A former Obama administration official who knew Kalugin called his mention in the dossier “a head scratcher” because Kalugin was so capable in his economic job. McClatchy
The BBC is going big on the Russian angle and is claiming that a Russian diplomat was withdrawn in a hurry to cover his tracks…because he was a spy, a spy that helped Trump steal the election…despite the BBC admitting there is absolutely no evidence…it carries on regardless spinning away..
The BBC has learned that US officials “verified” a key claim in a report about Kremlin involvement in Donald Trump’s election – that a Russian diplomat in Washington was in fact a spy.
So far, no single piece of evidence has been made public proving that the Trump campaign joined with Russia to steal the US presidency – nothing.
Trouble is the BBC hasn’t verified the claim, and it’s not a ‘key claim’ [a rhetorical trick to justify the feeble claims made by the BBC in this piece]…the BBC is merely reporting what someone in the US intelligence wants them to hear…and it’s probably from an agency at odds with the FBI, the ever present inter-agency rivalry…whom the BBC admits is called the ‘Feebs’, ie feeble minded, by the CIA…
If anyone looks like a harmless economist, rather than a tough, arrogant KGB man, it is the bland-faced Kalugin.
But sources I know and trust have told me the US government identified Kalugin as a spy while he was still at the embassy.
It is not clear if the American intelligence agencies already believed this when they got Steele’s report on the “diplomat”, as early as May 2016.
But it is a judgment they made using their own methods, outside the dossier.
A retired member of a US intelligence agency told me that Kalugin was being kept under surveillance before he left the US.
In addition, State Department staff who dealt with Russia did not come across Kalugin, as would have been expected with a simple diplomat.
“Nobody had met him,” one former official said. “It’s classic. Just classic [of Russian intelligence].”
As for the FBI being so feeble? If that was the case why did 003.5 only talk to them, deliberately avoiding the Russia ‘experts’, the CIA?…
He gave the FBI the names of some of his informants, the so-called “key” to the dossier. But the CIA never interviewed him, and never sought to.
Our BBC boy explains it away [contradicting the above where he blames the CIA]…just not the right faces at the CIA despite being the experts….
I understand that Steele himself did not ask to brief the CIA because he had a long-standing relationship with the FBI.
The Russia people at the CIA had moved on and he felt he did not have the personal contacts he would need.
Anyway…a great surprise, a Russian spy possibly posing as a diplomat and being watched by the intelligence agencies… all embassy staff are routinely kept under some kind of surveillance…the fact Kalugin was being watched meant nothing in particular…never heard of a spy posing as a diplomat?…nor has the CIA…er….
A former U.S. intelligence official said it wouldn’t be unusual for an officer in a Russian intelligence agency, or even an American one, to hold an economic post such as Kalugin’s.
“Everyone does that, but the Russians do it more than anyone else,” said the official, who declined to be identified because the issue is sensitive.
So, the BBC tells us no one ever met Kalugin and that he was rushed out of the US pre-emptively…all true?…hardly…..he was a constant on the Russian-American economic co-operation circuit meeting many people [as the two videos show] and his leaving was known 6 months in advance…one who can tell us ….
Those acquainted with Kalugin, who was chief of the embassy’s economic section, described him in different ways, from shy to arrogant.
Earl Rasmussen, a vice president of the Eurasia Center, a group that promotes trade with Russia and its neighbors, said Kalugin “knew issues of concern to him and of concern to the other side.” He said the diplomat had spoken of his planned departure for months and the two men had lunch a week before Kalugin flew home.
“I knew of his departure a minimum of six months prior,” Rasmussen said. “He was planning on taking time off to get his family settled before going back to work in September in Moscow.”
Did he live like a hermit behind twitching net curtains with his notebook?
A former Obama administration official who knew Kalugin called his mention in the dossier “a head scratcher” because Kalugin was so capable in his economic job.
“He was certainly present at a lot of events with the Russian ambassador,” said the official, insisting on anonymity to avoid damaging relationships. “Normally you don’t want to put somebody in a position to embarrass your government in those public positions.”
Kalugin spoke at an event organized by the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England and to some other business councils. In a YouTube video, he was interviewed by China’s CCTV-America.
The BBC is bigging up ex-MI6 spy Steele’s dodgy dossier trying to make it sound more credible….a supposedly top intelligence agent who misspelt many names and got many simple facts wrong…such as there is no Russian consulate in Miami as he claimed…not inspire confidence really does it?
Kalugin may well have been a spy but this BBC hatchet job is complete trash and doesn’t even bother to cover the ground properly…they don’t show any of Kalugin’s contacts or public speaking events…a video of which is above and below…easily available…BBC just not interested in providing facts that counter their own ‘facts’.
More BBC fake news……no facts just speculation and supposed intelligence revelations from ‘trusted sources’. Shame we cannot trust the BBC at all.
