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struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:14 AM Jun 2020

Bounty intel was included in daily briefing

BY REBECCA KLAR - 06/29/20 08:58 PM EDT

Intelligence assessing that Russia had offered bounties to incentivize Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan was included in a written briefing for President Trump, according to multiple reports.

CNN first reported Monday, citing an unnamed source, that the intelligence was included in one of Trump’s daily briefings in the spring. The New York Times later reported, citing two unnamed sources, that officials provided a written briefing in late February to Trump about the intelligence assessment.

And The Associated Press, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that top officials in the White House were aware of classified intelligence indicating Russia was offering bounties for the deaths of Americans in early 2019 ...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/505153-cnn-russian-bounty-intel-was-included-in-trumps-daily-briefing

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Bounty intel was included in daily briefing (Original Post) struggle4progress Jun 2020 OP
White House briefing on bounty reports raises more questions than it answers struggle4progress Jun 2020 #1
White House distances Trump from report struggle4progress Jun 2020 #2
'I'd Be P*ssed That Nobody Brought It to Me' struggle4progress Jun 2020 #3
Senate Republicans squeeze Trump struggle4progress Jun 2020 #4
White House Briefs GOP Lawmakers struggle4progress Jun 2020 #5
Intelligence 'may have been' in brief but wasn't 'actionable' struggle4progress Jun 2020 #6
Press Secretary fires back struggle4progress Jun 2020 #7
Bounty plot included in Daily Brief earlier this year struggle4progress Jun 2020 #8
White House Defends Trump struggle4progress Jun 2020 #9
Were aides afraid to tell him? struggle4progress Jun 2020 #10
Multiple intelligence streams suggest Russians paying bounties struggle4progress Jun 2020 #11
Bolton told the AP he personally briefed Trump in March 2019 after Ratcliffe said... Lock him up. Jun 2020 #12

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
1. White House briefing on bounty reports raises more questions than it answers
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:16 AM
Jun 2020

Analysis by Marshall Cohen, CNN
Updated 8:40 PM ET, Mon June 29, 2020

... while making her case, McEnany appeared to contradict Trump on two key points, and also offered explanations about intelligence-gathering that didn't make sense to seasoned experts.

In a Twitter post Sunday night, Trump said, "Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or (Vice President Mike Pence)." The post appeared to confirm that Trump had spoken with US intelligence officials and they reported to him that they had determined that the allegations about Russian bounties were not credible.

But McEnany said Monday that Trump "has not been briefed on this matter." Her denial raised immediate questions, considering reports that US officials had briefed their British counterparts.

She also said the US government is still determining the veracity of the underlying intelligence, which undercuts Trump's suggestion that US intelligence agencies had already deemed it unreliable ...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-mcenany-briefing-russia-bounty/index.html

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
2. White House distances Trump from report
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:19 AM
Jun 2020

By ZEKE MILLER, JAMES LAPORTA and MARY CLARE JALONICK The Associated Press
Posted June 29, 2020 8:36 pm
Updated June 29, 2020 11:19 pm

... The White House seemed to be setting an unusually high bar for bringing the information to Trump, since it is rare for intelligence to be confirmed without a shadow of doubt before it is presented to senior government decision-makers. McEnany declined to say why a different standard of confidence in the intelligence applied to briefing lawmakers than bringing the information to the president ...

https://globalnews.ca/news/7123274/trump-russia-troops-report-fallout/

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
3. 'I'd Be P*ssed That Nobody Brought It to Me'
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:24 AM
Jun 2020

By Reed Richardson
Jun 29th, 2020, 8:20 pm

... Speaking with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Hurd reacted a breaking news report from that network’s Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, that intelligence officials failed to orally discuss the bounty killings program with Trump, even though it was added to the PDB book that is circulated to all top cabinet officials, including the president. It’s well known that Trump skips out on reading the PDB and instead prefers to a short verbal summary of its highlights.

“So you understand this in a way that pretty much no one else does,” Burnett noted to Hurd, who was a former undercover CIA agent. “You heard Barbara’s reporting. It was in the president’s daily brief, he may not have been audibly briefed about it, but it was there for him to read. What is your response?”

