Today the US Secretary of Defense said that despite public reporting 2 weeks ago that Russian military intelligence is paying bounties to Taliban-aligned militants for dead Americans — intel confirmed by other Five Eyes allies — he hasn’t been briefed on this. /1
I have friends deployed in Afghanistan, other friends prepping for next pop out there, others who came home missing members of their teams.
Imagine being one of those soldiers, wondering if intel from the Kremlin is being used to pick you off, and hearing SecDef say — meh. /2
Imagine being one of those soldiers, wondering if intel from the Kremlin is being used to pick you off, and hearing SecDef say — meh. /2
You know Russian-Taliban cooperation is a thing because you are the guys collecting a good chunk of this intel from frontlines. Your commanders and Sec Mattis have talked about it publicly for years.
And now Sec Def says — 🙉🙈🙊 /3
And now Sec Def says — 🙉🙈🙊 /3
Esper can talking-point re leaks all he wants, but if he isn’t even willing to say he has conducted a review of the intelligence — which is coming from US military collection, which he should care about as Secretary of Defense — then what the hell is he even doing in his office/4
