Of all the fakery invoked by Biden to justify the new sanctions he announced against Russia yesterday, the story of the alleged Russian bounty payments to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan was apparently too fake to fly. A senior administration official explained on a conference call that U.S. intelligence had “low to moderate confidence” in the reporting on bounties because “it’s based in part on detainee reporting and because of the difficult operating environment in Afghanistan.” That is, someone who wanted to get out of his cell had reason to say what he thought was wanted to be heard. “There is an assessment that Russian intelligence officers did seek to encourage Taliban attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel, including through financial incentives and compensation,” the official claimed. “But because of the low to moderate confidence element of this, our focus is on sending a clear message to Russia about the steps the United States would take in response to such behavior if it were to continue.”