Director of the US National Intelligence Service John Ratcliffe and the White House denied the knowledge of President Donald Trump or his deputy, Mike Pence, of any intelligence that Russia offered rewards to militants linked to the Afghan Taliban in exchange for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan.
A White House spokeswoman accused The New York Times of lacking accuracy in its reference to President Trump's reporting of information that a Russian intelligence unit had paid money to Taliban fighters to kill soldiers of the Washington-led coalition in Afghanistan.
On Friday, the New York Times quoted officials, whose identities were not disclosed, that Trump last March reported the aforementioned information, and the British authorities were also informed of the same information.
The newspaper added that the Russian intelligence rewards motivated the militants to target the American forces, while President Trump seeks to withdraw them from Afghanistan, satisfying one of the main demands of the Taliban in order to end the longest war waged by the United States.
British confirmation
In return, the Al-Jazeera correspondent in Britain reported that British security sources told the British "Sky News" that the contents of the "New York Times" report were correct, saying that "this gives another example of the moral void that drives Russian intelligence."
There are about a thousand British soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them in the capital, Kabul, but there is no confirmation that any of them have been affected by Russian intelligence efforts to target the international coalition forces.
While Russia and the Taliban denied what was stated in the "New York Times", as the Russian embassy in Washington tweeted on its Twitter account, commenting on the American newspaper report, that "the accusations are baseless and its sources are unknown", and the embassy added that the newspaper report "has already led to a threat Directly to the souls of our employees at the Russian embassies in Washington and London. "
'@MFA_Russia: We have paid attention to another piece of fake news, launched in the media space by the #US intelligence community ... that has failed miserably in the 20-year-long war in # Afghanistan🇦🇫
Read more: ➡️ https://t.co/MX0nor8b9U ic pic.twitter.com/2aNz3dELac
- Russia in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) June 27, 2020
The Taliban saw that the goal of the "New York Times" report is "to create obstacles to the implementation of the agreement to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan," an agreement concluded between Washington and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, last February.
And at home, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized what he described as Trump's inability to take action against Russia, following the disclosure of intelligence information that Russia is seeking to motivate militants to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.
Biden said in a remote interview on the Internet yesterday, Saturday, that the newspaper report, if correct, is "a truly shocking disclosure," noting in particular to the US president's reluctance to respond.
He added, "Donald Trump not only refrained from imposing sanctions or taking any measures against Russia on this flagrant violation of international law, but also continued his embarrassing campaign to respect (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, and diminish his personal ability in front of him."