Yuri Shvets and FBI Counterintelligence -- Part 2

My previous post, Part 1 concluded as follows:

... I speculate that [Yuri] Shvets managed to bring his family into the USA on his own resources in early 1994. At that time, he intended to make a career as a free-lance writer. However, the rejection in his initial request for political asylum in April 1994 compelled him to reveal himself to the FBI in April 1994. Following that revelation, he was granted political asylum in May 1994, but agreed to provide all his knowledge to the FBI Counterintelligence Division.

Now in this new blog post, I will describe Shvets's information that was valuable to FBI Counterintelligence.

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About 45 pages (89-134) of of Shvets's book Washington Station is about his conversations with a fellow KGB officer named Valentin Aksilenko. When they talked in Moscow in about 1986, Aksilenko told Shvets how he had recruited a secret agent in 1979 while being stationed as a KGB officer in Washington DC. 

Valentin Aksilenko

The agent -- called "Bill" in Shvets's book -- was a Peruvian immigrant, about 40 years old, living in Washington DC. Aksilenko happened to become acquainted with Bill at a protest against US policies in El Salvador. Bill invited Aksilenko to his home and subsequently told him that he worked as a janitor cleaning the offices of some think-tanks that studied national-security issues. Bill had begun to collect various documents that he found in these offices. Bill offered to provide such documents to Aksilenko.

The garbage can turned out to have a pot of gold on the bottom. Bill began delivering material on military and strategic issues that would have been designated top priority by any intelligence service. ....

Bill generally delivered such a huge volume of documents that there was no way they could all be sent over to Moscow. Valentin selected the most interesting papers ....

As he perused Bill's material, Valentin never failed to marvel at ow lackadaisical the American system of classified record-keeping was. ...

... thanks to his effort, the KGB obtained an enormous amount of information on the following Pentagon projects:

* The MX missile, from the design stage to the shot drawings ....;

* air-, sea- and land-based cruise missiles, particularly the Tomahawk;

* the latest-generation single-warhead Midgetman missile;

* The Trident SLBM, designated for the new generation of US submarines;

* the latest strategic bomber, initially designated as a "penetrating bomber," but subsequently renamed the Stealth bomber;

* AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) and NAVSTAR systems;

* anti-aircraft missile complexes;

* analytical reports on war games and staff exercises ...;

The [Soviet] intelligence analysts were amazed at the volume and quality of the material delivered by Bill. They simply could not understand how documents of that kind had ended up in the trash can. ...

To put things into proper perspective, in 1982, Bill's documents accounted for over 50 percent of the overall volume of information in that category [military-strategic information].

In the book's 45 pages about Aksilenko's collection of information from Bill, Shvets writes in much detail about how Aksilenko evaded the efforts of FBI counterintelligence to surveil Aksilenko's espionage activities.

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In his book, Shvets writes much about KGB's discovery of the treason of two officers -- Colonel Vitaly Yurchenko and Major Sergey Motorin -- which caused turmoil in the KGB during Shvets's time in the "Washington Station".

In general, Shvets knew a lot about many matters that were extremely interesting for FBI Counterintelligence. In 1994 he wanted to settle in the United States with his wife and children and was impoverished. In his situation, he surely told FBI Counterintelligence at least everything that he later wrote in his book. 

Already in 1994, FBI Counterintelligence was using Shvets's manuscript to investigate indications that various Americans were working for Russian Intelligence:

Guided by the unpublished book of a former Soviet spy, the FBI is urgently looking into whether the KGB recruited a Carter administration official to steal secrets for Moscow, law-enforcement officials have revealed.

The central accusation is that the American official, after leaving government service, worked secretly for the KGB, the Soviet counterpart to the CIA. He is said to have seduced the daughter of a CIA employee and to have pressured the employee into supplying him with tidbits of classified information, which he then passed on to Moscow.

The FBI still does not know if these events happened, and some officials are skeptical. But the FBI has taken the accusations seriously enough to have assigned several agents to investigate them, racing against the deadline of publisher Simon & Schuster.

