Drug boats, war crimes, and a political op (12-04-2025--Hour3)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. So the press conference, and I'm not going to spend any more time on this just to say that I watched the rest of the DOJ press conference. They did not provide any new information, they said, and I understand this. They said though, that they're going to let the evidence speak for itself when presented in court because they don't want to jeopardize the investigation. I totally understand that. That's fine, but I kind of feel like you could have given us some more information. But that's not for me to say, because I don't know all of the information. I feel like that I wish there would have been a little bit more information, but they did not provide any in this press conference. And I saw said Jeffrey Blair. I believe it was. I just well, I just saw it and now it moved on Twitter, so yeah, I scrolled away. But he pointed out, like, I hope he's like, I hope this is not like I hope the FBI didn't Richard Jewel this thing, right, I hope it's hope this is the right guy. But we shall see, all right. So the Wall Street Journal yesterday with a big exclusive regarding the September second US strike on a boat in the Caribbean. And this strike has been getting all sorts of attention because well, yes, we're blowing up boats that are cruising through the Caribbean, ostensibly on their way to deliver drugs to America, and this is part of you know, Trump's stepped up war on the narco terrorists and such. The September second strike was, in fact, I believe, the first strike on one of these boats. But the news that broke a couple of I guess it was probably about two weeks ago now, was in the Washington Post, which, you know my feelings on the Washington Post. I don't really believe anything they ever report because they are just pretty sloppy at best, or they're a mouthpiece for certain intel agencies or quote deep state actors, and so I'm always suspicious of anything that they're publishing. And they were like, oh that Pete hegseth. He gave an order to kill them all, to double tap, which is a you know, you fire once and then fire again, So that would be a war crime. And you know you should have gone in to rescue them, and all of this other stuff. And I'm going to get to the original reporting, but I want to start with the report from yesterday Wall Street Journal. Two survivors of a September second US strike on a boat in the Caribbean were killed in follow up attacks after they were seen still aboard the damaged vessel alongside packages of illegal narcotics. This is what Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley is expected or was expected. I don't know exactly when he was supposed to go and testify or appear before Congress. I believe it's going to be a closed door meeting. But this is what he's expected to tell lawmakers today. So he plans to say this is from again yesterday afternoon Wall Street Journal reporting. He plans to say that he and his legal advisor concluded that the two survivors, they so think about it. They shot this boat, and then they wait for the smoke to clear, they see two people still remaining, and then they shoot it again. And what Admiral Bradley is expected to tell lawmakers is that these two survivors were attempting to continue the drug run, which makes them and the damaged vessel they were piloting. That makes them legitimate targets for another attack. All right, That's what is Bradley's expected to say. The version of events that Bradley's expected to deliver would rebut the claims by legal experts that the killing of the two survivors could have constituted a war. Lawmakers are likely to press Bradley, who commanded the Joint Special Operations Command at the time in the closed door briefing, regarding the extent of the damage to the boat, whether the men were injured, how Bradley reached his conclusions that the survivors were still legitimate targets, and whether he considered rescuing them. The attack was the first use of military force against drug boats by the administration, and it's the only one in which survivors are known to have been targeted and killed. In a follow up strike. In mid October, the Coastguard rescued two survivors of an attack on a submersible because they were deemed unable to fight. That's according to the defense officials. The administration has launched twenty one strikes in all, and the estimate is that some eighty plus or eighty three people have been killed in these strikes. So the Wall Street Journal reports that Bradley was watching the live feed as the operation unfolded, and that the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War. Now I guess that Pete Hegseth was there for the initial part of the attack. The first part of the strike hit the boat, set it on fire, and reportedly killed nine people. Apparently, hag Seth says that he then left because when they hit the boat, it was smoking. You couldn't really see anything because you know, you got I guess it's a drone that's sending back the footage, right, and so you can't they can't see what's going on on the boat. And so hag Seth's like, I got another meeting to get to. So he left. So he wasn't there for the second attack. That's the story from the administration. So the first part hits the boat, kills nine people, sets it on fire. It takes then an hour before the survivors become visible again on the live feed. Right. So this image that was conjured up over the