Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Tuesday that U.S. forces do not strike suspected narco-smuggling vessels on a whim, saying the operations are based on "real intel" that identifies what boats are carrying and who operates them, a claim tied to a recent U.S. strike that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said killed three people and was the seventh such attack in recent weeks.
McCormick told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" that U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-carrying vessels are carried out only after intelligence confirms the nature of the targets, and not "just based on a hunch."
Asked how the government determines whether small craft are "really narco smugglers," McCormick said, "So a lot of this is due to our intelligence gathering capabilities. Obviously, we don't take out people just based on a hunch."
"They get confirmation from real intel on what these boats have on board. Like he knew with the submarine, for example, [it] had mostly fentanyl — bad guys. We knew what gangs they belonged to. And we take out the bad guys.
"You had to be very careful when we used to be on floats, and we'd have an idea of what we were going to take out, take down a ship like that, we couldn't even talk about. We had real-life intelligence. If we had any doubt at all, it would be called off. So these are confirmed targets. These aren't just 'we hope they're bad guys.'"
The comments follow a string of U.S. strikes in the Caribbean that senior officials have described as operations against vessels tied to transnational criminal groups and, in one announcement, to Colombia's National Liberation Army, or ELN.
Hegseth said the most recent strike killed three people and described it as the seventh known attack since the campaign began last month. Hegseth said in a post on X that the boat "was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics."
When asked whether U.S. forces attempt to contact and board vessels before using lethal force, McCormick replied that boarding is sometimes attempted but carries significant risk.
"We've done it in the past. Two things can happen. First of all, they can run, and they can get away and go back, and they [then] go back into international waters," he said. "They're home free, or they can shoot back and kill our Marines and our sailors or SEALs or whomever is trying to board that ship.
"Now you have a very dangerous situation. The question is, are you willing to risk lives to take somebody who, you know, is smuggling? Then you're going to put them in jail, in our jail system, and eventually get them back there.
"The expense and the danger to our troops versus just taking out bad guys who are literally coming here that have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, more than all the wars we've ever fought together."
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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