Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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ajax18
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Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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The credibility of last summer’s bombshell report alleging the Russian government was paying bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan took another hit this week when a senior Biden administration official told reporters they only have “low-to-moderate confidence” in the intelligence behind the story.

The intelligence was based on notoriously unreliable “detainee reporting,” the official said on the call, meaning that it came from militants looking to get out of jail.

News of the alleged bounties was first reported last June by The New York Times, which reported that “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.” The story, based entirely on unidentified sources, claimed that the U.S. had actually known about the alleged bounties for months.

Media outlets across the country rushed to find their own anonymous sources to “confirm” the story. Then-President Donald Trump called it “fake news” and a “Hoax started to slander me & the Republican Party.” He denied that he’d been briefed on it, and did not discuss the alleged bounties on a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.

Democrats jumped on the report and used it to attack Trump in the run-up to the 2020 election. Joe Biden said Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale. It’s 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.” House speaker Nancy Pelosi said “This is as bad as it gets,” and John Kerry weighed in at the Democratic Convention, saying that Trump did “nothing about Russia putting a bounty on our troops.”

An article by Fred Kaplan in Slate called Trump’s handling of the issue “inexcusable,” and said he and his senior advisors “come off looking very bad – immoral, vaguely traitorous, astoundingly incompetent, or all three.” The Daily Beast reported the Russian Bounty “mess” was “all of Trump’s scandals rolled into one,” and that Trump put America’s enemies before his country.

But the evidence behind the alleged bounties was always weak, and there was no definitive link to the deaths of any U.S. troops. In September, NBC News interviewed General Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, who said a detailed review of all of the available intelligence was not able to corroborate the existence of a Russian program offering bounties. Contrary to The New York Times, which reported that American intelligence officials had concluded the Russian bounty allegations were true, McKenzie told NBC that the story “has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me.”

“We continue to look for that evidence,” he told NBC News. “I just haven’t seen it yet.”

The Biden administration hasn’t deemed the Russian bounty allegations completely false. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday that while it was important for the intelligence community to look into the allegations, “it’s challenging to gather this intelligence and this data.” The senior official speaking to the press this week suggested that the burden now is on the Russian government to explain its actions.

Sanctions the Biden administration placed on Russia Thursday were not tied to the bounty allegations, the official said.
https://news.yahoo.com/russian-bounty-s ... AAkHgJuzwy

Will Biden or Harris be offering any apologies? No, we know who we're dealing with.

It reminds me of when Harry Reid was asked about his lie that Mitt Romney never paid taxes. What I said helped keep him from being elected. That's all that matters.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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ajax18
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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The story, based entirely on unidentified sources, claimed that the U.S. had actually known about the alleged bounties for months.
Someone in the deep state looking to hurt President Trump goes and tells this story to New York Times anonymously. Then he goes and tells the CNN and MSNBC and they say we have anonnymous verification of the New York Times report.

How is it that CNN can claim to be objective news rather than partisan political campaigning?
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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ajax18 wrote:
Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:30 pm
The credibility of last fall’s conservative/Republican claim that ex-President Trump supposedly won the Election but was denied his victory through widespread massive and targeted voter fraud was dealt another blow recently as both NC and AZ certified that their election results were not affected by any such activities.

As the courts have now denied virtually every Trump Legal team claim, and with Trump grifters and Fox News personalities now being sued to the tune of billons of dollars by Smartmatic and Dominion, the people who have continued to blame ‘voter fraud’ for their loss have failed to provide evidence for any allegation.

After repeatedly denying the reality and facts of his election loss over two months while trying to foment distrust and insurrection - culminating in his inciting a large crowd of supporters on January 6 to march to the Capitol and take over Congress in order to stop the legal certification of the Electoral College outcome - the former President is still pushing out statements of spurious claims of fraud as he hides away at his Florida country club.

Will Trump or Fox News be offering any apologies? No, we know who we're dealing with.
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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Someone in the deep state looking to hurt President Trump...
This is the present tense, right? ; )
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ajax18
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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[quoteWill Trump or Fox News be offering any apologies? No, we know who we're dealing with. [/quote]

Fox News doesn't claim to be an unbiased news source. CNN does.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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ajax18 wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:57 pm
Fox News doesn't claim to be an unbiased news source. CNN does.
So CNN is perhaps not operating in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Tradition?
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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The credibility of last summer’s bombshell report alleging the Russian government was paying bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan took another hit this week when a senior Biden administration official told reporters they only have “low-to-moderate confidence” in the intelligence behind the story.


A "low-to-moderate confidence" that it happened. It is still possible that it happened. Is it not??
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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A "low-to-moderate confidence" that it happened. It is still possible that it happened. Is it not??
Possible sure isn't how CNN and the New York Time reported it nor how Biden and Harris spoke about it during the campaign.

Do you view CNN as an objective news source Brackite? I should go back to the old board and quote how sure you all were of this story when CNN was spinning it back in July 2020.
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

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ajax18 wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:57 pm
Will Trump or Fox News be offering any apologies? No, we know who we're dealing with.
Fox News doesn't claim to be an unbiased news source. CNN does.
Nor does Fox News even try to be an unbiased news source. That is precisely what is wrong with it. CNN is not perfect either, but I find it much more reliable than Fox News or Newsmax, neither of which seems to even care about whether or not they can verify their claims before airing them. CNN and MSNBC have been known to correct themselves when caught in a mistake, and I doubt that they set out to deliberately lie to their audiences as FOX regulars like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have been caught doing.
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
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Re: Anti Trump Russian Bounty Story Falls Apart

Post by Brack »

ajax18 wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:19 pm
A "low-to-moderate confidence" that it happened. It is still possible that it happened. Is it not??
Possible sure isn't how CNN and the New York Time reported it nor how Biden and Harris spoke about it during the campaign.

Do you view CNN as an objective news source Brackite? I should go back to the old board and quote how sure you all were of this story when CNN was spinning it back in July 2020.

I don't really remember posting about this on the old board.

I don't view CNN and MSNBC as completely objective and unbiased news sources. However, I view FOX Cable News as the most biased out of the three cable news sources. Both Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems are currently sueing FOX News. Fox Hosts repeatedly had Sydney Powell on their shows. Fox Hosts continued to have Sydney Powell on their shows after Tucker Carlson stated that Powell gave him no evidence for her wild claims and even after she was let go off of Trump's legal team.
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