last two weeks that you know, the boat is obliterated. It's just like a bunch of wreckage, and you've got like this sort of Titanic moment where the two survivors are clinging to a board or something. But that's not apparently what happened. The boat got hit, it's smoking, it's on fire, whatever, and it takes an hour, I guess it finally gets put out. And at that point these two survivors are still on the boat, and there may have been some radio communications. Bradley said in making his decision, he's expected to say that he considered that other enemy vessels were nearby, and that the survivors were believed to be communicating via radio with others in the drug smuggling network. If the boat was incapacitated and the men were unable to threaten US military personnel, then the survivors would have met the definition of quote unable to fight. That's what the legal experts say. But if Bradley's account is accurate, then, according to Jeffrey Korn, a former military lawyer who now directs the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech, if Bradley's account is accurate, then it would appear to provide a legitimate explanation for the second strike. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit Creative video dot Com. ABC News reporting. Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley, the commander of US Special Operations Command or SOCOM, headed to Capitol Hill today to brief senior Congressional leaders behind closed doors about the controversial second strike on this drug boat in the Caribbean back on September second. Because the first strike blew or hit the boat, caught it on fire. Nine people killed on the boat, and then about an hour later the smoke clears, they see there are two more people on the boat, and according to the initial report by the Washington Post on November twenty eight, that's when a second strike was ordered and it blew up the remnants of that boat. And this has got the Democrats and media. But I repeat myself, accusing Pete Hegseth of ordering the double tap, ordering a war crime, ordering the taking out of the boat survivors who were no longer like on the field of battle, They didn't pose a threat, they were no longer engaging in the behavior that warranted the strike in the first place, and so obviously a court martial, maybe an execution is in order for Pete hegsag right, Like that's that was the point of the the wa Post story. Now ABC comes along and says questions about the legality of the second strike have been swirling around Washington since it was first reported last week by The Washington Post. The source ABC source says that, as is typical with targeted strikes, a military lawyer was with Admiral Bradley at the time of the strikes, and that military lawyer is giving legal advice throughout the incident to ensure that any actions are legally authorized. Later on in this article, I should tell you who the reporter is. It is Louis Martinez at ABC News. It appears that the second strike was in line with a contingency plan to deal with potential survivor situations that had been developed by the Pentagon prior to the very first use of military force against the drug smuggling boats. Okay, so they had these contingency plans. They were like, all right, what have we hit a boat and the survivors, what do we do? They chart out the plan and this incident followed that plan. If there were survivors from an initial strike, the US military would try to rescue them if they were deemed to no longer be in the fight because they were shipwrecked and in need of help. But if they were deemed to be in communications with other cartel members, or if they tried to do something that appeared to be a hostile action, well then they could be targeted again. That's the plan. See now, I'm like, there is a debate to be had about whether or not you can do this sort of operation. People are having that debate. You know, can we can we drone strike these boats in the first place? Right? And in that case, then like we'd have to go back and you know, pull up the arguments made when Obama was drone striking people all over the world, that sort of thing. So like I'm setting that question aside because what has been going on with the second strike, with the double tap, with this wapose story. To me, it ties into the video that Democrats put out two weeks prior, or not even two weeks prior to the Washington Post story, And I don't believe these two things are not connected or set a different way. I believe they are connected. I don't believe that the Democrats, those six Democrats who put out that video, they called it don't abandon the Ship. I think that's what it called. Give up the ship is what they called it. Don't give up the Ship. Well, here, I'll play the audio clip for you because I have it. It was a ninety second video clip and it's six different lawmakers, all Democrats, and all with backgrounds in government or military, and they're advising members of the military don't follow illegal orders. Right, that's the premise of the spot. Here. I'm Senator Alissa Slockin, Senator Mark Kelly, Representative Chris S. Deluzios, Congressman Magie good Lanyard, Representative Chrissy Hulahan, Congressman Jason Crowe. I was a captain in the United States. Navy, former CIA officer, former Navy, former paratrooper and Army ranger, former intelligence officer, former Air Force. We want to speak directly to members of the military. And the intelligence community to take risks each day to keep Americans safe. We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military, with that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniform military. And intelligence community professionals against American citizens like us. You all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution. Right now, the threats to our constitution aren't just coming from a broad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution. We know this is hard and that it's a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you're serving in the CIA, the Army, or Navy, the Air Force, your vigilance is critical. And know that we have your back, because now more than ever, the American people need you. We need you to stand up for our laws, our constitution, and who we are as Americans. