The Insufferable Media Stupidity Around “The Russian Bounty” Narrative

In case you might have missed the latest faux-controversy assigned by political operatives to the media narrative engineers, the issue surrounds leaked sketchy intelligence reports, to the New York Times, claiming Russians were willing to pay Taliban members to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.  The evidence provided by the Times includes:

(New York Times Graphic Source)

From this tenuous evidence footnoted with “according to multiple officials familiar with the intelligence”, democrat operatives in media desperately clutch their pearls and stake out another batch of apoplexy claiming President Trump is not doing anything about it.

Setting aside for the moment that nothing claimed by media or the DNC political operatives in/around capitol hill has any substantive intelligence to prove the claim, let’s first look at the underlying premise: ‘Russians are paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers.’

First, obviously these same voices need to ignore that in 2010 Iran was paying insurgent fighters in multiple fields of combat including Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, to kill Americans. Those well-documented examples must be overlooked because despite the overwhelming evidence the Obama administration paid Iran over $170 billion in cash and entered a nuclear deal with them.  Once again, in order to retain their left-wing political position the media must pretend not to know things.

Iranian bounties on American soldiers during the 2010 Obama administration were rewarded. Contrast that against unsubstantiated rumors of Russian bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan in 2020 being the most horrific and alarming situation in history.

It was reported in 2010 that five Iranian companies were winning construction contracts in Afghanistan funded with foreign aid. The money was sent back to Iran via the underground hawala money transfer networks and was used to pay Taliban fighters $200 per month. If they kill a U.S. soldier, they get a $1,000 bonus and a $6,000 bonus for the destruction of a military vehicle. Bounties began being offered as early as February 2005, when a U.S. government document reported that Iran was offering $1,470 for the killing of Afghan soldiers and $3,841 for the death of Afghan officials.

Taliban and similar terrorists are also trained in Iran and are paid for their time. Hundreds go to Zahedan in the winter. The first month is focused on learning how to attack convoys without getting captured. Improvised explosive devices (IED) are the trade taught in the second month. In the last month, attacks on military outposts are simulated.  (LINK)

Again, ignoring that Iran also funds Hezbollah, which involves payments for the killing of U.S. and allied western soldiers, the politics of the narrative engineers are so hypocritical they are choking.

Additionally, when Russia invaded Afghanistan, guess who was paying the Mujahideen to kill Russians?  Yup, that would be USA.  Not only did we pay the Mujahideen (the early Taliban) to kill Russians, we also supplied all the arms and munitions they needed to do it.  The U.S. were paying bounty for the killing of Russians.  Hypocrisy much.

Decades later, when U.S. President George W Bush invaded Iraq, again we put bounties on the heads of Iraq commanding officers we wanted to kill or capture.  Anyone remember the paying cards with the faces and names of the targets?

Oh, and lets not forget the billions that President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta spent on bounties in Libya and Syria where we gave money and weapons to al-Qaeda factions to kill Libyan and Syrian soldiers.

All bounties are not created equal I guess.

The entire argument underpinning the pretext of the claim is ridiculous.  However, what’s even more ridiculous is how the media has to set aside all prior information and all pretense of journalism in order to sell a narrative that, even if true, is nothing more than a continuation of proxy war fighting where the U.S has been the largest financial player in history.

Does Russia pay elements, possibly Taliban in Afghanistan, to maintain a forceful position against the U.S.?  Hell, I would certainly think the answer is yes.  Why should Russia be more magnanimous to our Afghanistan boondoggle than we were to theirs?

Does Russia pay the Taliban directly to kill Americans?  There is no direct evidence supporting that claim; and specifically the U.S. intelligence apparatus including the NSA, CIA, NSC and ODNI have said there’s no such direct evidence; but that’s not really the point is it.

Even if there was direct evidence that Russia was offering bounties against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, how is that different from Iran offering bounties against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan during the Obama administration?

The entire premise of the outrage is ridiculous; and too make matters worse the number one facilitator of U.S. bounties paid to kill foreign fighters is Senator Lindsey Graham.

FUBAR.

Ayman Al Zawahiri and Osam Bin Laden

Mohamed Al Zawahiri was on the CTH radar since his release from prison in March 2011 during the Egyptian Islamist uprising.   The interim “governing” Egyptian leaders released Mohamed Al Zawahiri after they permitted the Muslim Brotherhood to re-organize following 30 years of banishment.   The Brotherhood then opened the jails to release all the Hosni Mubarak captured prisoners.

Mohamed al Zawahiri was the guy who coordinated and called for the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo September 11, 2012.  He is also the guy who coordinated with the Benghazi rebels in 2011 to assist their uprising against Libyan leader Qaddafi.

President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta paid these guys.

Mohamed planned to coordinate efforts in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia and Turkey toward al-Qaeda North Africa (AQIM).  Meanwhile his brother, Ayman al Zawahiri, continued the same efforts in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, while aligned with AQAP (al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsular).

In 1999, security forces picked up Mohamed Al Zawahiri in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he had settled with his family and was working as an engineer for a construction company.

He claims UAE authorities tortured him for four months — at the behest of the CIA — in an attempt to extract information about his brother. During that time, Zawahiri says, he offered to mediate between his brother and the West, something he believes could have prevented the Sept.11 attacks, but his overtures were rebuffed by UAE officials.

In 1999, he was extradited to Egypt to face terrorism charges related to Sadat’s assassination and conspiracy to topple the regime — charges he denies, but he was jailed by Mubarak in Egypt.   He was later acquitted upon appeal, but Mubarak refused to let him leave prison.   He remained in jail until March of 2011 when he was released.

Zawahiri spent the following five years in solitary confinement in Egypt’s notorious underground prisons. There, in a 6-by-6-foot cell with no access to sunlight, he says, he was repeatedly waterboarded, electrocuted, and subjected to sleep deprivation.

His family had no idea where he was, or even if he was alive, until it emerged that the United States wanted his DNA to compare it to a skull found in a cave in Afghanistan — one that might belong to his brother Ayman.

Zawahiri thinks that militant Islamist movements pose a big enough threat that the United States will ultimately yield to his demands. “Hundreds or thousands of attempts may fail, but one can succeed and destroy the Western civilization,” he writes in his proposal, citing al Qaeda’s attempts to obtain weapons of mass destruction and the escalation of violence in Iraq. “The next hit or string of attacks cannot be anticipated. No single group or persons can force themselves to control the situation or prevent it.”

Learn about his approach and his intentions in this article.

Judging by what the “West” has put this guy and his family through, it would be pretty darned difficult to think of him burying the hatchet per se’, without his intention to bury it deep in the psyche of the United States.

Apparently, “we” have created this monster, “we” have hardened him, and subsequently he holds MAJOR street cred with all factions of radical Islam.   This guy is a Martyr in life, he did not need death.  He says “pull the trigger” – everyone shoots.  

Given Mohamed’s  enormous Islamist pulpit, he will leverage influence over multiple varying factions within all of the aforementioned radicals (al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, Taliban, Salafists, Brotherhood etc).

Guess what happened next?…. Yep,  ISIS !