May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-) Skepticism and critical thinking is not panacea, but can help to understand the world better
Financial oligarchy as amoral and criminal neoliberal elite
Rephrasing Mark Twain: It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal
class except financial oligarchy
Europe is willing to defy the U.S. on Nordstream to the point of forcing the U.S. to openly and nakedly destroy its reputation
with European contractors and governments to stop one pipeline in a place where multiple gas pipelines will be needed for future
growth.
This is the diplomatic equivalent of the nuclear option. And the neocons in the Senate just pushed the button. Europe understands
what this is really about, the U.S. retaining its imperial position as the policy setter for all the world. If it can set energy
policy for Europe then it can set everything else.
And it's clear that the leadership in Europe is done with that status quo. The Trump administration from the beginning has used
NATO as an excuse to mask its real intentions towards Europe, which is continued domination of its policies. Trump complains that
the U.S. pays into NATO to protect Europe from Russia but then Europe buys its energy from Russia. That's unfair, Donald complains,
like a little bitch, frankly, even though he right on the surface. But if the recent NATO summit is any indication, Europe is no
longer interested in NATO performing that function. French President Emmanuel Macron wants NATO re-purposed to fight global terror,
a terrible idea. NATO should just be ended.
But you'll notice how Trump doesn't talk about that anymore. He wants more billions pumped into NATO while the U.S. still sets
its policies. This is not a boondoggle for the MIC as much as it's a Sword of Damocles to hold over Europe's head. The U.S.'s involvement
in should be ended immediately, the troops brought home and the billions of dollars spent here as opposed to occupying most of Europe
to point missiles at a Russia wholly uninterested in imperial ambitions no less harboring any of them.
And Trump also knows this but thinks stopping Nordstream 2 is the price Europe has to pay him for this privilege. It's insane.
The time has come for Europe to act independently from the U.S. As much as I despise the EU, to untangle it from the U.S. on energy
policy is the means by which for it to then deal with its problems internally. It can't do that while the U.S. is threatening it.
Circling the wagons against the immediate threat, as it were.
And that means protecting its companies and citizens from the economic depredations of power-mad neoconservatives in the U.S.
Senate like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.
Allseas, the Swiss company laying the pipe for Nordstream 2,
has halted construction for now
, awaiting instructions from the U.S. Gazprom will likely step in to finish the job and Germany will green light any of the necessary
permits to get the pipeline done. Those people will be put out of work just in time for Christmas, turning thousands of people against
the U.S. Commerce drives people together, politics drives them apart.
But, at the same time, the urgency to finish Nordstream 2 on time is wholly irrelevant now because Ukraine and Russia came to
terms on a new five-year gas transit contract. This ensures Gazprom can meet its contractual deliveries to Europe that no one thought
could be done on time. But when the Nazi threat to Zelensky meeting with Merkel, Macron and Putin in Paris failed to materialize,
a gas deal was on the horizon.
And, guess what? U.S. LNG will still not have the marginal lever over Europe's energy policy because of that. Putin and Zelensky
outmaneuvered Cruz, Graham and Trump on this. Because that's what this boils down to. By keeping Russian gas out of Europe, it was
supposed to constrain not only Russia's growth but also Europe's. Because then the U.S. government can control who and how much energy
can make it into European markets at critical junctures politically.
That was the Bolton Doctrine to National Security. And that doctrine brought nothing but misery to millions.
And if you look back over the past five years of U.S./EU relations you will see this gambit clearly for what it was, a way to
continue European vassalage at the hands of the U.S. by forcing market share of U.S. providers into European markets.
Again, it gets back to Trump's ideas about Emergy Dominance
and becoming the supplier of the marginal erg of energy to important economies around the world.
The smart play for the EU now that the gas transit deal is in place is to threaten counter-sanctions against the U.S. and bar
all LNG shipments into Europe. Gas prices are at historic lows, gas supplies are overflowing thanks to fears of a deal not being
in place.
So, a three to six month embargo of U.S. LNG into Europe to bleed off excess supply while Nordstream 2 is completed would be the
right play politically.
But, in reality, they won't need to, because the U.S. won't be able to import much into Europe under current prices and market
conditions. And once Nordstream 2 is complete, LNG sales to Europe should crater.
In the end, I guess it's too bad for Ted Cruz that economics and basic human ingenuity are more powerful than legislatures. Because
Nordstream 2 will be completed. Turkstream's other trains into Europe will be built. Venezuela will continue rebuilding its energy
sector with Russian and Chinese help.
There is no place for U.S. LNG in Europe outside of the Poles literally burning money virtue signaling their Russophobia. Nordstream 2 was a response to the revolt in Ukraine, to replace any potential losses in market share to Europe. Now Russia will
have what it had before passing through Ukraine along with Nordstream 2. By 2024 there will be at least two trains from Turkstream
coming into Europe.
Iran will keep expanding exports, settling its oil and gas trade through Russian banks. And the U.S. will continue to fulminate
and make itself even more irrelevant over time. What men like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump refuse to understand is that when you go nuclear you can't ever go back. If you threaten
the nuclear option, there's no fall back position.
And when those that you threaten with annihilation survive they are made all the stronger for passing through the eye of the needle. Looking at Gazprom's balance sheet right now, that's my take.
This goes so much deeper, as Whitney Webb points out below, there are much broader
implications beyond the depraved pedophile aspect.
Epstein's links to intelligence have since been confirmed. The CIA-Mossad links to
Epstein were detailed in a recent MintPress investigative series and several mainstream media
reports have corroborated Epstein's time as a self-described "financial bounty hunter" who
hunted down embezzled funds and also hid stolen money for powerful people and
governments.
references allude to Epstein's shady business activities in the New York and Palm Beach
real estate markets from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s that were used to launder massive
amounts of money for organized crime and intelligence. It is likely for this reason that
Epstein's real estate activities during this period have been so deliberately ignored by the
U.S. press, even though other aspects of his financial activities were heavily scrutinized in
recent months.
Indeed, in examining Epstein's involvement in real estate markets, particularly in New
York, it becomes clear that those activities have no shortage of controversial tie-ins to the
current U.S. presidential administration as well as major New York power players involved in
suspect financial activity immediately prior to the September 11 attacks as well as the 2008
financial crisis.
I would be vastly surprised if Epstein's ties to the NY real estate markets doesn't
include most of the major players not just the Trump organization. The outlier real estate
moguls would be those without ties to controversial partners and organized crime.
With regard to ""There will come a day where we will realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most
prolific pedophile this country has ever known.":
The focus is on Epstein, but it doesn't belong there. What about the adolescent females
who have been victimized? Does anyone here have a clue or give a damn about what it means
psychologically for the rest of their lives? And what about the hundreds or thousands of
politicians, judges, media people, cultural leaders, et al who have been intimidated,
blackmailed, compromised? What does that mean for politics, the economy, justice, etc.?
" this is how these games are played. If you look carefully, you will see them widely.
Inform, enlighten, while throwing in doubletalk and untruths. The small number of people who
read such books and articles will come away knowing some history that has no current
relevance and being misinformed on other history that does. They will then be in the know,
ready to pass their "wisdom" on to those who care to listen. They will not think they are
average.
But they will be mind controlled, and the killer cat will roam freely without a bell,
ready to devour the unsuspecting mice."
"... Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy and alleged "handler" of Robert Maxwell, told the authors of a new book, Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales , that Epstein ran a "complex intelligence operation" at the behest of Mossad. ..."
"... Believing that Epstein planned to marry his daughter, Maxwell introduced him and Ghislaine Maxwell to Ben-Menashe's Mossad circle. ..."
"... "See, fucking around is not a crime. It could be embarrassing, but it's not a crime. But fucking a fourteen-year-old girl is a crime. And he was taking photos of politicians fucking fourteen-year-old girls -- if you want to get it straight. They would just blackmail people, they would just blackmail people like that." ..."
Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad asset who was used by Israeli intelligence to blackmail
American politicians, according to a former Israeli spy.
Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy and alleged "handler" of Robert Maxwell, told the
authors of a new book, Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales , that Epstein ran a "complex
intelligence operation" at the behest of Mossad.
Believing that Epstein planned to marry his daughter, Maxwell introduced him and Ghislaine
Maxwell to Ben-Menashe's Mossad circle.
"Maxwell sort of started liking him, and my theory is that Maxwell felt that this guy is
going for his daughter," Ben-Menashe said.
"He felt that he could bless him with some work and help him out in like a paternal
[way]."
Israeli intelligence bosses gave the green light and Epstein then became a Mossad asset.
"They were agents of the Israeli Intelligence Services," said Ben-Menashe.
When it became clear that Epstein wasn't very competent at doing much else, his primary role
became "blackmailing American and other political figures."
"Mr. Epstein was the simple idiot who was going around providing girls to all kinds of
politicians in the United States," said Ben-Menashe.
"See, fucking around is not a crime. It could be embarrassing, but it's not a crime. But
fucking a fourteen-year-old girl is a crime. And he was taking photos of politicians fucking
fourteen-year-old girls -- if you want to get it straight. They would just blackmail people,
they would just blackmail people like that."
There's also a Mossad connection to a different kind of sex offender; Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein
reportedly hired ex-Mossad agents to suppress allegations against him. Working for an
Israeli firm called Black Cube, these agents pressured witnesses and tried to intimidate
journalist Ronan Farrow in order to "bury the truth" about Weinstein's activity.
Jeffrey Epstein worked for Mossad, which is blackmailing every politician around the world
that it can, but most especially those in the United States of America and Britain.
Trump Was 'Only One' To Help Prosecutor In 2009 Epstein Case
And while Democrats have suggested that
the new evidence may implicate President Trump - who once called Epstein a "Terrific guy" who
"likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side" (yet
reportedly kicked the billionaire pedophile out of his Mar-a-Lago club for trying to recruit
an underage girl) others are focusing on the Clintons.
A the
NY Post detailed in 2016, Epstein and the Clintons are close .
Epstein has spent the bulk of his adult life cultivating relationships with the worlds
most powerful men. Flight logs show that from 2001 to 2003, Bill Clinton flew on Epsteins
private plane, dubbed The Lolita Express by the press, 26 times . After Epsteins arrest in
July 2006, federal tax records show Epstein donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation that
year.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Superdelegate daughter Christine quipped on Twitter "It is
quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the
chips fall where they may."...
...
And what about Trump?
Following a 2018 financial settlement between Florida attorney Bradley Edwards - who
represented one of Epstein's accusers, only to be later sued by Epstein, Edwards claimed that
Donald Trump was the 'only person' who provided assistance when Edwards served subpoenas and
notices to high-profile individuals connected to Epstein.
Edwards: The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only
person who, in 2009 when I served a lot of subpoenas on a lot of people, or at least gave
notice to some pretty connected people, that I want to talk to them, is the only person who
picked up the phone and said, let's just talk. I'll give you as much time as you want. I'll
tell you what you need to know, and was very helpful , in the information that he gave, and
gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever, but had
good information. That checked out and that helped us and we didn't have to take a
deposition of him in 2009...
...In January 2016, Vice.com ran
Silverstein's story on Trump's ties to Epstein, which framed them as more social - including
dinner parties, two plane trips, and Epstein hanging out at Trump's Mar-a-lago resort in Palm
Beach, Florida. As
Radar reported last April, "According to an investigation by Radar, Trump was among
dozens of renowned New Yorkers who knew Epstein socially but ostracized him after Palm Beach
police uncovered the financiers sleazy double life, " adding that Trump "once barred child
molester Jeffrey Epstein from his famed Mar-a-lago club after the presidential candidate
caught him hitting on a young girl."
Russia, Israel and Saudi Arabia: Jeffrey Epstein 'Found a Niche -- Blackmailing American
and Other Political Figures' For Foreign Powers, According to His Ex-Spy Handler
By Dylan Howard
December 5, 2019
Shameless pedophile Jeffrey Epstein inherited his espionage business from ex-girlfriend
Ghislaine Maxwell, whose father British media magnate Robert Maxwell, was a super spy for
Israel's Mossad. Here, in another excerpt from the newly released book "Epstein: Dead Men
Tell No Tales," former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe tells how Epstein ran a complex
intelligence operation.
Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy and alleged "handler" of Robert Maxwell said of
Epstein: "Maxwell introduced him to us, and he wanted us to accept him as part of our
group.
Ben-Menashe claimed that Epstein and
Ghislaine were already dating in the late 1980s, and that Maxwell Senior grew fond of
the young upstart.
"Epstein was hanging around with Robert Maxwell and the daughter was hanging around
there too, and that's how they met," he told author James Robertson in an interview from
Montreal. "Just two young souls, they met."
"Maxwell sort of started liking him, and my theory is that Maxwell felt that this guy
is going for his daughter," Ben-Menashe said. "He felt that he could bless him with some
work and help him out in like a paternal [way]."
According to the former spy, the ultimate order to embrace Epstein and involve him in
the ongoing arms deals came from "the bosses" at Israeli intelligence headquarters.
"They were agents of the Israeli Intelligence Services," he told James
Robertson.
"Later on [Ghislaine] got involved with Israeli intelligence together with him. But
not in this arms deal with Iran business," Ben-Menashe also told Zev
Shalev , former CBS News executive producer and investigative journalist for the
website Narativ.
"These guys were seen as agents. They weren't really competent to do very much. And
so they found a niche for themselves -- blackmailing American and other political
figures."
He told Robertson, "Mr. Epstein was the simple idiot who was going around providing
girls to all kinds of politicians in the United States. See, ******* around is not a crime.
It could be embarrassing, but it's not a crime. But ******* a fourteen-year-old girl is a
crime. And he was taking photos of politicians ******* fourteen-year-old girls -- if you
want to get it straight. They would just blackmail people, they would just blackmail people
like that."
Ben-Menashe is a mysterious Iranian-born Israeli businessman who claims to have worked for
Mossad from 1977 to 1987,
The Sun reported this week. He was arrested in 1989 in the US on arms dealing charges but
was acquitted in 1990 after a jury accepted he was acting on behalf of Israel. Israel tried
to distance themselves from him, with government sources saying he never had anything to do
with intelligence services, although other news reports -- in both the US and Israel --
confirmed he did. He later wrote a book called Profits of War: Inside the US-Israeli Arms
Network and in the early 1990s claimed that Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine's dad, worked for
Mossad.
But there remains more questions than answers about how Epstein came to be one of the most
horrifying villains the modern world has ever known -- a shameless pedophile who built a
network of child sex abuse around the globe. But in this case, the rot of evil goes even
deeper than that.
How did Epstein pull off his sex trafficking scheme?
Who was a participant, and who might have helped him?
These questions -- and more -- linger still, even after inmate 76318–054 was found
dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City...
The Epstein Pedoscandal Mossad
Timeline shows in detail how Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were working for the
Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
Link to Unz.com article
The timeline generated many comments at Unz.com but surprisingly most of them dealt whether
Epstein was a pedophile or not. This despite the overwhelming evidence of pedophilia.
Many have also totally missed – or are afraid to notice – the big picture:
Israeli intelligence agencies and especially Mossad seem to be running pedophile rings that
blackmail Western political, business and scientific leaders.
Furthermore, it seems that Ghislaine Maxwell was and still is the master mind behind many of
these pedophile rings.
One of the reasons Epstein and Ghislaine were able to continue sex trafficking with impunity
for so long was the appearance that Epstein was a victim of jealous people and overzealous
police. Many people thought that Epstein had only had sex with a 17-year old girl who had lied
about her age.
This excuse worked well because in Florida the age of consent is 18 while in most other
American states it is 16.
Link to Wikipedia
Epstein was able to play the martyr by not only claiming that unscrupulous girls had lied
their age but also by implying that the age of consent is too high anyway in Florida.
This was also one reason why in New Mexico where Epstein had his Zorro Ranch the officials
refused to register him as a sex offender. In New Mexico the age of consent was 16 until in
2018 it was raised to 18.
Furthermore, unlike in many other states, in New Mexico the courts recognize a mistake of
age defense.
New Mexico courts recognize a mistake of
age defense . The mistake of age defense is basically "I thought she was 17." However,
this is no guarantee that this defense will work in court. Moreover, the mistake of age is
the creation of judges in the absence of a direct statute addressing the defense. State
lawmakers may pass a law overriding the courts on this issue at any time. ( LegalMatch
)
In reality the Epstein-Ghislaine case is not whether it is wrong for an adult to have sex
with a 17 year old. Instead it is about many other things such as prostitution, grooming,
pedophilia and the exploitation of children.
This all is connected to global politics involving sex trafficking, drug and arms trade,
money laundering, Ponzi schemes, spy networks and blackmailing for Mossad.
Epstein's victims were caught in a web of international spy network that used them as pawns
for blackmail operations. The younger the girls were, the more leverage Israel would have over
politicians, billionaires and scientists. Thus Epstein and Ghislaine tried to also recruit
girls who were well under the age of 16.
What is more, they personally enjoyed having sex with these very young girls. Both Epstein
and Ghislaine seem to have been pedophiles who were attracted to prepubescent girls and boys,
i.e. small children.
Note that in order to be a pedophile it is enough to have merely occasional sexual
attraction to prepubescent, i.e. sexually immature children who have not yet developed
secondary
sex characteristics, such as breasts.
Julie Brown from Miami Herald notes that Courtney Wild was only 14 when she was
recruited into Epstein's sex ring.
Wild still had braces on her teeth when she was introduced to him in 2002 at the age of
14.
She was fair, petite and slender, blonde and blue-eyed. (emphasis added. Miami Herald
)
Link to Miami Herald
Julie Brown also notes that Epstein preferred girls who were not only white [and non-Jewish]
but also appeared prepubescent.
Wild, who later helped recruit other girls, said Epstein preferred girls who were
white, appeared prepubescent and those who were easy to manipulate into going further each
time. (Emphasis added. Miami Herald )
For Epstein and Ghislaine it was important that the girls at the very least looked like
small children. This is obviously why they preferred girls who were under 16.
Courtney Wild told the police that she brought Epstein over 70 girls and they were all under
16.
By the time I was 16, I had probably brought him 70 to 80 girls who were all 14 and 15
years old (Emphasis added. Miami Herald )
Some girls were even younger. According to the police many were 13 year old.
The girls -- mostly 13 to 16 -- were lured to his pink waterfront mansion by Wild and
other girls, who went to malls, house parties and other places where girls congregated, and
told recruits that they could earn $200 to $300 to give a man -- Epstein -- a massage,
according to an unredacted copy of the Palm Beach police investigation obtained by the
Herald. (Emphasis added. Miami Herald )
It is also important to note that even 13 was not the minimum age for Epstein and Ghislaine.
In fact, there was no limit to how young the girls could be. Both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
emphasized that the younger the better.
Eventually, she said Maxwell trained her to recruit new girls for Epstein.
"Jeffrey was very particular in the kind of girls he wanted. First off, the younger the
better ."
Epstein said that to her, Giuffre claimed, and " Maxwell said that too . During the
training and telling me how to do it, she said 'You always have to go for the
youngest-looking ones .'" (Emphasis added.
The Daily Beast )
Link to The Daily Beast
It seems the primary purpose was not even blackmail since especially Epstein was having sex
with these young girls all the time. On some days Epstein was having sex several times a
day.
Sex games were more important for Epstein than work. Obviously, he was extremely attracted
to these young girls.
In six months, I never saw him do a day's work," Ransome told The Telegraph. "I never
saw him work. He was literally sexually abusing us all day long . (Emphasis added.
Business Insider )
Link to Business Insider
Ghislaine also seemed to be obsessed with sex. Just like her father, Robert Maxwell she was
rumored to be interested in unconventional sex which includes also sex with young children.
As she [Ghislaine] posed for the pics, which ran in a publication meant to promote
Sotheby's vintage fashion collection, she allegedly let slip comments that hinted at a
twisted double life.
"She didn't talk about Epstein, but during the shoot she did tell a story about how she
just hosted a dinner party for a number of young girls, and she put dildos at each place
setting," the source said. "Ghislaine then described how during the dinner two guests, who
were a couple, began demonstrating how to do the perfect fellatio on a man for all at the
table. She was laughing about it."
"A friend of mine has a whole theory about her, that Epstein was like her father Robert
Maxwell, who himself is believed to have had some strange sexual practices." (
Page Six )
Link to PageSix
The Epstein Mossad-Timeline shows how Ghislaine was most probably trained by Mossad to use
sex to gather information. That training would not have been too difficult for her since she
was hypersexual. Many even considered her a nymphomaniac.
In fact, even many Israeli Jews – who usually have much fewer sexual taboos than
puritan English and Americans – were shocked by her raunchy sexuality.
Flirtatious indeed: I understand from a mutual friend that after school she travelled
to Israel and visited a kibbutz; she was immediately ostracised by the other girls for making
a rather-too-obvious beeline for the Adonis-like lifeguard at the kibbutz pool. Very quickly
she got her way, as she would with much in her life. ( Tatler . Emphasis
added.)
Even Ghislaine's friend were sometimes shocked by her open sexuality that so often
contrasted with her otherwise lady-like behavior and position in high society.
Ghislaine was, added Mason, 'fantastically entertaining' and 'saucy' – the paper
said that she talked openly about sex .
In fact, said another acquaintance who saw her often at parties, she was 'obsessed by
sex . She's Sphinx-like, mysterious. The last time I saw her, five, 10 years ago, I said what
are you up to? And she said "I'm selling this product – stainless-steel mini dumb-bells
– that you put up your fanny. For exercising your vaginal muscles, exercise your pelvic
floor, learn the Singapore Grip. I'm giving seminars in LA and they all turn up and I tell
them, this is how you keep your man."' ( Tatler . Emphasis
added.)
Epstein and Ghislaine were both hypersexual. All kind of sex interested them. Little girls
were just part of the menu. Or more specifically, the best – and most profitable –
part.
Epstein and Ghislaine were so attracted to young girls that nothing seemed to satisfy them.
Perhaps this is why Epstein and Ghislaine created the highly risky sexual pyramid scheme. The
girls were offered two alternatives: Either satisfy Epstein and Ghislaine sexually or get more
girls to satisfy them.
In this way Epstein and Ghislaine were able to recruit literally hundreds of young girls.
However, some of these girls went to the police and the sexual pyramid scheme collapsed.
When Epstein got out of jail in 2009 he had half-learned his lesson: American girls are too
risky.
Now Epstein and Ghislaine would only concentrate on East European girls with the help of
their Jewish-Ukrainian friend Peter Listerman.
One of the lesser-known shadowy figures linked to Jeffrey Epstein and his sex ring of
teenage girls and young women is Ukrainian-born Peter Listerman, who has worked as a
businessman and television presenter but is most known for his "match-making"
abilities.
What match-making really means is that Listerman procures women, often underage, for
the jet-set society to use for sexual purposes. His "clients" include Russian oligarchs and
American businessmen and seems to have also
included Jeffrey Epstein. ( Citizen
Truth )
Link to the Citizen Truth.org
Listerman has such a bad reputation that he is shunned even in Ukraine!
Tatiana Savchenko, who founded the first modeling school in Odessa, Ukraine
explained to the Daily Beast the lengths she had to go to keep Listerman from getting his
hands on young women and trafficking them for sex work.
She claimed that he would frequently approach her students and attempt to lure them
with promises of a luxurious lifestyle, and that "It took a lot of work to keep him from
tricking our teen models in his traps." ( Citizen
Truth )
Peter Listerman is the usual suspect. Link to Fishki.net Do you think I am
kidding? I am Peter Listerman! Link to Fishki.net
Both Epstein and Listerman were attracted to very young girls. Neither even tried to hide it
much. In fact, Epstein was quite open about his attraction to tweens.
Just three months ago, as federal prosecutors were closing in with new charges, Mr.
Epstein had a conversation with R. Couri Hay, a publicist, about continuing to improve his
reputation. Mr. Epstein asserted that what he was convicted of did not constitute pedophilia,
said Mr. Hay, who declined to represent him.
The girls he had sex with were "tweens and teens," Mr. Epstein told him. ( The New
York Times )
But what is a tween?
Preadolescent is generally defined as those ranging from age 10 to 13 years.
[4][6] While known
as preadolescent in psychology, the terms preteen, preteenager or tween are common in
everyday use. ( Wikipedia
)
Epstein was right, of course. What he was convicted of in 2007 did not constitute
pedophilia. However, that is precisely one reason why people are so outraged!
Epstein and Ghislaine did not see any problem of recruiting, grooming and having sex also
with tweens. And apparently neither did the Justice Department and the FBI led by
Robert Mueller !
But it gets even worse. As pointed out in the Epstein Pedoscandal Mossad Timeline ,
it seems that Epstein and Ghislaine were after even younger girls.
In 2003 Epstein financed Jean-Luc Brunell's(?) and Jeff Fuller's(J) new modelling agency
MC2 that seemed to have worked with Peter Listerman.
MC2 obviously refers to the famous Einstein equation E = MC2 , the energy-mass
equivalence. Equally obviously, E equals Epstein, the energy, whereas the girls equal MC2, the
mass energized by Epstein.
Despite all this – or for the very reason – Epstein invested in MC2 and became
particularly
close to its founders Brunel and Fuller.
The agency operates in New York, Miami and Tel Aviv. It's in practice half-Israeli.
Many call Israel the capital of human trafficking and organ
harvesting .
Link to
Ynet.com
MC2 concentrates on importing East European girls to Israel and America. The younger the
better.
Marina Lynchuk of MC2 Lolita Lvola from MC2 Linta Lapinda from MC2
Brunel seems to have given 12-year old triplets to Epstein as a birthday present.
'Jeffrey bragged after he met them that they were 12-year-olds and flown over from
France because they're really poor over there, and their parents needed the money or whatever
the case is and they were absolutely free to stay and flew out,' Giuffre said.
She said she saw the three girls with her own eyes and that Epstein had repeatedly
described to her how the girls had massaged him and performed oral sex on him. They were
flown back to France the next day.
Link to Daily Mail
It seems that even tweens were not young enough for Epstein.
According to court papers in 2005 Brunel called Epstein and left a message that "he is
sending him a 16-year-old Russian girl for purposes of sex". However, the written message says
something even worse.
The message, filed as an exhibit in the case, was written on an office message pad,
partly in code, and read: "He [Brunel] has a teacher for you to teach you how to speak
Russian. She is 2×8 years old not blonde. Lessons are free and you can have your 1st
today if you call." ( New
York Post )
Does it mean that two eight year olds are involved? Or does 2 x 8 mean to sex 8 year old?
(2=to, x=sex)
Why would the lessons be free and why is it relevant that the "teacher" is not a blond?
There is no denying that Epstein and Ghislaine sexualised even small children. This became
clear in 2005 when police raided Epstein's Palm Peach mansion.
In one photo that was hanging on the wall a small six or seven year old girl was bending
over in a tiny dress. Police blurred out the photo in the video taken during the raid.
NEW YORK CITY, NY – MARCH 13: Atmosphere at
Hamish Bowles, Ghislaine Maxwell and Lillian von Stauffenberg dinner for ALLEGRA HICKS at Home
of Ghislaine Maxwell on March 13, 2007 in New York City. (Photo by Patrick McMullan/Patrick
McMullan via Getty Images). Link to Getty Images.
The so called artwork seems to be full of pedophile symbols.
Link to Wikileaks.org
The quality of the photos taken at Ghislaine's home are so good that even more symbols have
been found in her artwork.
For some reason the mainstream media has not picked up on this pedophilia angle. No
mainstream media journalist has even tried to ask why would Ghislaine have such art and symbols
on her home wall.
This despite the fact that Ghislaine is most probably an Israeli superspy just like was her
father, Robert Maxwell. She probably has been trained to use sex – including pedophilia
– as a tool for blackmail and manipulation.
At the time in Israel females molesting little boys was not even considered rape.
Link to
Haaretz.com
Nor have mainstream journalists asked where was Ghislaine when Madeline McCann was
abducted.
That would not be an unreasonable question since one of the E-Fit images looks a lot like
Ghislaine.
Link to Enchanted Life Path.com
Furthermore, two of the E-Fit images (1A, 1B) look like the Podesta brothers. John Podesta was White House
Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton and the Chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential
campaign.
Ghislaine and Epstein were close to the Clintons and the Podesta brothers have been directly
linked also to Pizzagate.
Was Ghislaine helping to run also Pizzagate and other pedophile rings for Mossad?
At least she seems to be perfectly trained to do just that. First, her own hypersexuality,
family background and possible training by Mossad made it easy for her to master mind the
pedophilia ring she run with Epstein.
Second, Ghislaine and Epstein had all the apparel to help run also other pedophile rings:
Lolita express airplanes and helicopters, Zorro Ranch in New Mexico and luxury mansions in New
York, Palm Peach and Paris.
Even more importantly they had their own island in the Virgin Islands.
In the 90s Epstein bought Little St.
James island from the Virgin islands. It had a mansion which Epstein expanded.
Soon locals started to call it the Pedophile Island.
Little St. James island. Link to
Wall Street Journal article
The island seems to have tunnels with several underground entrances.
Ghislaine has a Helicopter Pilot License and often transported quests to the island.
On the weekends in the 1990s, Maxwell would have her Rollerblades FedExed to Epstein's
island in the Caribbean, and said she got her helicopter's license so she could transport
anyone she liked without pilots knowing who they were .
Maxwell also said the island had been completely wired for video; the friend thought
that she and Epstein were videotaping everyone on the island as an insurance policy, as
blackmail.
A source close to Maxwell says she spoke glibly and confidently about getting girls to
sexually service Epstein, saying this was simply what he wanted, and describing the way she'd
drive around to spas and trailer parks in Florida to recruit them. She would claim she had a
phone job for them, "and you'll make lots of money, meet everyone, and I'll change your
life."
Maxwell had one other thing to tell this woman: "When I asked what she thought of the
underage girls, she looked at me and said, 'they're nothing, these girls. They are trash .'"
(Emphasis added. Vanity
Fair )
Ghislaine was naturally using Epstein's helicopters. Some of them shared their FAA tail
number with a US contractor, Dyncorp . That would have helped Ghislaine and
Epstein to fly drugs and children.
FAA records and Epstein's pilot's flight manifest indicate that Epstein's Bell
helicopter used the same tail number of N474AW . This was the same tail number used until
2006 by State Department contractor Dyncorp for counter-insurgency operations in Latin
America.
The congruence of Epstein's Bell N474AW and Dincorp's Bronco N474AW is noteworthy. In
2002, the year Epstein's aircraft fleet stands accused of flying underage teen girls, some
between the ages of 12 and 15 , coincided with Dyncorp's trafficking in underage females
between the ages of 12 and 15 from Kosovo and Bosnia in the Balkans.
One Dyncorp whistleblower reported to The Washington Times's Insight magazine's Kelly
O'Meara in 2002 the following on one Dyncorp employee in Bosnia:
[he] owned a girl who couldn't have been more than 14 years old. It's a sick sight
anyway to see any grown man [having sex] with a child, but to see some 45-year-old man who
weights 400 pounds with a little girl, it just makes you sick."
Tail number N474AW has been shared between Epstein's Bell helicopter like the one in
this photo. (Emphasis added.
Political Bull Pen )
DynCorp's pedophilia ring became internationally infamous with the release of the movie
Whistleblower.
Link to Wikipedia
Helicopters can always be seen. However, Ghislaine also has a license to operate
submarines!
In 2012 – three years after Epstein got out of jail – Maxwell founded The
TerraMar Project ,
[51] a nonprofit
organization that advocated protecting ocean waters.
She gave a lecture for TerraMar at the University of Texas at Dallas and a TED talk, at
TEDx Charlottesville in 2014. [52] Maxwell
accompanied Stuart
Beck (J), a 2013 TerraMar board member, to two United Nations meetings to discuss the
project. [17] ( Wikipedia )
In 2014, a
United Nations event featured Maxwell as a speaker. According to her bio in the program,
Maxwell's "web-based non-profit" aimed "to protect the Oceans by empowering a global
community of ocean citizens ." It further described Maxwell as "a private helicopter pilot
and an Emergency Medical Technician and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot
."
A former Coast Guard officer, Borgerson was also a fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations , which featured Borgerson and Maxwell as speakers during one 2014 talk
titled "Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches." Friends of Maxwell,
according to The
New York Times , said Borgerson became her boyfriend. Maxwell had allegedly described
Borgerson as a " Navy SEAL " to her pals.
Maxwell's dubious charity also roped in the Clinton Global Initiative , the now-defunct
networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2013, CGI named TerraMar as
one of the "commitments to action" at their annual meeting. (Emphasis added.
Daily Beast )
Did the Pedophile Island have an underground submarine base? Was it a part of global
pedophile network?
And was the Ocean Citizens project an attempt to escape national jurisdictions and thus gain
at least a partial immunity from police investigations and prosecutions?
Link to TerraMar
Project
Interestingly, as late as 2016 Epstein bought also the nearby Great St. James Island. He
started to build on the island without permits.
There were rumors that he was building underground. For some reason the mainstream media has
had no interest in this second island.
Why is the mainstream media not interested in Ghislaine's many links to pedophilia?
Perhaps because Ghislaine has so many powerful friends. The photo of the pedophile artwork
on Ghislaine's wall was taken 13 March 2007 during a party at Ghislaine's New York townhouse.
The guest list included a curious combination of elite Jews, aristocratic Brits and American
WASPs.
The party was in Ghislaine's huge 7000-square-foot townhouse. It is located in the most
opulent and prestigious neighborhood of America, the Upper East Side , New York on East 65th
Street just off Park Avenue. Epstein's townhouse was only 10 blocks away.
Ghislaine's five
story townhouse. Link to Street Easy Ghislaine's townhouse floor plan. Link to Street Easy
Ghislaine's townhouse 2nd floor gallery. Link to Street Easy
There are reports from reliable sources that the townhouse was sold in 2000 to Ghislaine by
Lynn
Forester de Rothschild . The very same woman who had introduced Epstein and Ghislaine to
Alan Dershowits and the Clintons in the 90s.
The Manhattan property, which is close to Epstein's mansion, is owned by Lynn Forester
de Rothschild, wife of British financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. (See
The Times and the original article .)
According to Business Insider Forester sold the townhouse to Ghislaine for less than half the
price.
Forester sold the mansion for about $8.5 million less than its assessed market value,
which was more than $13.4 million.
Was this a pay-off to Ghislaine from the King of Jews, the Rothschilds for services
rendered?
Hillary Clinton, Evelyn de Rothschild, Bill Clinton and Lynn Forester de
Rothschild. Link to Mint Press
It probably is also relevant that at the time of the sale of the townhouse the Prime
Minister of Israel was Ehud
Barak. In the 80s he had been the head of Aman, the Israeli Military Intelligence Agency.
As the Epstein Pedoscandal Mossad Timeline revealed, both Epstein and Ghislaine worked
for the Israeli intelligence agencies already in the 80s during the Iran-Contra operation.
Note that it was around year 2000 that Epstein and Ghislaine started the pedophile operation
in earnest. In the 80s and 90s blackmail operations were a side show but now it became the main
show involving hundreds of young girls.
Sexual blackmail – especially involving little children – can be an extremely
efficient way to influence key politicians and even military officials. A successful blackmail
operation can achieve more than several army divisions. No wonder Barak was so close to Epstein
and Ghislaine.
Furthermore, in 2000 the president of Israel was Moshe Katsev who was sexually harassing and
even raping his female subordinates. Later Katsev would be convicted of rape.
It was also in 2000 when the Israeli Vice-Consul of Rio de Janeiro, Arie Scher and Hebrew
language Professor George Schteinberg were running a pedophile ring for Israeli tourists. When
the Brasilian police started to investigate the Israeli consulate Scher managed to flee back to
Israel.
Link to Rodoh.info
In Israel Scher was not prosecuted. Instead in 2005 he was promoted to Consul of Canberra,
the capital of Australia. A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, Mark Regev
explained:
He [Arie Scher] was a young and single man at the time [in Brazil]. Now he is married
and he's six years older and there is no reason why he shouldn't make an excellent diplomatic
appointment in Australia.
Australia refused to let Scher enter the country.
Link to William Bowles Info
The most shocking part of the Arie/Aryeh Scher story is that the mainstream media was not
interested. Either the stories have been scrubbed from the internet or no stories were ever
written by mainstream journalists except one short story by BBC in 2000 and one even smaller
story
by The Sydney Morning Herald in 2005. Even more surprisingly Youtube does not seem to
have any videos about the Scher case.
No wonder Barak was absolutely convinced that the Western mainstream media would never dare
to criticize Israel and its intelligence agencies. Not even when Mossad was running pedophile
rings.
It was probably the Israeli leaders Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and Moshe Katsev together with
the ultra-Zionist
Mega Group who made sure Epstein and especially the Maxwell family had not only immunity
from prosecution but also all the blackmail apparel necessary including luxury townhouses,
airplanes, yachts, submarines, ranch and a private island. All, of course, bugged to the
hilt.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (R) talks to Shimon Peres, Minister of Regional
Planning, after Barak's speech at the opening session of parliament in Jerusalem 30 October
2000. AFP PHOTO / SVEN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read SVEN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Link to Getty Images
Here the pedophile artwork at Ghislaine's New York townhouse can be seen behind Lillian von
Staufenberg who in March 2007 together with Ghislaine and Hamish Bowles organized a dinner
party in honor of Allegra Hicks. This at a time when Epstein had already been charged with
abusing young girls.
Why would Ghislaine have such a suspicious artwork on her wall knowing that it would
probably be photographed during the parties?
Why would Ghislaine and her quests take such a huge risk? Or was it a sign meant to be seen?
Was Ghislaine flaunting her power?
Ghislaine and her quests seemed to be absolutely sure that the mainstream media would not
dare to ask embarrassing questions.
They were right, of course. The mainstream media knows its place.
However, occasionally some courageous mainstream journalist or editor does try to give
hints. Some have even reported on Ghislaine's hyper-sexual reputation and her orgies. It is
just that the stories have mostly been scrubbed from the internet.
Fortunately, Whitney Webb from Mintpress has
found many of the scrubbed stories. Some of them mention the Mossad connection and others
note the orgies. For example, in 2003 a British newspaper, The Evening Standardreported
a revealing rumor.
Salacious reports have crossed the Atlantic about Ghislaine hosting bizarre parties at
her house to which she invites a dozen or so young girls, then brandishes a whip and teaches
them how to improve their sexual techniques.
It seems that Ghislaine was not only a madame to Epstein but also to the ruling elite. This
would both explain her popularity and the fact that the media – and especially the
American media – dares not to criticize her too much. Not even after her boyfriend
Epstein was charged with sex trafficking minors!
Ghislaine's friends are just too powerful. After the March 2007 party the British Daily
Mail newspaper was amazed how Ghislaine could still have attracted such creme de la
creme of the highest elite. Even more amazingly, the elite was practically swooning over
her.
The night before the party, the hostess [Ghislaine] had been inundated with calls from
disgruntled socialites, irked that they hadn't received an invitation.
The hostess greeted their objections with her customary charm, but remained unmoved. As
always, her list had been carefully edited, and she intended it to stay that way.
Among the select few were Hollywood star Matthew Modine, Kennedy family member Mrs
Anthony Radziwill, Peggy Siegel, PR consultant to the stars, and Julie Janklow, heir to a
literary dynasty.
There was a Rockefeller on the list, as well as the inevitable countesses, billionaires
and New York luminaries.
Link to Daily Mail
The guests at the party included also Renee Rockefeller who is married to Mark Rockefeller , the son of ex-Vice
President Nelson Rockefeller and nephew of David Rockefeller.
David Rockefeller lived at 146 East on the same 65th Street in the Upper East Side as
Ghislaine. They were practically neighbors. Ghislaine would have to walk only two minutes to
visit David.
David liked to pose for photos in his Beetle Room next to his favorite Picasso painting
depicting a nude child "prostitute".
David Rockefeller. Link to Jeffrey Harris Desing.com
David was often visited by his close friend Jacob Rothschild, the patriarch of the
Rothschild family.
The very same family that got Ghislaine her luxury townhouse next door.
The patriarchs,
Jacob Rothschild and David Rockefeller. Link to Jeffrey Harris Design.com
As shown by the Epstein Pedoscandal Mossad Timeline both Epstein and Ghislaine
continued to move in the highest circles long after Epstein got out of jail. In fact, only last
year Ghislaine was invited to a secret writers' retreat hosted by the richest man in the world,
Jeff Bezos.
Link to The Daily Mail
Not only billionaires but also royalty kept in close contact with Ghislaine.
Prince Andrew was recently interviewed by the BBC about his relationship with Epstein,
Ghislaine and their sex slave Virginia Roberts.
Amazingly, Andrew claimed she has no recollection of Epstein's and Ghislaine's sex slave,
Virginia Roberts. This despite the fact that they were photographed together!
Prince Andrew,
Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell. Link to Daily Mail Link to The Sun.com
Hardly anybody believes Andrew. The queen had no choice but to sack his own son.
Link to
Daily Mail
Andrew got sacked because he was caught in a lie.
Andrew claimed he could not have had sex with the 17-year old Virginia in 2001 because he
had stayed with the British consul general.
The problem is the consul general does not recall Andrew staying with him.
Link to Daily
Mail
Curiously, most of the mainstream media has forgotten that it was Ghislaine who recruited
and manipulated Virginia Roberts to become a sex slave.
Even the BBC forgot this crucial fact despite Andrew mentioning Ghislaine many times during
the interview.
Time and again, the Prince invoked his friendship with Maxwell, 57, daughter of
disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell, as the reason he came into paedophile Epstein's
orbit.
Asked when he last saw Maxwell, Andrew said his last contact was 'earlier this year,
funnily enough', when she 'was here doing some rally'. (
Daily Mail )
Andrew claimed to have met Ghislaine last spring. In fact, they met in June just after US
prosecutors reopened the case against Epstein.
The Duke of York held a meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell in London two weeks after US
prosecutors announced they wanted to reopen their investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The meeting took place on or about June 5, the day before Ms Maxwell took part in a
four-day charity motoring rally from London to Monte Carlo.
Did Ghislaine demand that Andrew help make sure that the her own parallel case would not be
reopened?
After meeting Andrew she literally disappeared from the face of the earth.
The ex-socialite has not been seen since although rumours have placed her in Brazil,
France, the American mid-West and even the UK.
'No one knows where she is,' a lawyer for one of Epstein's victims said last night.
'She's done the greatest disappearing act known to man – or woman.' (
Daily Mail )
Link to Daily Mail
Shockingly, during the BBC interview Prince Andrew mentioned Ghislaine many times and seemed
to be proud of their friendship. Despite this the interviewer did not dare to ask questions
about their relationship.
Was this a message to all: Leave Ghislaine alone.
Ghislaine is obviously protected not only by the royal family but also by the whole ruling
elite. No wonder that she has the
Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card .
Ghislaine also tries to protect other Epstein associates.
Link to Daily Mail
Prince Andrew is now afraid to go to the US.
Five women who accuse Jeffrey Epstein of abusing them say Prince Andrew witnessed how
people were given massages at the sex offender's homes.
The lawyer for the women has told BBC
Panorama he plans to serve subpoenas to force the Duke of York to testify as a witness in
all five cases.
He says the prince could have important information about sex trafficking. ( BBC )
Link to BBC story and video
The BBC has now finally zoomed in on Ghislaine.
Another Epstein victim, Sarah Ransome told Panorama Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Prince
Andrew's oldest friends, worked hand in hand with Epstein.
"Ghislaine controlled the girls. She was like the Madam," she said.
"She was like the nuts and bolts of the sex trafficking operation and she would always
visit Jeffrey on the island to make sure the girls were doing what they were supposed to be
doing.
"She knew what Jeffrey liked. She worked and helped maintain Jeffrey's standard by
intimidation, by intimidating the girls, so this was very much a joint effort."
Ms Maxwell could not be reached for comment but has previously denied any involvement
in or knowledge of Epstein's abuse. ( BBC )
But the American media is still not interested in Ghislaine.
What the American mainstream media always willfully forgets is that Ghislaine Maxwell is the
key person and mastermind behind the whole pedo sex trafficking operation.
The key role of Ghislaine is not surprising. After all, her father was an Israeli super spy,
Robert Maxwell.
But perhaps this is the very reason why the American media is not interested.
For years Ghislaine has been at the center of a vast pedophile sex trafficking network. But
still to this day the American police has never dared to even interview her.
I think the answer to the question in the title of this article is pretty damn obvious to
anyone and everyone outside of the controlled media. smdh. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be
shocked to learn that pervert Jeffrey Epstein is still alive somewhere, not only do I not buy
the "suicide story," but I am not buying he was murdered either. Ghislane described the girls
involved in this pedophile ring/honey pot as "trash." If these girls are or were "trash" than
what in the hell does that this demonic witch named Ghislane Maxwell?
How World Bank arbitrators mugged Pakistan
By Jeffrey D. Sachs
Wall Street hedge funds and lawyers have turned an arcane procedure of international
treaties into a money machine, at the cost of the world's poorest people. The latest
shakedown is a 5.9-billion-U.S.-dollars award against Pakistan's government in favor of two
global mining companies – Antofagasta PLC of Chile and Barrick Gold Corporation of
Canada – for a project that was never approved by Pakistan and never carried out.
Here are the facts.
In 1993, a U.S.-incorporated mining company, BHP, entered into a joint venture (JV) with
the Balochistan Development Authority (BDA), a public corporation in Pakistan's impoverished
Balochistan province. The JV was set up to prospect for gold and copper, and in the event of
favorable discoveries, to seek a mining license.
BHP was not optimistic about the project's profitability and dragged its feet on
exploration. In the early 2000s, it assigned the prospecting rights to an Australian company,
which created Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) for the project.
In 2006, Antofagasta acquired TCC for 167 million U.S. dollars, and sold half to Barrick
Gold. Soon after the purchase, however, the original JV agreement with BHP was challenged in
Pakistan's courts.
In 2013, the Pakistan Supreme Court found that the JV's terms violated Pakistan's mining
and contract laws in several ways and declared the agreement – and thus the rights
claimed by TCC – to be null and void.
Specifically, the Court ruled that the BDA did not have authority to bind Balochistan to
the terms of the JV agreement; that it awarded the contract without competition or
transparency; and that it had greatly exceeded its authority and violated the law by
promising extensive deviations from the rules normally applicable to mining projects.
Moreover, the JV failed to obtain, and even to pursue, many mandatory approvals from the
state and federal governments, and BHP failed to undertake prospecting in a timely manner
required under the mining law.
The Supreme Court's decision came after years of public-interest litigation challenging
the deal for violations of domestic law and the rights of the public. In the meantime, the
BDA's chairman was found to have conflicts of interest and to be living beyond the means
afforded by his official salary, which in the Court's words was tantamount to corruption.
In a normal world, the Court's judgment would be respected absent proven evidence of
corruption or other wrongdoing against the justices. But in the world we actually inhabit,
the so-called international rule of law enables rich companies to exploit poor countries with
impunity and disregard their laws and courts.
When TCC lost its case in Pakistan's Supreme Court, it simply turned to the World Bank's
International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), in complete disregard
of Pakistan's laws and institutions.
A panel of three arbitrators with no expertise in or respect for Pakistan's legal
system ruled that TCC deserved compensation for all future profits that it allegedly would
have earned if the non-existent project, based on a voided agreement, had gone
forward!
Because there was no actual project, and no agreement for one, the arbitrators had no
basis to say what terms – royalties, corporate taxes, environmental standards, land
area, and other basic provisions – the governments of Balochistan and Pakistan would
have set. In fact, disagreement on many of those terms had stalled negotiations for
years.
Nonetheless, the ICSID panel arbitrarily decided that TCC would have had the right to mine
1,000 square kilometers, though the mining law forbade licensing such a vast area. The
arbitrators ruled that TCC would have received a tax holiday for 15 years, even though there
is no evidence that such a tax holiday was in the offing – or even legal. The
arbitrators decided that TCC would have benefited from a royalty rate several percentage
points below the mandatory statutory rate, though there is no reason why Pakistan would have
set such a low rate.
The arbitrators also ruled that TCC would have met all environmental standards, or that
the government would have exempted TCC from relevant requirements, though the mining area is
in a desert region subject to extreme water stress, and the mining project would have
demanded vast amounts of water. And the arbitrators ruled that to obtain the land needed for
TCC's pipeline, the government would have taken it from its owners and inhabitants.
The arbitration ruling is utterly capricious. An illegal project, declared null and
void by Pakistan's Supreme Court and never pursued, was found by the World Bank's arbitration
panel to be worth more than four billion U.S. dollars to TCC's owners, who had paid 167
million U.S. dollars for it in 2006.
Moreover, the tribunal declared that Pakistan must compensate TCC in full, with back
interest, and cover its legal fees, raising the bill to 5.9 billion U.S. dollars, or roughly
two percent of Pakistan's GDP. It is more than twice Pakistan's entire public spending on
health care for 200 million people, in a country where seven percent of children die before
their fifth birthday. For many Pakistanis, the World Bank's arbitration ruling is a death
sentence.
The ICSID is not an honest broker. One of the tribunal members in the TCC case is using
the same expert put forward by TCC for another case in which the arbitrator is acting as
counsel! When challenged about this obvious conflict of interest, the arbitrator refused to
step down and the ICSID proceeded as if all were normal.
Thanks to the World Bank's arbitrators, the rich are making a fortune at the expense of
poor countries. Multinational companies are feasting on unapproved, non-existent
projects.
Fixing the broken arbitration system should start with a reversal of the outrageous ruling
against Pakistan and a thorough investigation of the flawed and corrupt process that made it
possible.
Jeffrey D. Sachs, professor of sustainable development and professor of health policy
and management at Columbia University, is director of Columbia's Center for Sustainable
Development.
Antifragile states
Explains how globalisation has allowed small states to become major players and big cities to
outgrow their nation-states.
By Branko Milanovic
In a series of books, and especially in Antifragile, Nassim Taleb has introduced an
important concept -- that of being antifragile, referring to 'things that gain from
disorder'. 'Fragile' is, of course, the opposite: it connotes something that thrives under
stable conditions but, being brittle, loses, and at times loses big, amid volatility. In the
middle, 'robust' indicates resilience against uncertainty and turmoil, without the capacity
to profit from it.
The contrast between antifragile and the two other categories relates to that between
centralised, top-down formations (such as unitary states) and decentralised, bottom-up and
more flexible, federal structures. As an example of the latter Taleb takes Switzerland, with
its decentralised cantonal system and grassroots democracy.
But Switzerland is also antifragile in another sense. It has historically been a country
that benefited from turmoil and disorder outside its borders -- from wars, nationalisations,
uncertain property rights and outright plunder. In all these cases, whether Jews were trying
to save their property from 'Aryanisation', Chinese millionaires feared a revolution or
African potentates needed a haven in which to park their loot, Switzerland offered the
comfort of safety. It was (and is) the ultimate antifragile state: it thrives on
disorder.
Dubious legality
While Switzerland became emblematic of such a safe haven, it is hardly unique nowadays in
benefiting from it. Globalisation and worldwide turmoil, combined with openness of capital
accounts, have allowed many small economies to specialise in functions which run from asset
safety and money-laundering to tax avoidance and evasion. In most cases, the legality of such
transactions is dubious; many belong to the grey zone where neither full legality nor full
illegality can be attributed.
In western Europe, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Ireland have engaged in stimulating tax
evasion, including from neighbouring countries. In his Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge
of Tax Havens, Gabriel Zucman documents the large outflows from Switzerland and inflows into
Luxembourg's banking system which followed the (forced) decision by the Swiss authorities to
impose withholding tax on accounts held by foreigners.
Ireland's provision of safe haven from taxes to various large multinational corporations
received quite a lot of attention when the European Commission obliged the county to assess
these rates, particularly for Apple, at other than zero. In what may well be a singular
historical case, the Irish government complained about having to receive billions more
taxes!
Elsewhere, as in the Caribbean, small nation-states have specialised in providing the
legal framework for shell companies. In Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One
Percent, Brooke Harrington describes a single building in the Cayman Islands which houses
headquarters for several hundred companies. Shell companies have played an enormous role in
the money-laundering which followed privatisations in many east-European countries after
1989, as well as in providing cover for many illegal activities -- from drug and arms sales
to people-trafficking.
Cyprus benefited enormously from the Lebanese and Yugoslav civil wars, as well as from the
confusion over property rights in Russia and Ukraine. Montenegro, the smallest of the
ex-Yugoslav republics, had economically the most successful transition, not least thanks to
massive cigarette-smuggling.
Globalisation effect
All such states are antifragile in the sense that Taleb gives to the term. But their
success provides us also with a lesson in the effects of globalisation. It shows that the old
notion of state 'viability' -- based on a supposed threshold of size -- is now plain
wrong.
Under globalisation, the specialisation of small states into niche activities enables them
to prosper: they do not need to produce cars or mobile phones to become rich. They do not
need even to have a domestic market. It suffices to find an activity which relatively few
other countries offer and for which there is an increasing global demand, as the world
becomes more volatile, or lawless or corrupt. They become antifragile.
The success of such states is replicated at subnational level. Big cities such as London,
New York, Miami and Barcelona offer many of the services and amenities we find in small
nation-states (asset protection, expert money-laundering) but in addition provide
agglomeration externalities (increasing returns to scale thanks to the physical presence in
the same place of many companies) and thriving housing markets. They too are antifragile.
This has implications for the political life of the nation-states where such cities are
located. Global cities are increasingly linked to other global cities and other countries,
less and less to their own hinterland. They are what Fernand Braudel called villes-monde.
They remind us of medieval cities, which were often more powerful than much larger states.
The power of cities such as Venice and Genoa ended with the advent of the nation-states which
became political, economic and military behemoths, absorbing city-states or relegating them
to oblivion.
Voting differently
Globalisation is bringing them back, however. While nation-states politically and
economically fragment, and in some cases (as with climate change) show themselves to be not
the right loci to address a problem, the villes-monde thrive. Many already vote very
differently from the surrounding areas: London had a solid anti-Brexit majority (60 per
cent), Budapest, Istanbul and Moscow voted against their countries' authoritarian leaders and
New York is leading the 'rebellion' against its own citizen who is currently the president of
the United States.
