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MI6 Agent out of Reach after Identification as Author of Explosive Trump-Russia Report | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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The building housing the offices of Orbis Buiness Intelligence (C) where former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele works, is seen in central London, Britain, January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth


Washington – Media outlets revealed the identity of the author who wrote the expository report on Trump’s conflict of interests with Russia, especially on Russian operatives allegedly having collected compromising material on U.S. president-elect Donald Trump for future purposes of blackmail. The startling revelation of the reporter’s name in Wall Street Journal resulted in flooding attempts to reach out to the former MI6 agent, Christopher Steele, who now took a plunge under the radar.

Former British intelligence officials said Steele spent years under diplomatic cover working for the agency, also known as MI6, in Russia and Paris and at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

After he left the spy service, Steele supplied the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation with information on corruption at FIFA, international soccer’s governing body.

The Telegraph wrote that, Steele, the co-founder of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd, prepared a 35-page document that alleges the Kremlin colluded with Trump’s presidential campaign and that the Russian security services have material that could be used to blackmail him, including an allegation that he paid prostitutes to defile a bed that had been slept in by Barack and Michelle Obama.

For his part, Trump said the eyebrow-raising reports about his activities in Russia were “phony” and “false,” and voiced his anger at his suspicions that intelligence agencies had leaked the dossier.

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday easily passed a waiver to allow retired Gen. James Mattis to serve as Defense secretary despite only leaving the military in 2013. The exception was made to a limitation against an appointment for defense secretary within seven years of relief from active duty.

Mattis served as commander of U.S. Central Command from 2010 to 2013, commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command from 2007 to 2010 and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander of Transformation from 2007 to 2009.

Mattis, also known by ‘Mad Dog Mattis’, accused Russia of trying to undermine NATO. Unlike Trump, who appeared to question the alliance during his campaign, Mattis strongly embraced it — calling NATO central to America’s defense.