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2019-12-06 -Lurid Crime Tales-
Jeffrey Epstein ‘Found a Niche ‐ Blackmailing American and Other Political Figures' For Foreign Powers
[Medium.com] 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, 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."
Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-06 02:18|| || Front Page|| [11143 views ]  Top

#1 Factual, partically factual, or complete fabrication, this Ben-Menashe fellow is certainly interesting.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-06 02:40||   2019-12-06 02:40|| Front Page Top

#2 This was posted before, and (as before) I recommend googling Ari Ben-Menashe --- a modern day baron Munchausen.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-06 02:40||   2019-12-06 02:40|| Front Page Top

#3 Wiki - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 adventure fantasy film.

I'm easily entertained. Mind if I just tag along out of idle curiosity ?

Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-06 02:47||   2019-12-06 02:47|| Front Page Top

#4 Remember the documents that exposed illegal NSA spying on Americans? One of their tactics was to have the truth attached to unsavory characters, so as to discredit it. Yup, it was in the slideshow presentations. It's one of the ways they took down "Occupy Wall Street".

I find it very easy to believe that Epstein was engaged in blackmail. It makes a ton of sense. It answers the question, "who benefits?"
Posted by Herb McCoy 2019-12-06 02:57||   2019-12-06 02:57|| Front Page Top

#5 ^Elders of Zion, Erb?
Posted by g(r)omgoru PB 2019-12-06 03:09||   2019-12-06 03:09|| Front Page Top

#6 Pot holders! Eureka, that's it. Epstein made all that dough weaving and selling pot holders. I just knew there had to be a logical explanation.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-06 03:14||   2019-12-06 03:14|| Front Page Top

#7 Nobody said he didn't blackmail your assholes, Besoeker. All I'm saying Mossad wouldn't involved in this kind of amateur shit - because it always backfires. And, given that people predisposed to believe any kind of shit about the Jews, on flimsiest of evidence...
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-06 03:46||   2019-12-06 03:46|| Front Page Top

#8 It answers the question, "who benefits?"

Something we often ask about you Erb.
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-06 04:58||   2019-12-06 04:58|| Front Page Top

#9 It's not that far off the mark.

But Ghislaine didnt give the business to Epstein, they were still working together.

This seems a stealthy effort to separate and defend her.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-12-06 06:00||   2019-12-06 06:00|| Front Page Top

#10 Ref #8: ....on flimsiest of evidence.

Calvinists, Presbyterians whatever, they're all alike, they're everywhere. You simply can't trust them.

Ja, ja, ja #11, if it looks like a duck. I'm going with #9 and "intelligence operation" (probably multilateral), until something more plausible comes along.

No one has yet to explain Epstein's apparent wealth. Appears to be little interest in his tax returns, and where is Ms. Maxwell ?


Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-06 06:16||   2019-12-06 06:16|| Front Page Top

#11 ^Jy krap met ń kort stokkie aan ń groot leeu se bal
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-06 07:26||   2019-12-06 07:26|| Front Page Top

#12 Re #11 - thank heavens for Google Translate.
Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2019-12-06 08:22||   2019-12-06 08:22|| Front Page Top

#13 ?
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-12-06 08:55||   2019-12-06 08:55|| Front Page Top

#14 The guy was obviously engaged in blackmail, and blackmail was obviously the source of at least part of his vast fortune. He had no other profession.

He was not a "money manager": no trading presence that any of the major counterparty trading houses ever saw; no trading or investment strategy that anyone ever heard or read; no supporting staff of back-office professionals or accountants or lawyers without whom a billion-dollar investment fund simply cannot operate.

His two skills in life were moving money across and through offshore vehicles and persuading wealthy and powerful American and British men to join his parties and give him huge sums of money.

Add to the above the extraordinarily rare incidence of ubiquitous spy cameras set up in his various romper rooms, and blackmail is the obvious conclusion.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 09:06||   2019-12-06 09:06|| Front Page Top

#15 "No one has yet to explain Epstein's apparent wealth. Appears to be little interest in his tax returns, and where is Ms. Maxwell ?"

Well what IRS is doing?
Posted by Spanky Whuter1088 2019-12-06 09:19||   2019-12-06 09:19|| Front Page Top

#16 You know, the constant playground insults used to irritate me. But now, they cheer me up. They mean you don't have any actual arguments. If you did you would use them.

The NSA's method was to take the truth, add a portion of obvious untruths, and put it in the mouth of odious people for transmission. We have hard proof of this. We know that's how they operate.

We also know it's highly illegal for them to run intelligence operations against America, but they did it. Not a single person went to prison.
Posted by Herb McCoy 2019-12-06 09:25||   2019-12-06 09:25|| Front Page Top

#17 Fair enough, Herb.
So: Who benefited from Epstein's blackmailing activities?
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 09:31||   2019-12-06 09:31|| Front Page Top

#18 I think the claim of blackmail is patently ridiculous, something out of a plot for a Hallmark movie. I may have only a limited sampling of humanity, but it does cross several fields of endeavor over time. No, no billionaires but more than a few millionaires.

