Fake news. More B.S. from the liberal MSM. Trump was not briefed on it, because the NSA and Pentagon could not corroborate that intel and the NSA in particular believed that it did not happen. So it never made Trump's Intel Briefings. But of course, the MSM will play up any old B.S. to try to smear Trump. What's next? Are you going to say that Trump is hiding evidence of spaceships and alien technology in Area 51?
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Pentagon cites ‘no corroborating evidence’ to support Russian bounty payments to Taliban
by Jamie McIntyre
| June 30, 2020 07:01 AM
‘NO CORROBORATING EVIDENCE’: The Pentagon said late Monday night that while the jury is still out, so far, it has been unable to confirm the explosive allegations that Russia paid the Taliban cash bounties to target and kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
“The Department of Defense continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan. To date, DOD has no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations found in open-source reports,” said chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman in a statement issued just before midnight.
“Regardless, we always take the safety and security of our forces in Afghanistan — and around the world — most seriously and therefore continuously adopt measures to prevent harm from potential threats,” Hoffman said.
SPYMASTERS WARN LEAKS HARMFUL: Both CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe released statements Monday warning that leaking raw intelligence that is still being evaluated hampers the ability of intelligence agencies to do their jobs.
“Leaks compromise and disrupt the critical interagency work to collect, assess, and ascribe culpability,” said Haspel in a statement. “When developing intelligence assessments, initial tactical reports often require additional collection and validation.”
“This is the analytic process working the way it should. Unfortunately unauthorized disclosures now jeopardized our ability to ever find out the full story,” said Ratcliffe in a tweeted statement. “We are still investigating the alleged intelligence referenced in recent media reporting and we will brief the President and Congressional leaders at the appropriate time,” he said.
LOST IN THE FINE PRINT: The New York Times reported Monday that U.S. intelligence suggesting that a Russian military intelligence unit was paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops was included in a written summary, known as the President’s Daily Brief, provided to President Trump in late February.
But congressional Republicans who were briefed by administration officials Monday said it appears the information was never highlighted to Trump in his oral briefings. “The question is: Was it in the briefing book, or was it briefed to him? Because it's two separate things,” said Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of eight Republicans briefed Monday.
“Everything I understand is that the president was not briefed about this. Now, if it was in his book, that's one thing. Maybe he didn't read it — most presidents don't read the entire book every day. They rely on intel to brief them,” Kinzinger added. He said that based on what he heard, the intelligence was not actionable.
“It shouldn't have been told to the president,” Kinzinger said on CNN. “That's where you have to make a decision, especially on something as big as Russia. Do you want to present the president with the idea that Russia has put bounties out on U.S. troops if you don't fully know yet and if there's conflicting intelligence, or is it better to gather the rest of that?”
DEMOCRATS TO BE BRIEFED TUESDAY: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment effort against Trump, is among the Democrats due to be briefed at the White House Tuesday, a day after the Republicans.
“We need to get an explanation. We need to get an explanation, a briefing from the intelligence community leadership,” Schiff said on MSNBC. “What do they know of these allegations? What kind of confidence do they have in what they may or may not know about these allegations? And have there been policy debates within the administration about what they're planning to do?”
Schiff was also among the Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who suggested that Trump advisers were afraid to share in the intelligence with the president. “If they're going to sit on their hands because this president can't stand up to Vladimir Putin, Congress needs to take steps to protect our troops and to protect our national interest.”
“If they had this intelligence, they should have briefed the president. Why didn't they? Because they know it makes him very unhappy,” said Pelosi on CNN. “And all roads, for him, as you know, lead to Putin.”
Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre ( @jamiejmcintyre) and edited by David Sivak and Tyler Van Dyke. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense. |
