain them, bring them before a court of law in the U.S. and try them.
The inconsistency in DOD’s approach to these strikes doesn’t give me confidence that leaders are thinking through these operations before they strike.”
See her post here.
This new report comes after the
Washington Post
, which exposed that Secretary Hegseth may have directed a “kill them all” order. And it comes after President Trump called for
Senator Slotkin to be hanged
for posting a video repeated the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) about the military’s obligation to refuse illegal orders.
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