The publisher plans to put the story, along with other tales of Cold War espionage, on bookstore shelves next month [May 1994]. ...

FBI officials are privately worried that disclosures prompted by the book might compromise their investigation, which remains far from complete. Officially, however, the FBI had nothing to say about the investigation. ...

... in February 1993, Valentin Aksilenko, a former senior KGB official who in the early 1980s helped manage North American espionage operations for the Kremlin, went to the lobby of Moscow's Radisson Hotel, a gathering place for entrepreneurs eager to cut a deal with Moscow in the post-Soviet era.

His errand: a social meeting with an American businesswoman, Brenda Lipson, who had befriended Aksilenko on one of his Washington tours when the KGB official was working under the cover of a commercial attache to the Soviet Embassy.

Fluent in Russian, she established her own business, East-West Services Associates, in 1992 and began a series of business trips to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It was she who sought Aksilenko, Lipson said in an interview last week.

Talking there in the crowded lobby in a scene that might have come straight from the John Le Carré spy novel The Russia House, Aksilenko confided that he had been a spy and that he was "so glad to be out of intelligence."

As they were about to part, he dropped his bombshell: He asked her help in publishing a novel "written by a friend." The friend was Shvets.

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Shvets is a very intelligent, credible and admirable person who knew much that was very valuable to FBI Counterintelligence. That is the main concept that I am trying to communicate here. In 1994, FBI Counterintelligence believed practically everything that Shvets said about Russian Intelligence.

A couple decades later, FBI Counterintelligence likewise believed practically everything that Shvets alleged about Russian Intelligence recruiting of Donald Trump.

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To be continued

The NYT Special Section About the January 6 Event

On August 15, The New York Times published a special section about the riot that took place at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. I read that section yesterday, and I now have a much better understanding of that riot. 

Therefore, I no longer think that the Ashli Babbitt incident was staged to some extent. 

Maybe you can read that section in a library. Online versions are here and here, but you might have to jump through some hoops to view them.

Some Answers to My Questions about the Babbitt Incident

This post follows up My Questions About the Ashli Babbitt Incident.

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When and by whom was the furniture barricade constructed?

On April 14, 2021, the United States District Attorney's Office of the District of Columbia published an article titled Department of Justice Closes Investigation into the Death of Ashli Babbitt (called below "the investigation article"). That article includes the following passage (emphasis added):

... Ms. Babbitt was among a mob of people that entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside “Speaker’s Lobby,” which leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the time, the USCP  [US Capitol Police]was evacuating Members from the Chamber, which the mob was trying to enter from multiple doorways. USCP officers used furniture to barricade a set of glass doors separating the hallway and Speaker’s Lobby to try and stop the mob from entering the Speaker’s Lobby and the Chamber, and three officers positioned themselves between the doors and the mob.

I interpret this passage to mean that USCP officers constructed the barrier after a decision had been made to evacuate Members from the Chamber. In other words, the barrier had not been constructed during, say, the preceding night or morning. I would like my interpretation to be confirmed. 

I would like to know also whether similar barriers were constructed at other of the multiple doorways.

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Why was the SWAT team not stationed in front of the portal?

Why did the four officials leave the portal?

Why didn't the SWAT team stop the attack on the portal?

The investigation article continues (emphasis added):

Members of the mob attempted to break through the doors by striking them and breaking the glass with their hands, flagpoles, helmets, and other objects. Eventually, the three USCP officers positioned outside the doors were forced to evacuate.

As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out. An officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor. A USCP emergency response team, which had begun making its way into the hallway to try and subdue the mob, administered aid to Ms. Babbitt, who was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she succumbed to her injuries.

What I called the SWAT team was actually called a USCP emergency response team.

I interpret this passage to mean that a decision was made that the USCP officers positioned at the door were not able to stop the attack on the doors and so they were told to evacuate because a USCP emergency response team was coming to subdue the mob.

While that team was advancing, Babbitt was shot, and so the team stopped to deal with her.

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Why didn't the gunman come out into the empty corridor ?

This question remains unanswered. I think the (USCP?) officer should have come out into the corridor and confronted the protesters face-to-face. Furthermore, he should have fired a warning shot.