“I think your reporter had it right. Why wasn’t it escalated to an in-person brief versus just a physical document?” Hurd asked. “I can’t confirm or deny whether it was in the PDB, but this would be information that should get escalated to the senior levels of government and even if there was some kind of question about intelligence, like something like this, then you would still, you know, put caveats around the information.”

“They’re not our allies, they’re our adversaries and we should be doing everything we can to stop them,” Hurd added, alluding to the Russians. “This is important that the timing of this kind of information is why we’re trying to negotiate a peace process. And can you trust a peace process, people supposed to be involved in supporting the peace process if you know this type of stuff is happening? And guess what the Russians have done this kind of stuff before. We know all the cases of what they have tried to do in Europe. But unfortunately what is happening right now is that the Russians are winning because now we’re continuing to sow mistrust and lack of trust in all our institutions and the questions around this” ...

https://www.mediaite.com/news/gop-rep-will-hurd-calls-out-failure-to-brief-trump-on-russia-bounty-killings-id-be-pssed-that-nobody-brought-it-to-me/

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
4. Senate Republicans squeeze Trump
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:27 AM
Jun 2020

By ANDREW DESIDERIO and MARIANNE LEVINE
06/29/2020 08:03 PM EDT

... “I want to understand how it’s conceivably possible that the president didn’t know. How does that possibly happen?” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said. “Number two, what is their plan to make sure that our enemies know that if you target American servicemen and women, the consequences are going to be draconian? And right now, I want to hear their plan for Taliban and GRU agents in body bags.” GRU refers to Russia’s military intelligence agency ...

“It is important to be cautious on intelligence writ large, because when it’s proven to not be accurate, it can lead to things like a war or other measures that proved to be counterproductive,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters. “You pull out one little piece and you put it in the public domain and you act like it was some smoking gun situation. So that’s one of the reasons I just don’t comment on reports such as these” ...

Asked whether there was any progress on scheduling a briefing, Senate Armed Services Chair Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) bluntly said: “No.” Senate Republicans indicated on Monday that they would continue to press for a classified briefing.

“I think it’s incumbent on the administration to brief Congress, and they’re in the process of doing it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said ...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/senate-republicans-trump-russia-345160

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
5. White House Briefs GOP Lawmakers
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:29 AM
Jun 2020

By Paul D. Shinkman, Senior Writer, National Security
June 29, 2020, at 7:24 p.m.

... Newly appointed Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Robert O'Brien and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were among the senior officials who briefed the lawmakers about the explosive details first documented in a report from The New York Times on Friday and subsequently confirmed by other news outlets. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the Russian bounty scheme accounted for dozens of American deaths in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 by militants linked to the Taliban ...

McEnany declined to answer questions on reports that British officials were briefed on the intelligence, though the president was not. She also attempted to distance the president from criticism that he should have already done more, saying that "intelligence is verified before it reaches the president of the United States ...

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-29/white-house-briefs-gop-lawmakers-as-trump-is-pressured-on-russian-bounty-scheme

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
6. Intelligence 'may have been' in brief but wasn't 'actionable'
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:31 AM
Jun 2020

June 29, 2020, 11:42 PM EDT
By Josh Lederman

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration told Republican members of Congress on Monday that intelligence about potential Russian bounties may have been included at some point in the President's Daily Brief but not conveyed to President Donald Trump in a formal threat briefing because it wasn't yet "actionable," the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.

"I believe it may have been" in the written President's Daily Brief, or PDB, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in an interview.

Referring to the president, McCaul said: "I think the way the process works is that he gets briefed about three times a week on sort of actionable, credible items. And the decision was made that this was not at that point in time a credible, actionable piece of intelligence. And if at any point it did, it would be raised to his attention" ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russia-bounty-intelligence-may-have-been-trump-brief-wasn-t-n1232498

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
7. Press Secretary fires back
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:34 AM
Jun 2020

JUNE 30, 2020 1:15PM
Sam Clench

... “I know you said that President Trump was never briefed on these reports about the Russian bounties and whatnot, but can you say that he was briefed today?” one reporter asked Ms McEnany.

