By Shane Harris and Nancy A. Youssef
Six U.S. intelligence and military
officials tell The Daily Beast that they hope an apparent ISIS attack
on Metrojet Flight 9268 would force Putin to finally take the gloves
off.
In the days following the crash of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268,
which mounting evidence suggests was felled by an ISIS bomb, many U.S.
intelligence and security officials weren’t panicking about the
so-called Islamic State unleashing a new campaign of attacks on civilian
airliners. Instead, they were wondering how the bombing might hurt Vladimir Putin, and potentially help the United States.
Ever since Putin started dropping bombs on militants in Syria,
officials have privately been arguing that the Russian leader committed
a major strategic blunder, and that his intervention in Syria would
weaken both his military and his reputation and likely ignite a backlash
from Islamist militants, who have attacked inside Russia in the past.
One U.S. intelligence official, speaking prior to the airliner crash, called the Russian campaign in Syria “Putin’s folly.”
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Source: The Daily Beast
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