- Pour bien tirer parti de Google et trouver par défaut les médias qui censurent ce qui ne leur convient pas, faire ses recherches sur le modèle suivant: "palestine" "expulsion" "semaine denière" .
C'est ainsi qu'on apprend ce que les MSM ont refusé de publier, par exemple les révélations de l'ex espion britannique Steele sur la fabrication ex-nihilo dès 2016 du "agent russe" pour accabler Trump:
Commentaire par Britsh spy expert pans Steele dossier 'fabrication'. Reported by BBC, UK Times, Wa Examiner, but not NYT, WaPo or other MSM
(1) Britsh spy expert pans Steele dossier 'fabrication'. Reported by BBC, UK Times, Wa Examiner, but not NYT, WaPo or other MSM
(2) Top British spy report: 'Strong possibility' that anti-Trump dossier was completely fabricated
(3) Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’ - UK TIMES
(4) Why did it take 3 years for Allason's report (on Steele fabrication) to come out?
(5) British ex-ambassador who alerted John McCain to anti-Trump dossier stands by Christopher Steele
(1) Britsh spy expert pans Steele dossier 'fabrication'. Reported by BBC, UK Times, Wa Examiner, but not NYT, WaPo or other MSM
- Peter Myers, January 30, 2020
This morning I did this search (NB you MUST include the double-quote marks, to force Google to include each term. Copy and paste the search exactly as below):
"West" "Steele" "Trump" "Allason"
and specify (Time) PAST WEEK
Hits at Washington Examiner, BBC, Times.co.uk
but not NYT or WaPo or other USA MSM
NOT FIT TO PRINT?
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO CENSOR?
Some minor news outlets in the US also published it.
If you're sick of NOT THE NEWS in the MSM, bookmark the lesser-known news sites that DID report this story, and make them you regular news sources.
NB I'm not reporting this because I favour Trump; I gave up on him two years ago. I regarded the Soleimani assassination as barbaric, and no longer care what happens to Trump; I hope Sanders and Gabbard win instead. But the point is, news is news. If the MSM don't publish this story, becasuse it exposes their use of the fabricated Steele dossier for the last three years, it shows that they are just propaganda outlets, mouthpieces of the Deep State i.e. CIA.
(2) Top British spy report: 'Strong possibility' that anti-Trump dossier was completely fabricated
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/top-british-spy-report-strong-possibility-that-anti-trump-dossier-was-completely-fabricated
by Daniel Chaitin
January 26, 2020 02:13 PM
A British author who specializes in espionage raised serious doubts about former MI6 officer Christopher Steele's salacious dossier, which was included in the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into President Trump's 2016 campaign.
Rupert Allason, a former member of Parliament whose pen name is Nigel West, conducted a forensic analysis of Steele's work, which made stunning allegations about coordination between Trump's camp and Russia. He came away "stunned" by what he viewed to be a poor job by a former intelligence officer whom he once considered to be a friend.
"There is ... a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated," Allason wrote in a report obtained by the British newspaper Sunday Times.
Allason, 68, was commissioned by a Republican law firm after the dossier, a series of reports that included details of a "pee tape" and an alleged video obtained by the Russians of Trump with prostitutes urinating on a bed in a Moscow hotel room, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.
Allason's report comes in the wake of an assessment by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who condemned Steele, 55, and the FBI for its reliance on his dossier to obtain warrants for wiretapping onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Additionally, special counsel Robert Mueller concluded an investigation last year that found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The FBI has been heavily criticized by Trump and his Republican allies for not making clear to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that Steele's work, commissioned by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, was funded by Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.
Allason determined that because Steele had Democratic benefactors, he had "a strong financial incentive to perpetuate the reporting" of Trump's links to Russia.
Horowitz's report, which was released in December and faulted the Justice Department and the FBI for 17 "significant errors and omissions" in its submissions to the FISA court, showed that FBI interviews with Steele's primary Moscow-based source, beginning in January 2017, "raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting." This source claimed that much of what he told Steele was "hearsay" or, in the case of the "pee tape," just "rumor and speculation" from a sub-source, reported by some to likely be Belarus-born businessman Sergei Millian. Millian, however, has denied being a source for the dossier.
Allason also took issue with Steele's sourcing, writing that from "a professional intelligence perspective, the dossier as a whole is profoundly troubling and cannot be taken at face value."
