For perspective on all of this, we turn now to retired Major General Stephen Leper. He served as

the Air Force's Deputy Judge Advocate General, and as such, was the service's second highest

ranking uniformed lawyer. Thank you for being with us. So as we just saw in that report,

the White House is defending Admiral Frank Bradley, whom the White House today said ordered that

follow-up strike that

killed survivors on that alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, saying he was acting well within

his authority. Based on what's known, was he?

Well, based on what's known, if he was the commander of the operation, and yes, he would have been

acting within his authority.

Well, say more about that.

Okay.

Well, I mean, obviously his authority as a commander extends to the entire operation in the

Caribbean, and that would have included both the first operation in the Caribbean.

And that would have included both the first strike and the second strike.

The question that we've all been asking over the last several days since the reports first came out are whether or not those orders emanated from a higher level and were simply executed by the

Admiral and all the people below him in the chain of command, or whether the Admiral himself

ordered the second strike. Either way, that second strike was a violation of the laws of war.

That second strike, the orders to conduct the second strike were illegal orders, and they should

not have been executed.

They should not have been followed by anyone in what we call the kill chain.

The Defense Secretary's reported order, the Washington Post reporting that

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave this spoken directive.

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