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In early 2019, senior White House officials were privy to classified intelligence that Russia was secretly offering rewards to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a year earlier than previously reported, according to knowledgeable U.S. officials. direct intelligence.
The assessment was included in at least one of the daily intelligence reports written by President Donald Trump at the time, according to officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues that he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.
The White House did not respond to questions about the conscience of Trump or other officials about Russia’s provocations in 2019. The White House has said that Trump was not informed, and has not yet been informed, about the intelligence evaluations because he did not know. have fully verified. However, it is rare for intelligence to be confirmed without question before it is presented to senior officials.
Bolton declined to comment Monday when the AP asked him if he had briefed Trump on the matter in 2019. On Sunday, he suggested to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump alleged ignorance of Russia’s provocations to justify the lack of response from its administration.
“You can repudiate everything if no one tells you about it,” Bolton said.
The revelations cast further doubt on the White House’s efforts to distance Trump from Russian intelligence evaluations. The AP reported Sunday that concerns about Russian rewards were also included in a second presidential briefing written earlier this year and that current national security adviser Robert O’Brien had discussed the matter with Trump. O’Brien denies that he did.
The administration’s previous awareness of the Russian efforts raises additional questions about why Trump did not take any punitive action against Moscow for efforts that put the lives of American service members at risk. Trump has, throughout his time in office, sought to improve relations with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, moving earlier this year to try to reestablish Russia as part of a group of world leaders from whom he had been expelled.
Authorities said they did not consider the 2019 intelligence assessments to be particularly urgent, given that the Russian meddling in Afghanistan is not a new development. Officials with knowledge of Bolton’s apparent briefing for Trump said it did not contain “actionable intelligence,” meaning the intelligence community did not have enough information to form a strategic plan or response. However, the classified evaluation of the Russian rewards was the sole purpose of the meeting.
Officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the highly confidential information.
Intelligence that emerged in early 2019 indicated that Russian operatives had become more aggressive in their desire to contract with the Taliban and members of the Haqqani Network, a militant group aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2012 during the Obama administration. .
The National Security Council and the undersecretary of defense for intelligence held intelligence meetings. The Pentagon declined to comment, and the NSC did not respond to questions about the meetings.
Concerns about Russian rewards arose again this year after members of the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known to the public as SEAL Team Six, raided a Taliban outpost and recovered approximately $ 500,000 in U.S. dollars. The funds reinforced suspicions by the American intelligence community that the Russians had offered money to Taliban militants and other related associations.
The White House maintains that the President was also unaware of this fact. However, the information was also included in the daily presidential briefing. And officials told the AP that O’Brien briefed Trump on the matter. O’Brien has denied that such information has occurred.
Officials told AP that government career officials developed potential options for the White House to respond to the Russian aggression in Afghanistan, which was first reported by The New York Times. However, the Trump administration has yet to authorize any action.
Intelligence in 2019 and 2020 around Russian rewards was derived in part from reports of captured Taliban militants. Officials with knowledge of the matter told the AP that Taliban agents from opposite ends of the country and from separate tribes offered similar accounts.
Officials would not name specific groups or give specific locations in Afghanistan or timelines for when they were detained.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, denied that Russian intelligence officials have offered payments to the Taliban in exchange for attacking US and coalition forces.
The United States is investigating whether any Americans died as a result of Russian rewards. Officials focus in particular on an April 2019 attack on a U.S. convoy. Three US Marines were killed after an explosives-equipped car detonated near their armored vehicles when they returned to Bagram Airfield, the largest US military installation in Afghanistan.
The Marines exchanged fire with the vehicle at some point; however, it is not known whether the shooting occurred before or after the car exploded.
Abdul Raqib Kohistani, the Bagram District Police Chief, said at the time that at least five Afghan civilians were wounded after the attack on the convoy, according to previous AP reports. It is not known whether the civilians were wounded by the car bomb or the shots fired by the US Marines.
The Defense Department identified the Marine Sgt. Christopher Slutman, 43, of Newark, Delaware; Sergeant Benjamin Hines, 31, of York, Pennsylvania; and Cpl. Robert Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, New York, as the Marines killed in April 2019. The three Marines were all infantrymen assigned to 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, a reserve infantry unit based in Garden City, New York.
Hendriks’ father told the AP that even a rumor of Russian rewards should have been addressed immediately.
“If this was swept under the rug so as not to make it a bigger problem with Russia, and an ounce of blood was spilled when they found out about this, I lost all respect for this administration and everything,” said Erik Hendriks.
Marine Corps commander Roger Hollenbeck said at the time that the reserve unit was part of the Georgia Deployment Support Mission Resolutive Program, a recurring six-month rotation between U.S. Marines and Georgia Armed Forces. The unit was first deployed to Afghanistan in October 2018.
Three other service members and an Afghan contractor were also injured in the attack. As of April 2019, the attack was under separate investigation, unrelated to Russian rewards, to determine how it unfolded.
Officials who spoke to the AP also said they were closely watching the internal attacks, sometimes called the “green on blue” incidents, of 2019 to determine if they are also linked to Russian rewards.
