LOOKING FOR FOREIGN ACTORS WHO IMPACTED OUR ELECTION? SEE CHRISTOPHER STEELE AND SERGEI SKRIPAL
THE COMPLEX WEB CHRISTOPHER STEELE WOVE TO TRY TO UNDERMINE OUR ELECTION.
Christopher Steele and Sergei Skripal were known to each other and very likely collaborated on the infamous Steele “Dodgy Dossier”.
SOURCE OF DODDGY DOSSIER
The Steele dossier was a category of documents known as “opposition research”. These are research papers prepared to embarrass and defeat a political opponent. They need not be true and are most often based on fiction, innuendo, rumor and perhaps fantasy. They are NOT “intelligence” i.e., state funded verified information. Intelligence documents are the result of formal, on-site research which is used to inform heads of state regarding possible existential threats or threatening actions of leaders of other nation states. This particular “dodgy dossier” document was initiated by Steele’s company Orbis for a well-heeled anti-Trump Republican activist looking to defeat that candidate in the GOP primaries. But a short way into the project when Trump was victorious in those contests, the anti-Trump Republican donor understandably dropped his support for Steele’s “research” efforts. Now Steele had put effort into the nucleus of a document but had no buyer. He proceeded to remedy that fact by assiduously working to create a market for his product.
Steele, was well aware that the US Presidential campaign was awash in money. This with his two page summary document in hand, he headed to the USA and cash-flush markets. He began shopping around for new clients. To give a patina of legitimacy to the data he was selling, his first stop was in Washington DC at the FBI offices. Steele was known to the FBI for whom he had performed other, perhaps more legitimate, work. They agreed to purchase his product, when he probably exaggerated when he claimed being “shocked” and “concerned” by what his Russian “contacts” had unearthed. The FBI were the victims of a form of bait and switch as they naively attributed the same level of integrity and veracity to this document as they did to Steele’s former legitimate research efforts. Remember that this so-called research was designed only to smear an opposition candidate. After getting the FBI to promise to pay for his services. He now could now add that claim to his sales pitch presented to his subsequent clients. He next approached media outlets in the USA...leaking his opposition research to “BuzzFeed”. That act insured his dodgy product’s wide dispersal and market demand. Finally, he offered the dossier to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party, both of whom contracted with Steele for further work for which they eventually paid more than a million dollars. What did they get for that sum? An unverified thirty-five page document which makes wild, bizarre and salacious allegations about candidate Trump while he was visiting in Russia.
STEELE DOSSIER USED AS EVIDENCE FOR ILLEGAL POLITICAL DOMESTIC SPYING
During the presidential campaign, the FBI used Steele’s original documentation—dressed up and falsely presented to a compliant FISA judge as if it was actual “research”—not political opposition research”. Thus the fake “intelligence” known as the Steele dossier became the centerpiece of “evidence” presented to the USA FISA court to justify government spying of a minor, unofficial member of the Trump transition team: Carter Page.
Why bother with Page? Because by tapping Page’s telephones and gathering in his personal and business, text messages and other electronic data, the FBI and other government agencies were able to access conversations and messages of any of Trump’s campaign members who had any communications with Page. Spying on Page—a relatively un-important person in the team— was simply a convenient way to bypass legal obstacles to domestic spying by our intelligence agencies. But more egregiously they used that data illegally against a political candidate they happened to dislike.
If our investigators are looking for some foreigner who actually had a strong and unwarranted impact on our elections in 2016–right next to Putin— it should be foreigner, Christopher Steele—- a British citizen who had no business poking his nose with disastrous effect into our affairs. he should be investigated for this.
SERGEI SKRIPAL
Sergei Skripal was a Russian military officer and probable Russian spy who was posted to Spain. While he served in the Russian Embassy in Madrid, he came into contact with a Spanish national (and British spy) who befriended him, and encouraged a business partnership (wherein the pair were to market Spanish wines in Russia). When the partnership needed cash to expand, Skripal’s Spanish parter revealed his work for the UK as a spy and indicated that the British would pay handsomely for Russian military information. He introduced Skripal to. Christopher Steele (the Spanish spy’s handler) who was at that time a MI 6 agent operating out of Moscow. Steele became Skripal’s “handler”, collecting Russian military secrets from Skripal for which Steele handed over thick bundles of cash. Steele was eventually outed when his poorly run operation was exposed in Spain. The Spanish national on the British spy payroll was convicted to 13 years in jail. Skripal was called back to Moscow, tried there and imprisoned for a similar period of time. Steele was soon ushered out of MI 6 and —still a young man—retired to London where he and a partner utilized their skills, reputations and contacts as former government agents to begin an “information service” called Orbis. Orbis was successful enough to make Steele and his partner rich men, who lived the life of country gentlefolk. .
Back to Skripal. After serving about three years in a Russian prison, Skripal became part of a“spy swap” set up by the British government which held twelve useless (to them)Russian spies in their jails. As part of the deal, the Russians would repatriate twelve British spies. Sergei Skripal (who was a Russian national but a British spy) was part of the group which was released to the British. He soon took up residence in Salisbury in the UK where he paid a quarter of million pounds in cash (about $350K) for a modest four bedroom home. He was for all intents and purposes ....a retired spy. But perhaps he was not completely retired.
SKRIPAL-STEELE INTERACTION
The Guardian (UK) newspaper has suggested in a March 8 report that it was Skripal who worked with Steele to develop the “dodgy Steele dossier”. The Guardian (and Independent) indicate that Skripal and Steele were tied together by a third party who is known to have been in contact with Skripal regularly, and who actually bragged about his work for Orbis (Steele’s company) on his LinkedIn account.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Then on March 3 Yulia, Skripal’s 33 year old daughter arrived from Moscow. The next day March 4, 2018, traveling in Sergei’s new, burgundy BMW sedan, the pair left their home early in the morning and are observed in the burgundy sedan in various areas around Salisbury. They are reported to have arrived in the town center where they first visit the Mill Pub. They soon leave there to have lunch at Zizii’s Italian restaurant, from which they depart at 3:30PM. But by 4:15 PM the two Skripals are found in a comatose state on a near-by park bench. Both were rushed to a hospital where they remain in critical condition, apparently having been poisoned by a chemical agent known as “Novichok” alleged to have been developed by the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, but which since then, has been distributed widely. States which are known or suspected of having samples of the nerve agent are: the UK, USA, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and probably others nations as well.
WHY?
The question is who would want to kill Skripal? The British have blamed Russia—but their accusation is based only on the fact that the poison was originally developed in the Soviet Union— which collapsed in the 1990s and from it arose modern Russia.
Was Russia’s secret service angry with Skripal who was a traitor to his nation and exposed to assassination a number of Russian agents? They could have killed him while he was in a Russian prison.
Was his attempted assassination repayment by the Russian secret service for his work with Christopher Steele? Steele
Was the attack on Skripal and his daughter a “message” from Putin?
Should Christopher Steele, keep a low profile?
The story is still developing.
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