Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says

My favorite line:

The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intelligence assessment.

MONTHS

Fast forward to Trump calling this fake news and sucking Putin’s sweaty dick on camera in the Oval Office.

Wtf?! This should be a huge scandal. Trump did absolutely nothing!!

Holy fuck

Once Trump is gone, BOMB RUSSIA. Pull a Dresden on them

R3, I held up a BIBLE in front of a CHURCH! Do you call that NOTHING?

Amazing what a peepee tape will do

He’s totally fine with American soldiers being killed to a fee.

Can you imagine if Obama had done this? He’d have been tarred and feathered

Trump should be drawn and quartered.

CIA wants Biden for President

R10 so does every sane person who wants our country to be functioning.

The US has been doing this to others for over a century. The US has been interfering in other country's elections for over a century. But somehow it's an outrage when someone returns the favor.

[quote] Keep in mind that AFTER being briefed on this intelligence, Trump once again pushed to have Russia readmitted into the G8.

Boris: *crickets*

^ Oh wait I didn’t see R12 - good one, Boris!

Vlad, how will you and the other bots spin this?

What did Bitch McConnell say? Let's guess, he hasn't seen the reports?

Benghazi!!!

Burisma!!!

Bill Clinton’s Penis!!!

R18, you forgot “Comet Pizza” operates a child trafficking business from the basement and they’re stingy with their cheese!

"It's taken months because I have been negotiating through Erik Prince to have Whitewater kill US troops at a better price.

"MAKING A DEAL!!!!!"

We didn't hear about this. We didn't have time to read all the tweets about it.

bump

Putin denied it very very strongly and I have no reason not to believe him.

Bump.

Did they fund ISIS?

Original bump

Update

Why doesn’t this thread keep getting intentionally buried?

This should be the number one trending topic.

What are the Trumpublicans saying? They were so "outraged" by Benghazi!

Trump should be imprisoned and then executed for treason. He's a real American traitor.

R33 The Republicans in the senate have to be removed before that can happen.

Russia is a hoax, he said. The orange idiot needs to be impeached again over this.

Do we have the names of the soldiers who were killed by they paid bounty killers?

The families should be notified.

US fighter jets intercept four more Russian aircraft

And Trump supported Russia rejoining the G7 after he knew this?

Corrupt scumbag.

(CNN) — US F-22 fighter jets intercepted four Russian Tu-142 reconnaissance aircraft Saturday entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), NORAD said in a statement.

Saturday’s intercept follows similar encounters earlier this month in which US F-22 jets intercepted Russian nuclear-capable bombers near Alaska on three separate occasions. The last previous one was Wednesday when US F-22 fighter jets intercepted two Russian IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft entering the Alaskan Zone late Wednesday.

NORAD also said the Russian aircraft came within 65 nautical miles south of the Alaskan Aleutian island chain and loitered in the ADIZ for nearly eight hours. It added the Russians remained in international airspace and at no time entered US or Canadian sovereign airspace.

It seems to be escalating.

Oh, and Cheatolini is SOOOO pro-military! Just like every fucking corrupt, lying repug....

So Trump's spies knew this was story was going to break, so they quickly announced some lame-o sanctions against- not Russia!- but against Putin's buddy Assad.

Tuff on Terror!

Twitter is blowing up:

Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand Holy cow. “The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said...the White House has yet to authorize any” response.

I can't wait for the Lincoln Project commercial on this bombshell.

Do we have the names of the soldiers? Do the families know?

Hang this story like an albatross around Trump's neck.

Security bump.

Why does this keep getting buried?

No doubt short fingers got a commission for each body.

This intelligence absolutely dwarfs Benghazi and I don't think we'll ever hear from Benghazi ever again, unless of course, they want to be reminded of Trump's treason and his constant push to have Russia join the G8. Zing!

Waiting for Trump to say he was never briefed or that his own intelligence agency is making it up. I actually can’t find words to describe the awfulness of the man.

What about active duty military soldiers? Have they responded?

Impeach the mother fucker!!,,,,,!

Hillary wouldn’t have tolerated this senseless murder.

Trump is busy killing US citizens, he can't be bothered with Russia putting bounties on US Troops. If anyone asks him about this I already know his answer, it is the same one he gave when asked about Putin killing journalists. He answer is "The US kills a lot of people too" in Trump's eyes Putin does no wrong.

What does the military think?

Paging Barbera Starr

Bump for our men and women in uniform!

This cannot be allowed to go unanswered.

