Video of U.S. Military Killing Boat Strike Survivors Is Horrifying, Lawmakers Reveal

“What I saw in that room is one of the most troubling scenes I’ve ever seen in my time in public service.”

By Nick Turse, The Intercept

Lawmakers who saw a video of a U.S. attack on wounded and helpless people clinging to the wreckage of a supposed drug boat on September 2 described the footage as deeply disturbing.

A small number of members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate and House Armed Services committees, as well as some staff directors, saw the recording during closed-door briefings Thursday with Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the head of Special Operations Command, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“What I saw in that room is one of the most troubling scenes I’ve ever seen in my time in public service,” said Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel who were killed by the United States.

Until Thursday, the only video of the attack that had been seen by lawmakers was an edited clip posted to the Truth Social account of President Donald Trump on September 2 announcing the strike. The edited clip captures the initial strike, showing a four-engine speedboat erupt in an explosion. It does not show the second strike on the wreckage of the vessel and the survivors — which was first reported by The Intercept.

Himes said the unedited video clearly shows the U.S. striking helpless people.