Foreign Allies
In relation to our allies, any information subject to declassification that pertains to foreign intelligence or to the allies themselves would almost certainly result in high-level discussions. In this particular case, it would appear these discussions were of such concern that they resulted in phone calls from two of our allies at levels high enough to reach President Trump directly.
These phone calls are telling and likely confirm that British and Australian Intelligence were both involved in the events leading to the establishment of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation.
Luke Harding of the Guardian, has previously reported on the involvement of UK Intelligence, noting that Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was involved in collecting information and transmitting it to the United States:
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.
In the summer of 2016, Robert Hannigan, then-head of Britain’s GCHQ traveled to Washington D.C. to personally meet with then-CIA Director John Brennan:
That summer, GCHQ’s 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.
Interestingly, Hannigan’s U.S. counterpart was not CIA Director Brennan. Hannigan’s U.S. counterpart was NSA Director Mike Rogers.
Brennan reportedly used the foreign intelligence to launch an inter-agency investigation.
Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper personally confirmed foreign intelligence involvement during Congressional testimony:
Feinstein: Over the spring of 2016, multiple European allies passed on additional information to the United States about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians. Is this accurate?
Clapper: Yes, it is, and it’s also quite sensitive. The specifics are quite sensitive.
His sudden resignation – he informed staff just hours before making this decision public – prompted speculation that it might be related to British concerns over shared intelligence with the US in the wake of Donald Trump becoming president.
The Australian involvement comes courtesy of diplomat Alexander Downer through his meeting with Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos. It was this meeting, supposedly relayed by Australian intelligence to the FBI in late July 2016 that has been reported as the reason leading to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigation on July 31, 2016.
Downer, who has long-standing ties to UK intelligence, served on the Advisory Board of private UK intelligence firm Hakluyt from 2008-2014. He reportedly still maintains contact with Hakluyt officials.
Stefan Halper, the outed FBI spy, also has connections to Hakluyt through Jonathan Clarke, with whom he has co-authored two books. Clarke is the U.S. Representative–Director U.S. Operations for Hakluyt.
There are many other interlaced ties. Sir Richard Dearlove, the former Head of MI6, is associated with nearly every foreign intelligence member mentioned.
It was Dearlove who advised Christopher Steele and his partner Chris Burrows to work with a top British government official to pass along information to the FBI. Dearlove knows Stefan Halper through their mutual association at the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar. Dearlove also knows Sir Iain Lobban, a former head of GCHQ, who is an Advisory Board Member at Hakluyt.
These ties appear nearly endless and illustrate why there should be reason for real concern on the part of current British and Australian foreign intelligence officials.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-art-of-war-how-president-trump-gained-significant-leverage-with-declassiciation-order_2668079.html