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| Britain |
| Head of MI6 used info from Steele's Trump dossier in first public speech |
| 2017-01-16 |
| [Independent] The head of MI6 used information obtained by former officer Christopher Steele in his Trump investigation, in a warning against Russian cyberattacks and attempts to subvert Western democracies, The Independent has learned. Sir Alex Younger’s briefing notes for his first public speech as head of the Secret Intelligence Service contained some of the material supplied by Mr Steele, according to security sources. Drawing on the alleged hacking carried out by Moscow in the US presidential campaign, he warned of the danger facing Britain and Western European allies, and especially to elections due to be held next year. Yes of course. When Labour loses, we'll simply blame the Russians, like the Yanks did. Security sources stress that MI6 had extensive information, British and international, on the Russian threat apart from that of Mr Steele. But they pointed out that he is held in high regard and the contribution he provided was valuable. In one of his recent tweets, Mr Trump described Mr Steele as a "failed spy". He also claimed in another tweet that "James Clapper [director of national intelligence] called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts. Too bad!" Mr Steele had, in fact, a highly successful career in MI6, received a number of commendations and is highly regarded by both British and American intelligence agencies. Mr Clapper pointed out that what he had actually said was that the intelligence service "has not made any judgement that the information in this document is reliable". Skipping down to para #8 for 'unconfirmed' CIA linkage. Senior officials could not confirm media reports at the weekend that reassurance has been sought by London from the CIA that the identities of British agents in Russia will be protected in shared intelligence, with concerns about links between Mr Trump’s team and Moscow. One official said that the understanding was that unauthorised people should not have access to such detail in anything classified which is passed on. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #16 Happy to have amused, Seeking cure. Even happier that I did so deliberately this time. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-01-16 20:21 |
| #15 The second 'EYE' in the 'FIVE EYES' intelligence classification marking is of course the UK. I think that was anon1, Besoeker. I don't know anything about eyes. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-01-16 20:19 |
| #14 You owe me a new keyboard and monitor TW! Snort #2 'Tinker Bell' har! Very apropos though! |
| Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-01-16 18:13 |
| #13 If I was Russian Intelligence and I wanted to damage the effectiveness of the incoming US government (whether it would be Trump or Clinton) I think I would leak information - bogus or real - to the benefit of each candidate that could be attributed back to Russia and thus degrade the 'legitimacy' of that candidate. Pretty much a no-lose scenario. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-01-16 15:02 |
| #12 Didn't the British PM say that this Steele hadn't worked for them for years? Or is this an admission of Perfidious Albion? As has been pointed out recently by Bright Pebbles, Steel's 'research' firm, Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd is located less than 2 kilometers from MI6 headquarters in London. One of the most expensive real estate areas on the planet. I wonder how OBI is doing, with the 'head man' still on holiday. Due simply to geography, some assumptions are easier arrived at than others. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-01-16 11:04 |
| #11 Didn't the British PM say that this Steele hadn't worked for them for years? Or is this an admission of Perfidious Albion? |
| Posted by: John Frum 2017-01-16 10:39 |
| #10 I think the "intelligence" agencies have been making and drinking trappist beer all day with the yeast. Posted by Bright Pebbles Yes, 'bread and circuses' being a necessary sideline. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-01-16 08:05 |
| #9 I think the "intelligence" agencies have been making and drinking trappist beer all day with the yeast. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-01-16 08:02 |
| #8 It seems the reason so many jihadist attacks succeed and the expansion of ISIS is clear to us now. If you use all of the yeast, there will be no bread for the morrow. We are well into our second decade of constant war or conflict. Who now claims to be a 'victim' of a ranting, political maverick who insists on staying out of other people's business and 'draining the swamp?' |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-01-16 07:57 |
| #7 I wonder what old spook thinks of this "intelligence"! It seems the reason so many jihadist attacks succeed and the expansion of ISIS is clear to us now. They are paper tigers that eat a vast amount of cash they waste. I always suspected that the most opaque of civil servants sinecures was the most wasteful and incompetent. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-01-16 07:47 |
| #6 Mad dogs and Englishmen ? If your neighbor acquires a vicious biting hond. You assist with it's care and feeding, but do not warn your children. Who shares in the blame when your son is bitten. Chess metaphors also being popular here of late, perfidious Albion is the Garry Kasparov of regime change. The second 'EYE' in the 'FIVE EYES' intelligence classification marking is of course the UK. Hat tip to TW. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-01-16 07:22 |
| #5 *blush* You are kindness itself, Skidmark. Before falling asleep again I came across an Instapundit link that seems appropriate -- Clarice Feldman at American Thinker: ...the dossier is so ridiculous, if anyone in the Intelligence Community fell for it, he’s too stupid to allow in place, and if no one did but they still played a role in publicizing it, everyone involved needs to be fired. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-01-16 05:44 |
| #4 Well said TW. Also, I would recommend that the Trumpists get off of the false news 'denial train'. Better would be to promote the content as speculative fiction generated by the entertainment media. This action would serve to further remove what few vestiges of credibility remain. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-01-16 05:20 |
| #3 Having scrolled further down the articles, it occurs to me this will go a fair way to undoing Prime Minister Theresa May's efforts with regard to the Paris anti-Israel summit to make up the deficit of goodwill her previous work around the UNSC anti-Israel thingy created. Unless she is silly enough to think that supporting Israel is the only thing he really cares about. I note separately that being a successful spy for the British government is not at all like being a successful private political investigator in the private sector. What it takes to make the customer happy requires truth in the first case, while truthy will do in the second. And if Mr. Clapper is indeed now saying that his people had merely never bothered to confirm the information rather than deeming it Russian disinformation, as has been reported, President Trump's first move needs to be to accept the resignations of all involved at all the "17 services" that were involved in the plot. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-01-16 05:13 |
| #2 In other words, the CIA stated the same kinds of concerns about Mr. Trump, based on the invented file, to MI6 that they did to Israel. But MI6, not having Israel's insight into President Obama's Americans that the Israelis have, and being just as classist as the American elites they deal with, believe all as firmly as little children clapping their dear little hands to rosiness in an attempt to save Tinker Bell at the pantomime. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-01-16 04:55 |
| #1 Senior officials could not confirm media reports at the weekend that reassurance has been sought by London from the CIA that the identities of British agents in Russia will be protected in shared intelligence. I believe one can safely assume 'assurances' were discussed, but we can't know for certain because Christopher Steele is still on holiday. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-01-16 01:22 |