All I can tell you is that making some form of blackmail demand to any of the self made, successful men I have known would get you a free tour of the Titanic, complete with the concrete overshoes.
Posted by Cesare 2019-12-06 09:56||   2019-12-06 09:56|| Front Page Top

#19 ^Hear, Hear.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-06 10:12||   2019-12-06 10:12|| Front Page Top

#20 Incidentally, anybody has the stats on what percentage of prostitutes in any major western city is underage?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-06 10:14||   2019-12-06 10:14|| Front Page Top

#21 The camera footage had zero entertainment value, and hardly any clinical value.

What kind of a sicko would want to watch old men, most of them like Andrew or pre-heart attack Clinton grossly overweight, having sex?

There's no plausible reason for the presence of such cameras other than blackmail.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 10:31||   2019-12-06 10:31|| Front Page Top

#22 All the photos at his parties. Ya had to know it was going on. The young girls up front, the Madam in the background. This is classic we have you and we have witnesses... Why did these people allow this to happen to themselves? Even strip clubs don't allow photos, and for a reason.
Posted by 49 Pan 2019-12-06 10:32||   2019-12-06 10:32|| Front Page Top

#23 My error Lex. TW, could u pls restore Lex's comment. Again, my apologies. I-fone posting from a Peletron. ..bad juju
Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-06 10:34||   2019-12-06 10:34|| Front Page Top

#24 Np, Besoeker. The post was a gentle query to Cesare: so why the cameras?
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 10:37||   2019-12-06 10:37|| Front Page Top

#25 Jy krap met ń kort stokkie aan ń groot leeu se bal

"You’re scratching a big lion’s bollocks with a short stick"
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-06 10:52||   2019-12-06 10:52|| Front Page Top

#26 The NSA's method was to take the truth, add a portion of obvious untruths, and put it in the mouth of odious people for transmission.

Much like yourself and cohorts?
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-06 10:54||   2019-12-06 10:54|| Front Page Top

#27 Well, maybe our ruling class is actually sicker than anyone imagined.

Me, I see the sums involved, combined with the absence of any serious deployment of the billions in any legitimate investments, and think that these must have been payoffs.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 10:55||   2019-12-06 10:55|| Front Page Top

#28 Incidentally, anybody has the stats on what percentage of prostitutes in any major western city is underage?

Didn't we see those numbers reported a couple of weeks back? I think the number was 1/3, for a Gaussian distribution (underage, age, overage).
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-06 10:58||   2019-12-06 10:58|| Front Page Top

#29 the constant playground insults used to irritate me.

Too bad you've become jaded.
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-06 10:59||   2019-12-06 10:59|| Front Page Top

#30 I think the number was 1/3, for a Gaussian distribution (underage, age, overage).

Skid - don't you mean 1/6 underage, 1/3 age, 1/6 overage?
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 11:04||   2019-12-06 11:04|| Front Page Top

#31 I mean 1/6, 2/3, 1/6
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 11:05||   2019-12-06 11:05|| Front Page Top

#32 Which stats make my point that it's not a big deal - not worth millions in blackmail
Posted by g(r)omgoru PB 2019-12-06 11:12||   2019-12-06 11:12|| Front Page Top

#33 Fair enough. I wouldn't have any idea about the scandal quotient.

But that still leaves the question: How did he amass so much money? He wasn't "managing" it.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 11:40||   2019-12-06 11:40|| Front Page Top

#34 How about if Epstein was just a pimp with some high dollar sporting ladies and an extremely wealthy clientèle? I mean, blackmailers aren't usually all that chummy with their victims like Epstein was with Bill and Andrew. The videos are troubling though and could have been transmitted all kinds of places. Hey, I got it! What if it was Clinton who got the videos, either for blackmail of merely for his own prurient interest?
Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-12-06 12:49||   2019-12-06 12:49|| Front Page Top

#35 ^Barney Madoff? Elisabeth Holmes?
Posted by g(r)omgoru PB 2019-12-06 12:51||   2019-12-06 12:51|| Front Page Top

#36 ^ = #33
Posted by g(r)omgoru PB 2019-12-06 12:52||   2019-12-06 12:52|| Front Page Top

#37 How about if Epstein was just a pimp with some high dollar sporting ladies and an extremely wealthy clientèle?

Could be. Nice work if you can get it. Those are some expensive tricks.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 12:53||   2019-12-06 12:53|| Front Page Top

#38 Don't think pimp or blackmailer, think power broker.
Posted by swksvolFF 2019-12-06 13:09||   2019-12-06 13:09|| Front Page Top

#39  TW, could u pls restore Lex's comment.

Not within my skills unless I happen to have the screen opened before it was spamcopped, Besoeker, I’m sorry. I’ve done it, too.
Posted by trailing wife 2019-12-06 13:43||   2019-12-06 13:43|| Front Page Top

#40 All I can tell you is that making some form of blackmail demand to any of the self made, successful men I have known would get you a free tour of the Titanic, complete with the concrete overshoes.

