INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Stefan Halper taught international affairs and American studies at Cambridge from 2001 until 2015.
Halper, the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation and is at the center of a standoff between congressional Republicans and the
Justice Department, is a well-connected veteran of past GOP administrations who convened senior intelligence officials for seminars at the
University of Cambridge in England.In the summer and fall of 2016, Halper, then an emeritus professor at Cambridge, contacted three Trump
campaign advisers for brief talks and meetings that largely centered on foreign policy, The Washington Post reported last week.At some point
that year, he began working as a secret informant for the FBI as it investigated Russia's interference in the campaign, according to
multiple people familiar with his activities.The Post had previously confirmed Halper's identity, but did not report his name following
intelligence officials that exposing him could endanger him or his contacts
Now that he has been identified as the FBI's informant by multiple news organizations, including the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine
and Axios, The Post has decided to publish his name.Halper, 73, declined to comment
The FBI declined to comment
Halper's contacts with Trump advisers around the start of the FBI's counterintelligence have come under scrutiny in recent weeks by House
allies of President Donald Trump
Late last month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., issued a subpoena to the Justice Department requesting all
documents related to the FBI informant.In recent days, Trump has seized on the reports about Halper's role in the Russia probe, suggesting
in tweets that the FBI improperly spied on his campaign
There is no evidence to suggest Halper was inserted into the Trump campaign, but he did engage in a pattern of seeking out and meeting three
Trump advisers.On Monday, the conflict was defused - at least temporarily - with the announcement that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
plans to convene a meeting between top law enforcement officials and GOP congressional leaders to "review highly classified and other
information" the lawmakers have requested about the source.Halper's connections to the intelligence world have been present throughout his
career and at Cambridge, where he ran an intelligence seminar that brought together intelligence officials of past and present.In 2014,
Halper, along with Richard Dearlove, the former head of Britain's foreign intelligence service, sponsored a meeting of the seminar that drew
then-Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn, who would go on to serve as Trump's first national security adviser.Halper
taught international affairs and American studies at Cambridge from 2001 until 2015, when he stepped down with the honorary title of
emeritus senior fellow of the Centre of International Studies, according to a spokesman for the university.Since 2012, Halper has had
contracts with the Defense Department, working for a Pentagon think tank called the Office of Net Assessment
According to federal records, ONA has paid Halper more than $1 million for research and development in the social sciences and
humanities.The funds did not go solely to Halper, who hired other academics and experts to conduct research and prepare reports, according
government officials."He thinks well
And he knows a lot of people whose insights he can tap for us as well," one U.S
government official said.Halper's first wife was the daughter of the prominent former CIA analyst Ray S
Cline, who worked alongside President John F
Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and mentored Halper, introducing him to associates in the intelligence and political
communities, according to numerous people familiar with their relationship.After earning his doctorate from the University of Oxford in
1971, Halper quickly ascended, serving on the White House domestic policy council for President Richard M
Nixon and then in the Office of Management and Budget before being tapped as an assistant to President Gerald Ford's chief of staff
According to a document from Ford's presidential library, part of Halper's job was assessing domestic political candidates, such as Jimmy
Carter, for high-ranking staffers in the West Wing.Halper later worked for Sen
William Roth, R-Del., before joining the George H.W
Bush campaign in 1980 as national policy development director and then working for the Reagan-Bush campaign as national director of policy
In the Reagan administration, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs, according to his
biography.After the 1980 race, Halper was caught up in a scandal around alleged political spying
Aides to Reagan, including Halper, were accused of having spied on Carter's campaign and obtaining private documents that Carter was using
Some Reagan White House officials later alleged that Halper had used former CIA agents to run an operation against Carter
Halper called the reports at the time "absolutely false" and has long denied the accusations.Between 2000 and 2001, Halper contributed more
Bush's first presidential bid and the Republican National Committee, according to campaign finance records
Most friends describe him as a moderate Republican who is hawkish on China and deeply committed to U.S
institutions, having worked for years inside and around the federal government.Late in his career, Halper emerged as a vocal critic of
Bush's interventionist foreign policy
During classes at Cambridge, he often raised questions about Bush's decisions and embraced a traditional Republican approach to foreign
policy that emphasized long-standing Western alliances and limited foreign intervention, as witnessed by a Post reporter who studied under
His 2004 co-written book, "America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order," was critical of the Bush administration's approach to
the Iraq War.Halper has spent considerable time focused on China over the past decade, publishing "The Beijing Consensus: Legitimizing
Authoritarianism in our Time" in 2010 that warned of China's attempts to build an economic and industrial presence in Africa and elsewhere
as a threat to global stability."Stef" - as Halper is called by people who know him - was also widely known at Cambridge as a gregarious
gatherer of students and academics at his apartment in the city, along with his wife
He frequently hosted dinners with visiting students and scholars from around the world where - over wine and cheese from the local market -
he would share colorful stories about his work for American presidents and the U.S
government and stir debates about the issues of the day.(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated
