Epstein, a serial rapist, masterminded a global human trafficking and sexual abuse network, and could count princes, professors, and politicians among his closest friends and accomplices.

MintPress News has been at the forefront of covering the Epstein saga, revealing his extremely close links to American and Israeli intelligence groups – a discovery that perhaps sheds light on why it took so long for the world’s most notorious pedophile to face accountability for his crimes.

Many of the DOJ files have been heavily redacted in order to protect Epstein’s powerful clients. Still, they have exposed a massive elite nexus revolving around the New York billionaire, implicating presidents, diplomats, and plutocrats in his crimes, and imply that Epstein was significantly more powerful than first thought, shaping modern politics in ways never previously understood.

With shocking new details emerging on a near-hourly basis, here are ten Epstein-related stories that have flown relatively under the radar.

The Israeli Government Installed Surveillance Cameras at Epstein’s New York Apartment

The Israeli government installed and maintained a hi-tech surveillance system at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment complex, including a network of alarms and cameras, emails show. Starting in 2016, the director of protective service at the Israeli mission to the United Nations controlled guests’ access to the Manhattan residence, and even performed background checks on prospective cleaners and other Epstein employees.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak admitted visiting the apartment up to 100 times, and stayed there for long periods of time. While Barak’s security may have been a concern, Epstein is known to have housed underage girls at the apartment, and many of his worst sexual crimes and most sordid parties were held there, raising questions as to what sort of images and data the Israeli government had access to.

Epstein Plotted War With Iran

Ehud Barak became one of Epstein’s closest associates, staying for extended periods of time at the billionaire’s residences. The pair would email, text, call, and meet constantly. A search for

“Ehud Barak” elicits more than 3500 results in the latest file dump alone.

The pair would talk politics, and shared a vision of the United States attacking Iran. In 2013, with negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran stalling, Epstein emailed Barak stating, in typically poor spelling and grammar: “hopefully somone suggests getting authorization now for Iran. the congress woudl do it.”

Epstein would get his wish in 2025, when his close associate Donald Trump began bombing the country.

Noam Chomsky Considered Epstein His “Best Friend”

Epstein arranged a meeting between Barak and renowned leftist academic (and vehement critic of the U.S. and Israel) Noam Chomsky. An unlikely friendship between the notorious pedophile and star professor blossomed, with the pair regularly meeting up at each other’s houses for dinner. Chomsky flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet to attend a dinner with Woody Allen in New York. He also expressed his desire to visit Little St. James Island, Epstein’s notorious Caribbean hideaway, and the center of his trafficking operation.

Chomsky considered Epstein his “best friend” according to an email sent by his wife, Valeria. The usually curt and matter-of-fact academic signed off his emails to Epstein with unexpectedly flowery language, such as “Like real friendship, deep and sincere and everlasting from both of us, Noam and Valeria.”

Chomsky strongly supported Epstein until his dying day in a Manhattan prison cell, taking it upon himself to act as his unofficial crisis manager, describing his accusers as “publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts,” and denouncing the media as a “culture of gossip-mongers” destroying his stellar character.

“Ive watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public,” he wrote, advising Epstein on tactics to fight the supposed smears against him.

For a full rundown of the Chomsky-Epstein relationship, see the MintPress News investigation: “The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic and a Notorious Pedophile.”

Steve Bannon Developed a Plan to Help Epstein “Crush the Pedo Narrative”

A second public figure running defense for Epstein was Steve Bannon. In public, the far-right strategist claimed that he was working on a documentary exposing Epstein. In private messaging, however, Bannon, like Chomsky, was advising Epstein on how best to repair his image.

Just weeks before Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death, Bannon was messaging him, devising a complex media strategy to clear his name. “First we need to push back on the lies; then crush the pedo/trafficking narrative; then rebuild your image as philanthropist,” he wrote.

While Epstein publicly aligned himself more with the Clintonite wing of the Democratic Party, he was also deeply drawn toward much of the philosophy of the modern alt-right, led by Bannon.

Epstein and Maxwell’s Influence on Internet Culture and the Modern Alt-Right

Indeed, there is significant circumstantial evidence to suggest that Jeffrey Epstein had far more of an effect on modern far-right politics than previously thought. In fact, he could have been among its creators.

In 2011, Epstein met with Christopher “Moot” Poole, the founder of infamous internet message board, 4chan. At the time of his meeting with Poole, Epstein and Bill Gates advisor Boris Nikolic were sharing articles and discussing via email how 4chan could be used to alter public opinion and whip up the masses into hysteria. “This article describes why I find moot interesting. The potential for manipulation is huge,” Nikolic wrote Epstein.

On the same day as the Epstein/Poole meeting, the latter created Politically Incorrect (/pol/), a political message board on 4chan that would serve as the birthplace and incubator for the modern alt-right, as well as a number of the most outlandish conspiracy theories, including QAnon and Pizzagate.

Gaining prominence during Trump’s first term in office, Pizzagate was an elaborate conspiracy theory claiming that global elites partook in satanic rituals around trafficking, raping, killing and eating children in the basement of a Washington D.C. pizzeria.

Given the timing of the meeting and the emails surrounding it, there is the very real possibility that Epstein himself influenced the creation of many outlandish theories about global pedophile rings, perhaps in order to discredit the notion in the first place.

Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, may have been, if anything, even more influential in shaping online culture. Maxwell is rumored to be Reddit power user MaxwellHill, moderator of a number of gigantic Subreddits, including, /r/WorldNews, /r/Technology, /r/Politics, /r/Science, /r/Travel, /r/Health, and /r/Environment. MaxwellHill was at one point the most popular Redditor on the platform, being the first to reach one million karma (akin to likes on other platforms).

Believers point to the account’s use of British English, its admission that they were born in December (like Ghislaine), and the fact that it vanished from the platform forever at exactly the time she was arrested and imprisoned.

If true, it would mean that Epstein and Maxwell were crucial in shaping online politics and internet culture more generally.

Bill Gates’ Affairs and Sexually Transmitted Infection

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates contracted a sexually transmitted infection from sex with “Russian girls,” then asked Epstein to provide him with antibiotics to “surreptitiously” give to his wife, Melinda, so that she not find out about his infidelity. That is according to 2013 emails Epstein wrote, but did not send.

Gates initially vehemently denied the claims. “Jeffrey wrote an email to himself, that email was never sent. That email is, you know, false” he said, adding, “It just reminds me, you know, every minute I spent with regret and I, you know, apologize that I did that.” Later, however, he admitted to having affairs with two Russian women.

When Melinda was asked about the claims, however, she did not refute them, saying she felt “unbelievable sadness” being reminded of a “painful time” in her life. In 2021, she divorced Bill, citing his friendship with Epstein as among the factors in the breakdown of their marriage.

Jeffrey Epstein Bankrolled the pro-Israel Lobby

Documents reveal that Epstein was one of the Israel Lobby’s most generous funders, the billionaire donating to a wide range of pro-Israel groups, including the Hillel Foundation, The United Jewish Association of New York, and Yeshiva.

In 2005 alone, Epstein donated $25,000 to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, a group that purchases equipment for the Israeli military. That same year, he gave $15,000 to the Jewish National Fund, an organization that builds illegal Jewish settlements in occupied Palestine. Even years after his conviction for sex crimes, Harvard Hillel was soliciting donations from Epstein.

Epstein was a vocal and committed Zionist, a 2012 email he sent insists that “Palestine has never historically existed.”

MintPress News was at the forefront of uncovering the connections between Epstein and Israeli intelligence, publishing a series of investigations into their links. The new tranche of documents also hints at this relationship. In 2018, Epstein sent Barack an email stating “you should make clear that I don’t work for Mossad,” followed by a smiley face.

A Dalai Lama/Epstein Connection?

The Dalai Lama is mentioned over 150 times in the new Epstein files, the emails showing that the billionaire was keen to associate himself with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

If journalist Michael Wolff is to be believed, he got his wish. Wolff noted that he met the Dalai Lama at a soirée at Epstein’s infamous New York mansion. The Central Tibetan Administration has categorically denied Wolff’s assertion.

Epstein did, however, meet with Tenzin Priyadarshi, a Tibetan monk and director of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at M.I.T. in Boston.

For more on this story, see the MintPress News investigation: “The Dalai Lama – Epstein Connection.”

U.S. Ambassador May Have Raped, Impregnated 11-Year-Old Child

One of the most explosive documents shows an FBI informant linking the U.S. Embassy to Epstein’s worldwide trafficking network. Kenneth Darrell Turner told the FBI that, in 2014, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne impregnated an 11-year-old Mexican child while at a U.S. Consulate-controlled building in Ciudad Juárez. The mother gave birth to a child and received a positive DNA match with Wayne.

The allegations have been largely ignored in corporate press. One outlet covering the story, however, was The Eagle, a student newspaper at American University in Washington, D.C., where Wayne now teaches. The news led to protests on campus, with students calling for authorities to review the allegations.

Wayne has categorically rejected the assertions against him, pointing out inconsistencies in Turner’s story. “The claims originate from a disjointed email chain that makes outlandish claims, including international conspiracies and other events that demonstrably never happened, as they would have been matters of public record or reported in the media at the time they occurred, and they were not,” he said.

Trump “Authorized” Epstein Murder – Epstein’s Brother

Jeffrey Epstein’s family do not believe that he killed himself in prison. “I have reason to believe he was killed because he was about to name names,” his brother, Mark, told the FBI in 2023, concluding that “I believe President Trump authorized his murder.”

Epstein was found dead in his cell in July 2019. Although officially labeled a suicide, many have suspected foul play, given the billionaire’s extensive connections that could compromise the rich and powerful.

The Trump administration has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein’s death. “The claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the Department of Justice wrote.

The Epstein Files have shocked the world, leading to political scandals on both sides of the Atlantic. While a number of senior figures in Europe, including the former prime minister of Norway, have been arrested, the U.S. Department of Justice appears to be unwilling to do the same. And with their announcement that they do not intend to release any more of the Epstein Files still in their possession, it appears that the DOJ is attempting to kill the Epstein story itself. With so much interest in the story, however, it seems unlikely that they will be able to dampen public’s demands to know just how far this scandal goes.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post Ten Epstein Revelations You Might Have Missed And Never New It appeared first on The Washington Standard.

Partying At Epstein’s House?

A serial networker, Epstein’s emails show that he worked hard to connect with the Dalai Lama, sending requests out to his web of contacts for an invitation. Joichi Ito, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, helped him in his endeavors, noting that his close contact, Tenzin Priyadarshi was a Tibetan monk, MIT’s Buddhist chaplain, and had a direct line to the Dalai Lama. As he wrote:

“Yes. First step would be to meet Tenzin. His student who runs the Dalai Lama center and is now a Director’s Fellow at the Lab and going to start the ‘ethics initiative’ at the Media Lab. We’re working on some cool things like a meeting about cognitive machines and man. I think you’ll probably like him. He can get us the Dalai Lama.”

Epstein would go on to meet with Priyadarshi and donate $50,000 to the Prajnopaya Institute, a Buddhist Center he founded. In 2019, Ito resigned in disgrace over his association with Epstein.

Epstein was excited by the prospect of reeling the lama into his personal network. “I’m working on the dalai lama for dinner” he emailed Soon Yi-Previn, wife of Woody Allen. “Any date for the lunch with Woody and dalai L?” celebrity scientist Lawrence Krauss asked Epstein two weeks later.

Another message from a redacted sender also hints at a closer relationship than previously known.

“Sorry for that didn’t check my email since yesterday morning. You know that I don’t have an Internet in my phone, why didn’t you call me or text me on my phone if you need me? About the event I told you almost a month ago on the island that Dalai Lama is coming and I want to go there to see him. But I can skip this event if you need my help today.” 

It is not clear whether the reference to the “island” is Little St. James, the infamous Caribbean retreat where the billionaire trafficked and raped girls and women.

From the emails alone, it is unclear whether Epstein and the Dalai Lama ever met in person. However, Michael Wolff, journalist and Epstein associate, stated multiple times that he personally saw him at Epstein’s Manhattan residence.

Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Epstein’s gigantic apartment was “filled with people you might want to meet, from Bill Gates, to Peter Thiel, to Larry Summers, Ehud Barak, Steve Bannon, Noam Chomsky, the Dalai Lama.” Host Joanna Coles interrupted Wolff, asking, “You met the Dalai Lama?” “Yeah, the list goes on, the list is extraordinary,” he replied. A shocked Coles asked him once again to clarify: “Did you actually meet the Dalai Lama at Jeffrey Epstein’s?” to which Wolff responded, “Yeah, indeed.”

The Central Tibetan Administration has categorically denied both Wolff’s claims and any deep connections between Epstein and the Dalai Lama. After analyzing the documents themselves, they concluded that they were marked by an “absence of any direct participation, confirmation, or acknowledgement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or by anyone acting on his behalf, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.”

“All references to His Holiness the Dalai Lama are strictly third-party mentions, often informal, speculative, or contextual, and do not establish any interaction, relationship, or communication between His Holiness and Jeffrey Epstein,” they concluded, adding that reports stating otherwise are often the work of “Chinese state-backed media outlets” with “vested interests” against the Tibetan independence movement.

Langley’s Favorite Religious Leader

Nevertheless, the presence of the Dalai Lama in the Epstein Files evoke memories of a 2023 incident involving a young boy. At a public event in India, the then-87-year-old leader invited a child on stage, ordering him to kiss him on the cheek. Holding the boy in place, he motions to his lips, saying “I think here also.” Cupping the boy’s chin, he kisses him on the mouth, as the audience applauds. Still holding the child, he then orders him to “suck his tongue.” The visibly shaken boy pulls back in disgust.

Weeks afterward, video from the incident went viral. The Dalai Lama was condemned by Indian children’s groups, and widely accused of pedophilia. Facing a media storm, his office put out a short statement apologizing to the boy, his family, and “his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.” “His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident,” the note explained.

While the Dalai Lama has strenuously denied the Epstein and child abuse allegations, he has been completely open about his connections to the CIA and U.S. intelligence, groups with whom Epstein is alleged to have had close relations. For decades, the Dalai Lama was on the CIA payroll, personally receiving $180,000 per year from the agency, as part of a wider American strategy to support the Tibetan separatist movement against Communist China.

After a failed 1959 uprising, he left Tibet for India, never to return. The CIA continued to support Tibetan guerillas, however, arming, training and funding hundreds of fighters at Camp Hale in Colorado, in an attempt to destabilize the government. But after the Nixon administration’s détente with China in the early 1970s, Tibetan independence was placed on the back burner, and the CIA money for the program, including the Dalai Lama’s personal stipend, dried up. “Once the American policy toward China changed, they [the CIA] stopped their help. Otherwise, our struggle could have gone on,” the Dalai Lama said of the decision.

The CIA continues to fund Tibetan movements through front organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Every year, the NED spends millions bankrolling programs targeting Tibet, supporting media, NGOs, and other Tibetan groups who oppose the Chinese government. There are currently at least 16 active Tibetan NED projects, although the organization does not disclose who are the recipients of their largesse, for fear it would reduce their credibility. Nevertheless, NGOs such as the Tibet Justice Center and the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy are known to be financed by Washington. As are Students for a Free Tibet and media such as the China Digital Times and China Change.

The purpose of these operations, one declassified State Department document notes, is “to keep the political concept of an autonomous Tibet alive within Tibet and among foreign nations, principally India, and to build a capability for resistance against possible political developments inside Communist China.”

Bad Karma

The release of the Epstein Files has made waves across the world, as celebrities, scientists, politicians, and royals have been implicated in a vast network of trafficking and sexual abuse. In the United Kingdom, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) was arrested, while the house of ex-cabinet member, Lord Mandelson, was raided by the police. Meanwhile, in Norway, former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been charged with aggravated corruption relating to his dealings with the disgraced New York financier.

In the United States, however, not a single individual has faced legal consequences for their actions. Moreover, the Department of Justice announced that the January 30 release of 3 million pages of documents would be its last, as it had met its legal obligations. This, despite only 2% of the total Epstein files it holds having been published (and many heavily redacted, at that).

Why Epstein wished to meet the Dalai Lama so much is unclear. The billionaire appeared to enjoy “collecting” well-known figures. The Dalai Lama himself is remaining tight-lipped. And with Epstein dead and no more files scheduled to be released, it is likely that we may never hear the final word on this mystery.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post The Dalai Lama – Epstein Connection appeared first on The Washington Standard.

Many of these soldiers served in Afghanistan, where it is now acknowledged that the U.S. military aided their local allies in “bacha bazi” (boy play): the practice of kidnapping and keeping boys as sex slaves, large numbers of whom were enslaved on U.S. military compounds.