People like Prince Andrew are NOT successful or self made. They are to the Manor born. He was a money laundered and high level blackmailer. And you don't fit concrete overshoes to an individual that has dark allies in the background.
Posted by Clavising Dingle1362 2019-12-06 14:10||   2019-12-06 14:10|| Front Page Top

#41 #35 ^Barney Madoff? Elisabeth Holmes?

Holmes actually ran a company. She took money, hired employees, staffed laboratories, built and tested prototypes, signed deals with real customers like iirc Safeway.

Likewise, Madoff actually had a fund, actually traded, actually paid employees to clear trades, report gains & losses, prepare the books. He was a crook, he pillaged his business, but he actually ran a real business.

In contrast Epstein had nothing. No books. No reports, no audited financials. No one on Wall Street can point to any major trades he did. He was a ghost.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 14:17||   2019-12-06 14:17|| Front Page Top

#42 Guess I wasn't thinking of pre-pubes and grannies, Lex.
Posted by Skidmark 2019-12-06 14:27||   2019-12-06 14:27|| Front Page Top

#43 The Holmesian paradox, the dog that didn't bark! There is no way you can be this invisible financially yet prominent socially, unless you are protected by those that govern for whom you serve a purpose, however nefarious...
Posted by NoMoreBS 2019-12-06 14:29||   2019-12-06 14:29|| Front Page Top

#44 Well, I'm no expert on the matter but if I had to make a guess at the age distribution of the demo in question I would think it would more or less approximate the distribution for that favorite platform for every young female exhi8itionist self-expressionist, Instagram.

Here's the under-45 estimated age distribution for Instagram, as of late 2018 (87% of total Instagram users):

Ages 13–17: 57 million (7%)
Ages 18–24: 270 million (32%)
Ages 25–34: 270 million (32%)
Ages 35–44: 131 million (15%)

Even if you assume that the, uh, working woman distribution is slightly younger than the Instagram distribution, you'd still find a median age of somewhere around age 28, with a similar standard deviation (no pun intended) of maybe 9-10 years.

Hence my guesstimate that the under 18 crowd is >1 s.d. or not likely to be more than 16% of total, and probably a lot lower.

In short, underage prostitution -- in our wealthy, civilized, normal society anyway -- seems unlikely to be as common as you think.

But YMMV. That's just my guess based on Instagram data extrapolation.
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 14:43||   2019-12-06 14:43|| Front Page Top

#45 Just like Saville and the other BBC paedos.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-12-06 14:44||   2019-12-06 14:44|| Front Page Top

#46 #24 Good question. A) I have no idea IF there were cameras there. B) How about security? Which of the alleged players is NOT a solid candidate for some type of cardio event? Do you want the former president, British prince et al being shown across while some teenager is panicking under a blanket too frightened to get help? That sounds to me at least like the simple straight line. Of course not many straight lines around Epstein.

Just a thought, but I still find it nearly impossible to accept, doesn't mean it isn't so I have been wrong before.
Posted by Cesare 2019-12-06 15:57||   2019-12-06 15:57|| Front Page Top

#47 #41 read his wiki page starting with 1980es - quite a lot of finantial activity. IMO somebody who made money in gray area and tried to join the elite - by throwing extra-fun parties. And then things started going bad.
Posted by g(r)omgoru PB 2019-12-06 16:09||   2019-12-06 16:09|| Front Page Top

#48 Blackmailing the rich and powerful sounds like a recipe for a short life.
Posted by James  2019-12-06 19:00|| https://idontknowbut.blogspot.com  2019-12-06 19:00|| Front Page Top

#49 To be clear--shorter than 66 years.
Posted by James  2019-12-06 19:20|| https://idontknowbut.blogspot.com  2019-12-06 19:20|| Front Page Top

#50 He had a good run. Not sure that his death sent a signal to anyone.

I would think your typical blackmailing ped0 would follow the live-fast-die-young path
Posted by Lex 2019-12-06 20:43||   2019-12-06 20:43|| Front Page Top

#51 #40 Regardless of what animus you bear the Windsors the point is Andrew was one of many according to the great thesis. I took the most extreme, end game from what I know of the individuals I described.

But Princelings notwithstanding, have you given any serious thought to what extreme money buys? Imagine you never wait in line again, for anything ever. Airport security? Not for you. Grocery store, bank, DMV...not for you. Now let's just fill that in, you also don't give a laughing G/D about what anybody thinks.

Again, I took an end game mainly to illustrate what should be an obvious point. But if you would indulge in some momentary reflection I think you would realize that well over half the target, victim population couldn't care less. Donald Trump with the NY Daily News front page years ago is a perfect example. He sent his minions out to buy every last copy he could, had ornately framed versions posted around Trump towers including behind his desk. Then, he had copies hand delivered to many friends and enemies alike.

Short story long, you're going to have to work pretty hard to intimidate people with that kind of zort with information of any kind. But if you do, I hear there is still room on the Mezzanine deck albeit a couple of dark, cold, wet miles down.
Posted by Cesare 2019-12-06 21:09||   2019-12-06 21:09|| Front Page Top

11:40 swksvolFF
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