Where’s the U.S. media on this, hmmmm? It ought to be “breaking” on every outlet. But nope.

R56, is that Trump at R12?

It's shocking to me that there is not more outrage from military and government leaders. All of the usual suspects are furious, but that feel so weak. As others have pointed out the chronology is mind-blowing:

TRUMP IS APPRISED OF THIS IN LATE MARCH

--March 16th: Justice Dept. abandons prosecution of Russian firm indicted in Mueller election interference probe

--May 30: Cadets return to West Point to quarantine for 14 days ahead of commencement.

--June 2: Trump asks for Russia to be readmitted to G7

--June 5: Trump orders a decrease of US troops in Germany

--June 13: Commencement address (and WaterGait scandal)

--June 26: Trump signs Executive Order to protect monuments

ALSO OF NOTE:

[quote] This the same group, Unit 29155 of Russia’s military intelligence agency, implicated in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Britain and a coup attempt in Montenegro. It has never been publicly accused of involvement in attacks on Western soldiers --Michael Schwartz/The New York Times.

[quote] The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected a @nytimes report claiming Moscow offered to pay jihadi militants to attack US soldiers in Afghanistan. It said such 'fake news' merely betrays the low skill levels of US spy agencies (which is quite a burn). --Bryan MacDonald

R60, this story should be on the Sunday front page of every major paper here in the U.S. New York Times, Washington Post, etc.

I think it’s gathering steam. News outlets need to do their own investigating on these things. Next week will be all about this.

Kayleigh McNinny has already put out a statement claiming that Trump and Pence never knew about this.

Uh huh.

Fox News is reporting on it.

I’m running out of words for this kind of evil.

I like Mayor Pete's succinct take on this story.

"He knew."

Pence too.

What does Putin have on Trump?

Why the hell is this not on the front page of WaPo?? And it’s buried down on the NYT front page.

We should be screaming this from the fucking rooftops

[quote] The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump...

...who asked, "So, what's the problem? Has Biden got COVID yet?"

Has Lady G woken up from her fainting couch yet to address this? John McCain is spinning in his grave

How's the media covering this?

And this isn’t an enormous story on CNN because...?

[quote] There is a suspicion that Boris Johnson and his predecessor, Theresa May, have been reluctant to publish an Intelligence and Security Committee report on Russia, finished last October, for fear of upsetting Trump.

And Obama did NOTHING to stop it. He had the chance to block Putin but he was WEAK. This is proof of Trump's intelligence. He was waiting until Putin came to the G8 and he was going to confront him during the salad course, (for obvious reasons). This has been confirmed by Russian media reporting from the microphone under Trump's desk. . Again, Obama and Bin Biden did NOTHING to stop this war crime and they should be held accountable for it. Lindsey Graham is calling for an immediate investigation in to Obama's obvious treasonous actions.

Top story on FOX news website at this second: Princeton drops Woodrow Wilson's name from school due to 'racist thinking'.

[quote] Trump is a traitor. He is not worth the blood my son left in Afghanistan. #TraitorTrump I have a shirt with a bullet hole I’d like to show all his defenders. I don’t have a big account but if any of you do, please retweet.

Traitor Trump

Trump accuses Obama of treason but does shit like this

The WH is now claiming that it was never briefed about this. Sure, that must be it . . .

Obama is a traitor because he was mean to me in 2011!

Joe Biden responds.

DAMN!

Can’t wait for the debates.

New ad from The Lincoln Project.

Under 24 hours. On a Saturday.

How many Americans have been convicted of treason against the U.S.? People keep calling Trump "45," but his real numerical nickname should be whatever number is next on that treason list.

"i'M a PeRfEcT pErSoN"

You think this is the first time Russians are killing Americans ? The whole Korean War our pilots were fighting Russian MiG pilots and Harry Truman denied it the whole time. That was only admitted after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Russians also ran the North Vietnamese air defense to LBJ's denials.

Disappointed John Bolton is no longer in a position to push for a new war?

People need to stop directing their outrage at Trump - we should expect no less from a Russian asset like him. The real problem is and has continued to be the people who shielded him from removal - [bold]Senate Republicans[/bold]. Any 2020 election strategy that fails to try to remove them is going to make the next Dem president a lame duck., as Obama was made midway through his first term. I'd be willing to bet that Senate Republicans knew about the Russian bounties, too - they also receive intelligence reports.

(The claim that Trump wasn't briefed about this is a goddamned lie. He knew - it's just that he hoped the public would never know.)

