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The Pentagon will not make public the full video of a September attack in the Caribbean that killed two individuals as they were clinging to the wreckage of a burning boat, Pete Hegseth<\/a> said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The strike<\/a> has been the most controversial development in Donald Trump\u2019s campaign against Venezuela, which has seen US forces blow up vessels alleged to be transporting narcotics from the South American country to the United States, seize an oil tanker<\/a> and threaten further military action against the president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n Legal experts have raised concerns that US forces may have committed a war crime by killing the survivors of an initial air strike on 2 September, and that the campaign is illegal. Democrats have called for the release of video detailing that attack, and Trump at one point supported making the footage public but later backtracked and deferred to Hegseth.<\/p>\n As he left a classified briefing conducted for senators alongside Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, the Pentagon chief said he would not release it in its entirety.<\/p>\n \u201cIn keeping with longstanding department of war policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we\u2019re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,\u201d Hegseth told reporters.<\/p>\n The video was not shown in the briefing, according to lawmakers who attended, but Hegseth said that he would hold a viewing on Wednesday for members of the House and Senate committees on the armed services along with Frank Bradley, the admiral who commanded the strike.<\/p>\n Chuck Schumer, the top Senate democrat, said that he demanded Hegseth show the full video of the 2 September strike to all senators in their behind-closed-doors briefing, but the secretary refused.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration came to this briefing empty handed,\u201d Schumer said, noting that anything shown in the classified setting would not be made public. \u201cThat\u2019s the major question that we face, and if they can\u2019t be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Coons, a Democratic senator, said lawmakers were told the full video could not be shown due to \u201cclassification\u201d issues, which he struggled to believe because Trump, Hegseth and other defense officials have repeatedly posted portions of footage from other attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to square the widespread routine prompt posting of detailed videos of every stripe with a concern that posting a portion of the video of the first strike would violate a variety of classification concerns,\u201d the Delaware lawmaker said.<\/p>\n Some Democrats objected to not being able to see the video, noting that they held positions in committees that deal with issues related to Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI have asked, and will continue to ask, to see that \u2013 why, as a member of Congress and the ranking member in the foreign affairs committee, I\u2019m not allowed to see it,\u201d Democratic congressman Gregory Meeks told reporters after joining other House lawmakers for a briefing with Rubio and Hegseth.<\/p>\n The United States has attacked more than 20 vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since the beginning of the campaign in early September, killing at least 90 people that Washington alleges were smuggling drugs. In the most recent attack<\/a> announced Monday, US Southern Command said it had hit three vessels and killed eight individuals.<\/p>\n Lawmakers in both the Senate and House of Representatives have introduced war powers resolutions intended to stop the president from engaging in hostilities against Venezuela without Congress\u2019s permission. Both chambers could vote on the measures this week, but it\u2019s unclear if they would have enough Republican support to pass.<\/p>\n Several Trump allies who emerged from Hegseth\u2019s briefing with senators said they had no reservations about his actions against Venezuela or targeting of boats.<\/p>\n \u201cThe process we have is legally sound. It\u2019s been supported by legal opinions for a quarter century now of how we find these people, we fix them, and we finish them,\u201d said Tim Sheehy, a Montana senator and former Navy Seal.<\/p>\n While previous US administrations have stopped and detained vessels suspected of carrying drugs, Sheehy implied such operations were now too risky.<\/p>\n \u201cKeep in mind, if we don\u2019t drop a bomb, we decide to interdict, as is being said by many folks, we have an obligation to send a team to interdict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cInterdicting a vessel underway, is perhaps the most dangerous mission we have in our entire military inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n