William Keating

A Massachusetts lawmaker is demanding answers in the wake of a published report revealing that the U.S. attacks on Ecuadorian fishing boats this year were carried out as part of a covert program by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-9th District, told MassLive Friday that the veil of secrecy around the attacks fits a larger pattern of obfuscation by the Republican Trump administration and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“This is a serious situation where, you know, it appears our CIA, with the knowledge of our Defense Department, is engaged, and we want to know, (are) there private entities involved? Is the CIA hiring out these private entities to deal with this? Who’s behind it? How much it costs — what their mission is,” the Cape Cod lawmaker said, referring to reporting Thursday by The Washington Post.

According to The Post, no agency or government entity has claimed responsibility for the incidents, which include the January disappearance of a fishing boat and eight of its crew members.

The CIA declined the newspaper’s request for comment. The Post report also made clear that the attacks were separate from the Pentagon’s attacks on drug boats that began last fall.

Keating, a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, clashed loudly and publicly with Hegseth during a Capitol Hill hearing in April, where he slammed the Pentagon boss over U.S. attacks on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

“The phony rationale that these attacks are about fentanyl trafficking,” Keating said, according to Time magazine. “I don’t believe a word of it. We were given classified information on the second strike. I can’t discuss it, but I must tell you, it’s the most convoluted (expletive) I ever heard in my life. This should be public.”

In June, Keating sent a letter to Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Adm. Kevin Lundy, the U.S. Coast Guard commandant, to demand “a full accounting of U.S. government involvement” in the attacks that unfolded between January and June 2026.

Keating was joined on the letter by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

“The incidents ... raise serious questions about the legal basis for the United States’ use of force against civilian vessels, the detention and transfer of foreign nationals to third countries, and the whereabouts of eight crew members who remain missing or unaccounted for,” the two lawmakers wrote.

Speaking to MassLive on Friday, Keating said the Post’s investigation underscores the need for transparency about U.S. operations — without compromising classified information.

“These are things that Congress should know and the American public should know, and they shouldn’t be attacking vessels and having vessels disappear with eight people on board,” Keating said. “You can’t have that go unanswered. Right? Because they’re acting on behalf of our country and our citizens.”

Keating told MassLive that he hopes Congress will hold hearings on the attacks, and hinted Democrats might do so if they recapture control of the U.S. House in the November midterm elections.

The State Department did not immediately respond to MassLive’s request for comment.

Keating also said the Pentagon needs to come clean about the plight of sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The aircraft carrier has been the subject of intense media scrutiny in the wake of reports that some sailors, burnt out by conditions aboard the boat, tried to jump overboard because of its extraordinarily protracted deployment at sea.

“Do they so not value the servicepeople that are representing us, that are risking their lives?” he asked. “So they’re in unhealthy conditions, both in terms of what they eat, what they breathe and (their) mental state.”

The BBC reported Friday that the USS George Washington was on its way to relieve the Abraham Lincoln and was expected to arrive within about nine days.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, President Donald Trump denied that family members were concerned about the welfare of their relatives. He also dismissed the possibility that the deployment had been too long.

“Not nearly long enough,” he said, according to the BBC.