The important political question in the 21st century will be how a modus vivendi between
the globalised large cities, and the elites living there, and the rest of their nations can
be achieved. Will there be a redistribution of political power within countries, endless
friction between the 'globalists' and 'nativists' or, in extremis, secession by the
antifragile villes-monde?
Branko Milanovic is visiting presidential professor at the Graduate Center of City University
of New York (CUNY).
"... The list of those who might have some knowledge of Epstein's criminal enterprise includes a sitting president, ex-presidents, ex-prime ministers, Justice Department officials, State Department officials, FBI agents, employees of domestic and international intelligence agencies, state prosecutors, local law enforcement, politicians, ex-politicians, lobbyists, titans of industry and finance, CEOs, attorneys, accountants, banks and bankers, celebrities, academics, scientists, political operatives and executives within the Fourth Estate. ..."
"... For example, how is it possible that Ghislaine Maxwell - the "Bonnie" to Epstein's "Clyde" - has yet to be charged with any crimes? Or, as far as the public knows, even been questioned by authorities. ..."
"... Public skepticism about the "investigation" spiked when, five weeks after his arrest, the FBI finally raided Epstein's "Lolita" Island. Epstein's "ranch" in New Mexico has still not been searched. ..."
"... Every person named in court documents or press reports as allegedly or possibly having sex with an underaged girl or young woman at Epstein's bequest has denied the allegations. Which begs the question: Who's telling the truth and who's lying? ..."
"... True or not, many Americans believe the Department of "Justice" will not prosecute (perhaps even question) scores of individuals who may have broken U.S. laws and who may have been victims of a disturbing blackmail operation. ..."
"... At its core, the Epstein case will reveal whether government prosecutors and investigators possess the courage and integrity to expose sordid truths about some of the wealthiest, most-connected, powerful people in the world, and perhaps reveal embarrassing truths about our government. ..."
"... Bill Rice, Jr. is a freelance writer in Troy, Alabama. He can be reached by email at wjricejunior@gmail.com ..."
More than four months after Jeffrey Epstein's arrest - and three months after his alleged suicide - it requires no opinion poll
to know that few Americans believe the story of the international sex trafficking ring orchestrated by Epstein and his alleged "co-accomplices"
will ever be fully told.
More specifically, many Americans believe that most (if not all) of the key questions regarding the case will remain unanswered.
For example
How many Epstein "associates" actually received sexual "services" from underage girls? Will all ( or even any
) of these people be identified, exposed and perhaps prosecuted? Were any of these individuals blackmailed, extorted or in any
way compromised?
Did employees within agencies of the U.S. government turn a blind eye to Epstein's activities? Was Epstein, in fact, "intelligence"
and, if so, on whose orders was Alex Acosta allegedly told to
leave Epstein
alone ?
Did Epstein continue his sex-trafficking operation even after being released from jail in 2009? If so, how was this possible?
Where did Epstein receive the money to fund his operation , including the acquisition of the largest private residence in
Manhattan, two secluded private islands in the Virgin Islands, a secluded "ranch" in New Mexico, two large jets and a helicopter?
Why, for years, did the "watchdog" press display no interest in a scandal that, if fully told, could qualify as the "story
of the century," a story that might implicate many more powerful people and government agencies than Watergate?
Pertinent facts surrounding Epstein's death, ruled a
suicide , have also yet to be
disclosed. One unanswered question: How was it possible an inmate who may have possessed "dirt" on the most powerful people in
the world could be left alone in his cell?
In short, at least in the opinion of many, the public will never learn how massively corrupt our system of justice may be, and
if a privileged class is in fact held to a different standard of justice, and/or is protected by the powers that be. Nor will the
public learn how prurient, immoral and brazen a cross-section of the world's elite may be.
Of course, authorities may, in fact, do their jobs and ultimately disclose the entire scale of Epstein's operation. Prosecutions
and plea deals to come could include a "Who's Who" of the world, and expose any government agencies that may have "looked the other
way."
At least theoretically, our government could expose a decades-long criminal operation, a revelation that very possibly would change
the way millions of people view the U.S. government; not to mention how the public views many powerful VIPs who navigate in the orbit
of politicians and policy-makers.
Once upon a time, the number Americans who believed justice would ultimately prevail in a case like Epstein's would probably have
filled a good-sized nation. Today, the number who posses this conviction might fill a medium-sized city.
Citizens who doubt the full story of the Epstein saga will ever be revealed have little trouble citing stories that explain their
metastasizing skepticism.
For example, plenty of people did notice when Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman suffered
no
adverse consequences following the gruesome murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi , a murder many people believe the prince ordered.
Others remain befuddled as UK authorities continue to insist that the government of Russia commissioned a hit team that used nerve
agents in the assassination attempt of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, this despite the copious
number of holes that pockmark the "official" story.
Similarly, the narrative that Syria President Bashar al - Assad "gassed his own people" - a highly
questionable proposition to many - has nonetheless been widely accepted as truth, at least by intelligence agencies and a press
corps that increasingly accepts official pronouncements as incontrovertible.
[ editor's note: see
Caitlin Johnstone's latest on two OPCW whistleblowers whose claims effectively dubunk the narrative]
The
aggressive prosecution (persecution) of Julian Assange is another story that disturbs at least some citizens. The fact so few
members of the mainstream press have rallied to Assange's defense has only deepened the depression of one-time idealists.
And these examples do not include the most dubious government narrative of them all, the assertion Saddam Hussein possessed weapons
of mass destruction , a false predicate that ultimately caused the death and suffering of millions of people.
Cynics could also point to an investigation that, unlike several of the above examples, did receive incessant press coverage -
the story that Russia somehow "rigged" or "hacked" a U.S. presidential election, a conclusion accepted as gospel by most in the mainstream
press, but viewed as preposterous by millions of Americans.
In these and other cases, a growing number of citizens have come to believe that official "investigations" and "official findings"
are either a sham or intentionally omit details which do not support the desired meme.
It's within this context that millions of Americans have latched onto the Epstein story and the growing conviction that our government
(and press corp ) have become more interested in concealing
truths than exposing them.
The Epstein story is not just the latest scandal of the week. The number of individuals who could have been involved,
or who might have worked to cover-up its existence, almost certainly dwarfs the number implicated in Watergate.
The list of those who might have some knowledge of Epstein's criminal enterprise includes a sitting president, ex-presidents,
ex-prime ministers, Justice Department officials, State Department officials, FBI agents, employees of domestic and international
intelligence agencies, state prosecutors, local law enforcement, politicians, ex-politicians, lobbyists, titans of industry and finance,
CEOs, attorneys, accountants, banks and bankers, celebrities, academics, scientists, political operatives and executives within the
Fourth Estate.
Almost five months after Epstein's arrest, one is struck by curious events that have already occurred and by developments yet
to occur.
For example, how is it possible that Ghislaine Maxwell - the "Bonnie" to Epstein's "Clyde" - has yet to be charged with any crimes?
Or, as far as the public knows, even been questioned by authorities.
Public skepticism about the "investigation" spiked when, five weeks after his arrest, the FBI finally raided Epstein's "Lolita"
Island. Epstein's "ranch" in New Mexico has still not been searched.
The public has also received no indication that authorities are, in fact, questioning any of Epstein's many "associates," especially
those who may have had sexual contact with girls recruited and groomed by Epstein and Maxwell.
Every person named in court documents or press reports as allegedly or possibly having sex with an underaged girl or young woman
at Epstein's bequest has denied the allegations. Which begs the question: Who's telling the truth and who's lying? To form an opinion
on this central question, authorities would presumably need to interview anyone with possible knowledge of alleged sexual or criminal
acts. Investigators could then seek information that either corroborates or impeaches each person's account. However, evidence is
growing that the protocol in a typical "he-said, she-said" investigation is
not being followed in the Epstein case. Instead, authorities may have simply accepted as truth the
statements of denial issued by powerful
public figures .
True or not, many Americans believe the Department of "Justice" will not prosecute (perhaps even question) scores of
individuals who may have broken U.S. laws and who may have been victims of a disturbing blackmail operation.
Perhaps authorities have
concluded it's better
to not know . Perhaps they realize if they interview one suspected "John," they'll have to interview every potential
"John." if this number ends up being massive, and includes a Who's Who of our society, important illusions about society's leaders
and our system of justice could be shattered.
At its core, the Epstein case will reveal whether government prosecutors and investigators possess the courage and integrity
to expose sordid truths about some of the wealthiest, most-connected, powerful people in the world, and perhaps reveal embarrassing
truths about our government.
Americans might soon learn what objective is more important to Justice Department officials:
Protecting the
rich and powerful from the consequences of their behavior, or confirming that a system of justice grounded in trust can still
be trusted.
Sadly, many Americans are convinced authorities will not do the right thing.
However, in proving skeptics wrong, authorities would accomplish at least four objectives, all noble. They would punish the guilty.
They would provide justice to victims too long ignored. They would deter future Epsteins and future "Johns," especially those unaccustomed
to being held accountable for their actions. And, perhaps most importantly, they would allow a ray of sunshine to pierce the shadow
of cynicism that's spread across our country.
While such a development might not restore all trust in government, it would be an eye-opening start. For those who believe the
moral character of a nation is important, it would send a message that all hope is not lost .
****
Bill Rice, Jr. is a freelance writer in Troy, Alabama. He can be reached by email at
wjricejunior@gmail.com
Read "A Short Course in Secret War"... Epstein was definitely an intelligence asset.
Ghislaine Maxwell was obviously his handler. The only question really is whether he was CIA
asset doubling for Mossad, or the other way around.
Apologies if someone already posted this but on Nov 16 Joe Rogan and Matt Taibbi discussed
the current state of the MSM in a wide-ranging conversation that I think most Barflies will
find very interesting:
“When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right
boot is of no consequence.” - Gary Lloyd. We Americans are willingly blind to truth.
It'll be the death of us.
Matt Taibbi: "they’re trying to sound like legitimate news, but they’re also
completely selling out at the same time " perfectly sums up news outlets today, on both
sides.
When I was a kid, i heard, on live radio broadcast, Oswald shot to death in Dallas Police
Station - still think that's a more blatant murder of Witness.
"We don't have any institutional respect anymore".. When even the broadsheets knowingly
sow falsehoods or subtly mislead the public on a regular basis, you'd better be prepared for
the harvest. You never win back respect from someone who's sussed out your con.
"Epstein's blackmailing operation needed very young women. He wouldn't have used any one of
them for more than a few years.!!" Jackrabbit@88
Young nubile women. Which means that to call him a pedophile or a person involved in a
pedophile ring is simply demagogy. A lie told to attract attention. If the charges made
against Epstein were true he will have been guilty of many things but there is no more
evidence of pedophilia on his part than there is of cannibalism.
Please stop the quibbling over Epstein being a literal paedophile or not. You are making
yourself look obtuse over the fact that he and his assistants and friends were running a
virtual prostitution and sex trafficking operation that sucked in huge numbers of teenaged
girls at varying stages of development. No-one here takes you seriously on this issue and you
only make yourself look more seedy the more you concentrate on the ages of the victims and
trying to prove Epstein is not a paedophile. If you have no compassion for the victims who
were lured into his web with false offers of money, work or other financial support, then
leave the subject of Epstein alone.
You are arguing in favour of lynch mob demagogy, Jen. And there is nothing seedier than that.
I have a great deal of sympathy for the victims in question. I also have some sympathy for
Epstein who seems to have been murdered while society looked the other way saying "served him
right, he was a pedophile."
And he wasn't, so far as we know. He was simply a rich man abusing his power over
vulnerable people- needy girls and frustrated guilt ridden old men. A very nasty business
indeed, to which we can add his apologies for the terrorist zionist state and his support for
the US Empire.
But once it becomes accepted that a man called a pedophile can be killed or tortured with
impunity we are half way down the road that led to Auschwitz and leads to Gaza. And we can be
assured that it will become a regular smear against dissidents-as it was against Assange-
that their sexual habits, tastes or behaviour put them beyond the pale.
Most of your comments are sensible and indicative of decency and thoughtfulness on your
part, which is why I urge you to be very careful on this and other matters not to follow the
bourgeois herd- Bill Clinton, for example is a war criminal and deserving of punishment. But
the only fault the bourgeoisie can find with him is that he is sexually promiscuous.
As to the specific charges made against Epstein, they will never be proved, which is
probably why he was killed, which was made very much easier when he had been labelled a
'pedophile' and driven out of 'decent society.' Which is itself, if you think about it, a
place so sordid-if you want to talk about trafficking look at a fashion house's sweatshops in
Bangladesh- that Epstein fitted right in.
@ bevin | Nov 23 2019 21:43 utc | 95
_________________________________
Thanks for this. I share your perspective.
It seems that "celebrity-class" reprehensible creeps are on the ascendancy-- or that may
be a perception induced by sensational, febrile Western mass-media coverage of all things
reprehensible and creepy. Unfortunately, so is binary thinking.
As it happens, I just watched a recent Rolling Stone "Useful Idiots" video; I'm ambivalent
towards hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper, but sympathized with Halper's outburst to the
effect that she's getting sick and tired of having to bend over backwards to defensively
point out that she's not "for" Trump, not a Trump fan, etc. every time she expresses
any point that is arguably in Trump's favor.
I can relate. Epstein induces a similar reaction: even attempts to simply be clear or
factual in matters relating to such social monsters provokes (self) righteous outrage.
BTW, I'm also ambivalent towards your comments because they reduce me to the status of
virtual "dittohead". ;)
Now you're really sinking into a pile of shit of your own making.
I am referring to the way you quibble over the definition of paedophilia, trying to narrow
it down to a purely biologically based definition in comments on previous MoA comments
forums, and now you accuse me of lynch mob demagoguery and trying to encourage others to do
the same.
If you had only said that you had sympathy for the victims, then we might agree to
disagree and let the issue go.
I am not happy that Epstein is dead: he is a victim of his own greed and desire to be
someone influential, and he ultimately was a plaything of others for whom he was running his
blackmailing scheme and the associated sex trafficking.
You continue to damn yourself by suggesting that "frustrated guilt ridden old men" were
also vulnerable and as much victims as the teenage girls were. Did any of these "old" men
(Prince Andrew in his 40s at the time, old? - maybe in the head but not chronologically) in
their frustration realise they were being manipulated by Epstein and contact the authorities,
even though they would have risked their careers and reputations? They had a choice in the
way that the teenage girls did not have a choice: they could have chosen not to participate
in the activities at Epstein's mansions or in Little St James and walked away.
I do not accuse you or other MoA barflies of such attitudes in the way you accuse me @ 96.
This is really low behaviour and you ought to be ashamed of that.
The Jeffrey Epstein scandal – Tara Brown reports how a New York billionaire
masterminded an international sex trafficking ring of young women, and why wealthy and powerful
men, including HRH Prince Andrew, are now implicated in the saga. Subscribe here:
http://9Soci.al/chmP50wA97J Full Episodes here
http://9Soci.al/sImy50wNiXL
"... "the Met Police has refused to answer detailed questions about the allegations and whether they ever spoke to Epstein, his friend Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew or anyone from the royal household". ..."
"... The duke's decision to step down from public duties last week came after a raft of companies and charities sought to distance themselves from him following his disastrous interview. It is thought that both the Queen and Prince Charles were instrumental in forcing the duke to stand down. Prince Charles is reportedly returning to the UK on Monday after a royal tour, when he is expected to hold crisis talks with his brother. ..."
Victims' tsar to query Force's decision not to act over Prince Andrew claims
The Met has said that its investigators reviewed all 'available evidence' in relation to disputed claims that
a 17-year-old was 'forced to have sex with Prince Andrew'. Photograph: Kirsty O'Connor/PA
The Victims' Commissioner is demanding that the Metropolitan Police explain its decision not to pursue a full
investigation into claims a teenager was trafficked to the UK to have sex with
Prince Andrew
.
The
Observer
understands that Dame Vera Baird QC, a former solicitor general and
chair of the Board of the Association of
Police
and Crime Commissioners, has taken a close interest in the allegations, first examined by Scotland Yard
in 2015.
Baird, who has focused on protecting victims of sexual and domestic abuse throughout her career, is currently
observing election purdah and cannot speak to the media.
However, prior to the election she made her views known to a
victims' rights campaigner
, telling him that she would be requesting a meeting with the Met once purdah was
over.
"Before the election was called I spoke at length with the Victims' Commissioner and we both find it
extraordinary that this matter was not proceeded with," Harry Fletcher said.
The Met has said that its investigators reviewed all "available evidence" after receiving a complaint relating
to claims that were made in court documents. It was alleged that in 2001 a 17-year-old, now known to be Virginia
Roberts, was "forced to have sex with Prince Andrew", purportedly at the London home of socialite Ghislaine
Maxwell, the one-time girlfriend of the late disgraced financier
Jeffrey Epstein
. His victims are now bringing claims for damages against his estate.
It is understood that lawyers for Roberts also independently contacted the force in 2016. But the Met chose not
to pursue a full investigation.
Channel 4 News
reported in August
that "the Met Police has refused to answer detailed questions about the allegations and
whether they ever spoke to Epstein, his friend Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew or anyone from the royal
household".
How seriously the Met took the claims is expected to form a key part of a
BBC
Panorama
investigation
into the Epstein scandal which will include an interview with Roberts and
is due to be broadcast in December.
The Duke of York denies having sex with Roberts. In his
Newsnight
television interview he said he did
not recall having ever met her.
But a photo of him with his arm around Roberts's waist has been widely circulated. There are claims the photo
is fake. The duke says he cannot remember a picture being taken when he was in Maxwell's house.
It is believed that lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, above, contacted the Metropolitan police in 2016.
"You would expect the
Crown Prosecution Service
to have provided pre-investigative advice in this matter," said Fletcher, an adviser
to Plaid Cymru and several victims' charities. "It needs to be confirmed whether this happened."
A spokeswoman for the CPS said its lawyers have "confirmed that we cannot comment on any input into
investigations where persons have not been charged".
In a statement the Met confirmed that it had received an allegation of "non-recent" trafficking for sexual
exploitation. "Having closely examined the available evidence, the decision was made that this would not progress
to a full investigation," the Met said. Given the heightened interest in the case, the Met confirmed it had
revisited the decision and concluded that it was the correct one. "Therefore no further action is being taken," it
said.
But speculation about what went on at Maxwell's home is unlikely to die down. Lawyers bringing civil claims
against the Epstein estate are looking to subpoena the duke, obliging him to provide testimony under oath as a
witness. The duke has confirmed that he would be prepared to help law enforcement agencies but has given no
commitment to cooperate with any civil actions.
The duke's decision to step down from public duties last week came after a raft of companies and charities
sought to distance themselves from him following his disastrous interview. It is thought that both the Queen and
Prince Charles were instrumental in forcing the duke to stand down. Prince Charles is reportedly returning to the
UK on Monday after a royal tour, when he is expected to hold crisis talks with his brother.
"The Syrian president said he saw links between the death of Le Mesurier and the deaths of
US financier Jeffry Epstein, Al Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden and Islamic State (outlawed
in Russia) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 'American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was killed
several weeks ago, they said he had committed suicide in jail. However, he was killed because
he knew a lot of vital secrets connected with very important people in the British and
American regimes, and possibly in other countries as well,' Assad pointed out....
"'Both of us know that they [representatives of the White Helmets] are naturally part of
Al Qaeda. I believe that these people, as well as the previously liquidated bin Laden and
al-Baghdadi had been killed chiefly because they knew major secrets. They turned into a
burden once they had played out their roles. A dire need to do away with them surfaced after
they had fulfilled their roles,' Assad explained.
"According to him, the death of Le Mesurier is the work of the CIA that got rid of the
founder of the White Helmets independently or through the intelligence services of other
countries. 'Of course, this is the work of the secret services. But which secret service?
When we talk about Western secret services in general, about Turkish and some other ones in
our region, these are not the secret services of sovereign states, rather these are
departments of the main intelligence agency - the CIA,' he stressed."
Many will nod their heads in agreement with Assad's hypothesis. Indeed, one of the more
amazing happenings related to taking terrorists prisoners is the resulting lack of
information related to the NATO-Terrorist bond we know exists but rarely sees the light of
day in the form of documents, radio intercept logs and other items, although we're constantly
treated to a massive parade of captured arms and munitions including chemical weapon
precursors stamped with their NATO country of origin.
"... They also failed to note the voice-modulated phone calls received by the law offices of the Becks which contained a caller-ID corresponding to the law offices of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a defendant in the case. In light of this context, the Becks hardly appear to be peddlers of conspiracy theory. ..."
The defense counsel also took issue with Jared Beck for what they termed as: " Repeatedly promoted patently false and deeply offensive
conspiracy theories about the deaths of a former DNC staffer and Plaintiffs' process server in an attempt to bolster attention for
this lawsuit." This author was shocked to find that despite the characterization of the Becks as peddlers of conspiracy theory, the
defense counsel failed to mention the motion for protection filed by the Becks earlier in the litigation process.
They also failed to note the voice-modulated phone calls received by the law offices of the Becks which contained a caller-ID
corresponding to the law offices of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a defendant in the case. In light of this context, the Becks hardly
appear to be peddlers of conspiracy theory.
The DNC defense lawyers then argued:
" There is no legitimate basis for this litigation, which is, at its most basic, an improper attempt to forge the federal courts
into a political weapon to be used by individuals who are unhappy with how a political party selected its candidate in a presidential
campaign ."
The brief continued:
" To recognize any of the causes of action that Plaintiffs allege based on their animating theory would run directly contrary
to long-standing Supreme Court precedent recognizing the central and critical First Amendment rights enjoyed by political parties,
especially when it comes to selecting the party's nominee for public office."
It appears that the defendants in the DNC Fraud Lawsuit are attempting to argue that cheating a candidate in the primary process
is protected under the first amendment. If all that weren't enough, DNC representatives argued that the Democratic National Committee
had no established fiduciary duty "to the Plaintiffs or the classes of donors and registered voters they seek to represent." It seems
here that the DNC is arguing for its right to appoint candidates at its own discretion while simultaneously denying any "fiduciary
duty" to represent the voters who donated to the Democratic Party under the belief that the DNC would act impartially towards the
candidates involved.
Adding to the latest news regarding the DNC Fraud Lawsuit was the recent
finding by the UK Supreme
Court, which stated that Wikileaks Cables were admissible as evidence in legal proceedings.
If Wikileaks' publication of DNC emails are found to be similarly admissible in a United States court of law, then the contents
of the leaked emails could be used to argue that, contrary to the defendant's latest brief, the DNC did in favor the campaign of
Hillary Clinton over Senator Sanders and that they acted to sabotage Sanders' campaign.
The outcome of the appeal of the DNC Fraud Lawsuit remains to be seen.
Elizabeth Vos is the Co-Founder and Editor in Chief at
Disobedient Media .
Leaked footage released by conservative web site Project Veritas of U.S. ABC journalist Amy
Robach's off-air rant has led to allegations that the Royals pressured the television network
to drop a story regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Subscribe:
https://bit.ly/2noaGhv Get more breaking news at:
https://bit.ly/2nobVgF
It seems to me an important tenet of the neoliberal ideology is the arbiter (or
auctioneer) role it gives the state and other political institutions with respect to markets.
Markets are the locus of justice and efficiency, but political institutions have the
essential task of organizing them and the competitions that takes place within them,
supposedly at least.
In practice, this translated in a central role of political power not only in privatizing
and breaking state monopolies, but also in the creation, sometimes ex nihilo, of markets
supervised by state or quasi-state agencies (shielded of electoral choices by regulatory or
ideally constitutional provisions) whose role was to organize concurrence in domains
classical liberal economic theory would consider natural monopolies or natural public
properties (education, health service, energy distribution, infrastructure of transportation,
telecommunication, postal and banking service etc.)
What an excellent and deep observation ! Thank you ! This is the essence of the compromises
with financial oligarchy made by failing social democratic parties. Neoliberalism is kind of
Trotskyism for the rich in which the political power is used to shape the society "from above".
As Hayek remarked on his visit to Pinochet's Chile – "my personal preference leans toward
a liberal dictatorship rather than toward a democratic government devoid of liberalism".
George Monblot observed that "Neoliberalism was not conceived as a self-serving racket [of
the financial oligarchy], but it rapidly became one." ( The Guardian, Apr 15, 2016):
Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It
redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and
selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that "the
market" delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.
Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty. Tax and regulation
should be minimised, public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and
collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the
formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous: a
reward for utility and a generator of wealth, which trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts
to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market
ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.
The free (as in absence of regulation for FIRE) market produces a tiny cadre of winners and
an enormous army of losers (10% vs 90%) – and the losers, looking for revenge, have
turned to Trump. Now entrenched centers of "resistance" (and first of all CIA, the Justice
Department, The Department of State and a part of Pentagon) are trying to reverse the
situation. Failing to understand that they created Trump and each time will reproduce it in
more and more dangerous variant.
Trumpism is the inevitable result of the gap between the utopian ideal of the free (for the
FIRE sector only ) market and the dystopian reality for the majority of the population
("without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape" Pope Francis, "Evangelii
Gaudium")
The situation in which the financial sector generates just 4% of employment, but accounts
for more than 25% of corporate profits is unsustainable. It should be reversed and it will be
reversed.
JQ wrote: 'The EU is inherently social democratic in its structure It is true that the
European social democracies have given some ground, notably with respect to privatisation,
but no genuinely neoliberal party has arisen or seems likely to.'
Back in the real world, here's a study from the LANCET, the medical journal --
To precis it very roughly, 50,000 or so Greeks died because of the EU's imposition of
its austerity policies on Greece. In other words, they died because Merkel in Germany and
Hollande in France were unwilling to tell their electorates they were bailing out German
and French banks, and so the bailout to those banks was carried out through the backdoor of
Greece with 92-93 percent of those funds going straight to commercial financial
institutions in Northern Europe and never touching the Greek economy.
Moreover, this was done at the same time that Mario Draghi at the ECB was initiating his
policy of doing "whatever it takes" in terms of quantitative easing. The entire Greek debt
would turn out to be less than a couple months of ECB money printing.
With blazing clarity, then, Greece tells us just what the EU is when the chips aren't
even down. Thereby, we come to the question at hand: What is neoliberalism?
The core of the neoliberal program is _not_ simply to "remove the state altogether from
'non-core' functions such as the provision of infrastructure services' and 'minimise the
state role in core functions (health, education, income security) through contracting out,
voucher schemes and so on'.
Rather, neoliberalism aims to promote the capability of capital to range globally and
make a profit anywhere it can without such impediments as might be erected by national
politicians and populations -- impediments like policies of redistribution or the
(re)nationalization of basic infrastructure. To this end, neoliberalism embeds and
neutralizes the governments of nation-states within supranational institutions like the
WTO, the IMF, GATT -- and the EU.
_That_ is the core of the neoliberal program. And, again, its very clear that from its
beginnings as the European Coal and Steel Community and the EEC, the EU was carefully
designed by its founders to be a neoliberal organization -- or an ordoliberal one, if we
wish to split hairs, given that many of those responsible subscribed to the German flavor
of neoliberalism.
'Ordoliberalism is the German variant of social liberalism that emphasizes the need for
the state to ensure that the free market produces results close to its theoretical
potential. Ordoliberal ideals became the foundation of the creation of the post-World War
II German social market economy and its attendant Wirtschaftswunder' .
To conclude: the European Union is arguably _the_ most quintessentially neoliberal
organization in the world today. Wolfgang Streek and Quinn Slobodian, among others, give
authoritative accounts of all this and how it's played out.
For those of us who can actually remember political arguments made by Democrats in the
80's and 90's, it's ridiculous to say that neoliberalism in the US never existed except as
a term of abuse.
People bragged about being a new type of sophisticated market loving Democrat in sharp
contrast to old liberal dinosaurs like Tip O'Neill. Cranky Observer mentioned Charles
Peters and the Washington Monthly.
There was also The New Republic -- remember the joke " even the liberal New Republic"
supports conservative policy X? The point was they took pleasure in being Third Way style
neoliberals who were often hawkish on foreign policy and eager to question liberal
Democratic pieties, to the point it became a cliche that Republicans would cite them.
The New Republic and The Washington Monthly were neoliberal the way Commentary was
neoconservative. ( There was also a period where you weren't supposed to believe there were
such people as neocons. It was supposed to be an antisemitic code word.)
I think the idea that neoliberalism never existed in the US except as a term of abuse
from leftists first popped up in the 2016 Democratic primaries. I don't have a cite -- it's
just my recollection.
Last year there was a curious attendee at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' annual writer's retreat; Jeffrey
Epstein's alleged 'madam,'
Ghislaine Maxwell
.
The daughter of an
accused Mossad agent
who died under mysterious circumstances, Maxwell was accused of
participating in Jeffrey Epstein's sexual grooming and abuse of underage girls. She was confirmed
to have attended at least one (and possibly three) of the secretive Bezos get-togethers, according
to
VICE
.
Two Campfire 2018 attendees independently confirmed to Motherboard that Maxwell attended the
exclusive retreat that year.
One of the sources maintained that Maxwell had attended
three Campfires including 2018
, but that Maxwell was not an attendee at Campfire 2019
held in early October. Campfire 2018 took place shortly before
a Miami
Herald investigation
resurfaced Epstein's crimes and Maxwell's alleged links to them, which
eventually led to new charges against Epstein. -
VICE
Maxwell was accompanied to Campfire by tech CEO and
Council on Foreign Relations
(CFR) member Scott Borgerson -
who denied in August
that he and Maxwell are romantically linked, or that she was hiding out at
his "secluded oceanfront property" in New England - as reported by the
Daily Mail
.
What is Campfire?
According to the report, it's an "
all-expenses-paid
retreat
courtesy of Bezos and Amazon that is completely off the record for attendees, who often
bring their spouses and partners on the free trip." It was started in 2009.
The secretive conclaves have had virtually no press coverage (aside from a 2014
New York Times
article), and has "largely remained under the radar
,"
reports
VICE
- which notes that Maxwell's attendance "further illustrates the connections that Epstein
and Maxwell maintained to the wealthy elite."
Tech moguls
,
presidents
,
well-known actors, and Prince Andrew
all came into their orbit even after Epstein's misdeeds
and Maxwell's alleged role first came to light. In fact,
a secretive
2011 dinner
in Long Beach, California
attended by Bezos and other tech CEOs was also
attended by Epstein
, less than two years after he served time for underage sex
crimes.
Maxwell, who has never been charged or arrested and has only faced allegations in
civil lawsuits
, has always denied any wrongdoing or involvement with Epstein's crimes and
has made few public appearances since they first surfaced in media reports. -
VICE
Maxwell is currently missing. Aside from a strange and
allegedly photoshopped photo-shoot
of her having a burger and milkshake at a California
"In-N-Out" (while reading a book about the CIA), her whereabouts are unknown.
Look at her familial background. Her sister, and her career. Her
father. Deeply inside CFR territory, as deeply as it gets. Her
sister Christine's company (after she'd created and sold Magellan)
was Chiliad. You've heard of it? Real time surveillance at epic
levels, purchased by governments and Intelligence agencies around
the planet and iirc she sold it recently, too. Chiliad was there
before most others and this family could swing a deep escape for
Everyone. Lol from Eps to Ghislane or anyone.
Inside. Big time inside.
Bezos typifies an individual who on their own are weak and usually
not very successful in relationships. As a youth was viewed as
geeky, strange not fitting in well with other students. We find
Bezos who uses his money to become more than life-like with the
extreme training and steroids.
He's power hungry and a ruthless
doggedness in business that built Amazon. Despite his wealth, his
wife couldn't remain in the marriage for reasons undisclosed.
My intuition is that while Bezos may have been weird as a youth
and not very popular, his power and wealth gained in later life
made the world of global trafficking, illicit drugs and pedophilia
a favorite pastime. Just my intuition, but he certainly fits the
picture of those elite who have reached the level through their
wealth of no rules..
NO rules. There's no surprise for me that Bezos chummed around
with Epstein and Maxwell.
"... Correction | An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated the name of the artist that accompanied Prince Andrew to Los Angeles in 2000 as Bruce, as opposed to Brett, Livingstone Strong. ..."
Several now-censored reports from the 1990s and early 2000s reveal that Prince Andrew’s involvement with the minors exploited
by Jeffrey Epstein is greater than previously believed.
While the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has largely faded from media coverage in the United States, it has continued to attract attention
abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom in connection with Epstein’s long-standing association with Prince Andrew, the Duke of
York and the Queen’s son.
The Epstein-Prince Andrew relationship has long been a fascination of the U.K. press, with numerous articles dating back to the
early 2000s detailing the most outrageous aspects of their relationship. Prior to that, Epstein had also garnered attention from
U.K. newspapers regarding his association with Ghislaine Maxwell, whose reputation in the U.K. is rather notorious, as was that of
her father, Robert Maxwell.
Yet, since Epstein’s arrest in July, many of these older articles on Epstein and Maxwell, as well as those focusing on the Epstein-Prince
Andrew relationship, have disappeared from the archives of several prominent U.K. media outlets that reported on these relationships
years ago.
Several of these articles, though largely scrubbed from the internet, were recently obtained by MintPress and a review
of their contents makes the likely motive behind their disappearance clear: several articles not only reference Epstein’s connection
to both U.S. and Israeli intelligence years before the first investigation into Epstein’s exploitation of minors had even begun,
but also reveal surprising aspects of Prince Andrew’s involvement with Epstein that strongly suggest that the Prince partook in illicit
sexual activities with minors to a much greater extent than has previously been reported.
Since Epstein was arrested the first time in 2006 and even more so after he was arrested again this past July, those named in
press reports as his associates have made every effort to distance themselves from the accused pedophile and sex trafficker. For
this reason, press reports that discuss Epstein long before there was any hint of the larger scandal are particularly important for
understanding the true nature of Epstein’s past associations with the rich and powerful.
In light of what is now known about Epstein’s sexual blackmail operation and sex trafficking activities, several reports from
the late 1990s and early 2000s contain details long since forgotten regarding Epstein’s relationship with Prince Andrew.
One particularly censored article that appeared in London’s Evening Standard in January 2001, for instance, gives several
indications regarding the apparent entrapment of Prince Andrew as part of Epstein’s sexual blackmail operation, which is now known
to have been connected to intelligence — specifically Israeli military intelligence, according to
recent revelations in the case.
The article, written by Evening Standard journalist Nigel Rosser, quotes a personal friend of both Ghislaine Maxwell and
Epstein as saying the following about their friendship with Prince Andrew:
The article further describes Epstein and Prince Andrew as having a “curious symbiotic relationship,” adding that “wherever Ghislaine
is seen with Prince Andrew, Epstein isn’t far behind.”
These quotes are particularly telling now that it is a
matter of record that Epstein was seeking out rich and powerful individuals and entrapping them with minors for the purpose of
blackmail. The fact that personal friends of Epstein and Maxwell at the time openly stated that their “manipulative” relationship
with Prince Andrew was “very premeditated” and “probably being done for Epstein” strongly suggests that not only was the Prince entrapped,
but that this type of entrapment activity was known to occur among those who were close to Epstein and Maxwell at the time.
Prince Andrew — as a member of the Royal Family, which is very protective of its social reputation, as well as the U.K. envoy
for investment and trade — certainly fits into the category of people that Epstein entrapped on behalf of intelligence: rich, politically
powerful, wary of damaging their social reputation, and thus susceptible to blackmail.
Notably, the year this article was published (2001), is the same year that Epstein’s most well-known accuser and victim, Virginia
Giuffre (then Virginia Roberts), claims that she was introduced to Prince Andrew by Maxwell and Epstein and forced to have sex with
the Prince on
at least three occasions. She has also claimed that Epstein would subsequently instruct her to describe the encounters in order
to learn compromising information about the Prince’s sexual habits and preferences. Her claims regarding Epstein’s trafficking of
her, specifically to Prince Andrew, have since been
largely corroborated by photographic evidence, flight logs, and public records.
This undated photo released by Virginia Giuffre shows Prince Andrew posing with a young Giuffre, Ghislaine Maxwell is shown standing
in the background
While it appears that Prince Andrew was deliberately entrapped as part of Epstein’s intelligence-linked sexual blackmail operation,
the article further suggests that Andrew’s involvement with the minors exploited by Epstein went far beyond his alleged three encounters
with Giuffre.
Rosser quotes a friend of Prince Andrew’s ex-wife Sara Ferguson as saying that Andrew “used to be smart when he came back from
abroad…He’s started having a girl massage him…He even travels abroad with his own massage mattress.”
During this same time period, Epstein and Maxwell also introduced Prince Andrew to “sex aid entrepreneur” Christine Drangsholt
during a trip to Mar-a-Lago and describes Andrew traveling to Los Angeles, where he was seen “flirting…with a group of young girls,”
and to Phuket, Thailand where he “wandered around the sex bars in the area’s red light district.” The Los Angeles trip saw Andrew
accompanied by artist and close friend of Michael Jackson, Brett Livingstone Strong, and Ghislaine Maxwell accompanied Andrew to
Thailand.
The mentions of massages from a “girl” and Andrew traveling around with Maxwell and Epstein while bringing along “his own massage
mattress,” are particularly striking given what is now known about Epstein’s sex trafficking and sexual blackmail operation. Court
documents, police reports, and other evidence have since made it clear that “massage” was
the code word Epstein and his co-conspirators used for sex with the minors he exploited and massage tables and sex toys were
frequently present together in the rooms of his various residences where he forced underage girls to engage in sexual acts with
him and others.
Most notable of all is the fact that claims of Prince Andrew receiving “massages” from girls during his trips with Epstein and
Maxwell were published in January 2001, at least two months before Virginia Giuffre states that she was first introduced to and forced
to have sex with the Prince in
March of 2001. This means that the claims of Epstein- and Maxwell-brokered “massages” refer to at least one other girl,
strongly suggesting that Andrew’s involvement with minors exploited by Epstein is greater than has been recently acknowledged.
Other recently reported information has added to the likelihood that Prince Andrew engaged in illicit activities with more minors
than Virginia Giuffre. For instance, the FBI
recently expanded its probe into Epstein’s sex trafficking network to include a specific focus on the Prince’s role. The FBI
has claimed that they are reviewing claims regarding Prince Andrew made by other Epstein victims aside from Giuffre, but did not
specify the nature of those claims.
Media
reports cite Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell as having developed a close relationship at least by February 2000, when Andrew
had spent a week at Epstein’s controversial New York penthouse at 9 East 71st Street. One
report published in 2000 by London’s Sunday Times claimed that the two were introduced by Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson,
often referred to as “Fergie” in the press, and further claims that this introduction had taken place several years prior. Epstein
is alleged to have
first been introduced to Andrew via Maxwell in 1999.
Years after this introduction was made, Jeffrey Epstein would provide financial assistance to Ferguson at Prince Andrew’s behest
by paying Ferguson’s former personal assistant £15,000, allegedly in order to allow for “a wider restructuring of Sarah’s £5 million
debts to take place,”
according to The Telegraph.
Oddly, by April of that year, Maxwell and Prince Andrew were spotted by their fellow diners at a posh New York restaurant holding
hands, prompting both the Prince and Maxwell to claim that their relationship was merely “platonic.” However, a
separate report from 2007 in the Evening Standard refers to Maxwell as one of Prince Andrew’s former girlfriends.
Within a year of their close relationship having become public, Andrew and Ghislaine
were reported to have gone on eight different vacations together, of which Epstein accompanied them for five. Andrew also brought
Maxwell and Epstein to celebrate the Queen’s birthday in 2000 as his personal guests.
Several reports from this period also provide interesting insight into Maxwell’s business activities and private life. One article
from 2000, published in London’s Sunday Times, states that “for all her high-profile appearances on Manhattan’s A-List merry-go-round,
she [Maxwell] is secretive to the point of paranoia and her business affairs are deeply mysterious.” It goes on to say that Maxwell
“has been building a business empire as opaque as father’s” — referencing Robert Maxwell’s business empire, which included multiple
front companies for Israeli intelligence — and adds that “her office in Manhattan refuses to confirm even the nature or the name
of her business.”
On her relationship with Epstein, it states that “he’s always kept her secrets, no one knows what their relationship is really
about.” An
article from 2001 claims that Maxwell’s Manhattan lifestyle, her New York residence and her vehicles were all purchased by Epstein
and that she was employed as his “consultant” while also acting as his social organizer and interior designer.
One
report on Maxwell — which was published by the Evening Standard in 2003, years before Epstein was first publicly revealed
to be exploiting minors — contains very telling information about Maxwell’s work for Epstein. It states “Ghislaine has risen, largely
thanks to property developer Epstein bankrolling her, to become queen of the billionaires’ social circuit,” adding that “Jeffrey
only likes billionaires or very young women and uses Ghislaine as his social pimp.” It then discusses “rumors” that
Maxwell was hosting “bizarre parties at her house to which she invites a dozen or so young girls, then brandishes a whip and teaches
them how to improve their sexual techniques.”
Given what is now known about Maxwell’s role as Epstein’s procurer of underage girls and her role in “training” them in sexual
techniques, this passage — again from 2003 — reveals that Epstein’s and Maxwell’s dark acts were pretty much an open secret for years
prior to Epstein’s first arrest in 2007.
One recurring theme in many of these older reports from the U.K. is their mention of Epstein’s alleged ties to both U.S. and Israeli
intelligence. For instance, Nigel Rosser’s 2001 article contains the following passage:
Another articl e, published in 1992 in the U.K.’s Mail on Sunday, describes “rumors” that linked Epstein to the CIA and
the Mossad and claimed that he had worked as “a corporate spy hired by big businesses to uncover money that had been embezzled.”
In addition, an article
published in 2000 in London’s Sunday Times also states of Epstein that “nobody knows whether he’s a concert pianist, property
developer, CIA agent, a math teacher or a member of Mossad.”
Notably, these rumors of Epstein’s links to intelligence have since been confirmed. The CIA-Mossad links to Epstein were detailed
in
a recent MintPress investigative series and several mainstream
media reports have corroborated Epstein’s time as a self-described “financial bounty hunter” who hunted down embezzled funds
and also hid stolen money for powerful people and governments.
Another odd commonality among these now-scrubbed articles on Epstein from the 1990s and early 2000s is that the majority of them
refer to Epstein not as a “financier” or “hedge fund manager,” as has become common in more recent reports, but as a “New York property
developer” and even as a “property mogul.”
For instance, the 2001
Evening Standard article introduces Epstein as an “immensely powerful New York property developer and financier” with
an “intensively secret business life” who “owns properties all over the country [the U.S.].” It also states that Epstein had made
millions from “his business links with the likes of Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner” during the 1990s
and beyond.
Wexner, in addition to his other close financial ties to Epstein,
was involved in several Manhattan real estate deals with Epstein and Epstein’s brother Mark while Donald Trump was then best
known for his career as a New York property developer and real estate mogul. Trump is also cited in a
separate article from January 2001 as being good friends with both Prince Andrew and his ex-wife. In addition, this article’s
claim regarding Epstein’s most notable “business links” in 2001 contradicts Bill Gates’
recent assertions that he never had any business relationship with Epstein and did not meet with him until 2013. Notably, Gates’
former chief scientific adviser was
recently named as an alternate executor for Epstein’s will and Gates appears on the flight logs of Epstein’s now-infamous private
plane. Gates, one of the world’s richest men, has since claimed that he only had met with Epstein in order to meet other wealthy
people and to discuss “philanthropy.”
Another article in the Evening Standard refers to Epstein as a “property mogul.” Several other articles — such as a
2000 article from Australia’s Sunday Mail, a 1995 article from Australia’s Sun Herald, and a 1995 article from the
U.K.’s Mail on Sunday — also refer to Epstein as chiefly a “property developer.” Interestingly, references to Epstein as
a property developer continued to occur (though less frequently) after his first arrest in 2007 and then again after his recent
arrest this past July, yet oddly only in non-U.S. newspapers.
Another article states that Ghislaine Maxwell had sold property on Epstein’s behalf and was also involved in the New York
real estate market.
While several articles in the early 2000s describe Epstein as both “property developer” and “financier,” even earlier articles
about Epstein refer to him exclusively as a “property developer.” For instance,
the 1992 article in the Mail on Sunday cited above referred to Epstein as “a shadowy, almost maverick New York property
developer” and noted that, even then, Epstein appeared “to have an inexhaustible supply of money and yet no one seems able to answer
the question of precisely what the source.”
As will be revealed in an upcoming MintPress investigative series, these references allude to Epstein’s shady business
activities in the New York and Palm Beach real estate markets from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s that were used to launder massive
amounts of money for organized crime and intelligence. It is likely for this reason that Epstein’s real estate activities during
this period have been so deliberately ignored by the U.S. press, even though other aspects of his financial activities were heavily
scrutinized in recent months.
Indeed, in examining Epstein’s involvement in real estate markets, particularly in New York, it becomes clear that those activities
have no shortage of controversial tie-ins to the current U.S. presidential administration as well as major New York power players
involved in suspect financial activity immediately prior to the September 11 attacks as well as the 2008 financial crisis. All of
those connections and more will be explored in MintPress’ upcoming investigative series on the financial crimes of Jeffrey
Epstein and their broader implications.
Correction | An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated the name of the artist that accompanied Prince Andrew to
Los Angeles in 2000 as Bruce, as opposed to Brett, Livingstone Strong.
(Republished from
Mint Press News by permission of author or representative)
Given that the thoroughly despicable Alan Dershowitz, who was also accused by Giuffre, had his lawyers combing through emails
between Roberts/Giuffre, and found emails in which she stated she didn't know who Dershowitz was, this appears to be little more
than another shakedown.
Until someone comes up with a photo of Andrew boinking Roberts, there is no reason to believe her.
This long winded column is not about "reports" its about newspaper article speculation.
Call me naive, but it seems to me that with Andrew's connections, this bimbo would have met with an accident by the time she
started in on Maxwell being a procurer.
I've had my picture take with famous people, it doesn't mean any sexual relations occurred.
I've been around, travelled a bit and lived on the streets for a few years many
years back and even I had met someone who was a victim of Epstein as a young girl.
I did not realise it was him she was talking about until recently but it all falls into place now.
Andrew's association with Epstein in itself and the proven lies being told about it are enough to show his guilt.
You believe whatever makes you feel good but not only was Epstein a pedo blackmailer and well known as such for many years
you can use your own eyes to see the body on the Gurney is not Epstein by a wide margin.
Not surprisingly he has been spotted back on his island actually since his alleged suicide.
He is too valuable to the intel agencies which use him to be allowed to die or get locked up.
For instance, the FBI recently expanded its probe into Epstein's sex trafficking network to include a specific focus on
the Prince's role.
The FBI has claimed that they are reviewing claims regarding Prince Andrew made by other Epstein victims aside from Giuffre,
but did not specify the nature of those claims.
Yes, I'm sure the FBI, the same utterly compromised organization that was so complicit in the Trump/Russia coup/hoax, is working
very hard to investigate the Epstein case.
@Curmudgeon If the email report is true, it's more likely she didn't know who Dershowitz was at the time she was forced to
have sex with him than her making it up.
As one of Epstein's chief advisors going back 25 years, one would assume Dershowitz
was intimately aware of if not guiding Epstein's espionage on behalf of Mossad.
Moreover, Fox News continues to rely on Dershowitz for spin and so much so as to presumptively implicate Fox News as a limited
hangout for Mega and Israeli intelligence in the ongoing cover up.
@Curmudgeon Giuffre, said she had sex with Andrew in Britain, but Andy could have easily and perfectly legally had sex with
younger (and much better looking) girls than the at least 17 year old Giuffre in Britain.
Andrew does not particularly like young girls, when he was young himself he went for much older women.
His wife Sarah Ferguson and American girlfriend Koo Stark were both older.
Andrew has been tabloid fodder, but he is not and never was a person of influence even by the standards of the almost entirely
ceremonial royal family.
I think he was good PR for Epstein.
Andrew being seen with Epstein after his conviction is difficult to explain if Andy was some kind of agent of influence asset
for Epstein's putative organisation.
Andy has been discredited by not immediately dropping him.
@Sick of Orcs Where were the underage girl's parents? Do you think Prince Andrew's daughter could be flown off from her high
school to some Caribbean Island to be passed around? Or Epstein?
Why is it that these white girls are in a position where they can be exploited like this?
How can some old pervert show up at a public high school and start recruiting white girls for his sexual pyramid/bribery scam?
Why are underage white girls so sexually sophisticated at age 16?
@Rabbitnexus Have you been reading Stephen Fry's memoirs? At the kind of small schools the Royals went to there was none of
that going on for anyone,certainly not them.
Andy was rumoured in upper class circles to have went gay for a while after his
divorce though.
BTW the photo of Andy with Guiffre and Ghislaine Maxwell also in the shot was taken at Maxwell's central London house.
Guiffre was 17 years at least as she now admits, so there was no crime in (16 year old is the age of consent) Britain even
if he had been fucking her brains out.
So even if he had film, where was the blackmail?
For people who speak French, it is very interesting to read Gerard Fauré book and liste to his interviews :
He's father was a physician and sub-direction of WHealthOrg and he describes paedophilia, prostitution, drug and trafficking
with political and media elites.
@nietzsche1510 When you consider Chabad's overt hostility toward non-Jews, to the extent non-Jews are dogmatically said to
have no souls and should be exterminated, save only so many as are needed to serve the Jew, it follows their presence within the
CIA, FBI, State Dept, etc is presumptively as dangerous a security breach as having Capone's men in the Chicago police or serving
as judges.
Any sane investigative heuristic would assume their guilt within the relevant reference class of Israeli espionage
and Jewish criminality.
As a member of the Royal family he should have known that he had wealth, power
and privilege but not nearly enough not to exercise great care in picking his friends.
They're the royal family, for God's sake.
They're expected to be predictable, traditional and stodgy.
@Gordo No, I am questioning the entire framework around them.
Parents.
Society. Economics.
Cultural mores.
Why is it so easy for some old pervert to pass the word that he is willing to pay a few lousy bucks (Like $300 even though
he is a billionaire) and half a high school's tenth grade girls will rush over to his house for a huge orgy session.
Why are they prepared to do these things?
And why do they appear to working class white girls? Not Jews.
Not Asian girls.
Not Muslim girls.
Nope, it was white Gentile girls.
And how are they so sexually sophisticated at the age of 15 or 16?
Is it biological? Are white girls simply more inclined to do sexual acts for money at an early age?
BTW the photo of Andy with Guiffre and Ghislaine Maxwell also in the shot was taken at Maxwell's central London house.
Guiffre was 17 years at least as she now admits, so there was no crime in (16 year old is the age of consent) Britain even
if he had been fucking her brains out.
Randy Andy denied there was any sex, so your legal strategery is not available to him.
Besides, the optics of that photo are disastrous, and well-deserved.
Jeff Stryker makes an incredibly good and valid point that needs addressing.
If anything, the Epstein case, not only promotes Jewish predation upon the non Jews, but the moral and ethical decline of the
west.
The 60's saw that begin.
Young women, even from poor working class families were still taught to have manners and be chaste.
Fathers were incredibly protective over them.
That all changed and we can certainly blame cultural Marxism which obliterated our cultures.
And we can also blame the rise of power within woman and ultimately the rise of single mothers, who see their daughter as 'best
girl friends'.
They go out, together, on the hunt for men, mother in her mid thirties, dressed the same as her daughter and the daughter 17/18
trying to solicit sex.
I was out on the weekend, with friends, after a party, in a nightclub, being approached by a 20 year old.
Her mother was there and then they both had an argument with one another, because the mother also showed interest.
I quickly left as I had no interest from the start.
The west is in a moral and ethical, rapid state of decline.
@Sean Your comment is rather absurd -- "Andy" -- what, are you on a first name basis with the useless mother fucker? -- almost
from the moment I saw the foto reproduced here, I felt "Prince Andrew" was a lying weasel -- here is the only thing I could possibly
say/ask that is even slightly in his favor: is he really so fucking stupid that he would allow such a foto to be taken? -- but
the answer to that question is probably 'yes'.
If it's a spy operation then what sort of info could he provide? For blackmail what sort
of policies could he affect? Perhaps Epstein liked hobnobbing with a 'prince'.
In this case this person is hardly different from the thousands of sex-tourists going to places like Thailand looking to obtain
cheap and often underage sex.
He's just got a title, that's all.
The entire British royal family are just a clown show anyway.
The enduring mystery of Epstein's life is how anybody managed to call him a "hedge fund manager" with a straight face.
He was
so blatantly full of shit.
Actual investment professionals were left speechless by his make-believe bafflegab strategies.
Hedge.
He couldn't tell you what Black-Scholes is if his 3:15 dick massage depended on it.
He wouldn't know a Gaussian copula if it copulated with him.
The suggestion that an autodidact's knack for Algebra II & Trig and maybe AP Calculus prepared him for securities analysis
only goes to show how stupid CIA thinks you are.
@HarbingerJeff Stryker makes an incredibly good and valid point that needs addressing.
And your comment is incredibly dumb, because in this context his "point" is irrelevant -- Epstein was accused of statutory
sexual crimes -- in the case of statutory crimes, there is no such thing as "consent" on the part of the victim --
it's simply against the law (for good reason) to engage in such acts with females who are underage -- everything else, eg whether
'the west is in a moral and ethical, rapid state of decline' or not, is a matter for another discussion.
@Jeff Stryker Young white girls are addicted to snapchat, instagram, and pornography . Snapchat and Instagram are softcore
porn sites that enable these girls to get attention from strangers, and attention to a woman –particularly a young woman– trumps
everything.
You ask how in the world young white girls could be groomed by disgusting Muslims (and they ARE disgusting), well,
they're given attention by these swarthy orcs.
And attention is everything to a young white woman.
Excitement is everything to a young white woman.
In fact I don't even think Epstein needed to pay these girls, though of course a couple hundred was nothing to him.
Young white women don't care about their heritage, their family, or their honor.
They only care about their depraved appetites being satisfied, by who or what, it doesn't matter.
They simply want attention.
True it is the fathers of these whores that are -- in the end– to blame, and I freely admit, the young white men of the West
are similarly depraved, but I don't think my description of these women is off
@Chet Roman Guiffre was working in a Trump resort and her father, who was a manager there, ran her to the interview for the
job she was offered by Epstein.
