Why the Steele Dossier Wasn’t Legit
Intelligence analysis does not make the news very often. The audience is limited and the content will seem arcane at best. However, and unfortunately, the last ten years featured a very public use of so-called intelligence analysis. Its use was immediately politicized and led to one of the most tumultuous periods in American history during the first Trump Administration.
British intelligence analyst Christopher Steele worked with Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson to shop the media on a “dossier” supposedly about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia. In fact, it was produced by Democratic operative––and literal Kremlin employee––Chuck Dolan, and Ukrainian national Igor Danchenko.
In the video below, we dig into why this product did not resemble real intelligence work.
Some materials that will assist in viewing the tutorial:
Real intelligence report from Director of National Intelligence on Russian intelligence operations during the 2016 U.S. election
OIG Report on Crossfire Hurricane/Steele Dossier
In This Video:
0:00 Intro to HOT GARBAGE
1:05 100 Years of Russia Investigations
3:35 A Real “Russia Investigation” Would Need Five Agencies
8:15 Who Is Christopher Steele, Really?
15:00 The Steele Dossier Messes Up Obama’s Efforts
17:50 What a Real Intelligence Product Looks Like: ODNI
25:00 Why the Steele Dossier Also Fails As Raw Intelligence
28:47 Steele’s Sources Were Bogus
31:05 Analyzing the Dossier Itself: OMG This Is Trash
36:40 Where Are the KITs and KIQs In This Thing???
40:20 They Miss the Easy Stuff
43:00 They Would Get Their Sources Killed
45:30 WORSE: The FBI Used This As Reliable
