House panel demands Pentagon briefing on Russian bounties

Top Republican says they’ve given the Pentagon 48 hours and any delay ‘will not be acceptable’

House Armed Services Committee leaders have pressed the Pentagon for a briefing by Tuesday on reports that Russian spies have been paying insurgents in Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops.

Adam Smith, D-Wash., the committee’s chairman, and Mac Thornberry of Texas, the panel’s top Republican, requested the briefing and have yet to finalize it, Thornberry told reporters Monday, saying: “It will not be acceptable to delay.”

“It is absolutely essential that we get the information and be able to judge its credibility,” Thornberry said of the reports about Russian payments to any Taliban-linked militants who kill Americans. Continue reading.