Months after an unsubstantiated claim about Russia paying bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops spread like wildfire, a similar claim about China is being reported by Axios.
The Axios report published on Wednesday cites two unnamed Trump administration officials. According to the officials, the Trump administration is declassifying “uncorroborated intelligence” that “indicates China offered to pay non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American soldiers.”
The report says President Trump was verbally briefed on the uncorroborated intelligence by National Security Robert O’Brien, and officials across all agencies are working to “corroborate” the intelligence.
There are few details in the report of what the uncorroborated intelligence actually says. Axios was unable to see any of the intelligence reports and received the information from sources in a phone call.
One source said: “The US has evidence that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] attempted to finance attacks on American servicemen by Afghan non-state actors by offering financial incentives or ‘bounties.'” The sources did not say if the “non-state” actors included the Taliban or not.
The only info Axios could get was that the alleged bounty scheme happened sometime after the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in February. Since the deal was signed on February 29th, no US troops have been killed in combat-related incidents in Afghanistan.
China, like Russia, welcomed the US-Taliban peace deal, and attempted to salvage negotiations for the agreement when they faltered. In September 2019, after US-Taliban talks collapsed, Beijing hosted a Taliban delegation, and Chinese officials expressed their view of the negotiations. A Chinese envoy told the Taliban that “the US-Taliban deal is a good framework for the peaceful solution of the Afghan issue.”
The deal paves the way for a complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan by Spring 2021, something China has an interest in being fulfilled. But the deal hinges on a reduction of violence. Incentivizing “non-state” actors, whether they are the Taliban or not, to kill US troops could sabotage the entire process.
Declassifying raw, uncorroborated intelligence could be President Trump’s way of getting back at the US officials who leaked the unsubstantiated Russia bounty story. After the story made its rounds in the media, military leaders said there was no evidence to corroborate the claim that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops.
Despite the lack of evidence to support the Russia bounty story, President Trump is still criticized to this day for not holding Russia accountable for what appear to be non-existent bounties. Trump also likes to deflect unsubstantiated claims about Russia to China, who he and his close advisors claim is the preeminent threat to the US.
Not long after the Axios report was published, an unnamed US official told Politico that the intelligence about the Chinese bounties is “very thin,” describing it as “rumors.” The official said it was even thinner than reports about the alleged Russian bounties, which the official said were “never corroborated.”
More infantile blather. As if China would make such an offer at this moment when we get to see Trump sulk away. Every relevant actor is just waiting for him to go….PLEASE….!!!!!!!!!!!! No power actor would do something so stupid such as this contrived provocation… Every one is on tender hooks.. With Biden there is a chance of a reset, with Trump, it’s more of the same ole egocentric historonics!!!
Biden will be another disaster. The problem is not Trump or Biden–the problem is American culture.
China is a threat to the world. They will attack Taiwan soon. A Communist dictatorship will stamp out the only Chinese democracy. Do not trade with China and do not trust China.
There’s a lot to not like about the old TV series The West Wing. There’s also a lot to like. One of the things to like is Toby Ziegler’s one-line argument in support of free trade:
“Free trade stops wars.”
Or, as a (likely apocryphal) Bastiat quote has it, “when goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will.”
As you point out in another comment, China is dependent on imports. That’s a GOOD thing for anyone who supports peace. Impeding trade with China is just begging Xi to take the materials his country’s industry needs by force.
Trade produces competition for markets and resources -to wit, wars- axiomatic for Marx.
Define “free” trade.
Trade not regulated by government.
Perfect.
How about starting with reciprocal and equal, then to no regs?
Think the ChiComs would go for that?
“Reciprocal and equal” is just an excuse for restraining trade because the other guy restrains trade.
Any policy other than unilateral free trade is open war by a regime — war on “its own people.”
In that scenario, other countries would keep their tariffs on U.S.
exports. That would give them a unilateral advantage. They could ship
cheap goods into the United States, but U.S. exports would be priced
higher in their countries.
So why would a trade partner ever be motivated to become reciprocal?
They wouldn’t which hurts our economy. Makes no sense.
What makes no sense is your claim that the US government not breaking American people’s legs in “retaliation” for the Chinese government breaking Chinese people’s legs “hurts our economy.”
No, what makes no sense is
one side eliminating tariffs unilaterally,
while expecting the other side to —someday— to do the same.
It doesn’t matter if the other side does the same.
Eliminating tariffs unilaterally is the equivalent of deciding not to beat your wife anymore. Sure, if would be nice if your neighbor stopped beating his wife, too, but either way you should stop beating yours.
utterly false. which materials? USA relies on china for 80% of their “rare earth ” imports. China has a positive balance of trade with all nations except Russia and India (nearly irrelevant since they trade very little)
Amerikan are the only threat to civilized peoples. without Chinese products USA would reduce from 3rd world to 5th world
The US position is that Taiwan is a province of China, and thus the US has made no commitment to defend Taiwan. So much for the “China is a threat to the world” poppycock.
Weep, because in less than 10 years China GDP will be greater than that of the US. It’s over for Uncle Sam. Jesus be praised.
And you believe this horse shit.
Hey! This is a typo… Russia did it.
only an overfed obese cannibal would require a financial incentive to kill an amerikan
US soldiers are brain washed into thinking they are doing Gods work.
In other news, the US offered bounties for Afghanistan Taliban troops in Afghanistan. Corroborated intelligence indicates U.S. paid actors from the US puppet government in Afghanistan to attack Afghanistan Taliban troops.
We shouldn’t be too hasty here. First the spooks produce the ‘uncorroborated’ intel and then they need time to produce a dossier or some such ‘evidence,’ to support the made-up charge. It’s like Syrian ‘gas attacks’ or ‘Russia collusion.’ Takes time and effort to support US wrong-doing. Meantime, as JB indicates, we ought to lay off helping the crazies who have the authority to make up such crap.
Bad if true. Russia did not do it even when it would have been justified in doing so.
Our best interest and information would be served if AXIOS had a Policy that it would not infect the spoken narrative with wholly unsubstantiated allegations UNLESS and UNTIL somebody was willing to put his or her name on the charge, in association. Who do ya call on this?
But I was almost equally disappointed to se that MY intelligence source here at AntiWar kept me reading and reading ‘nothing’ only to get to the end where I can confirm that this is exactly more of the RUSSIAN same. Only less.
Put the last para in the beginning so we can first confirm what follows as intelligence propaganda provoking more wars.
Thanks, Antiwar.com .
Give war a chance (sarc)!
“War is a racket. . .the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” — MajGen Smedley D. Butler, USMC, double recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, 1935
Where have we heard this line before? Sadly none of it is true except the fact the US DOES offer bounties on whoever it deems as enemies of the state – that has been proven
The enemies of the US state are “terrorists,” to be shot on sight, whereas in China, according to the US, enemies of the state are “democracy advocates” and should be allowed to toss Molotov Cocktails in Hong Kong and Xianjiang.
The US are a buncha terrorists, so how can enemies of terrorists be terrorists?
I think the article is good. I like Dave DeCamp’s work. I dislike the headline. “Uncorroborated” gives far too much credit. When they’re throwing shit against the wall and 5% is confirmed, 30% is ‘uncorroborated’ and 65% gets no comment then the end result is the majority believes shit. The 30% simply becomes ‘probably true, just not proven yet’. So you need something stronger.
The US has financed militants. Whether they did that to kill US soldiers is uncorrroborated, right?