CNN Reporter Trashes 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' But Her Story Just Fell Apart

The Western Journal via MSN ^ | June 25, 2025 | Josh Manning

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Late in the day Tuesday, CNN breathlessly ran their favorite story since the Trump-Musk bromance hit the skids.

"Exclusive: Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say."

CNN’s “reporters” could barely contain their excitement that their nightmare scenario was over: Trump, it appeared, hadn’t pulled off the most impressive military strike since "Operation Desert Fox." ("Desert Fox" was a 1998 anti-WMD mission, also used Tomahawks for support, but used 600 sorties to target almost 100 targets in Iraq. And as with "Operation Midnight Hammer," not a single U.S. service member or vehicle was lost.)

Citing unnamed sources (surprise, surprise -- but we’ll be magnanimous and mention that they did at least tell us there were seven of them), CNN claimed a Defense Intelligence Agency report’s findings were “at odds with President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes ‘completely and totally obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.”

“So the [DIA] assessment is that the U.S. set them back maybe a few months, tops,” one member of CNN’s septet of sources said, also claiming that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and centrifuges were mostly “intact.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wasted no time in taking apart the leaker and CNN:

This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as "top secret" but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community. The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.

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TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: cnn; iran; natashabertrand; nuclearstrikes; operationhammer; opmidnightdrip; politico

[Ann Archy]

What’s her name??

[Judge Bean]

Find out who leaked Top Secret Docs and bring them up on espionage charges.

[StAnDeliver]

Rendition the squat who leaked the "low-confience hot-take" memo, find out who his accomplices were in the MSM, and then rendition them.

This only needs to happen twice or three times and the MSM will quit playing footsie with the deep state.

"First, it turns out that that while that little DIA was top secret, it was also categorized as "low confidence.” For those of you not familiar with the complex inner workings of American spycraft, “low confidence” means the government’s confidence in the intel’s reliability is … low.

You see, Natasha Bertrand isn’t just any lying journalist (you can lie by omission just as well as by commission -- like when you leave out the words “low confidence” to mislead your readers). She’s the lying journalist who single-handedly launched the widespread suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and she did it three weeks before the 2020 election

Bertrand was the Politico reporter who published the infamous 51 former senior intel officials say the Hunter Biden laptop story [Russian disinfo] letter."

[11th_VA]

I’m sure the FBI is on it. Every cell phone and laptop is being checked

[frank ballenger]

That evil eyed Joy Reid argued that we are not as moral as the enemy. Erin Burnett praised the kind, wonderful people in Iran who came up to her despite others saying Death To America around her. Such good folks. Lawrence O’Donnell making his thin lips smile over “Now we know what Trump was hiding by delaying his cabinet members give another update.” /S

The thought the leftist news media PEOPLE again celebrate the enemy winning, so long as Trump loses in stature, is abhorrent.

They are rooting for the Iranians to keep their nuclear bomb progress so Trump will look bad. They hate America.

As I emphasized in caps above, they are people, not just a network or a network name. People. Doing wrong to you and me.

[Huskrrrr]

I expect no less from the Main Scream Media. Orange Man bad.

[SuperLuminal]

Disappear everyone involved in this leak...
If the WH doesn’t drop the hammer in DC, the hammer drop in Iran was a waste of time...
Enemies within are far more dangerous than enemies without...

[Kahuna]

When the opposition makes a fools out of themselves stand aside and cheer them on.

[MrRelevant]

Anyone who declares Trump is a dictator, USA is fascist or there is no freedom of speech should pay special attention to the fact “journalists” like these are still breathing. I can assure you Hitler would not stand for such public statements and antagonism from his opposition.

[AndyJackson]

So they had low-confidence that they even did what little bit they did do? [ducking]

[Sarah Barracuda]

Figures this is the same CNN that thinks “Death to America” is a term of endearment..Trump should have said “Death To Erin Burnett, and I mean that in the nicest possible way, its cause I like her” and see how she would have responded..its called COMMON SENSE, they dropped SIX bunker buster bombs, SIX, heck 1 could have destroyed it but they used SIX, that damn thing is GONE..now was the uranium moved, it might have been moved who knows, we might never know the truth on that, but the actual facility is freakin GONE

[EliRoom8]

This article DESTROYS her!

