Russian bounties for US troops in Afghanistan

Guests: Missy Ryan, Aaron O’Connell, Matthew Rojansky

Intelligence officials report that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. News reports say that President Trump was briefed early this year on the Russian effort but he denies any knowledge of it. Likewise, Russia denies the allegations. The intelligence report would have arrived while the White House was negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban that would allow them to pull troops out of Afghanistan. This hour, we’ll talk about the allegations, the impact on the U.S. military in Afghanistan, the Trump administration’s response, and if and how the U.S. should retaliate against Russia. Our guests are MISSY RYAN, a national security reporter for The Washington Post, AARON O’CONNELL, an associate history professor at University of Texas at Austin and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, and MATTHEW ROJANSKY, director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center.