Republicans need to be ousted from office wherever they're found, at all levels. They shouldn't even hold the position of city dogcatcher.

I'll have you know, r87, that I am VERY concerned and am composing a statement expressing such right this minute.

r87 is most impertinent! After reading that ill-mannered post, I collapsed onto my fainting couch.

Intelligence is a word. It has a meaning. I tell you, you know, everyone knows the story. I never lived in Washington. Or Rusher. So when they come to me, these intelligence officers, and these are big guys. Big guys. Intelligence. In. Tell. Oh. Gents. And they tell me Putin is trying to kill Americans? What do you do? No one had any idea Putin would do something against America. No one had any idea. You know, I had an idea last night. I'm an idea man, they used to call me that: Trump, The Idea Man. And I used to say, say, look at that land and wouldn't it be great eith a building on it, because that's what I do. . .

And for the record- the fat orange fuck went GOLFING today.

Russia denies it. Of course. Will Trump believe US intelligence or Putin?

Trump knew of Russian bounty on troops before late March: report

First they announced that his golf trip on Saturday would be cancelled, due to Trump working hard on the country's unrest (though it was probably because the optics weren't good after the Ruusia hit men thing). Then...he quietly slips out anyway.

They have some very fine people in Russia.

Obama: The '80s called, they want their foreign policy back

Obama zings Romney for calling Russia America's biggest geopolitical threat

Trump and all Senate Republicans need to be jailed for treason. Seriously.

Do you honestly think that's going to happen, R97? Seriously?

Oh of course not, R98. I’d actually like to see them all hanged for treason, but I figured that was a bridge too far.

So Trump was ignoring Russian-paid bounties on American soldiers in the same month he was ignoring COVD-19 within our borders? Sounds about right.

Yep. And insisting that Putin joins the G7 and turn it into a G8.

R87, I take deep offense at you telling a lifelong conservative, tax paying, republican, that we should be excluded from government.

I worked as a dog catcher, and I was so good at it, I started catching all sorts of critters.

[quote] I have been negotiating through Erik Prince to have Whitewater

It was Blackwater.

Now Prince calls it Academi. Spelled wrong, in honor of his dipshit sister.

Eh? For nearly 20 years, ever since the start of the Afghanistan War in 2001, the Taliban's sole goal in life has been to shoot, kill and blow up 'invading infidel' US troops. The reason for their anger: the Islamist Taliban doesn't generally like foreigners invading their country, bombing the Taliban's strongholds and killing Taliban fighters. And now ... suddenly they'll only do anything if there's a "bounty" from the Russians? What?

This doesn't make any logical sense.

The CIA's claims appear to be based on claims made by Taliban-linked militants and Afghan criminals. So the CIA puts its faith in the Taliban now? The NYT says that the "motives" are "unclear".

And why would the Russians do this in the year before the election? Do they want Trump to lose the military vote at home? Do they prefer Biden to win? None of this adds up.

No one has challenged the underlying intelligence analysis, R105. Certainly no one is suggesting that the Taliban will "only" do something if bribed by the Russians. There has also been no suggestion that the Russians did this with the intention of it becoming public. To the contrary, we know that they could count on Trump to do and say nothing.

R105 is off defending Russia and eastern europe with all her heart and soul in the "Eastern European cesspool" thread. Obvious troll with an agenda.

[Quote] Obama zings Romney for calling Russia America's biggest geopolitical threat

Obama was right

The trolls are so long-winded anymore.

Most people in this world do things for money above all else. Not race, religion etc.

MONEY.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian bounties did, in fact, lead to American deaths.

Psycho right had so much to say about Benghazi, but nothing about this? Shocking!

Did Jared know? He must know what hold Putin has over his father in law. I wonder if he's seen the pee tape.

...For Clinton, politics trumped the truth and honoring the memories of the lives lost in Benghazi. That alone disqualifies her from ever being commander-in-chief.

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, serves on the Benghazi Select Committee and is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. He wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Why can't someone put their knee on this guys neck for 8 minutes, you know, just to subdue him?

[quote]Did Jared know? He must know what hold Putin has over his father in law. I wonder if he's seen the pee tape.

I wonder if he got a hardon while watching the tape?

[quote]Did Jared know? He must know what hold Putin has over his father in law. I wonder if he's seen the pee tape.

Even if he did know and Putin had nothing on Trump, why would a privileged shit with corruption in his DNA who puts Israel and his own bank account first, give a shit about American soldiers?