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Why did so little blood come out of Babbitt's neck wound?

An anonymous commenter wrote under a previous post:

... [Babbitt was a] very small woman, wearing a rather thick backpack that covered her back, it is possible the shot was not through-and-through (the bullet lodged against a bone) or that the bullet exited into her backpack. The blood we saw streamed from her front. She had on a winter jacket, so that could have kept down any spatter from the front. ...

That explanation is plausible. Perhaps the bullet and most of the blood ended up in the backpack.

I remain puzzled by the assertion that the bullet entered Babbitt's left shoulder, because I do not see a wound there. Look for yourself on the Wooz News video beginning at 19:36.

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What is the legal status of Rufio and Yellow?

Why was Babbitt carried downstairs?

Why was Babbitt wearing a back-brace?

These questions remain unanswered.

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When was Babbitt obviously dead?

I don't make a big deal out of this question. The guy who claims he saw an effort to resuscitate Babbitt an hour after the shooting might simply be mistaken. Perhaps the person he saw was some other person who had been injured.

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I now am largely satisfied that the Ashli Babbitt incident was not staged.

However, I remain very skeptical about our government leaders, especially in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Quite a lot of such leaders believed and still believe that Donald Trump is a secret agent of Russian Intelligence. Therefore, those leaders have felt morally justified to use dirty tricks to ruin Trump and to ruin also his associates and supporters.

Such a dirty-tricks operation was Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation, which was led and staffed largely by Trump-hating FBI officials. That particular operation's real purpose was to lure President Trump into an obstruction-of-justice situation that would enable Congress to impeach and remove Trump from his elected position.

Mueller's operation failed, but malicious and devious efforts efforts to ruin Trump and his supporters have continued to the very end of his Presidency and to the present day. In this situation, many citizens think it's quite plausible that FBI officials collaborated with other Trump-hating government officials to stage the Babbitt incident.

My Questions About the Ashli Babbitt Incident

When and by whom was the furniture barricade constructed?

The furniture barricade behind the portal

What was the reason to expect an attempt to break through this portal?

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Why was the SWAT team not stationed in front of the portal?

Since an attempt to break through that portal was expected, why was the SWAT team not stationed in front of the portal? Why was the SWAT team downstairs? Who decided where the SWAT team would be? What caused the SWAT team to come up the stairs to the portal?

How many such SWAT teams were in the Capitol?

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Why did the four officials leave the portal?

Four officials were standing in front of the portal.

The Wooz News video calls the four officials Vetter, Cop 2, Fredo and S.A.M. They stood in front of the portal for a while, but them moved to the right wall. 

The four officials move from the portal to the right wall 

The four officials stand by the corner of the portal and right wall

The four officials move away from the wall corner

Then Vetter, Cop 2 and Fredo walked down the stairs.

Vetter, Cop 2 and Fredo walk downstairs

Who decided where the four officials would be and when and where they would move? What caused their movements away from the portal?

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Why didn't the SWAT team stop the attack on the portal?

The SWAT guys stay on the stairs

The SWAT team came up the stairs, and the three officials went down the stairs. However, the SWAT team stayed on the stairs and did not advance to the portal, which was being attacked by unarmed civilians. Why didn't the SWAT team seize control of the situation and stop the attack?

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Why didn't the gunman come out into the empty corridor ?

The gunman shoots across empty corridor at Babbitt

Why didn't the gunman walk out into the empty corridor and confront the unarmed civilians face-to-face? Why did the gunman feel compelled to remain hidden in the door and to shoot across the empty corridor at unarmed Babbitt?

What did the gunman expect Babbitt to do after she jumped from the window into the empty corridor? Did the gunman consider that Babbitt intended merely to clear away some of the furniture barricade and unlock the doors from the corridor side?

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Why did so little blood come out of Babbitt's neck wound?

No blood visible on the wall where Babbitt had been shot

Was there any blood splatter on the wall next to the place where Babbitt was shot through her neck? If not, then what is the explanation? If there was blood splatter on the wall, then what does that indicate about the bullet's trajectory from the gun through Babbitt's body? What was the bullet's path through Babbitt's body? Was the bullet found, and if so, then where?

