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The U.S. seized an oil tanker near Venezuela this week, all while the Democrats have been busy proving that another one of their top priorities is protecting narco terrorists running drugs by boat for the cartels. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner posts, "So they can seize an oil tanker, but not a drug boat?" He could have easily said, "So they can blow up a drug boat, but not an oil tanker," and looked just as stupid. Warner was still butthurt on Friday over the United States blowing narco-terrorists out of the water. According to ABC News, Warner revealed that the...

United States Southern Command on Monday announced that Joint Task Force Southern Spear took out three narcotrafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific. A total of eight “narco-terrorists” were killed in the strikes. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” US SOUTHCOM said. Video from the strikes shows massive explosions on each boat, turning them into burning piles of rubble. WATCH: US Strikes More Venezuelan Drug Boats US Southern Command said in a statement on X, On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task...

United States Southern Command on Monday announced that Joint Task Force Southern Spear took out three narcotrafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific. A total of eight “narco-terrorists” were killed in the strikes. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” US SOUTHCOM said. Video from the strikes shows massive explosions on each boat, turning them into burning piles of rubble. WATCH: VIDEOS AT LINK.................... US Strikes More Venezuelan Drug Boats US Southern Command said in a statement on X, On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete...

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) gave the very strong impression that she had personally viewed a classified video of a suspected narco-terrorist drug boat involved in an alleged “double tap” strike during an interview with CNN.Actually, she did more than give the impression. She flat-out claimed she watched the video. With her own eyes.Duckworth described it as “deeply disturbing” during an appearance on CNN's “State of the Union” Sunday, accusing War Secretary Pete Hegseth of committing “essentially murder” and a potential war crime.When host Dana Bash asked her if she had viewed the video, she did not waver.“I have seen the...

Once again, the United States is using lethal force off its shores. In recent weeks, American drones and warships have sunk or disabled a string of speedboats in international waters off Venezuela. Washington says the vessels belonged to narcoterrorist networks tied to the Maduro regime and Tren de Aragua and that they were carrying cocaine and fentanyl precursors bound for the United States. At least 83 alleged traffickers and others are dead. Caracas calls this extrajudicial murder. Human-rights groups call it assassination. Cable-news panels and UN press releases are already rehearsing the same ritual question: Is this legal under international...

“War criminal!” exploded social media last Friday when the Washington Post released a purported “bombshell” revelation about Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The paper alleged that Hegseth had ordered a second strike to kill drug smugglers belonging to a designated terrorist organization who had survived the first American attack on a Venezuelan boat on Sept. 2. The story was based on two anonymous sources who, if they indeed exist, claimed to have knowledge of the War Department’s workings on the matter. On Sunday, the Post’s story was contradicted by President Trump, who told reporters Hegseth had authorized no second strike....

Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley told lawmakers today that there was no “kill them all” order on an alleged drug boat in September. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all.” Cotton also said the video of the strike showed the two survivors “trying to flip their boat back over and continue their mission.” The Democrats, on the other hand, tried to portray the alleged drug runners as “shipwrecked sailors.” From Fox News: Still, [Rep. Jim] Himes said the...

The week-old media frenzy over the sinking of a drug-running speedboat by the U.S. military in international waters on September 2 showed the first signs of winding down today. The issue was driven by a Washington Post account that was as much a paint-by-numbers narrative and a Rorschach test for your feelings on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as it was investigative reporting; see Washington Post Accuses Pete Hegseth of 'Illegal Order' to Kill Drug Runners, but Is It Real? – RedState. The article claimed that Hegseth instructed military commanders to kill "[t]wo survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck."...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing bipartisan scrutiny over his reported order to strike a boat in the Caribbean a second time, killing two survivors who were clinging to the ship’s wreckage on Sept. 2. The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth issued an order to “kill everybody” after the initial strike, the first of what is now more than 20 such attacks, did not immediately kill all 11 of the people on board the vessel, leading the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack to order a second strike. Some Democrats and a senior Republican said Sunday the strike was...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted a cartoon meme Sunday about the Trump administration’s military campaign targeting South American drug boats that drew outrage from liberals upset about the attacks. The post has gone viral with over five million views as of late Sunday night. Hegseth posted a cartoon meme of Canadian children’s book character Franklin the Turtle titled “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists”, that features Franklin on a military helicopter firing on drug boats, with the message, “For your Christmas wish list”: Biden Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, who worked for SecDef Lloyd Austin, posted, “Imagine any other SecDef posting...