"Source E is credited with access to Ritz-Carlton staff, knowledge of Russian government involvement with WikiLeaks and the abuse of Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States. This appears to be an extraordinarily wide area of expertise," Allason wrote, adding, "The apparent lapses bear the hallmarks of invention."
In a statement, Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence accused Allason of writing a "politically motivated" report as his research was funded by a Republican law firm and asserted that Allason's findings were not "based on any knowledge" of its sources and methods.
West's work, the firm said, "lacks authority" because he "was never an intelligence officer and has no experience of operational work in the field." Orbis also claimed "much of the dossier has been proven" since 2017 and declared: "We stand by the integrity and quality of our work."
(3) Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’ - UK TIMES
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-mi6-spy-fabricated-dossier-on-trump-and-prostitutes-wz2hr8zz7
tuesday january 28 2020
Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’
Tim Shipman, Political Editor
Sunday January 26 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
The dossier on Donald Trump compiled by the former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia, was a work of "fabrication", according to a devastating report by a leading British spy writer.
Nigel West has revealed he was hired by a US Republican law firm to assess the dossier in 2017 and concluded that large parts of it were faked.
Steele’s dossier claimed Russian spies held "kompromat" on Trump, including a video of him cavorting with prostitutes in Moscow, and that Russia had engaged in a conspiracy with Trump’s campaign team to affect the outcome of the 2016 election. It was used by the FBI to justify surveillance of four of Trump’s associates. [...]
(4) Why did it take 3 years for Allason's report (on Steele fabrication) to come out?
https://www.rt.com/usa/479333-steele-dossier-fabricated-west/
West v. Steele: Trump-Russia dossier was ‘FABRICATION,’ colleague & spy expert revealed … YEARS ago
27 Jan, 2020 22:43
One of Britain’s leading experts on espionage, Nigel West, was hired to examine the dossier written by his friend Christopher Steele. He concluded it was rubbish. So why did it take almost three years for his story to come out?
Steele’s scandalous document, which claimed extensive ties between the then-US President-elect Donald Trump and the Kremlin, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017 and quickly became the cornerstone of ‘Russiagate.’ Media talking heads insisted that much of it had been corroborated. In fact, nothing was.
West, hired to examine the dossier back in 2017, quickly concluded that "there is... a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated," according to the Sunday Times.
Bryan MacDonald @27khv Woah. Britain's @thesundaytimes reports that the infamous "Steele Dossier" on @realDonaldTrump, compiled by a former MI6 spy, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia & drove the "Russigate" hoax, was a work of "fabrication." https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-mi6-spy-fabricated-dossier-on-trump-and-prostitutes-wz2hr8zz7 …
Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’ The dossier on Donald Trump compiled by the former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia, was a work of "fabrication", according to a devastating...
This is not just anybody’s opinion, either. West – the pen name of former MP Rupert Allason – is one of Britain’s foremost authorities on intelligence matters, and happens to known Steele personally, having met him at a NATO intelligence conference some years back.
"I’ve always had the highest respect for him," West told RT on Monday. Which is why he was surprised to discover some basic errors in the dossier, such as treating one particular source as an expert in three entirely different fields, or making up the existence of the Russian consulate in Miami, Florida.
The source in question starts out as a middle-manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, but is later described as an expert on cyber warfare, and later yet as an expert on money-laundering by Russian immigrants in the US, West explained.
On the face of it, it looked inherently improbable that this single source was as proclaimed.
Back in early 2017, it didn’t matter. Steele had claimed that the Russian intelligence obtained compromising material – "kompromat" – on Trump, specifically a recording of him with prostitutes at the Ritz-Carlton in 2013, urinating on the same bed where US President Barack Obama had slept previously. Even FBI director at the time, Jim Comey, described the dossier as "salacious and unverified" in a testimony to Congress – which did not stop him from signing an application for a FISA warrant that the Bureau used to spy on the Trump campaign via one of its advisers, Carter Page.
Belief in some kind of Trump-Russia conspiracy still remains strong among many critics of the US president, even though ‘Russiagate’ imploded last year with special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report and fumbling testimony.
West says he made the existence of his own report public after the Justice Department’s inspector-general described Steele’s dossier in "absolutely scathing" terms during last month’s congressional hearings.