MintPress News explores this dark and deeply disturbing topic.

Unspeakable Crimes

In August 2023, Joshua Glardon – a first sergeant in the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg – was sentenced to 76 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised released, for the distribution of child pornography across the internet. An unnamed woman – his accomplice – was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she “confessed to allowing him to rape” her child.

Just two weeks later, Major Vincent Ramos was arrested at North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport on one count of statutory rape of a child younger than 15, seven counts of statutory sex offense with a child younger than 15, and two counts of indecent liberties with a child. A logistics officer based at Fort Bragg, he was later charged with two more counts of indecent liberties with a child.

And one month after that, in October 2023, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Stuart P. Kelly of the 82nd Airborne Division was sentenced to 16 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge after pleading guilty to raping and abusing a child under the age of 12. Kelly had made the child touch him and perform oral sex on camera.

Meanwhile, Staff Sergeant Carlos Castro Callejas was handed a 55-year jail term, a dishonorable discharge, and a demotion to the rank of private, after facing 13 charges of rape of a child under 12 years old.

All four of these men were not only based at Fort Bragg, but have served lengthy tours in Afghanistan. But they are merely the tip of a shockingly large iceberg of dozens of individuals from Fort Bragg who have been arrested on crimes related to abusing and trafficking minors.

According to investigative journalist Seth Harp, who uncovered a massive narcotics smuggling and distribution network run by elite military operators at the base in his book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces,” there has been a tenfold increase in such cases since 2021 and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. But even more chilling is the choice of victims for these sexual predators; “I have not heard in years about one case of these special forces guys raping a woman. In the same time, I’ve heard about 15 cases of them raping children,” he told Abby Martin and Mike Prysner on the Empire Files podcast.

All this raises a plethora of serious questions about what is going on at the base, and what sort of dark and chilling secrets are being kept there.

“Laughing Off” Child Sexual Assault

A sprawling, city-sized base on the outskirts of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Fort Bragg is home to some 50,000 military personnel, making it one of the largest military installations anywhere in the world. It is home to many of the U.S.’ most elite organizations, including JSOC, Delta Force, the 3rd Special Forces Group, and the 82nd Airborne Division.

It also lies minutes away from I-95, the primary north-south interstate route on the American Eastern Seaboard. I-95 stretches from Miami in the south to the Canada/Maine border in the north, making it a crucial transport highway. Fayetteville is near its halfway mark. “It is a natural point, almost like a city that grew up upon the Silk Road in ancient times,” Anthony Aguilar told MintPress News, “It is a matter of fact that throughout this part of North Carolina, along the 95 corridor, there are vast amounts of sex trafficking and human trafficking in these areas. It is because of the accessible route from border to border that these things are trafficked or smuggled.” Anthony Aguilar is a former United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, Special Forces Green Beret, and a former Battalion Commander at Fort Bragg. In 2025, he became a whistleblower, revealing serious misconduct about U.S.- and Israeli-backed operations in Gaza.

He alleged that other commanders at Fort Bragg are well aware of the epidemic of child sex crimes, but “laugh about it or brush it off,” stating:

“Military leadership at the highest ranks are aware of what is happening, and they choose to cover it up. Not ignore it; they don’t ignore it. They acknowledge it. They choose to cover it up, because nobody wants to look like their unit is a bad and undisciplined unit. Nobody wants to look like troublemakers.” 

Aguilar shared with MintPress an example of this from was when he was a commander of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg. A warrant officer was accused multiple times of sexually assaulting and abusing his stepdaughter – a minor – and producing pornography of these events. His chain of command decided not to do anything about it, but simply transfer him to Aguilar’s unit.

“He came to ours, and he did it again. My position on it was: court-martial, grand jury hearing, criminal case, criminal prosecution before a military judge,” he said. However, he was unable to carry this out as, “a three-star general circumvented my authority to charge him, and took that court-martial case up to his level, and then recanted those charges, and simply offered him a deal: ‘get out the Army and we won’t charge you criminally.’” The warrant officer took the deal, was discharged, and faced no criminal charges. Clearly disturbed by the event, Aguilar noted:

“That is why this continues to happen. That is why this is part of the culture. That is why these things continue to grow. It is because commanders at the highest level continue to hide it. They lie about it. And they do not hold those who do it accountable, in fear that it makes them look bad as a commander.” 

“Women Are For Children, Boys Are For Pleasure”

Many American soldiers and operators encountered a similarly widespread practice of child sexual assault in Afghanistan – and found a correspondingly permissive attitude from U.S. officials and military top brass.

The practice is called bacha bazi, a process by which men exploit and enslave adolescent boys, coercing them into cross-dressing, wearing makeup, dancing suggestively, and acting as sex slaves. The bachas (boys) are generally aged between nine and fifteen years old, and inordinately come from impoverished or vulnerable backgrounds. Many grew up in orphanages, are street children, or have been sold into slavery by relatives facing starvation. Others are simply abducted. Bacha Bazes (boy players) are typically older, wealthier men who consider the ownership of one or more young boys to be a status symbol, often giving them money and expensive clothing. In Afghanistan’s strictly gender segregated society, a common saying is that “women are for having children, boys are for pleasure.”

The United Nations has condemned bacha bazi. “It is time to openly confront this practice and to put an end to it,” Radhika Coomaraswamy, then Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, told the U.N. General Assembly in 2009. “Laws should be passed, campaigns must be waged and perpetrators should be held accountable and punished,” she added.

Although it had been known for centuries, occurrences in Afghanistan exploded in the 1980s with the ascendancy of the U.S.-backed Mujahideen government. It was briefly quashed under the Taliban (1996-2001), but returned again in the 21st century under the U.S.-protected Afghan government, made up of many of the same elements who were in power two decades previously.

How Washington Participated In Mass Child Sexual Slavery

The United States government actively tried to ignore the practice – an open secret in military and diplomatic circles. However, as it was withdrawing from the country, the State Department belatedly released a report admitting that, for nearly 20 years of occupation, there existed, “a government pattern of sexual slavery on government compounds.” U.S.-trained and funded authorities, it noted, “continued to arrest, detain, penalize, and abuse many trafficking victims, including punishing sex trafficking victims for ‘moral crimes’ and sexually assaulting victims who attempted to report trafficking crimes to law enforcement officials.” NGOs who helped the children, the report noted, advised them not to go to the police, as they were often the ones responsible for enslaving them in the first place.

Bacha bazi was primarily practiced by high-status individuals put in power by U.S. occupation forces – police, military, teachers, and government officials. Many of these people lived with their boys on U.S. compounds. This meant that, in practice, the U.S. taxpayer was subsidizing the widespread rape of children, one of the many reasons that American personnel were so unpopular with the local population, and why the U.S.-installed government fell within days of the 2021 military pullout. As Harp stated:

“The whole time that the U.S. was in Afghanistan, they were working with, protecting, funding, and arming guys who were systematically raping little boys, keeping them in chains on U.S. military bases – chained children on U.S. bases who were raped on a nightly basis! What can we even make of this? I struggle to wrap my mind around not only the evil of it, but how little anybody ever said about it.”

One example of the levels of depravity of the U.S.’ allies comes from Jordan Terrell, a former Fort Bragg paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne. At Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar Province in 2014, Terrell recalls seeing a group of young bachas running around the base. One, he noticed, “had something hanging out of his butt.” At first confused by the site, he later realized that what he saw was the child’s prolapsed anus from being repeatedly sodomized. “Dudes were exposed to that stuff so much,” he said, “The Afghan National Army, Afghan police… The contractors who cooked our food. Those guys raped children.”

Officially, Washington saw nothing. On 5,753 occasions between 2010 and 2016, the U.S. military was asked to review Afghan units to see if there were any gross human rights abuses noted. American law requires military aid to be cut off from any offending unit. On zero occasions did they report any abuses.

Yet bacha bazi was so widespread that virtually all U.S. personnel had heard about it. Aguilar stated that soldiers were relieved to make it to Friday every week, joking that: “It’s man-boy love Friday, so we are not going to get attacked very much today, because they are all having sex with their young boy concubines.”

The practice was as open as it was widespread. In 2016, an Afghan police commander invited a Washington Post journalist to his office for tea, where he gleefully showed off what he called his “beautiful boy slave.” The Afghan police were just one of a myriad of organizations the U.S. government sponsored during its 20-year, $2 trillion occupation of the country.

“I heard of it a number of times from both U.S. military and State Department officers throughout Afghanistan and in D.C., usually off-hand, with an exasperated what are you going to do type affect to their comments,” Matthew Hoh, a former U.S. Marine Corps Captain and State Department official told MintPress News, adding:

“It was clear that such crimes were not to be intruded upon. I doubt there was official paperwork to that effect, but it was clearly understood that we were to accept the rape of children as part of the bargain in our relationship with the Afghans we had put and kept in power.” 

In 2009, after growing increasingly disillusioned with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, Hoh resigned from his position at the State Department in Zabul Province.

Other Americans who tried to blow the whistle on the disturbing practice (and American complicity in it) ended up dead. One was Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley Jr., who was kept up at night by the shrieks of children being raped by Afghan police in rooms beside him at Forward Operating Base Delhi in Helmand Province.

Via a phone call, Buckley told his father that, from his bunk, “we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it.” His officers told him to “look the other way” because “it’s their culture.” It would be the last time his father heard Buckley’s voice, as he was murdered on the base days later by the very locals he was trying to train and protect.

Others who have taken matters into their own hands have had their careers destroyed by the military. Green Berets Captain Dan Quinn and Sergeant First Class Charles Martland found out that a local police commander in Kunduz Province had kidnapped a boy and was keeping him chained to the bed as a sex slave. After learning that she had turned to the Americans for help, the commander also beat up the boy’s mother. Quinn and Martland confronted him, but he laughed it off, telling them “it was only a boy,” after all. Incensed, the pair threw him to the floor, punched and kicked him.

Quinn was relieved of his command and sent back to the United States, where he left the military. Martland was originally going to be expelled from the Army, but, after a public backlash, he was quietly reinstated.

Drug Abuse, Child Abuse

The prevalence of Bacha bazi closely mirrors that of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. The practice was far less common in the 1970s and 1980s, under the U.S.S.R.-backed, secular, Communist government. In an effort to overthrow the regime and bleed the Soviets dry, Washington spent $2 billion funding, training, and arming local Mujahideen militias (including Osama bin Laden). The Mujahideen seized control of Afghanistan in 1992, not long after the demise of the Soviet Union.

Presented as brave and gallant freedom fighters, the Mujahideen were lauded in the West. But, as in Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, and much of the rest of the world, the U.S. so often allies itself with deeply unsavory movements in order to achieve its ends.

Not only were the Mujahideen religious reactionaries, but they displayed a conspicuous penchant for kidnapping and molesting children, and the practice exploded once they attained power.

Although bacha bazi was widely adopted by the Mujahideen, it was never accepted by much of the public, who saw it as barbaric and monstrous. Therefore, despite their depiction as the Afghan equivalent of the Founding Fathers in the Western press, many in Afghanistan saw their new rulers as little more than a gang of U.S.-imposed pedophile warlords.

The Mujahideen would be supplanted in only four years by the Taliban, who rose to power in no small part due to the nationwide revulsion and outrage over bacha bazi. Indeed, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban until his death in 2013, shot to fame due to his prominent opposition to the practice. In 1994, he led a group of armed men on a series of raids to rescue kidnapped and enslaved boys and girls.

The stunt made him a national hero, and greatly increased the Taliban’s strength and prestige. From a force of just 30 fighters, his militia grew to 12,000 by the year’s end, as thousands joined his cause, paving the way for their march on Kabul in 1996. Upon seizing power, the Taliban outlawed bacha bazi, making it punishable by death. Thus, while the Taliban are hardly known for their human rights policies, they were at least able to gain some public support through their actions to stamp out child rape.

This period, however, proved to be short-lived, as just five years later, in 2001, the United States would invade Afghanistan in order to topple the Taliban, putting in place many of the deposed Mujahideen figures from the previous regime. The return of the U.S.-backed government saw the reemergence of bacha bazi, with many top government, police and military officials flaunting their child concubines. This included even family members of President Hamid Karzai.

Likewise, drug production in Afghanistan directly correlates with U.S. involvement in the country. In the 1970s, heroin production was minimal, and largely for domestic consumption. But as the Western-backed regime change war dragged on, Washington looked for other ways to support the insurgency. They found their answer in opium, and soon, refineries processing locally-grown poppy seeds sprang up on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Trucks loaded with U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons entered Afghanistan from their ally, Pakistan, and returned filled to the brim with opium.

As Professor Alfred McCoy, author of “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,” told MintPress,

“What the resistance fighters did was they turned to opium. Afghanistan had about 100 tons of opium produced every year in the 1970s. By 1989-1990, at the end of that 10-year CIA operation, that minimal amount of opium — 100 tons per annum — had turned into a major amount, 2,000 tons a year, and was already about 75% of the world’s illicit opium trade.”

The operation caused a worldwide boom in opium consumption, with heroin addiction more than doubling in the United States alone. The drug became a cultural touchstone, as illustrated in popular movies such as Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream. By 1999, annual production had risen to 4,600 tons.

Once again, the deeply religious Taliban stepped in to suppress the practice. A 2000 ban on opium cultivation led to a precipitous drop in production, with just 185 tons harvested the following year. Although the prohibition hit local farmers hard, it did begin to combat Afghanistan’s terrible opioid crisis, again gaining the Taliban some legitimacy with the local population.

Like with bacha bazi, though, the U.S. occupation reversed this trend. Under American supervision, opium production skyrocketed, reaching a high of 9,000 tons in 2017. Afghanistan became the world’s first true narco-state, with McCoy noting that by 2008, opium was responsible for well over half of the country’s gross domestic product. By comparison, even in Colombia’s darkest days, cocaine only accounted for around 3% of its GDP. More land in Afghanistan was under cultivation for opium than was used for coca across all of Latin America.

Many of those making fortunes from the business were the U.S.’ closest allies. This again included the Karzai family; the president’s brother, Ahmed Wali, was among the biggest and most notorious drugs kingpins in the region.

Shortly after coming back to power, the Taliban again banned the production of opium, sending teams of men across the country to eradicate poppy fields. In what even Western corporate media called “the most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history,” production fell by over 80% almost overnight, and has only continued to decrease since then. The speed and success of the operation raised serious questions about the United States’ true relationship with the global drug trade.

Taliban’s Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions About What US Was Doing All Along

An Incredibly Lucrative Business

Soldiers at Fort Bragg were closer than anyone else to the unseemly underbelly of the Afghanistan occupation. Units such as JSOC, Delta Force, the 3rd Special Forces Group and the 82nd Airborne Division worked closely with Afghan security forces, and had a front row seat to their activities.

“The Fort Bragg Cartel” uncovers a giant gun and drug trafficking network centered around the base, revealing how soldiers used military planes to sneak arms and narcotics into America, distributing them across the continent. Criminals in the U.S. military, Aguilar notes, have learned a great deal about trafficking and smuggling contraband, stating that:

“When you deploy as a military and you have all of your 90 cubic inch containers that get locked up will all your stuff in it. Those don’t get inspected when they fly back over on a military aircraft and land at Fort Bragg…[They learn] How easy it would be to transport and traffic weapons, drugs, and yes, even humans, back and forth, from country to country. It is all very doable. And it is all very lucrative.”

Military bases are the perfect smuggling operation centers. There is little oversight or inspection, and soldiers can move around the country from base to base, and are less likely to be stopped and searched by the police. A disproportionate amount of those soldiers convicted came from backgrounds in logistics, where they were trusted with transporting large shipments of goods to and from the U.S., all with minimal input or scrutiny from higher ups.

Selling guns and drugs is one thing. But trafficking and raping children is quite another. How could anyone consider engaging in such sickening behavior? And why has the practice exploded around Fort Bragg? For some, the answer was psychological: American troops, taught to dehumanize their enemies and exposed to child abuse on a daily basis come to see it as normal behavior. As Terrell suggested, “In some sick way…when they came back, maybe they just internalized it, and turned it into a sexual proclivity.”

There is, however, a simpler explanation: money. Some Fort Bragg soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and exposed to bacha bazi came back to the United States and see an opportunity to make huge amounts of money trafficking humans, and creating and selling child pornography.

“It is less of a matter of soldiers coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan and having this learned behavior of sexual deviance, child pornography, or abusing children, it is a learned behavior that child pornography and sex trafficking minors is very very profitable,” Aguilar said; “They see that, and they think, ‘This is really lucrative.’”

The Taliban have once again made bacha bazi a capital offense. It is unclear if the new law has suppressed the practice, or merely driven it underground. After all, Afghanistan’s sanction-hit economy means that the economic incentives for destitute families to sell their sons to rich officials are as pressing as ever. Moreover, there are reports that some Taliban commanders allegedly hold bachas themselves.

