In the hectic hours before the Syria strike, Trump had initially agreed to impose more sanctions on Russia. Moscow’s presence in Syria was crucial to propping up Assad’s regime, and perhaps facilitating (or at least allowing) chemical-weapons attacks and other atrocities. Afterward, however, Trump changed his mind. “We made our point,” Trump told me early Saturday morning, and we could “hit them much harder if need be later.” Moreover, the US had just imposed substantial sanctions on Russia on April 6, as required by the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,” which Trump detested because Russia was its target. Trump believed that acknowledging Russia’s meddling in US politics, or in that of many other countries in Europe and elsewhere, would implicitly acknowledge that he had colluded with Russia in his 2016 campaign. This view is wrong as a matter of both logic and politics; Trump could have had a stronger hand dealing with Russia if he had attacked its efforts at electoral subversion, rather than ignored them, especially since the concrete actions, such as economic sanctions, taken by his Administration were actually quite robust. As for his assessment of Putin himself, he never offered an opinion, at least in front of me. I never asked what Trump’s view was, perhaps afraid of what I might hear. His personal take on the Russian leader remained a mystery. I tried to persuade him to proceed with the new sanctions, but he wasn’t buying. I said Mnuchin and I would make sure Treasury didn’t make any announcement. Fortunately, since many senior officials were all too familiar with the roller-coaster ride of Administration decisions, there was a built-in pause before Trump’s initial approval of new sanctions would actually be carried out. A final go/no go decision was to be made on Saturday, so I told Ricky Waddell, McMaster’s Deputy and still on board, to get the word out to stop any forward motion. NSC staff informed Treasury first, then all the others, and Treasury agreed it would also alert everyone the sanctions were off. On the Sunday-morning talk shows, however, Haley said Treasury would be announcing Russia sanctions on Monday. Immediately, there were red flags and alarm bells. Jon Lerner, Haley’s political advisor, told Waddell that the US Mission to the UN in New York knew the orders on the Russia sanctions, and said, “She [Haley] just slipped,” a breathtaking understatement. Magnetic attraction to television cameras, a common political ailment, had created the problem, but it was also a process foul: the sanctions were for Treasury to announce. The Ambassador to the UN had no role to play, except, in this case, mistakenly stealing the limelight. Trump called me at six thirty p.m. to ask how the Sunday shows had gone, and I told him about the Russia mistake and what we were doing to fix it. “Yeah, what’s up with that?” Trump asked. “This is too much.” I explained what Haley had done, and Trump said, “She’s not a student, you know. Call the Russians and tell them.” That I did, ringing Moscow’s US Ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, whom I knew from the Bush 43 Administration, shortly thereafter. I wasn’t about to tell him what had actually happened, so I just said Haley had made an honest mistake. Antonov was a lonely man, since people in Washington were now afraid to be seen talking to Russians, so I invited him to the White House to meet. This pleased Trump when I later debriefed him, because now we could start talking about the meeting he wanted with Putin.
Дело было в апреле 2018: "Посольство в Вашингтоне получило уведомление от администрации Дональда Трампа, что новые санкции против Москвы в ближайшее время вводить не планируется" https://puppet-djt.livejournal.com/115411.html
Тогда же к спецоперации по спасению Трампа от тюрьмы присоединился Джулиани.
Болтон о стремлении Трампа лично встретиться с Талибаном в сентябре 2019:
Trump blew the whole meeting away by saying, “I want to speak to the Taliban. Let them come to Washington.” I could not have been happier that I was in a secure room deep in Eastern Europe rather than in the Sit Room when I heard that statement. Trump asked Pence what he thought, and Pence replied carefully, “We should reflect before we make that decision. They have abused and oppressed their people. Have they actually changed?” Trump then referred to Billy Graham’s grandson, a major who had served in Afghanistan, who said, “We took their land.” “Why is he only a major?” Trump asked Dunford. “He’s good-looking, right from central casting.” We then discussed how Congress would react to a US commitment to withdrawing our troops completely and what we were going to do with the duly-elected Afghan government, whatever Trump’s views on Ghani. Trump said, “I want Ghani here too, as well as the Taliban. Let’s do it before it’s signed. I want to meet before it’s signed. Not a phone call.” “They’d love to come,” said Khalilzad. Trump’s next thought was to start reducing troop levels immediately. No one supported the idea, although only Khalilzad spoke against it. Trump said, “Our attitude is, I’m not looking to get out. I will meet with Ghani first. This could be a home run. The Taliban would like to talk to Donald Trump to talk peace. We should say to the press that the President has agreed to a meeting, and he’s looking forward to the meeting.” I could sense even through my remote connection (and Kupperman agreed later) that Pompeo and others in the Sit Room were close to meltdown. Pence added, “To meet with Ghani and others in the Afghan government,” and Trump agreed, “Yes, and before the meeting with the Taliban.”