Reacting to the Times revelations, Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, dismissed West’s analysis as "highly speculative at best in its assertions," and "politically motivated," since it was funded by a Republican law firm.
ALSO ON RT.COM Why the ‘Steele Dossier’ on Trump-Russia collusion is a total nothingburger Steele himself was paid purely above-board, of course: by Fusion GPS, which was a client of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, at the direction of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
(5) British ex-ambassador who alerted John McCain to anti-Trump dossier stands by Christopher Steele
https://dnyuz.com/2020/01/28/british-ex-ambassador-who-alerted-john-mccain-to-anti-trump-dossier-stands-by-christopher-steele/
January 28, 2020
{also published on Jan. 29 at https://vesna.news/british-ex-ambassador-who-alerted-john-mccain-to-anti-trump-dossier-stands-by-christopher-steele/}
A former British diplomat who made headlines for discussing an anti-Trump dossier with Sen. John McCain does not believe its author, British ex-spy Christopher Steele, made up the allegations it contained.
Sir Andrew Wood, who was ambassador to Russia from 1995 to 2000, was asked on Tuesday to respond to a forensic analysis of the former MI6 officer’s dossier about President Trump’s ties to Russia by Rupert Allason, a former member of Parliament who is also an author specializing in espionage using the pen name Nigel West. Upon completing that assessment, according to the Sunday Times, Allason determined there was "a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated."
In a brief email exchange, Wood was asked if he stood by his comments to BBC Radio 4 in 2017 when he characterized the allegations as "dangerous knowledge": "I do not think [Steele] would make things up," he said, adding: "I do not think he would necessarily always draw correct judgements ?— but that is not the same thing at all."
"I have no reason to change my judgement," he told Washington Examiner.
Wood, 80, held a number of diplomatic posts for the United Kingdom, including head of mission in Moscow for five years. He retired from diplomatic service in 2000 and is now an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House.
Following Trump’s election victory in November 2016, Wood talked to McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, at an international security conference in Halifax, Canada, about Steele’s dossier. The senator wrote in his book The Restless Wave that Wood approached him at the conference and, in their impromptu meeting, "charged with a strange intensity," they discussed the dossier.
It was after this discussion that McCain sent his associate, David Kramer, a former State Department official, to London to retrieve a copy. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close friend of McCain’s, told reporters last year that he urged McCain to send the dossier to the FBI. McCain, who died of brain cancer in August 2018, gave a copy of Steele’s research to then-FBI Director James Comey, although the bureau had already begun receiving Steele’s dossier in installments starting in July 2016.
Wood told the Independent in 2017 that while he knew Steele and believed him to be "very professional," he had not seen the dossier when he spoke to McCain. Still, he said they did discuss Trump and Russia, including the issue of whether the Kremlin had "kompromat," the Russian term for compromising material, on Trump that could be used as blackmail, as was detailed in Steele’s dossier.
The 35-page dossier was a collection of reports about Trump’s ties to Russia, including allegations of a conspiracy and the Russians having a video of Trump with prostitutes urinating on a bed in a Moscow hotel room, compiled after Steele was commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS. The dossier was funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.
The dossier played a role in the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.
A report released by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December criticized the FBI for its reliance on the unverified dossier to obtain warrants for wiretapping onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. It revealed that the FBI interviewed Steele’s primary Moscow-based source, beginning in January 2017, who "raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting."
In his assessment, Allason also took issue with Steele’s sourcing, writing that from "a professional intelligence perspective, the dossier as a whole is profoundly troubling and cannot be taken at face value."
Steele’s private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, accused Allason of writing a "politically motivated" report, as it was reportedly commissioned by a Republican law firm, which was not identified. Orbis, which also claimed "much of the dossier has been proven" since 2017, added: "We stand by the integrity and quality of our work."
Wood told the Washington Examiner that he is not sure which law firm backed Allason’s report.
"Allason knows that I have, in fact, never read the dossier precisely because I have never been in a position to confirm or refute its contents. But it would not on the face of it be surprising if the Times were right to suggest that Allason/West was commissioned as reported," he said.
The post British ex-ambassador who alerted John McCain to anti-Trump dossier stands by Christopher Steele appeared first on Washington Examiner.
