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US intelligence officers and Special Operations forces in Afghanistan alerted their superiors as early as January to a suspected Russian plot to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan https://nyti.ms/2BKHKar
2/ "The crucial information that led the spies and commandos to focus on the bounties included the recovery of a large amount of American cash from a raid on a Taliban outpost that prompted suspicions."
3/ "Interrogations of captured militants and criminals played a central role in making the intelligence community confident in its assessment that the Russians had offered and paid bounties in 2019, another official has said."
4/ "American officials said the Russian plot to pay bounties to Taliban fighters came into focus over the last several months after intelligence analysts and Special Operations forces put together key pieces of evidence."
5/ "One official said that the seizure of a large amount of American cash at one Taliban site got “everybody’s attention” in Afghanistan. It was not clear when the money was recovered."
6/ "The info about bounty hunting was “well-known” among the intel community in Afghanistan, incl CIA’s chief of station & other top officials there, like military commandos hunting Taliban. The information was distributed in intelligence reports and highlighted in some of them"
7/ So we're supposed to believe Trump and his thugs that he was uninformed about this? Nope, we don't. As I say daily, everything out of Trump's mouth is a lie and/or projection. This is a HUGE STORY and it's building momentum. Keep digging @EricSchmittNYT @adamgoldmanNYT!
