CIA Claim That Russia Placed Bounties On U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan Resurfaces Again In The New York Times

The U.S. government says intelligence officials lack evidence of someone in President Vladimir V. Putin’s Kremlin directing Unit 29155 to carry out a covert bounty operation in Afghanistan.Credit...Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press  

New York Times: Russian Spy Team Left Traces That Bolstered C.I.A.’s Bounty Judgment  

But the U.S. lacked “evidence that the Kremlin directed this operation,” newly declassified information about the Russian team showed. 

WASHINGTON — In early 2020, members of a Taliban-linked criminal network in Afghanistan detained in raids told interrogators that they had heard that Russians were offering money to reward killings of American and coalition troops. 

The claim, that Russia was trying to pay to generate more frequent attacks on Western forces, was stunning, particularly because the United States was trying at the same time to negotiate a deal with the Taliban to end the long-running war in Afghanistan. 

C.I.A. analysts set out to see whether they could corroborate or debunk the detainees’ accounts. Ultimately, newly declassified information shows, those analysts discovered a significant reason to believe the claim was accurate: Other members of the same Taliban-linked network had been working closely with operatives from a notorious unit of the G.R.U., the Russian military intelligence service, known for assassination operations. 

“The involvement of this G.R.U. unit is consistent with Russia encouraging attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan given its leading role in such lethal and destabilizing operations abroad,” the National Security Council said in a statement provided to The New York Times.  

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: As I said when this story broke out last year. The Taliban do not need a bounty to kill US soldiers. They do it for free.

And as for the New York Times revisiting this story. There is nothing new in this NYT post. And it is only at the end of this long article that the New York Times admits that there is no evidence .... 

.... The White House statement also brought into sharper focus two gaps in the available evidence that analysts saw as a reason to be cautious. 

Military leaders have repeatedly pointed to one in public: The intelligence community lacks proof tying any specific attack to a bounty payment. We cannot confirm that the operation resulted in any attacks on U.S. or coalition forces,” the National Security Council said. 

The other reason for caution is an absence of information showing that a Kremlin leader authorized Unit 29155 to offer bounties to Afghan militants. “We do not have evidence that the Kremlin directed this operation,” the statement said. 

So why a return to this old story? Again, the New York Times answers this question .... 

.... The statement was originally drafted and declassified to serve as talking points for officials to use in briefing reporters last month about U.S. sanctions and other punishments against Russia. The White House took diplomatic action — delivering a warning and demanding an explanation for suspicious activities — about the bounty issue, but did not base sanctions on it. 

It all comes down to "talking points" to justify US sanctions, even though there is no concrete evidence to back the story.