1
This morning I did this search (NB you MUST include the double-quote marks, to force Google to include each term. Copy and paste the search exactly as below):
"West" "Steele" "Trump" "Allason"
and specify (Time) PAST WEEK
Hits at Washington Examiner, BBC, Times.co.uk
but not NYT or WaPo or other USA MSM
NOT FIT TO PRINT?
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO CENSOR?
Some minor news outlets in the US also published it.
If you're sick of NOT THE NEWS in the MSM, bookmark the lesser-known news sites that DID report this story, and make them you regular news sources.
Message complet sur la fabrication du dossier Trump agent de Moscou ci-dessous:
Britsh spy expert pans Steele dossier 'fabrication'. Reported by BBC, UK Times, Wa Examiner, but not NYT, WaPo or other MSM
(1) Britsh spy expert pans Steele dossier 'fabrication'. Reported by BBC, UK Times, Wa Examiner, but not NYT, WaPo or other MSM
(2) Top British spy report: 'Strong possibility' that anti-Trump dossier was completely fabricated
(3) Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’ - UK TIMES
(4) Why did it take 3 years for Allason's report (on Steele fabrication) to come out?
(5) British ex-ambassador who alerted John McCain to anti-Trump dossier stands by Christopher Steele
(1) Britsh spy expert pans Steele dossier 'fabrication'. Reported by BBC, UK Times, Wa Examiner, but not NYT, WaPo or other MSM
- Peter Myers, January 30, 2020
This morning I did this search (NB you MUST include the double-quote marks, to force Google to include each term. Copy and paste the search exactly as below):
"West" "Steele" "Trump" "Allason"
and specify (Time) PAST WEEK
Hits at Washington Examiner, BBC, Times.co.uk
but not NYT or WaPo or other USA MSM
NOT FIT TO PRINT?
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO CENSOR?
Some minor news outlets in the US also published it.
If you're sick of NOT THE NEWS in the MSM, bookmark the lesser-known news sites that DID report this story, and make them you regular news sources.
NB I'm not reporting this because I favour Trump; I gave up on him two years ago. I regarded the Soleimani assassination as barbaric, and no longer care what happens to Trump; I hope Sanders and Gabbard win instead. But the point is, news is news. If the MSM don't publish this story, becasuse it exposes their use of the fabricated Steele dossier for the last three years, it shows that they are just propaganda outlets, mouthpieces of the Deep State i.e. CIA.
(2) Top British spy report: 'Strong possibility' that anti-Trump dossier was completely fabricated
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/top-british-spy-report-strong-possibility-that-anti-trump-dossier-was-completely-fabricated
by Daniel Chaitin
January 26, 2020 02:13 PM
A British author who specializes in espionage raised serious doubts about former MI6 officer Christopher Steele's salacious dossier, which was included in the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into President Trump's 2016 campaign.
Rupert Allason, a former member of Parliament whose pen name is Nigel West, conducted a forensic analysis of Steele's work, which made stunning allegations about coordination between Trump's camp and Russia. He came away "stunned" by what he viewed to be a poor job by a former intelligence officer whom he once considered to be a friend.
"There is ... a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated," Allason wrote in a report obtained by the British newspaper Sunday Times.
Allason, 68, was commissioned by a Republican law firm after the dossier, a series of reports that included details of a "pee tape" and an alleged video obtained by the Russians of Trump with prostitutes urinating on a bed in a Moscow hotel room, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.
Allason's report comes in the wake of an assessment by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who condemned Steele, 55, and the FBI for its reliance on his dossier to obtain warrants for wiretapping onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Additionally, special counsel Robert Mueller concluded an investigation last year that found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The FBI has been heavily criticized by Trump and his Republican allies for not making clear to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that Steele's work, commissioned by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, was funded by Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.
Allason determined that because Steele had Democratic benefactors, he had "a strong financial incentive to perpetuate the reporting" of Trump's links to Russia.
Horowitz's report, which was released in December and faulted the Justice Department and the FBI for 17 "significant errors and omissions" in its submissions to the FISA court, showed that FBI interviews with Steele's primary Moscow-based source, beginning in January 2017, "raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting." This source claimed that much of what he told Steele was "hearsay" or, in the case of the "pee tape," just "rumor and speculation" from a sub-source, reported by some to likely be Belarus-born businessman Sergei Millian. Millian, however, has denied being a source for the dossier.
Allason also took issue with Steele's sourcing, writing that from "a professional intelligence perspective, the dossier as a whole is profoundly troubling and cannot be taken at face value."
