CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, formerly a reporter for Politico, is best known for boldly breaking the story of the pivotal and now-discredited letter signed by 51 former top intelligence officials claiming the Hunter Biden laptop story showed “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” The letter is viewed by many as having swayed the result of the 2020 presidential election.
In June, after President Donald Trump’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, Bertrand reported that “sources” told CNN an early intelligence assessment produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency that the strikes “did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.” It turned out the strikes caused considerable damage to the sites.
Once again, she has proven that, for her, evidence and context are optional. Currently, Bertrand is trying to identify an illegal military order to bolster insinuations made in the now-infamous “Seditious Six” video.
Her latest report claims that “sources familiar with the matter” told CNN that “the U.S. military carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board.”
According to Bertrand [Emphasis added]:
While the first strike appeared to disable the boat and cause deaths, the military assessed there were survivors, according to the sources. The second attack killed the remaining crew on board, bringing the total death toll to 11, and sunk the ship.Before the operation, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the military to ensure the strike killed everyone on board, but it’s not clear whether he knew there were survivors before the second strike, one of the sources said.The strike and deaths were announced by President Donald Trump on the day of the attacks, but the administration has never publicly acknowledged killing survivors.Officials have acknowledged not knowing the identities of everyone on board the boats before they are struck, CNN has reported.People briefed on the “double-tap” strike said they were concerned that it could violate the law of armed conflict, which prohibits the execution of an enemy combatant who is “hors de combat,” or taken out of the fight due to injury or surrender.
Hegseth called the report “fake news” on X, writing that “these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people.”
He noted that “Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”
And he reiterated that the strikes “are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict.”
Other legacy media outlets linking to Bertrand’s “scoop” noted that Hegseth did not deny the allegations in his remarks, implying that the story must be true, just as CNN reported it.
Bertrand continued:
The US military was aware there were survivors in the water following the first strike on September 2 and carried out another to both sink the vessel and kill the remaining crew, the sources said. Pentagon officials told lawmakers in briefings afterward that the second strike was done to sink the boat so it would not pose a threat to navigation, the sources said.The U.S. military has hit boats multiple times in several instances to sink them, the sources said, but the September 2 strike is the only known instance where the military deliberately killed survivors….It is not clear why the survivors were not picked up like they were following another strike in the Caribbean in October. In that instance, the Trump administration rescued two survivors and repatriated them to their home countries.
The article went on to cite “experts” claiming that the “double-tap” strike was illegal and that “the Republican-led Senate and House armed services committees” plan to “conduct ‘vigorous oversight’ on the follow-up strike.”
Let the investigations begin. CNN has chosen to present one side of the story — the darkest, most damaging interpretation they could find. But we’re not obligated to accept a narrative built on selective framing. Before Hegseth is judged, we need to see all the evidence, all the context, and the complete truth. This would not be the first time Bertrand has misled the public on an important story.
The crew members on these drug boats are well aware of the risks they take. But the promise of a huge payday from a single run makes the risk irresistible to them. According to The Wall Street Journal, the pilots of these vessels can earn up to $100,000 from a successful run.
The Left’s glee at the thought of nailing Hegseth — and ultimately Trump — is simply one more indication that they would rather side with narco-terrorists than the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died as a result of their activities.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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