U.S. Elite Imbalance: How Media Information About Russia's “Ties” with the Taliban Can Be Used Against Trump

The Pentagon does not have evidence of a "collusion" between Russia and the Taliban *. This was stated by spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.

“The Department of Defense continues to study intelligence that the Russian GRU was engaged in malicious activities against US forces and the coalition in Afghanistan. To date, the Department of Defense has no evidence to validate recent allegations contained in open sources, ”the Pentagon said in a statement.                                              

As Hoffman noted, the Pentagon is taking the security of American forces in Afghanistan and around the world very seriously.

In turn, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Joane called on Russia to have a "more constructive policy" on Afghanistan. The representative of the alliance also focused on the fact that stability in this republic meets the interests of not only the United States and NATO.

Earlier, the newspaper The New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. intelligence officials, published an article claiming that the Russian side allegedly offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on the United States military and the coalition operating in Afghanistan. According to the publication, the head of the White House, Donald Trump, was informed about this, but the presidential administration did not take any action. However, the material does not provide evidence of the relevant theses. According to NYT, this information was received by US intelligence during interrogations of the captured "rebels."

Responsiveness

It is worth noting that the data of the American newspaper has already been refuted in the United States, Russia and Afghanistan.

So, on June 28, Donald Trump accused The New York Times of lying, noting that the authors of the material are not able to provide any evidence that would indicate the veracity of the publication.

“The New York Times fake news distributors should reveal their“ anonymous source. ” But they cannot, because this “man” does not seem to exist at all! ” The American leader wrote on his Twitter page.

The Fake News @ nytimes must reveal its “anonymous” source. Bet they can't do it, this “person” probably does not even exist! https://t.co/pdg4AjybOG

Trump also called the NYT article custom-made and emphasized that no one had reported to him about Russia's ties with the Taliban.

On the same day, the head of the National Intelligence Agency of the United States, John Ratcliffe, also denied reports of American media.

“I confirmed that neither the President of the United States nor the Vice President was informed about the intelligence referred to in The New York Times in his article yesterday,” the head of the intelligence service said in an official Twitter.

Statement by DNI Ratcliffe: "I have confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday." (1/2)

A day later, Trump specified that the intelligence of the United States did not recognize reliable data on the alleged involvement of the Russian side in the deaths of US troops in Afghanistan, and therefore did not inform him of this information. At the same time, the White House noted that there is no single position in the US intelligence community regarding the reliability of media reports related to Russia's activities in Afghanistan.

The Russian side also stated that the information provided by NYT reporters is not true.

On June 29, Russian President’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in an interview with NBC News, called “nonsense” reports of alleged Russian involvement in Taliban attacks on the US military in Afghanistan. According to Peskov, it’s “ridiculous” to spread such information.

Earlier, the Russian embassy in the USA rejected the accusations, calling them "baseless." As emphasized in the diplomatic mission, the newspaper The New York Times is trying to come up with new fake stories to “accuse the Russians”, not having real information about the cooperation of Moscow and Washington to resolve the situation in Afghanistan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, called the NYT article an "unpretentious stuffing."

“This simple stuffing clearly illustrates the low intellectual abilities of propagandists from the American intelligence, who instead of inventing something more reliable have to come up with such nonsense,” the Russian Foreign Ministry noted.

The Taliban also denied NYT’s publication on ties with Russia, stressing that inaccurate information is being disseminated to create obstacles for US troops to leave Afghanistan. This is stated in the statement of the organization.

“No supporting documents”

As an expert of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Research Vladimir Bruter noted in an interview with RT, “the story presented by NYT from the very beginning had the character of a highly likly.”

“The probability that this is a fake is 100%. This is also evidenced by the testimony of a significant part of representatives of US intelligence agencies, who considered the information unreliable. And this means that the American side does not have supporting documents, ”said the analyst.

According to Dmitriy Evstafiev, professor at the HSE, “there is nothing surprising,” that the false data was published in The New York Times.

“The publication has recently been very degraded, because its editorial policy is associated with attempts to fight Trump at any cost. For this reason, the newspaper publishes any speculation that could at least somehow harm the head of the White House, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

• The official residence of the US President
• © MANDEL NGAN / AFP

At the same time, Evstafiev points out that the fake information of American journalists in a "strange way" received a response "at a very serious level" in the Pentagon and the North Atlantic Alliance.

“This shows the absolutely unbalanced state of the American elite, including law enforcement agencies, which are starting to scurry about already outright fakes. The same applies to the NATO leadership, which against the background of these reports decided to once again scold Russia. At the same time, NYT information is not taken seriously either in the bloc or in the US Department of Defense. But to say now, in the midst of anti-Russian and anti-Trump hysteria in the USA, that it’s just rubbish, they cannot, ”the analyst explained.

“Use for your own purposes”

At the same time, the Democrats considered an article in The New York Times the basis for new accusations against both Russia and Donald Trump, experts say.

In particular, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, believes that the head of the United States intentionally ignores "any charges" related to the Russian Federation.

“Russia has not overcome the humiliation it experienced in Afghanistan. Now they recoup on us, our troops. This is absolutely outrageous. The minute the president heard about it, he should have wanted to know more, instead of denying that he knew something, ”she said in an interview with ABC News.

Pelosi also formally requested the heads of the National Intelligence Agency and the CIA to clarify a possible “collusion” between the Russian Federation and the Taliban.

"The president’s refusal to oppose the Russians also threatens life in the region at a time when the Afghan government and the United States are in crucial peace talks with the Taliban," a letter posted on its official website said.

In turn, Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer also accused the 45th US president of not paying attention to how Russia allegedly violates existing norms.

“If we learned something over the past three years, it is that President Trump is inclined to ignore or forgive Putin’s illegal actions,” he wrote on his Twitter page.

As Vladimir Bruter noted, such statements by representatives of the Democratic Party indicate that this political force “decided to unleash a fake story about Russia's“ ties ”with the Taliban in order to use it for their own purposes to discredit Trump.”

“It is possible that all this flurry of new charges could hit Trump’s campaign chances even harder. And if you combine all this with the fact that sometimes the head of the White House behaves extremely impulsively and cannot clearly explain his actions to either the voters or his entourage, then the situation is aggravated for him even more, ”the analyst noted. 

At the same time, Dmitry Evstafiev believes that the Democrats are playing with fire in this case - with their desire to once again accuse the head of the White House of inaction, they can harm the image of the United States as a whole.

• US military in Afghanistan
• Reuters
• © Ahmad Nadeem

“The US military and intelligence agencies were in the process of very delicate and extremely controversial negotiations with the Taliban regarding reconciliation and to enable the US to safely withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. And now, when the Democrats began to dig this whole story deeper, real facts may come up about the agreements between the US security forces and the Taliban, about the payments of the Americans to this organization or about the supply of arms to it from the United States. However, the Democratic Party does not realize this, ”the expert stated.

Meanwhile, Moscow doesn’t “harm the fake that was published in NYT,” Evstafiev believes. 

“In Russia, they laughed at this, dotted the“ i ”for the world community and went further,” the analyst concluded.

* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.