What is clear, however, is that the tactics and practices used by the United States military abroad are increasingly being used against the domestic population. From surveillance and militarized policing to increasing intolerance of dissent, civil liberties are being eroded by forces using techniques honed on subjects in Western Asia. In November, an Afghan commando and former member of a CIA-trained death squad, carried out a mass shooting in Washington, D.C.

While it is clear that the U.S. invasion destroyed Afghanistan, it also took its toll on America itself. The occupation directly contributed to the opioid crisis at home. And it appears that it is also connected to the epidemic of child sexual abuse documented here, as soldiers abuse children for profit. What has been happening at Fort Bragg, then, is part of the wider psychological degradation of American society, one that is controlled by a government that has sacrificed everything sacred to protect and advance its imperial ambitions.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post US Military Aided Mass Child Rape in Afghanistan – Now Its Soldiers Are Committing This Crime At Fort Bragg appeared first on The Washington Standard.

• Right up until his arrest for child sex trafficking, Chomsky was advising Epstein on crisis management, sympathizing with the “horrible way you are being treated in the press and public.”
• On multiple occasions, Chomsky expressed his desire to visit Little St. James Island, site of Epstein’s infamous sex crimes. 
• Chomsky flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his mansions in Manhattan and Paris, and regularly met him for dinner and other social occasions. 
• Chomsky quietly met with a host of other highly questionable characters, including Steve Bannon, Woody Allen, and Ehud Barak. 
• Chomsky considered Epstein his “best friend,” and his closest advisor, and regularly exchanged gifts with the disgraced pedophile. 
• Chomsky’s relationship with his children broke apart, due in part to their protests over his attempts to name Epstein’s accountant and right-hand man to the board of the family’s trust fund. 

Newly released documents have shed light on the unlikely relationship between renowned leftist professor Noam Chomsky and disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Analyzing over 3800 emails and texts involving the academic, MintPress News has uncovered a deep, years-long friendship between the two, one where they became “best friends” and each other’s closest confidants. Chomsky flew on Epstein’s notorious “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his apartments in Manhattan and Paris, and expressed his desire, on multiple occasions, to visit Little St. James Island, the location of many of Epstein’s worst sex crimes.

Years of exchanging gifts and dining together – events that frequently included other highly controversial characters, such as disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen, far-right political strategist Steve Bannon, and former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned the pair into the closest of friends. Chomsky became a key figure in Epstein’s attempts at crisis management, sharing his thoughts about strategies to quash and counter what he called “the onslaught of venomous attacks” against him. Meanwhile, Epstein became the star political philosopher’s trusted legal and financial advisor, a fact that would lead to a near collapse in the relationship between Noam and his children.

This is the story of the previously unknown relationship between the man who The New York Times called “the most important intellectual alive” and the world’s most infamous sexual predator.

Noam Chomsky: Jeffrey Epstein’s Crisis Manager

After 36 survivors – some as young as 14 – came forward, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges related to child sex crimes. He was, however, given only an 18-month sentence, and served only 13 months in a minimum security prison that he was allowed to leave six days per week. The U.S. attorney who struck this lenient deal reportedly stated that he did so under duress, and was told to “back off,” as Epstein “belonged to intelligence.”

Key to Epstein’s crimes becoming known was the testimony of his victim, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre alleged that Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell operated a worldwide sex trafficking operation, where women and girls were kidnapped and forced to have sex with the world’s rich and powerful. This allegedly included royals like Prince Andrew, politicians such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and academics, like Alan Dershowitz. Epstein reportedly made his fortune by keeping copious evidence of their sex crimes and extorting his clients. Previous Epstein Files releases have strongly indicated that Epstein, like Maxwell’s father and family, worked for Israeli intelligence.

The testimony from Giuffre and others sparked worldwide uproar, eventually forcing the U.S. government to act. In 2019, the FBI arrested Epstein, holding him in a high security Manhattan prison. Just weeks later, he was found dead in his cell, under highly suspicious circumstances.

Epstein was aware that the walls were closing in. Months before his arrest, he sent Chomsky a number of panicked emails, desperately asking for guidance on how to squash the widespread demands for his arrest.

On February 23, 2019, he wrote:

“Noam. I’d love your advice on how I handle my putrid press. Its is spiralling out of control. Do I have someone write an oped? Defend myself. Or try to ignore. Realizing that mobs are dangerous!” 

“Can use some advice. The press is painting me as a monster. Congress, Senate being fed by plaintiffs. Lawyers only wanting money. I have no skill with the general public or media… Suggestions??” he asked another time.

Chomsky’s suggestion was generally to remain silent, hoping the situation would blow over. “Ive watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It’s painful to say, but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it. I’ve had plenty of experience, though of course not on this scale,” he replied, adding that some of his close friends have also gone through the same thing.

“What the vultures dearly want,” he continued, “is a public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts.”

“Hard to say, but it’s the best advice I can think of,” he concluded, sympathizing with all the “torture and distress” the affair has caused. This is not a reference to the vast numbers of girls and women Epstein trafficked, abused, and raped, but to the mental anguish Epstein himself was going through, as his criminal network was being slowly and very publicly unraveled.

In his emails to Epstein, Chomsky denounced what he described as the “culture of gossip-mongers” destroying his stellar character. “These things have a half-life. The best reaction, I think, is to just stay above the furor, wait it out, go on with what matters.”

On December 29, 2018, Epstein asked his unofficial crisis manager for feedback on an op-ed article he wrote about himself in the third person, which he said he would send to The Washington Post and have published.

The fawning, saccharine piece presented Epstein as a near saint suffering outrageous slanders. As it read:

“The critics are wrong on the facts and the law. They also ignore a fact going to the heart of fundamental fairness: In the decade since paying his debt to society, Jeffrey Epstein has led a life characterized by responsible citizenship, numerous acts of generosity and good deeds.  Here are the true key facts: Jeffrey Epstein [is] a successful self-made businessman with no prior criminal history whatsoever.” 

It also stated that he “was treated exactly the same (including his time served) as any other state-incarcerated individuals,” for his 2008 conviction, a bizarre claim, considering his lenient sentence and conditions of incarceration.

Despite the fact that this was clearly a sock puppet article (a practice whereby an individual claims to be another entity in order to boost credibility), Chomsky was deeply impressed. “It’s a powerful and convincing statement,” he replied, although he once again advised against drawing even more media attention to the matter:

“Few are willing to think through the arguments and factual details or to try to adjudicate conflicting claims. I’ve seen this happen over and over on other matters… Ugly and bitter as it is, I suspect the best course now is not to stir the pot by raising the issue publicly, opening the door to charges and accusations that can no doubt be answered in the court of logic and fairness — but that’s not the public domain, where innuendo and suspicion and accusation reign.” 

Chomsky suggested that, unfortunately, Epstein would simply have to “develop a thick skin” to “fend off whatever ugliness breaks through now and then.” “The great work that you have been doing speaks for itself,” he concluded, without explaining what exactly he was referring to.

Although the emails clearly show the extent to which Epstein trusted Chomsky, his intellect, and his judgment, he did not fully take his advice, and pursued a number of active measures to muddy the waters and improve his public image. One of these was to attempt to produce a documentary film about himself, presenting him in a good light. Epstein went into his Rolodex of influential people, calling in favors to see who would appear on camera endorsing him.

If his texts are to be believed, Chomsky was one of his most enthusiastic backers. “Spoke to Chomsky, he’s all in” he messaged an undisclosed associate in December 2018.

Epstein had leaned on Chomsky’s support previously. In 2017, he asked the professor to write a few paragraphs on why he continued to value his friendship for an article in Forbes magazine, the gist of which, according to Epstein, would be “why people still want his advice after all of his personal travails.” It appears that the article was never published.

Chomsky is often described as an “intellectual rock star,” or an “American Socrates.” The father of modern linguistics, he is more well known for his political work and activism, which has seen him become an icon of the left. First coming to public attention for his opposition to the Vietnam War, he has written in excess of 150 books on politics, social science, and the media.

His first wife, Carol, with whom he had three children, died in 2008. In 2014, he subsequently married Valeria Wasserman, a Brazilian translator 35 years his junior. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 2023, leaving him unable to speak or meaningfully converse. Until his final public appearances, however, he continued to defend Epstein, even after the latter was found dead in his cell.

In 2020, when asked about Epstein’s sex crime convictions, Chomsky was adamant: “There is a principle of Western law, that once a person has served a sentence, he is are the same as everybody else. It seems to be forgotten. Why this obsession but not with more significant characters?” he said, also attempting to deflect, noting that far worse people than Epstein regularly donate to his university, M.I.T.

One of his last interviews was with The Wall Street Journal, who questioned him directly about his connections to the disgraced billionaire. Chomsky was unusually blunt. “That is none of your business. Or anyone’s,” he stated, adding, “I knew him and we met occasionally.”

However, as this investigation will show, that is a self-serving and misleading description of an extremely close relationship forged over many years.

Flying on the Lolita Express, Dreaming of Epstein’s Rape Island

For years, Jeffrey Epstein allowed Chomsky to periodically live a life of extreme luxury, plying him and his wife with gifts, and providing them access to his property, vehicles, and staff.

Emails show that, in May 2016, while he was in New York City for a lecture, Noam met up with Epstein and stayed at his residence. The location in question is very likely to be Epstein’s palatial, seven-floor 51,000 square feet (4,700m²) mansion. A former hospital turned into a single apartment, the property is filled with paintings of naked women and other highly sexualized art, and was where Epstein would traffic and rape his slaves, as well as hold wild sex parties for his powerful guests. Chomsky described it as “that lovely apartment where you once put us up,” indicating he stayed there on more than one occasion.

When federal agents raided the property in July 2019, they found a framed photo of Epstein with the Chomskys on a bedside table.

This was not the first time that Chomsky had tasted some of New York’s most luxurious residences, courtesy of Epstein. In 2015, the billionaire booked him into the $1400-per-night Manhattan Suite at the Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side.

And in order to travel in style, he flew aboard Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express” – a reference to the child sex crimes widely alleged to have regularly taken place aboard.

Many years ago, internet sleuths combing through the Facebook profile of Valdson Vieira Cotrin – Epstein’s Parisian butler – were shocked to find an image that appeared to show him arm-in-arm with Chomsky. The latest tranche of emails proves this photo to be accurate.

“Dear Jeffrey, We had a wonderful day. Valdson took good care of us. Drove us to the Louvre, went to pick us up, brought us to your wonderful apartment for a delicious meal. We just missed your company,” Valeria wrote, attaching a selfie for him to enjoy.

The property in question was Epstein’s 7,400-square-foot apartment at 22 Avenue Foch in Paris’ exclusive 16th arrondissement, just a stone’s throw away from the Arc de Triomphe.

Other emails show Epstein was offering his other properties to the Chomskys. “You should also feel free to use my Palm Beach house, for just you and [REDACTED]. You will be well looked after. It’s very warm. Anytime this or next month,” he wrote in February 2016. Noam was tempted. “Lovely offer. Don’t think we’re not thinking about it. Hard,” he replied.

Chomsky, however, had his eyes set on an entirely different property of Epstein’s: the one on Little St. James Island. On multiple occasions, he signalled his eagerness to visit what would come to be known as one of the most notorious houses on the planet.

Epstein’s 70-acre private island became world renowned after U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George alleged that dozens of girls, some as young as 12-years-old, were imprisoned and raped at the property. The compound, full of occult symbolism, was put up for sale in 2022 in order to pay for a host of lawsuits.

In February 2016, he offered to send the Lolita Express to Boston to pick up the Chomskys, and take them to Little St. James Island. “Can’t tell you how tempting the invitation is. Have to somehow work out the schedule,” Noam replied.

A few months later, Noam was still dreaming of visiting. “Valeria’s always keen on New York. I’m really fantasizing about the Caribbean island,” he told Epstein in July 2016.

Despite all this, there is no indication in the files that any of the Chomskys saw or partook in any sex crimes or illegal activities with Epstein.

Dining With “Dear Friends” and War Criminals

Jeffrey Epstein, needless to say, was a highly politically-connected man. From princes to presidents, the billionaire trafficker was a central figure among the global elite. One of his closest associates was Donald Trump. Previously disclosed files show Epstein describing himself as “Trump’s closest friend,” and claiming that it was he who introduced the president to his wife, Melania.

Trump’s unlikely electoral victory in 2016 sent shockwaves around the world. But through Epstein, Valeria Chomsky saw a way to directly influence U.S. governmental policy, asking her friend to suggest to the new president that her husband should become his policy advisor. “Once you asked me who I would like to see talking to Noam. Here is a guy!” she said, just days after Trump’s November 2016 victory. “Can you arrange it? He could make good use of Noam’s advices,” she added, also stating that she should also be appointed a political analyst in the White House.

While she may have been joking about her own appointment, the idea that Epstein could arrange something like that for her husband was not far-fetched. Epstein, by this time, had already set Noam up with meetings with influential world leaders. In the summer of 2015, he organized a dinner with former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, a man Chomsky had strongly denounced in print. “I hope [REDACTED] and you enjoyed yesterday as much as the Barak’s and I” Epstein wrote to Noam that September.

At the same time as the Barak meeting, Chomsky planned a trip to Israel, a move that would likely have angered many in the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. In October of that year, however, he cancelled the visit. Not because of Israel’s crimes against Palestine, but because Valeria tore a muscle and had to concentrate on recovering.

In 2018, Epstein invited the Chomskys to a small, private dinner party with Barak and Trump strategist Steve Bannon. For many leftists, the idea of sharing a room with an Israeli prime minister, the world’s most notorious pedophile, and an oft-described “fascist” white supremacist thinker would sound like a nightmare.

Chomsky, however, described his regret at missing out on the opportunity due to work commitments, emailing Bannon directly. “My wife Valeria and I were quite disappointed to have missed you the other night, and hope that we can arrange something else before too long. Lots to talk about,” he wrote.

Months later, they personally invited Bannon to his Arizona home. “Jeffrey is a very dear friend, and we look forward to meeting you. Would it be possible for you to come 4pm tomorrow?” Valeria wrote.

Images of the famous leftist intellectual arm-in-arm and laughing with the driving force behind the alt-right and many of Trump’s most racist and punitive policies caused commotion when they were released as part of a previous Epstein Files disclosure.

Flying on the Lolita Express to Attend a “Pedophile Convention”

Chomsky, however, had long been mingling with controversial figures, thanks to his Epstein friendship.

In October 2015, the emails show, he flew from Boston to New York City with Epstein on his private jet in order to attend a soirée at Epstein’s notorious Manhattan town house with the disgraced film director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn.

Allen’s proclivities, if anything, were even more well-known than Epstein’s. His long-term, high-profile relationship with actress ended spectacularly in 1992 after their adopted seven-year-old daughter, Dylan, alleged that he had, for some time, been molesting her.

At the same time as this, Allen had been having an affair with another of Farrow’s adopted children, 22-year-old Soon-Yi Previn. Just five years later, Allen married Previn.

Allen was a frequent guest at these Manhattan dinners, noting that Epstein was like “Dracula with young female vampires to serve him.” Epstein left even less to the imagination when discussing his time with Allen, describing their meetings as a “pedophile convention.”

Chomsky was unrepentant about his actions. When asked directly by The Wall Street Journal, he said, “If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes.” There is now pictorial evidence that Chomsky did indeed fly with the billionaire molester on his plane. On his association with Allen, he replied, “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.”

“Deep, Sincere, And Everlasting Friendship”

The overwhelming image that emerges from nearly 4000 newly released documents concerning the pair is a deep, years-long friendship between Noam Chomsky and Jeffrey Epstein. The two would exchange jokes, and talk money, politics, medical problems, and legal troubles. Epstein became Chomsky’s closest friend above all others.

“Dear Jeffrey, We count you as our best friend. I mean ‘the’ one. It is always great to see you,” Valeria Chomsky wrote in 2017.

The world-renowned linguist said as much, signing off one note to Epstein with the words: “Like real friendship, deep and sincere and everlasting from both of us, Noam and Valeria.”

The billionaire showered the Chomskys with gifts, such as a food hamper from Carnegie Deli, an iconic New York City Jewish eatery, and a cashmere sweater for Noam’s 87th birthday. On one occasion, Epstein organized a private car to take the couple to the airport.

The Chomskys reciprocated in kind. In 2016, Noam contributed to Epstein’s birthday book. A previous edition of Epstein’s birthday book contained lurid illustrations of him receiving massages from young girls, and a hand-drawn picture of a naked woman from Donald Trump, replete with language that many have taken to be allusions to sex with underage girls.

