{"id":101703,"date":"2020-07-02T15:24:57","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T19:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=101703"},"modified":"2020-07-02T15:24:57","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T19:24:57","slug":"lawmakers-want-answers-on-reports-russia-paid-taliban-bounty-to-attack-us-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=101703","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers want answers on reports Russia paid Taliban bounty to attack US troops"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nIn this March 2, 2020, file photo, Afghan Taliban fighters and villagers attend a gathering as they celebrate the peace deal signed between US and Taliban in Laghman Province, Alingar district, Afghanistan. (Wali Sabawoon\/NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE)<\/em><\/p>\n

Amid reports that a Russian paramilitary unit offered the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with its peace process to end America’s longest war and withdraw U.S. forces.<\/p>\n

The Taliban have previously denied the reports of receiving or being offered Russian bounties, telling the New York Times they attacked Americans “on our own resources,” but have stopped in recent months because of the U.S. deal.<\/p>\n

Instead, the New York Times posted this:<\/p>\n

Russia offered terrorists up to $100,000 per US troop killed in Afghanistan<\/h3>\n

By: RYAN MORGAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afghan officials have backed some claims that Russian military spies paid bounties to terrorists to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Unnamed Afghan officials who spoke with the New York Times have said they believe bounty payments to kill U.S. troops went as high as $100,000 per killed soldier.<\/p>\n

The Times reported the payment detail within a report discussing the payment network Russia\u2019s GRU intelligence service allegedly set up to facilitate bounty payments in Afghanistan. The Times also named a key Afghan drug smuggler who they suspect played a central role as a middle man offering the Russian payments.<\/p>\n

Rahmatullah Azizi, who the Times described as having been a low-level drug smuggler, eventually amassed a large fortune. Azizi is believed to have been a central figure in facilitating the payments.<\/p>\n

As intelligence services investigated connections between Azizi and a potential bounty payment scheme, they carried out sweeping arrests of his family members and associates around six months ago. Azizi himself escaped custody, but security forces carrying out the arrest raids reportedly found around half a million dollars in cash in one of his homes.<\/p>\n

Officials believe Azizi fled to Russia when he escaped the raids and Azizi reportedly held known ties to Russia prior to his discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe target of the operation was Rahmat, who was going back and forth to Russia for a long time and said he worked there but no one knew what he did,\u201d Safiullah Amiry, the deputy head of the Kunduz provincial council told the Times.<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`<\/p>\n

The Times initially reported that President Donald Trump was briefed about the bounty payments in late March.<\/p>\n

Trump and intelligence officials within his administration have denied he received a direct briefing on the intelligence and the Pentagon has said they found no corroborating evidence on the bounty scheme.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So FTA we have:<\/p>\n

Unnamed Afghan officials<\/p>\n

Azizi, a low-level drug smuggler is a key suspect who played a central role as a middle man <\/p>\n

While a 1\/2 million USD was found in one of his homes, Azizi also saw business as a construction contractor who won contracts from American-led coalition forces<\/em><\/p>\n

For more discrepancies and intell lapes, read the article here: American Military News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this March 2, 2020, file photo, Afghan Taliban fighters and villagers attend a gathering as … Lawmakers want answers on reports Russia paid Taliban bounty to attack US troops<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,469,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-donald-trump","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101705,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101703\/revisions\/101705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}