[larrytown]

Dummy report for counter-intel work?

Couldn’t have worked better, if that’s the case.

[iamgalt]

Not enough is being made of the fact that the traitors at CNN rushed to get top secret harmful intel onto the airwaves. If they knew it was BS that makes it worse. Treasonous scum, the lot of them.

[EliRoom8]

Anyone who declares Trump is a dictator.
stop

That's it?? Where is the rest of your half-thought? WTH do you mean?

[piasa]

She was involved in the Chinese spy balloon thing too:

The Politico article from Sunday alleged the “Biden administration is willing to brief former Trump officials on newly discovered intelligence that China sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during their time in charge.” The article used anonymous sources who allegedly “asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive information.”

Sims stated on Twitter that Politico’s story from Sunday was false because he is in contact with “nearly everyone” who would have knowledge of a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States during the Trump administration.

“Politico is Dems’ go-to for a fake headline,” he said. “I’m in touch with nearly everyone who’d be a logical person to receive such a briefing & no one’s been contacted. And why would they participate in Team Biden’s CYA? If y’all want us to deal with China for you, then give us a shout.”

Sims included an image in his tweet of the infamous and now discredited Politico story, written by Natasha Bertrand, which used “dozens of former intel officials” to push a false and misleading narrative about the origins of Hunter’s laptop:

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

[missnry]

they dropped SIX bunker buster bombs, . . .

Well, there are SIX holes in all of the photos. The MOPs were used in "double tap" to get to the necessary depth. The Defense Department stated that 12 MOPs were used at Natanz. Each of the holes in the photos represent 2 weapons each. 360,000 lbs of Ordnance was dropped at the site. That would have been an awesome site to see as far as the sequencing between each round they fired.

[piasa]

John Brennan Was Put in a Perjury Trap Yesterday — A Completely Legitimate One RedState ^ | August 22, 2020 | Shipwreckedcrew Posted on 8/22/2020, 5:07:19 PM by billorites

John Brennan’s long-time advisor Nick Shapiro put out a statement yesterday at the conclusion of Brennan’s eight-hour interview with John Durham and his investigators.

It might all be true. All I have are opinions on the text and circumstances.

But I also know that the CIA is an institution designed to engage in manipulation using lies and deception — in a good way. It’s how they accomplish their mission in defense of the country.

John Brennan is an embodiment of the CIA — it’s all he’s ever known. Its ethos oozes from his pores.

John Brennan wanted to send a message to the world yesterday after he finished his interview with John Durham. Oddly, he chose to do it through Nick Shapiro, and not himself. Nothing about Brennan or his history suggests Shapiro’s message needs be credited with being truthful.

There are several reasons to read this message with a “jaundiced eye” and to recognize the ulterior motives for it.

First, it’s not Brennan’s statement. Shapiro issued the statement to Obama Administration scribe Natasha Bertrand at Politico — guaranteed to dutifully publish anything requested of her by a former Obama era intelligence official now living in fear. Shapiro then posted a string of eight Tweets on Twitter with the same text.

Both are devoid of any words actually spoken by Brennan — there are no quotations — nor is there any support offered for Shapiro’s claims by anyone actually in the room, such as Brennan’s attorneys....

[piasa]

BREAKING: White House Files Lawsuit Against Politico, Accuses Schiff of Leaking False Information
Trending Politics ^ | 18 Nov, 2019 | Collin Rugg
Posted on 11/18/2019, 6:55:57 PM by MtnClimber

Senior Counterterrorism White House official Kash Patel has filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit in Virginia court, accusing Rep. Adam Schiff of acting “in concert” with Politico by illegally leaking false information relating to the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

The lawsuit was filed against Politico reporter Natasha Bertrand and publisher/executive chairman Robert Allbritton and accuses them of defaming Patel.

(Excerpt) Read more at trendingpolitics.com ...