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The penthouse of the sleek, postmodern Metropolitan Tower in Midtown Manhattan offers panoramic views of New York. But for more than five years, a former Wall Street trader used it as a sex "dungeon," luring women in and leaving them maimed and bruised, federal prosecutors say. Howard Rubin, 70, a former Salomon Brothers bond trader ... was arrested Friday on sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors said he brought women to the penthouse blocks from Central Park, where a bedroom was painted red, soundproofed and fitted with devices to use on the women. Along with a personal assistant, Jennifer Powers, Mr. Rubin recruited and paid at least a half-dozen women to participate in bondage and sadomasochism, but the acts went far beyond what the women had signed up for. Prosecutors said Mr. Rubin took advantage of the women, many of whom were especially vulnerable because of their histories of addiction and abuse. Though women were told they could use a "safe word" to stop any sexual encounter, prosecutors said they were often unable to utter it because they were gagged or Mr. Rubin simply ignored their pleas. The room would often remain locked during the encounters ... while the women were shocked, beaten and violated. Mr. Rubin also provided the women with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol before their sex acts. In one encounter, Mr. Rubin gave a female victim a sedative that made her unconscious so he could enact a rape fantasy.
Note: This article is also available here. Howie Rubin (mentioned in this article) was accused in a 2017 lawsuit of beating a woman's breasts so badly that her right implant flipped. Elite predators like Rubin and Harvey Weinstein often make their victims sign non-disclosure agreements to keep them quiet using the law. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on sexual abuse scandals.
TrineDay Books announces the release of Blue Butterfly: Inside the Diary of an Epstein Survivor, a gripping memoir of Survivor Juliette Bryant that exposes Jeffrey Epstein's previously unreported medical crimes. Juliette's firsthand testimony ... unravels Epstein's deep ties to the shadowy intelligence community that controlled him. It explores how the two-time college dropout amassed a fortune of half a billion dollars while spending his days abusing young girls. Twenty-three years ago, on September 26, 2002, Jeffrey Epstein touched down in Cape Town with a high-profile entourage. That night, 20-year-old Juliette Bryant, a psychology student and aspiring model, was recruited and promised a future with the lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret. Instead, she found herself ensnared in a global network of abuse. Juliette was trafficked across continents and American states, taken to all of Epstein's luxury residences, and introduced to co-conspirators who enabled his operations to flourish in plain sight. The sexual abuse and psychological manipulation Juliette endured were pervasive as she made her final trip to Epstein's remote Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. There, in June 2004, Juliette awoke paralyzed in a laboratory, while a female doctor operated on her–without her knowledge or consent. While other books have documented his trafficking network, Blue Butterfly explores his obsession with elite eugenics, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, cryogenics, and cloning.
Note: Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's criminal enterprise.
Future wars just might revolve around insect-size spy robots. A recent digest of present-day microbots by US national security magazine The National Interest breaks down the many machines currently in development by the US military and its associates. They include sea-based microdrones, cockroach-style surveillance bots, and even cyborg insects. Arguably the most refined program to date is the RoboBee, currently being shopped by Harvard's Wyss Institute. Originally funded by a $9.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation in 2009, the RoboBee is a bug-sized autonomous flying vehicle capable of transitioning from water to air, perching on surfaces, and autonomous collision avoidance in swarms. The RoboBee features two "wafer-thin" wings that flap some 120 times a second to achieve vertical takeoff and mid-air hovering. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has reportedly taken a keen interest in RoboBee prototypes, sponsoring research into microfabrication technology, presumably for quick field deployments. Other developments, like the aforementioned cyborg insect, remain in early stages. Researchers have successfully demonstrated the capabilities of these remote-control systems using of a range of insect hosts, from the unicorn beetle to the humble cockroach. Underwater microrobotics are another area of interest for DARPA.
Note: Explore all news article summaries on emerging warfare technology in our comprehensive news database.
Senior officials in the Biden administration, including some White House officials, "conducted repeated and sustained outreach" and "pressed" Google- and YouTube parent-company Alphabet "regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate [Alphabet's] policies," the company revealed yesterday. While Alphabet "continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press [Alphabet] to remove non-violative user-generated content," a lawyer for Alphabet wrote in a September 23 letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. Administration officials including Biden "created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions" of private tech platforms regarding the moderation of misinformation. This is what has come to be known as "jawboning," and the fact that it doesn't involve direct censorship may make it even more insidious. Direct censorship can be challenged in court. This sort of wink-and-nod regulation of speech leaves companies and their users with little recourse. What's more, each time authorities stray from the spirit of the First Amendment, it makes it that much easier for future authorities to do so. And each time Democrats (or Republicans) use government power to try and suppress free speech, it gives them even less standing to say it's wrong when their opponents do that.
