So About This Russian Bounty Thing
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/world/asia/afghan-russia-bounty-middleman.html
Rahmatullah Azizi stands as a central piece of a puzzle rocking Washington, named in American intelligence reports and confirmed by Afghan officials as a key middleman who for years handed out money from a Russian military intelligence unit to reward Taliban-linked fighters for targeting American troops in Afghanistan, according to American and Afghan officials.
As security agencies connected the dots of the bounty scheme and narrowed in on him, they carried out sweeping raids to arrest dozens of his relatives and associates about six months ago, but discovered that Mr. Azizi had sneaked out of Afghanistan and was likely back in Russia. What they did find in one of his homes, in Kabul, was about half a million dollars in cash.
American and Afghan officials for years have maintained that Russia was running clandestine operations to undermine the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and aid the Taliban.But they only recently concluded a Russian spy agency was paying bounties for killing coalition troops, including Americans, which the Kremlin and the Taliban have denied.
If true, it's shocking.
It's even more shocking that, if what we hear from the White House, it POTUS wasn't told about it.
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Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on Wednesday that after reading classified intelligence he believes the Trump administration should brief the Senate on reports that Russians offered bounties to Taliban-linked fighters to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Toomey in a statement said he had read documents made available behind closed doors but that they had raised more questions for him.
“I have reviewed the classified information regarding bounties, upon which recent news reports are based. This information raises many questions and administration officials should come before the Senate and provide a classified briefing and answer questions from all members,” Toomey said.
“If it is concluded that Russia offered bounties to murder American soldiers, a firm American response is required in short order,” he added.
The administration has made intelligence reports available for senators in the sensitive compartmented information facility.
The Senate Intelligence Committee also met on Wednesday with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as part of a pre-scheduled meeting. And the administration is set to brief the Gang of Eight, which is made up of leadership and top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday.
But the administration has not provided the all-Senate briefing Democrats have demanded. The Senate is set to leave town for roughly two weeks on Thursday.
The New York Times first reported Friday, followed by several other news outlets, that the intelligence community concluded months ago that a unit within the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, secretly offered payments to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan last year.
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Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on Wednesday that after reading classified intelligence he believes the Trump administration should brief the Senate on reports that Russians offered bounties to Taliban-linked fighters to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Toomey in a statement said he had read documents made available behind closed doors but that they had raised more questions for him.
“I have reviewed the classified information regarding bounties, upon which recent news reports are based. This information raises many questions and administration officials should come before the Senate and provide a classified briefing and answer questions from all members,” Toomey said.
“If it is concluded that Russia offered bounties to murder American soldiers, a firm American response is required in short order,” he added.
The administration has made intelligence reports available for senators in the sensitive compartmented information facility.
The Senate Intelligence Committee also met on Wednesday with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as part of a pre-scheduled meeting. And the administration is set to brief the Gang of Eight, which is made up of leadership and top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday.
But the administration has not provided the all-Senate briefing Democrats have demanded. The Senate is set to leave town for roughly two weeks on Thursday.
The New York Times first reported Friday, followed by several other news outlets, that the intelligence community concluded months ago that a unit within the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, secretly offered payments to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan last year.
@xenon ...
"What (if anything) was the President told, and when was he told it?"
And if he wasn't told, why the hell not?
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@xenon ...
"What (if anything) was the President told, and when was he told it?"
And if he wasn't told, why the hell not?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@Horace said in So About This Russian Bounty Thing:
This is the nothing burger to end all nothing burgers of the Trump presidency thus far.
And the GOP is demanding the investigation. In true fashion the NYT will be on to something else by the time they return from the Fourth of July break.
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Turn it around. Let us say Russia had decided to end the narco-state in Mexico and for whatever reason we could not militarily stop them. You think we would not do the same thing or something similar? It is important to remember that Afghanistan borders Russia.
Personally I doubt the story is true, but if it is it is not particularly shocking to me. More like business as usual.
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So the intelligence community briefed a congressman but not the president?
Only non-witches get due process.
- Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
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@George-K said in So About This Russian Bounty Thing:
And if he wasn't told, why the hell not?
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-got-angry-if-warned-about-russia-so-officials-avoided-2020-7
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@jon-nyc said in So About This Russian Bounty Thing:
So the intelligence community briefed a congressman but not the president?
No one "briefed" Adam Schitt. He is constantly digging for anything he can twist into a pretzel to go after Trump with. There are traitors in government who try to help him do that. Just like the Russian conspiracy fraud, he knew there was nothing to it, but he waited for the traitors to build it into a big scandal. He is complicit in yet another act of sedition.
The intelligence community didn't do squat. They are on record saying it's not even true. Schitt is a traitor, and so is the anonymous person(s) who gave him this unproven rumor.
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@George-K said in So About This Russian Bounty Thing:
@jon-nyc said in So About This Russian Bounty Thing:
So the intelligence community briefed a congressman but not the president?
That's what Hemingway is implying.
But, ever if they did brief both, why did Schiff not do anything?
If he had put any credence in the briefing and he thought Trump had also been briefed, he would have been on it like flies on Schiff.
The whole thing doesn't pass the sniff test.
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Well, well, well....
Reports that a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounties on coalition soldiers in Afghanistan are based partially on old information that surfaced more than a decade ago, international intelligence sources said. The sources include both Western-based analysts and front line personnel on the ground in South Asia.
Many of the sources spoke to Just the News via encrypted communications, and insisted that their names not be revealed because their lives are at risk.
“The only thing new about this story is the date on the headline,” one South Asian contact said. “This is old information, going back to Obama days and before. Everyone who has been involved in Afghanistan heard this a long time ago.”
Reports of an alleged deal between the Taliban and Russia’s military intelligence directorate, the GRU, leaked last week, leading to public outrage on many fronts. President Donald Trump has said the claims likely are fabricated, and Democrats in particular have accused Trump of siding with Moscow to deny the truth.
No one definitively has determined, though, what the truth is in this situation.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