“Look, I’ll say this. The US receives thousands of reports a day on intelligence, and they are subject to strict scrutiny. While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA director, national security adviser and chief of staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President (Mike Pence) were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” the Press Secretary said.

“But has he since been briefed, since all of these reports came out?” the reporter pressed.

“So, let me back up and say this. That there is no consensus within the intelligence community on these allegations and, in effect, there are dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community with regards to the veracity of what’s being reported. And the veracity of the underlying allegations continues to be evaluated,” she replied ...

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/white-house-press-secretary-kayleigh-mcenany-fires-back-over-russian-bounty-allegations/news-story/317d4341d3a5c239f05c471377dd8699

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
8. Bounty plot included in Daily Brief earlier this year
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:36 AM
Jun 2020

By Barbara Starr and Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Updated 10:31 PM ET, Mon June 29, 2020

The intelligence that assessed there was an effort by a Russian military intelligence unit to pay the Taliban to kill US soldiers was included in one of President Donald Trump's daily briefings on intelligence matters sometime in the spring, according to a US official with direct knowledge of the latest information.

That assessment, the source said, was backed up by "several pieces of information" that supported the view that there was an effort by the Russian intelligence unit -- the GRU -- to pay bounties to kill US soldiers, including interrogation of Taliban detainees and electronic eavesdropping. The source said there was some other information that did not corroborate this view but said, nonetheless, '"This was a big deal. When it's about US troops you go after it 100%, with everything you got."

The New York Times reported Monday night that the intelligence had been included in a written version of the President's Daily Brief in late February.

Trump is not known to fully or regularly read the President's Daily Brief ...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/russia-bounties-presidential-daily-briefing/index.html

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
9. White House Defends Trump
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:38 AM
Jun 2020

By Steve Herman
Updated June 29, 2020 11:29 PM

... Ratcliffe and CIA Director Gina Haspel both released statements late Monday, defending the handling of the intelligence and criticizing the leaks to the media.

“The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk. It is also, simply put, a crime,” Ratcliffe said in his statement ...

https://www.voanews.com/usa/white-house-defends-trump-not-being-briefed-russia-bounty-us-soldiers

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
10. Were aides afraid to tell him?
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:40 AM
Jun 2020

David Ignatius
June 29, 2020 at 7:21 p.m. EDT

A basic truth about Russian President Vladimir Putin, which President Trump evidently doesn’t understand: Putin is in the payback business. He believes the United States destroyed his former country, the Soviet Union. He likes the United States to feel pain, in Afghanistan and everywhere else.

Trump has his own, much rosier take on Putin. And I can’t help wondering whether that explains why, assuming his account is true, the American president was never briefed about intelligence reports early this year that Russia was offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan. Perhaps Trump’s national security aides were afraid to upset him.

When it comes to the military, Trump has the opposite of a Midas touch. Everything he handles becomes tarnished. That was true of his meddling last year in the discipline case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher; his encouragement of the firing Capt. Brett Crozier as skipper of the USS Theodore Roosevelt; and his enlistment of Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for a publicity stunt at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/29/were-trumps-aides-too-afraid-tell-him-about-russian-bounties/

struggle4progress

(118,032 posts)
11. Multiple intelligence streams suggest Russians paying bounties
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 12:46 AM
Jun 2020

By Jennifer Griffin, Andrew O'Reilly | Fox News

Multiple intelligence threat streams indicated Russian intelligence operatives offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops, but while the National Security Council met recently to come up with a number of responses to the report, it did not brief President Trump, Fox News has learned ...

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/multiple-intelligence-streams-russian-bounties-for-us-troops-trump-not-briefed

Lock him up.

(6,873 posts)
12. Bolton told the AP he personally briefed Trump in March 2019 after Ratcliffe said...
Tue Jun 30, 2020, 01:47 AM
Jun 2020

... the orange menace was never briefed earlier tonight. So they're all lying.




Lock him up.



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