You know, it really is amazing to me how many naive people are so convinced that Trump would give a shit about anything involving the US' standing in any way even if all of this wasn't about the fact that he's just a deadbeat who owes lots of money that he has attained in questionable ways.

He has said and done EVERYTHING to show his lack of patriotism. He serves himself and that's it. Some fool of vet gave him a purple heart and Trump had no reaction.

Get it through your heads: These people serve no one but themselves. They couldn't give less of a shit if you served and died for this country because Donny looks at that as being a "loser" because you could clearly never make it in finance and that's why you pathetically went to go join the military.

Donald Trump made it in finance? News to us.

R117, I wasn't say he himself was a success, but that's who he admires and looks up to/

Forgot to add: He deludes himself into believing that he was successful in finance via real estate and that he's self-made. He shits on Bloomberg because that's precisely who wishes he was or at least friends with him.

I understand that we are trying to turn the tables on the republicans with this & turn it into our own Benghazi, but keep in mind Benghazi didn’t result in anyone’s imprisonments or impeachment. It was just years worth of wasted time.

I can definitely see we have the Lincoln project republicans on our side. This is definitely the exact same thing republicans did to the Clintons. Throw anything against the wall to see if it sticks. If nothing sticks, the sheer magnitude if things thrown at the wall may result in permanently damaging the wall.

It’s really weird to see the people who worked to destroy the Clintons now on our side, doing the same to their former party. What do they want? It can’t be war, because Hillary was a hawk & would’ve given them any war they wanted, yet they destroyed her. That was really dumb of them. People like Steve Schmidt & Rick Wilson lobbed bombs at Hillary for years to destroy her & prevent her from getting the Oval Office. Well, they succeeded. But look what they gave themselves instead.

.

This isn’t “our Benghazi,” R120. This is important.

I was about to say that, R121.

The state dept actually asked for funds for embassy security and were rejected by the very assholes who now scream "Benghazi!"

We have a leader who was briefed on a bounty on the heads of Americans and even if he didn't pay attention at the time, he fucking knows NOW. If this were Iran, he'd immediately declare war and pretend he actually gave a shit about soldiers. What's the excuse for not doing anything to Russia now?

Any military person who votes Republican is in fact an idiot with no dignity and even less brains. And clearly just full of so much hate that they could even ignore something this horrifying by the president of the United States

R121 agreed. Why do we insist on using GOP narrative tropes when not only when we don't need to but we're faced with the most egregious treason?

R121, it doesn’t matter what the truth is, the GOP is great at harping on one thing until everyone believes their side. All their TV reps say the exact same thing at every appearance.

Dems aren’t half as good as the GOP in that regard.

This Russia as killers story is a real one and watch the Dems just let it float away

I fully expected Trump to announce a peace deal in Afghanistan and pull out the troops as an October surprise, not sure if this makes that more or less likely.

For people using the word Treason you should know:

[quote] Treason by aiding the enemy can’t be committed during peacetime; there must be an actual enemy for the traitor to aid. The requisite enemy designation typically requires a formal declaration of war.

R124, given Trump's approval ratings, I wouldn't say the GOP is good at getting people on their side

I would think this type of information would go to the President's desk immediately. Putin paying for American deaths. This would have zoomed straight to the top.

No excuses.

"Dems aren’t half as good as the GOP in that regard."

Not to worry, R124. We now have The Lincoln Project on our side, to do the job Democrats seem to be genetically incapable of doing. Unfortunately, after Trump is gone, they'll turn around and resume using their tactics on Democrats, but maybe, just maybe, Dems will grow a spine by then and learn to fight fire with fire by sitting at the feet of the masters.

I keep trying to share the CNN article from today about Trump’s disastrous phone calls with foreign leaders, but Datalounge keeps rejecting it. It’s really good (and LONG). Maybe someone else can manage to link it?

“ From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials”

CNN reported earlier that Trump did indeed get briefed on the subject. He knew.

The Democratic Party is passive, like a sub bottom. It never takes the lead.

Oh bitches, this is NOT going away

R133 That’s my senator! Go Chris Murphy!

The AP is now reporting the WH was aware of the Russian/Taliban bounty in MARCH *2019*, a full year earlier than has been reported. John Bolton supposedly briefed him personally. Bolton has not commented on this story and does not mention the bounty in his book (it was likely scrubbed for security concerns before publication).

Reporting on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show now.

