Russia paid Taliban to kill Americans

[_Icarus]

This story has legs and won't go away. The NYT is now saying this story was bolstered by money transfers. Sorry I can't link it right now, I'm on my phone.

[_Chap]

Straight from the NYT:

Suspicions of Russian Bounties Were Bolstered by Data on Financial Transfers

Analysts have used other evidence to conclude that the transfers were likely part of an effort to offer payments to Taliban-linked militants to kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan.

June 30, 2020
Updated 4:18 p.m. ET

195
American officials intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account, which was among the evidence that supported their conclusion that Russia covertly offered bounties for killing U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.

Though the United States has accused Russia of providing general support to the Taliban before, analysts concluded from other intelligence that the transfers were most likely part of a bounty program that detainees described during interrogations. Investigators also identified by name numerous Afghans in a network linked to the suspected Russian operation, the officials said — including, two of them added, a man believed to have served as an intermediary for distributing some of the funds and who is now thought to be in Russia.

The intercepts bolstered the findings gleaned from the interrogations, helping reduce an earlier disagreement among intelligence analysts and agencies over the reliability of the detainees. The disclosures further undercut White House officials’ claim that the intelligence was too uncertain to brief President Trump. In fact, the information was provided to him in his daily written brief in late February, two officials have said.

Afghan officials this week described a sequence of events that dovetails with the account of the intelligence. They said that several businessmen who transfer money through the informal “hawala” system were arrested in Afghanistan over the past six months and are suspected of being part of a ring of middlemen who operated between the Russian intelligence agency, known as the G.R.U., and Taliban-linked militants. The businessmen were arrested in what the officials described as sweeping raids in the north of Afghanistan, as well as in Kabul.

[_Icarus]

Thanks Chap..

[_Jersey Girl]

If this guy doesn't get totally s_hitcanned I don't know what we're going to do.

[_subgenius]

If this guy doesn't get totally s_hitcanned I don't know what we're going to do.

which guy? and for what exactly?
While the information thus far is concerning, i don't see how any one "guy" is culpable...but lemme guess, "orange man bad"
#tds

[_Gunnar]

which guy? and for what exactly?
While the information thus far is concerning, i don't see how any one "guy" is culpable...but lemme guess, "orange man bad"
#tds

It is increasingly amazing to me that there are still people clueless enough and sufficiently cognitively impaired to have any serious or honest doubts about that question. He is arguably a traitor to his own country. He has frequently shown that he more often than not sides with Putin and Russia over American intelligence agencies, his administration is arguably the most openly corrupt in history (just consider all of his former associates and appointees who have been indicted and/or imprisoned or had to resign in disgrace), and there is absolutely no way any reasonable or honest person can spin his handling of the corvid-19 pandemic such to avoid concluding that no national leader has done a worse job of it than he (though Bolsonaro of Brazil may yet prove even worse than Trump).

You can't escape the fact that the USA with only 4.5% of the world's population has more than 25% of the world's confirmed cases and deaths from the pandemic, and while most other developed countries (and even some developing ones) are showing a rapid decline in new cases and are able to start reopening their economies, the situation in our country seems worse than ever, for the most part, and getting still worse now, at an accelerating rate. Many of them are banning travelers from the USA in their self defense. There is simply no way to credibly absolve Trump and his ineptitude from a major portion of the blame for that, and if you have more than a dozen working brain cells, I struggle to understand how you can avoid that same conclusion!

With almost everything he does, says or tweets, it becomes ever more obvious that all he really cares about is his own, egomaniacal, narcissistic self. Though the number of his supporters who can't see that is slowly shrinking, it both amazes and disheartens me how many of them still remain. If you really are the successful architect you claim to be, it is hard to avoid concluding that it doesn't necessarily require great intelligence or knowledge to be an architect. Either that, or you are merely the incorrigible troll you have often been accused of being.

[_Temp. Admin.]

(Dr. Shades here, using our "Temp. Admin." account.)

I don't doubt the damning-ness of the evidence, but I can't figure out why Russian Intelligence would offer bounties to Taliban fighters to kill Coalition troops. Isn't killing coalition troops sort of what the Taliban does anyway?

It'd be like me paying a homeless person to panhandle.

[_MeDotOrg]

(Dr. Shades here, using our "Temp. Admin." account.)

I don't doubt the damning-ness of the evidence, but I can't figure out why Russian Intelligence would offer bounties to Taliban fighters to kill Coalition troops. Isn't killing coalition troops sort of what the Taliban does anyway?

It'd be like me paying a homeless person to panhandle.

I get what you're saying, but sometimes these attacks are 'green on blue', where the attackers are ostensibly allied with Americans. $100,000 buys a lot of loyalty in a country where tribes regularly change side in warfare.

Also, there may be targets that may considered primary by the Russians but not by the Taliban, but again, a few thousand dollars buys a lot of ammunition.

[_honorentheos]

(Dr. Shades here, using our "Temp. Admin." account.)

I don't doubt the damning-ness of the evidence, but I can't figure out why Russian Intelligence would offer bounties to Taliban fighters to kill Coalition troops. Isn't killing coalition troops sort of what the Taliban does anyway?

It'd be like me paying a homeless person to panhandle.

Timing.

The bounties were being offered while we were in negotiations with the Taliban seeking peace terms. The Russians were publicly supporting the peace talks but apparently working behind the scenes to destabilize and undermine the efforts at the cost of American lives.

From the NYT -

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.

Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.

[_honorentheos]

If this guy doesn't get totally s_hitcanned I don't know what we're going to do.

which guy? and for what exactly?
While the information thus far is concerning, i don't see how any one "guy" is culpable...but lemme guess, "orange man bad"
#tds

When Trump condemns Putin publicly and without reservation over this, maybe you can say there isn't a serious overlap between this and the singular relationship Trump has with Putin that places Trump's interests over those of national security or our allies.