Massive security for presidential inauguration DRONE GAS ATTACK FEAR FOR TRUMP CEREMONY
Spy ‘duty bound’ to blow whistle
THE former MI6 agent behind the dossier on US president-elect Donald Trump felt “duty bound” to share intelligence he “deemed crucial”.
Christopher Steele even worked without pay because of his concerns of what he was uncovering, according to a report.
The 52-year-old, now in hiding, made allegations that Moscow holds lurid and incriminating material on Mr Trump and that BILL FRANCIS the Kremlin has links to his campaign team. Mr Steele revealed his findings to David Corn, a journalist from magazine Mother Jones, who first reported the dossier’s existence last autumn.
Mr Corn backed him up, saying the spy was “confident” about THE USA will stage its biggest ever anti-terror operation amid fears of a drone attack on Donald Trump’s inauguration.
More than 16,000 police and troops will provide a ring of steel at the ceremony on Friday.
The FBI said a specialist task force has been put in place to combat the threat of gas and chemical attacks by drones or unmanned aerial vehicles.
Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said his agents were working with the FBI and Homeland Security on a number of scenarios they “do not want to be seeing on January 20”.
One involved a simulation in which a rogue drone flew over a mocked-up presidential motorcade and sprayed a substance at the lead vehicle.
Mr Clancy added: “They can have a number of different payloads and we try to ‘ what if ?’ these things constantly.”
In that particular simulation, agents managed to destroy the drone as the fake motorcade roared away to safety.
Crowds of more than one million people are expected to line the streets of Washington DC for Mr Trump’s inauguration.
Washington’s Metropolitan Police revealed that dumper trucks filled with sand and cement will seal off routes to and from the city’s Capitol Building to stop lone wolf suicide attackers driving explosive-laden vehicles into the crowd. Yet 20 protest groups have been issued permits to assemble and march during the ceremony. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said: “I can’t think of an inauguration that presented more security challenges than this one.” Senator Roy Blunt, chairman of the congressional committee planning the event, added: “What the intelligence community is saying publicly is the same as they are saying privately – that there are more threats from more directions than ever before.” More than 100 million Americans – along with a worldwide live TV audience in excess of half-a-billion – are expected to watch as Mr Trump, 70, is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. The ceremony will be followed by a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Three inaugural balls are planned for Friday evening, along with parties that will be held over the weekend. But a string of A-list stars have snubbed invitations to perform. his material and that he was “genuinely concerned” about its implications.
“He came across as a serious and sombre professional who was not eager to talk to a journalist or cause a public splash. He realised he was taking a risk, but he seemed duty bound to share information he deemed crucial,” he added. MIKE PARKER U.S. Editor Mr Steele is said to have compiled the dossier for Mr Trump’s Republican opponents before continuing his work for the Democrats.
He then gave his discoveries to British and American intelligence services because he deemed the information to be a matter of national security for both nations.