Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says she’s outraged by a report in the New York Times this weekend that a Russian military intelligence unit had secretly offered bounties to the Taliban for killing American troops and their allies in Afghanistan.
Collins, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says her colleagues had not been informed of the reports that have been circulating for months, according to the Times. She says if true, the alleged Russian action is unacceptable.
“If the president was in fact briefed then it is inexcusable that he did not immediately act to impose sanctions on the Russians,” she says. “I am totally shocked to learn from the New York Times that the Russians allegedly have been paying the Taliban to target American soldiers. I am not only shocked I am outraged about it.”
Collins says the committee will investigate what happened and why it was not informed of the report.
The Times story indicates that White House has not challenged the existence of the report or that it has been the topic of a National Security Council meeting held in late March.