Ныне стало известно о том, что известное подразделение ГРУ платило Талибану за убийство американских солдат, о чем Трамп боится заикнуться Путину.
American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan - including targeting American troops - amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year. Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion. The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options - starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said. <...> The officials briefed on the matter said the government had assessed the operation to be the handiwork of Unit 29155, an arm of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known widely as the G.R.U. The unit is linked to the March 2018 nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, England, of Sergei Skripal, a former G.R.U. officer who had worked for British intelligence and then defected, and his daughter. Western intelligence officials say the unit, which has operated for more than a decade, has been charged by the Kremlin with carrying out a campaign to destabilize the West through subversion, sabotage and assassination. In addition to the 2018 poisoning, the unit was behind an attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016 and the poisoning of an arms manufacturer in Bulgaria a year earlier. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/russia-afghanistan-bounties.html
“Once again it appears that President Trump has failed to stand up to Vladimir Putin. “President Trump continues to ignore Russian aggression while rewarding Putin with calls for Russia to be re-admitted to the G8 and reductions to our military deterrence posture in Germany. President Trump’s weakness only emboldens our enemies and invites further aggression. “The President has a range of responses available to him, including diplomacy and sanctions. This Administration’s failure to take any meaningful action is disgraceful and makes our troops less safe. The U.S. must hold accountable anyone who targets our troops. “Time and again, President Trump has sided with Putin over U.S. Intelligence. Now American troops may be targeted for Trump’s soft-on-Russia stance. “The American people deserve answers. What did President Trump and his cabinet know about this Russian-backed operation, when did they know it, and what, if anything, has been done in response? And if the President wasn’t briefed in person or in writing, why not? Since this was publicly reported 24 hours ago, what, if any, steps has the President taken?” https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-condemns-trumps-failure-to-respond-to-reported-russian-operation-targeting-us-and-allied-troops-in-afghanistan
In the hectic hours before the Syria strike, Trump had initially agreed to impose more sanctions on Russia. Moscow’s presence in Syria was crucial to propping up Assad’s regime, and perhaps facilitating (or at least allowing) chemical-weapons attacks and other atrocities. Afterward, however, Trump changed his mind. “We made our point,” Trump told me early Saturday morning, and we could “hit them much harder if need be later.” Moreover, the US had just imposed substantial sanctions on Russia on April 6, as required by the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,” which Trump detested because Russia was its target. Trump believed that acknowledging Russia’s meddling in US politics, or in that of many other countries in Europe and elsewhere, would implicitly acknowledge that he had colluded with Russia in his 2016 campaign. This view is wrong as a matter of both logic and politics; Trump could have had a stronger hand dealing with Russia if he had attacked its efforts at electoral subversion, rather than ignored them, especially since the concrete actions, such as economic sanctions, taken by his Administration were actually quite robust. As for his assessment of Putin himself, he never offered an opinion, at least in front of me. I never asked what Trump’s view was, perhaps afraid of what I might hear. His personal take on the Russian leader remained a mystery.
I tried to persuade him to proceed with the new sanctions, but he wasn’t buying. I said Mnuchin and I would make sure Treasury didn’t make any
announcement. Fortunately, since many senior officials were all too familiar with the roller-coaster ride of Administration decisions, there was a built-in pause before Trump’s initial approval of new sanctions would actually be carried out. A final go/no go decision was to be made on Saturday, so I told Ricky Waddell, McMaster’s Deputy and still on board, to get the word out to stop any forward motion. NSC staff informed Treasury first, then all the others, and Treasury agreed it would also alert everyone the sanctions were off.
On the Sunday-morning talk shows, however, Haley said Treasury would be announcing Russia sanctions on Monday. Immediately, there were red flags and alarm bells. Jon Lerner, Haley’s political advisor, told Waddell that the US Mission to the UN in New York knew the orders on the Russia sanctions, and said, “She [Haley] just slipped,” a breathtaking understatement. Magnetic attraction to television cameras, a common political ailment, had created the problem, but it was also a process foul: the sanctions were for Treasury to announce. The Ambassador to the UN had no role to play, except, in this case, mistakenly stealing the limelight.