"Source E is credited with access to Ritz-Carlton staff, knowledge of Russian government involvement with WikiLeaks and the abuse of Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States. This appears to be an extraordinarily wide area of expertise," Allason wrote, adding, "The apparent lapses bear the hallmarks of invention."
In a statement, Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence accused Allason of writing a "politically motivated" report as his research was funded by a Republican law firm and asserted that Allason's findings were not "based on any knowledge" of its sources and methods.
West's work, the firm said, "lacks authority" because he "was never an intelligence officer and has no experience of operational work in the field." Orbis also claimed "much of the dossier has been proven" since 2017 and declared: "We stand by the integrity and quality of our work."
(3) Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’ - UK TIMES
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-mi6-spy-fabricated-dossier-on-trump-and-prostitutes-wz2hr8zz7
tuesday january 28 2020
Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’
Tim Shipman, Political Editor
Sunday January 26 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
The dossier on Donald Trump compiled by the former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia, was a work of "fabrication", according to a devastating report by a leading British spy writer.
Nigel West has revealed he was hired by a US Republican law firm to assess the dossier in 2017 and concluded that large parts of it were faked.
Steele’s dossier claimed Russian spies held "kompromat" on Trump, including a video of him cavorting with prostitutes in Moscow, and that Russia had engaged in a conspiracy with Trump’s campaign team to affect the outcome of the 2016 election. It was used by the FBI to justify surveillance of four of Trump’s associates. [...]
(4) Why did it take 3 years for Allason's report (on Steele fabrication) to come out?
https://www.rt.com/usa/479333-steele-dossier-fabricated-west/
West v. Steele: Trump-Russia dossier was ‘FABRICATION,’ colleague & spy expert revealed … YEARS ago
27 Jan, 2020 22:43
One of Britain’s leading experts on espionage, Nigel West, was hired to examine the dossier written by his friend Christopher Steele. He concluded it was rubbish. So why did it take almost three years for his story to come out?
Steele’s scandalous document, which claimed extensive ties between the then-US President-elect Donald Trump and the Kremlin, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017 and quickly became the cornerstone of ‘Russiagate.’ Media talking heads insisted that much of it had been corroborated. In fact, nothing was.
West, hired to examine the dossier back in 2017, quickly concluded that "there is... a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated," according to the Sunday Times.
Bryan MacDonald @27khv Woah. Britain's @thesundaytimes reports that the infamous "Steele Dossier" on @realDonaldTrump, compiled by a former MI6 spy, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia & drove the "Russigate" hoax, was a work of "fabrication." https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-mi6-spy-fabricated-dossier-on-trump-and-prostitutes-wz2hr8zz7 …
Ex-MI6 spy ‘fabricated dossier on Trump and prostitutes’ The dossier on Donald Trump compiled by the former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, which accused the US president of being compromised by Russia, was a work of "fabrication", according to a devastating...
This is not just anybody’s opinion, either. West – the pen name of former MP Rupert Allason – is one of Britain’s foremost authorities on intelligence matters, and happens to known Steele personally, having met him at a NATO intelligence conference some years back.
"I’ve always had the highest respect for him," West told RT on Monday. Which is why he was surprised to discover some basic errors in the dossier, such as treating one particular source as an expert in three entirely different fields, or making up the existence of the Russian consulate in Miami, Florida.
The source in question starts out as a middle-manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, but is later described as an expert on cyber warfare, and later yet as an expert on money-laundering by Russian immigrants in the US, West explained.
On the face of it, it looked inherently improbable that this single source was as proclaimed.
Back in early 2017, it didn’t matter. Steele had claimed that the Russian intelligence obtained compromising material – "kompromat" – on Trump, specifically a recording of him with prostitutes at the Ritz-Carlton in 2013, urinating on the same bed where US President Barack Obama had slept previously. Even FBI director at the time, Jim Comey, described the dossier as "salacious and unverified" in a testimony to Congress – which did not stop him from signing an application for a FISA warrant that the Bureau used to spy on the Trump campaign via one of its advisers, Carter Page.
Belief in some kind of Trump-Russia conspiracy still remains strong among many critics of the US president, even though ‘Russiagate’ imploded last year with special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report and fumbling testimony.
West says he made the existence of his own report public after the Justice Department’s inspector-general described Steele’s dossier in "absolutely scathing" terms during last month’s congressional hearings.