There is no indication what Chomsky contributed, nor that he ever saw the book, but Epstein was “thrilled and touched by it,” according to an email.

Epstein and the Chomskys met frequently, and, judging by their interactions, greatly enjoyed their time together. As Valeria wrote, “I am very enthusiastic about these meetings.” Another time, she made Epstein promise to “include her in the next photos,” according to an email from Epstein’s executive assistant, Lesley Groff. Prosecutors are currently weighing up charging Groff for her alleged role in Epstein’s sex crimes, which include scheduling massage appointments from women and girls. Groff has denied all wrongdoing.

A sign of how close the relationship became is that Epstein grew notably fond of Valeria’s cooking. One email from Noam notes that she prepared his “favorite dessert” (possibly a passion fruit mousse, judging by other emails discussing her culinary exploits) ahead of his February 2016 visit to their Massachusetts home.

Epstein and Noam shared their deepest feelings and emotions with each other, as well as lighter topics. Epstein sent messages with subject lines such as “thought you might find this amusing.”

In one exchange, the pair even made sexual jokes with each other. Epstein wrote that he thought of Noam and Valeria as if they were “Pluto and its moon.” Chomsky responded, “Who’s Pluto” in this situation, to which Epstein shared a picture of the Disney character of the same name with its ears sticking up. After Chomsky agreed that he did look like the dog, Epstein quipped that “At your age, if anything sticks up, be proud.” “Ouch,” Chomsky replied, to which Epstein said, “Good, it still has feelings as well,” referencing Chomsky’s penis.

By 2017, the in-person meetings between Epstein and the Chomskys reduced in frequency. Not because of the mounting wave of evidence about the New York oligarch’s misdeeds, but because the pair had moved west to take up a teaching position at the University of Arizona. “We will be here [Tucson] and you are very welcome as always. Noam misses talking to you,” Valeria told Epstein in November 2018, just months before his arrest.

Publicly a Leftist Intellectual, Privately an Anti-Feminist Sexual Predator Defender

Chomsky would often talk politics with Epstein, and, while outwardly consistently espousing far-left political positions, some of his private conversations sounded more like the words of conservative figures, such as Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro.

He was vociferously critical of #MeToo and the modern feminist movement, describing it as a “hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder.”

He vehemently defended his friend Lawrence Krauss, a celebrity scientist with a host of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct charges against him, going back over a decade.

And despite complaining about being called a “neo-Nazi” by “cranks,” he compared feminists asking questions about Krauss to Hitler’s brownshirts and religious zealots. As he wrote:

“Cultures unfortunately can be swept by craziness. Nazism for example. Or the Great Awakening. We’re in one of those phases now. If there’s a charge, it’s true, in fact True. Any response is “mansplaining,” another power play, reinforcing the charge. You’ve seen I’m sure what happened to Lawrence. Full and complete response, amounts to zero. Isn’t even considered. It’s like trying to discuss rationally with religious fanatics.”

He also bitterly attacked Venezuela under socialist presidents, Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro. Chomsky had met Chavez in Venezuela, and publicly praised him, stating “I can see how a better world is being created and can speak to the person who has inspired it.”

With Epstein, though, Chomsky described Venezuela as “a major disaster” brought about by “corruption and incompetence.” He characterized the country as a “completely” top-down bureaucracy and not even “remotely like socialism.”

Trusting Epstein Over His Own Children

Over the years, Epstein became not only Chomsky’s dearest friend, but his closest and most trusted legal and financial advisor. This relationship even damaged the bond with his children, who expressed their alarm at what they called a “dramatic and unexplainable” increase in his spending since his 2014 marriage. “This unexpected outflow is placing your financial future at risk,” they warned.

They also strongly objected to their father’s insistence that Epstein’s personal accountant and close associate, Richard Kahn, be placed on the board of the family trust fund, set up to manage the wealth he had accrued over a life of academia and book publishing – wealth that many in the family had access to.

In July 2017, his three children wrote a joint letter in which they stated, “We beg you once again to meet with us and with the people who set up the Trust, the loan, etc., to clarify these issues,” going so far as to contact a professional mediator to help.

Richard Kahn worked closely with Epstein, managing his finances, investments, payments and other aspects of his life, including affairs at Little St. James Island. A 2021 lawsuit describes him as the “captain” of Epstein’s international sex crime ring, claiming that he, “directed, approved, enabled, and justified millions of dollars in payments that fueled the Epstein Enterprise’s sex trafficking, including payments to women who were forced to have sex with Epstein and/or recruited others to be victimized.” Kahn vehemently denies the charges.

In his later years, Chomsky became somewhat estranged from his children, siding with his wife and Epstein on matters, something that caused great distress to them. “On a personal level, we are heartbroken to feel that we are kept at such a distance from you in your new life,” one of his daughters wrote; “We were thrilled to learn that you had found a new partner, but we were grieved when we began to realize that this meant we are rarely able to see you.”

Chomsky bitterly condemned his children’s behavior, characterizing them as “three multimillionaires” who cared more about the money than his own quality of life. Valeria, meanwhile, compared them to Nazis. The saga took its toll on Noam, who described it as a “painful cloud that I never would have imagined would darken my late years.”

The reason any of this bitter and acrimonious split is known or relevant to the public is that Noam and Valeria Chomsky were forwarding all the messages detailing the affair to Epstein, who advised them at every step of the way. Epstein used his financial and legal contacts, and, at one point, sent Chomsky $270,000 – a sum that was likely simply relating to facilitating the academic move his own funds around.

Throughout the whole affair, the pair were deeply appreciative of Epstein’s expertise. “Once again, redundantly, can’t thank you enough for all of your help and concern,” Noam wrote. Valeria was even more effusive in her praise. “You are a hero, Jeffrey!!!” she said.

Epstein encouraged Noam to cut off his children entirely. One of his last messages suggests that he took his advice. “I wanted the release to acknowledge that they are aware that you’ve decided to leave your entire estate to Valeria,” he wrote.

Manufacturing Age of Consent

The immediate response to the newly-released tranche of Epstein Files from many of Chomsky’s millions of followers was one of disgust and disbelief. “I am heartsick,” wrote Indian intellectual Vijay Prashad, who penned two books with Chomsky. “There is no defense for this, in my view, no context that can explain this outrage… From my side, I am horrified and shocked.”

“Chomsky was a major influence on me and millions of others. He is a seminal figure on the global left. But his consorting with Epstein is unforgivable. A shameful coda to a life dedicated to exposing power and lies,” added British journalist, Matt Kennard.

Even before Epstein’s death in 2019, his relationship with Chomsky was already beginning to raise suspicions. Why was one of the world’s most famous leftist academics so insistent on risking his professional reputation and damaging his relationship with his children, all for Epstein? Chomsky is known as one of the world’s sharpest minds. Yet he dogmatically refused to see the obvious moral danger in associating so closely with a notorious pedophile.

Again, there is no indication in the files that Chomsky was involved in any illegal behavior with Epstein, let alone sex crimes. Nevertheless, his decision to involve Epstein so closely in his life is even more objectionable when compared with the actions of Norman Finkelstein, an academic, disciple, and associate of Chomsky’s. In 2015, when Harvard professor Robert Trivers put Finkelstein and Epstein in contact via email, he responded by calling Epstein a pedophile and told him that he should be put to death for his heinous sex crimes. As he wrote:

“My guess is, if Epstein put your daughter at age 15 in such a position, you wouldn’t publicly describe him as a “friend” and person of “integrity.” In fact, I would hope that you’d promptly throttle both Epstein and [his lawyer Alan] Dershowitz.”

The Chomsky/Epstein relationship is one of profound contradictions. The academic publicly presents himself as an anti-state anarchist, but in private, collaborates with the very embodiment of the so-called “deep state.” And while Chomsky has been one of Israel’s loudest critics, his close friend was an Israeli agent.

The revelations have seriously weakened Chomsky’s standing in public, and his dying years will no doubt be marred by a renewed questioning of both his moral character and his body of work.

Ultimately, then, with his financial clout and know, Epstein may have been able to save Chomsky some cash and provide him with a few days of luxury. But it has cost Chomsky something far more valuable: his reputation.

Watch our breakdown of the Chomsky-Epstein Files with Mnar Adley and Alan MacLeod

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic & a Notorious Pedophile appeared first on The Washington Standard.

One of these groups is Human Rights Activists In Iran, frequently referred to as HRA or HRAI in the media. The group, and its media arm, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) have become the go-to group of experts for Western media, and are the source of many of the most inflammatory claims and shockingly high casualty figures reported in the press. In the past week alone, their assertions have provided much of the basis for stories in CNN, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, ABC News, Sky News, and The New York Post, among others. And in a passionate plea for leftists to support the protests, Owen Jones wrote in The Guardian Tuesday that HRAI are a “respected” group whose death toll proclamations are “probably significant underestimates.”

Yet what none of these reports mention is that Human Rights Activists In Iran is bankrolled by the Central Intelligence Agency, through its cutout organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

“Independent” NGOs, Brought to You By the CIA

Established in 2006, Human Rights Activists in Iran is based in Fairfax, Virginia, just a stone’s throw away from CIA headquarters in Langley. It describes itself as a “non-political” association of activists dedicated to advancing freedom and rights in Iran. On its website, it notes that, “because the organization seeks to remain independent, it doesn’t accept financial aid from neither political groups nor governments.” Yet, in the same paragraph, it notes that “HRAI has also been accepting donations from National Endowment for Democracy, a non-profit, non-governmental organization in the United States of America.” The level of NED investment into HRAI has been substantial, to say the least; journalist Michael Tracey found that, in 2024 alone, the NED had apportioned well over $900,000 towards the organization.

The huge death tolls in Iran being splashed all over the media are sourced to an outfit in Fairfax, VA called "Human Rights Activists in Iran" that is overwhelmingly funded by the US government. What is their methodology? Is it credible? Who cares? Just pump the big numbers out pic.twitter.com/9No2e7n1Dw

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 12, 2026

Another NGO widely cited in recent media reports on the protests is the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABCHRI). The group has been quoted widely, including by The Washington Post, PBS, and ABC News. Like with the HRAI, these reports also fail to disclose the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center’s proximity to the U.S. national security state.

Although it does not mention it in its funding disclaimer, the center is supported by the NED. Last year, the NED described the center as a “partner” organization, and awarded its director, Roya Boroumand, their 2024 Goler T. Butcher medal for democracy promotion.

“Roya and her organization have worked rigorously and objectively to document human rights violations committed by the regime in Iran,” said Amira Maaty, senior director for NED’s Middle East and North Africa programs. “The work of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center is an indispensable resource for victims to seek justice and hold perpetrators accountable under international law. NED is proud to support Roya and the center in their advocacy for human rights and tireless pursuit of a democratic future for Iran.”

In addition to this, sitting on the center’s board of directors is controversial academic, Francis Fukuyama, a former NED board member and an editor of its “Journal of Democracy” publication.

If anything, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has gone further than HRAI or the ABCHRI. Widely cited across Western media (e.g., The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today), the CHRI has been the source of many of the goriest and most lurid stories coming out of Iran. A Monday article in The Washington Post, for example, leaned on the CHRI’s expertise to report that Iranian hospitals were being overwhelmed and had even run out of blood to treat the victims of government repression. “A massacre is unfolding. The world must act now to prevent further loss of life,” a CHRI spokesperson said. Given President Trump’s recent threats about U.S. military attacks on Iran, the implications of the statement were clear.

And yet, like with the other NGOs profiled, none of the corporate media outlets citing the Center for Human Rights in Iran noted its close connections to the U.S. national security state. The CHRI – an Iranian human rights group based in New York City and Washington, D.C. – was identified by the government of China as directly funded by the NED.

The claim is far from outlandish, given that CHRI board member, Mehrangiz Kar, is a former Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the NED. And in 2002 at a star-studded gala on Capitol Hill, First Lady Laura Bush and future president Joe Biden presented Kar with the NED’s annual Democracy Award.

A History of Regime Change Ops

The National Endowment for Democracy was created in 1983 by the Reagan administration, after a series of scandals had seriously damaged the image and reputation of the CIA. The Church Committee – a 1975 U.S. Senate investigation into CIA activities – found that the agency had masterminded the assassination of several foreign heads of state, was involved in a massive domestic surveillance campaign against progressive groups, had infiltrated and placed agents in hundreds of U.S. media outlets, and was carrying out shocking mind control experiments on unwilling American participants.

Technically a private entity, although receiving virtually all its funding from the federal government and being staffed by ex-spooks, the NED was created as a way to outsource many of the agency’s most controversial activities, especially overseas regime change operations. “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA,” Carl Gershman, the NED’s longtime president, said in 1986. NED co-founder Allen Weinstein agreed: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA,” he told The Washington Post.

Part of the CIA’s mission was to create a worldwide network of media outlets and NGOs that would parrot CIA talking points, passing it off as credible news. As former CIA taskforce leader John Stockwell admitted, “I had propagandists all over the world.” Stockwell went on to describe how he helped flood the world with fake news demonizing Cuba:

We pumped dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists [to the media]… We ran [faked] photographs that made almost every newspaper in the country… We didn’t know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists eating babies for breakfast.”

Mike Pompeo, former CIA director, alluded this being active CIA policy. At a 2019 talk at Texas A&M University, he said, “When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses [on] it!”

One of the NED’s greatest successes came in 1996, when it successfully swung elections in Russia, spending vast amounts of money to ensure U.S. puppet ruler Boris Yeltsin would remain in power. Yeltsin, who came to power in a 1993 coup that dissolved parliament, was deeply unpopular, and it appeared that the Russian public were ready to vote for a return to Communism. The NED and other American agencies flooded Russia with money and propaganda, ensuring their man remained in power. The story was cataloged in a famous edition of Time magazine, whose title page was emblazoned with the words, “Yanks To The Rescue: the Secret Story of How American Advisors Helped Yeltsin Win.”

Six years later, the NED provided both the finances and the brains for a briefly successful coup d’état against Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. The NED spent hundreds of thousands of dollars flying coup leaders (such as Marina Corina Machado) back and forth to Washington, D.C. After the coup was overturned and the plot was exposed, NED funding to Machado and her allies actually increased, and the organization has continued to fund her and her political organizations.

The NED would have more luck in Ukraine, playing a key role in the successful 2014 Maidan Revolution that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych and replaced him with a pro-U.S. successor. The Maidan affair followed a tried-and-tested formula, with large numbers of people coming out to protest, and a hardcore of trained paramilitaries carrying out acts of violence aimed at destabilizing the government and provoking a military response.

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (and future NED board member) Victoria Nuland flew to Kiev to signal the U.S. government’s full support of the movement to oust Yanukovych, even handing out cookies to protestors in the city’s main square. A leaked telephone call showed that the new Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was directly chosen by Nuland. “Yats is the guy,” she can be heard telling U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, citing his experience and friendliness with Washington as key factors. The 2014 Maidan Revolution and its aftermath would lead to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine eight years later.

Just across the border in Belarus, the NED planned similar actions to overthrow President Alexander Lukashenko. At the time of the attempt (2020-2021), the NED was pursuing 40 active projects inside the country.

On a Zoom call infiltrated and covertly recorded by activists, the NED’s senior Europe Program officer, Nina Ognianova, boasted that the groups leading the nationwide demonstrations against Lukashenko were trained by her organization. “We don’t think that this movement that is so impressive and so inspiring came out of nowhere — that it just happened overnight,” she said, noting that the NED had made a “significant contribution” to the protests.

On the same call, NED President Gershman noted that “we support many, many groups, and we have a very, very active program throughout the country, and many of the groups obviously have their partners in exile,” boasting that the Belarusian government was powerless to stop them. “We’re not like Freedom House or NDI [the National Democratic Institute] and the IRI [International Republican Institute]; we don’t have offices. So if we’re not there, they can’t kick us out,” he said, comparing the NED to other U.S. regime change organizations.

The attempted Color Revolution did not succeed, however, as demonstrators were met with large counter-demonstrations, and Lukashenko remains in power to this day. The NED’s actions were a key factor in Lukashenko’s decision to abandon his relationship with the West, and ally Belarus with Russia.

Just months after their failure in Belarus, the NED fomented another regime change attempt, this time in Cuba. The agency spent millions of dollars infiltrating and buying off pliant musical artists, especially in the hip hop community, in an attempt to turn local popular culture against its revolution. Led by Cuban rappers, the U.S. attempted to rally the people into the streets, flooding social media with calls from celebrities and politicians alike to topple the government. This did not translate into boots on the ground, however, and the fiasco was written off sarcastically as the U.S.’ “Bay of Tweets.”