Why was there so little blood on the floor where she lay?

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What is the legal status of Rufio and Yellow?

Yellow hands helmet to Rufio

Rufio uses helmet to break windows

The Wooz News video points out that one man ("Yellow") gave a helmet to another man ("Rufio"), who used the helmet to break through the windows. These two men are seen without masks.

Yellow

Rufio agitating the mob

Rufio using the helmet to break the windows

Rufio also helped Babbitt climb up into the window.

Who are "Yellow" and "Rufio"? What steps have been taken to prosecute them? If no such steps have been taken, then why not?

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Why was Babbitt carried downstairs?

Babbitt being carried downstairs

Why was Babbitt carried downstairs with her wounded neck angled downwards? Why was she not moved downstairs on an elevator? If she was obviously dead, then why was her body not left on the lobby floor so that the crime scene could be studied properly?

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Why was Babbitt wearing a back-brace?

Back-brace around Babbitt's abdomen

Stunt actor wearing a Blood-Squib Rig FX 

Babbitt was wearing a back-brace that looks just like the back-brace on on a Blood-Squib Rig FX, which is used to eject blood from actors in movie stunts? Why was Babbitt wearing a back-brace?

Why was her body not covered with a sheet when the above photograph was taken?

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When was Babbitt obviously dead?

If Babbitt was obviously dead a few moments after the shooting, then why were resuscitation efforts displayed to the public more than an hour after the shooting? Exactly when was the determination made that she was obviously dead?

I've changed my mind about the Ashli Babbitt incident

During the past two weeks, I have published many posts arguing that Ashli Babbitt was not shot and killed in the Capitol building on January 6. Today I  watched three videos -- this and this and this -- that changed my opinion. I had not watched them until today. I have deleted my previous posts on the subject.










I now understand that the people in the lobby were not a select group of actors. 

I understand much better that people near the portal were breaking through the central doors and windows violently when Babbitt climbed up into the right window. 

Now I think that Babbitt indeed was shot and indeed did die. 

Anyone who has been convinced by the Wooz News video but has not watched the above three videos should watch them. Some such people might change their minds, as I have done.

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Some aspects of the incident continue to puzzle me -- for example:

* The absence of blood splatter on the right wall and the small amount of blood on Babbitt immediately after the shooting.

* The decision by the four officials to move from the front of the portal to the right wall and then down the stairs.

* The ineffective actions of the SWAT guys.

However, I expect that such puzzling aspects eventually will be explained satisfactorily.

Yuri Shvets and FBI Counterintelligence -- Part 1

For sure, FBI Counterintelligence believes former KGB Major Yuri Shvets's allegations that the KGB arranged Donald Trump's trip to the Soviet Union in 1987. Shvets's reports to the FBI are a big reason why the FBI thinks that Russian Intelligence controlled Trump.

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Yuri Shvets's autobiography Washington Station, published in 1994, begins with these paragraphs:

Soon after I resigned from the KGB in September 1990, I started to work on a book based on my experiences as a spy. Since my former bosses at the KGB were watching me closely, I decided to write a novel to avoid prosecution for revealing state secrets. My novel, however, consisted largely of true facts about recent KGB efforts to recruit U.S. citizens.

When the book was finished, I started to look for potential publishers. I could not publish my novel in Russia; even though the Soviet Union had collapsed, the KGB remained as powerful as before. So in February 1993, I walked into the Moscow office of the Washington Post and gave the Post an interview. This interview helped me to find my literary agent in America, and in April 1993 I came to the United States to meet with publishers and negotiate a possible book contract.

Since my publisher was going to be based in the United States, I no longer had to disguise my book as a novel. And in fact, all the U.S. publishers I met with were interested in knowing about my actual KGB experiences in Washington and Moscow.

I returned to Moscow to write my book. My former bosses at the Russian intelligence service were becoming increasingly alarmed even though they believed I was still writing a novel. My application for a new foreign passport was denied, and I was told that I was under an eight-year ban against travel abroad.

