Defense Department

• Democrats Say Hegseth Balked at Call for Full Video of Boat Strike - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed congressional leaders on Tuesday about the monthslong military campaign targeting people suspected of being drug traffickers at sea.
• Inside the Pentagon’s Scramble to Deal With Boat Strike Survivors - Officials initially weighed sending survivors of U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling to a notorious prison in El Salvador, to keep them away from American courts.
• Defense Bill Demands Pentagon Show Congress Boat Strike Orders - In a sign of bipartisan frustration with the Defense Department, the final defense policy bill aims to compel the Pentagon to share execute orders and video documentation.
• Democrats Call for Releasing Video of Deadly Boat Strike in the Caribbean - Top Democratic lawmakers who have seen the footage said Sunday that making the video public would provide transparency around the strikes that killed two survivors on Sept. 2.
• Not All Targeted Killings Are the Same. Hegseth’s Boat Strikes Are Illegal. - A former secretary of homeland security on the illegality of Trump’s boat strikes.
• Pete Hegseth Is Ordering Executions at Sea - Did Pete Hegseth break the law after authorizing Venezuelan boat strikes? The Times Opinion editor, Kathleen Kingsbury, argues that there are multiple reasons the strikes were legally dubious.
• Boat Strike Video Shown to Lawmakers - Two men struggled to cling to the boat’s hull, according to lawmakers and congressional aides. Then Adm. Frank M. Bradley gave an order for a follow-up strike, and the men were gone.
• Trump Trumpets Peace in Africa Amid War on Drug Boats, in Day of Dissonance - President Trump presided over a Congo-Rwanda peace deal on the same day his administration was being questioned about potential war crimes.
• This Realllllllly Embarrassing Text From JD Vance Has The Entire Internet Laughing At Him - Sorry, bud, they did it without you.
• Takeaways From the Pentagon Investigation on Hegseth’s Use of Signal - The inspector general concluded that the defense secretary violated the Pentagon’s instructions on using a private electronic device to share sensitive information.