The War & Peace Newsletter from Antiwar.com

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July 9, 2020

The New York Times published a story on Friday that said the National Intelligence Council recently produced a memo regarding allegations of Russian GRU agents paying bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan. The memo was produced on July 1st and went over the confidence levels different intelligence agencies gave to the allegations against Russia.

According to two unnamed officials speaking to the Times, the memo says the CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) “assessed with medium confidence” that the GRU offered bounties to the Taliban. The memo also says, “other parts of the intelligence community,” the National Security Agency (NSA) being the only agency named, assessed the intelligence with lower confidence. Another anonymous official told the Times that the CIA’s confidence level was higher than the other agencies, but did not describe the precise confidence levels.

— By Dave DeCamp

The New York Times dropped another Russiagate bombshell on June 26 with a sensational front-page story headlined, “Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says.” A predictable media and political frenzy followed, reviving the anti-Russian hysteria that has excited the Beltway establishment for the past four years.

But a closer look at the reporting by the Times and other mainstream outlets vying to confirm its coverage reveals another scandal not unlike Russiagate itself: the core elements of the story appear to have been fabricated by Afghan government intelligence to derail a potential US troop withdrawal from the country. And they were leaked to the Times and other outlets by US national security state officials who shared an agenda with their Afghan allies.

— By  Gareth Porter

Remember When America Killed Moscow’s Soldiers

Policymakers who spent years treating Russia as an enemy are now enraged over unverified claims that Moscow paid the Afghan Taliban to kill American military personnel. That would be outrageous, of course. Perhaps US policymakers now know how Soviet officials felt after Washington provided Stinger missiles and other weapons to the Afghan Mujahedeen to kill U.S.S.R. military personnel.

Alas, that is what enemy governments do and have done since nation states emerged. Anger is easy. Finding solutions is more difficult, especially since the US has done much to create the increasingly hostile relationship with Moscow.

— By Doug Bandow

Britain Resumes Arms Sales to Saudis

Once again reflecting Saudi Arabia’s remarkable ability to ensure that the rules don’t apply to them, the British government announced Tuesday that they are resuming weapons sales to the Saudi kingdom, just one day after announcing sanctions against them.

— By Jason Ditz

Israel Is Trying To Provoke Iran To Start a War

With only four months left to the U.S. presidential elections, and the increasing likelihood of Donald Trump, the most pro-Israel President in history, losing, Israel has been trying to provoke Iran to start a war, so that it can drag the United State into it. This is not anything new. For over a decade Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to force the United States to go to war with Iran, and Israel itself almost attacked Iran three times between 2010 and 2011. But the with events of the last several months darkening the prospects of a second Trump term, Israel feels a new urgency for a war with Iran.

— By Muhammad Sahimi

When George W. Bush Aides Back Joe Biden, You Know the Presidential Campaign is Getting Ugly

The 2020 election campaign is likely to get much uglier before November 3rd. Both parties face internal wars that will shape future U.S. foreign policy.

In Democratic primaries younger progressive candidates continue to challenge establishment paladins. And leading members of the bipartisan War Party continue to fall. The latest Bigfoot loss appears to be Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Out will go a reliable hawk and Israel ally, replaced by a younger member critical of endless war and lawmaking for foreign interests. Engel’s loss also could result in a committee leader more skeptical of reflexive intervention.

— By Doug Bandow

How Truman and the Military Subverted the First Atomic Bomb Movie

Ramzy Baroud on the Steady Annexation of Palestine

US Soldier Dies in Kosovo

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