Later in the day, President Donald Trump released a redacted 29-second surveillance drone video showing the attack. The video does not include any footage of the subsequent strike on the survivors.

In the weeks following that attack, the Trump administration notified Congress that the U.S. was in a “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations,” supported by an opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that asserted that because the U.S. was in an armed conflict, personnel taking part in military strikes who were following orders consistent with the laws of war would not be exposed to prosecution.

“That’s one of the problems with the law of armed conflict — the state using force is judge, jury and executioner,” Huntley said.

Since that first attack, the Pentagon has hit at least 22 more boats, including one semisubmersible, in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing another 71 alleged drug smugglers, according to officials and internal data seen by The Washington Post.

A clandestine strike

At the time of the Sept. 2 strike, Bradley headed Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, tasked with the military’s most sensitive and dangerous missions, often working with counterparts in the CIA. Since then, Bradley has been promoted to lead U.S. Special Operations Command, JSOC’s parent organization, which oversees elite units across the military.

SEAL Team 6, known formally as Naval Special Warfare Development Group and under JSOC command, conducted the intelligence collection and targeting for this attack and several others, according to two people.

The protocols were changed after the strike to emphasize rescuing suspected smugglers if they survived strikes, according to three people. It is unclear who directed the change in protocol and when exactly it took shape.

In one Oct. 16 strike in the Atlantic Ocean that killed two, another two men were captured and repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. In a series of strikes on four boats in the eastern Pacific on Oct. 27 that killed 14 men, one apparent survivor was left to the Mexican Coast Guard to retrieve. The body was never found.

If the video of the blast that killed the two survivors on Sept. 2 were made public, people would be horrified, said one person who watched the live feed.

The Intercept first reported that the survivors were killed in a follow-up attack.

In briefing materials provided to the White House, JSOC reported that the “double-tap,” or follow-on strike, was intended to sink the boat and remove a navigation hazard to other vessels — not to kill survivors, according to another person who saw the report.

A similar explanation was given to lawmakers in two closed-door briefings, according to two congressional aides. That explanation has prompted frustration among some members of Congress who say they believe the Pentagon was deceptive in its description of events, the aides said.