Senator Reads DOD Law of War Manual On CNN To Show the Trump Administration Committed a ‘War Crime’
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) brought the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual on CNN to explain why the military carried out an illegal order when it killed survivors of a shipwreck.
On Sept. 2, the U.S. Navy bombed what the Trump administration claimed was a boat carrying drugs and “narcoterrorists.” Last week, The Washington Post reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered everyone on board to be killed, but after the first strike, two survivors remained clinging to the wreckage. Heeding Hegseth’s directive, the Post said Admiral Frank Bradley ordered a second strike, which killed the survivors.
Hegseth initially responded to the story by calling it “fake news,” but has since acknowledged the second strike and claimed it was Bradley’s decision. The secretary insisted on Tuesday that he “didn’t stick around” to watch the boat strikes, but this directly contradicts his Sept. 3 boast on Fox News, where he said, “I watched it live.”
On Tuesday’s episode of The Source on CNN, King brought some reading material to explain why the second strike – to say nothing of the first strike – was illegal.
“This is something called the Department of Defense Law of War Manual,” the senator said. “It’s in three volumes. And the third volume applies to this situation directly.”
King said he wanted to ascertain Hegseth’s orders to the admiral and what he knew about the strike.
“Again, we’ll wait to get the facts, but it appears that two people survived the initial boat strike and they were in the water hanging on to the wreckage of the boat,” King continued. “And the special forces went in and killed them. That’s against the law. That’s a war crime. That’s a stone-cold, clear war crime.”
King proceeded to read from the DOD Law of War Manual.
“And I hate reading on the air, but I’m going to, in this case,” he said before reading from Section 18.3.2.1, which states:
18.3.2.1 Clearly Illegal Orders to Commit Law of War Violations.
The requirement to refuse to comply with orders to commit law of war violations applies to orders to perform conduct that is clearly illegal or orders that the subordinate knows, in fact, are illegal. For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.
“It couldn’t be much more clear than that,” King concluded. The senator also noted that such a strike was exactly the kind of “illegal order” that a handful of Democratic lawmakers spoke about in a video that set off Republicans.
“You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,” the lawmakers said.”
In response, President Donald Trump demanded their prosecution and suggested they be executed. In response, the lawmakers received increased amounts of death threats.
