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In reply to the discussion: How Epstein groomed America's corrupt elite [View all]Kid Berwyn
(24,433 posts)Blackmail brings leverage. An important picture that ties things from commie-hunting Joe McCarthy era to Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump via Roger Stone and Associates and the late Jeffrey Epstein (the language Cohn used is not accurate: children are victims, not perpetrators):

The Ghost of Roy Cohn
BY TERRY MELANSON · AUGUST 24, 2014
EXCERPT...
In an interview with former NYPD detective James Rothstein, this author discovered that such operations do exist and go far back into Americas secret history. Rothstein is no conspiracy theorist. He is a legend in American law enforcement and speaks from experience. Furthermore, he gave me two notable examples from his time as a detective. Rothstein had an opportunity to have a sit-down with infamous McCarthy committee counsel Roy Cohn. During this sit-down, Cohn admitted to Rothstein that he was part of a rather elaborate sexual blackmail operation that compromised politicians with child prostitutes (Rothstein, no pagination). Cohn told Rothstein that this operation was being carried out as part of the anticommunist crusade of the time (no pagination).
Rothstein also had an opportunity to speak to infamous Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis. During this conversation, Sturgis revealed one of the reasons for breaking into the Watergate. According to Sturgis, there was a Pedophile Book hidden away at the Democratic National Committee headquarters (no pagination). The book was supposed to have a list of pedophiles on the American political scene (no pagination). One can only imagine the power G. Gordon Liddy would have held over the government if he had such a book in his possession.
I asked Rothstein if Roy Cohn was a real anticommunist or just using the fear of communism to justify his sex ring. It seemed like a fair question. After all, Cohn had argued against homosexuals being schoolteachers when he himself was a homosexual. Perhaps Cohns hypocrisy extended to his anticommunism. Rothstein made it clear that Cohn was a genuine anticommunist (no pagination). Anticommunist sentiments aside, evidence suggests that the sex ring operation started by Cohn was used for more than fighting the threat of domestic communists. Fugitive ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil has claimed that sexual blackmailing operations directed by the CIA were intensive in Washington during the Watergate era (DeCamp 179). Terpil also asserts that his former partner, Ed Wilson, was coordinating one of these sexual blackmail operations (179). In a letter to author Jim Hougan, Terpil revealed Wilsons modus operandi:
Historically, one of Wilsons Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary
. Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasies in the flesh
. A remembrance of these occasions [was] permanently recorded via selected cameras
. The technicians in charge of filming
were TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]. The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of [whom] may still be in office. (Qtd. in DeCamp 179)
According to John DeCamp, a former Nebraska Senator and Vietnam War hero, Wilsons operation was merely a continuation of the one set up by Cohn (179). When I asked James Rothstein if Palfreys outfit was a continuation of the sexual blackmail rings that began with Cohn, he answered in the affirmative (Rothstein, pagination). The NYPD veteran made it clear that Palfreys outfit could not exist in Washington unless it was a tool for the power elite and sinister factions of the intelligence community (no pagination). Somewhere in a Queens cemetery, the corpse of a high-powered attorney is smiling in his grave.
SOURCE:
https://www.conspiracyarchive.com/2014/08/24/the-ghost-of-roy-cohn/
International cabal of something to make the rich richer and most all of humanity their property.

Why Epsteins Links to the CIA Are So Important
We wont know the full truth about his crimes until the extent of his ties to US intelligence are clear.
by Jeet Heer
The Nation, December 19, 2025
Excerpt...
People have linked Epstein to the spy world for years. In 2019, Vicky Ward, writing in The Daily Beast, reported that Trumps thenlabor secretary, Alex Acostawho, as a federal prosecutor, had cut a notorious sweetheart plea deal with Epstein before his trial in 2008had made some startling comments about Epstein when he was being vetted for his role in the first Trump administration. As Ward noted, Acosta claimed that he had cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epsteins attorneys because he had been told to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone, he told his interviewers in the Trump transition [team].
Snip...
This view rests on the excellent reporting done by Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain on Drop Site News concerning Epsteins extensive work on behalf of Israeloften alongside former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barakas well as earlier work done by Matthew Petti in Reason. As Marcetic notes, this reporting shows Epstein, among other activities, repeatedly hosting an Israeli military intelligence officer and Barak aide who was in the United States to conduct official business; working with Barak to secure actions against Israeli adversaries, whether a US bombing of Iran or Russian backing for regime change in Syria; [and] brokering security agreements between Israel and Mongolia and Côte dIvoire.
Marcetic is right to emphasize that Epstein was tightly entwined with Israel, a fact that, despite mountains of evidence, the mainstream media has almost entirely ignored. But asset doesnt quite describe how Epstein operated, which was not as an agent carrying out orders but as a shaper of policy.
Epstein was a power player in global politics, a kind of diplomat without portfolio with better access to the wealthy and politically powerful than most real ambassadors. One way to understand him is as a product of a hyper-privatized neoliberal age. Just as much of the policing of the American empire is now done by private military companies (notably Constellis, formerly known as Academi and Blackwater), billionaires like Epstein have their own private foreign policy. Whatever work Epstein did with the CIA or the Mossad would have been as a peer rather than an employee.
In a 2014 e-mail to Barak about their shared journey into the worlds of cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, and surveillance, Epstein expressed excitement at the spread of global chaos, writing: with civil unrest exploding in ukraine syria, somolia [sic], libya, and the desperation of those in power, isnt this perfect for you. Barak responded, Youre right [in] a way. But not simple to transform it into a cash flow.
Continues...
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jeffrey-epstein-cia-ties/#
Public record shows CIA. MI6, MOSSAD and KGB connections to Epstein.

Leaked Emails Reveal Jeffrey Epstein's Connections to the Surveillance Industry
by Matthew Petti
Reason, Wed, August 27, 2025
After his first arrest for sex crimes, Jeffrey Epstein tried to get into a new line of work: surveillance. In 2015, he partnered with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to invest in a security tech startup called Reporty Homeland Security, now known as Carbyne. Leaked emails show that Epstein was using Barak to seek out opportunities in the surveillance industry and build connections with powerful figures around the globe, including American businessman Peter Thiel, the former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in Russian President Vladimir Putin's circle.
After he was first caught sexually exploiting teenage girls, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in 2008; he served a little over a year in detention. Meanwhile, he invested his wealth in bizarre projects, including a ranch to breed women with his DNA and "efforts to identify a mysterious particle that might trigger the feeling that someone is watching you," according to The New York Times.
The leaked emails show that Epstein was also interested in more mundane means of spying on and manipulating people, which overlapped with the technologies governments often pursue. This interest crossed borders.
Barak's email inbox was quietly posted by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a website widely considered to be a successor to WikiLeaks, on a file-sharing platform for verified journalists and researchers in May 2025. The contents came from Handala, a hacker group named for a Palestinian cartoon character that has been leaking files taken from senior Israeli officials for several months.
Although the emails were posted without technical metadata or cryptographic signatures that would allow their authenticity to be verified, they include dozens of images, videos, voice recordings, and scanned documents from Barak and his friends and family that have never been published elsewhere. And they include information that was not publicly known at the time of the email leaks, including a reference to Epstein's birthday book.
Continues
https://reason.com/2025/08/27/inside-jeffrey-epsteins-spy-industry-connections/
Whitney Webb does a great job specifying the global nature.
One last reminder about Bill Barr and his spooky father:
Donald Barr, AG William Barr's father, hired the college dropout Epstein to teach at an exclusive Manhattan prep academy, The Dalton School. Get em while theyre young.