An explosive Washington Post report, the subject of so much discussion the past two days, says that, in the first missile strike the Trump Defense Department carried out against operatives of a boat suspected of transporting narcotics on the high seas off Venezuela, two survivors were rendered shipwrecked. As they clung to the wreckage, the U.S. commander ordered a second strike, which killed them. If this happened as described in the Post report, it was, at best, a war crime under federal law. I say “at best” because, as regular readers know, I believe the attacks on these suspected drug...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) claimed the Trump administration’s first military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean was a “war crime.” Host Dana Bash said, “I want to turn to new questions around the first U.S. military strike in September on a ship that the administration says was carrying drugs. Now, sources tell CNN, after the missile struck the boat, there were survivors and that a second strike was launched to kill anyone who was left. Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending the move, saying it is lawful under both U.S. and...

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) issued a statement Saturday vowing to conduct “vigorous oversight” on Caribbean strikes after a report surfaced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to “kill everybody” aboard an alleged drug vessel. “The Committee is aware of recent news reports — and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” the senators wrote in a joint statement. “The Committee has directed inquires to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to...

The US military carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. That September strike was the first in what became a regular series of attacks on alleged drug boats. While the first strike appeared to disable the boat and cause deaths, the military assessed there were survivors, according to the sources. The second attack killed the remaining crew on board, bringing the total death toll to 11, and sunk the ship.

As U.S. military operations continue on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, taking out drug-smuggling boats, the left has been dining out on the absurd claim that the U.S. Navy's targets are nothing more than fishing boats, filled with humble fishermen. . . . I'm not sure why they did this, but the Wall Street Journal decided to interview a few, and well, yes, they are drug dealers.

The US Navy already has at least 13 surface warships and a nuclear-powered submarine operating in the region. What's Going on? Venezuela has been on tenterhooks for weeks, waiting as the United States gathers an armada of warships. The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford , looks likely to arrive in the Caribbean from the Mediterranean early next week to join the assortment of destroyers, frigates, amphibious assault vessels and a nuclear-powered submarine. No one seems to know exactly what this magnificent display of American naval firepower is all about. Has it been sent to destroy the...

The U.S. military killed six people on Sunday in two more strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday. The latest strikes raised the death toll in the campaign to 76 people in 19 attacks in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea since early September. In a post on social media, Mr. Hegseth cited “intelligence” and included two short video clips of the bombings of two separate boats that he said were traveling “along a known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific.” One of the boats appeared to...

Despite detailed photographic evidence to the contrary, many liberals continue to assert that the Venezuelan boats recently destroyed by the U.S. Navy are merely fishing, not drug, boats. The Associated Press has jumped into the fray and in a roundabout "nuanced" way admitted that the destroyed boats are indeed drug boats. The "nuance" comes in via the AP asserting that among the crews of the drug boats, some worked mostly as fishermen or other low paying jobs with drug smuggling only as a side gig to boost their income. The AP reluctantly made the 'nuanced' admission that the destroyed boats...

The State Prosecutor's Office has submitted a request to the Haifa District Court to permanently confiscate 50 foreign vessels that attempted to breach the maritime blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, as part of the "Sumud Flotilla." According to the petition, a significant number of the vessels were owned by the Hamas terror organization. The request is based on international law, which grants states the right to seize vessels attempting to violate a maritime blockade, and gives courts the authority to order their confiscation. The State argued that the "Sumud Flotilla," which arrived in the area last month,...

GÜIRIA, Venezuela (AP) — One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus driver. The men had little in common beyond their Venezuelan seaside hometowns and the fact all four were among the more than 60 people killed since early September when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials have alleged the craft were being operated by narco-terrorists and cartel members bound...