Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (AR-01) issued the following statement after the briefing with the Commander of the United States Special Operations Command, Admiral Frank Bradley, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, on the legal strikes against narco-terrorists in the Caribbean.

“First, I want to thank the Admiral and the Chairman for coming in this morning and providing us with facts where speculation abounds. I did not walk out of the committee space straight to the media’s microphones, because it is inappropriate following a classified briefing. That said, it is important for me to state first there is no doubt in my mind about the highly professional manner in which the Department of War conducted, and is conducting the operations our nation has called them to do to protect the homeland from these dangerous cartels who have for too long poisoned the American people, destabilized and corrupted our neighbors, and torture and killed thousands throughout our hemisphere. Anyone who has carried out these highly sophisticated operations in defense of the U.S. homeland and Americans for two decades would be no stranger to the complex strategic decision-making process and legal analysis presented this morning. 

“Those who appear ‘troubled’ by videos of military strikes on designated terrorists have clearly never seen the Obama-ordered strikes, or, for that matter, those of any other administration over recent decades. I am deeply concerned by the public statements made by others that seek to ignore the realities of targeting terrorists to score political points. I call upon them to remember their own silence as our forces conducted identical strikes for years – killing terrorists and destroying military objectives the same as in this strike – and ask themselves why they would seek to attack our forces today.”