NYTimes Blunder Over Their Botched Russia-Taliban Story

[dukkha]

Members of the American intelligence community have concluded that members of the Russian intelligence unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants if they successfully killed members of the American military, the New York Times reported. The problem, however, is that almost everyone involved in this story says it isn't true. The White House, Russia and even the Taliban have said the Times' story is false.

According to the anonymous source that spoke to the Times, the Russians intending "to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year."

The source claimed that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were briefed on the situation and the National Security Council discussed it back in March.

Dmitry Peskov, the Press Secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the country had no diplomatic complaints on record.

“If someone makes them, we’ll respond,” Peskov told the Times.

In the Times' piece, the Taliban's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the terrorist organization had no "such relations with any intelligence agency." He labeled the accusation as an attempt to "defame" the group.

“These kinds of deals with the Russian intelligence agency are baseless — our target killings and assassinations were ongoing in years before, and we did it on our own resources,” Mujahid explained. “That changed after our deal with the Americans, and their lives are secure and we don’t attack them.”

The most telling part of the article included absolutely zero details:

The intelligence assessment is said to be based at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals. The officials did not describe the mechanics of the Russian operation, such as how targets were picked or how money changed hands. It is also not clear whether Russian operatives had deployed inside Afghanistan or met with their Taliban counterparts elsewhere.

this information is based on an anonymous source yet there are no details about how the operation took place, what American troops were targeted, how meetings were conducted or even how the Taliban received their so-called payments. Why are there no details?

the president, he, the vice president and the chief of staff were never briefed about this operation. Trump labeled the story as "fake news"

Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, said he confirmed that Trump and Pence weren't briefed on the allegations.

Former Acting DNI Director Ric Grenell slammed the attempted spin.

Russian Embassy in the United States also denied the story.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethba...ymcpyphINutpLI

[dukkha]

The intelligence assessment is said to be based at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals"

it's raw INTEL.
The NYT claimed it was an "assessment" (written by an official at a high level)..
I'm betting some dweeb leaked this to NYTimes and NYT just called it an "assessment" in the article -
it should never gotten to that level without more details/confirmation

[dukkha]

this doesn't even make any sense -we are leaving Afghan.
Trump wants us down to 5k by fall.
Any interference by Russia -including the odious paying of bounties just inflames our Russiaphobic politicians -
who now will no doubt be saying we cant leave Afghan...
NYT is garbage as usual and/or our INTEL agencies are perpetrating yet another "Russian hoax"

[katzgar]

this doesn't even make any sense -we are leaving Afghan.
Trump wants us down to 5k by fall.
Any interference by Russia -including the odious paying of bounties just inflames our Russiaphobic politicians -
who now will no doubt be saying we cant leave Afghan...
NYT is garbage as usual and/or our INTEL agencies are perpetrating yet another "Russian hoax"

your assertion that the WH has already admitted it is correct

[Nordberg]

Lindsay and Liz Cheney want answers. They are Trump suckups. It is no hoax.

[dukkha]

“Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @NYTimesbnooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad.”
~~
So Trumps DNI or NSA "do not find this credible" for obvious reasons
of futility of purpose and utter lack of details +denial by everyone involved

Can You say Russian Hoax? (again)

[dukkha]

The Taliban want us out of there, and we want out. But Trump said they gotta stop killing US.

The Taliban have largely laid off the killing.
Trump is going to pull out 4k this fall
That's 4k coming home from a futile mission.

Praise Trump. He knows what he's doing

[Walt]

the Taliban have said the Times' story is false.

Well that proves it. If the Taliban supports trump, shouldn't we all fall into line. After all trump tells us what great people the Taliban is, or at least he would have in his surrender speech had the evil Democrats not destroyed it.

But I am still not completely convinced, is there some other power that confirms trump's greatness?

Russia

Yes, Putin is very much behind trump. Not to mention North Korea, and now China has decided that trump's idea of the USA giving up on intellectual property for soybeans and communism is so much better.

[Walt]

this doesn't even make any sense -we are leaving Afghan.

Why would Russia want us leaving Afghanistan?

[Walt]

The Taliban want us out of there, and we want out. But Trump said they gotta stop killing US.

He loaded a bunch of Taliban leaders on a plane to fly them to the USA to surrender to them even after they killed an American. He only stopped it when Democrats publicized it.

The Taliban have largely laid off the killing.

How far Alt Right do you have to be to support the Taliban as the next leaders of Afghanistan?

[Darth Omar]

“Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @NYTimesbnooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad.”
~~
So Trumps DNI or NSA "do not find this credible" for obvious reasons
of futility of purpose and utter lack of details +denial by everyone involved

Can You say Russian Hoax? (again)

The hoaxes and Nothing Burgers are beyond counting at this point lol.

The story isn’t credible: for one, what does Russia have to gain from getting us out of Afghanistan? Wouldn’t Putin like us to be bogged down in Afghanistan as long as possible?

And wouldn’t actually arming the Taliban be much worse than bribing them? What’s to keep the Taliban from taking the bribe money and saying ‘sure, we’ll go kill some Americans now’ and mocking the gullible Russian infidels later as they use their Rubles for something else.

Doesn’t make a lot of sense.

[Darth Omar]

He loaded a bunch of Taliban leaders on a plane to fly them to the USA to surrender to them even after they killed an American. He only stopped it when Democrats publicized it.

How far Alt Right do you have to be to support the Taliban as the next leaders of Afghanistan?

How long do you want to be in Afghanistan?

What’s the exit strategy?

[Walt]

How long do you want to be in Afghanistan? What’s the exit strategy?

Obama was able to reduce the death toll by over 90% and get America mostly out of the war. He was unable to come up with a full exit strategy.

trump's full exit strategy involves a US surrender to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. That might be worse than a never ending war that we are barely involved in.

[Darth Omar]

Obama was able to reduce the death toll by over 90% and get America mostly out of the war. He was unable to come up with a full exit strategy.

trump's full exit strategy involves a US surrender to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. That might be worse than a never ending war that we are barely involved in.

No more half-assed wars where American soldiers die for basically, nothing.

[Walt]

No more half-assed wars where American soldiers die for basically, nothing.

There have been two ISIS attacks on military bases in the USA in the last six months. Even if trump surrenders the rest of the world to ISIS, Taliban, and Al Qaeda, who is going to tell them to stop attacking us here. Or should we just surrender the USA too?