There was never any real, definitive, actionable intelligence that supported the claim that Russian Intelligence operatives offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American troops.
We've actually known this for quite some time. But, today, the Daily Beast reports that the Biden Administration is now proclaiming that the story is "unproven and possibly untrue."
At the time, late June 2020, the New York Times ran with the story as if it had been delivered to them word for word from Vladimir Putin, himself.
American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.
Of course, the media flew into their typical frenzies, and (I know you'll be shocked about this) then-candidate Biden quickly used the story to hammer President Trump in the most obscene and despicable ways... even for him.
It was almost like the New York Times was feeding stories that would be directly enveloped into the Biden campaign's talking points, speeches, and political strategy. Hmmmm....
Biden prefaced his attack on Trump with a lame "if that's true" caveat referring to the New York Times report and then laid into Trump with a hysterical and despicable condemnation.
"President Trump, the commander-in-chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theater of war, has known about this for months according to The Times and done worse than nothing," he said. "Not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin."
"This is beyond the pale," Biden continued to rant. "It's a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation: to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm's way."
"It's a betrayal of every single American family with a loved one serving in Afghanistan or anywhere overseas and I'm quite frankly outraged by the report. If I'm elected president make no mistake about it Vladimir Putin will be confronted and will impose a serious cost on Russia."
Of course, he hasn't in any way confronted Putin or imposed any serious cost on Russia over this. One presumes Biden either forgot all about this, or he raised it and US Intel had to say "Um... yeah... about that bounty story..."
Biden didn't stop there. He went on to evoke the memory of his deceased son who served overseas during the war on terror.
"But I don't just think about this as a candidate for president I think about this as a dad a father who sent his son to serve in harm's way for a year in the Middle East and in Iraq and I'm disgusted on behalf of those families whose loved ones are serving today. When your child volunteers to serve, they're putting their life on the line for the country. They take risks known and unknown for this nation but they should never never never ever face a threat like this with, their commander-in-chief turning a blind eye to a foreign power putting a bounty on their heads. If I'm president, this and so many other abuses will not stand."
All that outrage. Over a fake story.
As I said, we've known this.
Mollie Hemingway, at the time of the story:
It turned out that key details of the story were disputed by on-the-record sources. When the White House press secretary said neither Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence had even been briefed on this intelligence, reporters tried a new line of attack.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe added, “I have confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday. The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing, are inaccurate.”
White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah disputed that the intelligence was as airtight as the New York Times reporters had claimed, based on their anonymous and unaccountable sources: “POTUS wasn’t briefed on the reports related to Afghanistan because there is no consensus within the intelligence community on the allegations at this point. The veracity of the underlying allegations continues to be evaluated.”
Yet the frenzy from the media continued, almost as if coordinated as part of an operation.
Even liberal/progressive journalists saw through the report as yet another attempt to undermine Trump's attempts to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and end the nineteen-year war:
Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of the U.S. Central Command, says he’s not convinced that American troops died as a result of Russian bounties.
“I just didn’t find that there was a causative link there,” he tells The Washington Post.
Sina Toossi, senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council, tells me the controversy reveals an internecine battle within the foreign policy establishment. “Many in the national security establishment in Washington are searching for reasons to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan,” Toossi says. “This story plays into those broader debates.”
Yes, the propaganda, mainstream media ballyhooed the story and created a Trump-hate frenzy around it. Biden, Democrats, and Trump-hating Republicans used the story for fake outrage over Trump and further justification for their hysterical calls for his removal from office by either electoral means or even another impeachment. And all of those corrupt entities should be exposed for their duplicity and outright fraud.
However, the real problem here is and has been for many years now, the United States Intelligence Agencies and the criminal leakers who seem to go unpunished and unexposed while they continue to undermine our constitutional republic.
Who leaked this false story to the New York Times? How will they be punished for their criminal behavior? When will this illegal behavior finally be exposed, condemned, and prosecuted?
And, finally, why does the New York Times not expose their source for lying to them in the first place?
Larry O'Connor hosts a 2-hour radio program on KABC in Los Angeles and a separate, 3-hour radio program on WMAL in Washington DC. Both shows are heard daily, Monday through Friday and the podcasts can be found here.