So many of the most visible protest movements the world over have been quietly masterminded by the NED. This includes the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, wherein the agency funnelled millions to the movement’s leaders to keep people in the streets as long as possible. The NED continues to work with Uyghur and Tibetan separatist groups, in the hope of destabilizing China. Other known NED meddling projects include interfering with elections in France, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Poland.

It is precisely for these reasons, therefore, that accepting funding from the NED should be unthinkable for any serious NGO or human rights organization, as so many that do have been front groups for American power and clandestine regime change operations. It is also why the public should be extremely wary about any claims made by organizations on the payroll of a CIA cutout organization, especially those that attempt to hide the fact. Journalists, too, have a duty to scrutinize any statements made by these groups, and inform their readers and viewers about their inherent conflicts of interests.

Targeting Iran

Apart from funding the three U.S.-based human rights NGOs profiled here, the NED is spearheading a myriad of operations targeting the Islamic Republic. According to its 2025 grant listings, there are currently 18 active NED projects for Iran, although the agency does not divulge any of the groups they are working with.

It also refuses to divulge any hard details about these projects, beyond rather bland descriptions that include:

Empowering” a network of “frontline and exiled activists” inside Iran;

“Promoting independent journalism,” and “Establishing media platforms to influence the public;”

“Monitoring and promoting human rights;”

“Fostering internet freedom;”

“Training student leaders inside Iran;”

“Advancing policy analysis, debate, and collective actions on democracy,” and;

“Foster[ing] collaboration between Iranian civil society and political activists on a democratic vision and raise awareness on civic rights within the legal community, the organization will facilitate debate on transition models from authoritarianism to democracy.”

Reading between the lines, the NED is attempting to build up a widespread network of media outlets, NGOs, activists, intellectuals, student leaders and politicians who will all sing from the same hymn sheet, that of “transitioning” from “authoritarianism” (i.e., the current system of government” to “democracy,” (i.e., a U.S.-picked government). In other words: regime change.

Iran, of course, has been in American crosshairs ever since the removal of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. Pahlavi himself had been kept in place by the CIA, who engineered a coup against the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh (1952-53). Mossadegh, a secular liberal reformer, had angered Washington by nationalizing the country’s oil industry, carrying out land reform, and refusing to crush the communist Tudeh Party.

The CIA (the NED’s parent organization), infiltrated Iranian media, paying them to run hysterical anti-Mossadegh content, carried out terror attacks inside Iran, bribed officials to turn against the president, cultivated ties with reactionary elements within the military, and paid protestors to flood the streets at anti-Mossadegh rallies.

The shah reigned for 26 bloody years between 1953 and 1979, until he was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution.

The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, who almost immediately invaded Iran, leading to a bitter, eight-year long conflict that killed at least half a million people. Washington supplied Hussein with a wide range of weapons, including components for chemical weapons used on Iranians, as well as other weapons of mass destruction.

Since 1979, Iran has also been under restrictive American economic sanctions, measures that have severely hindered the country’s development. During his first term, Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal and turned up the economic pressure. The result was a collapse in the value of the Iranian rial, mass unemployment, soaring rents and a doubling of the price of food. Ordinary people lost both their savings and their long-term security.

Throughout this, Trump has constantly threatened Iran with attack, finally following through in June, bombing a host of infrastructure projects inside the country.

A Legitimate Protest?

The current demonstrations began on December 28 as a protest against rising prices. Yet they quickly ballooned into something much bigger, with thousands calling for an overthrow of the government, and even the reinstatement of the monarchy under the son of the shah, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

They were quickly supported and signal boosted by the U.S. and Israeli national security states. “The Iranian regime is in trouble,” Pompeo announced. “Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them…” he added. Israeli media are openly reporting that “foreign elements” (i.e., Israeli) are “arming the protesters in Iran with live weapons, and this is the reason for the hundreds of dead among the regime’s people.”

The Iranian regime is in trouble. Bringing in mercenaries is its last best hope.

Riots in dozens of cities and the Basij under siege — Mashed, Tehran, Zahedan. Next stop: Baluchistan.

47 years of this regime; POTUS 47. Coincidence?

Happy New Year to every Iranian in the…

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) January 2, 2026

The Israeli intelligence services confirmed Pompeo’s not-so-cryptic assertion. “Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” the spying agency’s official social media accounts instructed Iranians: “We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.”

Trump echoed those words. “TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,” he roared, adding that American “help is on the way.”

Any debate about what Trump meant by “American help” was ended on Monday, when he stated that “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue… We are locked and loaded and ready to go.” He also attempted to place an all-out economic blockade, announcing that any country trading with Tehran would face an additional 25% tariff.

All of this, added to the increasing violence of the protests, makes it much harder for Iranians to express themselves politically. What started as a demonstration about the cost of living has spiralled into a huge, openly insurrectionist movement, backed and fomented by the U.S. and Israel. Iranians, of course, have every right to protest, but a wealth of factors have raised the very real possibility that much of the anti-government movement is an inorganic, U.S.-orchestrated attempt at regime change. While Iranians can argue about how they wish to express themselves and what sort of government they want, what is undebatable is that so many of the think tanks and NGOs called upon to provide supposed expert evidence and commentary about these protests are tools of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post Revealed: The CIA-Backed NGOs Fueling The Iran Protests appeared first on The Washington Standard.

On January 3, U.S. Special Forces entered Venezuela by air, captured Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, killing around 80 people in the process. They were flown to the United States, where Maduro was put on trial on spurious drug trafficking and possession of firearms charges.

Despite President Trump himself declaring that “kidnapping” was an appropriate term for what happened, corporate media around the world have refrained from using the obvious word for what transpired, preferring to use “capturing” or “seizing.” These terms reframe the incident and cast doubt on its illegality, helping to manufacture public consent for a grave breach of international law. Indeed, managers at the BBC sent out a memo to its staff, instructing them in no uncertain terms to “avoid using ‘kidnapped’” when reporting on the news.

Targeting Venezuela

Maduro is not the first Venezuelan official Washington has helped kidnap. In 2002, the Bush administration planned and executed a coup d’état that briefly ousted Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, from power.

The U.S. government had been organizing and financing the ringleaders of the coup for months, flying the key players back and forth to Washington, D.C. for meetings with top officials. On the day of the coup, American Ambassador Charles Shapiro was at the mansion of local media magnate, Gustavo Cisneros, the headquarters of the coup.

Two U.S. warships entered Venezuelan waters, moving towards the remote island of La Orchila, where Chavez was helicoptered to. Chavez himself stated that senior American personnel were present with him during his abduction. Unsurprisingly, the Bush administration immediately endorsed the proceedings, describing them as a return to democracy.

Chavez was only saved the same fate as Maduro after millions of Venezuelans flocked into the streets, demanding a return of their president. Their actions spurred loyal military units who retook the presidential palace, and the project fell apart. After the coup, the United States quadrupled its funding to the coup leaders (including Maria Corina Machado) through vehicles such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy.

A further kidnapping of a Venezuelan official occurred in June 2020, when the United States downed the plane of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab. Saab was in Cabo Verde at the time, traveling back from a diplomatic mission to Iran, where he has been helping break American sanctions. He was only released in 2023, after Venezuela negotiated a prisoner swap which included a number of CIA agents captured in Venezuela in the act of carrying out terror attacks against the country’s infrastructure.

From WMDs to “Narco-States”: How the US Sells Wars the Intelligence Doesn’t Support

Allegations that Venezuela is a narco-state have justified strikes, sanctions, and military buildups. But even US intelligence concedes Maduro is not directing the gangs blamed for “invading” America. The evidence reveals a familiar playbook for war., Cartel de los Soles, CIA drug trade, Marco Rubio, Nicolas Maduro, Regime Change, Tren de Aragua, Trump Administration, U.S.

MintPress News·Alan Macleod·Jan 7

Backyard Bullies

The actions against Maduro come exactly 36 years to the day after the United States abducted Panamanian president, Manuel Noriega. Like Maduro, Noriega was charged with narcotics offenses. Unlike Maduro, however, there is little doubt of his guilt, as he was on the CIA payroll when these crimes took place.

The U.S. invaded Panama with 27,000 troops in December 1989, and shot their way to the presidential palace, killing hundreds of Panamanians in the process. Noriega surrendered to the Americans on January 3, 1990, and spent the rest of his life in prison. He died in 2017.

Panama itself was carved out of Colombia by the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, so that the United States could directly control the Panama Canal, that was in the process of construction at the time. Likewise, Haiti has consistently suffered at the hands of direct U.S. intervention. The United States invaded the island nation in 1915, occupying it for 19 years, before installing a series of brutal dictatorships that repressed the population.

A glimmer of light in a long dark history occurred in 1990, when the country’s first democratic election brought populist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power. Aristide beat U.S.-backed candidate Marc Bazin (a former World Bank official) in a 68% to 14% landslide. The U.S. refused to accept the results, and worked to depose Aristide, and Bazin eventually became president anyway.

Remarkably, Aristide’s political career was not over, and he was elected again in 2000. He refused to accept Haiti’s role as a source of cheap labor for the U.S., and insisted on trying to build a just, equitable, and prosperous country.

Once again, this put him on a crash course with Washington, who, in February 2004, organized a coup against him. U.S. personnel invaded Haiti and surrounded the presidential palace, abducting Aristide and plunging the country into another period of dictatorship, from which it has not emerged.

“During the night of 28 February, there was a coup d’état. One could say that it was terrorism disguised as diplomacy,” Aristide said, noting that heavily armed “foreign white men” pointed their guns at him, forced him to resign, and whisked him away to an enforced exile in the Central African Republic and South Africa.

During his ouster, Aristide was frantically attempting to contact Hugo Chavez for help. Chavez, however, was at a conference, and not checking his phone. “I feel incredibly upset. He was trying to ring me, and we were busy with the conference. By the time I got the message, it was too late. He’d already been sent off to South Africa, and I regret it,” Chavez said, noting that he would have attempted to help Aristide survive his kidnapping.

In 2013, the United States downed the presidential plane of Bolivia’s Evo Morales over Austria, and demanded to board the aircraft, leading to a tense standoff that Vice-President Álvaro García Linera described as Morales being “kidnapped by imperialism.”

Morales was on his way back from Moscow, and U.S. officials believed that whistleblower Edward Snowden was aboard the jet. Thus, rather than potentially allow Snowden to escape to freedom, Washington decided to spark a major diplomatic incident. Morales was later allowed to return to his home country. Snowden was not on board.

The same fate, however, will not befall American officials, thanks to a little-known act passed into law in 2002 by the Bush administration. The Hague Invasion Act stipulates that if any American official or military serviceman is ever detained abroad by the International Criminal Court, the United States will invade the Netherlands (its NATO ally) in order to prevent them from facing trial.

Maduro on Trial & Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’

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MintPress News·Mnar Adley·Jan 7

Who’s Next?

Maduro’s kidnapping may prove to be only the first in a succession of aggressive American actions planned by the Trump/Rubio State Department. After he condemned U.S. actions against Venezuela, Trump warned that Colombian president, Gustavo Petro is “next” in line for regime change. “Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you,” he stated, adding that a military operation against Petro “sounds good” to him. In recent days, Trump has also noted that Cuba looks “ready to fall,” and that the United States intends to annex Greenland.

Thus, while the United States actions in kidnapping a foreign head of state and placing him on trial on dubious charges may have shocked the world, it fits in with a long history of American imperial actions designed to remove leaders and movements that do not serve Washington’s agenda. And it may be only the first of many to come.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post From Noriega To Maduro: The Long US History Of Kidnapping Foreign Leaders appeared first on The Washington Standard.

Did your engagement ring help fund a genocide in Gaza? Quite possibly. Despite possessing no mines of their own, Israel is a major player in the world’s diamond business, buying up minerals across Africa and selling them to the West, netting billions in the process. Diamonds are Israel’s most important export, and directly bankroll the country’s ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. MintPress explores the dark world of Israeli blood diamonds.

A Gigantic Industry

Any visitor walking through Tel Aviv’s exclusive Ramat Gan district will be struck by its wealth. Skyscrapers are everywhere, and expensive jewelry stores lines the streets. Ramat Gan is the center of the world’s diamond industry, with more than 15,000 people employed by the Israel Diamond Exchange in the business of cutting, polishing, importing, exporting, and marketing the stones.

Israel’s largest export is not tech industry or its food. Diamonds alone account for over 15% of all the country’s exports, with other jewelry also contributing significantly to its economy. Between 2018 and 2023, Israel exported over $60 billion dollars worth of precious stones.

Their number one customer is the United States. Historically, Israel has accounted for between one third and one half of all the diamonds sold across America, a growing market already worth $20 billion per year.

Genocide Stones

Unlike gold, diamonds are rarely hallmarked, meaning that few American brides know that their engagement and wedding rings were crafted and polished in Israel. Even fewer are aware that their purchase directly funds the slaughter in Gaza and Israel’s ongoing seizure of land in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.

“Overall, the Israeli diamond industry contributes about $1 billion annually to the Israeli military and security industries … every time somebody buys a diamond that was exported from Israel, some of that money ends up in the Israeli military,” Israeli economist, Shir Hever, testified at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in 2010.

Perhaps the key figure in the Israeli diamond industry is business magnate, Beny Steinmetz. Considered by many to be Israel’s richest man, the 69-year-old founder of Steinmetz Diamond Group first entered the industry in 1988, purchasing a production factory in Apartheid South Africa.

Through his charitable foundation, Steinmetz has poured money into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), including “adopting” a unit of the Givati Brigade, buying equipment for them. During Operation Cast Lead in 2009, the brigade carried out a massacre, forcing dozens of Palestinian civilians into a house in Gaza, bombed the house, and prevented ambulances from approaching. Rescue workers who eventually found their bodies also reported seeing the words “The only good Arab is a dead Arab” daubed in Hebrew on the remains of the building.

More recently, the Givati Brigade has been filmed setting fire to Palestinian food supplies, and a Gaza sewage plant, as well as demolishing more homes.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has destroyed 92% of the schools and residential buildings of Gaza, shot around 300 journalists, and killed at least 20,000 children. UNICEF estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 children in Gaza have lost one or more limbs. In addition to its violence in Palestine, Israel has invaded and occupied Lebanon and Syria, and bombed Iran, Tunisia, Yemen, and Qatar.

The US Pays in Dollars, Africa Pays in Blood

Israel’s appetite for diamonds is directly fueling civil war and bloodshed across Africa, where it supplies military hardware with governments, warlords, and local armed groups in exchange for access to the continent’s mineral wealth. Israel-based International Diamond Industries (IDI), for example, secured a monopoly on diamond production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a deal that, according to a United Nations panel, included covert weapons transfers and the training of Congolese security forces by IDF commanders. The deal was fantastically lucrative for IDI, who paid only $20 million for a monopoly generating $600 million per year.

Meanwhile, in 2002 in war-ravaged Sierra Leone, for just $1.2 million in cash, Steinmetz himself managed to acquire half of the Koidu Ltd., a company that accounted for 90% of the country’s diamonds. In 2011, Koidu produced a reported $200 million worth of diamonds.

Why authorities would agree to such ludicrously low purchase prices might be explained by a 2021 ruling by a Swiss court, that found Steinmetz guilty of paying $8.5 million in bribes to the wife of the president of Guinea. These bribes, the court ruled, secured him the rights to lucrative iron ore concessions in the country’s Simandou region. Steinmetz was sentenced to five years in prison. The Israeli billionaire is currently facing similarly grave corruption charges in Romania.

The diamond rush in D.R. Congo, Sierra Leone and other African nations has resulted in civil war, human trafficking, forced child labor, and other serious human rights violations by groups intent on securing a slice of the diamond industry for themselves. But they are relatively small players in comparison to the Israelis.

“Conflict Free” Minerals

Much of the brutal reality of the gemstone industry is now well-known in popular culture, thanks in part to the 2006 Leonardo DiCaprio movie, “Blood Diamond,” set in Sierra Leone. In response to the growing public outcry over their ethics, the industry established the World Diamond Council, which helped create the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, a system designed to prevent so-called “conflict diamonds” from entering the world market.

From a marketing perspective, the Kimberley Process was a great success, providing consumers with (an illusion of) peace of mind, which helped worldwide diamond sales to increase. Yet there are a number of key flaws with the system. Chief among these is that the process’ certification of conflict free minerals applies only to the source of the diamonds, leaving Israel free to import billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds into a country bombing seven of its neighbors, process, cut and polish them, and continue to sell their products as “conflict free.” All this while carrying out against Palestine what the United Nations has consistently termed a “genocide.”

Moreover, in 2009, the U.N. accused Israel of surreptitiously importing illegal blood diamonds from the Ivory Coast.

