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WSJ : Ex- British Intelligence Officer Created Dossier On Trump

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  johnrussell  •  7 years ago  •  19 comments

WSJ : Ex- British Intelligence Officer Created Dossier On Trump

I guess that leaves out 4 chan 


 

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/christopher-steele-ex-british-intelligence-officer-said-to-have-prepared-dossier-on-trump-1484162553

A former British intelligence officer now working for a private security-and-investigations firm produced  the dossier of unverified allegations  about President-elect Donald Trump’s activities and connections in Russia, people familiar with the matter say.

Christopher Steele, a director of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., prepared the dossier, the people said. The document alleges that the Kremlin colluded with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and claims that Russian officials have compromising evidence of Mr. Trump’s behavior that could be used to blackmail him. Mr. Trump has dismissed the contents of the dossier as false and Russia has denied the claims.

Mr. Steele, 52 years old, is one of two directors of the firm, along with Christopher Burrows, 58.

 

Mr. Burrows, reached at his home outside London on Wednesday, said he wouldn’t “confirm or deny” that Orbis had produced the report. A neighbor of Mr. Steele’s said Mr. Steele said he would be away for a few days. In previous weeks Mr. Steele has declined repeated requests for interviews through an intermediary, who said the subject was “too hot.”



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A LinkedIn profile in Mr. Burrows’s name says he was a counselor in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with foreign postings in Brussels and New Delhi in the 2000s. The Foreign Office declined to comment. A LinkedIn profile for Mr. Steele doesn’t give specifics about his career. Intelligence officers often use diplomatic postings as cover for their espionage activities.

Orbis Business Intelligence was formed in 2009 by former British intelligence professionals, it says on its website. U.K. corporate records say Orbis is owned by another company that in turn is jointly owned by Messrs. Steele and Burrows. It occupies offices in an ornate building overlooking Grosvenor Gardens in London’s high-end Belgravia neighborhood.

The firm relies on a “global network” of experts and business leaders, provides clients with strategic advice, mounts “intelligence-gathering operations” and conducts “complex, often cross-border investigations,” its website says.

The dossier consists of a series of unsigned memos that appear to have been written between June and December 2016. Beyond creating the document, Mr. Steele also came up with a plan to get the information to law-enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europe, including the F.B.I., according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

Speaking about corporate-intelligence work in general terms, Mr. Burrows said “the objective is to respond to the requirements set out by our clients. We have no political ax to grind.”

He said when clients asked a firm like Orbis to investigate something, you “see what’s out there” first and later “stress test” your findings against other evidence.

No presidential campaigns or super PACs reported payments to Orbis in their required Federal Election Commission filings. But several super PACs over the course of the campaign have reported that they paid limited liability companies, whose ultimate owners may be difficult or impossible to discern.

The dossier’s emergence—it was published online and widely circulated Tuesday—has generated a firestorm less than 10 days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. U.S. officials have examined the allegations but haven’t confirmed any of them. The Wall Street Journal also hasn’t corroborated any of the allegations in the dossier.

“It’s all fake news,” Mr. Trump said in a news conference Wednesday. “It’s all phony stuff. It didn’t happen.”

The dossier contains lurid and difficult-to-prove allegations. The F.B.I. has found no evidence, for example, supporting the dossier’s claim that an attorney for Mr. Trump traveled to the Czech Republic to meet with Kremlin officials, U.S. officials said. The attorney has also denied the claim.

The author of the report had a good reputation in the intelligence world and was stationed in Russia for years, said John Sipher, who retired in 2014 after 28 years in the CIA’s clandestine service, where he specialized in Russia and counterintelligence.

 

Private-intelligence firms like Orbis have a growing presence. Major corporations use them to conduct due diligence on potential business partners in risky areas, but quality control can be loose when it comes to high-level political intrigue, according to executives of private intelligence companies.

When government intelligence agencies produce clandestine political reports, they often include thick sections about sources, possible motivations behind their information and the methods used to approach them. Such background helps decision makers determine how reliable the information is.


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   seeder  JohnRussell    7 years ago

Steele is said to be an ex British intelligence agent with 20 years experience in Russia. 

Somehow I don't think his source is 4chan, but let's see what happens.  People do strange things for money at times.

 
 
 
96WS6
Junior Quiet
link   96WS6  replied to  JohnRussell   7 years ago

As long as it is unverified "what difference at this point does it make"?

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  96WS6   7 years ago

if there is truth to any of the allegations it will come out eventually

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
link   Sean Treacy    7 years ago

This "dossier"was used by American intelligence services as an example of unverified disinformation and as a warning about relying on  intelligence from private sources.  

It's  absolutely devastating for the credibility of  media that this was reported as legitimate news by some outlets despite their being zero evidence to substantiate any of this accusations. 

 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Sean Treacy   7 years ago

ok.

your comment is kind of off topic though. 

At least according to this story, the dossier is not "fake news". 

 
 
 
Uncle Bruce
Professor Quiet
link   Uncle Bruce    7 years ago

I say we start a Dossier on John Russell and fill it with unverified, and unverifiable memos of his trips to South America for pedophilia purposes.  I wonder John, would that bother you? 

You realize you have become the Liberal equivalent to a Birther.  You commented elsewhere that this story was getting traction in other major news sources.  But everything I've read from the other sources have all said they had the documents, couldn't verify (in fact in some instances disputed) any of it, and therefore used what little journalistic integrity they had left and chose not to run anything on it.  In fact, most other news sources are writing more about the lack of journalistic integrity of Buzzfeed and CNN, rather than the details of the report.  In fact, CNN is NOW trying to distance itself from the bruhaha this has started.  Their reputation has suffered.  They are doing nothing but adding nails to their coffin.

Welcome to the world of conspiracy theories John. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Uncle Bruce   7 years ago

You are a trip Bruce. 

Donald Trump is the biggest liar, con man , and cheat to ever win the presidency. He won the nomination by lying about his 16 opponents and then won the election lying about Clinton. Even funnier is the fact that he is a big conspiracy nut himself. He believes in dozens of conspiracies. 

Yet you want to peddle indignity when your heerow becomes the object of "unsubstantiated" allegations. 

Rational people call it karma. 

Certainly allegations have to be proven or they are ultimately unfair. Trump's victims know all about that truth. 

 
 
 
Uncle Bruce
Professor Quiet
link   Uncle Bruce  replied to  JohnRussell   7 years ago

Dispute what I said John.  Or you're nothing but a conspiracy theorist. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Uncle Bruce   7 years ago

You are crazy Bruce. The frustration of having to constantly defend that piece of shit you voted for is getting to you. 

I seeded an article that explains where the allegations come from. If you don't like it, complain to the Wall St. Journal. I don't personally vouch for their stories.

 
 
 
Uncle Bruce
Professor Quiet
link   Uncle Bruce    7 years ago

Certainly allegations have to be proven or they are ultimately unfair.

Did you seriously just say that in an article trying to justify unverified and unverifiable allegations?

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Uncle Bruce   7 years ago

Liberals are blind to hypocrisy. 

 
 
 
Hal A. Lujah
Professor Guide
link   Hal A. Lujah    7 years ago

Maybe conservatives should consult with Hillary Clinton in how to deal with unsubstantiated 'news'.

 
 
 
Aeonpax
Freshman Silent
link   Aeonpax    7 years ago

I have a dossier on Trump.

 

 

 
 

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