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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Trump walked into Putins web- The Guardian
In late 2015 the British eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, was carrying out standard collection against Moscow targets. These were known Kremlin operatives already on the grid. Nothing unusual here except that the Russians were talking to people associated with Trump. The precise nature of these exchanges has not been made public, but according to sources in the US and the UK, they formed a suspicious pattern. They continued through the first half of 2016. The intelligence was handed to the US as part of a routine sharing of information.
The FBI and the CIA were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of these contacts between Trumps team and Moscow. This was in part due to institutional squeamishness the law prohibits US agencies from examining the private communications of US citizens without a warrant.
But the electronic intelligence suggested Steele was right. According to one account, the US agencies looked as if they were asleep. Wake up! Theres something not right here! the BND [German intelligence], the Dutch, the French and SIS were all saying this, one Washington-based source told me.
That summer, GCHQs then head, Robert Hannigan, flew to the US to personally brief CIA chief John Brennan. The matter was deemed so important that it was handled at director level, face-to-face between the two agency chiefs. James Clapper, director of national intelligence, later confirmed the sensitive stream of intelligence from Europe. After a slow start, Brennan used the GCHQ information and other tip-offs to launch a major inter-agency investigation. Meanwhile, the FBI was receiving disturbing warnings from Steele.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/15/how-trump-walked-into-putins-web-luke
This article is a long read. Highly recommend.
Timmygoat
(779 posts)I agree that everyone should read it!
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Too bad they didn't take this seriously sooner.