Natasha Bertrand

@CNN correspondent covering the Pentagon and national security. [email protected]. Signal: Natashabertrand.12

[Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand]

Some personal news 🥰 See you all in November 🩷🩷

[Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC]

At first the Pentagon said in releases the 4 US soldiers were killed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. That was not true because the soldiers were not fighting ISIS which is the Congressional Authorization and definition of OEF. So they quietly changed the deaths to falling under Overseas Operations, which is a misleading category allowing for them to cap the number of war dead and wounded as part of Epic Fury, which now stands at more than Abbey Gate and the Afghan withdrawal.

[Craig Whitlock @CraigMWhitlock]

The Army has gone to extraordinary lengths to shun a civilian West Point law professor who stood up for the First Amendment. Terrific narrative by @hannah_natanson
https://t.co/cmBe4BPrXv

[Craig Whitlock @CraigMWhitlock]

@hannah_natanson And @GregJaffe reveals how a Navy admiral breached protocol and buddied up to Pete Hegseth to win the service's top job. Lots of cringeworthy revelations.
https://t.co/4NF7RztiOW

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

Trump's own file release tonight says Russia was working to attack Biden and boost Trump's re-election campaign.

[Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand]

@splinter8675309 Thank you! @halbritz :)

[Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand]

Some personal news 🥰 See you all in November 🩷🩷

[Haley Britzky @halbritz]

Huge from @ZcohenCNN -- Senior US military commanders bypassed warnings in critical databases that intelligence about potential targets in Iran was severely out of date and approved some strikes — including one that hit a school, killing nearly 200 children and adults, according to three sources familiar with the decision-making process.
https://t.co/9lCoOw046C

[John Hudson @John_Hudson]

Great news: A journalist whose excellent work in conflict zones abroad shines through in his reporting in DC

[Ishaan Tharoor @ishaantharoor]

Oh my god this whole thread

[Brennan Leach @brennanleach]

Tillis on the reflecting pool:

“I'd like to think a $15 million membrane could withstand a pocket knife.”

Asked him what he thinks of Trump threatening jail time for vandals

“Damaging, aligning the reflecting pool is something that Pirro wants to prosecute to the full extent of the law… yet they're releasing people who pled guilty to assaulting a police officers. What freaking parallel universe did I just wake up in?”

[CNN @CNN]

A US fighter jet pilot rescued by special forces after being shot down over Iran in April described a shocking sight before ejecting from his aircraft: multiple Iranian drones hovering in the air, moving as one, in a formation that resembled a jellyfish, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
https://t.co/LcaqH5LTOb

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

Must read

[Shane Harris @shaneharris]

Extraordinary new reporting from @jonswaine convincingly shows that for years, Tulsi Gabbard's guru, Chris Butler, and disciples around him have been steering her policy agenda, writing her public remarks, and shaping her as a political candidate.

[Lara Seligman @laraseligman]

SCOOP: The Pentagon needs $80 billion to cover costs from the Iran war as well as other non-war-related bills, Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg told lawmakers in phone calls this week, according to people familiar with the discussions. W @Kubota_Yoko @MarcusReports https://t.co/qD61zyid7H

[Haley Britzky @halbritz]

"Soon Mr. Hegseth was pulling officers from nearly every active duty and reserve officer promotion list ... Hegseth has removed a total of 32 officers from Air Force and Navy one-star and two-star promotion lists, defense officials said. The only Black officer and the only female officer were removed from a Marine Corps promotion list."
https://t.co/S9TEA4sXi4

[Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand]

😮

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Io e l’Italia non imploriamo mai.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Gangel: In March, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan go to the oval office for a formal sit down interview with the president. He's very proud about some presidential historian has given him this document, which he says shows he's more powerful than Hitler and Stalin. 

He's proudly reading it and showing it to them, and they can't figure out who the presidential historian is. And they start searching. Name doesn't show up. But the president had said that this historian was a friend of former hall of fame golfer Gary Player. So they search…the historian is Gary Player's former caddie.

[Konstantin Toropin @KToropin]

SCOOP: This renaming uses the same legal workaround that the Trump admin used to go from Dept. of Defense to the Dept. of War.

U.S. Pacific Command is a "secondary title" per a Hegseth memo I reviewed.

The "statutory" name remains US Indo-Pacific Command.

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

NYT: A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas weeks after Defense Secretary Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said.

https://t.co/fFIt8Mhyzg

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

"The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles"

"...the purpose of this is to destroy that missile capability."

"our mission and our focus is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities"

"the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities"

"I’m telling you what the objectives of this operation are.  The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild it, and make sure that they can’t hide behind that to have a nuclear program.  That’s the objective of the mission."
-- Marco Rubio, 3/2/26

https://t.co/yNCUakGrmx