Guiffre is now being represented by the top lawyers in the country, Jewish of course and bitter
rivals of Dershowitz.
As in so many cases this boils down to arguments between Jews.
@Wizard of Oz I don't think "forced sex" was the issue but the fact that under age sex is illegal, and I don't really think
that you would have read any headlines that the queen's boy is a sex offender, which is something that has always been prevalent
in the so called British royalty.!!!!
@giddyup At 45 years old I am no longer a young man or up on youth.
I am a middle-class white, by the way.
Most 15 year old girls when I was 15 in 1989 were virgins.
A few slags, yes, but the idea of an ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL OF GIRLS selling their bodies would have been ridiculous. Ridiculous.
Back in 1989 porn was around, but girls had no interest in watching it or women.
Even most grown men in 1989 did not watch porn habitually.
It was mostly teen boys, frat guys and a few dirty old men who watched porn.
The idea in 1989 of a female porn addict, much less a 15 year old girl, would have been impossible.
Nobody would have believed it.
Girls in 1989 cared more for their reputation than attention.
Rumors used to fly back in 1989 when some 15 year old girl had sex with a boy her own age that was relatively uncommon for
middle-class or even working-class whites.
I have not been in the tenth grade in thirty years.
Heck, I have not lived in the US in 20 years.
But it is astounding the degree to which sexual morality has changed among young white girls.
Even working class ones.
As for the British preteen girls, I suspect this is proximity.
These are poor whites who just did not sell their house in time before their community became a Caliphate/ghetto of Pakistanis.
@eah How many times can we state that Epstein and his slut B J queen wife/madam/whatever Maxwell was were amoral human pieces
of shit before we start to examine the underlying cause?
Epstein was no Charles Manson with hypnotic Rasputin charm.
And Maxwell was not kidnapping girls at gunpoint and forcing them over to the mansion.
Which leads me to ask:
What kind of idiot parent lets their 15 year old daughter fly off to an island in the Caribbean alone with some creepy Jews?
I mean it is one thing to lie to your Mom and sneak off to a slumber party or something but where were Mom and Dad when some 10th
grade girl is being flown by two Pedos off to the Virgin Islands!
How is it that half of a 10th grade of girls from a single high school are such hardened hookers at age 15 that they will rush
over to trade their bodies for cash like hardened call girls?
We know about child prostitution in desperately poor countries like Brazil or Cambodia but this kind of poverty exists in Southern
Florida among white people!
Where is Dad? Dad just doesn't care that little Suzie in the ninth grade is off to some ungodly EYES WIDE SHUT orgy with a
sinister cabal of rich people on some island in the Caribbean for the weekend .Back when I was in 10th grade girls had to lie
to go to a slumber party.
$300 is really that much to young girls in this day and age that they trade in their virginity to some creepy old pervert?
Forget Epstein and what he did.
He did it because he could.
There will always be guys that do that.
Amorality is as cheap as table sugar.
But what is does it say about white girls in society today?
I never understand those who think the royals are a supreme elite in Britain.
Rupert Murdoch and his family now that is real
wealth, power and privilege.
Anyone else who did what Murdoch and his son did with bugging people's phones would accessing the police computer and paying
them for information ect ect would get a term in prison.
Vermin.
But the establishment let them get a stranglehold over the media, so they are untouchable.
@Jeff Stryker White women in both countries, as a matter of fact, are so utterly brainwashed they mistake giving the edge
in elections to their families' executioners as proof of their empowerment.
I'm not sold on this man's sophistication or the purported CIA web of blackmailing syndicates he supposedly he had behind
him.
If this were the case, why hang around a local high school?
What sophistication? He ran a blackmailing op for an intelligence service most likely. He was crude and clumsy because he didn't
have to be subtle and deft.
Clumsy ole him didn't get caught for a long time (how did that happen?), and, when he did get caught, he got let go (how did
that happen?).
@bluedog 1) Guiffre was 17 at least, she originally claimed to be 15 but employment records in the defamation case led her
to admit she was a full 2 year older when she started working for Epstein.
While she was working for him she had a boyfriend
who was Epstein's bodyguard.
She finished at 19.
2) The photo was taken in Britain where Giuffre says she had sex with Andrew.
3) The age of consent in Britain then as now was 16.
Andrew committed no crime having sex with her in Britain and possibly not in America either .
4) If Giuffre was, as she claims, a trafficked sex slave for a honeytrap blackmailer pimp, how could she possibly have come
into possession of a photograph that was Epstein's bread and butter?
How many times can we state that Epstein and his slut B J queen wife/madam/whatever Maxwell was were amoral human pieces
of shit before we start to examine the underlying cause?
You aren't interested in the underlying cause, though.
You're interested in thinking and talking, a lot, about slutty tenth-grade white girls and the slutty, sexy, oh so interesting
things you think they're up to.
Parents should not be putting their children in modelling agencies PERIOD! They do so for their own greed, having failed in
their lives and use their children as commodities to financially gain from.
It's immoral.
Let us also understand as well that paedophilia is having sexual intercourse with pre-pubescent children.
A girl who is menstruatng and boy who is having wet dreams, producing sperm are now women and men.
They are, by nature's decree, adults and ready to procreate.
Does this mean that I have sex with children who are menstruating and producing sperm? Good God no, but I am merely explaining
that nature is above man, not the other way around and society is wrong on the definition of adult and child.
That stated, yes, sexual predators DO groom the young.
I won't deny that.
And this is PRECISELY WHY I am an anarchist and promote anarchy.
Were there no police to PROTECT these sexual predators, society would deal with them incredibly fast – noose around the neck,
hoisted over a tree bough, strung up and their bellies opened up.
Nobody really cares about 17 year old courtesans who "know" old men for money unless they can watch it on the internet.
The
oldest profession is so common around the world it is telling that the American propaganda system with its police state played
up the salacious aspects of sensationalized sex to hide, obscure and protect the real crimes of the elite – and then not say another
word about it while leaving the surveillance and opinion forming to the less than main stream media outlets.
Hedge fund manager Epstein's real troubles were probably too complicated for most of the zombies to understand because they
don't really understand finance, Only massive international debt keeps the dollar afloat, and the military.
The elites have counted on widespread ignorance in the sheep like public – the criminal law really only applies to the poor.
Lots of Americans would have gladly bedded old men for thousands of dollars when they were teenagers too knowing what they
know now but didn't know then
1) Guiffre was 17 at least
2) The photo was taken in Britain where Giuffre says she had sex with Andrew.
People should note: the info commenter Sean gives here essentially matches what Giuffre/Roberts says about "Prince Andrew",
eg in her affidavits -- but the fact that it was not statutory rape does not make it any less tawdry, and therefore something
he would naturally want to strongly deny -- what her interest might be in lying about him in particular is far less clear
-- I personally still think he is lying .
What's not known is what other girls/young women, perhaps some underage, he may have had sex with thru Epstein -- because Epstein
was murdered (duh), the investigation was severely blunted.
@Harbinger A hot 34 year old mom and hot 16 year old daughter together in a bar on the prowl for a 3 some.
Standard porn
movie plot.
Watch your porn movies if you like.
Why repeat the plots here? Are the plumbers and pizza delivery porn actors girls and the housewives men porn actors now? Pool
girl and house husband must be the new genre in porn.
And if those bars you frequent are so tawdry and immoral, why do you keep going to them?
You're behind the times.
Those hook up bars and all bars are having problems surviving, especially the gay bars.
Gays use Grindr heterosexuals use Tinder.
Cheaper no buying drinks or driving to the bar, wasting hours chatting being rejected, finally finding someone then driving
to his or her place for sex, then driving home.
@Alden I didn't read that many of Epstein's victims were Hispanic.
From what I can read the victims were white and from chaotic backgrounds.
Maybe it was a poor high school! Must have been poor for 50 students to rush out and trade their bodies for cash to some leathery
old Jewish man.
The idea that some girl could show up at homeroom and say "pssttt, there is the old creepy couple who are offering $300 if
you'll go to their house and prostitute yourself."
Epstein was accused of statutory sexual crimes -- in the case of statutory crimes, there is no such thing as "consent"
on the part of the victim
Not true because lack of consent would mean a far more serious charge .
Consent is not a defence to under age sex, but refusing to recognise there was consent by a 17 year old girl (Giuffre started
with Epstein when she was 17) is a mere legal fiction.
While she worked for Epstein, Guiffre had a boyfriend.
And when you first appeared on this site you claimed that most of the White girls in your high school were drug addicted tattooed
teen mother prostitutes.
And yes, prostitutes do recruit other prostitutes as you well know.
You've made a living in the sex and porn industry your entire life.
How do I know this? I read your posts bragging about it.
And sneering at the White American men who stayed here and managed to make a good living at normal jobs.
On the main subject of gossip I would say that the pictire of Andrew and Giufre/Roberts would be enough for a jury to disbelieve
any allegation of forced sex.
I am pretty sure that nobody thinks that Prince Andrew violently raped underage girls.
But soliciting prostitutes is illegal in many places, soliciting underage prostitutes is illegal everywhere, trafficking prostitutes
over state borders is illegal, manipulating minors to have sex is illegal in most places, knowingly using prostitutes that have
been trafficked/manipulated/forced to do what they do is illegal etc.
etc.
And not reporting it is also crime.
As is knowingly using the results of crime of someone else to your personal gain.
Andrew should convince the jury that he did not know how and why Virginia Roberts happened to be in Epstein company and why
she was so eager to have sex with him.
And court system being as corrupt as it is, he probably will succeed.
@Chet Roman When did Ghislaine Maxwell convert to Judaism?
This about her mother from Wikipedia:
"She was born Elisabeth Jenny Jeanne Meynard in La Grive, near Saint-Alban-de-Roche, France, to Louis "Paul" Meynard and Colombe
(née Petel) Meynard.
Paul Meynard was a Protestant descendant of the Huguenot aristocracy and Colombe Meynard was a Roman Catholic (whose marriage
to a Protestant resulted in her excommunication).
Her father Paul owned a silk-weaving factory and was the mayor of the village.
Elisabeth had one sibling, an older sister, Yvonne.
Her parents sent her to England at age nine to attend the convent of Our Lady of Compassion at Acocks Green in Birmingham.
In 1932, she returned to France.
Elisabeth Meynard studied law at the Sorbonne"
There is nothing about her converting to Judaism before Ghislaine's birth or at all.
You have probably not worked in social services or law enforcement.
Part of it is probably to do with getting older men to provide them with drugs and alcohol.
Obviously not all working class white girls get into this scene, but some of the more delinquently inclined ones do, especially
when they come from homes where there is drink, drugs, and crime.
One of the most stunning statistics I have ever heard, which has been verified, is that 33% of the men born in Britain in 1953
have at least one criminal conviction.
These will be nearly all white men, born before there was any kind of drug problem in England, whose parents were veterans
of World War II.
I was born two years earlier, but if I had been asked to guess the number of that cohort who had criminal convictions, I would
have guessed around 5%.
Nope! Not even close.
In fact 9% of the women born the same year had criminal convictions too.
Having lived in Florida for many years, it would not surprise me in the least if an equal number or greater of the men of the
same age as Ms Giuffre/Roberts' father's generation living in Florida have similar records.
Certainly, in various areas of social services, it is quite difficult to find male employees as a large proportion of potential
applicants are ruled out for criminal records.
So there are a lot of delinquent families living in a trailer park near you, and when relatively large amounts of money, like
$300 are being handed out in no questions cash, money talks and there are plenty of people ready to lend an ear.
@lauris71 You are getting confused with th Florida schoolgirls under age sex and soliciting conviction of Epstein.
Epstein
never faced any charges at all in relation to Virginia Roberts/Giuffre, and she was not used as a witness by prosecutors either.
They obviously did not think her stories were credible.
Rich men bang the help, and I can believe Epstein did her.
Her assertion to have been sleeping with presidents and prime ministers on Epstein's orders makes is highly dubious though.
Giuffre being employed by Epstein as a masseuse is hardly evidence of her being any kind of prostitute or victim that Andrew
had a duty to inform the authorities about.
Andrew denies having any sexual contact with her.
There simply is no possible case against Andrew. The royals are used to these kind of baseless allegations.
I would like someone to tell me why she was in possession of that photograph if Epstein was the blackmailer .
@Harbinger The people who made these laws were just trying to set some guidelines to protect young girls and boys from predators.
A civilized society is a society of laws which may not seem logical, especially over the passage of time, but nevertheless were
intended to protect the young.
Our society has changed dramatically and young people have more knowledge about sex than old people did 100 years ago.
The one thing that hasn't changed is that while nature might make young girls of 12 able to get pregnant, it doesn't mean that
their maturity is capable of fully appreciating the gravity of the situation.
The laws are still valid because a certain segment of older men need to be kept in their place and give the state the means
to prosecute those that violate the law.
Most men who might approach a 12 year old girl for sex if it was totally legal don't because there are severe penalties for
doing so.
The men who aren't controlled by the threat of punishment for any wrongdoing fill our prisons.
Just because the system is flawed doesn't mean that these child protection laws should be thrown out.
Look at countries that have little or no protection for minors, are they better than what we have? If you don't like it here
you can always move to Thailand, India or the Philippines that have little or no protection for children. Oh, I just heard, they've
started deporting people who are caught violating young children back to the US or Europe.
Thanks for the article and the organization of its contents..
they help.
But I think it might be more productive to focus on how to frame a set of null hypotheses in complete enough fashion to allow
proactive involvement of every person interested in getting to the truth of this question Does external foreign or criminal influence
control or influence the behaviors of persons, agencies or elected officials in the USA? if so what agency, person or contractor
has not been compromised ?
I think a great deal of investigative journalism should be framed in hypothesis to be tested formats..
Then, for each hypothesis discuss the matters related, present the then known facts and prove or disprove or leave open for
want of evidence to prove the null the hypothesis..
By using the hypothesis frame work, the journalist commits the audience to the investigation..
Articles such as this one come and go..
people forget the names, points made and miss or ignore items missing from the article..and cannot later retrieve the article
itself.
But the hypothesis that still stand keep getting closer and closer to the failure of evidence to prove the null.
By employing a method of research as a journalist endeavor (say by creating and numbering a set of hypothesis) and then by
setting out to prove the null for each of the hypothesis ( may serve to keep the salient facts in everyone's mind and help to
discover and properly state updated and related hypothesis to be tested.
The collective works remained connected, and can lead to a final statement for which no nullifying evidence exist.
Hypothesis: At least one of Epstein's behavior was directed by a Mossad agency.
<= what evidence proves this statement wrong?
Hypothesis; Epstein modified at least one of his behaviors to suit or accommodate a Mossad Agency.
Hypothesis: X was (is) directed by a Mossad agency.
<= what evidence proves this s statement wrong?
Hypothesis: The FBI is directed by a Mossad agency < what evidence proves this statement wrong?
Hypothesis: At least one behavior of highly placed persons in the FBI was influenced by a Mossad Agency <what evidence proves
this statement wrong? and if slightly wrong, how should the hypothesis be amended to accommodate in the hypothesis the new or
better understood information.
Hypothesis: At least one of Trump's behaviors was (is) directed by a Mossad agency < what evidence proves this statement wrong?
Hypothesis: Epstein was a CIA agent?
Hypothesis: At least one of Epstein's behaviors was directed by a CIA agency.
Hypothesis: Members of the CIA are directed by one or more foreign agencies.
Hypothesis: Epstein, et.
al was a CIA Agency
Hypothesis: Epstein was directed by an agency of Saudi Arabia..
Hypothesis: The political party (D or R) candidates for elected office in the USA are denied access to party backed candidacy
until and unless the hopeful person candidate has been compromised by a Mossad Agency?
To prove the null (that this statement is wrong) it is only necessary to show that at least one of the elected persons h/n/b compromised
by a Mossad Agency?
Until such proof is presented the hypothesis and statement stand.
What is needed is an ever narrowing set of continuously undated and restated and improve hypothesis or set of hypothesis which
stand as true until evidence sufficient to prove their positive statement ( the null ) wrong.
If the journalist involves everyone's help it might not be long until a lot of questions appear that need evidence to deny
them.
Active searches for the answers and evidence by the audience could result in proving nulls and finally shed a lot of light
on this problem the journalist is investigating.
Also such a method makes it possible to advance ideas that might be impossible using narrative methods only
IMO.
What's so damning about everyone smiling and so happy .
As if people never fake-smiled for cameras?
Once Randy Andy denied there was any sex, the 'UK's age of consent' argument no longer mattered.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre's criminal complaint is the encounter was non-consensual, she was ordered or otherwise coerced to
perform a sexual act with someone she never would have of her own choosing.
JFK did similar, using his authority to coerce frightened intern and then virgin Mimi Alford, whom he later allegedly passed
around to others epstein-style.
@Sean Look, I find you tiresome, in some ways obtuse, and would normally just ignore you -- but:
Not true because lack of consent would mean a far more serious charge.
I thought what I said was pretty clear: when one party is underage, consent plays no role in whether a criminal act occurred
: it's a crime, period -- consent/no consent -- you may be right: if the sex was forced, perhaps there are normally additional
charges -- I don't know (and don't really care, as it is not relevant here).
I do not give a damn if Giuffre/Roberts consented or not -- in fact, I have always assumed the act itself was not forced, in
the sense that "Prince Andrew" did not force himself on her -- nonetheless, a case could be made that her entire association
with Epstein was a form a coercion , and the sex acts with "Prince Andrew" happened within this context -- also, how old
was she initially when this (ostensibly) coercive relationship with Epstein began?
Finally, read my comments about "Prince Andrew": the only thing I said about him was I think he's lying -- I think he
is lying about having sex with her.
@byrresheim Alden is a woman and one who, as a former parole officer (I believe) knows a little about the law.
I am not
sure whether she sees the point of arguing whether Epstein was or was not a pederast.
I believe there is a definite point because neither Mossad nor the CIA would want to be tainted with pederasty for which there
is general disgust, way exceeding statutory rape.
BTW her "pled" is quite eccentric.
Said to be a one to twenty minoroty usage for "pleaded".
@Commentator Mike I believe many American states have the 3 year thing .
18 and 15 is ok.
In actual fact, young boyfriends don't get in trouble.
In the good old days outraged parents might want to charge them.
But realistically, those police reports went nowhere. Investigation goes nowhere when the " victim" of the crime tells the
investigator it never happened.
But over all, there are too many comments ignorant of the fact that the charges were procuring for prostitution, not statutory
rape or molestation of minors.
Until I began reading UNZ, I didn't realize there were so many middle aged fathers of 1 or 2 children so interested in the
fertility of teen girls.
I don't mean just Harbinger. It's been about 6 years I think and I noticed it from the start.
If these fertility fanatics want women to have large families they should do what my husband did.
Have a large family, instead of blathering about it on UNZ.
I can see being militantly for or against abortion.
But men obsessing about the fertility of total stranger women just strikes me as totally absolutely weird.
Think Whites should more children? Then do your part.
And Harbinger really needs to buy some medical school pediatric textbooks which have several chapters on human development
including puberty, an obstetrics text book, a standard baby and child care book, and read about the history of marriage and family
for the last 1400 years.
His claims that girls menstruated and had babies at 12 1,000 years ago is contrary to all historical fact and 1400 years of
Christian church marriage and birth records.
Men think differently than woman I know.
But I still think Harbinger's focus on pregnant 11 and 12 year olds is just weird and unseemly.
And he was the only commenter to bring up menstruation.
He was totally wrong.
Girls didn't start to menstruate at 10,11, 12 till the 20th century because of better nutrition and kerosene and electric light.
Maybe it was the only job he could get, but bouncers in gay clubs shouldn't preach about morality to others.
If they had something on Andrew (and the fact he visited Epstein after his conviction suggests Andrew was after what Epstein provided),
the problem for us Brits becomes any British government will do whatever it takes to keep the royal family from seedy exposure
which could even bring the monarchy down.
We'd become extremely vulnerable to doing things that are clearly not in our interest,
such as getting involved in Middle East wars.
@Alden Pled for the past of plead is correct english.
Still I have no use for her abominable behaviour.
The lady doth protest too much.
Perversion hides behind zealotry.
The most disgusting case of pederasty I know of – and they are all digusting – happened in Germany, Worms.
Look up Spatzennest.
The director of a foster home accused several parents of sexually abusing their children – what is called statutory rape in
certain countries.
The medical exams of several girls taken away from their parents showed no anomalies before these girls were entrusted
to his care.
They did show anomalies several months later, if you get the gist.
He ended up in prison, sadly a few years too late for those poor girls and their parents whose life he ruined.
Look it up, perhaps you come to the same conclusion I do: people who play fast and loose with that sort of slander have weighty
but ugly reasons to do so.
"Jeffrey Epstein Was Strangulated", Famous Forensic Expert Says
by
Tyler Durden
Wed, 10/30/2019 - 09:35
0
SHARES
This morning on
Fox
and Friends, Dr. Michael Baden
, a famous forensic expert and former New York City medical
examiner said that at the end of the investigation he did on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein's brother,
its findings are
more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging
.
Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by Epstein's brother and observed the autopsy,
told
Fox News
that the 66-year-old Epstein had two fractures on the left and right sides of his
larynx, specifically the thyroid cartilage or Adam's apple, as well as one fracture on the left
hyoid bone above the Adam's apple, Baden told Fox News.
"Those three fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur
much more commonly in homicidal strangulation,"
said Baden.
"The prominent hemorrhage in the soft tissues of the neck next to the fractures is evidence
of a fresh neck compression that could have caused the death."
"I've not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case,"
the 85-year-old medical legend told Fox News.
This disagrees with New York City Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson's rulling that Epstein's
cause of death was suicide by hanging.
"It appears that this could have been a mistake,"
Baden said.
"There's evidence here of homicide that should be investigated, to see if it is or
isn't homicide."
Isn't there anyone trying to get to the bottom of this story? It
is the most brazen cover-up ever. The official explanation of
suicide is a joke and simply unbelievable given the reported
conditions in Epstein's cell (ceiling height, etc.) and hurried
autopsy (already being challenged by experts who are concluding
murder was much more likely). Dozens of among the most powerful
people in the world had a very clear motive to get rid of him.
Wray has been examining the "malfunctioning cameras" in the labs
at Quantico for more than 2 months now and not a word. Barr, the
master of over-ups, was/is in charge of the investigation. He
promised Epstein's co-conspirators would be brought to justice but
we are to believe that not even Ghislaine Maxwell has been
located. Prison guards, including those "asleep" at the time of
his obvious murder, were supposedly being interviewed. Was there
any follow-up? There are hundreds of leads out there. Isn't
anyone following them? Unless the truth comes out, America
is lost. Justice, apparently, is not blind.
I do not think that this pedo is dead at all. He was (still is I
think) working for powerful organization/s (Mossad, CIA, Israeli
government, etc) that among other things controls the US rulers
no question about it. I do not think for a second that this
organizations let him down.
Trump and "lock her up" Hillary probably worked together on this
'suicide.'
Win-win for both, Trump can swipe his inconveniently
yet "he's a terrific guy" friend under the rug who
inconveniently hung out with Trump, and Hillary can erase Pedo-Bill's
inconveniently trips to Pedo-Island.
Trump and Hillary are same ****, different name, and that's the
reason why Killary is not locked up. 🙄
Well, TrumpO is on the record as kicking him out of his club
for unsavory behavior, and Hillary's Bill is on record making
many flights on Teenager-Trafficking Air.
So not quite the
same. No one is happier about the "suicide" than William
Jefferson.
The Clintons will never be charged, and it's not just about
Trump. (Remember, Hillary had all the dossiers on political
figures. She turned back the ones on Republicans, but kept the
ones on her own party.)
If Epstein really is dead (he's more likely to be kiddie-fiddling
down Brazil's Eastern seaboard between Fortaleza and Rio), then it
was homicide. Suicide just doesn't fit what we know about this
guy's character.
The scumbag Epstein is either as many think - alive; or, he's been
cremated. I seriously doubt reviewing some forensic notes is going
to do much besides sell air-time on some 'diddle-your-niddle'
"news" show.
Of course Epstein was murdered, the dumbest guy with Downs
syndrome has figured that out months ago. The real mystery is why
this has surfaced NOW?
I venture a guess that it will die down
and be forgotten in a week. Man, they keep baiting us with actual
justice once in a while but we know the drill, nobody with real
power will ever get caught.
My thought about Barr holding fire on Epstein is that he may have known that was a red
herring, false flag, or whatever you want to call it. That whole Epstein affair sounded like
a juicy distraction to me, in the manner of "if it bleeds it leads". When someone actually
dies who is the center of contraversial activity, you may be sure, unfortunately, that
someone, he or another, is getting close to truths that ought not see the light of day.
Somewhat in the nature of the baiting of Putin as Ukraine was beginning its time of troubles.
The old revolutionary dictum "Hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes" may have
been in Barr's mind at the time of Epstein's demise.
Certainly such investigations as the one he is involved in take much time to sort out the
who-what-where in terms sufficiently damaging to become a credible enterprise. We have seen
such attempts fail in the past. I hope he takes his time and gets all his ducks in a row
before the hammer falls as fall it must. It is so vital to this country that this attempt
succeed; for if it fails only the shambles of Kiev style fisticuffs in Congress can be the
result. Not pretty.
In b's post we are reminded of the power of the press to misinform. I would suggest we
badly need divestiture of our media from the huge corporations now more wealthy than some
countries. The latter are too powerful in this country now, and they do need to be whittled
down to size. We not only need fact finders, we need eloquent voices to present those facts
to the public. We need free speech!
He is a deep state creature...his father Donald Barr was an OSS guy and original CIA
[which morphed from the wartime OSS]...
Barr senior was also Epstein's mentor and got him his start at the deeply establishment
Dalton School [and probably Epstein's handler as an asset or 'agent' as they are
called]...
So things go a bit deeper than the surface when it comes to Barr junior...and what he is
doing here...
There is a probably valid school of thought that the deep establishment has a faction that
is pro-Trump and behind the general idea of disengaging from wasteful overseas adventures,
since it is becoming clear that this is a ruinous path that the US cannot really afford
anymore...
I would also agree with the theory that says that these two 'deep' factions ['nationalist'
vs 'globalist'] are at war...with the 'DNC-Hillary-MSM-interventionist faction' possibly on
the decline, but still powerful enough to blow up a lot of the plans that Trump and his deep
backers would like to get done...
Epstein is a whole 'nuther can of worms here and I would not be surprised if he was not
actually dead...Trump himself is deeply entangled with many of the prime players in the
Epstein web...it all depends if he is more useful alive than dead...
Btw...pulling off a deception like a fake death is kindergarten level for these kinds of
operators and the unlimited resources they possess to shape so-called 'reality' as brought to
us on our little screens...
So really I find it kind of silly that the right wingers are looking at Barr as some kind
of White Knight...there really are none of those in these circles...as much as the sheeple
would like to believe that...
re: source of "God has an infinite sense of humor"...
Was told that in 1994[?] conversation w Jerry, a fellow worker, abt the baffling condition
of Mankind. Never heard it before or since. At the time it was one of most incisive and
impinging viewpoints; it still is.
It was said to me dryly, not coy and no smile, almost plaintively as tho it would be
ignored and pass thru unrecognized. I never met a more rational or sharper mind.
Once, I remarked I was looking for an obscure book that was mentioned in another book, as
"1 of the 3 best autobios ever written in English" by someone I never heard of. J:"Who and
what?" Me:"Kropotkin and Revolutionist".
J:"Oh, sure! I think my wife still has a copy" and he brought it in next day.[An awesome
read, too!]
Thanks for your reply! I was also thinking that perhaps it was a cynical observation made
by a stoic son of a Baptist or Methodist Minister, like the retort in M*A*S*H about
how someone like that (Hawkeye, IIRC) got into the Army--"He got drafted," which caused the
audience to erupt in laughter (definitely a context-dependent joke).
flankerbandit 111
"There is a probably valid school of thought that the deep establishment has a faction that
is pro-Trump and behind the general idea of disengaging from wasteful overseas adventures,
since it is becoming clear that this is a ruinous path that the US cannot really afford
anymore..."
I think this what is occuring. And when Trump says swamp, I think it is the section of the
swamp that this faction believe set the US on a ruinous path.
Good post my friend, no wonder the demoncrazies went berserk over Trump dipping in to
their honeypot. I could never definitively find a reason for those spectacular ammunition
storage bonfires in Ukraine. I figured it was either to disable their sale or cover up
theft.
W. Gruff, thanks for the process insight.
I was long-aware the removal of the Smith-Mundt Act was loaded into the 2012 NDAA. No attempt
on Trump's watch has been made to bring a needed, modern form of it back. I didn't vote for
Trump, and until the damn looney media is reeled back into factual, in-context reporting, it
will remain obvious Trump is only expanding a variety of nefarious things on the absence of
legislation such as the S-M Act.
The globalist criminal elites will not be held responsible for any of these crimes. They're
bound together by ties of blackmail forged by guys like Epstein, mutually assured
incrimination in serial swindles which cross Left and Right political boundaries and literal
murder in the case of guys like Seth Rich.
The cozy proximity of recently-murdered Epstein himself to crypto-converso AG Barr's
family only makes me more certain that they will get away with this heist like they've done
with dozens of other billion-dollar swindles.
If they were only stealing money it would be bad enough, but the fact that these same
grifters are our "diplomats" and warmakers is positively Orwellian. Watching these petty
hoodlums play nuclear chicken with Russia so they can squeeze more shekels from the supine
Ukraine would be laughable if I could get the first-strike nightmares of my Cold War
childhood out of my head long enough to laugh.
If we assume that most politicians are latent psychopaths, they need to be more tightly controlled by the people. which means no
re-election of Senators after two terms.
Notable quotes:
"... " Politicians are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths . I think you would find no expert in the field of sociopathy/psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder who would dispute this... That a small minority of human beings literally have no conscience was and is a bitter pill for our society to swallow -- but it does explain a great many things, shamelessly deceitful political behavior being one." ..."
" Politicians
are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths . I think you would find no expert in the field of
sociopathy/psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder who would dispute this... That a small minority of human beings literally
have no conscience was and is a bitter pill for our society to swallow -- but it does explain a great many things, shamelessly
deceitful political behavior being one."
- Dr. Martha Stout, clinical psychologist and former instructor at Harvard Medical School
The answer, then and now, remains the same:
None . There is
no difference between psychopaths and politicians. Nor is there much of a difference between the havoc wreaked on innocent lives by uncaring, unfeeling, selfish, irresponsible,
parasitic criminals and
elected officials who lie to their constituents , trade political favors for campaign contributions, turn a blind eye to the
wishes of the electorate, cheat taxpayers out of hard-earned dollars, favor the corporate elite, entrench the military industrial
complex, and spare little thought for the impact their thoughtless actions and hastily passed legislation might have on defenseless
citizens.
Charismatic politicians, like criminal psychopaths,
exhibit a failure to accept responsibility for their actions , have a high sense of self-worth, are chronically unstable, have
socially deviant lifestyles, need constant stimulation, have parasitic lifestyles and possess unrealistic goals.
It doesn't matter whether you're talking about Democrats or Republicans.
Political psychopaths are all largely cut from the same pathological cloth, brimming with
seemingly easy charm and boasting calculating minds
. Such leaders eventually create pathocracies: totalitarian societies bent on power, control, and destruction of both freedom in
general and those who exercise their freedoms.
Once psychopaths gain power, the result is usually some form of totalitarian government or a pathocracy. "At that point, the
government operates against the interests
of its own people except for favoring certain groups," author James G. Long notes. "We are currently witnessing deliberate polarizations
of American citizens, illegal actions, and massive and needless acquisition of debt. This is
typical of psychopathic systems
, and very similar things happened in the Soviet Union as it overextended and collapsed."
In other words, electing a psychopath to public office is tantamount to national hara-kiri, the ritualized act of self-annihilation,
self-destruction and suicide. It signals the demise of democratic government and lays the groundwork for a totalitarian regime that
is legalistic, militaristic, inflexible, intolerant and inhuman.
Incredibly, despite clear evidence of the damage that has already been inflicted on our nation and its citizens by a psychopathic
government, voters continue to elect psychopaths to positions of power and influence.
According to investigative journalist
Zack Beauchamp , "In 2012, a group of psychologists evaluated every President from Washington to Bush II
using 'psychopathy trait estimates derived from personality
data completed by historical experts on each president.' They found that presidents tended to have the psychopath's characteristic
fearlessness and low anxiety levels -- traits that appear to help Presidents, but also
might
cause them to make reckless decisions that hurt other people's lives."
The willingness to prioritize power above all else, including the welfare of their fellow human beings, ruthlessness, callousness
and an utter lack of conscience
are among the defining traits of the sociopath.
When our own government no longer sees us as human beings with dignity and worth but as things to be manipulated, maneuvered,
mined for data, manhandled by police, conned into believing it has our best interests at heart, mistreated, jailed if we dare step
out of line, and then punished unjustly without remorse -- all the while refusing to own up to its failings -- we are no longer operating
under a constitutional republic.
Worse, psychopathology is not confined to those in high positions of government. It can
spread like a virus among the populace.
As an academic study into pathocracy
concluded , "[T]yranny does not flourish because perpetuators are helpless and ignorant of their actions. It flourishes because
they actively identify with those who promote vicious acts as virtuous."
People don't simply line up and salute. It is through one's own personal identification with a given leader, party or social order
that they become agents of good or evil.
Much depends on how leaders "
cultivate a sense of identification with their followers ," says Professor Alex Haslam. "I mean one pretty obvious thing is that
leaders talk about 'we' rather than 'I,' and actually what leadership is about is cultivating this sense of shared identity about
'we-ness' and then getting people to want to act in terms of that 'we-ness,' to promote our collective interests. . . . [We] is the
single word that has increased in the inaugural addresses over the last century . . . and the other one is 'America.'"
The goal of the modern corporate state is obvious: to promote, cultivate, and embed a sense of shared identification among its
citizens. To this end, "we the people" have become "we the police state."
We are fast becoming slaves in thrall to a faceless, nameless, bureaucratic totalitarian government machine that relentlessly
erodes our freedoms through countless laws, statutes, and prohibitions.
Any resistance to such regimes depends on the strength of opinions in the minds of those who choose to fight back. What this means
is that we the citizenry must be very careful that we are not manipulated into marching in lockstep with an oppressive regime.
But what does this really mean in practical terms?
It means holding politicians accountable for their actions and the actions of their staff using every available means at our disposal:
through investigative journalism (what used to be referred to as the Fourth Estate) that enlightens and informs, through whistleblower
complaints that expose corruption, through lawsuits that challenge misconduct, and through protests and mass political action that
remind the powers-that-be that "we the people" are the ones that call the shots.
Remember, education precedes action. Citizens need to the do the hard work of educating themselves about what the government is
doing and how to hold it accountable. Don't allow yourselves to exist exclusively in an echo chamber that is restricted to views
with which you agree. Expose yourself to multiple media sources, independent and mainstream, and think for yourself.
For that matter, no matter what your political leanings might be, don't allow your partisan bias to trump the principles that
serve as the basis for our constitutional republic. As Beauchamp notes, "A system that actually holds people accountable to the broader
conscience of society may be one of the best ways to keep conscienceless people in check."
That said, if we allow the ballot box to become our only means of pushing back against the police state, the battle is already
lost.
Resistance will require a citizenry willing to be active at the local level.
Yet as I point out in my book
Battlefield America: The War
on the American People , if you wait to act until the SWAT team is crashing through your door, until your name is placed on a
terror watch list, until you are reported for such outlawed activities as collecting rainwater or letting your children play outside
unsupervised, then it will be too late.
This much I know: we are not faceless numbers. We are not cogs in the machine. We are not slaves.
We are human beings, and for the moment, we have the opportunity to remain free -- that is, if we tirelessly advocate for our
rights and resist at every turn attempts by the government to place us in chains.
The Founders understood that our freedoms do not flow from the government. They were not given to us only to be taken away by
the will of the State. They are inherently ours. In the same way, the government's appointed purpose is not to threaten or undermine
our freedoms, but to safeguard them.
Until we can get back to this way of thinking, until we can remind our fellow Americans what it really means to be free , and
until we can stand firm in the face of threats to our freedoms, we will continue to be treated like slaves in thrall to a bureaucratic
police state run by political psychopaths.
The solution, dear Zerohedge, is to pass a law demanding any official's psychological profile for public scrutiny. (By humans
and by our superiors, Artificial Intelligence.)
Bravo! The inner workings of psychopathy. All is justified. Included the Joker cults 911 mass murder with dancing after the
fact. I want to see real dancing Israelis now. Dancing like hell to try to save their own murderous lives now. That's what we
do with murderers out here in the west. We line them up and watch them DANCE for their lives.
What I find hilarious is the psychopathic politicians/bureaucrats/cia-fbi types/all matter of deep staters getting upset at
Trumps words/tweets/style.
Pilfering the country for profit perfectly ok. Unseemly (by their standards) speech or tweets are not.
See, while they are pilfering Uncle Sam, ie you, they do it with charm (one of the strongest signs of a psychopath) and manners.
What a narcissist/psychopath fears most is being outed as a fraud. And unfortunately, as long as Washington DC plays nice, throws
in some lines about American values, helping the less fortunate, helping the kids, the majority fall in line with their pilfering,
and whatever they want goes.
What they fear most about Trump is he hurts their Big Government brand. Either by his rhetoric, his logic, his investigative
actions, or his brassness. This also includes Republicans, who only fell in line when the base forced them to fall in line.
Jeffrey Epstein accuser Jennifer Araroz filed an amended complaint Tuesday which names
two accomplices
in the convicted pedophile's alleged sex-trafficking operation
along with more than 20
corporate entities, according to
CNN
.
While Epstein's alleged 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell has been accused of actively participating
in Epstein's sex crimes, the new complaint asserts that "secretary" Lesley Groff and former executive
assistant Cimberly Espinosa "participated with and assisted Epstein in
maintaining and
protecting his sex trafficking ring,
ensuring that approximately
three girls a day
were made available to him for his sexual pleasure
."
"The co-conspirators provided organizational support to Epstein's sex trafficking ring,
identifying and hiring the recruiters of underage girls
for Epstein's sexual pleasure,
scheduling appointments with these underage girls for Epstein's sexual pleasure
,
intimidating potential witnesses to Epstein's sex trafficking operation, and generally providing
administrative oversight of his sex trafficking operation
and ensuring it remained secret
,"
the complaint continues.
"He raped me, forcefully raped me"
Araoz told
NBC News
in July.
The 32-year-old Epstein accuser says she was 14-years-old when the abuse began. "
I was
terrified, and I was telling him to stop. 'Please stop,'
" Araoz continud.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CYNnkAJHk_w
Groff's attorney, Michael Bachner, told CNN "As an executive assistant to Epstein, Lesley worked as
part of a professional staff that included in-house attorneys, accountants, an office manager and
other office staff."
"Lesley's job included making appointments for Mr. Epstein as directed by him, taking his messages,
and setting up high-level meetings with CEOs, business executives, scientists, politicians and
celebrities," the statement continues - adding "
At no time during Lesley's employment with
Epstein did she ever engage in any misconduct.
"
Also included in the complaint are the executors of Epstein's estate (one of whom was reportedly
seen
removing a bag of items
the day after Epstein's death).
In August, Araoz
told reporters
that her abuse at the hands of Epstein and his enablers "robbed me of my youth, my
identity, my innocence, my self-worth."
Brunel ready to talk
On Monday, an attorney for Epstein's former confidant, business partner, and model scout
Jean-Luc-Brenel says he's ready to talk to authorities, according to the
Telegraph
.
The Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in August into any possible
Epstein victims in its territory, and Mr Brunel is of potential interest to investigators.
Last month police searched Karin Models, which Mr Brunel founded.
In court filings, Virginia Guiffre, a long-time accuser of Epstein, claimed teenage girls
were brought to the US by Brunel and were "farmed out" by him to have sex with Epstein
.
Ms Guiffre also claims she was forced to have sex with Brunel several times. Brunel denies both
allegations.
His lawyer Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt said Mr Brunel "firmly contests accusations in the press" and
"will reserve his statements for justice officials."
On Monday Ms Dreyfus-Schmidt, said that her client has notified the Paris prosecutor's office
that
he is at the disposition of judicial officials.
-
Telegraph
According to Epstein accuser Virgina Giuffre Roberts, Brunel "would bring young girls (ranging to
ages as young as twelve) to the United States for sexual purposes and farm them out to his friends,
especially Epstein."
"Brunel would offer the girls "modeling" jobs. Many of the girls came from poor countries or
impoverished backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of making good money."
In the 1980s Brunel was featured in a 60 Minutes expose after having gained a reputation for
sleeping with many of his underage models. His name was prominently featured in a series of phone
messages recovered from trash pulls of Epstein's mansion.
A recent interview given by a former high-ranking official in Israeli military
intelligence has claimed that Jeffrey Epstein's sexual blackmail enterprise was an Israel
intelligence operation run for the purpose of entrapping powerful individuals and politicians
in the United States and abroad.
Since the apparent death by suicide of Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan prison, much has come
to light about his depraved activities and methods used to sexually abuse underage girls and
entrap the rich and powerful for the purposes of blackmail. Epstein's ties to intelligence,
described in-depth in a recent MintPress investigative
series , have continued to receive minimal mainstream media coverage, which has essentially
moved on from the Epstein scandal despite the fact that his many co-conspirators remain on the
loose.
For those who have examined Epstein's ties to intelligence, there are clear links to both
U.S. intelligence and Israeli intelligence, leaving it somewhat open to debate as to which
country's intelligence apparatus was closest to Epstein and most involved in his
blackmail/sex-trafficking activities. A recent interview given by a former high-ranking
official in Israeli military intelligence has claimed that Epstein's sexual blackmail
enterprise was an Israel intelligence operation run for the purpose of entrapping powerful
individuals and politicians in the United States and abroad.
In an
interview with Zev Shalev, former CBS News executive producer and award-winning
investigative journalist for Narativ , the former senior executive for Israel's
Directorate of Military Intelligence, Ari Ben-Menashe, claimed not only to have met Jeffrey
Epstein and his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, back in the 1980s, but that both Epstein and
Maxwell were already working with Israeli intelligence during that time period.
"They found a niche"
In an
interview last week with the independent outlet Narativ , Ben-Menashe, who himself
was involved in Iran-Contra arms deals, told his interviewer Zev Shalev that he had been
introduced to Jeffrey Epstein by Robert Maxwell in the mid-1980s while Maxwell's and
Ben-Menashe's involvement with Iran-Contra was ongoing. Ben-Menashe did not specify the year he
met Epstein.
Ben-Menashe told Shalev that "he [Maxwell] wanted us to accept him [Epstein] as part of our
group . I'm not denying that we were at the time a group that it was Nick Davies [Foreign
Editor of the Maxwell-Owned Daily Mirror ], it was Maxwell, it was myself and our team
from Israel, we were doing what we were doing." Past reporting by Seymour Hersh and others
revealed
that Maxwell, Davies and Ben-Menashe were involved in the transfer and sale of military
equipment and weapons from Israel to Iran on behalf of Israeli intelligence during this time
period.
He then added that Maxwell had stated during the introduction that "your Israeli bosses have
already approved" of Epstein. Shalev later noted that Maxwell "had an extensive network in
Israel at the time, which included the then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to
Ben-Menashe."
Ben-Menashe went on to say that he had "met him [Epstein] a few times in Maxwell's office,
that was it." He also said he was not aware of Epstein being involved in arms deals for anyone
else he knew at the time, but that Maxwell wanted to involve Epstein in the arms transfer in
which he, Davies and Ben-Menashe were engaged on Israel's behalf.
However, as MintPress reported in Part
IV of the investigative series " Inside the Jeffrey Epstein
Scandal: Too Big to Fail ," Epstein was involved with several arms dealers during this
period of time, some of whom were directly involved in Iran-Contra arms deals between Israel
and Iran. For instance, after leaving Bear Stearns in 1981, Epstein began
working in the realms of shadow finance as a self-described "financial bounty hunter,"
where he would both hunt down and hide money for powerful people. One of these powerful
individuals was Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer with close ties to both Israeli and U.S.
intelligence and one of the main brokers of Iran-Contra arms deals between Israel and Iran.
Epstein would later forge a business relationship with a CIA front company involved in another
aspect of Iran-Contra, the airline Southern Air Transport, on behalf of Leslie Wexner's
company, The Limited.
The day Jeffrey Epstein turned up dead in a New York jail cell, I decided I needed to write
something about Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Stanley Kubrick's last and weakest movie.
Epstein has quickly faded from the headlines, so let me remind
you briefly of who he was. Epstein was an American Jew who enjoyed immense wealth from
unknown sources, hob-knobbed with the global elite, including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew,
and was a pervert with a taste for underage girls, meaning that he was a serial rapist. He is
also accused of sharing these women with his wealthy and powerful friends, which would have
implicated them in marital infidelity and statutory rape, making them subject to blackmail.
In 2006, the FBI began investigating Epstein, tracking down over 100 women. In 2007, he was
indicted by the federal government on multiple counts of sex trafficking and conspiracy to
traffic minors for sex. If convicted, he and his co-conspirators could have spent the rest of
their lives in prison. But US Attorney Alex Acosta was told to go easy on Epstein, because "he
belonged to intelligence." Epstein received a sweetheart deal. He pled guilty to two state
prostitution charges and spent 13 months at a Florida county jail with generous work release.
Epstein's co-conspirators were not prosecuted at all. The records were sealed, and would have
remained so, were it not for the efforts of reporter Julie Brown , whose stories
led to the unsealing of Epstein's records, followed by his arrest and death in custody.
The most plausible explanation for Epstein's mysterious life and death is that he was a pimp
who implicated rich and powerful men and then blackmailed them, financially and politically. If
he enjoyed the patronage of "intelligence," it was most likely Israeli. When he was first
arrested, he called in favors from his patrons (and probably from his victims as well), to
avoid federal prosecution, which could have embarrassed many powerful people. When Epstein was
re-arrested, there was no way he could escape prosecution, so he was murdered to protect the
secrets of any (or all) of his patrons and victims.
... ... ...
The higher one climbs in the social hierarchy, the closer one approaches the inner party,
the greater the degeneracy and the more ferocious the assault on marital fidelity.
... ... ...
So why would the power-elites of a society engage in group perversion? The richer a person
is, the more opportunities there are for self-indulgence. After a while, though, such people
get jaded and hunger for exotic pleasures, including ones that violate the rules of morality
and the laws of society. It takes a highly developed sense of honor not to abuse the freedom
granted by great wealth. Even when such an aristocratic ethos was cultivated, there were many
spectacular failures. Moreover, today's oligarchy has dispensed with the pretenses of honor
entirely.
...Beyond routine degeneracy, elites also use sexual perversion as a tool of control. Just
as street gangs require prospective members to sully themselves with crimes to join, elites
have similar rituals, the more morally repulsive the better.
The prospects are eager to incriminate themselves because joining the gang will bring them
power. But self-incrimination also gives the gang power over its members, who must obey lest
they be exposed and humiliated. And of course worse sanctions are waiting in the wings, as
Jeffrey Epstein reminds us.
... ... ...
But for all its faults, Eyes Wide Shut has two important messages to which today's
Dissident Rightists are particularly receptive. It dramatizes important truths about man-woman
relationships and displays how sexual perversion is a tool of elite control. If you already
know the score on these matters, however, you might not want to suffer through two hours and
forty minutes of Cruise and Kidman.
"The US served as a benevolent hegemon,
administering the occasional rap on the knuckles
to those acting in bad faith"
". Meanwhile, the system's multilateral institutions,
especially the International Monetary Fund,
helped countries in dire need of funds,
provided they followed the rules."
Behind the escalating global conflict over trade and technology is a larger breakdown of the
postwar rules-based order, which was based on a belief that any country's growth benefits
all. Now that China is threatening to compete directly with the United States, support for
the system that made that possible has disappeared.
By RAGHURAM G. RAJAN
CHICAGO – Another day, another attack on trade. Why is it that every dispute –
whether over intellectual property (IP), immigration, environmental damage, or war
reparations – now produces new threats to trade?
For much of the last century, the United States managed and protected the rules-based
trading system it created at the end of World War II. That system required a fundamental
break from the pre-war environment of mutual suspicion between competing powers. The US urged
everyone to see that growth and development for one country could benefit all countries
through increased trade and investment.
Under the new dispensation, rules were enacted to constrain selfish behavior and coercive
threats by the economically powerful. The US served as a benevolent hegemon, administering
the occasional rap on the knuckles to those acting in bad faith. Meanwhile, the system's
multilateral institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund, helped countries in
dire need of funds, provided they followed the rules....
"The US served as a benevolent hegemon, administering the occasional rap on the knuckles to
those acting in bad faith"
USA foreign policy since 70th was controlled by neocons who as a typical Trotskyites
(neoliberalism is actually Trotskyism for the rich) were/are hell-bent of world domination
and practice gangster capitalism in foreign policy. Bolton attitude to UN is very symptomatic
for the neocons as a whole.
Madeline "not so bright" Allbright was the first swan. As well as Clinton attempts to
bankrupt and subdue Russia and criminal (in a sense of no permission from the UN) attack on
Yugoslavia. Both backfired: Russia became permanently hostile. The fact he and his coterie
were not yet tried by something like Nuremberg tribunal is only due to the USA dominance at
this stage of history.
The truth is that the dissolution of the USSR the USA foreign policy became completely
unhinged. And inside the country the elite became cannibalistic, as there was no external
threat to its dominance in the form of the USSR.
The USA stated to behave like a typical Imperial state (New Rome, or, more correctly,
London) accepting no rules/laws that are not written by themselves (and when it is convenient
to obey them) with the only difference from the classic imperial states that the hegemony it
not based on the military presence/occupation ( like was the case with British empire)
Although this is not completely true as there are 761 US Military Bases across the planet
and only 46 Countries with no US military presence. Of them, seven countries with 13 New
Military Bases were added since 09/11/2001. In 2001 the US had a quarter million troops
posted abroad.
Still as an imperial state that is the center of neoliberal empire the USA relies more on
financial instruments and neoliberal comprador elite inside the country.
With the collapse of neoliberal ideology in 2008 the USA centered neoliberal empire
experiences first cracks. Brexit and election of Trump widened the cracks in a sense of
further legitimizing the ruling neoliberal elite (big middle finger for Hillary was addressed
to the elite as whole)
If oil price exceed $100 per barrel there will yet another crack or even repetition of the
2008 Great Recession on a new level (although we may argue that the Great Recession never
ended and just entered in Summers terms "permanent stagnation" phase)
Although currently with unhinged Trump at the helm the USA empire still going strong in
forcing vassals and competitors to reconsider their desire to challenge the USA. Trump
currently is trying to neutralize the treat from China by rejecting classic neoliberal
globalization mechanism as well as signed treaties like WTO. He might be successful in the
short run.
In the long run the future does not look too bright as crimes committed by the USA during
triumphal period of neoliberalism hangs like albatross around the USA neck.
EU now definitely wants to play its own game as Macron recently stated and which Merkel
tacitly supports. If EU allies with Russia it will became No.1 force in the world with the
USA No. 2. With severe consequences for the USA.
If Russia allied with China the USA No.1 position will hinge of keeping EU vassals in
check and NATO in place. Without them it will became No.2 with fatal consequences for the
dollar as world reserve currency and sudden change of the USA financial position due to the
level of external debt and required devaluation of the dollar.
Looks like 75 year after WWII the world started to self-organize a countervailing force
trying to tame the USA with some interest expressed by such players as EU, Russia, China,
India, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and even Saudi Arabia. As well as ( in the past; and possibly
in the future as neoliberal counterrevolutions in both countries probably will end badly) by
Brazil and Argentina.
Only Canada, Australia and probably UK can be counted as the reliable parts of the USA
empire. That's not much.
"If Russia allied with China the USA No.1 position "........
Think Italy moving into the Axis in 1937? Or the Soviet German Non Aggression Pact.
Nuclear weapons removes the incentive for large "rearmaments" or not?
Would the Britain to France 1938 relationship describe the US to EU? Thinking in 1939
(1914?) terms Europe is less stitched together than in 1936.
According to the Washington Post, Epstein's legal team is claiming that Sigal Mandelker is
one of the people at the DOJ who signed off on the lenient plea deal. This is eye popping,
because Donald Trump ended up appointing Mandelker as Under Secretary of the Treasury. Epstein
is also claiming that Alice Fisher signed off on the deal, which is also eye popping when you
consider that according to Politico, Donald Trump interviewed
Fisher to be FBI Director. Again, this is on top of Trump having appointed Alexander Acosta as
his Secretary of Labor.
Fisher is telling the Washington Post that she did not approve the Epstein deal. There's
obviously a paper trail for this kind of plea deal showing who was and was not involved, and
it'll surface. If Epstein is falsely accusing these people, it'll only make his legal troubles
even worse. What stands out is that Epstein and Trump clearly have conflicting goals
here
Jeffrey Epstein is trying to prove that some of the people currently running the federal
government are the same people who already gave him a plea deal, and thus they shouldn't get to
bring new charges against him for the same crimes. That's a feeble argument that's unlikely to
go anywhere, but it's all that Epstein has left. It just so happens that in the process,
Epstein is pointing to additional Trump people who were (allegedly) in on the original plot to
let Epstein off the hook. This whole thing is getting uglier by the minute.
The question why the USA intelligence agencies were "unaware" about Epstein activities is an interesting one. Similar question can
be asked about Hillary "activities" related to "Clinton cash".
Actually the way the USA elite deal with scandals is to ostracize any whistleblower and silence any media that tryt to dig the story.
Open repression including physical elimination is seldom used those days as indirect methods are quite effective.
Notable quotes:
"... Either we root out every last source of rot by investigating, indicting and jailing every wrong-doer and everyone who conspired to protect the guilty in the Epstein case, or America will have sealed its final fall. ..."
