© picture-alliance/O. Douliery
US President Donald Trump
An intelligence memo commissioned by the Trump administration has attempted to raise doubts regarding CIA intelligence that claimed Russia offered bounties to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, the
New York Times reported, citing three officials.
The memo, produced by the National Intelligence Council, reportedly contains no new information but emphasizes uncertainties and gaps in evidence present in the original report.
The memo reportedly states that the CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center had assessed with
"medium confidence" — i.e. short of near certainty — that Russian intelligence offered the bounties.
The new memo is dated July 1, and as noted by the
Times, appears to have been commissioned after its
June 26 report that the
White House had not authorized action against Russia despite being briefed on the intelligence findings back in March.
Former national security officials believe that politics may have influenced the production of the memo with the intent to bolster the Trump administration's attempts to justify its inaction.
Comment: Putin's words have nothing to do with homophobia, he is simply commenting on the leftist ideology and mindset of the embassy staff who decided on raising the flag in a fit of virtue-signaling, presumably to set themselves in opposition to Trump's encouragement of normal patriotic feeling around the US national holiday.