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. The ship compelling and rich. All right, So, first off, how exactly is this administration pitting the military against Americans. I'm unclear on that. I'm also unclear what illegal orders have been issued. Oh and by the way, these six lawmakers they don't know either. When pressed on the Sunday Talk show, circuits. They could not offer a single example, but they knew I am willing to wager and I'm not a betting guy, but I'm willing to wager a very very small amount of money, like maybe a dollar. That they knew what story was about to pop. They knew that this double tap story was coming because they put out that video. Let me see if I have the timeline here. On the eighteenth, November eighteenth, they published that video Don't give Up the Ship. Two days later, Donald Trump reacts right calling its seditious behavior. Meanwhile, these six Democrats are being asked by some members of the media like, hey, well what illegal acts? What what what orders have been given? What are the illegal orders? What are the illegal orders? And they're like, well, we don't have any examples of illegal orders yet. And then a week later, the Washington Post story comes out, here's your illegal order. Ah. I don't think it's a coincidence. I really do not. It smacks of an op. It does. It smacks of an op. And also not for nothing. But like when you know two of the six or CIA people now in Congress, I'm kind of now I'm gonna connect some of those dots there folks. Okay. Now, by the way, there were other strikes after the September second strike. There were other strikes on these other boats, on other drug smuggling boats that left survivors in the water. There was a strike on October sixteenth. There was another one on October twenty seventh. Both of them left survivors swimming around, and in both cases they were rescued because they were deemed not to be on the or I guess in the Sea of Battle. They were not engaging in hostile activities at that point, and they were not trying to communicate with other smugglers to hey, come get all of the drugs and pick us up. So they were rescued. So it's just this one September second attack. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. 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Well, we just heard at the top of the hour or bottom of the hour newscast there that after the admiral in charge of the operation just testified and closed session with legislative leaders, that there was no kill them all order. So that's not true. The Washington Post story not true. Headline not true. There was no kill them all order, So the story by Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima at the Washington Post was not true. The headline was a lie. The story accuses Hegseth of giving what's called a no quarter order, and that would be unlawful under US law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and international treaty. It also accused the operations military and civilian leadership of subsequently ordering an illegal double tap strike on the two survivors, who at the time were out of combat, posing no imminent threat and entitled to humane treatment. That's what the Washington Post alleged. Additional reporting from the New York Times, as well as comments from Pete Hegseth and a closer reading of the Washington Post report itself, actually cast serious doubt on this damning narrative. That New York Times reported that five US officials with knowledge of the matter say, Hegseth quote did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish the mission, and that the Secretary of Defense's order was not a response to surveillance footage showing at least two people on the boat survived the first blast, right because HeiG Seth said he left, he watched the first strike. But then there was so much smoke. It took an hour for the smoke to clear because they had so much gasoline on the boat in order to power the four outboard motors needed to power this boat filled with like five tons of coke. So the thing was smoking for a while. And so hegg Seth is standing there, and standing there, he's like, I got other stuff I got to get to. I got other meetings. I gotta go, And so he leaves, and the admiral makes the decision to hit it again. So the wappost story got that wrong. Let me jump over here and get Snake on the program. Hello Snake, how are you, sir? There? Go and talk to you in a while. I know it's in a while since we had a snake on the show. Well, I you know, I agree with you. I'd love the show. By the way, you know, I love you and mostly agree with you. I tend to call in when there's something a little more controversial because I think it makes for