“The National Security Agency strongly dissented from other intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia paid bounties for the killing of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The disclosure of the dissent by the NSA, which specializes in electronic eavesdropping, comes as the White House has played down the revelations, saying that the information wasn’t verified and that intelligence officials didn’t agree on it.
“Because of that, President Trump was never personally briefed on the threat, the White House said, although a key lawmaker said the information apparently was included in written intelligence materials prepared for Mr. Trump.
“The people familiar with the dissent by the NSA either declined or were unable to say why the agency differed from others—including the Central Intelligence Agency—about the strength of the intelligence showing operatives with Russia’s GRU intelligence agency paid bounties to the insurgent Taliban movement to kill Americans.”