That, in a nutshell, is how the global industry works. Sixteen of the twenty largest diamond-producing countries are poor African nations, who see limited economic benefit from them. Meanwhile, none of the top five global exporters of diamonds – the United States, India, Hong Kong, Belgium, and Israel – actually produce the gems in any discernible quantities, a reflection of the unequal world we live in.

Worthless Rocks and Marketing Campaigns

The diamond industry sustains itself through a number of myths, the first of which is that they are rare minerals. They are not. In the late 19th century, massive diamond deposits were found in South Africa, flooding the global market. However, the businessmen operating the mines quickly realized that only by maintaining strict control over the supply of the commodity could high prices be maintained. Today, well over 100 million carats of diamonds are unearthed annually, enough to produce hundreds of millions of pendants, rings, and earrings.

Nor are diamonds inherently precious. Thanks to their extreme hardness, they are useful to toolmakers producing saw blades and drill bits. Beyond this, however, their value is limited. And, contrary to popular belief, they are not intrinsically connected to courtship, marriage, or anniversaries in Western culture. In fact, the link in popular culture between diamonds and love is the result of a marketing campaign. The phrase “diamonds are forever” is, in reality, a marketing catchphrase devised by Madison Avenue executives in 1947. Professor Sut Jhally, producer of the documentary, “The Diamond Empire,” describes “diamonds are forever” as “perhaps the most famous advertising slogan ever invented.” “That slogan, that idea that comes out of Madison Avenue, now defines the way that we think about rituals that define our most personal activities, marriage, and courtship,” he added.

The success of this campaign was little short of astonishing. In 1940, only 10% of American brides received diamond rings. By 1990, that number had risen to 90%. Wholesale diamond sales in the U.S. rose from $23 million in 1939 to $2.1 billion in 1979 – a 9000% increase in 40 years. Some gambits, such as the attempt to market diamond rings to men, were not as successful.

Flush with success, the diamond industry tried the same product placement and advertising strategies that worked in the U.S. across Asia, adding in a flavor of Western values and allure to their marketing. In Japan, the trick worked. In 1967, fewer than 5% of engaged Japanese women received a diamond ring. But by 1981, it had ballooned to 60%.

The diamond industry also ran into another problem: if their product was so expensive, how could they sell it to a mass market? To solve this, they again turned to Madison Avenue, who suggested telling men to spend 2–3 months of salary on an engagement ring. By 2014, the average engagement ring in the U.S. cost a hefty $4,000, according to The New York Times. “It was a brilliant strategy,” Jhally said. “They managed to convince some men to go into debt to buy these worthless things that they have billions of sitting in warehouses.”

In recent years, the global economic downturn has meant that smaller, cheaper diamonds are more in demand. These small stones are usually cut in India. Children, who possess sharper eyes and smaller and more dextrous fingers than adults, are used to cut and polish these tiny diamonds, adding a new layer of moral ambiguity to the industry.

An Industry in Crisis

Diamond sales are currently in crisis. 2024 saw a 23% drop in revenue across the sector, as younger consumers increasingly see diamonds as overpriced rocks hewn from the ground by child slaves in a war zone, and inauthentic tokens of their love.

The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has also drawn attention to the fact that diamond sales are irrevocably linked to the carnage in Gaza. As the Palestinian BDS National Committee write:

Revenue from the diamond industry helps fund Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, its brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people and its international network of saboteurs, spies, and assassins.”

A less political but perhaps more existential threat comes in the form of lab-grown diamonds, which are priced at around only one-tenth the price of traditionally-sourced stones. Lab-grown diamonds (around half of which come from China) now account for around 20% of total sales, and are projected to both increase their market share and reduce in price. Three-quarters of Americans would be happy to receive a lab-grown diamond engagement ring, according to a 2025 poll, which noted that the public consider them to be better value-for-money, and a more ethical choice.

Another serious and unforeseen blow to Israeli diamond merchants has been the new Trump-era global tariff regime. Currently, the United States imposes a 15% tax on all Israeli diamonds. In September, the European Union managed to negotiate a diamond exemption to their 15% tariff, meaning that competitors such as Belgium now hold a serious advantage over Israel in the crucial U.S. market.

As a result, Israel Diamond Exchange president, Nissim Zuaretz, stated that his industry faces an “existential threat”. “We are slipping backward,” he warned, adding:

My message to the government and the public is clear: it’s now or never… We have a golden opportunity to restore Israel to the center of the global diamond industry, but the window is closing fast. Every day without government action means another diamond dealer lost, another family without income, another piece of our national heritage gone.”

However, if the Israeli government does indeed step in to safeguard its national industry and take a more interventionist approach, it will only further underscore the fact that the purchase of diamonds is inherently funding the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, supercharging blood diamonds into genocide diamonds.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post Bloody Diamonds: How Your Engagement Ring Helps Fund A Genocide In Gaza appeared first on The Washington Standard.

Media Monopoly

Paramount Skydance– an Ellison-owned company– is in pole position to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery, a conglomerate that controls gigantic film and television studios, streaming services like HBO Max and Discovery+, franchises like DC Comics, and TV networks such as HBO, TNT, Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network, and CNN. This lead is largely due to Ellison’s proximity to President Trump, who will ultimately have to sign off on such a deal.

Ellison has already spoken to senior White House officials about axing CNN hosts and content that Trump is said to dislike, including anchors, Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar. It is this willingness to completely reorientate the network’s political direction that has made him the White House’s preferred purchaser of Warner Brothers Discovery. He is reportedly so wealthy that he can afford to pay in cash.

Ellison, whose net worth stands at a staggering $278 billion, has been on a media spending spree of late. Earlier this year, he provided the funds for Skydance to purchase Paramount Global, another gigantic conglomerate that controls such products as CBS, BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Streaming, and Showtime.

Immediately upon being appointed CEO of CBS News, Larry’s son, David, began drastically reorientating the network’s political outlook, firing staff, pushing it to become pro-Trump, and appointing self-described “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief.

The Ellison family, however, is far from finished. In September, President Trump signed an executive order approving a proposal to force through the sale of social media platform TikTok to an American consortium led by Ellison-owned tech company, Oracle.

Under the planned arrangement, Oracle will oversee the platform’s security and operations, giving the world’s second-richest man effective control over the platform that more than 60% of Americans under thirty years of age use for news and entertainment. Trump himself stated that he was extremely pleased that Oracle would be controlling the platform. “It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans,” he said.

Israel’s Biggest US Donor Now Owns CBS

Billionaire David Ellison just bought CBS with Trump’s blessing. His father, Larry Ellison—the top US funder of the Israeli military—backs the move. Bari Weiss is set to reshape the newsroom. Media independence is on life support.

MintPress News·Alan Macleod·Oct 10

The Ellison family’s sudden venture into the realm of media and communications has shocked many, with senior media figures sounding the alarm. Longtime CBS News anchor, Dan Rather, warned that “we all have to be concerned about the consolidation of huge billionaires getting control of nearly all of the major news outlets.” “It is a particularly tough time for anybody working at CBS News,” he stated, citing pressure to change coverage to be more pro-Trump. “I think if [the Ellisons] were to buy CNN, it would change CNN forever, and it might be another very serious wound to CBS News,” he concluded.

Billionaire Capture

Rather is correct. No other period in history has seen such a rapid and overwhelming buy up of our means of communications by the billionaire class – a fact that raises tough questions about freedom of speech and diversity of opinion. Today, the world’s seven richest individuals are all major media barons, giving them extraordinary control over our media and public square, allowing them to set agendas, and suppress forms of speech they do not approve of. This includes criticisms of them and their holdings, the economic system we live under, and the actions of the United States and Israeli governments.

Sitting on a fortune of over $480 billion, Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in world history, and is projected to, within the next decade, become the planet’s first trillionaire. In 2022, Musk purchased Twitter, in a deal worth around $44 billion. The South-African born tech magnate quickly set about turning the platform into a vehicle for advancing his own far-right politics. In 2024, for example, he was a key figure in promoting an attempt to topple Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, spreading misinformation about the country’s election, and even threatening Maduro with a future in the notorious Guantánamo Bay prison camp.

He has also very publicly rewritten his generative AI chatbot, Grok, on multiple occasions, so it would produce more conservative responses to users’ questions. One result of this was that Grok began to praise Adolf Hitler.

Musk overtook Jeff Bezos last year to become the world’s richest man. And like Musk, the Amazon founder and CEO has made several moves into the world of media. In 2013, he bought The Washington Post for $250 million, and quickly began exerting his influence on the newspaper, firing anti-establishment writers and hiring pro-war columnists. This came just months after he bought a minority stake in Business Insider (now rebranded to Insider).

One year later, in 2014, Amazon paid nearly a billion dollars to purchase Twitch, a streaming platform which hosts around 7 million monthly broadcasters. Amazon also owns a wide range of other media ventures, including movie studio MGM, audiobook platform, Audible, and movie database website, IMDB.

French billionaire, Bernard Arnault, meanwhile, has been buying up large swaths of his country’s media outlets. The chairman of luxury conglomerate, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) and the world’s seventh-richest man now sits on a media empire that includes daily newspapers such as Le Parisien and Les Echoes, magazines such as Paris Match and Challenges, as well as Radio Classique.

The remaining three individuals rounding out the top seven list all owe their wealth primarily to their media empires. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are collectively worth over half a trillion dollars. Google has become the dominant force in today’s hi-tech economy, and is also a major player in social media, having bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Thirty-five percent of Americans use the video platform as a primary source of news.

Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, owes his $203 billion fortune to his social media and tech ventures, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Like YouTube, Zuckerberg’s companies are major players in the modern news landscape, with 38%, 20% and 5% of Americans relying on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for their news and views.

MAGA Mouthpieces

Many of these wealthy individuals have joined forces with President Trump, in an effort to support Republican policies and push a conservative worldview. Chief among these is the Ellison family, who quickly announced significant changes as CBS News, promising “unbiased” coverage and more “varied ideological perspectives”– widely understood as a shift towards right-wing, pro-Trump coverage.

Larry Ellison holds deeply conservative views, and became a top donor and fundraiser for the Republican Party, and a close Trump confident. Indeed, one Trump insider, noting his influence, went so far as to call Ellison as the “shadow President of the United States.”

Musk, of course, very publicly turned Twitter into a conservative-dominated platform, and was an unofficial member of Trump’s cabinet, becoming de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Zuckerberg has also taken a number of steps to align his platforms with the MAGA movement, including firing his fact-checking team (widely associated with liberal politics) and prioritizing what he calls “free speech.” Content moderation teams, the Meta CEO said, would be moved from California to Texas, “where there is less concern about the bias of our teams.”

Zuckerberg replaced Meta’s president of global affairs, the former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, Nick Clegg, with prominent Republican Joel Kaplan, who was George W. Bush’s chief of staff. He also appointed Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a close Trump ally, to Meta’s board, despite his complete lack of relevant experience.

Many of these moves were likely made in response to Trump’s threat to imprison Zuckerberg “for the rest of his life” if he did anything to “cheat” him out of a 2024 presidential election victory. Zuckerberg subsequently met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and, alongside Bezos and other tech moguls, donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.

Bezos, meanwhile, pursued similar measures at The Washington Post, announcing that the newspaper would no longer publish opinions skeptical of capitalism. “We are going to be writing every day in support of defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote, noting that readers wishing to see alternative viewpoints can find them on “the internet.”

The decision was widely seen as a major shakeup, and provoked public opposition from Post employees. “Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today,” said the newspaper’s lead economics journalist Jeff Stein. “[It] makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.”

The move was quite the reversal for Bezos, who had once called Trump a “threat to democracy.” Yet, by January 2025, he was sitting with Zuckerberg, Musk, and Arnault in prominent positions behind Trump at his inauguration.

Considering his nationality, Arnault has a surprisingly close relationship with Trump. In 2019, the French billionaire opened a new Louis Vuitton factory in Alvarado, Texas, a move that some have suggested was an attempt to please the president. Trump attended the facility’s opening, calling Arnault an “artist” and a “visionary.”

Due to their relationship with the Trumps, the Arnault family have become unofficial intermediaries between the French and U.S. governments. They were hosted by the Trumps at Mar-a-Lago in 2023, and, during an escalating trade war earlier this year, Bernard visited the White House to dampen down tensions between the U.S. and France.

Pentagon Contractors

A key factor in the rise of many of the world’s top seven richest individuals is their proximity to the U.S. national security state, with many of their companies growing wealthy in part due to feeding from the trough of Pentagon contracts. Today’s wars and espionage rely as much on hi-tech computing equipment as tanks and guns, and in 2022, the Department of Defense awarded Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle a $9 billion cloud computing contract.

Bezos’ Amazon has long enjoyed a close relationship with the CIA, having signed a $600 million contract with the agency in 2014. Yet both Google and Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, have been intertwined with Langley since their inception.

The CIA bankrolled and oversaw Brin’s PhD research at Stanford University, work which would later form the basis of Google. As one investigation noted, “senior U.S. intelligence representatives including a CIA official oversaw the evolution of Google in this pre-launch phase, all the way until the company was ready to be officially founded.”

As late as 2005, In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capitalist arm, was a major shareholder in Google. These shares were a result of Google’s acquisition of Keyhole, Inc., a CIA-backed surveillance firm whose software eventually became Google Earth. By 2007, the government was using enhanced versions of Google Earth to surveil and target enemies in Iraq and beyond, according to The Washington Post. By this time, the Post also notes, Google was partnering with Lockheed Martin to produce futuristic technology for the military. There also exists a revolving door of employment between Google and various branches of Federal government.

It would be no stretch, meanwhile, to state that Elon Musk owes his largesse in no small part to his intimate relationship with the CIA. In-Q-Tel chief Mike Griffin helped birth SpaceX, providing support and advice from the beginning, and even accompanied Musk to Russia in 2002, where the pair attempted to purchase cheap intercontinental ballistic missiles to start the company.

Griffin repeatedly championed Musk at the CIA, describing him as the “Henry Ford” of the space industry, and worthy of the government’s full support. Still, by 2008, SpaceX was in dire straits, with Musk unable to make payroll and believing both SpaceX and Tesla Motors would be liquidated. But he was saved by an unexpected $1.6 billion NASA contract that Griffin had helped secure.

Today, SpaceX is a powerhouse. But its primary customers continue to be U.S. government agencies, such as the Air Force, Space Development Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. And recently, the Pentagon has recruited him to help it win a nuclear war. A new SpaceX spinoff company, Castelion, is working on building a network of armed satellites circling North America, designed to shoot down enemy nuclear missiles. A successful operation would give the United States an impervious shield, and allow it to act as it wants around the world, without threat of retaliation, effectively ending the era of mutually assured destruction, and plunging the planet into a dangerous new epoch.

Six of the seven members of Castelion’s leadership team and two of its four senior advisors are ex-Space X employees. The other two advisors are former high officials from the CIA, including Griffin himself. Elon named his oldest child Griffin Musk. Another of his sons, X Æ A-12, is named after a CIA spy plane.

The Pentagon is Recruiting Elon Musk to Help Them Win a Nuclear War

With billions in defense contracts, Musk’s SpaceX is helping turn Trump’s nuclear vision into reality, threatening to dismantle decades of global nuclear deterrence., AI hypersonic missiles, Castelion SpaceX connection, Elon Musk military contracts, Musk nuclear war plans, Pentagon missile defense, SpaceX Pentagon contracts, Starlink military applications, Trump AI warfare, Trump nuclear defense plan, U.S.

MintPress News·Alan Macleod·Mar 13

No billionaire, however, is more intimately connected to the CIA than Larry Ellison. Ellison began his career by working with the CIA on a database system called Project Oracle. In 1977, he would co-found tech giant Oracle (named after his previous project). The CIA was Oracle’s only customer for some time, before Ellison branched out and began to win contracts with other branches of the national security state, including Navy Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, and the NSA.

That close partnership continues to this day. In 2020, the company won a 15-year contract with the CIA and 16 other U.S. intelligence agencies worth tens of billions of dollars. And today, its upper ranks are filled with former CIA executives. One example of this is Leon Panetta, former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense, who sits on its board of directors.

Arming and Supporting Israel

Another key attribute that many of the world’s richest individuals share is their passionate support for Israel and its expansionist project.

Nowhere is this more evident than with Ellison, who has made it his life’s goal to advance the Jewish State’s interests, both at home and abroad. Ellison is an enthusiastic supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he vacationed with on his private island in Hawaii. So impressed was he with the embattled prime minister that he offered him a seat on Oracle’s board, replete with a yearly salary of $450,000.

Ellison is the largest single donor to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). In 2017 alone, he pledged $16.6 million to build a new training facility for IDF soldiers, whom he described as defending “our home.” At a fundraiser, he explained that:

Through all of the perilous times since Israel’s founding, we have called on the brave men and women of the IDF to defend our home. In my mind, there is no greater honor than supporting some of the bravest people in the world, and I thank Friends of the IDF for allowing us to celebrate and support these soldiers year after year. We should do all we can to show these heroic soldiers that they are not alone.”