better radio. So you are correct, you know. I want to start and say, first of all, I'm a veteran. I don't think I voted for a Democrat in the last forty years. I've got lots of friends who are currently serving, lots of friends who are retired military. So anybody wants to call me a Rhino or Washington Post fan or whatever, they can do that. But having said that, I mean, I got a lot of issues with what happened here, and you know, whether or not Haiks has had anything to do with it or not, I still got issues with it because, first of all, if we're going to just summarily execute everybody that's hauling drugs, we're going to have to kill a lot of people. And second of all, you know, we don't know the identities of those two people. We don't know that they weren't hostages on that boat, that they didn't have a gun put to their head and told them they had to drive that boat. We don't know that when they were calling whoever they were calling. They weren't just saying, hey, can you please come keep us from getting eaten by sharks? And I just I guess I want to ask you, like, I know, if I had been like sitting in a helicopter or on a gun ship or whatever, and somebody had said kill those guys, I just said, I'm not going to do that. But nobody said that. It's like, are you talking about the first strike or the second? No, the second strike? Well, first of all, I don't I have I have issues with the first strike, But the second strike. You've got two people, you don't know who they are, you don't know what their motivations were, how they ended up on that boat, and you've got them sitting there in the water, and you've got a decision to make. Maybe it's just maybe it's just Pete and those two guys, and you've got the gun and you've got a decision. Are these a threat to you or to the United States? And are you just going to kill him? Well? I don't think you would, and I don't think most of our professional military people would, and I don't think that's what they signed up for. So so part of the problem is that we don't know what the communications on the radio were except for the reports that we have seen that were, you know, obviously leaked out by sources probably close to the admiral, right, trying to defend him in his decision. And what the story is that what the Wall Street Journal reported and the New York Times were reporting was that the survivors were on the boat and they were calling their they were calling for backup from their fellow smugglers to come get them so they could offload the merchandise and continue on the run. Okay, fine, but I don't know if that's true. Yeah, Like, we don't know if that's really true. What if that's what actually happened. So arguendo that's what they were doing. They are not a threat to the United States military point and saying that they're going to continue on their drug mission, nobody could really established. First of all, nobody could establish us. Well, okay, let's say they were right. We heard them on the radio. We speak Spanish and we know they said they were going to deliver some drugs to Florida or whatever. It's still they're they're entitled to do process and they're Americans, are not and look just from a just from a bigger perspective, the US military and US State Department have an ongoing mission to represent the United States and to keep us all out of trouble and to get along with the rest of the world. And when you send a military into places where where they're having to try to get the indigenous people on their side and get cooperation, and we're doing things like this, they're going to have a hard time. It's going to get more military people killed. You just shoot two people out of the water. I'm sorry. That's just how I see it. And besides that, I think it's murder. But that's just me. I'm just a lily livered Democrat. Now, well, I don't believe that, but Snake, I appreciate the call. I got to run to a traffic update. But this, and this is why I said in the first segment, like I'm setting aside the operations as a separate issue, because what I've been focusing on is this report from Washington, from the Washington Post, right, because that story is falling apart, and I don't believe it's a coincidence that that story popped a week after the Democrats put out their video. I think those two things are connected. That was my point in focusing on the second, this double tap accusation. But the first question, is it lawful to be knocking these boats out at all? That's a separate question, all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news, slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news, slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground news as they make the media landscape more transparent. So, just to reiterate, I'm I purposefully separated the question of, you know, the constitutionality, the legality, the precedent, and the drone striking of these drug boats and stuff because to me, well, first off, because like it was like a week or so, two weeks ago, actually two months ago when they started these things, the strikes, and what I saw over the last two weeks was this narrative being developed by democrats and the media. But I repeat myself about you know, don't do illegal orders, don't follow illegal orders, and then all of a sudden we have a story about illegal orders, and that's not coincidence. I believe it's part of a siop. I do and Snake's disagreement is about the legality of the striking of the boats at all. Let