In September 1993 I crossed the Russian border illegally and came with a draft version of my new book as an immigrant to the United States.

A few pages later, Shvets begins to tell about his spying experience:

One evening in late April 1985, I arrived in Washington, D.C., with my wife and two sons as a correspondent of the Soviet news agency Tass. I was thirty-three, could speak English, French, and Spanish, and was somewhat ambitious, even though I had already realized that in my country ambition was a recipe for misery.

At that time very few people know that, in fact, I was a KGB officer attached to the First Chief Directorate (external intelligence). My position as a journalist was a convenient cover.

About five years and four months later, on September 12, 199, Shvets resigned from the KGB.

Yuri Shvets

The cover of Shvets's 1994 book

Shvets was born in 1952. In 1980, he graduated from Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University, in Moscow, which was attended by many foreigners. He majored in international law.

From 1980 to 1982 he attended the Soviet Union's Intelligence Academy, and from 1982 to 1985 he worked in the KGB First Chief Directorate's North American Department.

From April 1985 to April 1987, he worked as an intelligence-collector (under a journalist cover) at the KGB's "Washington Station". During those two years, his wife and two sons lived with him in Alexandria, Virginia.

Then he was rotated routinely back to the KGB's North American Department in Moscow. That is where he resigned in September 1990.

After that resignation, he apparently worked as a journalist in the Soviet Union. His autobiography Washington Station does not not say anything about his post-KGB journalist work.

The book Washington Station does not say how he left the Soviet Union illegally in September 1993. I assume that he left with his wife and sons.

(I vaguely remember meeting Shvets for a few minutes about twenty years ago, when he gave me a little help on a Russian-translation job that I was doing for the US Justice Department. In our conversation, he mentioned that one of his sons played on a local high school's football team.)

In his book, Shvets does not say whether he ever collaborated with a US Intelligence service during or after his KGB years. In particular, he does not say whether the US Government helped him and his family to escape from the Soviet Union in September 1993. However, the book gave me the impression that that he managed to escape before he began any such collaboration.

He applied for political asylum in the USA in April 1994, and his initial application was denied. He appealed and then was granted political asylum in May 1994. From that sequence of events, I suppose he began to provide information to the FBI during April or May 1994.

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The book Washington Station does not say anything about Donald Trump or anything related to Shvet's recent allegations against Trump. Shvets does not say anything about any KGB activities in New York.

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In about the second half of 1985, Shvets recruited a married couple as informants. The husband was John Helmer, to whom Shvets gives the pseudonym Martin Snow in the book and to whom the KGB gave the code name Socrates. The wife was Claudia Wright, to whom Shvets gave the pseudonym Phillis Barber in the book and to whom the KGB gave the code name Sputnitsa (a Russian word meaning "female companion").

Wright came to the KGB's attention because she wrote many articles that were "virulently anti-American". Shvets arranged to meet Wright, who then introduced him to her husband Helmer. Both Wright and Helmer were Australian leftist journalists based in the USA. Shvets introduced himself to Wright and Helmer as a Soviet journalist, which Shvets indeed was.

Of the two, Shvets's more important informant was Helmer. (Wright was becoming incapacitated because of a neurological disorder.) The Wikipedia article about Helmer includes the following passage:

Born and raised in Australia, Helmer graduated in political science from Harvard University in the United States, and worked in the White House as an aide of President Jimmy Carter.

He published several books on military and political topics, including essays on the American presidency and on urban policy in the US and essays on Greek, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern politics and foreign policy. Since 1989 he has published almost exclusively on Russian topics.

He was married to Australian journalist and foreign correspondent Claudia Wright who died in 2005.

He was allegedly recruited by the KGB in the 1980s (according to the claims of Yuri Shvets) and left to live in Russia permanently. However, Victor Cherkashin claims that Helmer was unaware that Shvets was a KGB officer, and that Cherkashin himself called Shvets off. Later, after Shvets' concerns attracted controversy, Cherkashin confirmed that Helmer was not an agent.

