Ex-spy who wrote intel memos is a pro

CNN has not until now named the former intelligence officer who compiled the memos about Russia, President-elect Donald Trump and the US election. But many news organizations in the United States and the UK have named him and provided considerable detail about him and his business. Other former intelligence officials are speaking up in his defense, as the following piece shows. For this reason, CNN is now publishing his name.

Retired British intelligence officer Chris Steele, whose dossier takes to a new level the investigation of whether Russia attempted to influence the US election for the benefit of Donald Trump, learned his spycraft from the best.

As in the American intelligence community, the selection, vetting, training, education and seasoning of the veteran operative in British intelligence is the result of an extraordinary filtering process.

Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him

It begins with strict and high educational standards, moves through a series of interviews to a day of high-pressure competitive scenario work and psychometric, literacy, numeracy and analytical testing against several other candidates. There is a final individual assessment and judgment hurdle to pass before a lengthy vetting process, conducted by the intelligence agencies themselves. While no system is flawless, this does produce a stream of very bright, highly motivated people determined to act with integrity to solve modern intelligence problems.

A key point is that this selection and subsequent training not only involve learning investigative tradecraft equal to the best in the world but also impart a fundamental critical mindset about sources and information: Doubt sources, but protect them. Question new information. Validate reports with independent sources. Always seek collateral. Consider alternative explanations. And maintain an objective and independent perspective. Above all, never let politics or bias color your analysis.

Having known Chris Steele professionally for more than 20 years, we know that one should not question his integrity, excellence and diligence in intelligence work. He knows Russia exceptionally well and has relationships and experience in the country to support this type of analysis. For obvious reasons we assume that he cannot name his sources, but we do not doubt that he will have brought the same professional rigor to this study as he did to his work in the intelligence service.

Does this mean that everything in Chris' dossier is true? No. Intelligence collection and analysis are always subject to error and a range of opinion, including among seasoned colleagues. Aspects of the report may prove to be wrong upon further investigation. Rather the only conclusion we should draw at this point is that the dossier contains serious allegations, was made by a serious and credible intelligence professional, and that the US intelligence community reviewed the material and deemed it worthy of further investigation and chose to include it in the information submitted to President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump.

But there are causes for concern. The first is that the allegations in the dossier are quite serious. Should they be corroborated, it would indicate that Russia's reach and influence over American politics is not only deeper than suspected, but potentially active in the form of leverage against the President-elect and other elected officials.