R135, apparently Bolton told several colleagues that he had verbally briefed Trump about the bounties.

And Trump thought he was going to use the Confederate statues to turn his campaign around,

Is this worse than Ukraine? Is this Trump’s “Benghazi, but real”?

How successful do we think Trump will be convincing his stupid supporters that this is all “fake news” and bad intel?

Bolton was hired to write a thinly-veiled Valentine to Trump. Yeah, there's a couple scandalous tidbits. But mostly the book is to portray a person who is walking and talking and wearing a suit and having meetings and making decisions and solving problems. Trying to make him not look like a totally confused, low-IQ, bitter sociopath who spends his day plotting revenge against his 'enemies'.

His followers know that everything alleged about him is true, R137. They're like Holocaust deniers. They know it happened, they just enjoy laughing about it.

This motherfucker needs to be in prison NOW. How in the hell do you call yourself an American and support someone like Trump who has NEVER shown any patriotism whatsoever? What a garbage human you must be to support such a low-life.

I mean the only fucking thing we've ever seen from this family is the first lady's tits. It's fucking ridiculous. Every Trump supporter needs to be thrown out of the country. You're enemies of the state. This isn't a mere "freedom of speech" issue. You literally support a cockroach who protects a foreign country that actively wants to kill Americans.

R138 ...huh? Bolton said Trump is incompetent and that he won’t be voting for him this year. And the book shows Trump to put his own personal political interests (i.e. re-election) over the national interests time and again.

Where are you getting this idea that he was “hired” to write a “Valentine” to Trump? Are you thinking of someone else?

Of course Trump found it not credible. Ge chose not to believe it. He only believes Putin.

Of course Trump found it not credible. Ge chose not to believe it. He only believes Putin.

I'm 100% rooting for Russia paying the Talibans to kill our troops and even having Putin as co-President of the USA as long as it allows us to own the Libs. That's what our life is for.

So far, top Republicans have been briefed. NATO has been briefed. The UK has been briefed. Top Democrats today will be briefed. But the president, allegedly, has not been briefed, nor are there plans to do so, according to the National Security Advisor.

Trump Advisor, O’Brien says Trump hasn’t been briefed “on the items,” while not saying what “the items” are. More importantly, a report from the Associated Press says former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton has said he briefed Trump in March of 2019 on the intelligence showing Russia was offering bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers. And The New York Times reports Trump was briefed in writing back in April.

O’Brien goes on to say, “should the situation warrant action,” Trump will be briefed.

OF COURSE, Trump was briefed previously. Do you really think the President would ever be kept in the dark about something like this--particularly since it was considered important enoughto publish it in the briefing papers.

Trump is doing the only thing he knows--deny deny deny

Impeach him again, for treason.

I don't know why it would be Russia. =DJT

Democrats should re-take "Patriotism from the Repubcanlies once and for all. Led by veterans, We should camp out in front of Russian Embassies, Republican congresspeople until action he is gone. His own CURRENT administration says he is a threat to national security.

[quote]Bolton said Trump is incompetent and that he won’t be voting for him this year. And the book shows Trump to put his own personal political interests (i.e. re-election) over the national interests time and again.

Sickening that Bolton got paid for saying something many of us fucking knew about Trump from the moment he was fucking born.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan today....

r150, how many people are being murdered in the US as we speak?

How are veterans and military types feeling about this? I’m not being snotty; I don’t know.

Don’t forget about Treasonous Trump’s fans.

Another thread, r151. In fact, many other threads. But I appreciate your adherence to our cause.

I'll play with your dick if you play with mine.

Trump says he doesn’t believe that Russia paid bonuses for dead Americans.

I wish someone would ask him, “based on what?” His uneducated gut? Putin’s assurances? This corrupt fool is a threat to every American.

If an assassin were to succeed on Trump's life, would s/he be able to plead national security as a most noble & justifiable motive.

R156, they could and the gofundme set up for that person's legal expenses after they made that claim as their defense, would make Bezos look like a pauper.

Is Putin also paying trolls to bury the lead on Datalounge with bullshit posts about death threats to "All Lives Matter," Tucker Carlson for President and cancelling the Mikado?

This is probably not be the worst thing a U.S. president has done. During the Vietnam War Nixon killed people for cynical political reasons. But Trump has acted out of stupidity, weakness and pure indifference to human life. He's not just evil, he's embarrassing.

"Divided government" is a feature, y'all! I care about our laws and our constitution so much that I let Trump ignore as much of it as he likes!