David Ellison is no less ardent a Zionist, and even met with a top Israeli general in order to aid a project spying on American citizens, according to an investigation by The Grayzone. The scheme was aimed at attacking American citizens participating in pro-Palestine activism in the face of Israel’s attack on Gaza. The documents also mention Brin’s name as a potential collaborator in the plan.

Oracle’s Israeli CEO, Safra Catz, is also a close friend of Netanyahu’s, and describes the corporation as on a “mission” to support Israel. Together, Catz and Ellison have enforced a strict pro-Israel stance across the company. In the wake of the October 2023 violence, Catz instructed that the words “Oracle stands with Israel” must be printed on company screens across the world in more than 180 countries.

Unsurprisingly, the support and collaboration with Israel has led to significant pushback among employees. Catz’s response to their concerns was blunt. “We are not flexible regarding our mission, and our commitment to Israel is second to none,” she said, adding:

This is a free world and I love my employees, and if they don’t agree with our mission to support the State of Israel, then maybe we aren’t the right company for them. Larry and I are publicly committed to Israel and devote personal time to the country, and no one should be surprised by that.”

It has been widely reported, even in the corporate media, that the Ellison family’s foray into the world of media was triggered by their desire to help Israel in its public relations battle, something Tel Aviv is keenly aware that they are losing. As Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League said, “We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem,” explaining that young people around the world are being exposed daily to videos of Israeli aggression, leading to a PR disaster.

Former congressman Mike Gallagher, a leader in the attempts to ban TikTok, explained how his bill had failed, but, after October 7, 2023, and the worldwide outrage at Israeli actions, it found new life on Capitol Hill, and was passed into law, forcing its imminent sale to a consortium led by Oracle.

This pro-Israel sea change has already occurred at CBS News, with the hiring of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. Weiss first came to public attention while still at college, founding an organization that attempted to have Muslim and Arab professors fired for their pro-Palestine views. As The Financial Times noted, “Weiss has won over Ellison partly by taking a pro-Israel stance, according to people familiar with the matter.” Last week, at the Jewish Leadership Conference, she stated that she sees her mission at CBS as “redraw[ing] the lines of what falls in the 40 yards of acceptable debate” in America by sidelining voices like Hassan Piker and Tucker Carlson, and elevate “charismatic” leaders like Alan Dershowitz, who represents “the vast majority of Americans.”

Israel’s Shadow Over Free Speech: The Truth Behind the TikTok Ban Bill

Kit Klarenberg uncovers how Israel’s grip on U.S. policy threatens online expression with the TikTok ban bill, challenging the narrative of Chinese control and highlighting the real danger to free speech.

MintPress News·Kit Klarenberg·Apr 24, 2024

Zuckerberg’s platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – have displayed a no less concerted bias in favor of Israel. As far back as 2016, Facebook was collaborating with the Israeli government on matters of censorship, with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked revealing that the social media platform complied with 95% of her requests for pro-Palestine content to be removed.

The Facebook/Israel partnership was deepened in 2020 when the company appointed Emi Palmor, the former Director General of the Ministry of Justice of Israel and an ex-spy with IDF intelligence group Unit 8200, to its oversight board, a 21-person committee ultimately in charge of the political direction of the site.

Zuckerberg’s platforms have long shut down Palestinian voices on dubious “hate speech” grounds. However, the censorship was drastically increased after the October 7 attacks. Human Rights Watch released a report detailing the “systemic censorship of Palestinian content on Instagram and Facebook.” noting how they reviewed 1050 cases of censorship of Palestinian voices, including those documenting human rights abuses against themselves. 1049 of them, the study concluded, were entirely peaceful utterances of support for Palestine, and did not break any of Meta’s terms of service.

In 2023, Instagram also inserted the word “terrorist” into the bios of thousands of users who mentioned they were Palestinian. When challenged on this, they claimed it was an auto-translation bug.

Internally, Meta staff have complained about systematic suppression of their voices and the creation of a “hostile and unsafe work environment” for Palestinian and Muslim employees.

WhatsApp, meanwhile, is a battleground in more than one sense. The Israeli military is using Palestinians’ WhatsApp data in order to track and target tens of thousands of people in Gaza. It is unclear how or whether Meta is collaborating with the Israeli military in this endeavor. However, it has been suggested that some of the dozens of former Israeli spies now working in top jobs at Meta could be producing backdoors in the software, or simply passing the data onto their former colleagues. A 2022 MintPress investigation found hundreds of former Unit 8200 operatives working at Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Zuckerberg himself is known to be a strong supporter of Israel, and has numerous familial connections to the state. After the October 2023 attacks, he released a statement denouncing Hamas and other resistance forces as “pure evil,” an action that earned him an official thank you from the State of Israel.

Musk has also put himself and his vehicles in the service of Israel. In November 2023, he traveled to Israel to meet with both Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog and offer his unqualified support to their attack on Gaza. Describing Hamas as “evil” and “revel[ing] in the joy of killing civilians,” Musk attempted to publicly whitewash Israeli violence, stating unequivocally that the IDF goes out of its way “to avoid killing civilians.” At the time of his visit, Israeli strikes had killed at least 20,000 people in four weeks of bombings.

Netanyahu has stated that Twitter is among Israel’s “most important weapons” in the war, and defended Musk from accusations of fascism, after he gave a Nazi salute at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

During his visit, Musk also signed a deal with the government of Israel, giving the latter effective control and oversight over Starlink communications portals operating in Israel and Gaza.

Google and Amazon, too, are key players facilitating the hi-tech genocide in Gaza. In 2021, the pair signed a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government to provide cloud computing and AI infrastructure to the IDF – technology that has been used to target the civilian population of the densely-populated strip. The deal has sparked a rebellion among employees, who organized sit-ins and other protests against their collaboration.

Many other Google employees, however, are intimately linked with the State of Israel. There are at least 99 former Unit 8200 spies working in key positions at the Silicon Valley giant. One prominent example is Gavriel Goidel, who was a longtime commander and head of learning at Unit 8200, before being hired by Google to become the company’s head of strategy and operations.

Google has also collaborated in disseminating Israeli government propaganda to tens of millions of Europeans, despite the content breaking its own terms of service.

Part of this may be down to the disposition of Brin himself. Normally avoiding the limelight and refraining from making political statements, the Russian-born magnate bitterly condemned the United Nations as “transparently antisemitic” after it released a report detailing his company’s participation in the Gaza genocide. “Throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides,” he added.

Arnault has remained quiet on Gaza. He has, however, invested heavily in Israel. Diamonds and other precious stones are a mainstay of the Israeli economy, and the Frenchman’s luxury brands disseminate the stones globally. Activists have called for Israeli diamonds to be labeled conflict minerals and boycotted by ethical consumers. He also invested in Israeli tech and security firm, Wiz, a company recently purchased by Google for $32 billion. Earlier this month, LVMH signed a $55 million deal with Israeli actress and former IDF soldier, Gal Gadot, making her the the face of their brand.

Exclusive: Google Helped Israel Spread War Propaganda to 45 Million Europeans

Israel’s PR budget jumped 2,000% as it floods Europe with YouTube ads. MintPress reveals who’s being targeted—and what’s behind the blitz.

MintPress News·Alan Macleod·Aug 15

We are living in an era of unprecedented global inequality. Together, these seven individuals– Musk, Ellison, Page, Brin, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Arnault– control more wealth than the bottom 50% of humanity (over 4 billion people) combined. Sitting on heretofore unimaginable fortunes, they have begun buying up assets, including media outlets, at record pace.

For billionaires, the utility of capturing the press is threefold: firstly, it shields them and their class from press scrutiny and criticism. Second, it gives them a mouthpiece to push the public debate towards even more business-friendly laws and regulations. And third, they can use their outlets to champion any causes and promote any other agendas they have.

We have seen all three play out here, as, collectively, our press is rapidly moving towards more conservative, pro-Trump, pro-Israel positions, shutting out any dissenting voices from their ranks.

The effect on democracy, a free society, and the public’s right to a diversity of opinions has been highly deleterious. When it comes to media, we already suffered from an illusion of choice. However, the supercharged concentration of ownership of American and global media in the hands of just a handful of individuals has only exacerbated this problem. There once was a time that individuals looking for alternative viewpoints would simply go online to find them. But with censorship of dissenting opinions – particularly on Israel/Palestine – growing, this is becoming increasingly unviable.

In short, then, what the planet’s mega-rich capture of our media system shows is that billionaires are not only a serious drain on resources, but an existential threat to an open society and the free flow of information.

Article posted with permission from Alan Macleod

The post The Seven Richest Billionaires Are All Media Barons appeared first on The Washington Standard.

Al Harbi spread lurid and demonstrably false stories about the October 7 attack by Hamas, claiming that she saw with her own eyes videos of Israeli children being beheaded and women being raped in front of their families.

“Shame on you,” for not believing Israel, she told her fellow Arabs, explaining their mentality:

I think those people don’t want to accept anything, either it is rape, or beheaded babies or beheaded soldiers, or any other crime. They just don’t want to accept it. But, you know it is a reality, and it is happening. That’s just sad.”

And while Al Harbi was quick to condemn Hamas or any Arab who did not line up to support what she described as Israel “defending itself” from “terrorism,” she was less hasty to assign any blame to Israel for their post-October 7 actions. “Unfortunately, the situation is very complicated for both sides,” she said. “I don’t think it is a genocide,” she said, adding that it was merely “the price” Palestinians have to “pay.”

Bahraini author and Director of Gulf Affairs at the UAE-based organisation Sharaka, Fatema Al Harbi, denies the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, describing the “complicated situation” on “both sides”, while saying “it’s war, unfortunately”.

Al Harbi became involved with the… pic.twitter.com/w0TATQoekD

— PalPulse (@PulseofPal) April 8, 2025

“Partnership” With Israeli Military Intelligence

Fatema Al Harbi is a director of Sharaka, an Israeli non-governmental organization established in 2020 to promote the Abraham Accords, a series of international normalization agreements between Israel and four Muslim-majority states: Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Morocco. The accords – an attempt to legitimize the State of Israel in the region – have proven extremely unpopular, and have generated widespread protests against their implementation.

Although Sharaka (which means “partnership” in Arabic) is officially a non-governmental organization, anyone analyzing its key staff could be forgiven for mistaking it for an outgrowth of Israeli military intelligence.

The firm’s co-chairman, Dan Feferman, is a former IDF intelligence officer. Spending more than four years in the military, Feferman rose to the rank of major and was, according to his LinkedIn resume, responsible for handling the IDF’s public relations. As of at least 2021, he was still an IDF reservist. Given the background of other key staff at Sharaka, the military intelligence unit in question is likely Unit 8200, Israel’s most elite and controversial spying organization.

Lior Dabush, Sharaka’s Israel director, is a former analyst with Unit 8200. Between 2013 and 2016, she notes, she “wrote intelligence reports and experimented with collecting, processing, deciphering and researching information.” Dabush later went on to become an employee of the Bahraini Embassy in Tel Aviv, highlighting how close the relationship between those two countries has become.

Alongside Dabush at Unit 8200 was Michal Amar, who went on to work for the Israeli Police Force before joining Sharaka as a project manager in 2022.

Infamous around the world, Unit 8200 is the centerpiece of Israel’s hi-tech surveillance and targeting systems. Using big data gleaned from facial recognition cameras, spy drones, fingerprint sensors at checkpoints, and mass surveillance of Palestinians’ electronic devices, Unit 8200 created A.I.-generated kill lists of Gazans, and used drones to carry out tens of thousands of strikes on the densely-populated strip. With help from Western tech corporations such as Microsoft, it also keeps enormous files on every Palestinian, containing medical records, phone calls, and text messages which are used as kompromat for extortion, or can be referred to after an individual is killed to find some post hoc justification for their targeting.

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Unit 8200 agents have also been behind some of the most controversial hi-tech spying incidents, including the 2024 Lebanese pager attack, which injured thousands of civilians, and the Pegasus spyware software, used to surveil tens of thousands of prominent politicians, activists, and journalists worldwide.

Other key figures with close ties to the Israeli national security state include Sharaka co-founder Lorena Khateeb, an Israeli Druze employed by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Digital Diplomacy to target Arab Muslims with pro-Israel P.R. In 2021, she was named as among the top 30 most influential pro-Israel influencers in the world.

The company’s managing director, Noam Meirov, is a career soldier, serving more than seven years as an active duty officer in the IDF before being appointed to his current position. He remains a reserve officer.

Sharaka co-founder and chairman, Amit Deri, however, is an active participant in the ongoing violence in Gaza, described by international organizations the world over as a “genocide.” Deri is an officer in the Israeli military, and has shared pictures of himself inside the war zone, alongside statements celebrating the destruction of civilian buildings.

Sharaka serves as a key prong in Israel’s public relations strategy, and has been directly promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who published a video of Sharaka agents praising and thanking him and the State of Israel.

A World of Opportunities (For Warmongers)

Al Harbi was the first non-government Bahraini to visit Israel, and came back singing its praises. In an interview with PragerU, a far-right American media organization responsible for much of the worst Islamophobic content on the internet, she insisted that there was nothing close to Apartheid in Israel. On the contrary, she claimed that the country was a paragon of racial and religious harmony, where people of all creeds live together in peace.

Fatema from Bahrain @Fatemaal7rbi pic.twitter.com/aSpR4uTvoD

— Fat Cat 🌐 (@FATCAed) January 21, 2024

Al Harbi told PragerU that she met with many Arab Israelis, and that the overriding sentiment among them is that they feel “so proud” and “privileged” to live in Israel, a land that ensures that they “have rights they had never dreamed of” before.

She has since turned this experience into a children’s book, “Fatema’s journey to the Land of Abraham,” which tells the story of how she realized she had been taught to hate Jews, and how Israeli kindness melted away her prejudices. Today, her social media profiles are filled with pictures of her visiting the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Knesset (parliament).

Her pro-Israel advocacy has opened up a world of opportunities. In 2022, she was appointed a scholar-in-residence at Oxford University, thanks to a program sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).

Like Sharaka, ISGAP is closely tied to the Israeli government. Its chairman is Natan Sharansky, the country’s former deputy prime minister and minister of internal affairs. Other key people at the organization include notorious pro-Israel lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, and Christine Maxwell, sister of international child sex offender, Ghislaine Maxwell. Moreover, as a recent MintPress News investigation documented, ISGAP is secretly funded by the Israeli government. In 2018, for instance, the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs surreptitiously provided around 80% of ISGAP’s budget.

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The Al Harbi accolades do not stop there. Later in 2022, she was selected as a European Commission Peace Ambassador and the following year, represented Bahrain at the United Nations Global Youth Summit for Change in Geneva, Switzerland.

By this point, her pro-Israel activism had caught the attention of the U.S. government. In 2024, the State Department nominated her for its prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), a project that provides political instruction to young leaders from around the world and develops long-term relationships between the U.S. government and a cadre of tens of thousands of prominent individuals. Hundreds of IVLP laureates have gone on to become heads of state in their respective countries. IVLP nominees are flown to the United States, are shown the inner workings of the U.S. government, and develop relationships with American officials.

Al Harbi certainly took advantage of this opportunity. Her social media is filled with posts highlighting her frequent trips across the U.S., whether that is meeting the mayor of Beverly Hills, or visits to Harvard University, the Texas State Capitol, or the Pentagon.

Conservative Media Darling

Unsurprisingly, a hijab-wearing Arab Muslim woman willing to defend Israel has proven attractive for corporate media in the U.S., particularly the conservative press. In a separate video recorded for PragerU, Al Harbi states that virtually every Arab child is brought up to hate Jews, but that Arabs in Israel “feel safe,” and “have full rights” in “the country they call home.” The video was then seized upon by Israeli media to whitewash their crimes.

Yet PragerU itself also has ties to Israeli intelligence; its CEO, Marissa Streit, having also served in Unit 8200. PragerU has recently become a partner of the U.S. government, providing “educational” videos for Washington to be used nationwide, a decision that has sparked an outcry from groups citing the organization’s less than stellar reputation for accuracy.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Daily Wire, Al Harbi revealed that she was invited to the Israeli consulate in Boston to watch a 47-minute compilation of October 7 footage. “I was shocked. I couldn’t breathe,” she said, of the footage, “I cried [through] most of it.” “I thought I saw enough on social media… There were more horrific acts and barbaric acts towards civilians, people sleeping in their beds,” she added.