Helmer has been based in Moscow since 1989 and, from there, has worked for The Australian Financial Review, The Australian and other newspapers.

Although Helmer allegedly had occupied some unspecified position in President Jimmy Carter's White House staff, Carter had left the White House in January 1981 -- more than four years before Helmer met Shvets.

Helmer seems to be merely a free-lance journalist during his collaboration with Shvets. While Shvets was stationed in Washington, his relationship with Helmer essentially was a Soviet journalist and an Australian journalist sharing news tips with each other. The only remarkable aspect of this relationship was that Shvets was a Soviet spy -- not merely a journalist -- and therefore was very secretive about meeting with and obtaining information from Helmer and Wright.

The most important information that Helmer provided to Shvets was some early indications about the US attack on Libya in April 1986 and about the the Iran-Contra deal, before it became public in November 1986.

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After Shvets rotated routinely from Washington to Moscow in April 1987, the KGB brought Helmer and Wright to Moscow, where (according to Shvets) Helmer was formally recruited to become a witting agent. Although Cherkashin denies that Helmer did become an agent, I believe Shvets's account.

At that time, Wright was very incapacitated by her neurological disorder, and both Wright and Helmer were impoverished free-lance journalists. Helmer agreed to become a Soviet agent largely for monetary motives. Helmer was hoping that Michael Dukakis would win the 1988 Presidential election and then would appoint Helmer again to a position on the White House staff. In the meantime, though, Helmer was just a desperately impoverished free-lance journalist with a very sick wife.

The last part of Shvets's book is largely about his futile efforts to convince his KGB superiors that Helmer eventually might turn out to be a valuable agent. Shvets's frustration in this effort was a major cause of his decision to quit the KGB in September 1990. In general, Shvets felt that his intelligence-collection for the KGB might provide valuable information to Mikhail Gorbachev, whom Shvets admired and supported.

However, Shvets's hopes about Helmer's potential intelligence value seem, in retrospect, to be futile. The skepticism of Shvets's superiors about Helmer's reliability and potential value seems to be well justified.

Having read Shvets's book, he impressed me as a dedicated, intelligent, energetic and well-meaning KGB official, who sincerely wanted to help Gorbachev to reform the Soviet Union. However, Helmer was a useless agent, and so the KGB leadership's evaluation of Helmer was wiser than Shvet's own evaluation of Helmer.

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I speculate that Shvets managed to bring his family into the USA on his own resources in early 1994. At that time, he intended to make a career as a free-lance writer. However, the rejection in his initial request for political asylum in April 1994 compelled him to reveal himself to the FBI in April 1994. Following that revelation, he was granted political asylum in May 1994, but agreed to provide all his knowledge to the FBI Counterintelligence Division.

I perceive that in recent years Shvets has speculated recklessly about Donald Trump being targeted and controlled by Russian Intelligence. In this regard, I hope that Shvets himself will refute -- or at least refrain from -- such reckless allegations about Trump, a legitimately elected US President.

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Shvets interviewed on BookTV about Washington Station in 1995

Shvets and Craig Unger on BookTV about the book American Kompromat

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Continued in Part 2

Michael Gaeta and FBI Counterintelligence -- Part 12

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11

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In the third week of April 2016, an unidentified FBI offical requested the computer logs of the DNC (Democratic National Committee). Then on April 29 he initiated a conference call in which he informed a DNC computer expert and lawyer Michael Sussman that the FBI suspected that the DNC system was being hacked by Russian Intelligence. In the days following that conference call, Sussman arranged for the CrowdStrike company to examine the DNC computers. In that examination, CrowdStrike found computer viruses that allegedly had been created by Russian Intelligence. Those viruses were removed from the DNC computer, which then was rebooted on June 12, 2016.

The fact that the DNC computer was rebooted -- after the computer viruses had been removed -- on June 12 was not public knowledge, but it seemed to be known by some people in Eastern Europe. A person who called himself "Guccifer 2.0" and claimed to be a Romanian hacker who had planted the computer viruses on the DNC computer stated in an interview on June 21 that the computer had rebooted on June 12. According to US Intelligence, however, Guccifer 2.0 was really Russian Intelligence. If so, then Russian Intelligence knew that the DNC computer had been rebooted on June 12.

