After weeks of investigations into the allegations, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan said that he remains unconvinced by intelligence suggesting that Russians had offered bounties to Taliban militants to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
“It just has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me,” Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan, said in an NBC News interview on Monday. “We continue to look for that evidence. I just haven’t seen it yet. But … it’s not a closed issue.”
The New York Times reported in June that a U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit paid Taliban-connected militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. and other coalition troops as the Trump administration sought to reach a peace deal involving the Taliban and the Afghan government. The New York Times further reported that Trump was briefed about the bounties in his presidential daily briefing early this year.
Numerous national security and intelligence officials said that the intelligence was not fully corroborated, and the Trump administration said it was investigating further while also opening a leak investigation to discover who disclosed the disputed classified intelligence reports. The Russians are believed by the United States to have supplied weapons to the Taliban for years, but bounties would be a huge escalation.
“I found what they presented to me very concerning, very worrisome. I just couldn’t see the final connection, so I sent my guys back and said, ‘Look, keep digging.’ So we have continued to dig and look because this involves potential threats to U.S. forces. It’s open,” McKenzie said Monday, adding, “I just haven’t seen anything that closes that gap yet.”
A U.S. military official whom NBC News said was “familiar with the intelligence” said a review of every attack against U.S. troops in Afghanistan going back several years found none were connected to the alleged Russian bounty offers.
Despite the skepticism from military leaders, many Democrats, including 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, have repeatedly hammered Trump over the alleged bounties. Biden said in July that Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale” and that “if he was briefed and nothing was done about this, that’s a dereliction of duty.” During his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, Biden said, “Under President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers.”
“People that are involved in it get very emotional about it. I can’t afford to be emotional about it. I’ve got to step back and look at the totality of the picture,” McKenzie said Monday, adding, “I want to know because I won’t hesitate to take action if that’s the case. I just haven’t seen it. I just haven’t seen it. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there, but nothing was out there that I could grasp that connect together in a pattern that I would consider actionable.”
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said this summer that “U.S. and coalition force protection is a critical priority for both the president and the intelligence community” and “the selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk.” He added, “It is also, simply put, a crime.”
Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, defended the Trump administration’s handling of the “raw intelligence.” He said the military has put in place force protection measures as a precaution and condemned the leak that Trump national security officials have repeatedly argued has hampered the U.S. intelligence community’s ability to get to the truth.
The Taliban denied accepting such bounties from Russia, and the Russian Embassy in the U.S. called the reporting ”fake news.”
Two dozen U.S. service members have been killed in combat in Afghanistan since the start of 2019. The U.S. and the Taliban struck a shaky peace agreement in February.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper testified to the House Armed Services Committee in July that “the reports were not, have not been corroborated” and “all the defense intelligence agencies have been unable to corroborate that report.” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said: “Let me get specifically to the bounties. That is a unique, discrete piece of intelligence that is not corroborated, … and I, and the secretary, and many others are taking it serious. We’re going to get to the bottom of it. We’re going to find out if, in fact, it’s true. And if it is true, we’re going to take action.”
Trump told Axios in July that he had not raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin because “that was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly, that’s an issue that many people said was fake news.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Radio Free Europe in August that he told the Russian government that “if the Russians are offering money to kill Americans or, for that matter, other Westerners as well, there will be an enormous price to pay.” He said the Pentagon passed a similar message to Russia.
In a story that got far less attention, CNN reported in mid-August that the Iranian regime offered bounties to Afghan militants who had been tied to numerous attacks last year alone.