Another video…Kalugin’s on the right…he never met anyone in the US says the BBC…..er…
Russia Direct conducted a panel discussion “Future of Russian Hi-Tech/Science Cities and Innovation,” on June 25, in New York, which featured international experts in the field of investments, human resources, economics, high-technologies and innovation.
THis is insane. The progressives are desperate now and will do anything to remove President Trump and keep us in the EU. Absolutely everything the BBc says about these two matters is fake news as far as I am concerned.
Just listen to them. A drop drip drip of negative moans abut anything to do with Brexit. Kuenesberg is the worst of a sad bad bunch. I am sick and tired of it.
It is unpatriotic and affects our futures. In the US the President has solid support from flyover USA and can ignore the coast liberals. Here it is more difficult but we must not give these people any leeway at all.
We would have lost in 1940 with these people in charge.
Well said. As someone on Fox said the other night, this is all just distractions from the real problems – debt of the country, trying to frame Trump and stop him from getting on with his promises. The liberal left will not give up without a hell of a fight. However – why is this subject of such importance to the BRITISH broadcasting company??
The BBC has been blurbing a programme about supposed Russian financing of Le Pen’s election campaign. The BBC wants to suggest a “pattern of offending”. Who knows maybe even the Brexit vote, so unexpected, was down to cunning Russian skulldugery. It is amazing how times change. A past incarnation of the BBC, the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation, was always so adamant that there were no red Russians under the bed and so keen to push Marxist anti-imperialism, anticolonialism forces like the IRA and now it sees the hand of Putin in everything.
It is interesting to note that concern about “fakenews” and
“We would have lost in 1940 with these people in charge.”
I laugh at Mr Chamberlin waving his peace for our time letter!
I am left speechless at the sight of every Director General of the BBC waving their letter of renewal of their 8 year contract!
For those not familiar with the name John Podesta take the time to look him up.
He is a man who was extremely lucky not to have been convicted and sent to prison during the White House shag-gate period. http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/podesta-gushed-assistant-attorney-general-kept-jail/
He also runs the Podesta Group along with his brother Tony. They are a Washington lobbyist company with the Russian Sberbank on their books. Sberbank is used by Putin and his cronies, especially when it come to laundering. It is used by the Russian FSB as a slush fund for covert ops.
And oh look here’s Sberbank retaining Podesta Group to lobby against sanctions imposed on Russia.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-09/
I won’t go into all the crooked shenanigans, especially when it comes to the Russia connection, that the Podesta Group are up to. They’re easily found out if you search on them.
Of course not one word about any of this from that ‘journalist envy of the world’ the fabulously impartial BBC.
Oh dear I nearly forgot to mention, John Podesta was also Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.
Excellent post, TPO! The Podesta scandal is set to rock the USA – and yet all the BBC has been able to broadcast today are fake accusations about Trump from the terrified Dems, trying to lay down a dense smokescreen.
It’s this calculated selectivity which makes the BBC so dangerous. It deliberately and cynically manages news to keep the people who are forced to pay for it completely ignorant of major stories.
Oh Mr Cooper, how correct you are with your dense smokescreen observation. The BBC is so very very dangerous with their selectivity.
The Podesta scandal is one aspect, but keep an eye on the Uranium deal which is also bubbling away nicely under the surface…
http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/russia-scandal-inside-the-obama-clinton-uranium-deal/
‘Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we decide to deceive.’
The BBC just keep digging with this Russia nonsense and it has all the verisimilitude of Jay from The Inbetweeners talking about all the girls he has slept with. This has been their modus operandi for so long when someone comes along who disagrees with them and it just does not work against Trump.
As I posted on the other thread the reason is perhaps the breaking news of Clinton aide John Podesta having being found to be in possession of 750 000 in Kremlin funded business Rusnano.
The best form of defence is attack they say, so this is perhaps the BBC strategy.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/03/29/russiagate-hillary-clinton-and-john-podestas-troubling-ties-to-russia/
Its in the Lefts playbook .Accuse your enemies of what you are doing and shout it much louder and nastier.Its what the Democrats are doing to Trump.Of course the BBC has jumped on board.
I never realised how corrupt Americam politics is ,very much worse than ours.I can see there is no way they are going to let Trump be successful ,there’s too much money at stake .Everyone appears to be bought.
Apart from Trump.
If the BBC had any semblance of real journalism left ,there is a huge story to be told especially about the Democrat parties underhand dealings and criminality that could rock the establishment . They prefer the status quo because they are part of the problem.
As a wise observer noted: “To know what the Left is really worried about, you need only to look at what they are accusing you of.”
A diplomat’s job description always includes intelligence gathering. Therefore they can not be spies. The problem arises when they recruit/employ someone without diplomatic protection to gather information for them.
The next week is going to very interesting.
I also note that some Democrats are thinking its time to give the Russia angle a break, as there is nothing there. In fact, they want Devin Nunes to stop digging.