In either case -- either Guccifer 2.0 or Russian Intelligence -- activities on the DNC computer were known abroad because of a computer virus on the DNC computer. After that virus had been removed, however, the fact that the DNC computer was rebooted on June 12 nevertheless was known by someone in Eastern Europe or Russia.

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In this series of blog articles, I have argued (begin reading about this in my Part 9) that the computer virus -- although perhaps indeed created by Russian Intelligence -- really was planted on the DNC computer by an American who enjoyed some administrative access to the computer. In particular, I have speculated that the culprit was an employee of the NGP VAN company, which managed some data bases on the computer. I have speculated further that the culprit's motive was to collect information that the DNC was helping Hillary Clinton unfairly against Bernie Sanders in the primary election races that were underway until the party convention in mid-August 2016.

Such a culprit would know as part of his normal work that the DNC computer was rebooted on June 12. That knowledge did not come from any computer virus. Rather, it came from his routine personal involvement in the administration of the DNC computer system.

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If Russian Intelligence indeed had nothing at to do with the hacking of the DNC computer -- beyond the fact that Russian Intelligence had created that particular virus several years previously -- then what was the basis of the FBI's suspicion that Russian Intelligence was hacking the DNC computer in April 2016?

For example, there was no intercepted communications from or to Russian Intelligence indicating such hacking. There was no secret agent within Russian Intelligence reporting secretly to US Intelligence that Russian Intelligence was hacking the DNC computer. 

In the third week of April 2016, an unidentified FBI official requested the DNC computer logs. Subsequently, on April 29, 2016, that same unidentified official initiated a conference call in which he informed a DNC computer expert and Michael Sussman that the FBI suspected that the DNC system was being hacked by Russian Intelligence. Sussman, an expert cybercrime lawyer in a law firm that served the DNC, subsequently arranged for the CrowdStrike company to study the DNC computer. In that study, CrowdStrike found the computer virus, which allegedly had been developed by Russian Intelligence.

Based on that finding, the FBI subsequently launched a years-long hysteria that Russian Intelligence was meddling -- with the collaboration of Donald Trump's campaign staff -- in the USA's 2016 election. The FBI's hysteria has poisoned US politics -- and US-Russia relatons -- from 2016 to the present day.

So, what was the basis of the the FBI's suspision? Who was the FBI official who contacted and warned the DNC in April 2016?

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A couple months later, on July 5, Michael Gaeta, an FBI official based at the US Embassy in Rome, flew to London in order to get one short report from an Englisman named Christopher Steele. This report is so-called "Report 80" of Steele's so-called "Dossier". Although Gaeta supposedly got Report 80 on July 5, the report was not delivered to FBI Headquarters in Washington DC until September 19, 2016. In the meantime, Report 80 was stored in the office of the Chief Division Counsel in the FBI's New York Field Office.

That is the yarn that the FBI has told the public through the report published by FBI Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December 2019. I myself think that several FBI officials deceived Horowitz's team about the delivery of Steele's report to FBI Headquarters. I hope that the truth eventually be told to the public, despite the FBI's persistent stone-walling.

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That first report in Steele's Dossier is numbered 80, because it was the 80th report that Steele had delivered to the company Fusion GPS -- one of Steele's several clients. Steele had begun selling his reports to Fusion GPS in 2015 or in some earlier year. Specifically, Steele had sold 79 reports to Fusion GPS before July 2016, when he gave #80 to Gaeta in London.

It's likely that Steele had given some -- or many or even all -- of those 79 reports also to Gaeta well before July 2016. Furthermore, it is likely that Gaeta had sent any such reports promptly and directly to the Counterintelligence Division of FBI Headquarters.

If so, then it's likely that the FBI suspicion in April 2016 -- that Russian Intelligence was hacking the DNC computer -- was based on a still unknown Steele report that the FBI Counterintelligence Division had received via Gaeta from Steele in April 2016.

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This is the conclusion of this series of articles.