Report: Hegseth Ousted Head Of US Southern Command Who Raised Concerns About Boat Strikes – 12/4 – Antiwar.com

 Report: Hegseth Ousted Head Of US Southern Command Who Raised Concerns About Boat Strikes — 12/4

Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of US Southern Command who abruptly announced he was stepping down in October, was pushed out by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The report said that Hegseth and Holsey were at odds during the first months of the Trump administration, and the tension intensified when Holsey expressed concerns about the “murky legal authority” for the bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in Latin America, which is clearly illegal under US and international law.

Holsey also objected that parts of the operation fell outside of his control since other military units under separate chains of command were also involved, including elite special operations units. Earlier in the year, Hegseth was unhappy with Holsey for not drawing up plans to “reclaim” the Panama Canal quickly enough and suspected that the four-star admiral may have been involved in leaks of potential US plans for the waterway.

Holsey hasn’t given a reason for his early retirement, which is highly unusual for a career military officer just one year into a three-year term as the head of a combatant command. When he first announced he was stepping down in October, The New York Times reported that he had raised concerns about the boat strikes.

At the time, Hegseth praised Holsey in a statement on his retirement, which officials told the Times “masked real policy tensions concerning Venezuela that the admiral and his civilian boss were seeking to paper over.”

The revelation from the Journal that Hegseth pushed out Holsey comes as the US war chief is under increasing scrutiny over the first bombing of an alleged drug boat on September 2, which involved more than one strike to kill survivors. Hegseth has shifted his story on the attack, now claiming he wasn’t in the room for the second strike and has placed responsibility for the order on Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of US Special Operations Command.

🔗SOURCE ➡️ Antiwar.com

Related: 11/4 — Regime Change In Venezuela

11/1 — Pentagon Tells Congress It Doesn’t Know Who It’s Killing In Latin American Boat Strikes

10/31 — Trump’s First Strike On Venezuela May Have Just Happened. Maduro Says CIA Agents Were Caught Trying To Pull Off A False Flag To Spark A Coup

10/31 — 🇺🇸🇻🇪 The Trump admin has identified targets in Venezuela that include military facilities used to smuggle drugs, U.S. officials say.

10/30 — NEW – Trump admin is considering airstrikes on military facilities in Venezuela.

10/28 — Venezuela Warns Washington Planning ‘False Flag’ To Spark War

10/26 — Both the US State Dept and DEA confirm that “Venezuela plays no role in the production or trafficking of fentanyl into the United States.”

10/25 — VIDEO | “We’re just gonna kill people”

10/24 — The Nobel Prize goes to… war on Venezuela

10/23 — Trump Suggests US Strikes On Alleged Drug Shipments On ‘Land’ Are Coming Soon

10/22 — Maduro announced that Venezuela has deployed 5,000 Russian Igla-S missiles to counter U.S. forces.

10/22 — 🇮🇷🇻🇪 Who had Hezbollah in Venezuela on their bingo card for this week?

10/22 — The US military carried out small-scale survival and jungle combat drills on Panama’s Caribbean coast Wednesday, as Washington amassed a vast naval presence off Venezuela.

10/17 — Head Of US Southern Command To Step Down Amid Strikes On Boats And Push Toward Venezuela Regime Change [Head of SOUTHCOM Resigns]

10/3 — ⚔️ US conducts 4th strike off Venezuela, killing 4

9/23 — US Officials Say Regime Change In Venezuela Is The Real Goal Of Military Action In The Caribbean

2/17- Trump Administration Inherits SOUTHCOM’s Expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean

Follow us on Minds / X / Substack

Boost This Channel

Follow ➡️ @PsyopDaily

READ FULL ARTICLE: This article originally appeared on Antiwar.com

Share on Telegram