Pete Hegseth wasn’t afraid to share how he really feels about Guantánamo Bay detainees.
The self-styled “Secretary of War,” 46, appeared at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Wednesday to “engage with troops” amid growing hostilities with the Caribbean nation.
During a late afternoon press briefing with reporters after returning to Tampa, Florida, in which he confirmed that the U.S. would continue with additional strikes on Iran, Hegseth was asked a charged question by far-right influencer Laura Loomer.
“Given Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s detailed confessions to orchestrating 9/11 and other al Qaeda plots, why has the United States government chosen to keep him alive and comfortable at Gitmo for decades, along with these other Islamic jihadists, instead of executing them and delivering justice for the 3,000 victims of 9/11?” Loomer, 33, asked.
“I appreciate the question,” the defense secretary said. “Listen, I’ve written extensively about it. I—I—These Gitmo detainees should have been executed, in my mind, personally, a long time ago, for the crimes of what they committed against the American people."
“Unfortunately, the gears of American justice got gunked up, all the way back to when I was a guard at Guantánamo Bay,” Hegseth continued. “We’re committed to the death penalty, uh, in that case and in any others.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
Guantánamo Bay currently holds 15 prisoners in its detention camp, five of whom were accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Sheikh Mohammed, the former head of propaganda for al Qaeda, described himself as the mastermind behind the terror attacks that killed 2,753 people in New York City, 184 people in the Pentagon, and 40 people aboard United Airlines Flight 93.
Sheikh Mohammed and other defendants entered plea agreements to avoid the death penalty after it was revealed that they were subject to torture, such as waterboarding, while in custody by the CIA, which complicated their cases.
The defense secretary was also questioned about his and President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, which continues into its 15th week with no sign of stopping soon.
Pressed on whether the military strikes launched at Iran would be aimed at civilian infrastructure, which would constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, Hegseth declined to clarify their targets and attacked the reporter who asked the question.
“That’s precisely the kind of disingenuous question I’m used to from the media—impugning the motives of the folks on our side," he said. “We will hit them hard, on our terms, on the targets that improve the environment for us to operate in and undermine the capabilities that Iran wants to have.”
Just two days after Trump said the U.S. was “two or three days” away from striking a deal to end the war, the U.S. military was striking its Middle Eastern foe with missiles in “self-defense” once again.
The president told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst on Wednesday that the bombing would stop shortly, but if they don’t sign the peace deal, “we’ll bomb the s--t out of them.”