The Daily Wire was founded in 2015 by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing. Shapiro, a pro-Israel crusader, has long attracted controversy and criticism because of his hardline views. In a 2003 article titled “transfer is not a dirty word,” he called for the genocide of the Palestinian population. And in 2019, he wrote that “Israelis like to build. Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage.”

Boreing, meanwhile, has gone out of his way to shield Israel from criticism of its aggression in Gaza. Lauding it for “endeavor[ing] to mitigate civilian losses,” he insisted that “Israel did not bomb a refugee camp because there is no refugee camp because there are no refugees.”

Surely the most influential piece of media Al Harbi has been involved with, however, is a collaboration with Israeli author Aija Mayrock and pro-Israel organization, Facts For Peace. The video describes Al Harbi has having “risked everything to bring Muslims and Jews together,” and features A.I.-generated images of Israelis welcoming her into their households.

Facts for Peace was created in October 2023 by U.S. billionaire, Barry Sternlicht, and spends millions of dollars every month on pro-Israel ads on Google, YouTube, and Facebook. Sternlicht recruited several well-known billionaires to his cause, including former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, and Dell founder, Michael Dell.

“Public opinion will surely shift as scenes, real or fabricated by Hamas, of civilian Palestinian suffering will surely erode [Israel’s] current empathy in the world community,” Sternlicht wrote in an email to his fellow plutocrats. “We must get ahead of the narrative,” he concluded. Perhaps this explains the virality of the video.

Last year, MintPress published a full investigation into Facts For Peace, its creation, and its shadowy funding.

Is Al Harbi truly as heroic as the Facts For Peace video makes out? Did she really “risk everything” for peace? Some might consider those Bahrainis protesting against their authoritarian government’s policy of collaboration with a state carrying out a genocide against Arabs as a far riskier and more noble endeavor. And while she may have lost friends and family members, who describe her as a “traitor” to her religion and her people, it is clear to see that publicly supporting Israel, its expansion, and Arab normalization efforts with it, has landed her a wide range of opportunities and prestigious appointments. Therefore, although many in her country might view her as a real life Clayton Bigsby, her willingness to vocally support Israel has quickly opened doors all the way to the highest halls of power.

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A Controversial Alliance

Bahrain has been one of the region’s governments most willing to openly collaborate with the State of Israel. In 2020, it was among the first to sign the Abraham Accords, despite widespread internal opposition and condemnation from Palestinian leadership, who called it a “betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa, and the Palestinian cause.” The government of Bahrain, however–a Sunni administration ruling over a Shiite-majority population– considers Iran its primary threat.

Israel is facing a crisis of legitimization. Its public image has crashed since October 7, 2023, falling in 42 of 43 countries studied by polling organization, Morning Consult. To that end, in 2025, it drastically increased its spending on P.R. by over 2,000%, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being allocated a budget of $150 million for public diplomacy. Much of that has gone into advertisements targeting Western audiences.

This crisis in Israeli legitimacy is also the key driver in the forced sale of TikTok to pro-Israel billionaire, Larry Ellison. “We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem,” Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, explained, noting that young people who get their news from social media are far more likely to hold sympathetic views towards Palestinians than older Americans that continue to rely on legacy media.

Likewise, the Ellison family’s purchase of CBS News, and its attempts to buy CNN, are also efforts to turn the tide and shore up crumbling support for Israel in the United States. Ellison’s decision to appoint Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor-in-chief was reportedly down to the self-described “Zionist fanatic’s” positions on Israel.

Arabs have long been accustomed to seeing their governments make unpopular moves. Continued normalization efforts with Israel, however, may be a bridge too far. A poll conducted by the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, for instance, found that 96% of Saudi respondents believed that Arab nations should cut ties with Israel, not fraternize with it.

Thus, both Israel and its Arab allies are facing an uphill battle selling normalization efforts, while Israel continues to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank, and has bombed six of its neighbors this year alone. To that end, Fatema Al Harbi is a key asset for Tel Aviv. As a hijabi Bahraini Muslim willing to defend the indefensible, she has transformed herself into one of Israel’s most potent weapons in its public relations battle. Whether her efforts will bear fruit is another matter.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post Fatema Al Harbi: The Arab Working Overtime To Defend Israel’s Genocide appeared first on The Washington Standard.

MintPress has detailed the deep collaboration between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Amazon, Google, TikTok, Apple, Palantir, and Oracle, but Microsoft’s relationship with the government and armed forces of Israel is potentially the closest, leading then-CEO Steve Ballmer to state that “Microsoft is as much an Israeli company as an American company.” MintPress explores the decades-long partnership between Microsoft and Israel, and the employees trying to break that marriage from the inside.

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Turning Code Into Carnage

“Among U.S. tech firms,” the Associated Press wrote, “Microsoft has had an especially close relationship with the Israeli military.” That relationship, it notes, massively expanded after the October 7, 2023, attacks.

In the months following October 7, the IDF’s usage of Microsoft’s Azure cloud service surged more than 200-fold. The amount of data from surveillance cameras, drones, checkpoints, biometric scanners, phone calls, and intercepted Palestinian personal data stored by the IDF on Microsoft servers doubled in the next nine months, reaching 13.6 petabytes by July 2024 – equivalent to 23,000 years of audio, or seven trillion pages of text.

The point of all this was to create an enormous digital dragnet, where Palestinians’ every move, word, and keystroke was recorded in monitored in the greatest and most dystopian digital dragnet ever created. In the words of Yossi Sariel, the head of Unit 8200, the IDF’s surveillance division, the plan was to “track everyone, all of the time.”

Sariel argued that big data was the solution to Israel’s problems, envisaging a future where Israel intercepted and stored “a million calls an hour” from Palestine, and used A.I. to search for keywords and identify threats.

There was no way, however, that Israel could do this alone, as it did not possess the expertise or anything like the storage capacity needed for such a project. To this end, Sariel travelled to Seattle in 2021 to meet with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, to pitch him on the surveillance partnership whereby Microsoft would build Unit 8200 a customized and segregated area within its Azure platform.

The Israeli military uses Microsoft Azure to transcribe, translate, and otherwise process intelligence garnered via mass surveillance, which is then linked to Israel’s A.I.-based weapons systems.

The largest and most controversial organization within the Israeli military, Unit 8200 has long been the centerpiece of Israel’s hi-tech spying operation. The unit is dedicated to surveillance, cyberwarfare, and online manipulation operations. Last year, it carried out the Lebanese Pager Attack, an act that wounded thousands of civilians. Unit 8200 agents were also behind many of the most infamous international spyware and hacking cases, including the Pegasus software, that was used to surveil tens of thousands of the world’s most prominent political leaders, journalists, and human rights campaigners.

Sariel’s policy of mass surveillance changed the internal attitude at Unit 8200. “Suddenly the entire public was our enemy,” said one officer. The gargantuan trove of information compiled in Microsoft Azure amounted to a vast repository on the entire Palestinian population – a giant database of kompromat that is used to extort and blackmail the region’s indigenous people. If a person was secretly gay, or cheating on their spouse, for example, that information was readily available to Unit 8200 agents, who would then use it to turn their targets into informants. One former Unit 8200 member revealed that, as part of their training, they were made to memorize different Arabic slang words for “gay”, so that they could identify them in conversations.

The cloud database is also used to provide after-the-fact justification for arrests of innocent peoples. Off-hand, out-of-context comments made years ago can be used to portray anyone as a member of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or another armed resistance force.

“These people get entered into the system, and the data on them just keeps growing,” an Israeli intelligence official who served in the West Bank said.

When they need to arrest someone and there isn’t a good enough reason to do so, [the Azure surveillance repository] is where they find the excuse. We’re now in a situation where almost no one in the [Occupied] Territories is ‘clean,’ in terms of what intelligence has on them.”

Unit 8200 has also used big data to compile A.I.-generated kill lists featuring tens of thousands of people. One program gave every Gazan, even women and children, a score of between 1 and 100, based on a number of factors. If they live in the same building or are in group chats with known or suspected Hamas members, for instance, their score is increased. Once their score reached a certain threshold, all Gazans were automatically placed on a kill list that was minimally overseen by humans.

According to multiple Unit 8200 agents, Microsoft Azure’s cloud-based storage platform allowed Israel to overcome targeting bottlenecks, using all manner of data to research and identify individuals for assassination, which led to the killing of tens of thousands of people during the first weeks of its post-October 7 onslaught.

Of course, the vast majority of the deaths have been civilians – around 70% were women and children. But Israeli officials can also go back after the fact and scour their digital dragnet to justify any killing, finding connections or any other incriminating evidence. A senior Israeli military officer described the cloud technology as “a weapon in every sense of the word.” Other officials, however, have gone so far as to raise concerns that Israel’s overreliance on Microsoft as a service is a strategic vulnerability that should be corrected.

Microsoft Sees No Evil, Only Profits

Throughout all this, Microsoft has protested its innocence – and ignorance – of Israeli crimes. “At no time during this engagement or since that time has Microsoft been aware of the surveillance of civilians or collection of their cell phone conversations using Microsoft’s services, including through the external review it commissioned,” a spokesperson for the company stated, adding, “Any allegations about Microsoft leadership involvement and support of this project … are false.”

But leaked documents suggest Microsoft engineers understood exactly what sort of data was being stored in Azure, and what their clients hoped to achieve. “Technically, they’re not supposed to be told exactly what it is, but you don’t have to be a genius to figure it out,” one engineer said. “You tell [Microsoft] we don’t have any more space on the servers, that it’s audio files. It’s pretty clear what it is.”

Others felt that the idea that Microsoft did not know that one of the world’s most notorious spying organizations might be using big data to spy on people was not credible, especially given how closely the two entities had been working together for years. “Microsoft says that it can’t figure out if their customers are committing crimes against humanity or mass surveillance, while at the same time Microsoft employees are working alongside uniformed IDF. Absurd!” Paul Biggar, the founder of Tech For Palestine, told MintPress.

The corporation’s claim of innocence seems even more tenuous, given the fact that Microsoft employs hundreds of former Unit 8200 agents, and recruits directly from the organization. A 2022 MintPress investigation found at least 166 former Unit 8200 operatives who went on to work for Microsoft, including many who helped design Azure itself.

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One example of this is Michael Bargury, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a Unit 8200 leader and moved directly to Microsoft Azure in 2015, eventually becoming a senior architect for the platform. Another is Azure’s current partner software engineering manager, Shlomi Haba. Haba spent six years as a Unit 8200, rising to become an officer and a team leader. Since 2014, he has worked for Microsoft Azure, and is now the company’s software engineering manager, overseeing dozens of engineers designing the platform. Many of those engineers are also former Unit 8200 operatives. Hundreds more ex-spies work in key positions at Microsoft. Ayelet Steinitz, for example, was the company’s former head of global strategic alliances, and continues to occupy a senior role at the company.

In short, Microsoft is filled with former Unit 8200 operatives whose jobs entail making custom software for current agents to use. According to Microsoft employees familiar with the situation, this intimate relationship between the two entities makes their collaboration “much easier,” further undermining Microsoft’s denials.

Microsoft also openly works with and recruits from the ranks of the Israeli military. In April 2024, for instance, it collaborated with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to host a group from its Combatants to Hi-Tech program for a TypeScript workshop and tour. And in 2022, again in collaboration with the IDF, it launched a free cybersecurity training program for Israeli military veterans.

This cooperation continues, despite the fact that Unit 8200 has attacked Microsoft before, the organization reportedly producing malware that targeted Microsoft products, such as its Windows operating system, finding loopholes in security to neutralize control panels, delete hard drives, and shut down key systems, such as Iran’s energy grid.

Corporate Zionism: Roots in Israel’s War Economy

The Azure/IDF partnership is the result of a decades-long relationship between Microsoft and the State of Israel, one which has helped both entities. Microsoft established its first branch in Israel in 1989, and two years later, opened a research and development center in the city of Herzliya near Tel Aviv. The first of its kind outside the United States, the center has continued to expand, and now directly employs an estimated 2,700 workers.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Microsoft began signing deals with Israeli firms and government agencies, and, by the 2010s, was an integral part of the Israeli security state. In 2017, it inked a lucrative contract with the Israeli Prison Service, providing cloud services to the entity responsible for jailing tens of thousands of Palestinians without trial. Today, it maintains over 600 active subscriptions with the Israeli military.

The company has also moved to acquire at least 21 Israeli tech firms. Among these include cybersecurity group, Hexadite, purchased for $100 million in 2017, and Oribi, a web analytics business founded by a former Israeli intelligence agent.

Every CEO in Microsoft’s history has flown to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including Bill Gates, who, in 2016, stated that hi-tech Israeli security was “improving the world.”

In short, Microsoft is a cornerstone of Israel’s burgeoning hi-tech sector, which accounts for 20% of the country’s GDP and more than half of its total exports. Netanyahu himself has showered praise on the corporation, describing the Microsoft/Israel partnership as “a marriage made in heaven.”

Others have been less enthused by this union. In June, Iran deliberately targeted a Microsoft center in Be’ersheva, carrying out a missile strike against it. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard justified their actions, citing Microsoft’s “close cooperation with the Israeli army and its being part of the system supporting aggression, and not just a civilian entity.” “The cyber area that was attacked also includes the residences of people from the espionage and artificial intelligence fields, who operate in direct cooperation with the enemy army and its security apparatus,” it concluded.

Cracking Down on Internal Resistance

A greater threat than Iran to Microsoft, however, is its own employees, hundreds of whom have organized to oppose its role in the genocide. Under the banner of No Azure for Apartheid,  workers demand that: Microsoft terminates all Azure contracts with Israel; disclose all ties to the Israeli national security state; publicly call for a ceasefire, and stop persecuting employees who speak out about the genocide.

This fourth demand is particularly salient, as the corporation has shown little to no tolerance for dissent. In October 2024, it fired two workers for organizing a vigil for Palestinian refugees at its corporate headquarters near Seattle.

Months later, it sacked a worker who interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote address at the company’s annual developer conference. Joe Lopez, a firmware engineer who worked on Azure, shouted down Nadella, yelling, “Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians. How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure? As a Microsoft worker, I refuse to be complicit in this genocide!” Video of the incident went viral, causing a public relations nightmare for the company.

NEW: Microsoft Engineer Disrupts Nadella Keynote Over Genocide Complicity

Joe Lopez, a member of the No Azure for Apartheid campaign and a firmware engineer in Azure’s hardware division, interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s Build conference keynote on Monday. In a letter published… https://t.co/Xa1MqMs2R0 pic.twitter.com/PhV7g1OYPO

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 19, 2025

By this time, Microsoft realized that it had a serious employee revolt on its hands. Just days after the Lopez incident, the firm quietly implemented a policy blocking employee emails containing keywords such as “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide,” on its internal exchange servers. The policy did little to dampen organizing efforts, and caused another round of embarrassing headlines, once it was leaked to the press.

Amid building pressure, in September, Microsoft announced that it had withdrawn some of its services to the Israeli military, a decision which implies reports of its complicity in the violence were indeed accurate.

“Of all of the worker campaigns, No Azure for Apartheid has been the most effective and well run. It has produced the most valuable information, and it is the first that has produced actual policy change and ramifications for the company involved,” Biggar told MintPress, adding:

It is pretty clear that what Microsoft says about their policies, their human rights records and more is bullshit. So they are only going to respond to external embarrassment, and the No Azure for Apartheid people have really demonstrated how effective that can be.”

Targeting Enemies

Company employees are far from the only target of Microsoft’s wrath, however. In May, Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced that Microsoft had locked him out of his official ICC email account, just as he was formalizing charges against Netanyahu and other top Israeli leaders. For many, the timing was not a coincidence, but rather a message.

The British lawyer joined a vast plethora of Palestinians who have complained that Microsoft has terminated their accounts without warning. A BBC investigation found dozens of Palestinians who, after attempting to use Microsoft services to contact relatives in Gaza, were banned for life. “I’ve had this Hotmail account for 15 years. They banned me for no reason, saying I violated their terms—what terms? Tell me,” one Palestinian-American user said.

IBM’s brand has forever been tarnished by its collaboration with Nazi Germany, aiding Hitler’s slaughter of millions of people. In much the same way, No Azure for Apartheid believe that Microsoft’s name will forever be linked with the destruction in Gaza. Microsoft has enjoyed a decades-long partnership with Israel, which has seen them slowly integrate themselves into the state, becoming a fundamental part of the system of oppression. From servicing the Israeli war machine, to hiring hundreds of Israeli spies to run its affairs, to cracking down on internal and external dissent against it, Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians is aided by Microsoft, whose technological prowess has helped Israel carry out the world’s first A.I.-powered genocide.

Article posted with permission from MintPress News

The post Hi-Tech Holocaust: How Microsoft Aids The Gaza Genocide appeared first on The Washington Standard.