"... If you doubt this, then please explain how 1) the NSA, CIA and FBI didn't know what Jeffrey Epstein was up to, and with whom; 2) Epstein was free to pursue his sexual exploitation of minors for years prior to his wrist-slap conviction and for years afterward; 3) Epstein, the highest profile and most at-risk prisoner in the nation, was left alone and the security cameras recording his cell and surroundings were "broken." ..."
"... America's ruling class has crucified whistleblowers , especially those uncovering fraud in the defense (military-industrial-security) and financial (tax evasion) sectors and blatant violations of public trust, civil liberties and privacy. ..."
"... Needless to say, a factual accounting of corruption, cronyism, incompetence, self-serving exploitation of the many by the few, etc. is not welcome in America. Look at the dearth of investigative resources America's corporate media is devoting to digging down to the deepest levels of rot in the Epstein case. ..."
Either we root out every last source of rot by investigating, indicting and jailing every wrong-doer and everyone who conspired
to protect the guilty in the Epstein case, or America will have sealed its final fall.
When you discover rot in an apparently sound structure, the first question is: how far has the rot penetrated? If the rot
has reached the foundation and turned it to mush, the structure is one wind-storm from collapse.
How deep has the rot of corruption, fraud, abuse of power, betrayal of the public trust, blatant criminality and insiders protecting
the guilty penetrated America's key public and private institutions? It's difficult to tell, as the law-enforcement and security
agencies are themselves hopelessly compromised.
If you doubt this, then please explain how 1) the NSA, CIA and FBI didn't know what Jeffrey Epstein was up to, and with whom;
2) Epstein was free to pursue his sexual exploitation of minors for years prior to his wrist-slap conviction and for years afterward;
3) Epstein, the highest profile and most at-risk prisoner in the nation, was left alone and the security cameras recording his cell
and surroundings were "broken."
If this all strikes you as evidence that America's security and law-enforcement institutions are functioning at a level that's
above reproach, then 1) you're a well-paid shill who's protecting the guilty lest your own misdeeds come to light or 2) your
consumption of mind-bending meds is off the charts.
How deep has the rot gone in America's ruling elite? One way to measure the depth of the rot is to ask how whistleblowers
who've exposed the ugly realities of insider dealing, malfeasance, tax evasion, cover-ups, etc. have fared.
America's ruling class has crucified whistleblowers , especially those uncovering fraud in the defense (military-industrial-security)
and financial (tax evasion) sectors and blatant violations of public trust, civil liberties and privacy.
Needless to say, a factual accounting of corruption, cronyism, incompetence, self-serving exploitation of the many by the
few, etc. is not welcome in America. Look at the dearth of investigative resources America's corporate media is devoting to digging
down to the deepest levels of rot in the Epstein case.
The closer wrong-doing and wrong-doers are to protected power-elites, the less attention the mass media devotes to them.
... ... ...
Here are America's media, law enforcement/security agencies and "leadership" class: they speak no evil, see no evil and
hear no evil, in the misguided belief that their misdirection, self-service and protection of the guilty will make us buy the narrative
that America's ruling elite and all the core institutions they manage aren't rotten to the foundations.
Either we root out every last source of rot by investigating, indicting and jailing every wrong-doer and everyone who conspired
to protect the guilty in the Epstein case, or America will have sealed its final fall.
While details on Epstein death are not interesting (he ended like a regular pimp) the corruption of high level officials his case
revealed in more troubling.
Notable quotes:
"... Epstein was released, and various lawsuits were filed against him and settled out of court, presumably in exchange for silence. The media was quiet or complimentary as Epstein worked his way back into high society. ..."
"... What would I do if I were Epstein? I'd try to get the President, the Attorney-General, or the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to shut down the investigation before it went public. I'd have all my friends and all my money try to pressure them. If it failed and I were arrested, it would be time for the backup plan -- the Deal. I'd try to minimize my prison time, and, just as important, to be put in one of the nicer federal prisons where I could associate with financial wizards and drug lords instead of serial killers, black nationalists, and people with bad breath. ..."
"... What about the powerful people Epstein would turn in to get his deal? They aren't as smart as Epstein, but they would know the Deal was coming -- that Epstein would be quite happy to sacrifice them in exchange for a prison with a slightly better golf course. What could they do? There's only one good option -- to kill Epstein, and do it quickly, before he could start giving information samples to the U. S. Attorney. ..."
"... Trying to kill informers is absolutely routine in the mafia, or indeed, for gangs of any kind. ..."
"... Famous politicians, unlike gangsters, don't have full-time professional hit men on their staffs, but that's just common sense -- politicians rarely need hit men, so it makes more sense to hire them on a piecework basis than as full-time employees. How would they find hit men? You or I wouldn't know how to start, but it would be easy for them. Rich powerful people have bodyguards. Bodyguards are for defense, but the guys who do defense know guys who do offense. And Epstein's friends are professional networkers. One reporter said of Ghislaine Maxwell, "Her Rolodex would blow away almost anyone else's I can think of -- probably even Rupert Murdoch's." They know people who know people. Maybe I'm six degrees of separation from a mafia hit man, but not Ghislaine Maxwell. I bet she knows at least one mafioso personally who knows more than one hit man. ..."
"... Or, if you can hire a New York Times reporter for $30,000 ( as Epstein famously did a couple of years ago), you can spend $200,000 on a competent hit man to make double sure. Government incompetence does not lend support to the suicide theory; quite the opposite. ..."
"... Statutory rape is not a federal crime ..."
"... At any time from 2008 to the present, Florida and New York prosecutors could have gone after Epstein and easily convicted him. The federal nonprosecution agreement did not bind them. And, of course, it is not just Epstein who should have been prosecuted. Other culprits such as Prince Andrew are still at large. ..."
"... Why isn't anybody but Ann Coulter talking about Barry Krischer and Ric Bradshaw, the Florida state prosecutor and sheriff who went easy on Epstein, or the New York City police who let him violate the sex offender regulations? ..."
"... Krischer refused to use the evidence the Palm Beach police gave him except to file a no-jail-time prostitution charge (they eventually went to Acosta, the federal prosecutor, instead, who got a guilty plea with an 18-month sentence). Bradshaw let him spend his days at home instead of at jail. ..."
"... In New York State, the county prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, fought to prevent Epstein from being classified as a Level III sex offender. Once he was, the police didn't enforce the rule that required him to check in every 90 days. ..."
"... Trafficking is a federal offense, so it would have to involve commerce across state lines. It also must involve sale and profit, not just personal pleasure. ..."
"... Here, the publicity and investigative lead is what is most important, because these are reputable and rich offenders for whom publicity is a bigger threat than losing in court. They have very good lawyers, and probably aren't guilty of federal crimes anyway, just state crimes, in corrupt states where they can use clout more effectively. Thus, killing potential informants before they tell the public is more important than killing informants to prevent their testimony at trial, a much more leisurely task. ..."
"... Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is the only government official who is clearly trustworthy, because he could have stopped the 2019 Epstein indictment and he didn't. I don't think Attorney-General Barr could have blocked it, and I don't think President Trump could have except by firing Berman. ..."
"... "It was that heart-wrenching series that caught the attention of Congress. Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska, joined with his Democratic colleagues and demanded to know how justice had been so miscarried. ..."
"... President Trump didn't have anything personally to fear from Epstein. He is too canny to have gotten involved with him, and the press has been eagerly at work to find the slightest connection between him and Epstein and have come up dry as far as anything but acquaintanceship. But we must worry about a cover-up anyway, because rich and important people would be willing to pay Trump a lot in money or, more likely, in political support, if he does a cover-up. ..."
"... he sealing was completely illegal, as the appeals court politely but devastatingly noted in 2019, and the documents were released a day or two before Epstein died. Someone should check into Judge Sweet's finance and death. He was an ultra-Establishment figure -- a Yale man, alas, like me, and Taft School -- so he might just have been protecting what he considered good people, but his decision to seal the court records was grossly improper. ..."
"... Did Epstein have any dealings in sex, favors, or investments with any Republican except Wexner? ..."
"... Dershowitz, Mitchell, Clinton, Richardson, Dubin, George Stephanopolous, Lawrence Krauss, Katie Couric, Mortimer Zuckerman, Chelsea Handler, Cyrus Vance, and Woody Allen, are all Democrats. Did Epstein ever make use of Republicans? Don't count Trump, who has not been implicated despite the media's best efforts and was probably not even a Republican back in the 90's. Don't count Ken Starr– he's just one of Epstein's lawyers. Don't count scientists who just took money gifts from him. (By the way, Epstein made very little in the way of political contributions , though that little went mostly to Democrats ( $139,000 vs. $18,000 . I bet he extracted more from politicians than he gave to them. ..."
"... What role did Israeli politician Ehud Barak play in all this? ..."
"... Remember Marc Rich? He was a billionaire who fled the country to avoid a possible 300 years prison term, and was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001. Ehud Barak, one of Epstein's friends, was one of the people who asked for Rich to be pardoned . Epstein, his killers, and other rich people know that as a last resort they can flee the country and wait for someone like Clinton to come to office and pardon them. ..."
"... "intelligence" is also the kind of excuse people make up so they don't have to say "political pressure." ..."
"... James Patterson and John Connolly published Filthy Rich: A Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal that Undid Him , and All the Justice that Money Can Buy: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein . Conchita Sarnoff published TrafficKing: The Jeffrey Epstein Case. I never heard of these before 2019. Did the media bury them? ..."
"... There seems to have been an orchestrated attempt to divert attention to the issue of suicides in prison. Subtle differences in phrasing might help reveal who's been paid off. National Review had an article, "The Conspiracy Theories about Jeffrey Epstein's Death Don't Make Much Sense." The article contains no evidence or argument to support the headline's assertion, just bluster about "madness" and "conspiracy theories". Who else publishes stuff like this? ..."
"... The New York Times was, to its credit, willing to embarrass other publications by 2019. But the Times itself had been part of the cover-up in previous years . Who else was? ..."
"... Not one question involving Maurene Comey, then? She was one of the SDNY prosecutors assigned to this case, and her name has been significantly played down (if at all visible) in the reportage before or after Epstein's death. That she just "happened" to be on this case at all is quite an eyebrow raiser especially with her father under the ongoing "Spygate" investigation ..."
"... As important as it is to go on asking questions about the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein, I have to admit that personally I'm just not interested. I've always found people of his social class to be vaguely repulsive even without the sordid sex allegations. Just their demanding personalities, just the thought of them hanging around in their terrycloth jogging suits, sneering at the world with their irrefrangible arrogance, is enough to make me shudder. I want nothing of their nightmare world; and when they die, I couldn't care less. ..."
"... We are supposed to have faith in this rubbish? The cameras malfunctioned. He didn't have a cellmate. The guards were tired and forced to work overtime. ..."
"... One tiny mention of Jewish magnate Les Wexner but no mention how he & the Bronfmans founded the 'Mega Group' of ultra-Zionist billionaires regularly meeting as to how they could prop up the Jewish state by any & all means, Wexner being the source of many Epstein millions, the original buyer of the NYC mansion he transferred to Epstein etc the excellent Epstein series by Whitney Webb on Mint Press covering all this https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/whitney-webb/ ..."
"... ex-OSS father Donald Barr had written a 'fantasy novel' on sex slavery with scenes of rape of underage teens, 'Space Relations', written whilst Don Barr was headmaster of the Dalton school, which gave Epstein his first job, teaching teens ..."
The Jeffrey Epstein case is notable for the ups and downs in media coverage it's gotten over the years. Everybody, it seems, in
New York society knew by 2000 that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were corrupting teenage girls, but the press wouldn't cover
it. Articles by New York in 2002 and
Vanity Fair in 2003 alluded to it gently,
while probing Epstein's finances more closely. In 2005, the Palm Beach police investigated. The county prosecutor, Democrat Barry
Krischer, wouldn't prosecute for more than prostitution, so they went to the federal prosecutor, Republican Alexander Acosta, and
got the FBI involved. Acosta's office prepared an indictment, but before it was filed, he made a deal: Epstein agreed to plead guilty
to a state law felony and receive a prison term of 18 months. In exchange, the federal interstate sex trafficking charges would not
be prosecuted by Acosta's office. Epstein was officially at the county jail for 13 months, where the county officials under Democratic
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw gave him scandalously
easy treatment , letting him spend his days outside, and letting him serve a year of probation in place of the last 5 months
of his sentence. Acosta's office complained, but it was a county jail, not a federal jail, so he was powerless.
Epstein was released, and various lawsuits were filed against him and settled out of court, presumably in exchange for silence.
The media was quiet or complimentary as Epstein worked his way back into high society. Two books were written about the affair, and
fell flat. The FBI became interested again around 2011 (
a little known fact
) and maybe things were happening behind the scenes, but the next big event was in 2018 when the Miami Herald published a
series of investigative articles rehashing what had happened.
In 2019 federal prosecutors indicted Epstein, he was put in jail, and
he mysteriously died. Now, after much complaining in the press about how awful jails are and how many people commit suicide, things
are quiet again, at least until the Justice Department and
the State of Florida finish their
investigation a few years from now. (For details and more links, see " Investigation: Jeffrey Epstein
"at Medium.com and " Jeffrey Epstein " at Wikipedia
.)
I'm an expert in the field of "game theory", strategic thinking. What would I do if I were Epstein? I'd try to get the President,
the Attorney-General, or the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to shut down the investigation before it went public.
I'd have all my friends and all my money try to pressure them. If it failed and I were arrested, it would be time for the backup
plan -- the Deal. I'd try to minimize my prison time, and, just as important, to be put in one of the nicer federal prisons where
I could associate with financial wizards and drug lords instead of serial killers, black nationalists, and people with bad breath.
That's what Epstein would do. What about the powerful people Epstein would turn in to get his deal? They aren't as smart as Epstein,
but they would know the Deal was coming -- that Epstein would be quite happy to sacrifice them in exchange for a prison with a slightly
better golf course. What could they do? There's only one good option -- to kill Epstein, and do it quickly, before he could start
giving information samples to the U. S. Attorney.
Trying to kill informers is absolutely routine in the mafia, or indeed, for gangs of any kind. The reason people call such talk
"conspiracy theories" when it comes to Epstein is that his friends are WASPs and Jews, not Italians and Mexicans. But WASPs and Jews
are human too. They want to protect themselves. Famous politicians, unlike gangsters, don't have full-time professional hit men on
their staffs, but that's just common sense -- politicians rarely need hit men, so it makes more sense to hire them on a piecework
basis than as full-time employees. How would they find hit men? You or I wouldn't know how to start, but it would be easy for them.
Rich powerful people have bodyguards. Bodyguards are for defense, but the guys who do defense know guys who do offense. And Epstein's
friends are professional networkers.
One reporter said
of Ghislaine Maxwell, "Her Rolodex would blow away almost anyone else's I can think of -- probably even Rupert Murdoch's." They know
people who know people. Maybe I'm six degrees of separation from a mafia hit man, but not Ghislaine Maxwell. I bet she knows at least
one mafioso personally who knows more than one hit man.
In light of this, it would be very surprising if someone with a spare $50 million to spend to solve the Epstein problem didn't
give it a try. A lot of people can be bribed for $50 million. Thus, we should have expected to see bribery attempts. If none were
detected, it must have been because prison workers are not reporting they'd been approached.
Some
people say that government incompetence is always a better explanation than government malfeasance. That's obviously wrong --
when an undeserving business gets a contract, it's not always because the government official in charge was just not paying attention.
I can well believe that prisons often take prisoners off of suicide watch too soon, have guards who go to sleep and falsify records,
remove cellmates from prisoners at risk of suicide or murder, let the TV cameras watching their most important prisoners go on the
blink, and so forth. But that cuts both ways.
Remember, in the case of Epstein, we'd expect a murder attempt whether the warden of
the most important federal jail in the country is competent or not. If the warden is incompetent, we should expect that murder attempt
to succeed. Murder becomes all the more more plausible. Instead of spending $50 million to bribe 20 guards and the warden, you just
pay some thug $30,000 to walk in past the snoring guards, open the cell door, and strangle the sleeping prisoner, no fancy James
Bond necessary. Or, if you can hire a New York Times reporter for $30,000 (
as Epstein famously did a couple of years ago), you can spend $200,000 on a competent hit man to make double sure. Government
incompetence does not lend support to the suicide theory; quite the opposite.
Now to my questions.
Why is nobody blaming the Florida and New York state prosecutors for not prosecuting Epstein and others for statutory rape?
Statutory rape is not a federal crime, so it is not something the Justice Dept. is supposed to investigate or prosecute. They
are going after things like interstate sex trafficking. Interstate sex trafficking is generally much harder to prove than statutory
rape, which is very easy if the victims will testify.
At any time from 2008 to the present, Florida and New York prosecutors could have gone after Epstein and easily convicted him.
The federal nonprosecution agreement did not bind them. And, of course, it is not just Epstein who should have been prosecuted. Other
culprits such as Prince Andrew are still at large.
Note that if even if the evidence is just the girl's word against Ghislaine Maxwell's or Prince Andrew's, it's still quite possible
to get a jury to convict. After all, who would you believe, in a choice between Maxwell, Andrew, and Anyone Else in the World? For
an example of what can be done if the government is eager to convict, instead of eager to protect important people, see
the 2019 Cardinal
Pell case in Australia. He was convicted by the secret testimony of a former choirboy, the only complainant, who claimed Pell
had committed indecent acts during a chance encounter after Mass before Pell had even unrobed. Naturally, the only cardinal to be
convicted of anything in the Catholic Church scandals is also the one who's done the most to fight corruption. Where there's a will,
there's a way to prosecute. It's even easier to convict someone if he's actually guilty.
Why isn't anybody but Ann Coulter talking about Barry Krischer and Ric Bradshaw, the Florida state prosecutor and sheriff who went
easy on Epstein, or the New York City police who let him violate the sex offender regulations?
Krischer refused to use the evidence the Palm Beach police gave him except to file a no-jail-time prostitution charge (they eventually
went to Acosta, the federal prosecutor, instead, who got a guilty plea with an 18-month sentence). Bradshaw let him spend his days
at home instead of at jail.
In New York State, the county prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, fought to prevent Epstein from being classified
as a Level III sex offender. Once he was, the
police didn't enforce the
rule that required him to check in every 90 days.
How easy would it have been to prove in 2016 or 2019 that Epstein and his people were guilty of federal sex trafficking?
Not easy, I should think. It wouldn't be enough to prove that Epstein debauched teenagers. Trafficking is a federal offense, so
it would have to involve commerce across state lines. It also must involve sale and profit, not just personal pleasure.
The 2019 indictment
is weak on this. The "interstate commerce" looks like it's limited to Epstein making phone calls between Florida and New York. This
is why I am not completely skeptical when former U.S. Attorney Acosta says that the 2008 nonprosecution deal was reasonable. He had
strong evidence the Epstein violated Florida state law -- but that wasn't relevant. He had to prove violations of federal law.
Why didn't Epstein ask the Court, or the Justice Dept., for permission to have an unarmed guard share his cell with him?
Epstein had no chance at bail without bribing the judge, but this request would have been reasonable. That he didn't request a
guard is, I think, the strongest evidence that he wanted to die. If he didn't commit suicide himself, he was sure making it easy
for someone else to kill him.
Could Epstein have used the safeguard of leaving a trove of photos with a friend or lawyer to be published if he died an unnatural
death?
Well, think about it -- Epstein's lawyer was Alan Dershowitz. If he left photos with someone like Dershowitz, that someone could
earn a lot more by using the photos for blackmail himself than by dutifully carrying out his perverted customer's instructions. The
evidence is just too valuable, and Epstein was someone whose friends weren't the kind of people he could trust. Probably not even
his brother.
Who is in danger of dying next?
Prison workers from guard to warden should be told that if they took bribes, their lives are now in danger. Prison guards may
not be bright enough to realize this. Anybody who knows anything important about Epstein should be advised to publicize their information
immediately. That is the best way to stay alive.
This is not like a typical case where witnesses get killed so they won't testify.
It's not like with gangsters. Here, the publicity and investigative lead is what is most important, because these are reputable and
rich offenders for whom publicity is a bigger threat than losing in court. They have very good lawyers, and probably aren't guilty
of federal crimes anyway, just state crimes, in corrupt states where they can use clout more effectively. Thus, killing potential
informants before they tell the public is more important than killing informants to prevent their testimony at trial, a much more
leisurely task.
What happened to Epstein's body?
The Justice Dept. had better not have let Epstein's body be cremated. And they'd better give us convincing evidence that it's
his body. If I had $100 million to get out of jail with, acquiring a corpse and bribing a few people to switch fingerprints and DNA
wouldn't be hard. I find it worrying that the government has not released proof that Epstein is dead or a copy of the autopsy.
"Beyond its isolation, the wing is infested with rodents and cockroaches, and inmates often have to navigate standing water
-- as well as urine and fecal matter -- that spills from faulty plumbing, accounts from former inmates and lawyers said. One lawyer
said mice often eat his clients' papers."
" Often have to navigate standing water"? "Mice often eat his clients' papers?" Really? I'm skeptical. What do the
vermin eat -- do inmates leave Snickers bars open in their cells? Has anyone checked on what the prison conditions really like?
Is it just a coincidence that Epstein made a new will two days before he died?
I can answer this one. Yes, it is coincidence, though it's not a coincidence that he rewrote the will shortly after being denied
bail. The will leaves everything to a trust, and it is the trust document (which is confidential), not the will (which is public),
that determines who gets the money. Probably the only thing that Epstein changed in his will was the listing of assets, and he probably
changed that because he'd just updated his list of assets for the bail hearing anyway, so it was a convenient time to update the
will.
Did Epstein's veiled threat against DOJ officials in his bail filing backfire?
Epstein's lawyers wrote in his bail request,
"If the government is correct that the NPA does not, and never did, preclude a prosecution in this district, then the government
will likely have to explain why it purposefully delayed a prosecution of someone like Mr. Epstein, who registered as a sex offender
10 years ago and was certainly no stranger to law enforcement. There is no legitimate explanation for the delay."
I see this as a veiled threat. The threat is that Epstein would subpoena people and documents from the Justice Department relevant
to the question of why there was a ten-year delay before prosecution, to expose the illegitimate explanation for the delay. Somebody
is to blame for that delay, and court-ordered disclosure is a bigger threat than an internal federal investigation.
Who can we trust?
Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is the only government official who is clearly trustworthy,
because he could have stopped the 2019 Epstein indictment and he didn't. I don't think Attorney-General Barr could have blocked it,
and I don't think President Trump could have except by firing Berman. I do trust Attorney-General Barr, however, from what I've
heard of him and because he instantly and publicly said he would have not just the FBI but the Justice Dept. Inspector-General investigate
Epstein's death, and he quickly fired the federal prison head honcho. The FBI is untrustworthy, but Inspector-Generals are often
honorable.
Someone else who may be a hero in this is Senator Ben Sasse.
Vicki Ward
writes in the Daily Beast :
"It was that heart-wrenching series that caught the attention of Congress. Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska,
joined with his Democratic colleagues and demanded to know how justice had been so miscarried.
Given the political sentiment, it's unsurprising that the FBI should feel newly emboldened to investigate Epstein -- basing
some of their work on Brown's excellent reporting."
Will President Trump Cover Up Epstein's Death in Exchange for Political Leverage?
President Trump didn't have anything personally to fear from Epstein. He is too canny to have gotten involved with him, and the
press has been eagerly at work to find the slightest connection between him and Epstein and have come up dry as far as anything but
acquaintanceship. But we must worry about a cover-up anyway, because rich and important people would be willing to pay Trump a lot
in money or, more likely, in political support, if he does a cover-up.
Why did Judge Sweet order Epstein documents sealed in 2017. Did he die naturally in 2019?
Judge Robert Sweet in 2017 ordered all documents in an Epstein-related case sealed. He died in May 2019 at age 96, at home in
Idaho. The sealing was completely illegal, as the appeals court politely but devastatingly noted in 2019, and the documents were
released a day or two before Epstein died. Someone should check into Judge Sweet's finance and death. He was an ultra-Establishment
figure -- a Yale man, alas, like me, and Taft School -- so he might just have been protecting what he considered good people, but
his decision to seal the court records was grossly improper.
Did Epstein have any dealings in sex, favors, or investments with any Republican except Wexner?
Dershowitz, Mitchell, Clinton, Richardson, Dubin, George Stephanopolous, Lawrence Krauss, Katie Couric, Mortimer Zuckerman,
Chelsea Handler, Cyrus Vance, and Woody Allen, are all Democrats. Did Epstein ever make use of Republicans? Don't count Trump, who
has not been implicated despite the media's best efforts and was probably not even a Republican back in the 90's. Don't count Ken
Starr– he's just one of Epstein's lawyers. Don't count scientists who just took money gifts from him. (By the way, Epstein made very
little in the way of
political contributions
, though that little went mostly to Democrats (
$139,000 vs. $18,000
. I bet he extracted more from politicians than he gave to them.
What role did Israeli politician Ehud Barak play in all this?
Remember Marc Rich? He was a billionaire who fled the country to avoid a possible 300 years prison term, and was pardoned
by Bill Clinton in 2001. Ehud Barak, one of Epstein's friends, was one of the people
who asked for Rich to be pardoned
. Epstein, his killers, and other rich people know that as a last resort they can flee the country and wait for someone like Clinton
to come to office and pardon them.
Acosta said that Washington Bush Administration people told him to go easy on Epstein because he was an intelligence source. That
is plausible. Epstein had info and blackmailing ability with people like Ehud Barak, leader of Israel's Labor Party. But "intelligence"
is also the kind of excuse people make up so they don't have to say "political pressure."
Why did nobody pay attention to the two 2016 books on Epstein?
James Patterson and John Connolly published Filthy Rich: A Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal that Undid Him ,
and All the Justice that Money Can Buy: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein . Conchita Sarnoff published TrafficKing:
The Jeffrey Epstein Case. I never heard of these before 2019. Did the media bury them?
Which newspapers reported Epstein's death as "suicide" and which as "apparent suicide"?
More generally, which media outlets seem to be trying to brush Epstein's death under the rug? There seems to have been an
orchestrated attempt to divert attention to the issue of suicides in prison. Subtle differences in phrasing might help reveal who's
been paid off. National Review had an article,
"The Conspiracy
Theories about Jeffrey Epstein's Death Don't Make Much Sense." The article contains no evidence or argument to support the headline's
assertion, just bluster about "madness" and "conspiracy theories". Who else publishes stuff like this?
How much did Epstein corrupt the media from 2008 to 2019?
Even outlets that generally publish good articles must be suspected of corruption. Epstein made an effort to get good publicity.
The New York Times
wrote,
"The effort led to the publication of articles describing him as a selfless and forward-thinking philanthropist with an interest
in science on websites like Forbes, National Review and HuffPost .
All three articles have been removed from their sites in recent days, after inquiries from TheNew York Times .
The National Review piece, from the same year, called him "a smart businessman" with a "passion for cutting-edge science."
Ms. Galbraith was also a publicist for Mr. Epstein, according to several news releases promoting Mr. Epstein's foundations In
the article that appeared on the National Review site, she described him as having "given thoughtfully to countless organizations
that help educate underprivileged children."
"We took down the piece, and regret publishing it," Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review since 1997, said in an email.
He added that the publication had "had a process in place for a while now to weed out such commercially self-interested pieces from
lobbyists and PR flacks.""
Eric Rasmusen is an economist who has held an endowed chair at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and visiting
positions at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, the Harvard Economics Department, Chicago's Booth School of Business, Nuffield
College/Oxford, and the University of Tokyo Economics Department. He is best known for his book Games and Information. He has published
extensively in law and economics, including recent articles on the burakumin outcastes in Japan, the use of game theory in jurisprudence,
and quasi-concave functions. The views expressed here are his personal views and are not intended to represent the views of the Kelley
School of Business or Indiana University. His vitae is at http://www.rasmusen.org/vita.htm
.
Not one question involving Maurene Comey, then? She was one of the SDNY prosecutors assigned to this case, and her name has
been significantly played down (if at all visible) in the reportage before or after Epstein's death. That she just "happened"
to be on this case at all is quite an eyebrow raiser especially with her father under the ongoing "Spygate" investigation
Apparently, there will always be many players on the field, and many ways to do damage control.
So the problem was finding a motivated prosecutor in case of Jewish predator with very likely links to intelligence services
of several countries. The motivation was obviously lacking.
Your "expertise" in game theory would be greatly improved if you let yourself consider the Jewish factor.
As important as it is to go on asking questions about the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein, I have to admit that personally
I'm just not interested. I've always found people of his social class to be vaguely repulsive even without the sordid sex allegations.
Just their demanding personalities, just the thought of them hanging around in their terrycloth jogging suits, sneering at the
world with their irrefrangible arrogance, is enough to make me shudder. I want nothing of their nightmare world; and when they
die, I couldn't care less.
More generally, which media outlets seem to be trying to brush Epstein's death under the rug?
Not the National Enquirer:
Jeffrey Epstein Murder Cover-up Exposed!
Death Scene Staged to Look Like Suicide
Billionaire's Screams Ignored by Guards!
Fatal Attack Caught on Jail Cameras!
Autopsy is Hiding the Truth!
I don't hold AG Barr in the high regard this piece does. While I'm not suggesting he had anything to do with Epstein's
death I do think he's corrupt. I doubt he will do anything that leads to the truth. As for him relieving the warden of
his duties, I would hope that was to be expected, wasn't it? I mean he only had two attempts on Epstein's life with the second
being a success. Apparently the first didn't jolt the warden into some kind of action as it appears he was guilty of a number
of sins including 'Sloth.'
As for the publications that don't like conspiracy theories –like the National Review
-- they are a hoot. We are supposed to have faith in this rubbish? The cameras malfunctioned. He didn't have a cellmate. The
guards were tired and forced to work overtime. There was no camera specifically in the cell with Epstein.
In the end I think Epstein probably was allowed to kill himself but I'm not confident in that scenario at all. And yes the media
should pressure Barr to hav e a look in the cell and see exactly how a suicide attempt might have succeeded or if it was a long-shot
at best, given the materiel and conditions.
19. Why is the non-prosecution agreement ambiguous ("globally" binding), when it was written by the best lawyers in the country
for a very wealthy client? Was the ambiguity bargained-for? If so, what are the implications?
20. With "globally" still being unresolved (to the bail judge's first-paragraph astonishment), why commit suicide now?
21. The "it was malfeasance" components are specified. For mere malfeasance to have been the cause, all of the components would
have to be true; it would be a multiplicative function of the several components. Is no one sufficiently quantitative to estimate
the magnitude?
22. What is the best single takeaway phrase that emerges from all of this? My nomination is: "In your face." The brazen, shameless,
unprecedented, turning-point, in-your-faceness of it.
ER the answer is easy to you list of questions .. there is no law in the world when violations are not prosecuted and fair open
for all to see trials are not held and judges do not deliver the appropriate penalties upon convictions. .. in cases involving
the CIA prosecution it is unheard of that a open for all to see trial takes place.
This is why we the governed masses need a parallel government..
such an oversight government would allow to pick out the negligent or wilful misconduct of persons in functional government
and prosecute such persons in the independent people's court.. Without a second government to oversee the first government there
is no democracy; democracy cannot stand and the governed masses will never see the light of a fair day .. unless the masses have
oversight authority on what is to be made into law, and are given without prejudice to their standing in America the right to
charge those associated to government with negligent or wilful misconduct.
There are big questions this article is not asking either
The words 'Mossad' seems not to appear above, and just a brief mention of 'Israel' with Ehud Barak
One tiny mention of Jewish magnate Les Wexner but no mention how he & the Bronfmans founded the 'Mega Group' of ultra-Zionist
billionaires regularly meeting as to how they could prop up the Jewish state by any & all means, Wexner being the source of many
Epstein millions, the original buyer of the NYC mansion he transferred to Epstein etc the excellent Epstein series by Whitney
Webb on Mint Press covering all this https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/whitney-webb/
Was escape to freedom & Israe,l the ultimate payoff for Epstein's decades of work for Mossad, grooming and abusing young teens,
filmed in flagrante delicto with prominent people for political blackmail?
Is it not likely this was a Mossad jailbreak covered by fake 'suicide', with Epstein alive now, with US gov now also in possession
of the assumed Epstein sexual blackmail video tapes?
We have the Epstein 'death in jail' under the US Attorney General Bill Barr, a former CIA officer 1973-77, the CIA supporting
him thru night law school, Bill Barr's later law firm Kirkland Ellis representing Epstein
Whose Jewish-born ex-OSS father Donald Barr had written a 'fantasy novel' on sex slavery with scenes of rape of underage
teens, 'Space Relations', written whilst Don Barr was headmaster of the Dalton school, which gave Epstein his first job, teaching
teens
So would a crypto-Jewish 'former' CIA officer who is now USA Attorney General, possibly help a Mossad political blackmailer
escape to Israel after a fake 'jail suicide'?
An intriguing 4chan post a few hours after Epstein's 'body was discovered', says Epstein was put in a wheelchair and driven
out of the jail in a van, accompanied by a man in a green military uniform – timestamp is USA Pacific on the screencap apparently,
so about 10:44 NYC time Sat.10 Aug
FWIW, drone video of Epstein's Little St James island from Friday 30 August, shows a man who could be Epstein himself, on the
left by one vehicle, talking to a black man sitting on a quad all-terrain unit
Close up of Epstein-like man between vehicles, from video note 'pale finger' match-up to archive photo Epstein
The thing that sticks out for me is that Epstein was caught, charged, and went to jail previously, but he didn't die .
The second time, it appears he was murdered. I strongly suspect that the person who murdered Epstein was someone who only met
Epstein after 2008, or was someone Epstein only procured for after 2008. Otherwise, this person would have killed Epstein
back when Epstein was charged by the cops the first time.
Either that, or the killer is someone who is an opponent of Trump, and this person was genuinely terrified that Trump would
pressure the Feds to avoid any deals and to squeeze all the important names out of Epstein and prosecute them, too.
The author professes himself "expert in the field of "game theory", strategic thinking," but he doesn't say how his 18 questions
were arrived at to the exclusion of hundreds of others. Instead, the column includes several casual assumptions and speculation.
For example:
"Probably the only thing that Epstein changed in his will was the listing of assets, and he probably changed that because
he'd just updated his list of assets for the bail hearing anyway, so it was a convenient time to update the will."
"President Trump didn't have anything personally to fear from Epstein."
"I do trust Attorney-General Barr, however, from what I've heard of him and because he instantly and publicly said he would
have not just the FBI but the Justice Dept. Inspector-General investigate Epstein's death, and he quickly fired the federal
prison head honcho. The FBI is untrustworthy, but Inspector-Generals are often honorable."
As to this last, isn't "quickly [firing] the federal prison head honcho" consistent with a failure-to-prevent-suicide deflection
strategy? And has Mr. Rasmusen not "heard" of the hiring of Mr. Epstein by Mr. Barr's father? Or of the father's own Establishment
background?
I hope to be wrong, but my own hunch is that these investigations, like the parallel investigations of the RussiaGate hoax,
will leave the elite unscathed. I also hope that in the meantime we see more rigorous columns here than this one.
...Also, subsequently, it should have been a top priority to arrest Ghislaine Maxwell but the government, justice and media
lack interest . Apparently, they don't know where she is, and they're not making any special efforts to find out.
"How many other millionaires and billionaires were part of the illegal activities that he
was engaged in?" he asked. Even the BBC website has as its heading of a news story today "Jeffrey Epstein: Questions raised over financier's death."
Epstein may have been lured back to the US with some cover story of a get-out-of-jail fake death -- only the powers that be had
decided to terminate his contract.
Images removed. For full text the original source... test
Notable quotes:
"... Maxwell, who was a business partner of Mega Group co-founder Charles Bronfman, aided the successful Mossad plot to plant a trapdoor in U.S.-created software that was then sold to governments and companies throughout the world. That plot’s success was largely due to the role of a close associate of then-President Ronald Reagan and an American politician close to Maxwell, who later helped aid Reagan in the cover-up of the Iran Contra scandal. ..."
"... Years later, Maxwell’s daughter — Ghislaine Maxwell — would join Jeffrey Epstein’s “inner circle” at the same time Epstein was bankrolling a similar software program now being marketed for critical electronic infrastructure in the U.S. and abroad ..."
"... Epstein appears to have ties to Israeli intelligence and has well-documented ties to influential Israeli politicians and the Mega Group. Yet, those entities are not isolated in and of themselves, as many also connect to the organized crime network and powerful alleged pedophiles discussed in previous installments of this series. ..."
"... Associated Press ..."
"... Lauder, then-ambassador to Austria for the Reagan administration, would have been well-positioned to acquire such a passport, particularly for the reason cited by Epstein’s attorneys that Jewish-Americans could be targeted during travel, and in light of Lauder’s very public concerns over threats Jews face from certain terror groups. Furthermore, the passport had been issued in 1987, when Lauder was still serving as an ambassador. ..."
"... Though Epstein’s defense attorney declined to reveal the identity of the “friend” who provided him with the fake Austrian passport, Lauder was both well-positioned to acquire it in Austria and also deeply connected to the Mega Group, which was co-founded by Epstein’s patron Leslie Wexner and to which Epstein has many connections. These connections to both the Austrian government and to Epstein’s mentor make Lauder the most likely person to have acquired the document on Epstein’s behalf. ..."
"... Furthermore, Lauder co-founded the Eastern European broadcasting network CETV with Mark Palmer, a former U.S. diplomat, Kissinger aide and Reagan speechwriter. Palmer is better known for co-founding the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization often described as an accessory to U.S. intelligence, and one whose first president confessed to the Washington Post that “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” A 2001 report in the Evening Standard noted that Epstein once claimed that during the 1980s he worked for the CIA, but Epstein later backed away from that assertion. ..."
"... The Mega Group — a secretive group of billionaires to which Lauder belongs — was formed in 1991 by Charles Bronfman and Leslie Wexner, the latter of whom has received considerable media scrutiny following the July arrest of his former protege Jeffrey Epstein. Media profiles of the group paint it as “a loosely organized club of 20 of the nation’s wealthiest and most influential Jewish businessmen” focused on “philanthropy and Jewishness,” with membership dues upwards of $30,000 per year. Yet several of its most prominent members have ties to organized crime. ..."
"... When Edgar Bronfman died in 2013, long-time ADL Director Abe Foxman said , “Edgar was for many years Chair of our Liquor Industry Division, Chair of our New York Appeal, and one of our most significant benefactors.” Other Mega Group members that are donors and major supporters of the ADL include Ronald Lauder , Michael Steinhardt and the late Max Fisher . As previously mentioned, Roy Cohn’s father was a long-time leader of B’nai B’rith’s influential New England-New York chapter and Cohn was later a celebrated member of its banking and finance lodge. ..."
"... In addition, Mega Group members have also been key players in the pro-Israel lobby in the United States. For instance, Max Fisher of the Mega Group founded the National Jewish Coalition, now known as the Republican Jewish Coalition — the main pro-Israel neoconservative political lobbying group , known for its support of hawkish policies, and whose current chief patrons, Sheldon Adelson and Bernard Marcus, are among Donald Trump’s top donors. ..."
"... Sam Bronfman, as was detailed in Part I of this series, had long-standing deep ties to organized crime, specifically Meyer Lanksy’s organized crime syndicate. Yet, Bronfman’s private ambition, according to those close to him, was to become a respected member of high society. As a consequence, Bronfman worked hard to remove the stain that his mob associations had left on his public reputation in Canada and abroad. He accomplished this by becoming a leader in Canada’s Zionist movement and, by the end of the 1930s, he was head of the Canadian Jewish Congress and had begun to make a name for himself as a philanthropist for Jewish causes. ..."
"... Yet even some of Bronfman’s activism and philanthropy had hints of the mobster-like reputation he tried so hard to shake. For instance, Bronfman was actively involved in the illegal shipping of arms to Zionist paramilitaries in Palestine prior to 1948, specifically as a co-founder of the National Conference for Israeli and Jewish Rehabilitation that smuggled weapons to the paramilitary group Haganah. ..."
"... However, Edgar and Charles Bronfman were hardly the only members of the Mega Group with deep and long-standing ties to the Lansky-led National Crime Syndicate. Indeed, one of the group’s prominent members, hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt, opened up about his own family ties to Lansky in his autobiography No Bull: My Life in and out the Markets , where he noted that his father, Sol “Red McGee” Steinhardt, was Lansky’s jewel fence of choice and a major player in New York’s criminal underworld. Sol Steinhardt was also his son’s first client on Wall Street and helped him jumpstart his career in finance. ..."
"... One surprise connection to Cohn involves Mega Group member, and former president of U.S. weapons firm General Dynamics, Lester Crown, whose brother-in-law is David Schine, Cohn’s confidant and alleged lover during the McCarthy hearings, whose relationship with Cohn helped bring about the downfall of McCarthyism. ..."
"... Leslie “Les” Wexner, the other Mega Group co-founder, also has ties to organized crime. Wexner’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein have come under scrutiny following the latter’s recent arrest, as Wexner was the only publicly acknowledged client of Epstein’s suspicious hedge fund, the source of much of this wealth, and the previous owner of Epstein’s $56 million Manhattan townhouse, which Wexner transferred to an Epstein-controlled entity for free. ..."
"... The 1996 Times article also noted that, after Wexner bought the residence for $13.2 million in 1989, he spent millions more decorating and furnishing the home, including the addition of the electronic equipment in the “James Bond” bathroom, only to apparently never live in it. ..."
"... Farmer’s account strongly suggests that, given the behavior of his personal security staff at his mansion following Epstein’s alleged assault on Farmer, Wexner was well aware of Epstein’s predatory behavior towards young women. This is compounded by claims made by Alan Dershowitz — a former lawyer for and friend of Epstein’s, who has also been accused of raping underage girls — that Wexner has also been accused of raping underage girls exploited by Epstein on at least seven occasions. ..."
"... The report, titled “ Shapiro Homicide Investigation: Analysis and Hypothesis ,” names Leslie Wexner as linked “with associates reputed to be organized crime figures” and also lists the names of businessman Jack Kessler, former Columbus City Council President and Wexner associate Jerry Hammond, and former Columbus City Council member Les Wright as also being involved in Shapiro’s murder. ..."
"... As to Wexner’s alleged links to organized crime, the report focuses on the close business relationship between Wexner’s The Limited and Francis Walsh, whose trucking company “[had] done an excess of 90 percent of the Limited’s trucking business around the time of Shapiro’s murder,” according to the report. Walsh was named in a 1988 indictment as a “co-conspirator” of Genovese crime family boss Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, whose long-time lawyer was Roy Cohn; and the Shapiro murder report stated that Walsh was “still considered associates of the Genovese/LaRocca crime family, and Walsh was still providing truck transportation for The Limited.” ..."
"... According to a source who viewed a copy of the NSA transcript of the conversation, the intelligence officer, speaking in Hebrew, said, ‘The ambassador wants me to go to Mega to get a copy of this letter.’ The source said the supervisor in Tel Aviv rejected the request, saying, ‘This is not something we use Mega for.’” ..."
"... Almost one year to the day after the “Mega” spy scandal broke, the Wall Street Journal was the first outlet to report on the existence of a little-known organization of billionaires that was “informally” called the Mega Group and had been founded years prior in 1991. The report made no mention of the spy scandal that had spread concerns of Israeli espionage in the U.S. only a year prior. However, the group’s distinctive “informal” name and the connections of its members to the Mossad and to high-ranking Israeli politicians, including prime ministers, raise the possibility that “Mega” was not an individual, as the FBI and NSA had believed, but a group. ..."
"... Netanyahu was close enough to Lauder that he personally enlisted Lauder and George Nader to serve as his peace envoys to Syria. ..."
"... Nader, who was connected to the Trump 2016 campaign and Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince, was recently hit with federal child sex trafficking charges last month, soon after Jeffrey Epstein had been arrested on similar charges. At the time Nader was picked to work with Lauder on Netanyahu’s behalf, he had already been caught possessing large amounts of child pornography on two separate occasions, first in 1984 and later in 1990. ..."
"... Maxwell was also a close associate and friend of Israeli “superspy” Rafi Eitan, who, as previously mentioned, was Jonathan Pollard’s handler and who had previously worked directly with Meyer Lansky. ..."
"... With Inslaw out of the way, Brian sold the software all over the world. Eitan later recruited Robert Maxwell to become another Promis salesman, which he did remarkably well, even succeeding in selling the software to Soviet intelligence and conspiring with Republican Texas Senator John Tower to have the software adopted by the U.S. government laboratory at Los Alamos. Dozens of countries used the software on their most carefully guarded computer systems, unaware that Mossad now had access to everything Promis touched. ..."
"... According to journalist Robert Fisk , Maxwell was also involved in the Mossad abduction of Israeli nuclear weapons whistleblower Vanunu Mordechai. Mordechai had attempted to provide the media with information on the extent of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, which was eventually published by the Sunday Times of London . Yet, Mordechai had also contacted the Daily Mirror with the information, the Mirror being an outlet that was owned by Maxwell and whose foreign editor was a close Maxwell associate and alleged Mossad asset, Nicholas Davies. Journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that Davies had also been involved in Israeli arms deals. ..."
"... Per Fisk, it was Maxwell who contacted the Israeli Embassy in London and told them of Mordechai’s activities. This led to Mordechai’s entrapment by a female Mossad agent who seduced him as part of a “honey trap” operation that led to his kidnapping and later imprisonment in Israel. Mordechai served an 18-year sentence, 12 years of which were in solitary confinement. ..."
"... According to authors Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, Maxwell had sealed his own fate when he attempted to threaten top Mossad officials with the exposure of certain operations if they did not help him rescue his media empire from crippling debt and financial difficulties. Many of Maxwell’s creditors , who had grown increasingly displeased with the media mogul, were Israeli and several of them were alleged to be Mossad-connected themselves. ..."
"... Another attendee of the Maxwell yacht party was former Secretary of the Navy and former Henry Kissinger staffer Jon Lehman, who would go on to associate with the controversial neoconservative think tank, Project for a New American Century. Prior to being secretary of the Navy, Lehman had been president of the Abington Corporation, which hired arch-neocon Richard Perle to manage the portfolio of Israeli arms dealers Shlomo Zabludowicz and his son Chaim, who paid Ablington $10,000 month. A scandal arose when those payments continued after both Lehman and Perle joined the Reagan Department of Defense and while Perle was working to persuade the Pentagon to buy arms from companies linked to Zabludowicz. Perle had been part of the Reagan transition team along with Roy Cohn’s long-time friend and law partner Tom Bolan (another Maxwell yacht guest). ..."
"... Even though Jeffrey Epstein appears to have had ties to the Mossad, this series has revealed that the networks to which Epstein was connected were not Mossad-exclusive, as many of the individuals close to Epstein — Lesie Wexner, for instance — were part of a mob-connected class of oligarchs with deep ties to both the U.S. and Israel. ..."
"... Ultimately, the picture painted by the evidence is not a direct tie to a single intelligence agency but a web linking key members of the Mega Group, politicians, and officials in both the U.S. and Israel, and an organized-crime network with deep business and intelligence ties in both nations. ..."
A
s billionaire pedophile and alleged sex-trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein sits in prison, reports
have continued to surface about his reported links to intelligence, his financial ties to
several companies and “charitable” foundations, and his friendships with the rich
and powerful as well as top politicians.
While Part
I and Part
II of this series, “The Jeffrey Epstein Scandal: Too Big to Fail,” have focused
on the widespread nature of sexual blackmail operations in recent American history and their
ties to the heights of American political power and the U.S. intelligence community, one key
aspect of Epstein’s own sex-trafficking and blackmail operation that warrants examination
is Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence and his ties to the “informal”
pro-Israel philanthropist faction known as “the Mega Group.”
The Mega Group’s role in the Epstein case has garnered some attention, as
Epstein’s main financial patron for decades, billionaire Leslie Wexner, was a co-founder
of the group that unites several well-known businessmen with a penchant for pro-Israel and
ethno-philanthropy (i.e., philanthropy benefiting a single ethnic or ethno-religious group).
However, as this report will show, another uniting factor among Mega Group members is deep ties
to organized crime, specifically the organized crime network discussed in Part
I of this series, which was largely led by notorious American mobster Meyer Lansky.
By virtue of the role of many Mega Group members as major political donors in both the U.S.
and Israel, several of its most notable members have close ties to the governments of both
countries as well as their intelligence communities. As this report and a subsequent report
will show, the Mega Group also had close ties to two businessmen who worked for Israel’s
Mossad — Robert Maxwell and Marc Rich — as well as to top Israeli politicians,
including past and present prime ministers with deep ties to Israel’s intelligence
community.
One of those businessmen working for the Mossad, Robert Maxwell, will be discussed at length
in this report. Maxwell, who was a business partner of Mega Group co-founder Charles Bronfman,
aided the successful Mossad plot to plant a trapdoor in U.S.-created software that was then
sold to governments and companies throughout the world. That plot’s success was largely
due to the role of a close associate of then-President Ronald Reagan and an American politician
close to Maxwell, who later helped aid Reagan in the cover-up of the Iran Contra scandal.
Years later, Maxwell’s daughter — Ghislaine Maxwell — would join Jeffrey
Epstein’s “inner circle” at the same time Epstein was bankrolling a similar
software program now being marketed for critical electronic infrastructure in the U.S. and
abroad. That company has deep and troubling connections to Israeli military intelligence,
associates of the Trump administration, and the Mega Group.
Epstein appears to have ties to Israeli intelligence and has well-documented ties to
influential Israeli politicians and the Mega Group. Yet, those entities are not isolated in and
of themselves, as many also connect to the organized crime network and powerful alleged
pedophiles discussed in previous installments of this series.
Perhaps the best illustration of how the connections between many of these players often
meld together can be seen in Ronald Lauder: a Mega Group member, former member of the Reagan
administration, long-time donor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s
Likud Party, as well as a long-time friend of Donald Trump and Roy Cohn.
From cosmetics
heir to political player
One often overlooked yet famous client and friend of Roy Cohn is the billionaire heir to the
Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, Ronald Lauder. Lauder is often described in the press as a
“leading Jewish philanthropist” and is the president of the World Jewish Congress,
yet his many media profiles tend to leave out his highly political past.
In a
statement given by Lauder to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman in 2018, the
cosmetics heir noted that he has known Trump for over 50 years, going back at least to the
early 1970s. According to Lauder, his relationship with Trump began when Trump was a student at
the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which Lauder also
attended.
Image deleted: President-elect Trump walks with Ronald Lauder after meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 28, 2016,
in Palm Beach, Fla. Evan Vucci | AP
Though the exact nature of their early friendship is unclear, it is evident that they shared
many of the same connections, including to the man who would later count them both as his
clients, Roy Cohn. While much has been said of the ties between Cohn and Trump, Cohn was
particularly close to Lauder’s mother, Estee Lauder (born Josephine Mentzer). Estee was
even counted among Cohn’s most high-profile friends in
his New York Times obituary .
A small window into the Lauder-Cohn relationship surfaced briefly in a
2016 article in Politico about a 1981 dinner party held at Cohn’s weekend home
in Greenwich, Connecticut. The party was attended by Ronald Lauder’s parents, Estee and
Joe, as well as Trump and his then-wife Ivana, who had
a weekend home just two miles away. That party was held soon after Cohn had helped Reagan
secure the presidency and had reached the height of his political influence. At the party, Cohn
offered toasts to Reagan and to then-Senator for New York Alfonse D’Amato, who
would later urge Ronald Lauder to run for political office.
Two years later, in 1983, Ronald Lauder — whose only professional experience at that
point was working for his parent’s cosmetics company — was appointed to serve as United
States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Affairs. Soon after his
appointment, he served on the
Dinner Tribute Committee for a dinner hosted by the Jewish fraternal and strongly pro-Israel
organization B’nai B’rith, the parent organization of the controversial
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in Roy Cohn’s honor. Cohn’s influential father,
Albert Cohn, was the long-time
president of B’nai B’rith’s powerful New England-New York chapter and Roy
Cohn himself was a member of B’nai B’rith’s Banking and Finance Lodge.
The dinner specifically sought
to honor Cohn for his pro-Israel advocacy and his efforts to “fortify”
Israel’s economy, and its honorary chairmen included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Donald
Trump and then-head of Bear Stearns Alan Greenberg, all of whom are
connected to Jeffrey Epstein.
During his time as deputy assistant secretary of defense, Lauder was also very active in
Israeli politics and had already become an ally of the then-Israeli representative to the
United Nations and future prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Lauder would go on to
be one of the most important individuals in Netanyahu’s rise to power, particularly
during his upset victory in 1996, and a major financier of
Israel’s right-wing Likud Party.
In 1986, the year that Roy Cohn died, Lauder left his post at the Pentagon and became the
U.S. ambassador to Austria, where his tenure was shaped by
his confrontations with the then-Austrian president and former Nazi collaborator, Kurt
Waldheim. Lauder’s interest in Austrian politics has continued well into recent years,
culminating in accusations that he sought
to manipulate Austrian elections in 2012.
After leaving his ambassadorship, Lauder
founded the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in 1987 and later went on to run for Mayor of New
York against Rudy Giuliani in 1989. Lauder
was encouraged to run by then-Senator Alfonse D’Amato, who had close ties to Roy Cohn
and his long-time law partner Tom Bolan, who was
D’Amato’s adviser . At the aforementioned 1983 B’nai B’rith dinner
honoring Cohn, D’Amato was the featured speaker.
The likely reason was that Giuliani, though once an ally of the “Roy Cohn
machine,” was at the time
deeply disliked by the late Cohn’s associates for prosecuting Cohn’s former law
partner, Stanley Friedman, for racketeering, conspiracy and other charges. Giuliani also had a
history of bitter disagreements with D’Amato. Lauder’s primary campaign, though
unsuccessful, was noted for its viciousness and its cost, as it
burned through more than $13 million.
A few years later, in the early 1990s, Lauder would join a newly formed group that has long
evaded scrutiny from the media but has recently become of interest in connection with the
Jeffrey Epstein scandal: the Mega Group.
Lauder, Epstein and the mysterious Austrian
passport
Before getting to the Mega Group, it is worth noting one particular act apparently
undertaken by Lauder while he was U.S. ambassador to Austria that has recently come to light in
relation to the arrest in early July of Jeffrey Epstein, a finding first reported by journalist
Edward Szall. When police recently discovered an Austrian passport with Epstein’s picture
and a fake name after raiding his Manhattan residence, the source and purpose of the passport
came under media scrutiny.
