XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy, alt.computer.workshop, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: alt.atheism   
   From: c186282@nnada.ne   
      
    GOP senator: Traitor Hegseth is either lying about second boat strike or   
   incompetent   
   By   
   Morgan Rimmer   
      
   Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump speaks   
   during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, on Tuesday.   
   Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump speaks   
   during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, on Tuesday.   
   Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images   
      
   Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth   
   of either lying in his public response to news reports that the US military   
   carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug boat in September or   
   being incompetent.   
      
   “Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this, and it did not happen.   
   It was fake news. It didn’t happen. And then the next day, from the podium   
   at the White House are saying it did happen,” Paul told reporters in the US   
   Capitol. “So, either he was lying to us … or he’s incompetent and didn’t   
   know it had happened.”   
      
   “Do we think there’s any chance that … the secretary of the defense did not   
   know there had been a second strike? So as a country, we’re just going to   
   let people lie to us, to our face?” he added.   
      
   Asked by CNN which comments from Hegseth he was specifically referring to,   
   Paul described a Friday X post from the defense secretary. While Hegseth   
   did not explicitly deny in the post that a follow-up strike had occurred,   
   he dismissed the news reports as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory   
   reporting” from the “fake news.”   
      
   Hegseth has appeared to shift primary responsibility for the US strikes on   
   alleged drug boats to Admiral Mitch Bradley, but said in a Monday X post   
   that he stands by Bradley and the “combat decisions he has made” in regard   
   to the strikes.   
      
   The Pentagon pointed to both X posts in response to a CNN request for   
   comment.   
      
   Hegseth’s role in the so-called double-tap strike has received intense   
   scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and military legal   
   experts who have raised concerns over the legality of the strike and the   
   potential of war crimes.   
      
   President Donald Trump said Tuesday neither he nor Hegseth knew about the   
   follow-up strike. And Hegseth said that strikes on alleged drug boats in   
   the Caribbean have “only just begun.”   
      
   Paul, who has cosponsored resolutions to block unauthorized military action   
   in the Caribbean and in Venezuela, added that it seemed like Hegseth is   
   trying to “pin the blame” on Bradley.   
      
   “I don’t like to see political figures pointing their finger at military   
   figures. Military people take orders. And there’s a question about, you   
   know, when they don’t take orders, whether things are legal or not legal,   
   but in this sense, it looks to me like they’re trying to pin the blame on   
   somebody else and not them,” Paul said.   
      
   Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal agreed. “Ultimately, Hegseth trying to   
   shift the blame and make Admiral Bradley the fall guy ought to be reason to   
   ask for his resignation or fire him. He should be gone,” he said.   
      
   Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly also expressed concern about the White House   
   placing the blame on Bradley. “How about that for leadership?” said Kelly.   
   “Throw the people underneath you under the bus.”   
      
   GOP Sen. Thom Tillis told CNN that whoever was responsible for ordering the   
   second boat strike needs to be held accountable.   
      
   “You don’t have to have served in the military to understand that that was   
   a violation of ethical, moral and legal code. And so, if the facts play out   
   the way they’re currently being reported, then somebody needs to get the   
   hell out of Washington,” he said. “Whoever that is, is the person who made   
   the decision and we can be connived that it was isolated to that one   
   person. Anybody in the chain of command that was responsible for it, that   
   had vision of it, needs to be held accountable.”   
      
   Kelly said Bradley has a “stellar reputation” and argued any decision to   
   carry out a “double-tap” strike stems from a culture fostered by Trump and   
   Hegseth.   
      
   “This is the kind of thing that happens when you have a president who says   
   we’re going to go out and kill people. It’s not what presidents normally   
   say,” said Kelly. “And when you have an unqualified secretary of defense, a   
   guy who has basically zero qualifications for this job that runs around on   
   a stage you know, talking about lethality and warrior ethos and killing   
   people, and we’re going to hunt and kill people.”   
      
   “They have set the environment for stuff like this to happen,” he added.   
      
   kaine.jpg   
   Sen. Kaine on Hegseth: 'Real leaders don't push off responsibility on to   
   their subordinates'   
   5:16   
      
   CNN previously reported that, before the operation, Hegseth ordered the   
   military to ensure the strike killed everyone on board, but it’s not clear   
   whether he knew there were survivors before the second strike, according to   
   a source.   
      
   Paul would not say if he has confidence in Hegseth’s ability to serve as   
   defense secretary, instead replying that he is “very concerned.” He also   
   noted that he believes the administration is purposefully not including him   
   in briefings due to his opposition to their actions.   
      
   “I’ve been offered no briefings, and I think that’s purposeful, because   
   I’ve been skeptical of this. So, no briefings have been offered to me. We   
   are asking for them. We are supportive of the Armed Services Committee   
   looking into this. But this has been very selective in briefings that have   
   been given to people, primarily given to people who are already apologists   
   for the administration,” said Paul.   
      
   On Tuesday, Paul and a group of Democratic senators said in a joint   
   statement that if the US military strikes Venezuela, they will call up a   
   War Powers resolution to block the use of US forces in hostilities against   
   the country.   
      
   The Kentucky Republican added that he thinks more Republicans are “coming   
   around to being concerned,” with the Pentagon’s actions in the Caribbean,   
   adding that the follow up strike is “what unifies people.”   
      
   “When you have Lindsey Graham, the Wall Street Journal and other   
   Republicans saying that the second strike, bombing people who are   
   shipwrecked or clinging to wreckage, that that would be illegal, in the   
   words of people who are very supportive of what the president is doing,   
   that’s a whole new scenario,” he said. “So, I think we’ve entered into   
   uncharted territory here. I think there’s a broad consensus that it’s   
   illegal to kill people who are clinging to wreckage.”   
      
   Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee,   
   said that lawmakers need more information.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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