The Russian bounties story was apparently fake news all alongIt was the scandal of the summer of 2020.
Moscow allegedly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported in an exclusive based entirely on anonymous sources. Worse still, the article added, then-President Donald Trump was briefed on the bounty plot and did nothing about it.
Pundits, reporters, and lawmakers responded to the supposed bombshell revelation with a mixture of horror and righteous fury, many of them reviving the popular narrative that Trump was beholden to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, now the Biden administration says the U.S. intelligence community only ever had “low to moderate” confidence in the bounty story, the Daily Beast reports, adding, “Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the story is, at best, unproven – and possibly untrue.”
I know. I am just as surprised as you are the same people who alleged, without evidence, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is a serial gang rapist and Trump “colluded” with the Russians to steal the 2016 election may have gotten another major story wrong. More seriously, that the New York Times's anonymously sourced report, which bears three bylines, came in an election year and that it complicated the Trump White House’s efforts to withdraw from Afghanistan are two details one should not overlook.
If you can believe it, this bounty business reportedly originated with a detainee who simply told his jailers what he thought they wanted to hear.
“The reporting about the alleged ‘bounties’ came from ‘detainee reporting’ – raising the specter that someone told their U.S.-aligned Afghan jailers what they thought was necessary to get out of a cage,” the Daily Beast notes, citing a Biden White House official. “Specifically, the official cited ‘information and evidence of connections to criminal agents in Afghanistan and elements of the Russian government’ as sources for the intelligence community’s assessment.”
This is a hell of a thing to read, considering the Washington Post claimed in June 2020 it had confirmed the New York Times’s reporting. Confirmed what, exactly?
The Biden official continued, noting the “difficult operating environment in Afghanistan” makes it especially complicated for U.S. operatives to confirm what could be nothing more than a rumor.
In other words, the story we were told last year represented possibly the greatest political scandal of the last two decades may be a complete fabrication. And to think of all the anger and outrage it inspired from Democratic politicians and members of the press.
MSNBC contributor Steve Benen authored an article bearing the headline, “On Russian bounties, what did Trump know and when did he know it?”
The Washington Post, which, again, claimed it had “confirmed” the story, awarded Trump four Pinocchios for claiming it was “fake news.”
Later, when Trump claimed he was never briefed on the matter, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California responded, saying, “Is this an issue where they cannot tell the president things he doesn't want to hear when it comes to Vladimir Putin and Russia?”
Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden himself said in response to the story that Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale.”
He added, “It’s a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way. It’s a betrayal of every single American family with a loved one serving in Afghanistan or anywhere overseas.”
Those are some strong words for a story Biden’s own administration says is doubtful. Oh, well. At least he got his election-year sound bite.
“The United States intelligence community assesses with low to moderate confidence that Russian intelligence officers sought to encourage Taliban attacks U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan in 2019 and perhaps earlier,” a senior Biden administration official said this week.
Yet, from the way the press told the story last year, uncritically repeating whispers originating from nameless intelligence officials, coalition troops were absolutely targeted by a bounty scheme put together by the Russians.
The funny thing is: Even before the Biden administration conceded this week the story is, at best, dubious, it didn’t even make sense. Why would Moscow pay Taliban-linked fighters to do what they were already doing free of charge? Further, though Russia has long been suspected of funneling cash to insurgent operations, what good reason would the Kremlin have to sponsor attacks that could potentially lead to a shooting war with the U.S.? Perhaps revenge for the Mujahedeen? If so, we're going to need something a bit stronger than "sources say."
If the bounty scheme was about regional dominance, why persuade Taliban-linked fighters into action most likely to ensure a continued U.S. presence? Was Moscow merely trying to stick its finger in America's eye? If so, there are ways to do this without also threatening all-out war with a global superpower.
Nearly as frustrating as the press's eagerness to lap up a nonsensical, anonymously sourced report is the fact multiple intelligence officials and experts, including former national security adviser John Bolton, went on the record last year to say they had serious doubts about the New York Times’s supposedly shocking scoop.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the senior U.S. general for the Middle East and South Asia, even said at the time there did not seem to be any “causative link” between the bounty allegation and actual U.S. deaths.
Their on-the-record concerns did nothing to cool the righteous indignation of Democrats and members of the press, many of whom continued to treat the allegation as gospel truth.
Yes, the Daily Beast's report is also based entirely on the input of nameless officials. However, unlike the New York Times, the Washington Post, and everyone else who pushed the bounty “bombshell” in 2020, the Daily Beast’s reporting enjoys the backing of independent, on-the-record corroboration from multiple intelligence officials, who said at the time the story sounded extremely unlikely.
It has been said before, but it bears repeating: Of the many disturbing examples of media malpractice in the Trump era, none are so alarming as the press’s unswerving
trust in the say-so of anonymous officials.