According to the Associated Press ,
Epstein’s defense lawyers specifically argued that “a friend gave it to him
[Epstein] in the 1980s after some Jewish-Americans were informally advised to carry
identification bearing a non-Jewish name when traveling internationally during a period when
hijackings were more common.” This claim appears to be related to concerns that followed
the hijacking
of Air France Flight 139 in 1976 when Israeli and Jewish hostages were separated from other
hostages based largely on the passports in their possession.
Given that Epstein was unable to meet the conventional qualifications for an Austrian
passport — including long-term residency in Austria (the passport lists him as a resident
of Saudi Arabia) and fluency in German — it appears that the only way to have acquired an
Austrian passport was by unconventional means, meaning assistance from a well-connected
Austrian official or foreign diplomat with clout in Austria.
Image deleted: Ronald Lauder, right, and Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima pose with students from the
Lauder Chabad School in Vienna, Austria in 1999. Martin Gnedt | AP
Lauder, then-ambassador to Austria for the Reagan administration, would have been
well-positioned to acquire such a passport, particularly for the reason cited by
Epstein’s attorneys that Jewish-Americans could be targeted during travel, and in light
of Lauder’s very public concerns over threats Jews face from certain terror groups.
Furthermore, the passport had been issued in 1987, when Lauder was still serving as an
ambassador.
In addition, Lauder
was well-connected to Epstein’s former patron — former head of Bear Stearns
Alan Greenberg, who had hired Epstein in the late 1970s immediately after the latter was fired
from the Dalton School — and Donald Trump,
another friend of Lauder and Greenberg who began his friendship with Epstein in 1987, the
same year the fake Austrian passport was issued. In 1987, Epstein also began his relationship
with his principal financier, Leslie Wexner, who is also closely associated with Lauder (though
some sources claim that Epstein and Wexner first met in 1985 but that their strong business
relationship was not established until 1987).
Though Epstein’s defense attorney declined to reveal the identity of the
“friend” who provided him with the fake Austrian passport, Lauder was both
well-positioned to acquire it in Austria and also deeply connected to the Mega Group, which was
co-founded by Epstein’s patron Leslie Wexner and to which Epstein has many connections.
These connections to both the Austrian government and to Epstein’s mentor make Lauder the
most likely person to have acquired the document on Epstein’s behalf.
Furthermore, Epstein and the Mega Group’s ties to the Israeli intelligence agency,
Mossad, also suggest Lauder was involved in procuring the passport, in light of his close ties
to the Israeli government and the fact that Mossad
has a history of using ambassadors abroad to procure false, foreign passports for its
operatives.
Lauder himself has been alleged to have ties to Mossad, as he is a long-time funder of IDC
Herzliya, an Israeli university
closely associated with Mossad and their recruiters as well as Israeli military
intelligence. Lauder even founded IDC Herzliya’s
Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy.
Furthermore, Lauder co-founded the Eastern European broadcasting network CETV with Mark
Palmer, a former U.S. diplomat, Kissinger aide and Reagan speechwriter. Palmer is better known
for co-founding the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization often described as
an accessory to U.S. intelligence, and one whose first president confessed to
the Washington Post that “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years
ago by the CIA.” A 2001 report in the Evening Standard noted that Epstein
once
claimed that during the 1980s he worked for the CIA, but Epstein later backed away from
that assertion.
The origins of the Mega Group Mafia
The Mega Group — a secretive group of billionaires to which Lauder belongs — was
formed in 1991 by Charles Bronfman and Leslie Wexner, the latter of whom has received
considerable media scrutiny following the July arrest of his former protege Jeffrey Epstein.
Media profiles
of the group paint it as “a loosely organized club of 20 of the nation’s wealthiest
and most influential Jewish businessmen” focused on “philanthropy and
Jewishness,” with membership dues upwards of $30,000 per year. Yet several of its most
prominent members have ties to organized crime.
Mega Group members founded and/or are closely associated with some of the most well-known
pro-Israel organizations. For instance, members Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt
formed
Birthright Taglit with the backing of then- and current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Steinhardt, an atheist, has stated that his motivation in helping to found the group was to
advance his own belief that devotion
to and faith in the state of Israel should serve as “a substitute for [Jewish]
theology.”
Other well-known groups associated with the Mega Group include the World Jewish Congress
— whose past president, Edgar Bronfman, and current president, Ronald Lauder, are both
Mega Group members — and B’nai B’rith, particularly its spin-off known as the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The Bronfman brothers were major donors to the ADL, with Edgar
Bronfman serving as the
ADL’s honorary national vice-chair for several years.
Image deleted: Former Israeli president Shimon Peres, second from left, listens to Edgar Bronfman during a
1995 lunch thrown in Peres’ honor. From left are: Laurence Tisch, Chairman, President and
Chief executive officer of CBS; Israeli Ambassador to the United States. Itamar Rabinowitz and
Bronfman. David Karp | AP
When Edgar Bronfman died in 2013, long-time ADL Director Abe Foxman said ,
“Edgar was for many years Chair of our Liquor Industry Division, Chair of our New York
Appeal, and one of our most significant benefactors.” Other Mega Group members that are
donors and major supporters of the ADL include
Ronald Lauder ,
Michael Steinhardt and the late Max
Fisher . As previously mentioned, Roy Cohn’s father was a long-time leader of
B’nai B’rith’s influential New England-New York chapter and Cohn was later a
celebrated member of its banking and finance lodge.
In addition, Mega Group members have also been key players in the pro-Israel lobby in the
United States. For instance, Max Fisher of the Mega Group
founded the National Jewish Coalition, now
known as the Republican Jewish Coalition — the main pro-Israel
neoconservative political lobbying group , known for its support of hawkish policies, and
whose current chief patrons, Sheldon Adelson and Bernard Marcus, are among Donald Trump’s
top donors.
Though the Mega Group has officially existed only since 1991, the use of
“philanthropy” to provide cover for more unscrupulous lobbying or business
activities was pioneered decades earlier by Sam Bronfman, the father of Mega Group members
Edgar and Charles Bronfman. While other North American elites like J.D. Rockefeller had
previously used philanthropic giving as a means of laundering their reputations,
Bronfman’s approach to philanthropy was unique because it was focused on giving
specifically to other members of his own ethno-religious background.
Sam Bronfman, as was detailed in Part
I of this series, had long-standing deep ties to organized crime, specifically Meyer
Lanksy’s organized crime syndicate. Yet, Bronfman’s private ambition, according to
those close to him, was to become a respected member of high society. As a consequence,
Bronfman worked hard to remove the stain that his mob associations had left on his public
reputation in Canada and abroad. He accomplished this by becoming a leader in Canada’s
Zionist movement and, by the end of the 1930s, he
was head of the Canadian Jewish Congress and had begun to make a name for himself as a
philanthropist for Jewish causes.
Yet even some of Bronfman’s activism and philanthropy had hints of the mobster-like
reputation he tried so hard to shake. For instance, Bronfman was actively involved in the
illegal shipping of arms to Zionist paramilitaries in Palestine prior to 1948, specifically as
a co-founder of the National Conference for Israeli and Jewish Rehabilitation that
smuggled weapons to the paramilitary group Haganah.
At the same time Bronfman was abetting the illegal smuggling of weapons to the Haganah, his
associates in the criminal underworld were doing the same. After World War II, close aides of
David Ben-Gurion, who would later become the first prime minister of Israel and was
instrumental in the founding of Mossad, forged tight-knit
relationships with Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Mickey Cohen and
other Jewish gangsters of the period. They used their clandestine networks to establish a vast
arms smuggling network between the United States and Zionist settlements in Palestine, arming
both the Haganah and the Irgun paramilitary groups. As noted in Part I of this report, at the
same time these gangsters were aiding the illegal arming of ZIonsit paramilitaries, they were
strengthening their ties to U.S. intelligence that had first been formally (though covertly)
established in World War II.
After Israel was founded, Sam Bronfman worked with future Israeli Prime Minister
Shimon Peres to negotiate the sale of Canadian armaments at half-price to Israel and the
bargain weapons purchase was paid for entirely by a fundraising dinner hosted by Bronfman and
his wife. Many years later, Peres would go on
to introduce another future prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, to Jeffrey Epstein.
The rest of the Bronfman family’s march on “the road to respectability”
was undertaken by Bronfman’s children, who married into aristocratic families such as
the
European Rothschilds and the Wall Street “royalty” of
the Lehmans and the Loebs .
The Bronfmans’ newfound respectability did not mean that their association with the
Lansky-led criminal empire had dissolved. Indeed, prominent members of the Seagrams dynasty
came under fire in the 1960s and 1970s for their
close association with Willie “Obie” Obront, a major figure in Canadian
organized crime, whom Canadian professor Stephen Schneider has referred to as the Meyer Lansky
of Canada.
However, Edgar and Charles Bronfman were hardly the only members of the Mega Group with deep
and long-standing ties to the Lansky-led National Crime Syndicate. Indeed, one of the
group’s prominent members, hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt, opened up about his own
family ties to Lansky in his autobiography No Bull: My Life in and out the Markets ,
where he noted that his father, Sol “Red McGee” Steinhardt, was Lansky’s jewel
fence of choice and
a major player in New York’s criminal underworld. Sol Steinhardt was also his
son’s first client on Wall Street and helped him jumpstart his career in finance.
The ties between the Mega Group and the National Crime Syndicate don’t stop there.
Another prominent member of the Mega Group with ties to this same criminal network is Max
Fisher, who has been described as Wexner’s mentor and is also alleged
to have worked with Detroit’s “Purple Gang” during Prohibition and
beyond. The Purple Gang were part of the network that smuggled Bronfman liquor from Canada into
the United State during Prohibition, and one of its founders, Abe Bernstein, was
a close associate of both Meyer Lansky and Moe Dalitz. Fisher was a
key adviser to several U.S. presidents, beginning with Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as to
Henry Kissinger.
Image removed: Max Fisher, center, and Henry Kissinger, right, meet with leaders of Jewish organizations
prior to Kissinger’s 1975 Middle East trip. Henry Burroughs | AP
In addition to Fisher, Mega Group member Ronald Lauder was connected to Roy Cohn and Tom
Bolan, both of whom were closely associated with this same Lansky-led crime network (see
Part
I and
Part
II ) and who regularly represented top Mafia figures in court. Furthermore, another member
of the Mega Group, director Steven Spielberg, is
a
well-known protege of Lew Wasserman, the mob-connected media mogul and long-time backer of
Ronald Reagan’s film and later political career, discussed in
Part
II of this series.
One surprise connection to Cohn involves Mega Group member, and former president of U.S.
weapons firm General Dynamics, Lester Crown, whose brother-in-law is David Schine, Cohn’s
confidant and alleged lover during the McCarthy hearings, whose
relationship with Cohn helped bring about the downfall of McCarthyism.
Another member of the Mega Group worth noting is Laurence Tisch, who owned CBS News
for several years and founded Loews Corporation. Tisch is notable for his work
for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA, where Donald Barr,
who hired Epstein at the Dalton School, also served and which forged ties with Lansky’s
criminal empire during World War II.
Wexner’s mansions and the Shapiro murder
Leslie “Les” Wexner, the other Mega Group co-founder, also has ties to organized
crime. Wexner’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein have come under scrutiny following the
latter’s recent arrest, as Wexner was the only publicly acknowledged client of
Epstein’s suspicious hedge fund, the source of much of this wealth, and the previous
owner of Epstein’s $56 million Manhattan townhouse, which Wexner transferred to an
Epstein-controlled entity for free.
Before Epstein received the townhouse, Wexner appears to have used the residence for some
unconventional purposes, noted in a 1996 New York
Times article on the then-Wexner-owned residence, which included “a bathroom
reminiscent of James Bond movies: hidden beneath a stairway, lined with lead to provide shelter
from attack and supplied with closed-circuit television screens and a telephone, both concealed
in a cabinet beneath the sink.” The Times article does not speculate as to the
purpose of this equipment, though the allusion to famous fictional superspy James Bond suggests
that it may have been used to snoop on guests or conduct electronic surveillance.
The 1996 Times article also noted that, after Wexner bought the residence for $13.2
million in 1989, he spent millions more decorating and furnishing the home, including the
addition of the electronic equipment in the “James Bond” bathroom, only to
apparently never live in it. The Times , which interviewed Epstein for the piece, quoted
him as saying that “Les never spent more than two months there.” Epstein told the
Times , which identified Epstein as Wexner’s “protege and one of his
financial advisers,” that the house, by that time, already belonged to him.
That same year, Epstein was commissioning artwork for Wexner’s Ohio mansion. A
recent
article from the Times noted that:
In the summer of 1996, Maria Farmer was working on an art project for Mr. Epstein in
Mr. Wexner’s Ohio mansion. While she was there, Mr. Epstein sexually assaulted her,
according to an affidavit Ms. Farmer filed earlier this year in federal court in Manhattan.
She said that she fled the room and called the police, but that Mr. Wexner’s security
staff refused to let her leave for 12 hours.”
Farmer’s account strongly suggests that, given the behavior of his personal security
staff at his mansion following Epstein’s alleged assault on Farmer, Wexner was well
aware of Epstein’s predatory behavior towards young women. This is compounded by claims
made by Alan Dershowitz — a former lawyer for and friend of Epstein’s, who has
also been accused of raping underage girls — that Wexner has also been accused of raping underage
girls exploited by Epstein on at least seven occasions.
The presence of the electronic equipment in his home’s bathroom, other oddities
related to the townhouse, and aspects of the links between Epstein and Wexner suggest there is
more to Wexner, who has rather successfully developed a public image of a respectable
businessman and philanthropist, much like other prominent members of the Mega
Group.
Image removed: Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail tour the “Transfigurations” exhibit at the
Wexner Center for the Arts. Jay LaPrete | AP
However, bits and pieces of Wexner’s private secrets have occasionally bubbled up,
only to be subjected to rapid cover-ups amidst concerns of “libeling” the powerful
and well-connected billionaire “philanthropist.”
In 1985, Columbus (Ohio) lawyer Arthur Shapiro was murdered in broad daylight
at point-blank range in what was largely referred to as a “mob style murder.” The
homicide still remains unsolved, likely due to the fact that then-Columbus Police Chief James
Jackson ordered the destruction of key documents of his department’s investigation into
the murder.
Jackson’s ordering of the documents’ destruction came to light years later in
1996, when he was under investigation for corruption. According to the Columbus Dispatch ,
Jackson justified the destruction of one “ viable and valuable ” report
because he felt that it “was so filled with wild speculation about prominent business
leaders that it was potentially libelous.” The nature of this “wild
speculation” was that “millionaire businessmen in Columbus and Youngstown were
linked to the ‘mob-style murder.’”
Though Jackson’s efforts were meant to keep this “libelous” report far
from public view, it was eventually obtained by Bob Fitrakis —
attorney, journalist, and executive director of the Columbus Institute for Contemporary
Journalism — after he was “accidentally” sent a copy of the report in 1998 as
part of a public records request.
The report, titled “ Shapiro Homicide Investigation: Analysis and
Hypothesis ,” names Leslie Wexner as linked “with associates reputed to be
organized crime figures” and also lists the names of businessman Jack Kessler, former
Columbus City Council President and Wexner associate Jerry Hammond, and former Columbus City
Council member Les Wright as also being involved in Shapiro’s murder.
The report also noted that Arthur Shapiro’s law firm — Schwartz, Shapiro, Kelm
& Warren — represented Wexner’s company, The Limited, and states that
“prior to his death, Arthur Shapiro managed this account [The Limited] for the law
firm.” It also noted that, at the time of his death, Shapiro “was the subject of an
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service because he had failed to file income tax returns
for some seven years prior to his death, and he had invested in some questionable tax
shelters.” It also stated that his death prevented Shapiro from his planned testimony at
a grand jury hearing about these “questionable tax shelters.”
As to Wexner’s alleged links to organized crime, the report focuses on the close
business relationship between Wexner’s The Limited and Francis Walsh, whose trucking
company “[had] done an excess of 90 percent of the Limited’s trucking business
around the time of Shapiro’s murder,” according to the report. Walsh was named in
a 1988 indictment as a “co-conspirator” of Genovese crime family boss Anthony
“Fat Tony” Salerno, whose long-time lawyer was Roy Cohn; and the Shapiro murder
report stated that Walsh was “still considered associates of the Genovese/LaRocca crime
family, and Walsh was still providing truck transportation for The Limited.”
Notably, the Genovese crime family has long formed a key part of the National Crime
Syndicate, as its former head, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, co-created the criminal organization
with his close friend Meyer Lansky. Upon Luciano’s imprisonment and subsequent
deportation from the United States, Lansky took over the syndicate’s U.S. operations and
his association with Luciano’s successors continued until Lansky’s death in
1983.
The “Mega” Mystery and the Mossad
In May 1997, the Washington Post broke
an explosive story — long since forgotten — based on an intercepted phone call
made between a Mossad official in the U.S. and his superior in Tel Aviv that discussed the
Mossad’s efforts to obtain a secret U.S. government document. According to the
Post, the Mossad official stated during the phone call that “Israeli Ambassador
Eliahu Ben Elissar had asked him whether he could obtain a copy of the letter given to
[Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat by [then-Secretary of State Warren] Christopher on Jan. 16,
the day after the Hebron accord was signed by Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu.”
The Post article continued:
According to a source who viewed a copy of the NSA transcript of the conversation, the
intelligence officer, speaking in Hebrew, said, ‘The ambassador wants me to go to Mega
to get a copy of this letter.’ The source said the supervisor in Tel Aviv rejected the
request, saying, ‘This is not something we use Mega for.’”
The leaked communication led to an investigation that sought to identify an individual
code-named “Mega” that the Post said “may be someone in the U.S.
government who has provided information to the Israelis in the past,” a concern that
subsequently spawned a fruitless FBI investigation. The Mossad later claimed that
“Mega” was merely a codeword for the U.S.’ CIA, but the FBI and NSA were
unconvinced by that claim and
believed that it was a senior U.S. government official that had potentially once been
involved in working with Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. naval intelligence analyst later
convicted of spying for the Mossad.
Almost one year to the day after the “Mega” spy scandal broke, the Wall
Street Journal was the first outlet to report on the
existence of a little-known organization of billionaires that was “informally”
called the Mega Group and had been founded years prior in 1991. The report made no mention of
the spy scandal that had spread concerns of Israeli espionage in the U.S. only a year prior.
However, the group’s distinctive “informal” name and the connections of its
members to the Mossad and to high-ranking Israeli politicians, including prime ministers, raise
the possibility that “Mega” was not an individual, as the FBI and NSA had believed,
but a group.
In 1997, when the “Mega” spy scandal broke, Netanyahu had recently become prime
minister of Israel after an upset victory, a victory that was
largely credited to one well-connected Netanyahu backer in particular, Ronald Lauder.
Beyond being a major donor, Lauder had brought Arthur Finklestein on to work for
Netanyahu’s 1996 campaign, whose strategies were credited for Netanyahu’s surprise
win. Netanyahu was close enough to Lauder that he personally enlisted Lauder and George Nader
to serve as his peace envoys to Syria.
Image removed: Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara with Ronald Lauder in 1997. Photo | Reuters
Nader, who was connected to the Trump 2016 campaign and Trump ally and Blackwater
founder Erik Prince, was
recently hit with federal child sex trafficking charges last month, soon after Jeffrey
Epstein had been arrested on similar charges. At the time Nader was picked to work with Lauder
on Netanyahu’s behalf, he had
already been caught possessing large amounts of child pornography on two separate
occasions, first in 1984 and later in 1990.
This strong connection between Netanyahu and Lauder during the time of the 1997
“Mega” spy scandal is important considering Mossad answers directly to
Israel’s prime minister.
Another possible connection between the Mega Group and the Mossad owes to the Mega
Group’s ties to Meyer Lansky’s criminal network. As was detailed in Part I, Lansky
had established deep ties to U.S. intelligence after World War II and was also connected to the
Mossad through Mossad official Tibor Rosenbaum, whose bank was frequently used by Lansky to
launder money. In addition, Lansky collaborated on at least one occasion with notorious Mossad
“superspy” Rafi Eitan, who he
helped acquire sensitive electronic equipment possessed only by the CIA but coveted by
Israeli intelligence. Eitan is best known in the U.S. for being the Mossad handler of Jonathan
Pollard.
Notably, Eitan was the main source of
claims that the code-word “Mega” used by the Mossad officials in 1997 referred to
the CIA and not to a potential source in the U.S. government once linked to Pollard’s
spying activities, making his claims as to the true meaning of the term somewhat dubious.
Given that the organized crime network tied to the Mega Group had ties to both U.S. and
Israeli intelligence, the “Mega” codeword could plausibly have referred to this
secretive group of billionaires. More supporting evidence for this theory comes from the fact
that prominent members of the Mega Group were business partners of Mossad agents, including
media mogul Robert Maxwell and commodities trader Marc Rich.
The mysterious Maxwells
The Maxwell family has become a source of renewed media interest following Jeffrey
Epstein’s arrest, as Ghislaine Maxwell, long described in the media as a British
“socialite,” was publicly cited as Epstein’s long-time “on and
off” girlfriend, and Epstein’s victims, as well as former wives of Epstein’s
friends, have claimed that she was Epstein’s “pimp” and procured underage
girls for his sexual blackmail operation. Ghislaine Maxwell is also alleged to have
engaged in the rape of the girls she procured for Epstein and to have used them to produce
child pornography.
Ghislaine was the favorite and youngest daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell. Maxwell,
born Jan Ludvick Hoch, had joined the British Army in World War II. Afterwards, according to
authors John
Loftus and Mark Aarons , he greatly influenced the Czechoslovakian government’s
decision to arm Zionist paramilitaries during the 1948 war that resulted in Israel’s
creation as a state, and Maxwell himself was also involved in the smuggling of aircraft parts
to Israel.
Around this time, Maxwell was approached by British intelligence outfit MI6 and offered a
position that Maxwell ultimately declined. MI6 then classified
him as “Zionist — loyal only to Israel” and made him a person of interest. He
later became an agent of the Mossad, according to several books including Seymour Hersh’s
The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, and
Robert Maxwell: Israel’s Superspy by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon.
Mossad was financing many of its operations in Europe from money stolen from
Maxwell’s newspaper pension fund. They got their hands on the funds almost as soon as
Maxwell made the purchase of the Mirror Newspaper Group with money lent to him by
Mossad.”
In exchange for his services, the Mossad helped Maxwell satisfy his sexual appetite during
his visits to Israel,
providing him with prostitutes, “the service maintained for blackmail
purposes.” It was later revealed that the hotel in which he stayed in Israel was bugged
with cameras, allowing the Mossad to acquire “a small library of video footage of Maxwell
in sexually compromising positions.” As with the CIA, the Mossad’s use of blackmail
against both friend and foe is well-documented
and known to be
extensive .
Maxwell was also a close associate and friend of Israeli “superspy” Rafi Eitan,
who, as previously mentioned, was Jonathan Pollard’s handler and who had previously
worked directly with Meyer Lansky. Eitan
had learned of a revolutionary new software being used by the U.S. government known as
“Promis” from Earl Brian, a long-time associate and aide to Ronald Reagan. Promis
is often considered the forerunner to the “Prism” software used by spy agencies
today and was developed by William Hamilton, who leased the software to the U.S. government
through his company, Inslaw, in 1982.
Image removed: Ariel Sharon (right)meets with Robert Maxwell in Jerusalem on Feb. 20, 1990. Photo | AP
According to author and former BBC investigative journalist Gordon Thomas, Brian
was angry that the U.S. Department of Justice was successfully using Promis to go after
organized crime and money-laundering activities and Eitan felt that the program could aid
Israel. At the time, Eitan was the director of the now defunct Israeli military intelligence
agency Lekem, which gathered scientific and technical intelligence abroad from both public and
covert sources, especially in relation to Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
A plan was hatched to
install a “trapdoor” into the software and then market Promis throughout the
world, providing the Mossad with invaluable intelligence on the operations of its enemies and
allies while also providing Eitan and Brian with copious amounts of cash. According to the
testimony of ex-Mossad official Ari Ben-Menashe, Brian
provided a copy of Promis to Israel’s military intelligence, which contacted an
Israeli American programmer living in California who then planted the “trapdoor” in
the software. The CIA was later said to have installed its own trapdoor in the software
but it is unknown if they did so with a version of the already bugged software and how widely
it was adopted relative to the version bugged by Israeli intelligence.
After the trapdoor was inserted, the problem became selling the bugged version of the
software to governments as well as private companies around the world, particularly in areas of
interest. Brian first attempted to buy out Inslaw and Promis and then use that same company to
sell the bugged version.
Unsuccessful, Brian turned to his close friend, then-Attorney General Ed Meese whose Justice
Department then abruptly refused to
make the payments to Inslaw that were stipulated by the contract, essentially using the
software for free, which Inslaw claimed to be theft. Some have speculated that Meese’s
role in that decision was shaped, not only by his friendship with Brian, but the fact that his
wife was a major investor in
Brian’s business ventures. Meese would later become an adviser to Donald Trump when he
was president-elect.
Inslaw was forced to declare bankruptcy as a result of Meese’s actions and sued the
Justice Department. The court later found that
the Meese-led department “took, converted, stole” the software through
“trickery, fraud and deceit.”
With Inslaw out of the way, Brian sold the software all over the world. Eitan later
recruited Robert Maxwell to become another Promis salesman, which he did remarkably well, even
succeeding in selling the software to Soviet intelligence and conspiring
with Republican Texas Senator John Tower to have the software adopted by the U.S.
government laboratory at Los Alamos. Dozens of countries used the software on their most
carefully guarded computer systems, unaware that Mossad now had access to everything Promis
touched.
Whereas the Mossad’s past reliance on gathering intelligence had relied on the same
tactics used by its equivalents in the U.S. and elsewhere, the widespread adoption of the
Promis software, largely through the actions of Earl Brian and Robert Maxwell, gave the Mossad
a way to gather not just troves of counterintelligence data, but also blackmail on other
intelligence agencies and powerful figures.
Indeed, Promis’ backdoor and adoption by intelligence agencies all over the world
essentially provided the Mossad with access to troves of blackmail that the CIA and FBI had
acquired on their friends and foes for over half a century. Strangely, in recent years, the FBI
has sought to
hide information related to Robert Maxwell’s connection to the Promis scandal.
According to journalist Robert
Fisk , Maxwell was also involved in the Mossad abduction of Israeli nuclear weapons
whistleblower Vanunu Mordechai. Mordechai had attempted to provide the media with information
on the extent of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, which was eventually published by the
Sunday Times of London . Yet, Mordechai had also contacted the Daily Mirror with
the information, the Mirror being an outlet that was owned by Maxwell and whose foreign
editor was a close Maxwell associate and alleged Mossad asset, Nicholas Davies. Journalist
Seymour Hersh alleged that Davies had also been involved in Israeli arms deals.
Per Fisk, it was Maxwell who contacted the Israeli Embassy in London and told them of
Mordechai’s activities. This led to Mordechai’s entrapment by a female Mossad agent
who seduced him as part of a “honey trap” operation that led to his kidnapping and
later imprisonment in Israel. Mordechai served an 18-year sentence, 12 years of which were in
solitary confinement.
Then, there is the issue of Maxwell’s death, widely cited by mainstream and
independent media alike as suspicious
and a potential homicide . According to authors Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, Maxwell
had sealed his own fate when he attempted to threaten top Mossad officials with the exposure of
certain operations if they did not help him rescue his media empire from crippling debt and
financial difficulties. Many of Maxwell’s
creditors , who had grown increasingly displeased with the media mogul, were Israeli and
several of them were alleged to be Mossad-connected themselves.
Thomas and Dillon argue in their
biography of Maxwell’s life that the Mossad felt that Maxwell had become more of a
liability than an asset and killed him on his yacht three months after he demanded the bailout.
On the other extreme are theories that suggest Maxwell committed suicide because of the
financial difficulties his empire faced.
Image removed: Ghislaine Maxwell, far right, Robert Maxwell’s daughter, looks on his casket is
unloaded from a plane in Jerusalem, Nov. 8, 1991. Heribert Proepper | AP
Some have taken Maxwell’s funeral held in Israel as the country’s
“official” confirmation of Maxwell’s service to the Mossad, as it was likened
to a state funeral and attended
by no less than six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence. During his funeral
service in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir eulogized him and
stated : “He has done more for Israel than can today be said.” Other
eulogies were given by future Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert (then Health Minister) and Shimon
Peres, with the latter also praising
Maxwell’s “services” on behalf of Israel.
Swimming in the same
swamp
As he built his business empire — and even became a member of Parliament, Maxwell was
also doing work for Israeli intelligence, as several of the Israeli companies in which he
invested became fronts for the Mossad. In addition, as he became a media mogul, he developed a
bitter rivalry with Rupert Murdoch, a close friend of Roy Cohn and an influential figure in
American and British media.
Maxwell also partnered with the Bronfman brothers, Edgar and Charles — key figures in
the Mega Group. In 1989 Maxwell and Charles Bronfman
partnered up to bid on the Jerusalem Post newspaper and the Post described
the two men as “two of the world’s leading Jewish financiers” and their
interest in the venture as “developing The Jerusalem Post and expanding its
influence among world Jewry.” A year prior, Maxwell and Bronfman
had become top shareholders in the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva.
Maxwell also worked with Charles Bronfman’s brother Edgar in the late 1980s to
convince the Soviet Union to allow Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel. Edgar’s efforts in
this regard
have received more attention , as it was a defining moment of his decades-long presidency
of the World Jewish Congress, of which Ronald Lauder is currently president. Yet, Maxwell had
also made considerable
use of his contacts in the Soviet government in this effort.
Maxwell also moved in the circles of the network previously described in Parts I and II in
this series. A key example of this is the May 1989
party Maxwell hosted on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine — named for his youngest
daughter and Epstein’s future “girlfriend.” Attendees of the party included
Roy Cohn’s protege Donald Trump and his long-time law partner Tom Bolan. A close friend
of Nancy Reagan was also present, journalist Mike Wallace, as was literary agent Mort Janklow,
who represented Ronald Reagan and two of Cohn’s closest friends: journalists William
Safire and Barbara Walters.
The CEO of what would soon become Time Warner, Steve Ross, was also invited to the exclusive
event. Ross’ presence is notable, as he had built his business empire largely through
his association with New York crime lords Manny Kimmel and Abner “Longy”
Zwillman. Zwillman was a close friend of Meyer Lansky, Michael Steinhardt’s father, and
Sam Bronfman, father of Edgar and Charles Bronfman.
Another attendee of the Maxwell yacht party was former Secretary of the Navy and former
Henry Kissinger staffer Jon Lehman, who would go on to associate with the controversial
neoconservative think tank, Project for a New American Century. Prior to being secretary of the
Navy, Lehman had been president of the Abington Corporation, which hired arch-neocon Richard
Perle to manage
the portfolio of Israeli arms dealers Shlomo Zabludowicz and his son Chaim, who paid
Ablington $10,000 month. A scandal arose when those
payments continued after both Lehman and Perle joined the Reagan Department of Defense and
while Perle was working to persuade the Pentagon to buy arms from companies linked to
Zabludowicz. Perle had been part of the Reagan transition team along with Roy Cohn’s
long-time friend and law partner Tom Bolan (another Maxwell yacht guest).
In addition to Lehman, another former Kissinger staffer, Thomas Pickering was present at
Maxwell’s yacht part. Pickering played a minor role in the Iran-Contra affair and, at the
time of the Maxwell yacht party, he was U.S. ambassador to Israel. Senator John Tower (R-TX),
who allegedly conspired with Maxwell in the Mossad-bugged Promis software at the Los Alamos
laboratories, was also present. Tower died just months before Maxwell in
a suspicious plane crash .
Ghislaine Maxwell was also at this rather notable event. After her father’s mysterious
death and alleged murder on the same yacht that bears her name in 1991, she quickly packed her
bags and moved to New York City. There, she soon made the acquaintance of Jeffrey Epstein and,
a few years later, developed close ties to the Clinton family, which will be discussed in the
next installment of this series.
Jeffrey Epstein and the new “Promis”
After it was revealed that Epstein had evaded stricter sentencing in 2008 due to his links
to “intelligence,” it was the Mossad ties of Ghislaine Maxwell’s father that
have led many to speculate that Epstein’s sexual blackmail operation was sharing
incriminating information with the Mossad. Former CBS executive producer and current
journalist for the media outlet Narativ , Zev Shalev, has since claimed that he
independently confirmed that Epstein was tied directly to the Mossad.
Image removed: Donald and Melania Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago club,
Palm Beach, Florida in 2000. Photo | Davidoff Studios
Epstein was a long-time friend of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who has
long-standing and deep ties to Israel’s intelligence community. Their decades-long
friendship has been the source of recent political attacks targeting Barak, who is running in
the Israeli elections against current Prime Minister Netanyahu later this year.
Barak is also close to Epstein’s chief patron and Mega Group member Leslie Wexner,
whose Wexner Foundation
gave Barak $2 million in 2004 for a still unspecified research program. According to Barak,
he was first introduced to Epstein by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who eulogized
Robert Maxwell at his funeral and had decades-long ties with the Bronfman family going back to
the early 1950s. Peres was also a
frequent participant in programs funded by
Leslie Wexner in Israel and
worked closely with the Mossad for decades.
In 2015, a few years after Epstein’s release from prison following his conviction for
soliciting sex from a minor in 2008, Barak formed a company with Epstein with the chief purpose
of investing in an Israeli start-up then known as Reporty. That company, now called Carbyne,
sells its signature software to 911 call centers and emergency service providers and is also
available to consumers as an app that provides emergency services with access to a
caller’s camera and location and also runs any caller’s identity through any linked
government database. It has specifically been marketed by the company itself and the Israeli
press as a
solution to mass shootings in the
United States and is already being used by at least two U.S. counties.
Israeli media reported that Epstein and Barak were among the company’s largest
investors. Barak poured millions into the company and it was recently revealed by Haaretz
that a significant amount of Barak’s total investments in Carbyne was funded by Epstein,
making him a “ de facto partner” in the company. Barak is now Carbyne’s chairman .
The company’s executive team are all former members of different branches of Israeli
intelligence, including the elite military intelligence unit, Unit 8200, that is often likened
to Israel’s equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Carbyne’s
current CEO, Amir Elichai, served in Unit 8200 and tapped
former Unit 8200 commander Pinchas Buchris to serve as the
company’s director and on its board. In addition to Elichai, another Carbyne co-founder,
Lital Leshem , also
served in Unit 8200 and later worked for Israeli private spy company Black Cube. Leshem now
works for a subsidiary of Erik Prince’s company Frontier Services Group, according to the
independent media outlet Narativ .
The company also includes several tie-ins to the Trump administration, including Palantir
founder and Trump ally Peter Thiel — an investor in Carbyne. In addition,
Carbyne’s board of advisers
includes former Palantir employee Trae Stephens, who was a member of the Trump transition team,
as well as former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
Trump donor and New York real-estate developer Eliot Tawill is also on Carbyne’s board , alongside Ehud Barak and
Pinchas Buchris.
Narativ , which wrote the first expose on Carbyne after Epstein’s arrest, noted
that the Chinese government uses a smartphone app very similar to Carbyne as part of its mass
surveillance apparatus, even though the original purpose of the app was for improved emergency
reporting. According to Narativ , the Chinese Carbyne-equivalent “monitors every
aspect of a user’s life, including personal conversations, power usage, and tracks a
user’s movement.”
Given the history of Robert Maxwell — the father of Epstein’s long-time
“girlfriend” and young-girl-procuring madam, Ghislaine Maxwell — in promoting
the sale of Carbyne’s modified Promis software, which was also marketed as a tool to
improve government efficacy but was actually a tool of mass surveillance for the benefit of
Israeli intelligence, the overlap between Carbyne and Promis is troubling and warrants further
investigation.
It is also worth noting that Unit 8200-connected tech start-ups are being widely integrated
into U.S. companies and have developed close ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex, with
Carbyne being just one example of that trend.
As MintPress
previously reported , Unit 8200-linked outfits like Team8 have recently hired former
National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers as a senior advisor and gained prominent
Silicon Valley figures, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as key investors. Many
American technology companies, from Intel to Google to Microsoft,
have merged with several Unit 8200-connected start-ups in recent years and have been moving
many key jobs and operations to Israel with
backing from key Republican donors like Paul Singer . Many of those same companies,
particularly Google and Microsoft, are also major U.S. government contractors.
Who was
Epstein really working for?
Even though Jeffrey Epstein appears to have had ties to the Mossad, this series has revealed
that the networks to which Epstein was connected were not Mossad-exclusive, as many of the
individuals close to Epstein — Lesie Wexner, for instance — were part of a
mob-connected class of oligarchs with deep ties to both the U.S. and Israel. As was discussed
in Part I of this series, the sharing of “intelligence” (i.e., blackmail) between
intelligence agencies and the same organized crime network connected to the Mega Group goes
back decades. With Leslie Wexner of the Mega Group as Epstein’s chief patron, as opposed
to a financier with direct ties to the Mossad, a similar relationship is more than likely in
the case of the sexual blackmail operation that Epstein ran.
Given that intelligence agencies in both the U.S. and elsewhere often conduct covert
operations for the benefit of oligarchs and large corporations as opposed to “national
security interest,” Epstein’s ties to the Mega Group suggest that this group holds
a unique status and influence in both the governments of the U.S. and of Israel, as well as in
other countries (e.g., Russia) that were not explored in this report. This is by virtue of
their role as key political donors in both countries, as well as the fact that several of them
own powerful companies or financial institutions in both countries. Indeed, many members of the
Mega Group have deep ties to Israel’s political class, including to Netanyahu and Ehud
Barak as well as to now-deceased figures like Shimon Peres, and to members of the American
political class.
Ultimately, the picture painted by the evidence is not a direct tie to a single intelligence
agency but a web linking key members of the Mega Group, politicians, and officials in both the
U.S. and Israel, and an organized-crime network with deep business and intelligence ties in
both nations.
Though this series has so far focused on the ties of this network to main Republican Party
affiliates, the next and final installment will reveal the ties developed between this web and
the Clintons. As will be revealed, despite the Clintons’ willingness to embrace corrupt
dealings during the span of their political careers, their mostly friendly relationship with
this network still saw them use the power of sexual blackmail to obtain certain policy
decisions that were favorable to their personal and financial interests but not to the
Clintons’ political reputation or agendas.
Editor’s note | The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Rafi
Eitan was interested in repurposing the American-made Promise software to restore his standing
in Israel’s intelligence community caused by the fall-out from the Pollard Affair. The
Pollard Affair occurred three years after Eitan had succeeded in repurposing the software and
MintPress has removed that incorrect information from the article and regrets the
error.
This article also originally neglected to mention that Eitan, at the time of his
collaboration with Earl Brian to repurpose the Promis software, was the director of the
now-defunct Israeli military intelligence agency Lekem at the time of those events and that
information has been added to the story.
Feature photo | Graphic by Claudio Cabrera
Whitney Webb is a MintPress News journalist based in Chile. She has contributed to
several independent media outlets including Global Research, EcoWatch, the Ron Paul Institute
and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has made several radio and television appearances and
is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in
Journalism.
Republish our stories! MintPress News is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
"... That was while Robert Mueller ran the Bureau, which means everything about Epstein's blackmail and kompromat operation has been tucked safely away out of sight in FBI files for at least a decade. Much longer, new evidence shows. ..."
"... *CIA Acknowledged in 2003, It Knew that Ghislaine Maxwell's Late Father was a Major Foreign Intelligence Agent Operating Inside the U.S. ..."
"... That Robert Maxwell was a ruthless, corrupt, tax-dodging international businessman who served as an Israeli agent is highly probable. ..."
"... For the first time, Maxwell had failed to get his own way. He started to threaten and bluster. He then demanded that, for past services, he should receive immediately a quick fix of £400million to bale him out of his financial difficulties. ..."
"... Instead of providing the money, a small group of Mossad officers set about planning his murder. They feared that he was going to publicly expose all Mossad had done in the time he worked for them. They knew that he was gradually becoming mentally unstable and paranoid. He was taking a cocktail of drugs - Halcion and Zanax - which had serious side effects. ..."
"... Then Maxwell was contacted. He was told to fly to Gibraltar, go aboard the Lady Ghislaine and sail to the Canary Islands. There at sea he would receive his £400million quick fix in the form of a banker's draft. Maxwell did as he was told. ..."
"... As Victor Ostrovsky, a former Mossad agent told us: "On that cold night Mossad's problems with Robert Maxwell were over." ..."
"... The incontrovertible facts about his murder are contained in a previously-unseen autopsy report by Britain's then-leading forensic pathologist Dr Iain West and Israel State Pathologist Dr Yehuda Hiss. Of all the documents in our possession, these reports confirm the truth about Maxwell's death. ..."
"... Boy that Mueller has had a busy career hasn't he? Didn't he start out in Chicago where he gave Whitey Bulgar cover for being a mob boss? Then there's his cover up before and after 9/11. The weapons of mass destruction that he said Saddam had. The anthrax prosecution, Epstein's pedophilia cover up, HSBC and now he is trying to cover Hillary's buttocks. And maybe Obama's? I'm sure I've missed a few things that he did or didn't do. ..."
"... Acosta was told to stand down by someone at the top of the food chain. Mueller. Ugh what a slimy piece of work he is. But not to the Russia Gaters. Oh no. "He is a highly decorated marine who takes no guff from anyone. ..."
"... In that time, he had free access to Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street, to Ronald Reagan's White House, to the Kremlin and to the corridors of power throughout Europe. ..."
"... Inquiring minds want to know did Maxwell have access to Margaret and Ron because they liked him or because he had something on them? ..."
"... Epstein is the destruction of the Deep State. ..."
"... That pedophelia and politics scandal, better known as the Franklin Coverup, made the papers for a few months, too, before it was made to go away. Similarly, a couple of the operators served some time on reduced charges after that one. ..."
"... The two main suspects in the Bush, Sr. White House child ring were Craig Spence and Lawrence E. King Jr. King sang the National anthem at two GOP national conventions. He served time in jail for bank fraud. Spence was a Republican lobbyist before he committed suicide. Several of his partners went to jail for being involved in the adult part of the homosexual prostitution ring. ..."
"... Mueller's scrupulous avoidance of the CIA link in his prosecution of Manuel Noriega and his diversion of the PanAm 103 bombing and framing of two Libyans. Bobby Mueller has been a real go to guy when the security establishment needs a phony investigation. ..."
"... Bobby Mueller has been a real go to guy when the security establishment needs a phony investigation. ..."
"... The anthrax investigation is the most serious of his crimes. Mueller is being sued by his lead investigator in that case. ..."
"... Every now and then, here and there the curtain lifts for a moment and the political elite of a country, the business elite, the spy services, the military, and organized crime are revealed to be all working together, indeed practically joined at the hip ..."
"... partnership started during the early Cold War with US intelligence officers facilitating the drug trade out of Turkey and Burma through Europe. That soon spread to the Americas and globally. Covert operations such as Gladio, Condor, and the Safari Club, and associated banks (Franklin National Bank, BCCI, Riggs Bank, HSBC, etc.) produced massive human rights violations, transnational terrorism and governmental corruption. The CIA's secret wars provided funds and official cover for private-public sector alliance of criminals, bankers and spooks around the world. ..."
"... The CIA, MI6 and Mossad ran overlapping coordinated operations using privateers, paramilitaries and organized crime networks that consumed vast amounts of cash generated by money laundering mechanisms. Enriched by the looting of the former Soviet Union, along with the infusion of Arab oil money (the Saudi Yamamah slush fund), the "Octopus" became the instrument of Oligarchs that have thoroughly corrupted western governments and secret services. ..."
"... The Snowden release included a number of documents that illustrate the on-line entrapment and political disruption activities run by the two main communications intelligence agencies. ..."
"... Epstein recruits young girls, throws parties where he invites potential hedge fund clients, lets nature take its course and films the proceedings, extracts blackmail in the form of investments to his (largely fake) hedge fund, which actually just buys an index fund (no actual fund management required). He takes a percentage from the coerced investments. Nobody talks because they have too much to lose. No suspicious payments to raise eyebrows at the IRS. ..."
"... Epstein brought in the clients. The CIA/MI-6/Mossad provided necessary cover from the FBI and local cops - then, three or four agencies shared the intelligence take, as they had for decades from Robert Maxwell's operations. ..."
"... For Ghislaine, it was simply carrying on the family business for fun and profit. For the spooks, it was business as usual going back to the Green House, the Berlin bordello founded in the the 1870s by Wilhelm Steiber, a Prussian Police section chief, to provide useful intelligence to Bismarck's Military Intelligence, which he reorganized. ..."
"... Epstein is also well acquainted with University President Lawrence H. Summers. The two serve together on the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, two elite international relations organizations. ..."
"... Epstein's relationships within the academy are remarkable since the tycoon, who has amassed his fortune by managing the wealth of billionaires from his private Caribbean island, does not hold a bachelor's degree. ..."
"... There's a rocky road ahead for Larry Summers. Summers introduces Epstein into the Harvard fold, but becomes reckless with his newly-refined Neoliberalism and his opinions concerning "lady scholars." ..."
That was while Robert Mueller ran the Bureau, which means everything about Epstein's blackmail and kompromat operation
has been tucked safely away out of sight in FBI files for at least a decade. Much longer, new evidence shows.
The real question is, why did the FBI wait for more than a decade to bust Epstein and Maxwell?
Epstein and Maxwell came to the attention of the FBI in 1996, when, curiously, the Bureau never acted on an accusation that
they had together sexually abused a 15 year old girl in a bedroom inside Epstein's Manhattan townhouse. Documents in a recent
law suit filed by an alleged victim, Maria Farmer, show that the FBI had been aware of Epstein and Maxwell's child abuse activities
in New York for at least a dozen years before Epstein was finally charged in 2008 with much-reduced Florida state offenses.
https://www.yourtango.com/2019323698/who-maria-farmer-latest-woman-accus...
Farmer claims she reported her sexual assault to New York police and the FBI in 1996. "To my knowledge, I was the first
person to report Maxwell and Epstein to the FBI," she wrote in her affidavit."
*CIA Acknowledged in 2003, It Knew that Ghislaine Maxwell's Late Father was a Major Foreign Intelligence Agent Operating
Inside the U.S.
Previously, Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine's father, had for many years been known to have been involved in high-level espionage
in the United States, as detailed in a 2003 publication of the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, The Intelligence Officer's
Bookshelf . Therein, the CIA reviewer of a biography by British author Gordon Thomas acknowledged about Maxwell:
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-pub...
That Robert Maxwell was a ruthless, corrupt, tax-dodging international businessman who served as an Israeli agent is
highly probable.
For the deeper background to the Epstein-Maxwell multinational blackmail, coverup and kompromat operation, we have to
look at the events that led up to the 1991 death of Robert Maxwell. A summary of the Maxwell bio by its authors recounts:
British Publisher Robert Maxwell
Was Mossad Spy
By Gordon Thomas And Martin Dillon
The Mirror - UK
12-6-2002
[ . . .]
Eleven years after former Daily Mirror owner Robert Maxwell plunged from his luxury yacht to a watery grave, his death still
arouses intense interest.
Many different theories have circulated about what really happened on board the Lady Ghislaine that night in May 1991.
[ . . . ]
The Jewish millionaire and former Labour MP [born Ludvik Hoch
in Czechoslovakia] died the way he had lived - threatening.
He had threatened his wife. Threatened his children. Threatened the staff of this newspaper.
But finally he issued one threat too many - he threatened Mossad.
He told them that unless they gave him £400million to save his crumbling empire, he would expose all he had done for them.
In that time, he had free access to Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street, to Ronald Reagan's White House, to the Kremlin and
to the corridors of power throughout Europe.
On top of that he had built himself a position of power within the crime families of eastern Europe, teaching them how to
funnel their vast wealth from drugs, arms smuggling and prostitution to banks in safe havens around the globe.
Maxwell passed on all the secrets he learned to Mossad in Tel Aviv. In turn, they tolerated his excesses, vanities and insatiable
appetite for a luxurious lifestyle and women.
He told his controllers who they should target and how they should do it. He appointed himself as Israel's unofficial ambassador
to the Soviet Bloc. Mossad saw the advantage in that.
[ . . . ]
The more successful Maxwell became the more risks he took and the more dangerous he was to Mossad. At the same time, the
very public side of Maxwell, who then owned 400 companies, began to unwind.
He spent lavishly and lost money on deals. The more he lost, the more he tried to claw money from the banks. Then he saw
a way out of his problems.
He was approached by Vladimir Kryuchkov, head of the KGB. Spymaster and tycoon met in the utmost secrecy in the Kremlin.
Kryuchkov had an extraordinary proposal. He wanted Maxwell to help orchestrate the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist
Soviet leader. That would bring to an end a fledgling democracy and a return to the Cold War days.
In return, Maxwell's massive debts would be wiped out by a grateful Kryuchkov, who planned to replace Gorbachev. The KGB
chief wanted Maxwell to use the Lady Ghislaine, named after Maxwell's daughter, as a meeting place between the Russian plotters,
Mossad chiefs and Israel's top politicians.
The plan was for the Israelis to go to Washington and say that democracy could not work in Russia and that it was better
to allow the country to return to a modified form of communism, which America could help to control. In return, Kryuchkov would
guarantee to free hundreds of thousands of Jews and dissidents in the Soviet republics.
Kryuchkov told Maxwell that he would be seen as a saviour of all those Jews. It was a proposal he could not refuse. But
when he put it to his Mossad controllers they were horrified. They said Israel would have no part in such a madcap plan.
For the first time, Maxwell had failed to get his own way. He started to threaten and bluster. He then demanded that,
for past services, he should receive immediately a quick fix of £400million to bale him out of his financial difficulties.
Instead of providing the money, a small group of Mossad officers set about planning his murder. They feared that he
was going to publicly expose all Mossad had done in the time he worked for them. They knew that he was gradually becoming mentally
unstable and paranoid. He was taking a cocktail of drugs - Halcion and Zanax - which had serious side effects.
The group of Mossad plotters sensed, like Solomon, he could bring their temple tumbling down and cause incalculable harm
to Israel. The plan to kill him was prepared in the utmost secrecy. A four-man squad was briefed.
Then Maxwell was contacted. He was told to fly to Gibraltar, go aboard the Lady Ghislaine and sail to the Canary Islands.
There at sea he would receive his £400million quick fix in the form of a banker's draft. Maxwell did as he was told.
On the night of November 4, 1991, the Lady Ghislaine, one of the world's biggest yachts, was at sea.
[ . . . ]
As Victor Ostrovsky, a former Mossad agent told us: "On that cold night Mossad's problems with Robert Maxwell were over."
The incontrovertible facts about his murder are contained in a previously-unseen autopsy report by Britain's then-leading
forensic pathologist Dr Iain West and Israel State Pathologist Dr Yehuda Hiss. Of all the documents in our possession, these
reports confirm the truth about Maxwell's death.
Gordon Thomas & Martin Dillon are authors of The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Super Spy, published by Robson
Books.
The obvious question, why did the U.S. government let these intelligence crimes continue for decades, isn't being asked. The
answer is almost self-evident. Information and leverage obtained by Maxwell-Epstein and Co. was far too valuable to its several
operators to let it all end too soon.
leap out at me as suggesting how Epstein connects to much bigger subjects. First is the assertion that Maxwell was
... teaching them how to funnel their vast wealth from drugs, arms smuggling and prostitution to banks in safe havens around
the globe.
This area of trafficking and money laundering directly connects to Mueller and his essential exoneration of
HSBC .
The other quotation that suggests the importance of money laundering is here:
The plan was for the Israelis to go to Washington and say that democracy could not work in Russia and that it was better
to allow the country to return to a modified form of communism, which America could help to control.
The life's work of
Antony Sutton at Stanford's Hoover Institution shows that American industry was ALWAYS controlling communism as well as Soviet
industrial development, and that a trend toward social democracy, represented by Gorbachev, would have put an end to that control.
@Linda Wood his money laundering and blackmailing activities. While the review confirms that Robert Maxwell was for decades
a major Mossad agent actively setting up operations and cover in the United States and the UK, I can only surmise that the spreading
political influence of Eastern European organized crime networks and child honey traps are things that the Agency didn't want
to discuss publicly in 2003.
As for Mueller, let's not forget that he was FBI Director and before that the head of the Criminal Division at Main Justice
at the time that global "black finance" grew along with the catastrophic spread of multinational crime and terrorism. BCCI, Iran-Contra,
9/11, and the rise of transnational Oligarchs happened on his watch. As the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the United States
at the time, it is hard to imagine anyone more responsibility for the ultimate consequences than Robert Mueller. There is perhaps
someone who bears ultimate responsibility, the President who appointed Mueller: George Herbert Walker Bush and his lesser son,
Shrub, who promoted him.
... wouldn't you assume that this entire affair is an ongoing Mossad operation, which may or may not have concluded? The US
IC is just another operative inside the envelope, but Mossad owns the assets and the intellectual property. I think we could assume
that some of this is automated and Mossad has ongoing leverage still in play.
The obvious question, why did the U.S. government let these intelligence crimes continue for decades, isn't being asked.
The answer is almost self-evident. Information and leverage obtained by Maxwell-Epstein and Co. was far too valuable to its
several operators to let it all end too soon.
.
Mossad's legendary blackmail traps ensnared even high-level deep state authorities and made them pliable. The recent history
of United States foreign policy is an enigma that can only be solved when that assumption is inserted. Once the assumption is
in place, it opens like a Pandora's box. Don't you find that to be the case?
In a recent investigation I presented the case that British banking and financial giant HSBC conspired with banking institutions
with documented links to terrorist financing, including those responsible for helping bankroll the 9/11 attacks.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
Black Dossier: HSBC & Terrorist Finance
Moral equivalencies abound. After all, when American secret state agencies manage drug flows or direct terrorist proxies
to attack official enemies it's not quite the same as battling terror or crime.