Reacting to the Times revelations, Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, dismissed West’s analysis as "highly speculative at best in its assertions," and "politically motivated," since it was funded by a Republican law firm.
ALSO ON RT.COM Why the ‘Steele Dossier’ on Trump-Russia collusion is a total nothingburger Steele himself was paid purely above-board, of course: by Fusion GPS, which was a client of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, at the direction of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
(5) British ex-ambassador who alerted John McCain to anti-Trump dossier stands by Christopher Steele
https://dnyuz.com/2020/01/28/british-ex-ambassador-who-alerted-john-mccain-to-anti-trump-dossier-stands-by-christopher-steele/
January 28, 2020
{also published on Jan. 29 at https://vesna.news/british-ex-ambassador-who-alerted-john-mccain-to-anti-trump-dossier-stands-by-christopher-steele/}
A former British diplomat who made headlines for discussing an anti-Trump dossier with Sen. John McCain does not believe its author, British ex-spy Christopher Steele, made up the allegations it contained.
Sir Andrew Wood, who was ambassador to Russia from 1995 to 2000, was asked on Tuesday to respond to a forensic analysis of the former MI6 officer’s dossier about President Trump’s ties to Russia by Rupert Allason, a former member of Parliament who is also an author specializing in espionage using the pen name Nigel West. Upon completing that assessment, according to the Sunday Times, Allason determined there was "a strong possibility that all Steele’s material has been fabricated."
In a brief email exchange, Wood was asked if he stood by his comments to BBC Radio 4 in 2017 when he characterized the allegations as "dangerous knowledge": "I do not think [Steele] would make things up," he said, adding: "I do not think he would necessarily always draw correct judgements ?— but that is not the same thing at all."
"I have no reason to change my judgement," he told Washington Examiner.
Wood, 80, held a number of diplomatic posts for the United Kingdom, including head of mission in Moscow for five years. He retired from diplomatic service in 2000 and is now an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House.
Following Trump’s election victory in November 2016, Wood talked to McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, at an international security conference in Halifax, Canada, about Steele’s dossier. The senator wrote in his book The Restless Wave that Wood approached him at the conference and, in their impromptu meeting, "charged with a strange intensity," they discussed the dossier.
It was after this discussion that McCain sent his associate, David Kramer, a former State Department official, to London to retrieve a copy. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close friend of McCain’s, told reporters last year that he urged McCain to send the dossier to the FBI. McCain, who died of brain cancer in August 2018, gave a copy of Steele’s research to then-FBI Director James Comey, although the bureau had already begun receiving Steele’s dossier in installments starting in July 2016.
Wood told the Independent in 2017 that while he knew Steele and believed him to be "very professional," he had not seen the dossier when he spoke to McCain. Still, he said they did discuss Trump and Russia, including the issue of whether the Kremlin had "kompromat," the Russian term for compromising material, on Trump that could be used as blackmail, as was detailed in Steele’s dossier.
The 35-page dossier was a collection of reports about Trump’s ties to Russia, including allegations of a conspiracy and the Russians having a video of Trump with prostitutes urinating on a bed in a Moscow hotel room, compiled after Steele was commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS. The dossier was funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.
The dossier played a role in the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.
A report released by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December criticized the FBI for its reliance on the unverified dossier to obtain warrants for wiretapping onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. It revealed that the FBI interviewed Steele’s primary Moscow-based source, beginning in January 2017, who "raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting."
In his assessment, Allason also took issue with Steele’s sourcing, writing that from "a professional intelligence perspective, the dossier as a whole is profoundly troubling and cannot be taken at face value."
Steele’s private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, accused Allason of writing a "politically motivated" report, as it was reportedly commissioned by a Republican law firm, which was not identified. Orbis, which also claimed "much of the dossier has been proven" since 2017, added: "We stand by the integrity and quality of our work."
Wood told the Washington Examiner that he is not sure which law firm backed Allason’s report.
"Allason knows that I have, in fact, never read the dossier precisely because I have never been in a position to confirm or refute its contents. But it would not on the face of it be surprising if the Times were right to suggest that Allason/West was commissioned as reported," he said.
The post British ex-ambassador who alerted John McCain to anti-Trump dossier stands by Christopher Steele appeared first on Washington Examiner.
1