me go over and get Jack on. Hello Jack, Welcome to the show. I let me first say that I completely agree with your assessment. Sounds to me like the same sort of thing that they did with the Steele dossier and Russia. The conclusion Hoagues, which was, as we found out, at least partially engineered by mister Brennan, the CIA director and mister Clapper, being that this this lady part of the first of the Seditious six, was a CIA operative of some sort, employee of some sort. I understand she's a Brennan disciple, So that's what I understand. Don't know that that's true, but I've heard folks say that. But it should raise it should raise an alarm, right when I think, I. Think, I agree with you. Yeah, it's not coincidental. The other thing is, I heard gentleman who was a veteran, and thank God for his service. My dad was a veteran. I took the same oath as a civilian to preserve and protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign in domestic. So I have some regard for I'm still considering myself to be under oath. As a matter of fact, I have to remind the gentleman, however, that mister Obama droned at least it's been estimated eight hundred non terrorists okay, killed them, Okay, in the course of going after terrorists in the Middle East. Okay, Yeah, I mean yeah, he drone striked a wedding. He drone striked a wedding, and. Drone struck a wedding. He also killed at least three juvenile American citizens without a warrant or without any finding of a judicial nature or. Order right or a declaration of war yeah, or a declaration of war. Yeah. And this gets to the original premise of like, are these strikes extra judicial? Is the president allowed to do it? And this is the problem when you know Obama did it initially and everybody said it's okay. And we go to war and we don't have a declaration of war, and everybody says it's okay. And well, now you have set this. The president is already there. Despite whatever the gentleman, the veteran gentleman who called earlier may believe, the president is already there. The president is also there with mister Obama for the double tap as well, because we've all seen the well, the drum strikes that he ordered, the drune strikes that he enabled, in fact, he called himself the droner in chief, and in some cases, yeah, the vehicle kept going after the first hit, so he hit him again. And that stopped the vehicle. Now, whether those folks were dead or wounded or whatever after the first strike, I don't know, but the vehicle continued on its merry way, at least until it was hit a second time. Yeah. So the President is there, and you know, if the gentleman would like to call back and address it, I don't love to hear what he's got to say about it. Yeah, Jack, I appreciate. I'm not gonna have time if he calls back, I'm not gonna have time to get him on. But I do appreciate your thoughts on it. I appreciate it. Let me jump over and get Ken on real quick. Hey, Ken, Ken, Hello, Hello, Yes, Hello. Okay, I'm just calling in response to the quality you had before the break who you Nobody says I was in the military and et cetera, et cetera, and we don't know, and we don't know. My whole military career was an intelligence And let me tell you something that we don't think about, especially when we listen to the press, The decision makers and the military commanders, they actually have information that we don't have. No, and that's why when they testify here, they testify in closed session, right, so that I don't reveal the intelligence I know, I don't reveal the sources of that intelligence. So Trump said this a month or so ago. He says, we know who these people are in the boats, we know where they're coming from. You know what they have. They aren't just shooting boats. These decision makers, based on real intelligence, are targeting boats, and they know exactly what they're doing, and they can't reveal that. And they won't reveal all that information to the Washington Post or the New York Times or anybody else for good reasons. So right, and Ken, I completely agree. The problem, I think is that people have lost so much faith in their government and these institutions that they that they don't believe that there is this information. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, And that I think is that, I think is the issue, and that's what we have going on with these efforts to undermine the faith of the military and their commanders, et cetera. When I first came into the military, one of the exercises we did was you're given your bit of information, and you're supposed to carry on this part of the exercise and what they're showing you, because then people start saying well, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this, other saying this looks like a better option for me with what I'm supposed to do. And at the end of it, they say, because you didn't do what you were told to do by the people who have the big picture, right, everything got completely screwed up and the work and that's what you need to do. You need to have faith in your commanders. You need to have faith that they know what they're doing. You need to have faith that they know things that you don't know and are making good decisions. And what we're seeing right now is let's undermine that as much as we possibly can. Yeah, Ken, I appreciate the call, sir, thank you for your service as well. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to vpecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.