Pounding home that point, a new report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused HSBC of exposing "the
U.S. financial system to a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing risks due to poor anti-money
laundering (AML) controls."
That 335-page report, "U.S. Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs, and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History," (large
pdf file available
here ) was issued after a year-long Senate investigation zeroed-in on the bank's U.S. affiliate, HSBC Bank USA, N.A., better
known as HBUS.
Drilling down, we learned that amongst the "services" offered by HSBC subsidiaries and correspondent banks were sweet deals
with financial entities with terrorist ties; the transportation of billions of dollars in cash by plane and armored car through
their London Banknotes division; the clearing of sequentially-numbered travelers checks through dodgy Cayman Islands accounts
for Mexican drug lords and Russian mafiosi.
From richly-appointed suites at Canary Wharf, London, the bank's "smartest guys in the room" handed some of the most violent
gangsters on earth the financial wherewithal to organize their respective industries: global crime.
A case in point. In 2008 alone the Senate revealed that the bank's Cayman Islands branch handled some 50,000 client accounts
(all without benefit of offices or staff on Grand Cayman, mind you), yet still managed to ship some $7 billion (£10.9bn) in
cash from Mexico into the U.S. Now that's creative accounting!...
@Linda Wood HSBC, huh--there must be some clever name for it, which deserves no research.
what an eloquent article you presented. Brief but right on target. It isn't just sex, drugs and rock and roll. Now it is drugs
- money -sexual perversion--and perhaps worse? Rumors are flying about what video on the Weiner laptop showed. It is strictly
heresay, but a core of folks seem to believe the suspicions are possible.
snoopydawg on Thu, 07/11/2019 - 8:48pm
Boy that Mueller has had a busy career
hasn't he? Didn't he start out in Chicago where he gave Whitey Bulgar cover for being a mob boss? Then there's his
cover up before and after 9/11. The weapons of mass destruction that he said Saddam had. The anthrax prosecution, Epstein's pedophilia
cover up, HSBC and now he is trying to cover Hillary's buttocks. And maybe Obama's? I'm sure I've missed a few things that he
did or didn't do.
Acosta is saying that if he hadn't made the plea deal then Epstein would never have served any time in
prison. Well he actually only slept there since he got to leave every day for work and then there's the massages he got after
his busy day at work. But there were more than 80 pages that the Feds wrote on his escapades so I think that story he told congress
is true. Acosta was told to stand down by someone at the top of the food chain. Mueller. Ugh what a slimy piece of work he
is. But not to the Russia Gaters. Oh no. "He is a highly decorated marine who takes no guff from anyone.
In that time, he had free access to Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street, to Ronald Reagan's White House, to the Kremlin
and to the corridors of power throughout Europe.
Inquiring minds want to know did Maxwell have access to Margaret and Ron because they liked him or because he had something
on them?
Great information! The more I learn the more I need a shower.
is how I've been feeling all week from reading about this, just more and more demoralized when I think about the depravation
of our so-called "leadership." What is it that we're supposed to think of as the new normal after this behavior?
That pedophelia and politics scandal, better known as the Franklin Coverup, made the papers for a few months, too, before
it was made to go away. Similarly, a couple of the operators served some time on reduced charges after that one.
The two main suspects in the Bush, Sr. White House child ring were Craig Spence and Lawrence E. King Jr. King sang the
National anthem at two GOP national conventions. He served time in jail for bank fraud. Spence was a Republican lobbyist before
he committed suicide. Several of his partners went to jail for being involved in the adult part of the homosexual prostitution
ring.
Mueller's scrupulous avoidance of the CIA link in his prosecution of Manuel Noriega and his diversion of the PanAm 103
bombing and framing of two Libyans. Bobby Mueller has been a real go to guy when the security establishment needs a phony investigation.
Bobby Mueller has been a real go to guy when the security establishment needs a phony investigation.
The anthrax investigation is the most serious of his crimes. Mueller is being
sued by his lead investigator in that case.
Because researchers in our biological weapons labs went public with what they were doing, and where such research was being
done in the U.S., we learned the CIA was one of several outfits doing biological weapons research.
But Mueller exonerated all of them, including the CIA, with no explanation and only focused on a lone vaccine researcher at
the Army lab when journalists began to ask why no one had been indicted after seven years of investigation, at which point the
FBI attempted to harass the suspect into committing suicide.
Every now and then, here and there the curtain lifts for a moment and the political elite of a country, the business elite,
the spy services, the military, and organized crime are revealed to be all working together, indeed practically joined at the
hip.
partnership started during the early Cold War with US intelligence officers facilitating the drug trade out of Turkey and
Burma through Europe. That soon spread to the Americas and globally. Covert operations such as Gladio, Condor, and the Safari
Club, and associated banks (Franklin National Bank, BCCI, Riggs Bank, HSBC, etc.) produced massive human rights violations, transnational
terrorism and governmental corruption. The CIA's secret wars provided funds and official cover for private-public sector alliance
of criminals, bankers and spooks around the world.
This "dark alliance" assumed a political and economic life of its own beyond its original intent to counter communist movements.
By the Vietnam War, Agency operators were running most of the heroin trade in the world through proprietary airlines, banks and
logistics companies. In the mid-1970s, CIA Director Bush expanded privatization with Saudi funding in his Safari Club deal that
eventually morphed into Al Qaeda and ISIS.
The CIA, MI6 and Mossad ran overlapping coordinated operations using privateers, paramilitaries and organized crime networks
that consumed vast amounts of cash generated by money laundering mechanisms. Enriched by the looting of the former Soviet Union,
along with the infusion of Arab oil money (the Saudi Yamamah slush fund), the "Octopus" became the instrument of Oligarchs
that have thoroughly corrupted western governments and secret services.
Multinational honey trap operations such as Maxwell-Epstein & Co. are an inevitable and continuing part of this privatization
and criminalization of intelligence that stretches back to the days of Tom Braden and Cord Meyer handing out stacks of greenbacks
to Mafiosi on the Corsican Docks.
The Snowden release included a number of documents that illustrate the on-line entrapment and political disruption activities
run by the two main communications intelligence agencies.
"Honey-trap; a great option. Very successful, when it works" (GCHQ, UK training program slide)
Without quoting the whole thing (which is worth a read):
Epstein recruits young girls, throws parties where he invites potential hedge fund clients, lets nature take its course
and films the proceedings, extracts blackmail in the form of investments to his (largely fake) hedge fund, which actually just
buys an index fund (no actual fund management required). He takes a percentage from the coerced investments. Nobody talks because
they have too much to lose. No suspicious payments to raise eyebrows at the IRS.
There's no need to invoke the Mafia/Russia/Mossad/CIA/etc, that's just needlessly overfitting.
Except such an operation would be quite attractive to intelligence services. Maybe they were in on the ground floor, maybe
they made Epstein an offer he couldn't refuse once they heard about it.
Epstein brought in the clients. The CIA/MI-6/Mossad provided necessary cover from the FBI and local cops - then,
three or four agencies shared the intelligence take, as they had for decades from Robert Maxwell's operations.
For Ghislaine, it was simply carrying on the family business for fun and profit. For the spooks, it was business as usual
going back to the Green House, the Berlin bordello founded in the the 1870s by Wilhelm Steiber, a Prussian Police section chief,
to provide useful intelligence to Bismarck's Military Intelligence, which he reorganized.
Steiber is considered the father of modern espionage. His methods were vastly influential, and he attracted students from London,
St. Petersburg to Tokyo. Each put their own national spin on the science of sexual blackmail. As for the Japanese, they are among
the most interesting and innovative in their use of a parallel network of privatized intelligence services incorporating underworld
Yakuzi groups alongside conventional military intelligence units. Using compromise, they gained and maintained control over Imperial
Japan and its Colonies: https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2019/03/15/eastern-peril/
To realize these divinely inspired ambitions, Japan needed a modern espionage system. Adopting the German model, Japanese
officials were sent to study under Wilhelm Stieber in the mid-1870s. Over the next decade Japan built up separate army and
naval intelligence services, each with an accompanying branch of secret military police (Kempeitai for the army and Tokeitai
for the navy). These latter organizations also provided an excellent counter-espionage service. However, where the Japanese
were unique was in the use of spies belonging to unofficial secret societies working alongside or independently of the official
intelligence agencies. These shadowy institutions were ultra-nationalist by nature, drawing their membership from a cross-section
of Japanese society, including the military, politics, industry and Yakuza underworld. Under ruthless leadership, their henchmen
would spy on, subvert and corrupt Japan's Far East neighbours.
For more on Steiber and his superior, von Hinckeldey, methods of international counter-insurgency, espionage, and political
policing included deception and a forerunner of today's internet surveillance:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2006/11/29/275653/-
While armies are essential to the maintenance of autocracy, the preservation of dynastic rule and the prevention of democracy
requires an effective secret police. The suppression of its middle-class constitutionalists [during the 1840s] was followed
by the expansion of the Prussian political police under Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey.
Appointed police president of Berlin in late 1848, Hinckeldey was an innovator of many of the features of modern systematic
political policing. Among the tactics that he introduced with his new police system in Berlin was the "Litfass columns". Named
for Ernst Litfass, Frederick William's court printer, he had dozens of these large poles erected in strategic spots around
Berlin. The public posting of political notices was then banned. By application to a state office for a waiver, however, the
columns could be used to display messages. The police dutifully recorded the names of all who had applied. A. Richie, Faust's
Metropolis: A History of Berlin, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998 at p.134.
LEGACY OF THE LITFASS COLUMNS: A similar ploy was later adopted by the People's Republic of China. In the mid-1980s, the
Communist authorities at first appear to tolerate the operation of a so-called Democracy Wall, where "dissidents" in Beijing
could post political writings, initially, without being arrested. Similar walls then sprung up under the noses of the authorities
in other Chinese cities. For this apparent opening to democracy, the Deng regime much applauded, particularly by some in the
Reagan-Bush Administration, eager to legitimize the regime and its growing commercial ties with U.S. corporations. Eventually,
many of those who had availed themselves of the wall to post political messages were, of course, arrested in the roundup of
hundreds of thousands of democracy supporters that followed the Tienamen Square massacre. The impression of anonymity and "freedom"
conveyed by the Internet, of course, presents a similar opportunity for police to cast a wide net for identifying persons and
organizations who may not hold favor for the regime in power, or may not in the future.
Hinckeldey also founded the Police Union, the first recorded international network of counterrevolutionary police spies
in modern times. Primarily made up of police officers from Prussia and the German states, the Union operated throughout Europe,
Britain and in the United States. The Union was run by his deputy, the notorious police provocateur, Wilhelm Steiber, who would
later reorganize the Okhrana along similar lines. Internationally active from 1851-1866, the Police Union, according to Mathieu
Deflem, was "one of the first formal initiatives in industrial society to establish an organized police system across national
borders."13
I disagree with the Alternet view on this. See, this is the norm. A purely private sexual blackmail ring of any scale would
be the historical exception. It certainly wouldn't survive very long.
...authorities at first appear to tolerate the operation of a so-called Democracy Wall, where "dissidents" in Beijing could
post political writings.... Similar walls then sprung up under the noses of the authorities in other Chinese cities. Eventually,
many of those who had availed themselves of the wall to post political messages were, of course, arrested in the roundup of
hundreds of thousands of democracy supporters....
The impression of anonymity and "freedom" conveyed by the Internet, of course, presents a similar opportunity for police
to cast a wide net for identifying persons and organizations who may not hold favor for the regime in power, or may not in
the future.
But why should one avoid the thought? If the situation looks like the people are going to lose the war for their minds, and
are unwilling to back a publisher like Assange who has given his all to try to empower them, why should anyone put themselves
at risk by expressing their opinions? It's a honeypot of our own making, just as Facebook is where people go to write their own
dossiers for the Authorities.
@Pluto's Republic an enemy of the status quo, you raise the calculated costs of the eventual crackdown, pushing back the
day of reckoning. Keep it up! Visible rebellion is the only defense of the people.
...from which to leverage access to the elite, Harvard University would be a top choice.
Jeffery Epstein actually entered the social salons of the elite through many doors. He was, of course, a member of the Council
on Foreign Relations. One would have to be to rub shoulders with the political elite. From there he matriculated to the Trilateral
Commission becoming friendly with Harvard President, Larry Summers. **
Becoming a surprise mystery philanthropist at Harvard, with Summers help, was a booster rocket for Epstein. In the Havard Crimson , in
June 2003, Epstein's involvement with Harvard was celebrated.
People in the News: Jeffrey E. Epstein
Elusive financier Jeffrey E. Epstein donated $30 million this year to Harvard for the founding of a mathematical biology
and evolutionary dynamics program.
While the mathematics teacher turned magnate remained unknown to most people until he flew President Clinton, Kevin
Spacey and Chris Tucker to Africa to explore the problems of AIDS and economic development facing the region, Epstein
has been a familiar face to many at Harvard for years.
Networking with the University's leading intellectuals, Epstein has spurred research through both discussions with and dollars
contributed to various faculty members.
Lindsley Professor of Psychology Stephen M. Kosslyn, former Dean of the Faculty Henry A. Rosovsky and Frankfurter Professor
of Law Alan M. Dershowitz are among Epstein's bevy of eminent friends that includes princes, presidents and Nobel
Prize winners.
Epstein is also well acquainted with University President Lawrence H. Summers. The two serve together on the Trilateral
Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, two elite international relations organizations.
Epstein's collection of high-profile friends also includes newly-recruited professor Martin A. Nowak, who will run Harvard's
mathematical biology and evolutionary dynamics program.
Like Kosslyn, Rosovsky and Dershowitz, Nowak praises Epstein's numerous relationships within the scientific community.
"I am amazed by the connections he has in the scientific world," Nowak says. "He knows an amazing number of scientists.
He knows everyone you can imagine."
Epstein's relationships within the academy are remarkable since the tycoon, who has amassed his fortune by managing
the wealth of billionaires from his private Caribbean island, does not hold a bachelor's degree.
Yet, friends and beneficiaries say they do not see Epstein merely as a man with deep pockets, but as an intellectual equal.
Dershowitz says Epstein is "brilliant" and Kosslyn calls Epstein "one of the brightest people I've ever known."
Epstein's beneficiaries say they are particularly appreciative of the no-strings-attached approach Epstein takes with his
donations.
"He is one of the most pleasant philanthropists," Nowak says. "Unlike many people who support science, he supports science
without any conditions. There are not any disadvantages to associating with him."
Friends and associates say Harvard stands to benefit from its evolving relationship with Epstein.
"I hope that he will, over time, become one of the leading supporters of science at Harvard," Rosovsky writes in an e-mail.
__________________________________________
** A footnote on Larry Summers seems important here:
Harvard-trained economists have been running the US economy for a very long time, and continue to do so. Summers began his ascent
as a professor of economics at Harvard University, leaving shortly before Bill Clinton won the Presidency. He was clearly the
Neoliberal seed planted for the New American Century.
In 1993, Summers was appointed Undersecretary for International Affairs of the United States Department of the Treasury
under the Clinton Administration. In 1995, he was promoted to Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under his long-time political
mentor Robert Rubin. In 1999, he succeeded Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury.
While working for the Clinton administration Summers played a leading role in the American response to the 1994 economic
crisis in Mexico, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the Russian financial crisis. He was also influential in the Harvard
Institute for International Development and American-advised privatization of the economies of the post-Soviet states, and
in the deregulation of the U.S financial system, including the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.
At This Point the Ball is Passed to the Bush Team Republicans, while the Democrats Sit Back and Wait for 2008.
There's now a Treasury surplus to transfer to the wealthy, and the necessary deregulation for Wall Street empowerment is in
place. The Soviet era had ended and Russia is ended forever. The world is finally primed to be seized by the One Exceptional Power.
It's 2001, and we are standing on the threshold of the New American Century . Time to throw a flash-bang of chaos onto the world
stage and trigger the booming War Economy that will carry us directly to global control.
There's a rocky road ahead for Larry Summers. Summers introduces Epstein into the Harvard fold, but becomes reckless with
his newly-refined Neoliberalism and his opinions concerning "lady scholars."
Following the end of Clinton's term, Summers served as the 27th President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.
Summers resigned as Harvard's president in the wake of a no-confidence vote by Harvard faculty, which resulted in large part
from Summers's conflict with Cornel West, financial conflict of interest questions regarding his relationship with Andrei Shleifer,
and a 2005 speech in which he suggested that the under-representation of women in science and engineering could be due to a
"different availability of aptitude at the high end", and less to patterns of discrimination and socialization. Remarking upon
political correctness in institutions of higher education, Summers said in 2016:
Summers resigned as Harvard's president in the wake of a no-confidence vote by Harvard faculty, which resulted in large
part from Summers's conflict with Cornel West, financial conflict of interest questions regarding his relationship with
Andrei Shleifer, and a 2005 speech in which he suggested that the under-representation of women in science and engineering
There is a great deal of absurd political correctness. Now, I'm somebody who believes very strongly in diversity, who
resists racism in all of its many incarnations, who thinks that there is a great deal that's unjust in American society
that needs to be combated, but it seems to be that there is a kind of creeping totalitarianism in terms of what kind of
ideas are acceptable and are debatable on college campuses.
After his departure from Harvard, Summers cooled his jets on Wall Street, positioning himself to be called back into the game
when it was Team Democrat's turn in 2008.
Summers worked as a managing partner at the hedge fund D. E. Shaw & Co., and as a freelance speaker at other financial institutions,
including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers. Summers rejoined public service during
the Obama administration, serving as the Director of the White House United States National Economic Council for President
Barack Obama from January 2009 until November 2010, where he emerged as a key economic decision-maker in the Obama administration's
response to the Great Recession.
Jeffery Epstein continued to weave himself into the fabric of government like a good psychopath would. He was by no means the
only one.
I don't use Social Media myself, but near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, I
gradually began seeing more and more Trump supporters referring to something called
"Pizzagate," a burgeoning sexual scandal that they claimed would bring down Hillary Clinton and
many of the top leaders of her party, with the chatter actually increasing after Trump was
elected. As near as I could tell, the whole bizarre theory had grown up on the far-right fringe
of the Internet, with the utterly fantastical plot having something to do with stolen secret
emails, DC pizza parlors, and a ring of pedophiles situated near the top of the Democratic
Party. But given all the other strange and unlikely things I'd gradually discovered about our
history, it didn't seem like something I could necessarily dismiss out of hand.
At the beginning of December, a right-wing blogger produced a lengthy exposition of the
Pizzagate charges, which finally gave me some understanding of what was actually under
discussion, and I soon made arrangements to republish his article. It quickly attracted a great
deal of interest, and some websites pointed to it as the best single introduction to the
scandal for a general audience.
Pizzagate Aedon
Cassiel • December 2, 2016 • 3,100 Words
A couple of weeks later, I republished an additional article by the same writer, describing
a long list of previous pedophilia scandals that had occurred in elite American and European
political circles. Although many of these seemed to be solidly documented, nearly all of them
had received minimal coverage by our mainstream media outlets. And if such political pedophile
rings had existed in the relatively recent past, was it so totally implausible that there might
be another one simmering beneath the surface of today's Washington DC?
Those interested in the details of the Pizzagate Hypothesis are advised to read these
articles, especially the first one, but I might as well provide a brief summary.
John Podesta had been a longtime fixture in DC political circles, becoming chief of staff
to President Bill Clinton in 1998, and afterward remaining one of the most powerful figures in
the Democratic Party establishment. While serving as as chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016
presidential campaign, his apparent carelessness with the password security of his Gmail
account allowed it to easily be hacked, and tens of thousands of his personal emails were soon
published on WikiLeaks. A swarm of young anti-Clinton activists began scouring this
treasure-trove of semi-confidential information, seeking evidence of mundane bribery and
corruption, but instead they came across some quite odd exchanges, seemingly written in coded
language.
Now use of coded language in a supposedly secure private email account raises all sorts
of natural suspicions regarding what might have been under discussion, with the most likely
possibilities being illegal drugs or sex. But most of the references didn't seem to fit the
former category, and in our remarkably libertine era, in which political candidates compete for
the right to be Grand Marshal at an annual Gay Pride Parade, one of the few sexual activities
still discussed only in whispers would seem to be pedophilia, with some of the very strange
remarks possibly hinting at this.
The researchers also soon discovered that his brother Tony Podesta, one of the wealthiest
and most successful lobbyists in DC, had extremely odd taste in art. Major items of his very
extensive personal collection seemed to represent tortured or murdered bodies, and one of his
favorite artists was best known for paintings depicting young children being held captive,
lying dead, or suffering under severe distress. Such peculiar artwork obviously isn't
illegal, but it might naturally arouse some suspicions. And oddly enough, arch-Democrat Podesta
had long been a close personal friend of former Republican Speaker and convicted child-molester
Dennis Hastert, welcoming him back into DC society after his release from prison.
Furthermore, some of the rather suspiciously-worded Podesta emails referred to events
held at a local DC pizza parlor, greatly favored by the Democratic Party elite, whose owner was
the gay former boyfriend of David Brock, a leading Democratic activist. The public Instagram
account of that pizza-entrepreneur apparently contained numerous images of young children,
sometimes tied or bound, with those images frequently labeled by hashtags using the traditional
gay slang for underage sexual targets . Some photos showed the fellow wearing a tee-shirt
bearing the statement "I Love Children" in French, and by a very odd coincidence, his possibly
assumed name was phonetically identical to that very same French phrase, thus proclaiming to
the world that he was "a lover of children." Closely connected Instagram accounts also
included pictures of young children, sometimes shown amid piles of high-value currency, with
queries about how much those particular children might be worth. None of this seemed illegal,
but surely any reasonable person would regard the material as extremely suspicious.
DC is sometimes described as "Powertown," being the seat of the individuals who make
America's laws and govern our society, with local political journalists being closely attuned
to the relative status of such individuals. And oddly enough, GQ Magazine had ranked that
gay pizza parlor owner with a strange focus on young children as being one of the 50 most
powerful people in our national capital, placing him far ahead of many Cabinet members,
Senators, Congressional Chairmen, Supreme Court justices, and top lobbyists. Was his pizza
really that delicious?
These few paragraphs provide merely a sliver of the large quantity of highly-suspicious
material surrounding various powerful figures at the apex of the DC political world. A vast
cloud of billowing smoke is certainly no proof of any fire, but only a fool would completely
ignore it without attempting further investigation.
I usually regard videos as a poor means of imparting serious information, far less effective
and meaningful than the simple printed word. But the overwhelming bulk of the evidence
supporting the Pizzagate Hypothesis consists of visual images and screen shots, and these are
naturally suited to a video presentation.
Some of the best summaries of the Pizzagate case were produced by a young British
YouTuber named Tara McCarthy, whose work was published under the name of "Reality Calls," and
her videos were viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Although her channel was eventually
banned and her videos purged, copies were later reloaded to other accounts, both on YouTube and
BitChute. Some of the evidence she presents seemed rather innocuous or speculative to me and
other elements were probably based upon her unfamiliarity with American society and culture.
But a great deal of extremely suspicious material remains, and I would suggest that people
watch the videos and decide for themselves.
Around the same time that I first became familiar with the details of the Pizzagate
controversy, the topic also started reaching the pages of my morning newspapers, but in an
rather strange manner. Political stories began giving a sentence or two to the "Pizzagate
hoax," describing it as a ridiculous right-wing "conspiracy theory" but excluding all relevant
details. I had an eery feeling that some unseen hand had suddenly flipped a switch causing the
entire mainstream media to begin displaying identical signs declaring "Pizzagate Is False --
Nothing To See There!" in brightly flashing neon. I couldn't recall any previous example of
such a strange media reaction to some obscure Internet controversy.
Articles in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times also suddenly
appeared denouncing the entirety of the alternative media -- Left, Right, and Libertarian --
as
"fake news" websites promoting Russian propaganda , while urging that their content be
blocked by all patriotic Internet giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Prior to that
moment, I'd never even heard the term "fake news" but suddenly it was ubiquitous across the
media, once again almost as if some unseen hand had suddenly flipped a switch.
I naturally began to wonder whether the timing of these two strange developments was
entirely coincidental. Perhaps Pizzagate was indeed true and struck so deeply at the core of
our hugely corrupted political system that the media efforts to suppress it were approaching
the point of hysteria.
Not long afterward, Tara McCarthy's detailed Pizzagate videos were purged from YouTube. This
was among the very first instances of video content being banned despite fully conforming to
all existing YouTube guidelines, another deeply suspicious development.
I also noticed that mere mention of Pizzagate had become politically lethal. Donald Trump
had selected Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as his
National Security Advisor, and Flynn's son served as the latter's chief of staff. The younger
Flynn happened to Tweet out a couple of links to Pizzagate stories, pointing out that the
accusations hadn't yet been actually investigated let alone disproven, and very soon afterward,
he was
purged from the Trump transition team, foreshadowing his father's fall a few weeks later.
It seemed astonishing to me that a few simple Tweets about an Internet controversy could have
such huge real-life impact near the top of our government.
The media continued its uniform drumbeat of "Pizzagate Has Been Disproven!" but we were
never told how or by whom, and I was not the only individual to notice the hollowness of such
denunciations. An award-winning investigative journalist named Ben Swann at a CBS station in
Atlanta broadcast a short television segment summarizing the Pizzagate controversy and noting
that contrary to widespread media claims, Pizzagate had neither been investigated nor debunked.
Swann was almost immediately purged by CBS but a copy of his television segment remains
available for viewing on the Internet.
There is an old wartime proverb that enemy flak is always heaviest over the most important
target, and the remarkably ferocious wave of attacks and censorship against anyone broaching
the subject of Pizzagate seems to raise obvious dark suspicions. Indeed, the simultaneous waves
of attacks against all alternative media outlets as "Russian propaganda outlets" laid the basis
for the continuing regime of Social Media censorship that has become a central aspect of
today's world.
Pizzagate may or may not turn out to be true, but the ongoing Internet crackdown has
similarly engulfed topics of a somewhat similar nature but with vastly stronger documentation.
Although I don't use Twitter myself, I encountered the obvious implications of this new
censorship policy following McCain's death last August. The senator had died on a Saturday
afternoon, and readership of Sydney Schanberg's long 2008 expose quickly exploded, with
numerous individuals Tweeting out the story and a large fraction of our incoming traffic
therefore coming from Twitter. This continued until the following morning, at which point the
huge flood of Tweets continued to grow, but all incoming Twitter traffic suddenly and
permanently vanished, presumably because "shadow banning" had rendered those Tweets invisible.
My own article on McCain's very doubtful war record simultaneously suffered the same fate, as
did numerous other articles of a controversial nature that we published later that same
week.
Perhaps that censorship decision was made by some ignorant young intern at Twitter, casually
choosing to ban as "hate speech" or "fake news" a massively-documented 8,400 word expose by one
of America's most distinguished journalists, a Pulitzer-prize winning former top editor at
The New York Times .
Or perhaps certain political-puppeteers who had spent decades controlling that late Arizona
senator sought to ensure that their political puppet-strings remained invisible even after his
death.
"... When scanning the news most days, I see a constant amplification of wedge issues by mass media, blue-check pundits and even many in the so-called alternative media. I see people increasingly being encouraged to demonize and dehumanize their fellow citizens. Anyone who voted for Trump is automatically a Nazi, likewise, anyone who supports Sanders is an anti-American communist. The reality is neither of these things is even remotely true, so why are people so quick to say them? ..."
"... The Epstein case shines a gigantic spotlight on just how twisted and sociopathic the highest echelons of U.S. society have become. This is exactly what happens when you fail to put wealthy and powerful super predators behind bars. They get more brazen, they get more demented and, ultimately, they destroy the very fabric that holds society together. We are in fact ruled by monsters. ..."
Perhaps, at long last, a serial rapist and pedophile may be brought to justice , more than a dozen years after he was first
charged with crimes that have brutalized countless girls and women. But what won't change is this: the cesspool of elites, many
of them in New York, who allowed Jeffrey Epstein to flourish with impunity.
For decades, important, influential, "serious" people attended Epstein's dinner parties, rode his private jet, and furthered
the fiction that he was some kind of genius hedge-fund billionaire. How do we explain why they looked the other way, or flattered
Epstein, even as they must have noticed he was often in the company of a young harem? Easy: They got something in exchange from
him , whether it was a free ride on that airborne "Lolita Express," some other form of monetary largesse, entrée into the extravagant
celebrity soirées he hosted at his townhouse, or, possibly and harrowingly, a pound or two of female flesh.
An honest assessment of the current state of American politics and society in general leaves little room for optimism regarding
the public's ability to accurately diagnose, much less tackle, our fundamental issues at a root level. A primary reason for this
state of affairs boils down to the ease with which the American public is divided against itself and conquered.
Though there are certain issues pretty much everyone can agree on, we simply aren't focusing our collective energy on them or
creating the mass movements necessary to address them. Things such as systemic bipartisan corruption, the institutionalization of
a two-tier justice system in which the wealthy and powerful are above the law, a broken economy that requires both parents to work
and still barely make ends meet, and a military-industrial complex consumed with profits and imperial aggression not national defense.
These are just a few of the many issues that should easily unite us against an entrenched power structure, but it is not happening.
At least not yet.
We currently find ourselves at a unique inflection point in American history. Though I agree with Charles Hugh Smith's assessment
that " Our Ruling
Elites Have No Idea How Much We Want to See Them All in Prison Jumpsuits, " we have yet to reach the point where the general
public is prepared to do something about it. I think there are several reasons for this, but the primary obstacle relates to how
easily the citizenry is divided and conquered. The mass media, largely owned and controlled by billionaires and their corporations,
is highly incentivized to keep the public divided against itself on trivial issues, or at best, on real problems that are merely
symptoms of bipartisan elitist plunder.
The key thing, from a plutocrat's point of view, is to make sure the public never takes a step back and sees the root of society's
problems. It isn't Trump or Obama, and it isn't the Republican or Democratic parties either. These individuals and political gangs
are just useful vehicles for elitist plunder. They help herd the rabble into comfortable little tribal boxes that results in made
for tv squabbling, while the true forces of power carry on with the business of societal pillaging behind the scenes.
You're encouraged to attach your identity to team Republican or team Democrat, but never unite as one voice against a bipartisan
crew of depraved, corrupt and unaccountable power players molding society from the top. While the average person living paycheck
to paycheck fashions themselves part of some biblical fight of good vs. evil by supporting team red or blue, the manipulative and
powerful at the top remain beyond such plebeian theater (though they certainly encourage it). These folks know only one team -- team
green. And their team keeps winning, by the way.
When scanning the news most days, I see a constant amplification of wedge issues by mass media, blue-check pundits and even
many in the so-called alternative media. I see people increasingly being encouraged to demonize and dehumanize their fellow citizens.
Anyone who voted for Trump is automatically a Nazi, likewise, anyone who supports Sanders is an anti-American communist. The reality
is neither of these things is even remotely true, so why are people so quick to say them?
Why is most of the anger in this country being directed at fellow powerless Americans versus upward at the power structure which
nurtured and continues to defend the current depraved status quo? I don't see any upside to actively encouraging one side of the
political discussion to dehumanize the other side, and I suggest we consciously cease engaging in such behavior. Absolutely nothing
good can come from it.
Which is partly why I've been so consumed by the Jeffrey Epstein case. For once, it allows us to focus our energy on the depraved
nature of the so-called American "elite," rather than pick fights with each other. How many random Trump or Sanders supporters do
you know who systematically molest children and then pass them off to their wealthy and powerful friends for purposes of blackmail?
The Epstein case shines a gigantic spotlight on just how twisted and sociopathic the highest echelons of U.S. society have
become. This is exactly what happens when you fail to put wealthy and powerful super predators behind bars. They get more brazen,
they get more demented and, ultimately, they destroy the very fabric that holds society together. We are in fact ruled by monsters.
Unfortunately, by being short-sighted, by fighting amongst ourselves, and by taking the easy route of punching down versus punching
up, we allow such cretins to continue to rape and pillage what remains of our civilization.
If we can truly get to the bottom of exactly what Epstein was up to, I suspect it has the potential to focus the general public
(beyond a few seconds) on the true nature of what's really going on and what makes the world tick. Revelations of such a nature could
provide the proverbial tipping point that's so desperately needed, but this is also why the odds of us actually getting the whole
story is quite low. There's simply too much at stake for those calling the shots.
* * *
Side note: I've been consistently updating my
Epstein twitter thread as I learn new information.
I suggest checking back in from time to time.
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If we can truly get to the bottom of exactly what Epstein was up
1. We can't.
2. Epstein was in the business to set up people with kompromat material ...
3. ...and did it for someone else , it appears as he was protected from above for many years.
4. These " elses " won't allow that the support of the Americans to forever fight Israels wars gets shattered.
5. I expect operation diversion & coverup soon. My hunch is that they will pull a 9/11 hoax as a last resort if things get out
of hand fast.
6. They did it in the past, they will do it in the future.
7. Human lives don't matter to them.
Michael Krieger said: "It's sad and mind-boggling how easy it is to divide and conquer the American public. Manipulating the
masses in this country is trivial. The next few years will not be pretty".
Despite all the news of how the elites have manipulated the American public, it still goes on, unabated. Americans, for the
most part, are dumb and fat couch potatoes. They are not going to rise up against their elite masters, because they don't have
the wherewithal to do so. So, the show continues on, and the elites don't seem to have anything to worry about, and do as they
will.
If Americans were truly energetic about reigning in the abuses of the elites, they would have done so back in the 1870's, when
Mark Twain wrote about the Gilded Age Elites. Here it is, 149 years later, and nothing has changed in America today. The elites
still rule, and everyone else is an indentured servant. Of course, there are benefits for the elites to keep the American masses
dumbed down, and letting them lead couch potato life styles. Doing so, keeps them in power.
I suspect it was the CIA or FBI. But the goal was to keep Acosta from investigating Virginia Roberts' claims. If authorities
did this they would have had to investigate Prince Andrew.
If they found her to be truthful, they might even have to arrest Prince Andrew (can you imagine this happening?). Or at least
ask him to testify in a trial.
If the truth came out, this would humiliate the British nation, and Great Britain was (still is) one of America's most important
allies in the "war on terror" and all our other neocon initiatives.
Acosta was essentially told to "back off" Prince Andrew (not necessarily Epstein, who was best buddies with "Andy.")
This doesn't mean Israel intelligence was not involved in some way. It just means that American intelligence was involved,
or wanted to protect key people. Hell, they still do.
We can be almost certain that the exact same thing that happened with Acosta is happening right now. Some prosecutor is being
told to "back off. Don't go here. Focus only on Epstein and Epstein only."
This is why Ghislaine Maxwell has not been charged and will not be charged. This is why the FBI has not raided Pedo Island
or Pedo Ranch. This is why Epstein's four "co-accomplices" have not been charged.
Prosecutors have again been told that "intelligence" is saying that it's okay to do this (charge Epstein with sex crimes),
but NOT okay to do this (investigate and arrest any fellow predators).
It isn't just the elites and we need to stop pretending it is
"Child sex trafficking which is the buying and selling of women, young girls and boys for sex, some as young as 9 years old,
has become big business in America. It is the fastest growing business in organized crime and the second-most-lucrative commodity
traded illegally after drugs and guns.
Adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year in the United States.
It's not just young girls who are vulnerable to these predators, either.
According to a 2016 investigative report, "boys make up about 36% of children caught up in the U.S. sex industry (about 60% are
female and less than 5% are transgender males and females)."
Who buys a child for sex?
Otherwise, ordinary men from all walks of life. "They could be your co-worker, doctor, pastor or spouse."
If Epstein was muslin would this be a crime? Of course not it would be part of Muslim Culture. Look into the Abuse done to
young girls in the Rotherham abuse case. BTW I am no sticking up for Epstein but the ruling elites and certain minorities are
treated different from Joe and Jane Public
"The Epstein Case Is A Rare Opportunity To Focus "On The Depraved Nature Of America's Elite"
This IS a "rare opportunity' for Americans to do just this (focus on how deprived our elite leaders really are).
If Americans really started to do this, for an extended period of time, and got, you know, kind of pissed off about this state
of affairs, we might even throw all the bums out. We might really "drain the swamp."
So this is a BIG story. Potentially.
Of course, the Powers that Be are going to do everything they can to make sure Americans do NOT focus on this story for too
long. Or that the "narrative" is controlled. (For example by focusing only on Epstein, not his hundreds of depraved buddies and
corrupt institutions).
I've been posting for 10 days that there are "too many" of these people. And they are too powerful.
Seems to me if authorities went after one of the "johns," they would have to go after ALL of the "Johns." And this includes
Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, former senators, governors, CEOs, secretaries of the treasury, bankers, etc.
It's the massive numbers of possible offenders that is probably keeping all of these people "safe."
And I still think Prince Andrew is the biggest fish the authorities don't want to humiliate/charge.
Even more so than Clinton. Half the country would throw a party if Clinton was charged. But in the UK, 90 percent of British
citizens would be mortified and greatly embarrassed if one of their Princes was proven to have done all the things that have been
alleged he did.
Epstein issue and his connection to Clinton mafia was raised by press in 2016 but went nowhere.
The fact that Trump campaign targeted Clinton for his connection with Epstein means that Trump is probably was not involved as a client of
Epstein brothel with underage prostitutes for high ranking politicians .
Notable quotes:
"... Now Bill Clinton is back in the press and not for his controversial relationship with Monica Lewinsky, but rather his friendship with Epstein. In fact, flight records indicate that Bill would frequent the island paradise during the 2002 and 2005 era while Hillary, Bill's wife, was a Senator in New York. ..."
"... The woman went on to say how orgies were a regular occurrence and that she recalled two young girls from New York who were always seen around the five-house compound but their personal back-stories were never revealed. ..."
"... Moreover, Epstein was invited to Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010 amongst 400 other guests, demonstrating his close friendship with the Clinton family. ..."
"... To top it all off blue blood, "Prince Andrew was allegedly one of the house's visitors. On Friday, the Duke of York was named in a federal lawsuit filed against Epstein, whom the FBI once reportedly linked to 40 young women. Filed in 2008 in the Southern District of Florida, the $50 million lawsuit claimed Epstein had a "sexual preference and obsession for underage minor girls gained access to primarily economically disadvantaged minor girls in his home and sexually assaulted these girls,"reported the Washington Post. ..."
Back in 2005 police conducted an 11 month-long undercover investigation into Epstein and his estate after the mother of a 14-year-old
girl went to police after suspecting her daughter was paid $300 for at least one sexual act on the island in which she was ordered
to strip, leaving on just her panties, while giving Epstein a massage.
Although police found tons of photos of young women on the island and even interviewed eyewitnesses, Epstein was hit with a mere
slap on the wrist after "pleading to a single charge of prostitution". Epstein later served 13-months of his 18-month service in
jail.
In 2008, Epstein was hit again, this time with a $50 million civil suit after another victim filed in federal court claiming that
she was "recruited" by Epstein to give him a "massage" but was essentially forced into having sexual intercourse with him for $200
which was payable upon completion. The women were coming out of the woodwork.
Now Bill Clinton is back in the press and not for his controversial relationship with Monica Lewinsky, but rather his friendship
with Epstein. In fact, flight records indicate that Bill would frequent the island paradise during the 2002 and 2005 era while Hillary,
Bill's wife, was a Senator in New York.
'I remember asking Jeffrey what's Bill Clinton doing here kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said well he owes me a favor,'
one unidentified woman said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Palm Beach Circuit Court.
The woman went on to say how orgies were a regular occurrence and that she recalled two young girls from New York who were
always seen around the five-house compound but their personal back-stories were never revealed.
"At least one woman on the compound was there unwillingly," reported the Daily Mail in a recent article. The woman was allegedly
forced to have sex with "politicians, businessmen, royalty, academicians" at the retreat. Just one of "more than 40 women" that have
come forth with claims against Epstein, showing the vast scale of the man's dark operations, which aren't limited only to Little
St. James.
Moreover, Epstein was invited to Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010 amongst 400 other guests, demonstrating his close friendship
with the Clinton family.
To top it all off blue blood, "Prince Andrew was allegedly one of the house's visitors. On Friday, the Duke of York was named
in a federal lawsuit filed against Epstein, whom the FBI once reportedly linked to 40 young women. Filed in 2008 in the Southern
District of Florida, the $50 million lawsuit claimed Epstein had a "sexual preference and obsession for underage minor girls gained
access to primarily economically disadvantaged minor girls in his home and sexually assaulted these girls,"reported the Washington
Post.
By throwing millions of dollars at the legal system, Epstein successfully enlisted Alex
Acosta, a sitting U.S. Attorney who just resigned as Trump's Labor Secretary, to grant the
admitted sex offender a non-prosecution and an immunity agreement.
That deal, that a federal judge has since ruled illegal, helped conceal a vast child-sex
trafficking operation that targeted vulnerable minors by offering them $300 and then employed a
kind of pyramid scheme where victims were recruited to find new victims.
For decades now, as a general assignment reporter, I have had front row seats for a
procession of these kinds of defendants. I have seen the likes of Epstein before.
Over my life as a journalist, as the whirlwind of wealth concentration stripped so many
threadbare, these guys have prospered on an unprecedented scale. In our era of late-stage
vulture-capitalism, it is these most ruthless predators that are elevated before their fall by
our corporate media as living deities.
Rogues Rushmore
The elevation of Donald Trump to the Presidency marks the high-water mark for this
underworld crew who masterfully play the compliant corporate media that's transfixed by great
wealth and confer upon those that hold it all sorts of intellectual prowess so as to cultivate
proximity to them.
As we saw in the Federal prosecution and conviction of
Michael Cohen for his role in facilitating the payoff of Stormy Daniels, Trump knows
everybody has a price.
These great white men are their own law. They see themselves as the smartest guys in the
room. They have the cunning to know how to hollow out others so that they can own their souls.
With the precision of an acupuncturist, they pinpoint that pressure point that's the nexus of
desire, sexual pleasure or ambition.
These must be done with sleight of hand but even if you are caught red-handed, as long as
you have high priced representation on retainer, you can outmaneuver
prosecutors.
Weaponized Sex
Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, President Trump's senior advisor, is another
case in point.
Kushner, the real estate mogul and major Democratic campaign donor, was appointed by
Governor McGreevey to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2002 and was nominated
by the Governor to be the chairman of the board of the sprawling bi-state multi-billion-dollar
enterprise in 2003.
McGreevey had to withdraw that nomination and
Kushner had to resign when allegations surfaced that the developer's massive donations to
his campaign might have run afoul of campaign finance and conflict of interest laws.
The year before Kushner's appointment, while on a trip to Israel, McGreevey crossed paths
with Golan Cipel, who was in his early 30s. Subsequent press reports boiled down the young
Israeli's bio to his being a former member of the Israeli Navy and a published poet.
In 2002, it was
Kushner who sponsored Cipel, for a hard to obtain work visa in the U.S. and gave him a
$30,000-a-year job in his northern New Jersey office after Cipel had worked on the McGreevey
campaign.
In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, Cipel was nominated by McGreevey to a
$110,000 job to lead the state's freshly minted Homeland Security office. Cipel's status as an
Israeli citizen and his lack of executive-level counter-terrorism experience sent up multiple
flares which McGreevey ignored.
The young Governor doubled down, as he blew through his very limited 'honeymoon' political
capital trying to make the appointment stick. But the Governor's wild overstatement of Cipel's
work experience doomed the pick and Cipel handed in his resignation in March of 2002. Yet, he
was kept on at the same salary as a "policy counselor" a position he would resign from a few
months later.
In August of 2004
McGreevey resigned from office disclosing that he was "a gay American", explaining he was
compelled to make the bombshell disclosure because Cipel, with whom he had an affair, was
threatening to sue him unless he was paid $5 million (McGreevey reportedly called the U.S.
Attorney Chris Christie to report the alleged extortion).
But as Cipel tells it on his own website he was the victim of sexual harassment.
"All those things that I rationalized to myself seemed very logical at the time, but the sad
truth is that I was acting out of confusion and fear," Cipel writes. "Like many other victims
of sexual harassment, I chose to deny what had happened."
The Art of the Deal
In August of 2004 the elder Kushner, a towering figure in both American and Israeli politics
and philanthropy, pled guilty to a long list of corruption charges that could have sent him to
jail for many years if he had been your run of the mill federal defendant of color in a drug
conspiracy case.
Kushner admitted to hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, who was working with
federal investigators against him, then videotaping that sexual rendezvous and sending it to
his brother-in-law's spouse, who was Kushner's sister.
But Kushner and his lawyers would ultimately outmaneuver U.S. Attorney
Chris Christie , whose major vulnerability was his own infinite ambition for power as we
saw with Bridgegate. The night before Kushner was supposed to be in court to plead guilty, the
U.S. Attorney leaked the still un-inked deal to reporters.
But as the media waited in Newark the next day for the official deal to be confirmed in the
federal courtroom, the appointed time came and went. Behind the scenes, Kushner's lawyers and
Christie's team were going back and forth over the terms and conditions of the deal.
By the end of the day, Kushner would enter a guilty plea as advertised, but he made no
commitment to cooperate with the government or to offer up any potential co-conspirators.
According to the Department of Justice's press release, Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts of
filing false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count
of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
By the evening news cycle, the morning's news of a plea deal was finally true, and Christie
could bask in the glory. "This is a great victory for the people of New Jersey," said the
federal prosecutor who would soon run for governor. "No matter how rich and powerful any person
may be, they will be held accountable for criminal conduct by this office."
Each of Kushner's 18 tax counts carried a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a
fine of $100,000, according to the DOJ; the witness retaliation count carried a maximum penalty
of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000; and the
false statement charge provided for a maximum prison term of five years and a fine of
$250,000.
Scroll forward to March of 2005, though, and Kushner was sentenced to just two years --
which,
The New York Times reported at the time, was the most he "could have received under a plea
agreement reached last September," with Christie.
It was clear that Christie's office had been out-lawyered by the Kushner team. And the
Christie-approved leak -- before he had closed the deal -- definitely hadn't helped. Before
sentencing, the Department of Justice wrote a letter to the judge observing that, in the final
analysis, Kushner showed a "failure to
accept responsibility" for a long litany of criminal acts that could have landed him in
federal prison for decades."
Without a truly thorough prosecution, the House of Kushner would endure and prosper and
Kushner would see his son go on to greater things sitting in the star chamber of ultimate power
deciding who the U.S. should bomb or sell weapons to.
Equal Justice Not
Our collective attention span is so short and the non-contextual way the news is reported
assures we lose track of the narrative thread so when types like Epstein and Kushner cut their
deals we miss it.
Without the candle power of the Miami Herald 's probe
of the Epstein plea deal, we remain in the dark about how every day great wealth can insulate
the guilty, no matter heinous their crime, from really being held accountable.
Meanwhile, those without means, who are innocent, are chewed up and spit out by a criminal
justice system that is neither blind nor fair.
"We have a system of justice in this country that treats you much better if you're rich and
guilty than if you're poor and innocent," said civil rights attorney
Bryan Stevenson in his TED Talk. "Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes. And yet, we
seem to be very comfortable. The politics of fear and anger have made us believe that these are
problems that are not our problems."
"... The Epstein case has all the earmarks of CIA protection of an asset. ..."
"... Successful entry into politics requires candidates to first "tag themselves" with a "corrupted and venerable" "CAV" badge? ..."
"... Is the CAV Badge the weapon that has corrupted the intelligence services and stable of politicians in nearly every nation in the world? Did Colin Powell flash a CAV badge as he spoke to UN focus about the most likely presence of non existent WMDs that led to w__ in Iraq? ..."
Journalism. =>has disclosed the tunnel, and a few of its investigators are exploring
its contents, expecting to find at the end of this tunnel Successful entry into politics
requires candidates to first "tag themselves" with a "corrupted and venerable" "CAV"
badge?
Wonder if this has traction in the persons involved in Grace I, the failure of JCPOA.
Is the CAV badge the weapon that has corrupted nearly every nation state in the western
world?
Politicians make promises, and then within hours for unexplained reasons, reverse
them..Hmmm?
Is the CAV Badge the weapon that has corrupted the intelligence services and stable of
politicians in nearly every nation in the world? Did Colin Powell flash a CAV badge as he
spoke to UN focus about the most likely presence of non existent WMDs that led to w__ in
Iraq?
How can CAV badge victims be identified and isolated from politics?
The CAV badge could explain so many USA positive, American negative events?
That remind me how old Kushner tried to smear his relative...
Notable quotes:
"... They are told that the daughter of a Russian billionaire plans large investments in Austria. It was said that she would like to help his party. The alleged daughter of the Russian billionaire, who is actually also Austrian, and her "friend" serve an expensive dinner. Alcohol flows freely. The pair offers a large party donation but asks for returns in form of mark ups on public contracts. ..."
"... The "Russian" female is notably very attractive with a slender build. There is a honey-trap angle here as well. This would likely inspire the boasting (in order to impress her) on the part of the wingnut politician. ..."
"... The far-right is the Troy Horse of transnational corporations and capital and already discredited neoliberal stablishment which comes now disguised under the softening label of "populists". Beware, there seems to be a coordinated effort at several blogs in the ten previous days of the European elections to whitewash the far-right. ..."
"... So this very much hints something more. Right now there is a debate of cocain being visible on the table but this accusation points more towards schnickle with a babe imho. The babe to his right is not that ugly, admittely. ..."
"... As expected the hysteria of "russian" meddling have now publicized to weaken FPÖ in the EU election. Winners? NATO/US parties. ..."
"... Seems indeed to be a honeypot aspect to the entrapment, and it's quite possible Strache stepped down at once to avoid that part to come to light, so that the public revelations would be limited to the economic shenanigans and influence-peddling level. ..."
"... Also, this goes to show that the bulk of our Western politicians, across all the political spectrum, are a bunch of mediocre and quite corrupt fools. For him not to smell that this was a setup from the very first minute, it must be that such proposals are common place all across the board - which will only reinforce my suspicion that our societies, peoples and mankind as a whole would only benefit if we fully wiped out our economic, financial and political establishment and started from scratches. ..."
"... Blackmail, smear campaigns, various traps via honey or corruption, hookers and blow, gay sex, paedofilia, or what-have-you, - all or in combination. Politicians are "all" compromised in these ways. Buck the system or threaten the status quo - whereby it gets somebody's serious attention and the shite hits the fan. ..."
"... The savages in this neoliberal order use the secret services to subvert democracy. Deception and manipulation are the means used to corrupt the public domain. They would push the most pliable and ruthless leaders into office. Catastrophe and violence and disinformation are their most powerful weapons. But I still think that political processes and elections do matter; and what counts is a struggle to improve and reform the system of government. Doing our best to protect and maintain the integrity of electoral processes is something that requires both protests and political campaigns. ..."
"... The very strong implication certainly seems to be that there may be further video of Strache sleeping with the honey pot. He obviously knows what happened that night. If there were video cameras hidden everywhere, that was obviously one of the intentions behind the sting from the outset. ..."
"... B, please do an article on the Nazi penetration of the German security services, Interior Ministry, Army, CDU etc, and links to the NSU affair, shredding of millions of documents by the Interior Ministry when demanded by the courts as evidence, links with the Board members and advisory board members of German big business especially Siemens and Deutche Bank and Bayer, etc. ..."
"... It is a wonder Strache's remark "Journalists are the biggest whores on the planet" and how he says he can subvert an entire media outlet to his political agenda by even firing the few remaining fringe elements. ..."
"... I don't think Strache is as harmless as you portray him, B. You fall for his defence strategy if you attribute all his statements to the influence of alcohol. At that time, the man was very confident that he would soon be at the levers of power, which then materialized. It remains to be proven whether he did not put into practice anything of what he talked about at that house in Ibiza. After all, he was talking about the by far most influential newspaper in Austria. ..."
"... Of course it is true that it is the neoliberal globalisers who have brought us to where we stand today. But that doesn' make people like Strache and Salvini any less dangerous. If they rise to total power, the result will be a naked dictatorship. Strache was beaten with his own weapons, you don't have to be under any illusions. ..."
"... Who could have ordered such an elaborate sting operation? ..."
"... The sophisticated operation using actors and a villa prepared with hidden cameras and microphones shows that this is hardly a normal case of dirty campaigning by political opponents. Most likely, either it was an action by a secret service or someone with deep pockets hired former secret agents. ..."
"... If it was an action by secret services, the most plausible explanation seems to be that Western secret services targeted Strache because FPÖ is one of the parties who is in favor of restoring normal relations with Russia ..."
"... François Fillon comes to mind, a French conservative candidate who also had a quite a friendly attitude towards Russia - shortly before the elections, it was revealed (at least claimed) that Fillon had given his wife ficticious employment, and Fillon lost popularity, which helped Macron enormously. ..."
"... Probably, some of the things Strache said during this sting operation were inacceptable, and Fillon may also not be innocent, but if there is a systematic selective targeting of European politicians who want to normalize relations with Russia by secret services, that would be a huge problem for democracy. ..."
"... In 2016, Joseph Mifsud invited George Papadopoulos to Rome and introduced him to "Putin's niece" with the intent of smearing Trump as "Russian puppet" and destroying his election chances. In 2017, someone (who?) invited Heinz-Christian Strache to Ibiza and introduced him to "Russian billionaire's niece" with the intent of smearing Strache as "Russian puppet" and destroying his party's election chances. Notice a pattern? ..."
"... This is a clear case of Germany interfering in Austrian elections. Austria should deport 60 German diplomats, shut down German embassy in Vienna, and impose sanctions on Germany. Also put a German girl interested in Austrian politics in jail for 18 months. ..."
"... Thinking about it, after revealing e-mail of HRC, Podesta etc. were published, their core supporters were enraged about the dirty trick and did not pay attention to the disclosed content, while for the core opponents of HRC she was already sufficiently vilified so the net change in voting intentions that can be attributed to that incident was modest. ..."
"... Anyone who does not directly have his or her family's nose in the EU trough at this point knows that the policies espoused by transatlantic puppets like Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron push our countries and our continent towards self-destruction. Life in Europe, post-1968 and pre-2013, has been pretty damn good. There's absolutely no good reason for us to rip up our traditions or turn into a continent of immigrants and mobile job seekers. ..."