Trump called me at six thirty p.m. to ask how the Sunday shows had gone, and I told him about the Russia mistake and what we were doing to fix it. “Yeah, what’s up with that?” Trump asked. “This is too much.” I explained what Haley had done, and Trump said, “She’s not a student, you know. Call the Russians and tell them.” That I did, ringing Moscow’s US Ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, whom I knew from the Bush 43 Administration, shortly thereafter. I wasn’t about to tell him what had actually happened, so I just said Haley had made an honest mistake. Antonov was a lonely man, since people in Washington were now afraid to be seen talking to Russians, so I invited him to the White House to meet. This pleased Trump when I later debriefed him, because now we could start talking about the meeting he wanted with Putin.
Дело было в апреле 2018: "Посольство в Вашингтоне получило уведомление от администрации Дональда Трампа, что новые санкции против Москвы в ближайшее время вводить не планируется" https://puppet-djt.livejournal.com/115411.html
Тогда же к спецоперации по спасению Трампа от тюрьмы присоединился Джулиани.
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Trump blew the whole meeting away by saying, “I want to speak to the Taliban. Let them come to Washington.” I could not have been happier that I was in a secure room deep in Eastern Europe rather than in the Sit Room when I heard that statement. Trump asked Pence what he thought, and Pence replied carefully, “We should reflect before we make that decision. They have abused and oppressed their people. Have they actually changed?” Trump then referred to Billy Graham’s grandson, a major who had served in Afghanistan, who said, “We took their land.”
“Why is he only a major?” Trump asked Dunford. “He’s good-looking, right from central casting.” We then discussed how Congress would react to a US commitment to withdrawing our troops completely and what we were going to do with the duly-elected Afghan government, whatever Trump’s views on Ghani.
Trump said, “I want Ghani here too, as well as the Taliban. Let’s do it before it’s signed. I want to meet before it’s signed. Not a phone call.”
“They’d love to come,” said Khalilzad.
Trump’s next thought was to start reducing troop levels immediately. No one supported the idea, although only Khalilzad spoke against it. Trump said, “Our attitude is, I’m not looking to get out. I will meet with Ghani first. This could be a home run. The Taliban would like to talk to Donald Trump to talk peace. We should say to the press that the President has agreed to a meeting, and he’s looking forward to the meeting.” I could sense even through my remote connection (and Kupperman agreed later) that Pompeo and others in the Sit Room were close to meltdown. Pence added, “To meet with Ghani and others in the Afghan government,” and Trump agreed, “Yes, and before the meeting with the Taliban.”
Ныне стало известно о том, что известное подразделение ГРУ платило Талибану за убийство американских солдат, о чем Трамп боится заикнуться Путину.
American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan - including targeting American troops - amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.
The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.
Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.
The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options - starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said. <...>
The officials briefed on the matter said the government had assessed the operation to be the handiwork of Unit 29155, an arm of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known widely as the G.R.U. The unit is linked to the March 2018 nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, England, of Sergei Skripal, a former G.R.U. officer who had worked for British intelligence and then defected, and his daughter.
Western intelligence officials say the unit, which has operated for more than a decade, has been charged by the Kremlin with carrying out a campaign to destabilize the West through subversion, sabotage and assassination. In addition to the 2018 poisoning, the unit was behind an attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016 and the poisoning of an arms manufacturer in Bulgaria a year earlier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/russia-afghanistan-bounties.html
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Our troops deserve to know what the Trump Administration is doing to protect them and why Donald Trump failed to take action in the first place.
I’m demanding a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to get to the bottom of #BountyGate.
- Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) June 28, 2020
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“Once again it appears that President Trump has failed to stand up to Vladimir Putin.
“President Trump continues to ignore Russian aggression while rewarding Putin with calls for Russia to be re-admitted to the G8 and reductions to our military deterrence posture in Germany. President Trump’s weakness only emboldens our enemies and invites further aggression.
“The President has a range of responses available to him, including diplomacy and sanctions. This Administration’s failure to take any meaningful action is disgraceful and makes our troops less safe. The U.S. must hold accountable anyone who targets our troops.
“Time and again, President Trump has sided with Putin over U.S. Intelligence. Now American troops may be targeted for Trump’s soft-on-Russia stance.
“The American people deserve answers. What did President Trump and his cabinet know about this Russian-backed operation, when did they know it, and what, if anything, has been done in response? And if the President wasn’t briefed in person or in writing, why not? Since this was publicly reported 24 hours ago, what, if any, steps has the President taken?”
https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-condemns-trumps-failure-to-respond-to-reported-russian-operation-targeting-us-and-allied-troops-in-afghanistan
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