WA congressman demands review of deadly boat strikes
Oct 20, 2025, 3:24 PM
Congressman Adam Smith speaks onstage during a keynote program. (Photo: Mat Hayward, Getty Images)
(Photo: Mat Hayward, Getty Images)
Washington Congressman Adam Smith — the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee — wants his committee to review U.S. military strikes on boats that the Trump administration said are smuggling drugs.
The U.S. has struck seven boats in the Caribbean since Sept. 1, killing 32 people.
“You can’t just kill people for no reason,” Smith told KIRO Newsradio. “You have to have some sort of legal justification before you simply kill somebody without any evidence and without any imminent threat to the country.”
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WA officials push for review of boat strikes
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a boat that was hit Friday was linked to a Colombian guerrilla group that the U.S. has considered a terrorist group since the 1990s, and that it was “transporting substantial amounts of narcotics.”
The administration has argued that narcotics, smuggled into the U.S., kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, which constitutes an attack. President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations.
“I’m not saying for the moment that they don’t have any evidence,” Smith said. “But other than just the blanket statement — these were narcoterrorists associated with one drug cartel or the other — we don’t even know the names of the people who were killed.”
Smith, who has served on the House Armed Services Committee since 1997, said the Caribbean boat strikes are being handled much differently than U.S. military strikes against Al Qaeda and ISIS.
“In every instance I saw, they presented robust evidence as to exactly who the people they targeted were, who they were connected to and why. No such evidence has been presented to anyone in the U.S. on these strikes against these boats down in the Caribbean,” Smith insisted.
Smith suggested the boats should be stopped and searched instead.
CBS News Military Consultant and Ret. U.S. Army Colonel Jeff McCausland pointed out the U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted a large number of ships coming from Caribbean.
“I’ve talked to Coast Guard officers who’ve been involved. I’ve been told usually about one in five times — when they’ve stopped the vessel — they found in fact it was not carrying narcotics.” McCausland said.
Read more of Heather Bosch’s stories here.