"... As Strache explains in the video, Austrian dirty tricks are done "via another country". ..."
"... To those who fill that politics of Strache are obnoxious and that justifies entrapment, remembers that methods of that type are not improvised, and that means that there is an apparatus that does it. We noted similarities with provocations against George Papadopoulos. In the latter case the target was cautious, after all, we had to be well aware of such methods. But anyone who is despised by NATO establishment are similar group can be on the receiving end, think about Assange. ..."
During the last days a right wing politician in Austria was taken down by using an elaborate
sting. Until Friday Heinz-Christian Strache was leader of the far right (but not fascist)
Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) and the Vice Chancellor of the country. On Friday morning two
German papers, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel
published (German)
reports (English) about an old video that was made to take Strache down.
The FPOe has good connections with United Russia, the party of the Russian President Putin,
and to other right-wing parties in east Europe. It's pro-Russian position has led to verbal
attacks on and defamation of the party from NATO supporting and neoliberal circles.
In July 2017 Strache and his right hand man Johann Gudenus, who is also the big number in
the FPOe, get invited for dinner to a rented villa on Ibiza, the Spanish tourist island in the
Mediterranean. They are told that the daughter of a Russian billionaire plans large investments
in Austria. It was said that she would like to help his party. The alleged daughter of the
Russian billionaire, who is actually also Austrian, and her "friend" serve an expensive dinner.
Alcohol flows freely. The pair offers a large party donation but asks for returns in form of
mark ups on public contracts.
Unknown to Strache the villa is professionally bugged with many hidden cameras and
microphones.
A scene from the video. Source: Der Falter (vid, German)
During the six hour long party several schemes get proposed by the "Russian" and are
discussed. Strache rejects most of them. He insists several times that everything they plan or
do must be legal and conform to the law. He says that a large donation could probably be
funneled through an endowment that would then support his party. It is a gray area under
Austrian party financing laws. They also discuss if the "Russian" could buy the Kronen
Zeitung , Austria's powerful tabloid, and use it to prop up his party.
The evening goes on with several bottles of vodka on the table. Starche gets a bit drunk and
boosts in front of the "oligarch daughter" about all his connections to rich and powerful
people. He does not actually have these.
Strache says that, in exchange for help for his party, the "Russian" could get public
contracts for highway building and repair. Currently most of such contracts in Austria go to
the large Austrian company, STRABAG, that is owned by a neoliberal billionaire who opposes the
FPOe. At that time Strache was not yet in the government and had no way to decide about such
contracts.
At one point Strache seems to understand that the whole thing is a setup. But his right hand
man calms him down and vouches for the "Russian". The sting ends with Strache and his companion
leaving the place. The never again see the "Russian" and her co-plotter. Nothing they talked
about will ever come to fruition.
Three month later Strache and his party win more than 20% in the Austrian election and form
a coalition government with the conservative party OeVP led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Even
while the FPOe controls several ministries, it does not achieve much politically. It lacks a
real program and the government's policies are mostly run by the conservatives.
Nearly two years after the evening on Ibiza, ten days before the European parliament
election in which Strache's party is predicted to achieve good results, a video of the evening
on Ibiza is handed to two German papers which are known to be have strong transatlanticist
leanings and have previously been used for other shady 'leaks'. The papers do not hesitate to
take part in the plot and publish extensive reports about the video.
After the reports appeared Strache immediately stepped down and the
conservatives ended the coalition with his party. Austria will now have new elections.
On Bloomberg Leonid Bershidsky opines
on the case:
Strache's discussion with the Russian oligarch's fake niece shows a propensity for dirty
dealing that has nothing to do with idealistic nationalism. Nationalist populists often
agitate against entrenched, corrupt elites and pledge to drain various swamps. In the videos,
however, Strache and Gudenus behave like true swamp creatures, savoring rumors of drug and
sex scandals in Austrian politics and discussing how to create an authoritarian media machine
like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's.
I do not believe that the people who voted for the FPOe (and similar parties in other
countries) will subscribe to that view. The politics of the main stream parties in Austria have
for decades been notoriously corrupt. Compared to them Strache and his party are astonishingly
clean. In the video he insists several times that everything must stay within the legal realm.
Whenever the "Russian" puts forward a likely illegal scheme, Starche emphatically rejects
it.
Bershidsky continues:
Strache, as one of the few nationalist populists in government in the European Union's
wealthier member states, was an important member of the movement Italian Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini has been trying to cobble together ahead of the European Parliament election
that will take place next week. On Saturday, he was supposed to attend a Salvini-led rally in
Milan with other like-minded politicians from across Europe. Instead, he was in Vienna
apologizing to his wife and to Kurz and protesting pitifully that he'd been the victim of a
"political assassination" -- a poisonous rain on the Italian right-winger's parade.
...
This leaves the European far right in disarray and plays into the hands of centrist and
leftist forces ahead of next week's election. Salvini's unifying effort has been thoroughly
undermined, ...
This is also a misreading of the case. The right-wing parties will use the case to boost
their legitimacy.
Strache was obviously set up by some intelligence services, probably a German one with a
British assist. The original aim was likely to blackmail him. But during the meeting on Ibiza
Strache promised and did nothing illegal. Looking for potential support for his party is not a
sin. Neither is discussing investments in Austria with a "daughter of a Russian oligarch." Some
boosting while drunk is hardly a reason to go to jail. When the incident provided too little
material to claim that Strache is corrupt, the video was held back until the right moment to
politically assassinate him with the largest potential damage to his party. That moment was
thought to be now.
But that Strache stepped down after the sudden media assault only makes him more convincing.
The right-wing all over Europe will see him as a martyr who was politically assassinated
because he worked for their cause. The issue will increase the right-wingers hate against the
'liberal' establishment. It will further motivate them: "They attack us because we are right
and winning." The new far-right block Natteo Salvini
will setup in the European Parliament will likely receive a record share of votes.
Establishment writers notoriously misinterpret the new right wing parties and their
followers. This stand-offish sentence in the Spiegel story about Strache's party
demonstrates the problem:
In the last election, the party drew significant support from the working class, in part
because of his ability to simplify even the most complicated of issues and play the common
man, even in his role as vice chancellor.
The implicit thesis, that the working class is too dumb to understand the "most complicated
of issues", is not only incredibly snobbish but utterly false. The working class understands
very well what the establishment parties have done to it and continue to do. The increasing
vote share of the far-right is a direct consequence of the behavior of the neoliberal center
and of the lack of real left alternatives.
Last week, before the Strache video appeared, Craig Murray put his finger on the
wound:
The massive economic shock following the banking collapse of 2007–8 is the direct cause
of the crisis of confidence which is affecting almost all the institutions of western
representative democracy. The banking collapse was not a natural event, like a tsunami. It
was a direct result of man-made systems and artifices which permitted wealth to be generated
and hoarded primarily through multiple financial transactions rather than by the actual
production and sale of concrete goods, and which then disproportionately funnelled wealth to
those engaged in the mechanics of the transactions.
...
The rejection of the political class manifests itself in different ways and has been diverted
down a number of entirely blind alleys giving unfulfilled promise of a fresh start –
Brexit, Trump, Macron. As the vote share of the established political parties – and
public engagement with established political institutions – falls everywhere, the
chattering classes deride the political symptoms of status quo rejection by the people as
"populism". It is not populism to make sophisticated arguments that undermine the received
political wisdom and take on the entire weight of established media opinion.
If one wants to take down the far right one has to do so with arguments and good politics
for the working class. Most people, especially working class people, have a strong sense for
justice. The political assassination of Christian Strache is unjust. What was done during the
2007-8 banking crisis was utterly corrupt and also unjust. Instead of going to jail the bankers
were rewarded with extreme amounts of money for their assault on the well being of the people.
The public was then told that it must starve through austerity to make up for the loss of
money.
While I consider myself to be a strong leftist who opposes the right wherever possible, I
believe to understand why people vote for Strache's FBOe and similar parties. When one talks to
these people issues of injustice and inequality always come up. The new 'populist' parties at
least claim to fight against the injustice done to the common men. Unlike most of the
establishment parties they seem to be still mostly clean and not yet corrupted.
In the early 1990s Strache actually flirted with violent fascists but he rejected their way.
While he has far-right opinions, he and his like are no danger to our societies. If we can not
accept that Strache and his followers have some legitimate causes, we will soon find us
confronted with way more extreme people. The neoliberal establishment seems to do its best to
achieve that.
Posted by b on May 19, 2019 at 01:10 PM |
Permalink
b - thanks .. i agree "elaborate sting" and "the video was held back until the right
moment"... clearly this was a set up.. strache says he is going to pursue this legally..
"working class people, have a strong sense for justice. The political assassination of
Christian Strache is unjust." injustices are being done on a constant basis now and being
justified by the msm regularly.. i think this is part of the reason people are seeking
alternatives - whatever they might be... power to the people..screw the neoliberal agenda and
blackmail artists that are so rampant at present...
Funny thing is e.g.- a German comedian Jan Böhmerman knew before. Already in April he
said in a Video call live in Austian television duringthe TV-prize-giving of the trophy
"Romy" that he couldn´t attend personally to receive the price because right know he
was sitting together with some FPÖ-buddies in a Russian oligarch-villa on Ibiza,
sniffing cocain, drinking and negotiating the takeover of the "Krone-Zeitung" (the biggest
rag in Austira, smth like the "Bild" in Germany or "The sun" in Britain).
Your article here raises a number of important issues. More or less at random:
* If I understand your characterization of your political leanings, based on this and on
the perspectives MoA offers, I share many of your views. And whereas there may be a certain
Schadenfreude at seeing a right-wing, B-team operator reveal himself, I agree that the forces
behind the sting itself are of potentially far greater interest (and danger)..
* For every sting and smear such as this that we see, how many others take place sub rosa,
corrupting our political and social landscapes, leaving no evidence that might trigger
criticism or resistance?
* I'm not sure of how this plays out legally, but this seems not just to have been a
sting, but entrapment, in which (if these were law enforcement agents) we could protest that
the only illegal activity being proposed, was by those conducting the sting.
* If this was, as you suggest, authored by the BND, then this would be a clear instance of
election "meddling" -- though not of the sort that our shining democracies are now being
warned against. (At least President Putin will not be accused of conducting it, for once.
That oligarch's daughter could have come from anywhere, but of course Russia.) Russia gets
smeared is probably the larger aim, rather than this particularly Austrian politician.
The "Russian" female is notably very attractive with a slender build. There is a honey-trap
angle here as well. This would likely inspire the boasting (in order to impress her) on the
part of the wingnut politician.
I think the word is protofascist. b. you have got a blind spot seeing geopolitics everywhere. Truth is most of this is
simply a battle of billionaires. The key to understand the Ibiza video is the product placement. Everybody there drinks Red
Bull plus alcohol (I am not sure about the alcohol the loss of control of the politicians who
are present suggests cocaine).
The owner of Red Bull is an Austrian billionaire called Dietrich Mateschitz.
Mateschitz is a right wing crank building a media empire in Austria including an
"investigative platform" called addendum that is something like the Austrian version of
Breitbart.
For some reason "addendum" began to shoot against Rene Benzko, an Austrian real estate
billionaire, who intends to take over Kronenzeitung.
And guess what, Rene Benzko was mentioned in the video "as a friend", and a large part of
the conversation centered on taking over Kronenzeitung something Rene Benzko is involved
in.
Strache, Vice Chancellor of Austria, explained in the video for every Austrian to
understand, that his party's scheme is based on accepting illegal contributions via a ngo,
and lowering taxes in return.
According to what he says in the video he also intends to charge for water by selling the
right to the Latvian/Russien "niece of a Russian oligarch" or someone else prepared to pay to
his party's ngo.
Anybody who is not a billionaire voting for FPÖ after this must be braindead.
> with United Russia, the party of the Russian President Putin
Putin himself though stresses his non involvement in that party, he also tried to
bootstrap organizations that could supplant or even challenge U.R. at least in some
niches.
While U.R. probably is party of Russian ruling elites, it is hardly one-man-show of
LDPR/Zhirinovsky kind and whether Putin is "gray cardinal" of U.R. is very questionable.
It is said that children and drunk people always say the truth...
Why is it not to be taken into account what he said once drunk enough?
For to be a strong leftist, b, you spend a great effort in discharging this man, while
whitewashing the far-right saying they are no danger for our societies and assuring that they
are clean, when that is a thing you do not know since they have not had yet the possibility
to rule.
They are neither cleaner nor inocuous for our societies. For starters they have chosen as
scapegoat the migrants when who is to blame for the wave of migration is the US, NATO and
their imperial ambitions, so as to throw poor against poor and that way the elites could
continue quietly looting us, while we fight each other. You will never heard anything agsint
banks ans elites from anybody in the far-right.
FYI, it is not Matteo Salvini who is forming a coalition of the far-right to conflude to
European elections, but it is Bannon from his HQ in a Cisterciense monastery in Italy who is
commanding this operation. Salvini is really a piece, having supported Guiado and the
Venezuelan coup intend, and said what he would do with the Yellow Vests , "I don't go to the
Yellow Vests with Molotov cocktails, if anything, I put them in prison" ...
Then it is AfD, who goes also in the block, whose members have claimed the Germans should
be proud of the performance of the German Army during both WW....
Then Vox, financed by MEK and Israeli lobby and promoted by Bannon and the WH, who only wear
clear neoliberal economic policies in their, for the rest, confusing program.
The far-right is the Troy Horse of transnational corporations and capital and already
discredited neoliberal stablishment which comes now disguised under the softening label of
"populists". Beware, there seems to be a coordinated effort at several blogs in the ten
previous days of the European elections to whitewash the far-right.
"Glaubt er, man wäre bei Alkohol nachsichtiger? Offenbar schien er sich betrunken kaum
mehr im Griff zu haben - und dies ist wohlgemerkt seine Erklärung für die
Äußerungen im Video. Erst gegen Ende beginnt er eigenes Fehlverhalten
einzuräumen und bittet insbesondere seine Frau um Verzeihung, mit der er ein wenige
Monate altes Kind hat. Kenner Straches ahnten an dieser Stelle bereits, dass dieser sich
bereits für Dinge entschuldigt, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt der Öffentlichkeit noch gar
nicht bekannt sind."
Does he (Strache) really assume he would get more indulgence by blaming it on the
alcolhol? Obviously when being drunken he wasn´t in control of himself anymore - and
this is actually his explanation for his statements in the video. Somehow at the end he
finally begins admitting own misconduct and especially asks his wife for forgiveness, with
which he has a few months old child. Experts on Strache suspected from this moment on, that
he apologized for things which at this moment are not known to the public, yet"
So this very much hints something more. Right now there is a debate of cocain being
visible on the table but this accusation points more towards schnickle with a babe imho. The
babe to his right is not that ugly, admittely.
battle of billionaires.... Anybody who is not a billionaire voting for FPÖ after
this must be braindead.
Anyone who believes voting will change anything is braindead. Only supporting protest Movements (like Gillet Jeune) and free press/citizen journalism
(Wikileaks/Assange) will have any real effect.
Great piece - I dont see how Strache actually made anything wrong or atleast nothing not
normal to politicians that constantly seek out support by big, powerful people. Most likely
the deep state in Austria struck FPÖ just like FBI struck Trump.
As expected the hysteria of "russian" meddling have now publicized to weaken FPÖ in the
EU election.
Winners? NATO/US parties.
Not some very close relative like daughter or sister, which may be fearsome, as "russian
mafia" oligarch could be expected to "protect" her of ladykillers viciously. But also not some far relative who would be seen alien and have no financial support.
Just enough distance to be safe to hit on and try to share the oligarch's money. It was both honey&gold trap.
If voting would be such a waste, why would had taken so hard and long to achieve voting
for minorities and women?
Why the parties go to such efforts to campaign and disguise themselves as wolves with
sheepskin like the far-right?
Why would certain forces need to go to such editorial coordinated efforts through their
several blogs out there to give an impression of certain candidates which is opposite to what
they really are? Wikilieaks/Assange are part of this efforts, btw
Seems indeed to be a honeypot aspect to the entrapment, and it's quite possible Strache
stepped down at once to avoid that part to come to light, so that the public revelations
would be limited to the economic shenanigans and influence-peddling level.
Also, this goes to show that the bulk of our Western politicians, across all the political
spectrum, are a bunch of mediocre and quite corrupt fools. For him not to smell that this was
a setup from the very first minute, it must be that such proposals are common place all
across the board - which will only reinforce my suspicion that our societies, peoples and
mankind as a whole would only benefit if we fully wiped out our economic, financial and
political establishment and started from scratches.
Spanish Colonel ( ret.) Pedro Baños, who was postulated for head of the CNI by the
Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, was object of slander campiagn as "pro-Russian" by the
Spanish cluster of Integrity Initiative, only for declarations on the prejudice of sanctions
for Spain, and nobody made such noise....
Blackmail, smear campaigns, various traps via honey or corruption, hookers and blow, gay sex,
paedofilia, or what-have-you, - all or in combination. Politicians are "all" compromised in
these ways. Buck the system or threaten the status quo - whereby it gets somebody's serious
attention and the shite hits the fan.
Enforcement and and penalties are selective. Selective enforcement. It's how "The Law" operates. Not defending the wingnut pig in the article. I appreciate Sasha's Trojan Horse allegory above.
wow...a bunch of elitist neoliberals with contempt for anyone lacking 10 zeroes on their
paychecks and zero useful policies use "russian collusion" to entrap and embarrass a
pseudo-right wing politician. who could ever imagine such a scenario? and why learn from the
masses you represent when james o'keefe gives you all the inspiration you need?
but at least they blocked the ascension of someone who would trade political favors for
money. that kind of nonsense simply won't do in western society.
Thanks for this explanation, b! I first saw this reported at Geroman's Twitter and used
machine translation of the article he linked, but it lacked the context which you provided.
This incident is subsumed within the larger conflict that's trying to keep EU from combining
with BRI/EAEU, which means its roots/culprits are NATO/Outlaw US Empire--it points to
desperation on their part.
Sorry, you don't see the Latvian/Russian woman. You see Gudenus' wife who is from
Serbia. Whatever the publishing papers got, it was a copy. More will come out.
The savages in this neoliberal order use the secret services to subvert democracy. Deception
and manipulation are the means used to corrupt the public domain. They would push the most
pliable and ruthless leaders into office. Catastrophe and violence and disinformation are
their most powerful weapons. But I still think that political processes and elections do
matter; and what counts is a struggle to improve and reform the system of government. Doing
our best to protect and maintain the integrity of electoral processes is something that
requires both protests and political campaigns.
So this very much hints something more. Right now there is a debate of cocain being
visible on the table but this accusation points more towards schnickle with a babe imho. The
babe to his right is not that ugly, admittely. Posted by: Bratislav Metulski | May 19, 2019 2:20:38 PM | 8
The very strong implication certainly seems to be that there may be further video of
Strache sleeping with the honey pot. He obviously knows what happened that night. If there
were video cameras hidden everywhere, that was obviously one of the intentions behind the
sting from the outset.
---
On the issue of "populism" and right-wing parties I confess I have a problem. I certainly
want to see the Establishment thrashed, and especially in next week's EU elections, and there
is no question that at the moment the right-wing parties have far more potential to upset the
establishment than the left. If "Populist" parties are able to radically upset the EU
Parliament, that should bring a much-needed hammer and axe to the anti-populist activities of
the EU, and hopefully lead to the breakup of the EU.
On the other hand, unlike B, I do have extremely strong worries about the rising power of
the far right and their connections to Nazis and neo-Nazis. I am concerned - even without the
involvement of Bannon, but far more so with - that the rise of "populism" is a calculated
policy of a Nazi segment of the Establishment that is designed specifically to usher in an
international Nazi movement across Europe and Latin America under the leadership of and
proxies of the - ever more and more Nazi behaving - US (which itself is in so many very real
ways descended from Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party and the Japanese war criminals including Bush's
family, tight connections with Nazi war criminals in the CIA, and historical leadership
figures in the CIA). The large scale and extremely high level infiltration of hardcore Nazis
in the German security services, Interior Ministry, Army, and CDU politics is a ticking
timebomb waiting for its moment. There seems to be similar high level Nazi infiltration in
many other countries.
We have to be careful what we wish for!
B, please do an article on the Nazi penetration of the German security services, Interior
Ministry, Army, CDU etc, and links to the NSU affair, shredding of millions of documents by
the Interior Ministry when demanded by the courts as evidence, links with the Board members
and advisory board members of German big business especially Siemens and Deutche Bank and
Bayer, etc.
Colonialism is a leech with two suckers, one of which sucks the metropolitan proletariat
and the other that of the colonies. If we want to kill this monster, we must cut off both
suckers at the same time. If only one is cut off, the other will continue to suck the blood
of the proletariat, the animal will continue to live, and the cut–off sucker will
grow again. The Russian Revolution has grasped this truth clearly. That is why it is not
satisfied with making fine platonic speeches and drafting "humanitarian" resolutions in
favor of oppressed peoples, but it teaches them to struggle; and helps them spiritually, as
proclaimed by Lenin in his theses on the colonial question. To the Baku Congress,
twenty–one Eastern nations sent delegates. Representatives of Western workers'
parties also participated in the work of this congress. For the first time, the proletariat
of the conquering Western States and that of the subject Eastern countries fraternally
joined hands and deliberated in common on the best means to defeat their common enemy,
imperialism .
Following this historic congress, despite internal and external difficulties,
revolutionary Russia has never hesitated to come to the help of peoples awakened by its
heroic and victorious revolution. One of its first important acts was the founding of the
University of the East.(...)
The sixty–two nationalities represented at the University form a "Commune." Its
chairman and functionaries are elected every three months by all the students.
A student delegate takes part in the economic and administrative management of the
University. All must regularly and in turn work in the kitchen, the library, the club, etc.
All "misdemeanors" and disputes are judged and settled by an elected tribunal in the
presence of all comrades. Once a week, the "Commune" holds a meeting to discuss the
international political and economic situation. From time to time, meetings and evening
parties are organized where the amateur artists introduce the art and culture of their
country.
The fact that the Communists not only treat the "inferior natives of the colonies"
like brothers, but that they get them to participate in the political life of the country,
is highly characteristic of the "barbarity" of the Bolsheviks. Treated in their native
country as "submissive subjects" or "protéges," having no other right but that to
pay taxes, the Eastern students, who are neither electors nor eligible for election in
their own country, from whom the right to express their political opinion is withdrawn, in
the Soviet Union take part in the election of the Soviets and have the right to send their
representatives to the Soviets. Let our brothers of the colonies who vainly seek a change
of nationality make a comparison between bourgeois democracy and proletarian
democracy.
These students have suffered themselves and have witnessed the sufferings of others.
All have lived under the yoke of "high civilization," all have been victims of exploitation
and oppression by foreign capitalists . Moreover, they passionately long to acquire
knowledge and to study. They are serious and full of enthusiasm. They are entirely
different from the frequenters of the boulevards of the Latin Quarter, the Eastern students
in Paris, Oxford, and Berlin. It can be said without exaggeration that under the roof of
this University is the future of the colonial peoples.
The colonial countries of the Near and Far East, stretching from Syria to Korea,
cover an extent of more than 15 million square kilometers and have more than 1,200 million
inhabitants. All these immense countries are now under the yoke of capitalism and
imperialism. Although their considerable numbers should be their strength, these submissive
peoples have never yet made any serious attempts to free themselves from this yoke. Not yet
having realized the value of international solidarity, they have not known how to unite for
the struggle. Relationships between their countries are not yet established as they are
among the peoples of Europe and America. They possess gigantic strength and do not yet
realize it. The University of the East, assembling all the young, active, and intelligent
leaders of the colonized countries, has fulfilled a great task, namely:
-It teaches to the future vanguard militants the principles of class struggle,
confused in their minds by race conflicts and patriarchal customs.
-It establishes between the proletarian vanguard of the colonies a close contact with the
Western proletariat, thus preparing the way for the close and effective cooperation which
will alone ensure the final victory of the international working class.
-It teaches the colonized people, hitherto separated from one another, to know one another
and to unite, by creating the bases of a future union of Eastern countries, one of the
wings of the proletarian revolution.
-It sets the proletariat of colonialist countries and example of what they can and must do
in favor of their oppressed brothers .
This is why it is needed to throw the workers from the West against the migrants from the
East and South, to avoid the invincible force they would constitute together.
This dirty work is made by the far-right in the name of corporate liberal elites.
They can play that they fight each other, but as soon as they get seats at the European
Parliament, you will find the previous allegedly opponents all together aligned in the same
Eurogroup. Time to time.
It is a wonder Strache's remark "Journalists are the biggest whores on the planet" and how he
says he can subvert an entire media outlet to his political agenda by even firing the few
remaining fringe elements. Yet here we can still talk about he was drunk, how his being set
up was unjust, and how the poor guy will have to miss his lovers' right cause in Italy. Those
vulgar masses are at it again! There can be no justification about the masses' support of
far-right causes and the clowns like him. If you think otherwise it is the likes of moonofalabama next in line to be "fired", or eliminated. Legitimize their causes and it is
Germany in 1920s all over again.
"Left/right", I agree, is nearly without semantic value. Nevertheless class interests
remain...how is it that this is so? Think about that, comrades.
And then consider wsws report about "At the annual meeting of the Bundeswehr reserve in
autumn 2016, Veith announced: "I dream that in 2026 there will be a provincial regiment in
each state with a charismatic commander, a troop flag and an organization of between 800 and
2,000 reservists to support the police and the Bundeswehr in emergency situations." " see>
"German government prepares troops for domestic missions" @ wsws.org
Considering the overall aspects, it's rational to expect all parties in Europe to make
plans, is it not? Of course the working class is not permitted to make such plans...is
it?
I don't think Strache is as harmless as you portray him, B. You fall for his defence strategy
if you attribute all his statements to the influence of alcohol. At that time, the man was
very confident that he would soon be at the levers of power, which then materialized. It
remains to be proven whether he did not put into practice anything of what he talked about at
that house in Ibiza. After all, he was talking about the by far most influential newspaper in
Austria.
Of course it is true that it is the neoliberal globalisers who have brought us to where we
stand today. But that doesn' make people like Strache and Salvini any less dangerous. If they
rise to total power, the result will be a naked dictatorship. Strache was beaten with his own
weapons, you don't have to be under any illusions.
I agree with you that this is not the big setback for the right the mainstream parties dream
of. But it won't help the fascists in spe in the future either.
Who could have ordered such an elaborate sting operation?
A first association might be the dirty, deceptive campaigning SPÖ used against
Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) - the Silberstein affair -, but I think the methods that were
chosen are too different to make a common source likely, Strache was targeted in a much more
sophisticated way. The Silberstein affair may, however, be the reason why the tapes have
partially been published now rather than before the last Austrian elections - at that time,
dirty campaigning might have been discredited too much for the tape to have the desired
effect,
The sophisticated operation using actors and a villa prepared with hidden cameras and
microphones shows that this is hardly a normal case of dirty campaigning by political
opponents. Most likely, either it was an action by a secret service or someone with deep
pockets hired former secret agents.
If it was an action by secret services, the most plausible explanation seems to be that
Western secret services targeted Strache because FPÖ is one of the parties who is in
favor of restoring normal relations with Russia.
François Fillon comes to mind, a
French conservative candidate who also had a quite a friendly attitude towards Russia -
shortly before the elections, it was revealed (at least claimed) that Fillon had given his
wife ficticious employment, and Fillon lost popularity, which helped Macron enormously.
Probably, some of the things Strache said during this sting operation were inacceptable, and
Fillon may also not be innocent, but if there is a systematic selective targeting of European
politicians who want to normalize relations with Russia by secret services, that would be a
huge problem for democracy.
In the case of Strache and FPÖ, a different motive may also be plausible. There are
connections between FPÖ and neonazis, and there are, in my view, legitimate concerns
that Strache is too close to such far-right networks. I don't think it is good when
right-wing populists whose rise is mainly due to the unpopularity of the neoliberal elites
are equated with Nazis too quickly.
But in the case of FPÖ, this is less far-fetched
than in the case of other European right-wing parties - historically, Nazis played an
important role in FPÖ in post-war Austria, and it is one of the current right-wing
parties that probably has more connections to the extreme right (e.g. via Burschenschaften)
than others. I could imagine that someone might have ordered and financed the sting operation
out of antifascist principles. While I may recognize the motivation as ethical and even
partially agree with it, I don't think the right means were chosen, and such dirty methods
can backfire.
"While I consider myself to be a strong leftist who opposes the right wherever possible, I
believe to understand why people vote for Strache's FBOe and similar parties"
Quite. It seems to me that only the Right and the Left have a clue right now, because they
have an instinctive mistrust of what they are told in the media.
People like "b" and Craig Murray are to be thanked for explaining that to us middling
voters.
You miss the most glaring "injustice". That which shows that GDP in most western countries
had doubled in the last 30 odd years, that earnings for the top quartile have gone up by
factors of 3 or 4. But that median earnings in US are unchanged, and in say UK are only up
10% or so (unless one is seeking to buy one's own house or flat).
All the improvements in inequality from 1930s to 1980s have been reversed in full.
"Populists" (or better "anti-elitists") are driven mostly by sheer anger at how a small group
had taken all the Economic gains of the last 35 years.
I don't know what b. saw in the video what I saw was a discussion of an Orban like take
over of Austria by FPÖ.
In other news people are arguing the following
- who will profit most - ÖVP
- why was the video not published after it was produced in 2017 - because ÖVP wanted a
coalition with FPÖ
- why was it published now - ÖVP has been renting advertising space for weeks for an
election in September (renting before the video came out), Sebastian Kurz will be the saviour
who will get the disappointed FPÖ vote
add
- why the emphasis on Kronenzeitung,
who were the people producing the video
why Red Bull everywhere - Red Bull media empire billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz publicly
announced that he would back Sebastian Kurz in 2017
ÖVP/Kurz/Mateschitz have moved so far to the right that there is not much space for
FPÖ anyway. His problems will return when he needs another coalition.
While the right wing parties in Europe don't have a problem with Putin, it does seem that
much of the Western European establish has gone full McCarthyite hysterical where they see
any contact for any reason with a Russian is automatically criminal. Aside from being a setup
it relied the underlying false flag of presenting the woman as a Russian (and hence guility
of some crime against the Austrians).
In fact, a suggestion for a column--personal impressions on whether everyday Europeans are
falling for anti-Russian propaganda. Polls in the US indicate that Americans simply do not
care (they could believe it, but not effecting their daily lives).
1. The ER (United Russia) party was founded by Sergey Shoygu, Yuriy Luzhkov, and Mintimer
Shaymiev. Its chairman is Dmitriy Medvedev, not Vladimir Putin. Putin is not even a member of
ER. Putin is the leader of ONF (All-Russia People's Front), which is a nation-wide discussion
platform for politicians, professionals, and NGOs.
2. Russian billionaire Igor Makarov denies having a niece: "I was the only child in the
family." (
Forbes.ru , in Russian).
3. In 2016, Joseph Mifsud invited George Papadopoulos to Rome and introduced him to
"Putin's niece" with the intent of smearing Trump as "Russian puppet" and destroying his
election chances. In 2017, someone (who?) invited Heinz-Christian Strache to Ibiza and
introduced him to "Russian billionaire's niece" with the intent of smearing Strache as
"Russian puppet" and destroying his party's election chances. Notice a pattern?
4. This is a clear case of Germany interfering in Austrian elections. Austria should
deport 60 German diplomats, shut down German embassy in Vienna, and impose sanctions on
Germany. Also put a German girl interested in Austrian politics in jail for 18 months.
Thinking about it, after revealing e-mail of HRC, Podesta etc. were published, their core
supporters were enraged about the dirty trick and did not pay attention to the disclosed
content, while for the core opponents of HRC she was already sufficiently vilified so the net
change in voting intentions that can be attributed to that incident was modest.
Leaving aside the discussion of of various factors in that election, this public reaction
is typical. Actually, in both cases the core supporters may be energized by the suspicion
that this trick was performed by a foreign government. I do not think that there is a
particular hostility toward Germany in Felix Austria, but the to the right wing Merkel
government is like red cape for a bull. The women who unleashed a wave of refugees. On top of
that, traditionally major parties of Austria gained reputation of dirty patronage, so the
voters who care about that issue probably do not vote for them.
I do not expect Austrians to demand expulsions of German diplomats -- interference in our
democracy -- or other sanctions, but nevertheless it stinks. Making sting operations on
politicians has corrupt potential even if it is done by domestic law enforcement, but foreign
intelligence services really do not have any excuse.
Thinking about it, the stings against George Papadopoulos described in his book were
remarkably similar.
That said, Austrians have a reputation of good manners etc., they will not unload their
frustration on a girl. BTW, why there are suspicions of Germany being involved? Again, even
extremist Austrians probably would like to have some proof before doing anything. I guess,
America is indeed exceptional.
For all those of you whining about the corruption of Strache, this is how business and
politics is done in Austria. Strache was just talking about the FPÖ's fair share after
an election which they would win.
This all starts with Austrian's Presidential Election of 2016. The FPÖ won the
presidential election a couple of years ago in May 2016. After the bell, postal votes
overturned it! – postal votes more than 90% in favour of the establishment candidate
Van der Bellen. Some constituencies full of Van der Bellen votes turned out to have 148% turn
out. There was a court case by the FPÖ about procedure and hinting at ballot
falsification. The case was judged by a (non-corrupt but under serious pressure) judge to
have enough merit that the elections had to
be annulled and the election rerun six months later . Austria went without a
president at all for six months!
For six months the mainstream Austrian media campaigned non-stop against the FPÖ and
Norbert Hofer. Huge efforts were made for voter turnout (it included huge bussing of
potential anti-FPÖ constituencies and bribing pensioners to vote against the FPÖ
via parties and cakes). With all of that, Van der Bellen scraped in on 4 December 2016, by
348,231 votes. Despite the non-stop anti-FPÖ propaganda and banging on drums, votes for
Hofer's fell by less than 100,000 (95,993 votes to be exact). It's just that with six months
to prepare the establishment had found enough "dead souls" to win the second round.
In the parliamentary elections of 15 October 2017, the FPÖ were set to win a strong
majority in parliament. To defeat the FPÖ and Strache, the conservatives
(Völkspartei) were forced to elect a male model non-university graduate 30 year old sex
symbol with no work experience outside of politics as party leader. Of course Sebastian Kurz
was mainly a figurehead for establishment figures in the venerable Völkspartei. Kurz
does have a mind of his own though (I had the opportunity to interact with him personally at
a local political discussion group in 2015) and it's hard to know exactly how much of his
policy is dictated to him and how much is off his own bat.
Going back to Austrian corruption, there are enormous sums at stake. There is a long
entrenched system of corruption in the establishment parties, the Völkspartei and the
SPÖ. Strabag does win most of the government contracts. Favour is regularly granted on
quid pro basis. The media landscape is very partisan and mostly for sale. Kurz's spiritual
predecessor as a powerful head of the Völkspartei if not direct predecessor Wolfgang
Schüssel was forced to retire from politics in 2011 due to never-ending corruption
scandals. Schüssel's longstanding finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser was caught carrying
bags of cash to Lichtenstein and is still under investigation. If his mother-in-law were
not the richest woman in Austria (Swarovski Crystal) and devoted to her daughter (Grasser's
wife), he would long ago have been in jail.
Politically, Grasser knows where a lot of the bodies are buried from the Schlüssel
political machine so either he has to be kept out of jail or he may take others down with
him. In elite Austrian circles turning informant would be considered unsportsmanlike so
there's an uneasy truce still fought to this day in the courts where Grasser is kept out of
jail via procedural methods (detect a pattern) and Grasser doesn't rat out the others.
Strache's sin is not planning to use the advantages which accrue to the governing Austrian
party but getting caught out talking about it. Strache is something of a lout, not terribly
loyal (he was the Brutus who threw Jörg Haider under the bus in 2005 in a palace
putsch). He's a smoker in power who used his power to overturn some very positive
anti-smoking laws. But he's less corrupt than any of his equivalents in the Völkspartei
and is only a nose ahead of the his equivalents in the SPÖ. His politics and policies of
Austria for Austrians are pretty simple. Hence people vote for these policies.
Here's a sample of the SPÖ's wares in the 2010 Vienna elections:
Zu viel Fremdes tut niemandem gut. (Too many foreigners [or more literally: Too much
foreign] does nobody well.)
Wir bewahren unsere Heimatstadt. Die SPÖ macht sie uns fremd. (We maintain our
homeland-city. The SPÖ makes it foreign.)
Wir glauben an unsere Jugend. Die SPÖ an Zuwanderung. (We believe in our youth.
The SPÖ in immigration.)
Wir schützen freie Frauen. Die SPÖ den Kopftuchzwang (We protect free women.
The SPÖ protects the compulsory veil.)
Mehr Mut für unser Wiener Blut (More courage for our Viennese blood.)
Uns geht's um die Wiener (To us, it's about the Viennese)
The FPÖ has historically been weakest in Vienna but in 2010 they took 27% of the vote
in this SPÖ stronghold, their first step in what has been a steady march to power.
Anyone who does not directly have his or her family's nose in the EU trough at this point
knows that the policies espoused by transatlantic puppets like Angela Merkel and Emmanuel
Macron push our countries and our continent towards self-destruction. Life in Europe,
post-1968 and pre-2013, has been pretty damn good. There's absolutely no good reason for us
to rip up our traditions or turn into a continent of immigrants and mobile job seekers. We
instinctively abhor what is happening to our nations. By nature Strache is inclined this way
himself (he's no great thinker) and has the good sense to ride the wave.
For all those of you whining about the corruption of Strache, this is how business and
politics is done in Austria. Strache was just talking about the FPÖ's fair share after
an election which they would win.
So why did he step down?
Here's a sample of the SPÖ's wares in the 2010 Vienna elections:
...
"This stand-offish sentence in the Spiegel story about Strache's party demonstrates the
problem:"
In the last election, the party drew significant support from the working class, in
part because of his ability to simplify even the most complicated of issues and play the
common man, even in his role as vice chancellor.
"The implicit thesis, that the working class is too dumb to understand the "most
complicated of issues", is not only incredibly snobbish but utterly false..."
I can't agree that Spiegel's attitude to Strache's party is condescending toward the
working class. Right-wing parties tend to spout a lot of aggressively authoritarian spin tank
bullshit to encourage voters to tune out when a R-w politician is telling them what to think.
If Strache is adept at separating fact from fiction and superfluous verbiage, then people
would appreciate his candor.
In a Democracy, and in theory at least, politicians are supposed to represent and defend the
views of the people who voted for them, not vested intere$t$. Or so we've been led to
believe...
I'll always remember Spiegel as the folks whose photo-journalists torpedoed Crooked
Hillary's feeble-minded Cheonan (NK-SK) bullshit. That story vanished overnight. It's not
even referred to in NK smear campaigns. Dead & buried.
In a Democracy, and in theory at least, politicians are supposed to represent and
defend the views of the people who voted for them, not vested intere$t$. Or so we've been led
to believe...
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish
Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general
Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
That's it.
The German constitution is absolutely clear that members of parliament represent all of
the people (ie different views and interests) and are bound by their own judgement and
conscience only.
As we are discussing Austria, lets see what the Austrian constitution says.
Austria has "linguistic and cultural diversity" and the protection of its grown native
peoples in its constitution, this means Slovenian, Croatian, Czech, Slovakian, Roma and
Hungarian.
So the Austrian constitution has a concept of a multinational state where different peoples
grow and are protected even if the Viennese "Stammtisch" does not like them.
There is no "democratic theory" that suggests representatives should follow the uninformed
and prejudiced views of their electorate against their better judgement.
Strache seems to have specialized in "fake news" - ie mostly invented stuff claiming
Muslims, immigrants or whoever were treated in a better way than native Austrians or
threatened native Austrians.
It is a very convenient technique when you plan to cut social services, you have someone to
blame.
To those who fill that politics of Strache are obnoxious and that justifies entrapment,
remembers that methods of that type are not improvised, and that means that there is an
apparatus that does it. We noted similarities with provocations against George Papadopoulos.
In the latter case the target was cautious, after all, we had to be well aware of such
methods. But anyone who is despised by NATO establishment are similar group can be on the
receiving end, think about Assange.
Neoliberal corruption in full display. As we see forms of nepotism evolve with time...
Notable quotes:
"... Two years of investigations by journalist Peter Schweizer has revealed that Joe Biden may now have a serious China problem. And just like his Ukraine scandal , it involves actions which helped his son Hunter, who was making hand over fist in both countries. ..."
"... Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash and now Secret Empires discovered that in 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two - and two weeks later, Hunter's firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government's Bank of China , which expanded to $1.5 billion, according to an article by Schweizer's in the New York Post . ..."
"... Hunter Biden and his partners created several LLCs involved in multibillion-dollar private equity deals with Chinese government-owned entities. ..."
"... Perhaps most damning in terms of timing and optics, just twelve days after Hunter and Joe Biden flew on Air Force Two to Beijing, Hunter's company signed a "historic deal with the Bank of China ," described by Schweizer as "the state-owned financial behemoth often used as a tool of the Chinese government." To accommodate the deal, the Bank of China created a unique type of investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). According to BHR, Rosemont Seneca Partners is a founding partner ..."
"... It was an unprecedented arrangement: the government of one of America's fiercest competitors going into business with the son of one of America's most powerful decisionmakers . ..."
"... It doesn't stop there. While Hunter Biden had "no experience in China, and little in private equity," the Chinese government for some reason thought it would be a great idea to give his firm business opportunities instead of established global banks such as Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs. ..."
"... The following August, Rosemont Realty, another sister company of Rosemont Seneca, announced that Gemini Investments was buying a 75 percent stake in the company. The terms of the deal included a $3 billion commitment from the Chinese, who were eager to purchase new US properties. Shortly after the sale, Rosemont Realty was rechristened Gemini Rosemont. ..."
"... "We see great opportunities to continue acquiring high-quality real estate in the US market," said one company executive, who added: "The possibilities for this venture are tremendous." ..."
"... Then, in 2015, BHR partnered with a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) in order to purchase American precision-parts maker Henniges - a transaction which required approval from the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the same rubber-stamp committee that approved the Uranium One deal. ..."
"... The vice president was bringing with him highly welcomed terms of a United States Agency for International Development program to assist the Ukrainian natural-gas industry and promises of more US financial assistance and loans. Soon the United States and the International Monetary Fund would be pumping more than $1 billion into the Ukrainian economy. ..."
"... The next day, there was a public announcement that Archer had been asked to join the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural-gas company. Three weeks after that, on May 13, it was announced that Hunter Biden would join, too. Neither Biden nor Archer had any background or experience in the energy sector. - New York Post ..."
"... Then Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees to Ukraine unless President Petro Poroshenko fired his head prosecutor, General Viktor Shokin, who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into natural gas firm Burisma Holdings. ..."
"... Biden bragged about the threat last year, telling an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations: "I said, ' You're not getting the billion .' I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ' I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money, '" bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko. ..."
"... As we head into the 2020 elections, it will be interesting to see how Joe Biden dances around his son's lucrative - and very potentially daddy-assisted deals around the world. ..."
Two years of investigations by journalist Peter Schweizer has revealed that Joe Biden may now have a serious China problem.
And just like his
Ukraine scandal
, it involves actions which helped his son Hunter, who was making hand over fist in both countries.
Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash and now
Secret Empires discovered
that in 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two - and two weeks later, Hunter's
firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government's Bank of China , which expanded to $1.5
billion, according to an article by Schweizer's in the
New York Post .
" If it sounds shocking that a vice president would shape US-China policy as his son -- who has scant experience in private
equity -- clinched a coveted billion-dollar deal with an arm of the Chinese government, that's because it is " -
Peter Schweizer
Perhaps this is why Joe Biden - now on the 2020 campaign trail - said last week that China wasn't a threat.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a shot at Biden's comment during a speech at the Claremont Institute's 40th anniversary gala,
saying "Look how both parties now are on guard against the threat that China presents to America -- maybe except Joe Biden."
Back to Hunter...
Schweizer connects the dots, writing that "without the aid of subpoena power, here's what we know :"
Hunter Biden and his partners created several LLCs involved in multibillion-dollar private equity deals with Chinese government-owned
entities.
The primary operation was Rosemont Seneca Partners - an investment firm founded in 2009 and controlled by Hunter Biden, John
Kerry's stepson Chris Heinz, and Heniz's longtime associate Devon Archer. The trio began making deals "through a series of overlapping
entities" under Rosemont.
In less than a year, Hunter Biden and Archer met with top Chinese officials in China , and partnered with the Thornton Group
- a Massachusetts-based consultancy headed by James Bulger - son of famed mob hitman James "Whitey" Bulger.
According to the Thornton Group's Chinese-language website, Chinese executives "extended their warm welcome" to the "Thornton
Group, with its US partner Rosemont Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice President Joe Biden."
Officially, the China meets were to "explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity," however details of
the meeting were not published to the English-language version of the website.
"The timing of this meeting was also notable. It occurred just hours before Hunter Biden's father, the vice president, met
with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit ," according to Schweizer.
Perhaps most damning in terms of timing and optics, just twelve days after Hunter and Joe Biden flew on Air Force Two
to Beijing, Hunter's company signed a "historic deal with the Bank of China ," described by Schweizer as "the state-owned financial
behemoth often used as a tool of the Chinese government." To accommodate the deal, the Bank of China created a unique type of
investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). According to BHR, Rosemont Seneca Partners is a founding partner .
It was an unprecedented arrangement: the government of one of America's fiercest competitors going into business with the
son of one of America's most powerful decisionmakers .
Chris Heinz claims neither he nor Rosemont Seneca Partners, the firm he had part ownership of, had any role in the deal with
Bohai Harvest. Nonetheless, Biden, Archer and the Rosemont name became increasingly involved with China.
Archer became the vice chairman of Bohai Harvest, helping oversee some of the fund's investments. -
New York Post
National Security implications
As Schweizer also notes, BHR became an "anchor investor" in the IPO of China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN) in December 2014.
The state-owned energy company is involved with the construction of nuclear reactors.
In April 2016, CGN was charged by the US Justice Department with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States , which prosecutors
warned could cause "significant damage to our national security." CNG was interested in sensitive, American-made nuclear components
that resembled those used on US nuclear submarines, according to experts.
More China dealings
It doesn't stop there. While Hunter Biden had "no experience in China, and little in private equity," the Chinese government
for some reason thought it would be a great idea to give his firm business opportunities instead of established global banks such
as Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs.
Also in December 2014, a Chinese state-backed conglomerate called Gemini Investments Limited was negotiating and sealing deals
with Hunter Biden's Rosemont on several fronts. That month, it made a $34 million investment into a fund managed by Rosemont.
The following August, Rosemont Realty, another sister company of Rosemont Seneca, announced that Gemini Investments was
buying a 75 percent stake in the company. The terms of the deal included a $3 billion commitment from the Chinese, who were eager
to purchase new US properties. Shortly after the sale, Rosemont Realty was rechristened Gemini Rosemont.
"Rosemont, with its comprehensive real-estate platform and superior performance history, was precisely the investment opportunity
Gemini Investments was looking for in order to invest in the US real estate market," said Li Ming, chairman of Sino-Ocean Land Holdings
Limited and Gemini Investments. "We look forward to a strong and successful partnership."
That partnership planned to use Chinese money to scoop up US properties.
"We see great opportunities to continue acquiring high-quality real estate in the US market," said one company executive,
who added: "The possibilities for this venture are tremendous."
Then, in 2015, BHR partnered with a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation
of China (AVIC) in order to purchase American precision-parts maker Henniges - a transaction which required approval from the Committee
of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the same rubber-stamp committee that approved the Uranium One deal.
Tying it back to Ukraine
While we have previously reported on the Bidens' adventures in Ukraine, Schweizer connects the dots rather well here ...
Consider the facts. On April 16, 2014, White House records show that Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's business partner in the Rosemont
Seneca deals, made a private visit to the White House for a meeting with Vice President Biden. Five days later, on April 21, Joe
Biden landed in Kiev for a series of high-level meetings with Ukrainian officials . The vice president was bringing with him
highly welcomed terms of a United States Agency for International Development program to assist the Ukrainian natural-gas industry
and promises of more US financial assistance and loans. Soon the United States and the International Monetary Fund would be pumping
more than $1 billion into the Ukrainian economy.
The next day, there was a public announcement that Archer had been asked to join the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural-gas
company. Three weeks after that, on May 13, it was announced that Hunter Biden would join, too. Neither Biden nor Archer had any
background or experience in the energy sector. -
New York Post
Hunter was paid as much as $50,000 per month while Burisma was under investigation by officials in both Ukraine and elsewhere.
Then Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees to Ukraine unless President Petro Poroshenko fired
his head prosecutor, General Viktor Shokin, who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into natural gas firm Burisma
Holdings.
Biden bragged about the threat last year, telling an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations: "I said, ' You're not getting
the billion .' I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ' I'm leaving in six hours.
If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money, '" bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko.
" Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."
Joe Biden says that he had no idea Hunter was on the board of Burisma (for two years after he joined), and that the two never
spoke about the Burisma investigation. The former VP claims that Shokin's removal was required due to his mishandling of several
cases in Ukraine.
As we head into the 2020 elections, it will be interesting to see how Joe Biden dances around his son's lucrative - and very
potentially daddy-assisted deals around the world.
Biden is another scumbag Democrat Lawyer who's the original 'pay for play' politician...A 40+ year history in Political Office
with Zero accomplishments except enriching himself and his family...A complete fraud and hypocrite liar.....Lawyers should have
never been allowed to run for Office at any level.....Look at all the corruption that has been and is being exposed at the different
bureaucracies...Virtually all the corruption has been willfully committed by Lawyers....Pathetic....
Interesting.... I put: "The Steele Dossier has so many British agents involved it sounds like a British failed coup to overthrow
an elected President because he stands in " the way of "profiting goals of " international goals" of global monopoly run by unelected
councils and retired instigators as facilitators of discord.
But came out:The Steele Dossier has so many British agents involved it sounds like a British failed coup to overthrow an elected
President because he stands in the profiting goals of " international goals" of global monopoly run by unelected councils and
retired instigators as facilitators of discord.
To make it sound as if it is Trump profiting.... By no means is that true... Its the " long term" Washington officals that
have been profiting. Not a possible 8 year President.
My phone also wont let me thumbs up people i would like to but only a few and also replying is " verboten".
These algorhythms and blocks and censorship is an abuse of constitutional rights which is bad enough, but even worse is that
these rights got monopolized by various corporations who bought stock in facebook/ googles options that was stolen from Leader
technologies source code ( which Mark zukerberg couldnt write on a good day... He is a front guy and again we have British privy
council involed with Clegg head of facebook now voice for Mark... Because Mark is a cut out).
This whole social media internet thing has been hijacked and weaponized by Washingtons same people as Dossier scandel... James
Chandeler attorney and backstaber of Leader technology.
See leader technology vs facebook..... But i digress.
Michael T. McKibben's career spans two phases: international Christian music ministry, and technology innovation. In 2006,
he was awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,139,761 for what is now called "social networking."
Biden & Kerry aren't the only ones with a China problem. "Secret Empires" also listed Mitch McConnell having a huge China problem
through his wife's shipping company. I bet he doesn't run for re-election. Winning.
they all own one another - that's the essence of the problem in politics. and why they have tried so hard to get that outsider,
trump, out of the country club.
China funded Bill Clinton's election campaigns through James Riady, an Indonesian Chinese man involved in hard drug smuggling
and arms trafficking. The money was laundered through Little Rock banks and corporations. (See Victor Thorn's Hillary and Bill
, all three volumes.)
"Come on man! This is a joke! He's my son and he's a great buddy. I mean yeah he was drummed out of the Naval Reserve because
of his cocaine habit, but come on man, you know, everybody does it! Just ask my good friend Barack, he's a clean, good looking
darkie whose done his share of blow. And yeah Hunter fucked his dead brother's widow, but come on man! Have you seen her ****
and ***. I might have made a move on her myself, but hey man I'm married."
Joe Biden, From the endless Fear and Mongering Presidential campaign of 2020.
IRS/SEC/FBI are not investigatory agencies. They are barrier agencies. They protect the anointed, letting them do as they wish,
and stomp on anyone else who tries to get in on the gravy train.
Sociopaths are the reason all governments, regardless of the particular 'ism', eventually fail...
Looking at human history, fascism is the most common form of government for humans. At least it is the most honest - that the
sociopaths are ******* everyone else.... These days we try to hide it by lofty idealism that is incompatible with a predator/prey
real world.....
Representative democracy, socialism and communism all fail and all fail for the same reason - sociopaths...
We should be honest with ourselves that there is a small, but statistically significant percentage of the human population
that are sociopaths (and more are being born every generation). We can call them predators and we are the prey...any concentration
of power attracts sociopaths regardless of the fancy label we put on the political system. Within a short time the system is inundated
with sociopaths who invariably game the system to death for their own individual benefit....
Don't like the reality in which you find yourself? Stop voting for sociopaths, stop giving them power...
What political party or system even acknowledge the sociopath problem? That's right, none...so don't expect anything to change
after the reset...the pleubs will chose a new sociopath for their leader, who will **** them, and things will go on as they always
have...
Only way to combat this is to decentralize power as much as possible...this doesn't solve the sociopath problem, but it does
spread them out and keeps them from ganging up together to **** over the peasants...but I won't hold my breath....
Is this a good time to take a look at 1) Front Men 2) Front Companies 3) Shell Companies 4) Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV/SPE)
5) Offshore Accounts, Offshore Donations, Offshore Campaign or PAC or Party Contributions, Paradise Papers, Panama Papers 6) USA
as Tax Haven for foreign accounts 7) USA as an Empire 8) The Rise Of The Fourth Reich notes in book by Jim Marrs
In this case he looks like Bill Clinton impersonalization ;-) That's probably how Adelson controls Bolton ;-)
Notable quotes:
"... Larry Flint had offered a Million dollars to anyone who had proof of republican sexual exploits. He was quickly fingered by someone who attended those clubs. He was forced to accept a temporary position and quietly resigned after a few months so as to avoid facing questions. ..."
@FB Yeah brother,
that POS was called out during his confirmation hearings during baby Bush's presidency. Larry Flint had offered a Million
dollars to anyone who had proof of republican sexual exploits. He was quickly fingered by someone who attended those clubs. He
was forced to accept a temporary position and quietly resigned after a few months so as to avoid facing questions.
Someone said they saw him proposition a teenage girl outside one of the swinger clubs he frequented.
"... Sadly, Brennan's propaganda coup only works on what the Bell Curve crowd up there would call the dumbest and most technologically helpless 1.2σ. Here is how people with half a brain interpret the latest CIA whoppers. ..."
"... Convincing Americans in Russia's influence or Russia collusion with Trump was only a tool that would create pressure on Trump that together with the fear of paralysis of his administration and impeachment would push Trump into the corner from which the only thing he could do was to worsen relations with Russia. What American people believe or not is really secondary. With firing of Gen. Flynn Trump acted exactly as they wanted him to act. This was the beginning of downward slope. ..."
"... Anyway, the mission was accomplished and the relations with Russia are worse now than during Obama administration. Trump can concentrate on Iran in which he will be supported by all sides and factions including the media. Even Larry David will approve not only the zionist harpies like Pam Geller, Rita Katz and Ilana Mercer. ..."
"... The only part that is absurd is that Russia posed a bona fide threat to the US. I'm fine with the idea that he ruined Brennen's plans in Syria. But thats just ego we shouldn't have been there anyway. ..."
"... No one really cares about Ukraine. And the European/Russian trade zone? No one cares. The Eurozone has its hands full with Greece and the rest of the old EU. I have a feeling they have already gone way too far and are more likely to shrink than expand in any meaningful way ..."
"... " ..factions within the state whose interests do not coincide with those of the American people." ..."
"... All the more powerfully put because of its recognisably comical. understatement. Thank you Mr Whitney. Brilliant article that would be all over the mainstream media were the US MSM an instrument of American rather than globalist interests. ..."
"... A sad story, how the USA always was a police state, where the two percent rich manipulated the 98% poor, to stay rich. When there were insurrections federal troops restored order. Also FDR put down strikes with troops. ..."
"... The elephant in the room is Israel and the neocons , this is the force that controls America and Americas foreign policy , Brennan and the 17 intel agencies are puppets of the mossad and Israel, that is the brutal fact of the matter. ..."
"... "The absence of evidence suggests that Russia hacking narrative is a sloppy and unprofessional disinformation campaign that was hastily slapped together by over confident Intelligence officials who believed that saturating the public airwaves with one absurd story after another would achieve the desired result " ..."
"... But it DID achieve the desired result! Trump folded under the pressure, and went full out neoliberal. Starting with his missile attack on Syria, he is now OK with spending trillions fighting pointless endless foreign wars on the other side of the world. ..."
"... I think maybe half the US population does believe the Russian hacking thing, but that's not really the issue. I think that the pre-Syrian attack media blitz was more a statement of brute power to Trump: WE are in charge here, and WE can take you down and impeach you, and facts don't matter! ..."
"... Sometimes propaganda is about persuading people. And sometimes, I think, it is about intimidating them. ..."
"... The Brit secret service, in effect, created and trained not merely the CIA but also the Mossad and Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency. All four are defined by endless lies, endless acts of utterly amoral savagery. All 4 are at least as bad as the KGB ever was, and that means as bad as Hell itself. ..."
"... Traditional triumphalist American narrative history, as taught in schools up through the 60s or so, portrayed America as "wart-free." Since then, with Zinn's book playing a major role, it has increasingly been portrayed as "warts-only," which is of course at least equally flawed. I would say more so. ..."
"... Anyway, the mission was accomplished and the relations with Russia are worse now than during Obama administration. ..."
"... That pre-9/11 "cooperation" nearly destroyed Russia. Nobody in Russia (except, perhaps, for Pussy Riot) wants a return to the Yeltsin era. ..."
"... The CIA is the world largest criminal and terrorist organization. With Brennan the worst has come to the worst. The whole Russian meddling affair was initiated by the Obama/Clinton gang in cooperation with 95 percent of the media. Nothing will come out of it. ..."
"... [The key figures who had primary influence on both Trump's and Bush's Iran policies held views close to those of Israel's right-wing Likud Party. The main conduit for the Likudist line in the Trump White House is Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, primary foreign policy advisor, and longtime friend and supporter of Netanyahu. Kushner's parents are also long-time supporters of Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank. ..."
"... Another figure to whom the Trump White House has turned is John Bolton, undersecretary of state and a key policymaker on Iran in the Bush administration. Although Bolton was not appointed Trump's secretary of state, as he'd hoped, he suddenly reemerged as a player on Iran policy thanks to his relationship with Kushner. Politico reports that Bolton met with Kushner a few days before the final policy statement was released and urged a complete withdrawal from the deal in favor of his own plan for containing Iran. ..."
"... Putin's dream of Greater Europe is the death knell for the unipolar world order. It means the economic center of the world will shift to Central Asia where abundant resources and cheap labor of the east will be linked to the technological advances and the Capital the of the west eliminating the need to trade in dollars or recycle profits into US debt. The US economy will slip into irreversible decline, and the global hegemon will steadily lose its grip on power. That's why it is imperative for the US prevail in Ukraine– a critical land bridge connecting the two continents– and to topple Assad in Syria in order to control vital resources and pipeline corridors. Washington must be in a position where it can continue to force its trading partners to denominate their resources in dollars and recycle the proceeds into US Treasuries if it is to maintain its global primacy. The main problem is that Russia is blocking Uncle Sam's path to success which is roiling the political establishment in Washington. ..."
"... Second, Zakharova confirms that the western media is not an independent news gathering organization, but a propaganda organ for the foreign policy establishment who dictates what they can and can't say. ..."
"... Such a truthful portrait of reality ! The ruling elite is indeed massively corrupt, compromised, and controlled by dark forces. And the police state is already here. For most people, so far, in the form of massive collection of personal data and increasing number of mandatory regulations. But just one or two big false-flags away from progressing into something much worse. ..."
"... Clearly the CIA was making war on Syria. Is secret coercive covert action against sovereign nations Ok? Is it legal? When was the CIA designated a war making entity – what part of the constitution OK's that? Isn't the congress obliged by constitutional law to declare war? (These are NOT six month actions – they go on and on.) ..."
"... Syria is only one of many nations that the CIA is attacking – how many countries are we attacking with drones? Where is congress? ..."
"... Close the CIA – give the spying to the 16 other agencies. ..."
Sadly, Brennan's propaganda coup only works on what the Bell Curve crowd up there would call
the dumbest and most technologically helpless 1.2σ. Here is how people with half a
brain interpret the latest CIA whoppers.
Again Mike Whitney does not get it. Though in the first part of the article I thought he
would. He was almost getting there. The objective was to push new administration into the
corner from which it could not improve relations with Russia as Trump indicated that he
wanted to during the campaign.
Convincing Americans in Russia's influence or Russia collusion
with Trump was only a tool that would create pressure on Trump that together with the fear of
paralysis of his administration and impeachment would push Trump into the corner from which
the only thing he could do was to worsen relations with Russia. What American people believe
or not is really secondary. With firing of Gen. Flynn Trump acted exactly as they wanted him
to act. This was the beginning of downward slope.
Anyway, the mission was accomplished and the relations with Russia are worse now than
during Obama administration. Trump can concentrate on Iran in which he will be supported by
all sides and factions including the media. Even Larry David will approve not only the
zionist harpies like Pam Geller, Rita Katz and Ilana Mercer.
The only part that is absurd is that Russia posed a bona fide threat to the US. I'm fine
with the idea that he ruined Brennen's plans in Syria. But thats just ego we shouldn't have
been there anyway.
No one really cares about Ukraine. And the European/Russian trade zone? No one cares. The
Eurozone has its hands full with Greece and the rest of the old EU. I have a feeling they
have already gone way too far and are more likely to shrink than expand in any meaningful
way
The one thing I am not positive about. If the elite really believe that Russia is a
threat, then Americans have done psych ops on themselves.
The US was only interested in Ukraine because it was there. Next in line on a map. The
rather shocking disinterest in investing money -- on both sides -- is inexplicable if it was
really important. Most of it would be a waste -- but still. The US stupidly spent $5 billion
on something -- getting duped by politicians and got theoretical regime change, but it was
hell to pry even $1 billion for real economic aid.
" ..factions within the state whose interests do not coincide with those of the American
people."
All the more powerfully put because of its recognisably comical. understatement. Thank you Mr Whitney. Brilliant article that would be all over the mainstream media were
the US MSM an instrument of American rather than globalist interests.
I am reading Howard Zinn, A Peoples History of the USA, 1492 to the Present.
A sad story, how the USA always was a police state, where the two percent rich manipulated
the 98% poor, to stay rich.
When there were insurrections federal troops restored order.
Also FDR put down strikes with troops.
You should be aware that Zinn's book is not, IMO, an honest attempt at writing history. It
is conscious propaganda intended to make Americans believe exactly what you are taking from
it.
The elephant in the room is Israel and the neocons , this is the force that controls America
and Americas foreign policy , Brennan and the 17 intel agencies are puppets of the mossad and
Israel, that is the brutal fact of the matter.
Until that fact changes Americans will continue to fight and die for Israel.
"The absence of evidence suggests that Russia hacking narrative is a sloppy and
unprofessional disinformation campaign that was hastily slapped together by over confident
Intelligence officials who believed that saturating the public airwaves with one absurd story
after another would achieve the desired result "
But it DID achieve the desired result! Trump folded under the pressure, and went full out
neoliberal. Starting with his missile attack on Syria, he is now OK with spending trillions
fighting pointless endless foreign wars on the other side of the world.
I think maybe half the US population does believe the Russian hacking thing, but that's
not really the issue. I think that the pre-Syrian attack media blitz was more a statement of
brute power to Trump: WE are in charge here, and WE can take you down and impeach you, and
facts don't matter!
Sometimes propaganda is about persuading people. And sometimes, I think, it is about
intimidating them.
Whitney is another author who declares the "Russians did it" narrative a psyop. He then
devotes entire columns to the psyop, "naww Russia didn't do it". There could be plenty to write about – recent laws that do undercut liberty, but no,
the Washington Post needs fake opposition to its fake news so you have guys like Whitney in
the less-mainstream fake news media.
So Brennan wanted revenge? Well that's simple enough to understand, without being too
stupid. But Whitney's whopper of a lie is what you're supposed to unquestionably believe. The
US has "rival political parties". Did you miss it?
The US is doing nothing more than acting as the British Empire 2.0. WASP culture was born of a Judaizing heresy: Anglo-Saxon Puritanism. That meant that the
WASP Elites of every are pro-Jewish, especially in order to wage war, physical and/or
cultural, against the vast majority of white Christians they rule.
By the early 19th century, The Brit Empire's Elites also had a strong, and growing, dose
of pro-Arabic/pro-Islamic philoSemitism. Most of that group became ardently pro-Sunni, and
most of the pro-Sunni ones eventually coalescing around promotion of the House of Saud, which
means being pro-Wahhabi and permanently desirous of killing or enslaving virtually all Shiite
Mohammedans.
So, by the time of Victoria's high reign, the Brit WASP Elites were a strange brew of
hardcoree pro-Jewish and hardcore pro-Arabic/islamic. The US foreign policy of today is an
attempt to put those two together and force it on everyone and make it work.
The Brit secret service, in effect, created and trained not merely the CIA but also the
Mossad and Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency. All four are defined by endless
lies, endless acts of utterly amoral savagery. All 4 are at least as bad as the KGB ever was,
and that means as bad as Hell itself.
Fair enough. I didn't know that about the foreword. If accurate, that's a reasonable
approach for a book.
Here's the problem.
Back when O. Cromwell was the dictator of England, he retained an artist to paint him. The
custom of the time was for artists to "clean up" their subjects, in a primitive form of
photoshopping.
OC being a religious fanatic, he informed the artist he wished to be portrayed as God had
made him, "warts and all." (Ollie had a bunch of unattractive facial warts.) Or the artist
wouldn't be paid.
Traditional triumphalist American narrative history, as taught in schools up through the
60s or so, portrayed America as "wart-free." Since then, with Zinn's book playing a major
role, it has increasingly been portrayed as "warts-only," which is of course at least equally
flawed. I would say more so.
All I am asking is that American (and other) history be written "warts and all." The
triumphalist version is true, largely, and so is the Zinn version. Gone With the Wind
and Roots both portray certain aspects of the pre-war south fairly accurately..
America has been, and is, both evil and good. As is/was true of every human institution
and government in history. Personally, I believe America, net/net, has been one of the
greatest forces for human good ever. But nobody will realize that if only the negative side
of American history is taught.
"There must be something really dirty in Russigate that hasn't yet come out to generate
this level of panic."
You continue to claim what you cannot prove.
But then you are a Jews First Zionist.
Russia-Gate Jumps the Shark
Russia-gate has jumped the shark with laughable new claims about a tiny number of
"Russia-linked" social media ads, but the US mainstream media is determined to keep a
straight face
Most of that group became ardently pro-Sunni, and most of the pro-Sunni ones eventually
coalescing around promotion of the House of Saud, which means being pro-Wahhabi and
permanently desirous of killing or enslaving virtually all Shiite Mohammedans.
Thanks for the laugh. During the 19th century, the Sauds were toothless, dirt-poor hicks
from the deep desert of zero importance on the world stage.
The Brits were not Saudi proponents, in fact promoting the Husseins of Hejaz, the guys
Lawrence of Arabia worked with. The Husseins, the Sharifs of Mecca and rulers of Hejaz, were
the hereditary enemies of the Sauds of Nejd.
After WWI, the Brits installed Husseins as rulers of both Transjordan and Iraq, which with
the Hejaz meant the Sauds were pretty much surrounded. The Sauds conquered the Hejaz in 1924,
despite lukewarm British support for the Hejaz.
Nobody in the world cared much about the Saudis one way or another until massive oil
fields were discovered, by Americans not Brits, starting in 1938. There was no reason they
should. Prior to that Saudi prominence in world affairs was about equal to that of Chad
today, and for much the same reason. Chad (and Saudi Arabia) had nothing anybody else
wanted.
'Putin stopped talking about the "Lisbon to Vladivostok" free trade area long ago" --
Michael Kenney
Putin was simply trying to sell Russia's application for EU membership with the
catch-phrase "Lisbon to Vladivostok". He continued that until the issue was triply mooted (1)
by implosion of EU growth and boosterism, (2) by NATO's aggressive stance, in effect taken by
NATO in Ukraine events and in the Baltics, and, (3) Russia's alliance with China.
It is surely still true that Russians think of themselves, categorically, as Europeans.
OTOH, we can easily imagine that Russians in Vladivostok look at things differently than do
Russians in St. Petersburg. Then again, Vladivostok only goes back about a century and a
half.
Anyway, the mission was accomplished and the relations with Russia are worse now than
during Obama administration.
I generally agree with your comment, but that part strikes me as a bit of an exaggeration.
While relations with Russia certainly haven't improved, how have they really worsened? The
second round of sanctions that Trump reluctantly approved have yet to be implemented by
Europe, which was the goal. And apart from that, what of substance has changed?
It's not surprising that 57 percent of the American people believe in Russian meddling.
Didn't two-thirds of the same crowd believe that Saddam was behind 9/11, too? The American
public is being brainwashed 24 hours a day all year long.
The CIA is the world largest criminal and terrorist organization. With Brennan the worst
has come to the worst. The whole Russian meddling affair was initiated by the Obama/Clinton
gang in cooperation with 95 percent of the media. Nothing will come out of it.
This disinformation campaign might be the prelude to an upcoming war.
Right now, the US is run by jerks and idiots. Watch the video.
Only dumb people does not know that TRUMP IS NETANYAHU'S PUPPET.
The fifth column zionist jews are running the albino stooge and foreign policy in the
Middle East to expand Israel's interest against American interest that is TREASON. One of
these FIFTH COLUMNISTS is Jared Kushner. He should be arrested.
[The key figures who had primary influence on both Trump's and Bush's Iran policies held
views close to those of Israel's right-wing Likud Party. The main conduit for the Likudist
line in the Trump White House is Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, primary foreign
policy advisor, and longtime friend and supporter of Netanyahu. Kushner's parents are also
long-time supporters of Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank.
Another figure to whom the Trump White House has turned is John Bolton, undersecretary of
state and a key policymaker on Iran in the Bush administration. Although Bolton was not
appointed Trump's secretary of state, as he'd hoped, he suddenly reemerged as a player on
Iran policy thanks to his relationship with Kushner. Politico reports that Bolton met with
Kushner a few days before the final policy statement was released and urged a complete
withdrawal from the deal in favor of his own plan for containing Iran.
Bolton spoke with Trump by phone on Thursday about the paragraph in the deal that vowed it
would be "terminated" if there was any renegotiation, according to Politico. He was calling
Trump from Las Vegas, where he'd been meeting with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the third
major figure behind Trump's shift towards Israeli issues. Adelson is a Likud supporter who
has long been a close friend of Netanyahu's and has used his Israeli tabloid newspaper Israel
Hayomto support Netanyahu's campaigns. He was Trump's main campaign contributor in 2016,
donating $100 million. Adelson's real interest has been in supporting Israel's interests in
Washington -- especially with regard to Iran.]
Putin's dream of Greater Europe is the death knell for the unipolar world order. It
means the economic center of the world will shift to Central Asia where abundant resources
and cheap labor of the east will be linked to the technological advances and the Capital
the of the west eliminating the need to trade in dollars or recycle profits into US
debt. The US economy will slip into irreversible decline, and the global hegemon will
steadily lose its grip on power. That's why it is imperative for the US prevail in
Ukraine– a critical land bridge connecting the two continents– and to topple
Assad in Syria in order to control vital resources and pipeline corridors. Washington
must be in a position where it can continue to force its trading partners to denominate
their resources in dollars and recycle the proceeds into US Treasuries if it is to maintain
its global primacy. The main problem is that Russia is blocking Uncle Sam's path to
success which is roiling the political establishment in Washington.
American dominance is very much tied to the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency,
and the rest of the world no longer want to fund this bankrupt, warlike state –
particularly the Chinese.
First, it confirms that the US did not want to see the jihadist extremists
defeated by Russia. These mainly-Sunni militias served as Washington's proxy-army
conducting an ambitious regime change operation which coincided with US strategic
ambitions.
The CIA run US/Israeli/ISIS alliance.
Second, Zakharova confirms that the western media is not an independent news
gathering organization, but a propaganda organ for the foreign policy establishment who
dictates what they can and can't say.
They are given the political line and they broadcast it.
The loosening of rules governing the dissemination of domestic propaganda coupled with
the extraordinary advances in surveillance technology, create the perfect conditions for
the full implementation of an American police state. But what is more concerning, is
that the primary levers of state power are no longer controlled by elected officials but by
factions within the state whose interests do not coincide with those of the American
people. That can only lead to trouble.
At some point Americans are going to get a "War on Domestic Terror" cheered along by the
media. More or less the arrest and incarceration of any opposition following the Soviet
Bolshevik model.
On the plus side, everyone now knows that the Anglo-US media from the NY Times to the
Economist, from WaPo to the Gruniard, and from the BBC to CNN, the CBC and Weinstein's
Hollywood are a worthless bunch of depraved lying bastards.
Such a truthful portrait of reality ! The ruling elite is indeed massively corrupt,
compromised, and controlled by dark forces. And the police state is already here. For most
people, so far, in the form of massive collection of personal data and increasing number of
mandatory regulations. But just one or two big false-flags away from progressing into
something much worse.
The thing is, no matter how thick the mental cages are, and how carefully they are
maintained by the daily massive injections of "certified" truth (via MSM), along with
neutralizing or compromising of "troublemakers", the presence of multiple alternative sources
in the age of Internet makes people to slip out of these cages one by one, and as the last
events show – with acceleration.
It means that there's a fast approaching tipping point after which it'd be impossible for
those in power both to keep a nice "civilized" face and to control the "cage-free"
population. So, no matter how the next war will be called, it will be the war against the
free Internet and free people. That's probably why N. Korean leader has no fear to start
one.
All government secrecy is a curse on mankind. Trump is releasing the JFK murder files to the public. Kudos! Let us hope he will follow up with a full 9/11 investigation.
The objective was to push new administration into the corner from which it could not
improve relations with Russia as Trump indicated that he wanted to during the campaign.
Good point. That was probably one of the objectives (and from the point of view of the
deep-state, perhaps the most important objective) of the "Russia hacked our democracy"
narrative, in addition to the general deligitimization of the Trump administration.
And, keep in mind, Washington's Sunni proxies were not a division of the Pentagon; they
were entirely a CIA confection: CIA recruited, CIA-armed, CIA-funded and
CIA-trained.
Clearly the CIA was making war on Syria. Is secret coercive covert action against sovereign
nations Ok? Is it legal? When was the CIA designated a war making entity – what part of the constitution OK's
that? Isn't the congress obliged by constitutional law to declare war? (These are NOT six
month actions – they go on and on.)
Are committees of six congressman and six senators, who meet in secret, just avoiding the
grave constitutional questions of war? We the People cannot even interrogate these
politicians. (These politicians make big money in the secrecy swamp when they leave
office.)
Syria is only one of many nations that the CIA is attacking – how many countries are
we attacking with drones? Where is congress?
Spying is one thing – covert action is another – covert is wrong – it
goes against world order. Every year after 9/11 they say things are worse – give them
more money more power and they will make things safe. That is BS!
9/11 has opened the flood gates to the US government attacking at will, the various
peoples of this Earth. That is NOT our prerogative.
We are being exceptionally arrogant.
Close the CIA – give the spying to the 16 other agencies.
"... Haspel is not the "underling" . Trump is the underling. Sure, being that he is also an oligarch makes Trump's role in the show complicated, but Presidents are installed in order to serve the oligarchy, and the CIA are top level strategists/enforcers for the oligarchy. ..."
"... In the real organization chart for the empire the CIA is above the President. This has been the case in the US since Kennedy. ..."
"... Trump will not fire Haspel. He can't. He's just an actor playing a role in a show, and Haspel is one of the producers/writers of that show. If she doesn't put firing in the script then Trump cannot say those lines. I doubt he really wants to anyway. ..."
"If Trump were not in on the schemes he would just fire his underlings!"
This sentiment indicates a failure to understand the power dynamics at play here. Haspel
is not the "underling" . Trump is the underling. Sure, being that he is also an
oligarch makes Trump's role in the show complicated, but Presidents are installed in order to
serve the oligarchy, and the CIA are top level strategists/enforcers for the oligarchy.
In the real organization chart for the empire the CIA is above the President.
This has been the case in the US since Kennedy.
Trump cannot fire Haspel or Pompeo. They can fire him, though, and with a sniper's bullet
if they want.
Unfortunately for the oligarchy, that would cause additional complications at a time when
they have lots of tricky and inexplicably unstable (for them) operations ongoing, which is
why they are just steering Trump around instead of replacing him. And Trump is willfully
cooperating, even if they are not filling him in on the plans.
Trump will not fire Haspel. He can't. He's just an actor playing a role in a show, and
Haspel is one of the producers/writers of that show. If she doesn't put firing in the script
then Trump cannot say those lines. I doubt he really wants to anyway.
Money quote: "The Russian collusion investigation was based solely on the dodgy Steele Dossier that was discredited here from
the get-go. This was a product of British Intelligence Community. The intent was to keep and then to get Donald Trump out of the White
House. It failed but they did succeed in turning him into a neo-lib-con fellow traveler. There are clear parallels between the end stages
of the Soviet Union and the American Empire. My take since the Iraq Invasion is that they are insane. The ruling elite is detached from
reality, incompetent and arrogant. Sooner or later someone with their facilities still intact will lead a middle-class revolt against
the global plutocracy to restore democracy and reverse the rising inequality. We were lucky that the fall of the Soviet Union did not
lead to a nuclear war. The next time a nuclear armed Empire crashes we may not be so fortunate."
Notable quotes:
"... Among interesting dates, it appears that Stefan Halper was already trying to reach out to Lokhova in January-February 2016 – a lot earlier than his approaches to Papadopoulo s and Page. This was done through Professor Christopher Andrew, co-convenor with Halper and the former MI6 had Sir Richard Dearlove of the ‘Cambridge Intelligence Seminar.’ ..."
"... Meanwhile, Lokhova has set up a blog on which she has posted a some interesting relevant material, with perhaps more to come. It is very well worth a look.(See https://www.russiagate.co.uk .) ..."
"... Of particular interest, to my mind, is the full text of her – unpublished – May 2017 interview with the ‘New York Times.’ This points us back to is the fact – of which Lokhova shows no signs of awareness – that the idea that the Western powers and the Russians might have a common interest in fighting jihadist terrorism has been absolute anathema to many key figures on both sides of the Atlantic, with Dearlove certainly among them. ..."
"... ‘AN APOLOGY: Yesterday, I compared @nytimes journalists, who smeared @GenFlynn and accused me of being a Russian spy, to cockroaches. In good conscience, I must apologize to the cockroaches for the distress caused to them for being compared to @nytimes #Russiagate hoaxers. Sorry!’ ..."
"... The centerpiece of this is a proposal submitted to the FCO in August last year by what seems to be essentially the same consortium whose existence as a government contractor has now been made public. The ‘Institute for Statecraft’ has vanished, and one consortium member, ‘Aktis Strategy’, has gone into liquidation. But other key members are the same. ..."
"... A central underlying premise is that if anyone has any doubts as to whether the ‘White Helmets’ are a benevolent humanitarian organisation, or the Russians were responsible for the poisoning of the Skripals or the shooting down of MH17, the only possible explanation is that their minds have been poisoned by disinformation. ..."
"... In fact, what is at issue an ambitious project to co-ordinate and strengthen a very large number of organisations in different countries which are committed to a relentlessly Russophobic line on everything. (The possibility that it might not be very bright to push Russia into the arms of China, the obviously rising power, does not seem to have occurred to these people – perhaps they need less ons from Sir Halford Mackinder, or indeed Niccolò Machiavelli, on ‘statecraft.’) ..."
"... The clear close integration of other cyber people from the ‘Atlantic Council’ into Orwellian ‘information operations’ sponsored by the British Government simply puts these facts into sharp relief. ..."
"... There has to be a strong possible ‘prima facie’ case that anyone in authority prepared to accept the ‘digital forensics’ from ‘CrowdStrike’ is complicit in the conspiracy against the constitution, and/or the conspiracy to cover-up that conspiracy. This certainly goes for Comey, and I think it also goes for Mueller." ..."
"... I'd recommend for reading Alexei Yurchak's "Everything Was Forever, Until It was No More: The Last Soviet Generation." Its about a class of apparatchiks and bureaucrats and hangers on who spoke this arcane, abstract dogmatic language that anyone normal had long since given up trying to understand. It had long ceased to have any relevance or attachment to the lives lived by ordinary, increasingly suffering people, who started talking to each other in practical and direct language. ..."
"... The Russian collusion investigation was based solely on the dodgy Steele Dossier that was discredited here from the get-go. This was a product of British Intelligence Community. The intent was to keep and then to get Donald Trump out of the White House. It failed but they did succeed in turning him into a neo-lib-con fellow traveler. ..."
"... There are clear parallels between the end stages of the Soviet Union and the American Empire. My take since the Iraq Invasion is that they are insane. The ruling elite is detached from reality, incompetent and arrogant. Sooner or later someone with their facilities still intact will lead a middle-class revolt against the global plutocracy to restore democracy and reverse the rising inequality. We were lucky that the fall of the Soviet Union did not lead to a nuclear war. The next time a nuclear armed Empire crashes we may not be so fortunate. ..."
"Dan, Thanks for the reference, which I will follow up. Unfortunately, although Bongino has produced a lot of extremely valuable
material, a lot of it is buried in the 'postcasts', searching through which is harder than with printed materials. It would greatly
help if there were transcripts, but of course those cost money.
I am still trying to fit the exploding mass of information which has been coming out into a coherent timeline. Part of the
problem is that there is so much appearing in so many different places. In addition to trying to think through the implications
of the information in this post and the subsequent exchanges of comments, I have been trying to make sense of evidence coming
out about the British end of the conspiracy.
An important development here has been rather well covered by Chuck Ross, in a recent ‘Daily Caller’ piece headlined ‘Cambridge
Academic Reflects On Interactions With 'Spygate’ Figure’ and one on ‘Fox’ by Catherine Herridge and Cyd Upson, entitled ‘Russian
academic linked to Flynn denies being spy, says her past contact was “used” to smear him.’ However, the evidence involved has ramifications
which they cannot be expected to understand, as yet at least.
At issue is the attempt to use the – apparently casual – encounter between Lieutenant-General Flynn and Svetlana Lokhova at a
dinner in Cambridge (U.K.) in February 2016 to smear him by, among other things, portraying her as some kind of ‘Mata Hari’ figure.
Among interesting dates, it appears that Stefan Halper was already trying to reach out to Lokhova in January-February 2016
– a lot earlier than his approaches to Papadopoulo s and Page. This was done through Professor Christopher Andrew, co-convenor with
Halper and the former MI6 had Sir Richard Dearlove of the ‘Cambridge Intelligence Seminar.’
This suggests that this was not simply a case Halper acting on his own. It also I think brings us back to the central importance
of Flynn’s visit to Moscow in December 2015.
Meanwhile, Lokhova has set up a blog on which she has posted a some interesting relevant material, with perhaps more to come.
It is very well worth a look.(See https://www.russiagate.co.uk
.)
Of particular interest, to my mind, is the full text of her – unpublished – May 2017 interview with the ‘New York Times.’ This
points us back to is the fact – of which Lokhova shows no signs of awareness – that the idea that the Western powers and the Russians
might have a common interest in fighting jihadist terrorism has been absolute anathema to many key figures on both sides of the Atlantic,
with Dearlove certainly among them.
Some of Lokhova’s comments on ‘twitter’ are extremely entertaining. An example, with which I have much sympathy:
‘AN APOLOGY: Yesterday, I compared @nytimes journalists, who smeared @GenFlynn and accused me of being a Russian spy, to
cockroaches. In good conscience, I must apologize to the cockroaches for the distress caused to them for being compared to @nytimes
#Russiagate hoaxers. Sorry!’
Meanwhile, another interesting recent ‘tweet’ comes from Eliot Higgins, of ‘Bellingcat’ fame. He is known to some skeptics as
‘the couch potato’ – perhaps he should be rechristened ‘king cockroach.’ It reads:
‘Looking forward to gettin g things rolling with the Open Information Partnership, with @bellingcat, @MDI_UK, @DFRLab, and @This_Is_Zinc
https://www.openinformation...’
There is an interesting ‘backstory’ to this. The announcement of an FCO-supported ‘Open Information Partnership of European Non-Governmental
Organisations, charities, academics, think-tanks and journalists’, supposedly to counter ‘disinformation’ from Russia, came in a
written answer from the Minister of State, Sir Alan Duncan, on 3 April.
In turn this followed the latest in a series of releases of material either leaked or hacked from the organisations calling themselves
‘Institute for Statecraft’ and ‘Integrity Initiative’ by the group calling themselves ‘Anonymous’ on 25 March.
The centerpiece of this is a proposal submitted to the FCO in August last year by what seems to be essentially the same consortium
whose existence as a government contractor has now been made public. The ‘Institute for Statecraft’ has vanished, and one consortium
member, ‘Aktis Strategy’, has gone into liquidation. But other key members are the same.
A central underlying premise is that if anyone has any doubts as to whether the ‘White Helmets’ are a benevolent humanitarian
organisation, or the Russians were responsible for the poisoning of the Skripals or the shooting down of MH17, the only possible
explanation is that their minds have been poisoned by disinformation.
An interesting paragraph reads as follows:
‘An expanded research component could generate better understanding of the drivers (psychological, sociopolitical, cultural
and environmental) of those who are susceptible to disinformation. This will allow us to map vulnerable audiences, and build scenario
planning models to test the efficiency of different activities to build resilience of those populations over time.’
They have not yet got to the point of recommending psychiatic treatment for ‘dissidents’, but these are still early days. The
‘Sovietisation’ of Western life proceeds apace.
In fact, what is at issue an ambitious project to co-ordinate and strengthen a very large number of organisations in different
countries which are committed to a relentlessly Russophobic line on everything. (The possibility that it might not be very bright
to push Russia into the arms of China, the obviously rising power, does not seem to have occurred to these people – perhaps they
need less ons from Sir Halford Mackinder, or indeed Niccolò Machiavelli, on ‘statecraft.’)
Study of the proposal hacked/leaked by ‘Anonymous’ bring out both the ‘boondoggle’ element – there is a lot of state funding available
for people happy to play these games – and also the strong transatlantic links.
A particularly significant presence, here, is the ‘DFRLab’. This is the ‘Digital Forensic Research Lab’ at the ‘Atlantic Council’,
where Eliot Higgins is a ‘nonresident senior fellow.’ The same organisation has a ‘Cyber Statecraft Initiative’ where Dmitri Alperovitch
is a ‘nonresident senior fellow.’
It cannot be repeated often enough that it is difficult to see any conceivable excuse for the FBI to fail to secure access to
the DNC servers. One would normally moreover expect that, on an issue of this sensitivity, they would have the ‘digital forensics’
done by their own people.
There can be no conceivable excuse for relying on a contractor selected by the organisation which is claiming that there has been
a hack, when an alternative possibility is a leak: and the implications of the alternative possibility could be devastating for that
organisation.
To rely on a contractor linked to the notoriously Russophobic ‘Atlantic Council’ is even more preposterous.
The clear close integration of other cyber people from the ‘Atlantic Council’ into Orwellian ‘information operations’ sponsored
by the British Government simply puts these facts into sharp relief.
There has to be a strong possible ‘prima facie’ case that anyone in authority prepared to accept the ‘digital forensics’ from
‘CrowdStrike’ is complicit in the conspiracy against the constitution, and/or the conspiracy to cover-up that conspiracy. This certainly
goes for Comey, and I think it also goes for Mueller."
OT but related, just watched a former naval Intelligence officer, now working for the Hoover Institute interviewed on FOX about
the Rooshins in Venezuela. Said, the 100 Russians are there to protect Maduro because he cannot trust his own army. Maduro's days
are numbered because he is toxically unpopular.
Got me thinking, our Intelligence services are good at psy-ops and keeping our gullible MSM in line but God help us if we ever
actually needed real Intelligence about a country. I remember about a month ago how all of these 'Think Tank Guys' were predicting
how the only people loyal to Maduro were a few of his crony Generals, that the rank and file military hated him and there were
going to be mass defections.
It didn't happen and we are all just supposed to forget that.
[not a socialist, don't have any love for Maduro, I just know that I will never learn anything of about Venezuela from these think
tank dudes, we are just getting groomed]
Venezuela isn't about "socialism," or even Maduro--it's about the oil. They have the largest proven reserves in the world, though
much of it is non-conventional and would need a ton of investment to exploit. But it's their oil, not ours, and we have no right
to meddle in their internal affairs.
Venezuela is neither about socialism nor oil in my opinion. It is everything to do with the neocons. And Trump buying into their
hegemonic dreams. Notice the resurrection of Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame as the man spearheading this in a triumvirate
with Bolton & Pompeo. IMO, a perfect foil for Putin & Xi to embroil the US in another regime change quagmire that further weakens
the US.
"There can be no conceivable excuse for relying on a contractor selected by the organisation which is claiming that there has
been a hack, when an alternative possibility is a leak: and the implications of the alternative possibility could be devastating
for that organisation.
To rely on a contractor linked to the notoriously Russophobic 'Atlantic Council' is even more preposterous."
True; and true. It is also true that the Clinton e-mail investigation was faux, a limp caricature of what an investigation
would look like when it is designed to uncover the truth. Allowing a subject's law firm to review the subject's e-mails from when
she was in government for relevancy is beyond preposterous. An investigation conducted in the normal way by apolitical Agents
in a field office would not walk away from a trove of evidence empty handed.
The inter-relatedness and overlapping of DoJ, CIA, and FBI personnel assigned to the Clinton e-mail case, the Russophobic nightmare
of a 'case' targeting Carter Page, and by extension, the Trump presidential campaign, and yes, the Mueller political op, all reek
of political bias and ineptitude followed by more political bias; and then culmination in a scorched earth investigation more
characteristic of something the STASI might have undertaken than American justice.
Early morning raids, gag orders, solitary confinements, show indictments that will never see adjudication in a court room - truly
unbelievable.
In your opinion was this surveillance, criminal & counter-intelligence investigation as well as information operations against
Trump centrally orchestrated or was it more reactive & decentralized?
There are so many facets. Fusion GPS & Nellie Ohr with her previous CIA connection. Her husband Bruce at the DOJ stovepiping
the dossier to the FBI. Brennan and his EC. Clapper and his intelligence assessment. Halper, Mifsud, Steele along with Hannigan
and the MI6 + GCHQ connection. Downer and the Aussies. FISA warrants on Page & Papadopolous. The whole Strzok & Page texting.
Comey, Lynch & the Hillary exoneration. McCabe. Then all the Russians. And the media leaks to generate hysteria.
I'd recommend for reading Alexei Yurchak's "Everything Was Forever, Until It was No More: The Last Soviet Generation." Its
about a class of apparatchiks and bureaucrats and hangers on who spoke this arcane, abstract dogmatic language that anyone normal
had long since given up trying to understand. It had long ceased to have any relevance or attachment to the lives lived by ordinary,
increasingly suffering people, who started talking to each other in practical and direct language.
And yet the chatterati
continued to chatter and invent ludicrously unreal worlds and analyses of the actual world they lived in until... bang... it was
no more.
I'd skip the first few chapters which are full of impenetrable marxist jargon.
The Russian collusion investigation was based solely on the dodgy Steele Dossier that was discredited here from the get-go.
This was a product of British Intelligence Community. The intent was to keep and then to get Donald Trump out of the White House.
It failed but they did succeed in turning him into a neo-lib-con fellow traveler.
There are clear parallels between the end stages of the Soviet Union and the American Empire. My take since the Iraq Invasion
is that they are insane. The ruling elite is detached from reality, incompetent and arrogant. Sooner or later someone with their
facilities still intact will lead a middle-class revolt against the global plutocracy to restore democracy and reverse the rising
inequality. We were lucky that the fall of the Soviet Union did not lead to a nuclear war. The next time a nuclear armed Empire
crashes we may not be so fortunate.
"... This entire article fleshes out one central truth – capitalism as practiced by the US Government inevitably involves war by any and all means, seeking total domination of every human being on the planet, foriegn or native to the US Hegemon. It seeks total rule of the rich and powerful over everyone else. ..."
"Russia is an inalienable and organic part of Greater Europe and European civilization. Our citizens think of themselves as
European. That's why Russia proposes moving towards the creation of a common economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean,
a community referred to by Russian experts as 'the Union of Europe' which will strengthen Russia's potential in its economic pivot
toward the 'New Asia.'" Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, February 2012
The allegations of 'Russian meddling' only make sense if they're put into a broader geopolitical context. Once we realize that
Washington is implementing an aggressive "containment" strategy to militarily encircle Russia and China in order to spread its tentacles
across Central Asian, then we begin to understand that Russia is not the perpetrator of the hostilities and propaganda, but the victim.
The Russia hacking allegations are part of a larger asymmetrical-information war that has been joined by the entire Washington political
establishment. The objective is to methodically weaken an emerging rival while reinforcing US global hegemony.
Try to imagine for a minute, that the hacking claims were not part of a sinister plan by Vladimir Putin "to sow discord and division"
in the United States, but were conjured up to create an external threat that would justify an aggressive response from Washington.
That's what Russiagate is really all about.
US policymakers and their allies in the military and Intelligence agencies, know that relations with Russia are bound to get increasingly
confrontational, mainly because Washington is determined to pursue its ambitious "pivot" to Asia plan. This new regional strategy
focuses on "strengthening bilateral security alliances, expanding trade and investment, and forging a broad-based military presence."
In short, the US is determined to maintain its global supremacy by establishing military outposts across Eurasia, continuing to tighten
the noose around Russia and China, and reinforcing its position as the dominant player in the most populous and prosperous region
in the world. The plan was first presented in its skeletal form by the architect of Washington's plan to rule the world, Zbigniew
Brzezinski. Here's how Jimmy Carter's former national security advisor summed it up in his 1997 magnum opus, The Grand Chessboard:
American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives:
"For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia (p.30) .. Eurasia is the globe's largest continent and is geopolitically
axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions.
. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its
enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's
known energy resources." ("The Grand Chessboard:American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives", Zbigniew Brzezinski, Basic
Books, page 31, 1997)
14 years after those words were written, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took up the banner of imperial expansion and
demanded a dramatic shift in US foreign policy that would focus primarily on increasing America's military footprint in Asia. It
was Clinton who first coined the term "pivot" in a speech she delivered in 2010 titled "America's Pacific Century". Here's an excerpt
from the speech:
"As the war in Iraq winds down and America begins to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, the United States stands at a pivot
point. Over the last 10 years, we have allocated immense resources to those two theaters. In the next 10 years, we need to be
smart and systematic about where we invest time and energy, so that we put ourselves in the best position to sustain our leadership,
secure our interests, and advance our values. One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will
therefore be to lock in a substantially increased investment -- diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise -- in the Asia-Pacific
region
Open markets in Asia provide the United States with unprecedented opportunities for investment, trade, and access to cutting-edge
technology ..American firms (need) to tap into the vast and growing consumer base of Asia The region already generates more than
half of global output and nearly half of global trade. As we strive to meet President Obama's goal of doubling exports by 2015,
we are looking for opportunities to do even more business in Asia and our investment opportunities in Asia's dynamic markets."
("America's Pacific Century", Secretary of State Hillary Clinton", Foreign Policy Magazine, 2011)
The pivot strategy is not some trifling rehash of the 19th century "Great Game" promoted by think-tank fantasists and conspiracy
theorists. It is Washington's premier foreign policy doctrine, a 'rebalancing' theory that focuses on increasing US military and
diplomatic presence across the Asian landmass. Naturally, NATO's ominous troop movements on Russia's western flank and Washington's
provocative naval operations in the South China Sea have sent up red flags in Moscow and Beijing. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao
summed it up like this:
"The United States has strengthened its military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthened the US-Japan military
alliance, strengthened strategic cooperation with India, improved relations with Vietnam, inveigled Pakistan, established a pro-American
government in Afghanistan, increased arms sales to Taiwan, and so on. They have extended outposts and placed pressure points on
us from the east, south, and west."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been equally critical of Washington's erratic behavior. NATO's eastward expansion has convinced
Putin that the US will continue to be a disruptive force on the continent for the foreseeable future. Both leaders worry that Washington's
relentless provocations will lead to an unexpected clash that will end in war.
Even so, the political class has fully embraced the pivot strategy as a last-gasp attempt to roll back the clock to the post war
era when the world's industrial centers were in ruins and America was the only game in town. Now the center of gravity has shifted
from west to east, leaving Washington with just two options: Allow the emerging giants in Asia to connect their high-speed rail and
gas pipelines to Europe creating the world's biggest free trade zone, or try to overturn the applecart by bullying allies and threatening
rivals, by implementing sanctions that slow growth and send currencies plunging, and by arming jihadist proxies to fuel ethnic hatred
and foment political unrest. Clearly, the choice has already been made. Uncle Sam has decided to fight til the bitter end.
Washington has many ways of dealing with its enemies, but none of these strategies have dampened the growth of its competitors
in the east. China is poised to overtake the US as the world's biggest economy sometime in the next 2 decades while Russia's intervention
in Syria has rolled back Washington's plan to topple Bashar al Assad and consolidate its grip on the resource-rich Middle East. That
plan has now collapsed forcing US policymakers to scrap the War on Terror altogether and switch to a "great power competition" which
acknowledges that the US can no longer unilaterally impose its will wherever it goes. Challenges to America's dominance are emerging
everywhere particularly in the region where the US hopes to reign supreme, Asia.
This is why the entire national security state now stands foursquare behind the improbable pivot plan. It's a desperate "Hail
Mary" attempt to preserve the decaying unipolar world order.
What does that mean in practical terms?
It means that the White House (the National Security Strategy) the Pentagon (National Defense Strategy) and the Intelligence Community
(The Worldwide Threat Assessment) have all drawn up their own respective analyses of the biggest threats the US currently faces.
Naturally, Russia is at the very top of those lists. Russia has derailed Washington's proxy war in Syria, frustrated US attempts
to establish itself across Central Asia, and strengthened ties with the EU hoping to "create a harmonious community of economies
from Lisbon to Vladivostok." (Putin)
Keep in mind, the US does not feel threatened by the possibility of a Russian attack, but by Russia's ability to thwart Washington's
grandiose imperial ambitions in Asia.
As we noted, the National Security Strategy (NSS) is a statutorily mandated document produced by the White House that explains
how the President intends to implement his national security vision. Not surprisingly, the document's main focus is Russia and China.
Here's an excerpt:
"China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They
are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress
their societies and expand their influence." (Neither Russia nor China are attempting to erode American security and prosperity."
They are merely growing their economies and expanding their markets. If US corporations reinvested their capital into factories,
employee training and R and D instead of stock buybacks and executive compensation, then they would be better able to complete globally.)
Here's more: "Through modernized forms of subversive tactics, Russia interferes in the domestic political affairs of countries
around the world." (This is a case of the 'pot calling the kettle black.')
"Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries
target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data." (The western media behemoth is the biggest disinformation
bullhorn the world has ever seen. RT and Sputnik don't hold a candle to the ginormous MSM 'Wurlitzer' that controls the cable news
stations, the newspapers and most of the print media. The Mueller Report proves beyond a doubt that the politically-motivated nonsense
one reads in the media is neither reliably sourced nor trustworthy.)
The Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community is even more explicit in its attacks on Russia. Check it out:
"Threats to US national security will expand and diversify in the coming year, driven in part by China and Russia as they respectively
compete more intensely with the United States and its traditional allies and partners . We assess that Moscow will continue pursuing
a range of objectives to expand its reach, including undermining the US-led liberal international order, dividing Western political
and security institutions, demonstrating Russia's ability to shape global issues, and bolstering Putin's domestic legitimacy.
We assess that Moscow has heightened confidence, based on its success in helping restore the Asad regime's territorial control
in Syria, ·Russia seeks to boost its military presence and political influence in the Mediterranean and Red Seas mediate conflicts,
including engaging in the Middle East Peace Process and Afghanistan reconciliation .
Russia will continue pressing Central Asia's leaders to support Russian-led economic and security initiatives and reduce engagement
with Washington. Russia and China are likely to intensify efforts to build influence in Europe at the expense of US interests
" ("The Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community",
USG )
Notice how the Intelligence Community summary does not suggest that Russia poses an imminent military threat to the US, only that
Russia has restored order in Syria, strengthened ties with China, emerged as an "honest broker" among countries in the Middle East,
and used the free market system to improve relations with its trading partners and grow its economy. The IC appears to find fault
with Russia because it is using the system the US created to better advantage than the US. This is entirely understandable given
Putin's determination to draw Europe and Asia closer together through a region-wide economic integration plan. Here's Putin:
"We must consider more extensive cooperation in the energy sphere, up to and including the formation of a common European energy
complex. The Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea and the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea are important steps
in that direction. These projects have the support of many governments and involve major European energy companies. Once the pipelines
start operating at full capacity, Europe will have a reliable and flexible gas-supply system that does not depend on the political
whims of any nation. This will strengthen the continent's energy security not only in form but in substance. This is particularly
relevant in the light of the decision of some European states to reduce or renounce nuclear energy."
The gas pipelines and high-speed rail are the arteries that will bind the continents together and strengthen the new EU-Asia superstate.
This is Washington's greatest nightmare, a massive, thriving free trade zone beyond its reach and not subject to its rules. In 2012,
Hillary Clinton acknowledged this new threat and promised to do everything in her power to destroy it. Check out this excerpt:
"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described efforts to promote greater economic integration in Eurasia as "a move to
re-Sovietize the region." . "We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it,"
she said at an international conference in Dublin on December 6, 2012, Radio Free Europe."
"Slow down or prevent it"?
Why? Because EU-Asia growth and prosperity will put pressure on US debt markets, US corporate interests, US (ballooning) national
debt, and the US Dollar? Is that why Hillary is so committed to sabotaging Putin's economic integration plan?
Indeed, it is. Washington wants to block progress and prosperity in the east in order to extend the lifespan of a doddering and
thoroughly-bankrupt state that is presently $22 trillion in the red but continues to write checks on an overdrawn account.
But Russia shouldn't be blamed for Washington's profligate behavior, that's not Putin's fault. Moscow is merely using the free
market system more effectively that the US.
Now consider the Pentagon's 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) which reiterates many of the same themes as the other two documents.
"Today, we are emerging from a period of strategic atrophy, aware that our competitive military advantage has been eroding. We
are facing increased global disorder, characterized by decline in the long-standing rules-based international order -- creating a
security environment more complex and volatile than any we have experienced in recent memory. Inter-state strategic competition,
not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security."
(Naturally, the "security environment" is going to be more challenging when 'regime change' is the cornerstone of one's foreign
policy. Of course, the NDS glosses over that sad fact. Here's more:)
"Russia has violated the borders of nearby nations and pursues veto power over the economic, diplomatic, and security decisions
of its neighbors ..(Baloney. Russia has been a force for stability in Syria and Ukraine. If Obama had his way, Syria would have wound
up like Iraq, a hellish wastelands occupied by foreign mercenaries. Is that how the Pentagon measures success?) Here's more:
"China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model
"China and Russia are now undermining the international order from within the system .
Get the picture? China and Russia, China and Russia, China and Russia. Bad, bad, bad.
Why? Because they are successfully implementing their own development model which is NOT programed to favor US financial institutions
and corporations. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. The only reason Russia and China are a threat to the "rules-based system",
is because Washington insists on being the only one who makes the rules. That's why foreign leaders are no longer falling in line,
because it's not a fair system.
These assessments represent the prevailing opinion of senior-level policymakers across the spectrum. (The White House, the Pentagon
and the Intelligence Community) The USG is unanimous in its judgement that a harsher more combative approach is needed to deal with
Russia and China. Foreign policy elites want to put the nation on the path to more confrontation, more conflict and more war. At
the same time, none of these three documents suggest that Russia has any intention of launching an attack on the United States. The
greatest concern is the effect that emerging competitors will have on Washington's provocative plan for military and economic expansion,
the threat that Russia and China pose to America's tenuous grip on global power. It is that fear that drives US foreign policy.
And this is broader context into which we must fit the Russia investigation. The reason the Russia hacking furor has been allowed
to flourish and spread despite the obvious lack of any supporting evidence, is because the vilifying of Russia segues perfectly with
the geopolitical interests of elites in the government. The USG now works collaboratively with the media to influence public attitudes
on issues that are important to the powerful foreign policy establishment. The ostensible goal of these psychological operations
(PSYOP) is to selectively use information on "audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately
the behavior of organizations, groups, and individuals."
The USG now sees the minds of ordinary Americans as a legitimate target for their influence campaigns. They regard attitudes and
perceptions as "the cognitive domain of the
The emerging Euro-Asian power block is very heterogeneous. Russia, China, and the smaller affiliated players like Central Asia,
Iran, Syria, Turkey don't agree on almost anything. They have different cultures, religions, economies, demographic profiles,
even writing systems. The most rational strategy to prevent the Euro-Asian block from consolidating would be to get them to fight
each other. Alternatively, find the weakest link and attack it in an area where its reluctant allies don't share its interests.
Exactly the opposite has happened in the last 5-10 years: US has seemingly worked overtime to get China-Russia alliance of
the ground. They used to distrust each other, today, after Ukraine, South China See, etc they have become close allies. Same with
Iran and Syria: instead of letting them stew in their own internal problems – mostly religious and having a nepotistic elite –
US has managed to turn the fight into an external geo-political struggle, literally invited Russia to join in, and ended up losing.
Bush turned Iraq from a fanatically anti-Iran bastion to a reliable ally of Iran and started an un-winnable land war in Afghanistan
(incredible!). Obama turned Libya, the richest and most stable African country that threatened no-one and kept African migrants
far away, into a chaotic hellhole where slave trade flourishes and millions of Sub-Saharan Africans can use it to move on to Europe.
Then Obama tried to coup-de-etat Erdogan in Turkey, and – even worse – failed miserably. This gang can't shoot straight
– whatever they put in their position papers is meaningless drivel because they are too stupid to think. They have no patience
to wait for the right time to move, no ability to manage on the ground allies, and an aversion to casualties that makes winning
a war impossible. Today Trump threatens Germany over its energy security (pipelines), further antagonises Turkey and Erdogan,
watches helplessly as EU becomes the next UN (lame and irrelevant), and bets everything on a few small allies like Saudi Arabia
and Izrael that are of almost no use in Euro-Asia.
A guy who says about the Russia-gate collusion fiasco that ' maybe I had bad information ' is no master of the universe.
And he run the joint under Obama. Complaining about Russia saying bad stuff about you – or ' information warfare ' – is
a pathetic sign of weakness. Maybe the testosterone levels have dropped more than we have been told.
the russophobia is just drama to keep the MIC spending at $700+ billion per year
there is no way to justify that level of spending and pretend they don't have $25 billion one time to actually help solve the
real problem for the U.S.
"The USG now sees the minds of ordinary Americans as a legitimate target for their influence campaigns. They regard attitudes
and perceptions as "the cognitive domain of the battlespace" which they must exploit in order to build public support for their
vastly unpopular wars and interventions. "
Here is a short guide on how to detect subversion of the mind by the media and their handlers by a former military intelligence
officer.
If one recognizes that Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard, American Primacy & Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997)" in replacing
"Lebensraum" with "control over Eurasia", "Tausendjähriges Reich" with "American Primacy" and providing our 'elite' with an "realist"
and "amoral" excuse to act completely and consistently immoral one has to recognize too that this "Grand Chessboard" is an amalgamation
of 'Mein Kampf' and 'Il Principe".
Reluctant to use that Hitler comparison one ought to read the Introduction of the "Grand C