Note: Read more about the sprawling federal censorship enterprise that took shape during the Biden administration. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on censorship and government corruption.
The aviary has a narrow duck pond in the back and a plywood square painted with the portrait of a coyote hanging on the front door. Inside, 71-year-old Willie H. uses plastic tweezers to feed moistened dog food pellets to juvenile robins through the bars of their cage. Like every day, he does this with his pet cockatiel, Bird, on his shoulder. The makeshift aviary he's spent the past 20 years working in is within the confines of the Marion Correctional Institution, where he's serving a potential life sentence. The Ohio Wildlife Center has been sending injured and orphaned wildlife to Marion for rehabilitation since the 1990s. According to Brittany Jordan, the center's wildlife rehabilitation operational director, these behind-bars rehab centers are now in five prisons across the state, and more institutions are joining the program as a way to help both the inmates and the animals. Willie ... was one of the first inmates to participate in the program, which has rehabilitated and released thousands of animals that required extra care after being treated at the Ohio Wildlife Center's hospital in Columbus. The inmates volunteer as caretakers and learn how to handle, feed and administer medication to a wide range of species–from barn swallows to opossums. While the Prison Program benefits wildlife ... it also rewards inmates with new skills, routine and purpose. They tend to stay out of trouble, away from substance abuse, and have an increased interest to learn more about the animals they care for.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on repairing criminal justice.
Professor Michael Antoniou, head of the Gene Expression and Therapy Group at King's College London, has studied for more than 35 years how genes function and how they are disrupted. His decades of rigorous independent research into the risks of GM foods and glyphosate-based herbicides have raised serious concerns about the safety of these technologies. In a report he prepared for the Mexican government, as the country attempted to restrict GMO corn imports for health reasons, Professor Antoniou cited "a large body of evidence from well-controlled laboratory animal toxicity studies that show evidence of harm to multiple physiological systems" from toxic agents found in GM corn. The health risks of GM corn and its associated pesticides arise from three main sources: Bt insecticidal proteins engineered into the plants, DNA damage caused by the genetic modification process itself, and pesticides used on the crops. The GM transformation process – the process by which a GMO is generated in the laboratory – is highly mutagenic. You create unintended damage to the DNA of the crop. And by changing the pattern of gene function in the organism, you will change its biochemistry and its composition, including the unexpected production of new toxins and allergens. Regardless of the GMO crop we're talking about, they're all grown with one or more different kinds of pesticides ... such as glyphosate. They invariably come with pesticide residues
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on GMOs and toxic chemicals.
The United States is building up its military assets, sparking fears of another regime change attempt against Venezuela–and this one could be far more deadly than the others. Citing an influx of Venezuelan drugs into the U.S., the Trump administration is rapidly building up its military forces, encircling the South American nation. While this is officially a counter-narcotics operation, few in Washington bother to hide their true intentions. "Dear Foreign Terrorist Leader Maduro, Your days are seriously numbered," Former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn stated publicly. In a recent interview, President Maduro claimed that most of the profits from the trade stay in the U.S. "Eighty-five percent of the billions from international drug trafficking each year are in banks in the United States. That is where the cartel is," he said, adding: "There is $500 billion in the U.S. banking system, in reputable banks. It is from the United States that all drug trafficking is directed." In 2014, Juan Orlando Hernández came to power in Honduras following a U.S.-backed coup. Hernández quickly began using his position to enrich himself, allying with the infamous Sinaloa Cartel. Last year, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison for distributing more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. The U.S. government supported his administration. In 2008, Bolivia ... expelled the DEA from the country, leading to a significant drop in the production of cocaine.
Note: Our original investigation explores the dark truth of the war on drugs. During the 2008 financial crisis when banks were starved of cash, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa said he had evidence that proceeds from the drug trade were the only liquid capital keeping major banks afloat. According to Costa, the interbank loans the global financial system depended on were being funded by drug money. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption and the war on drugs.
Top regulatory officials met with agricultural and chemical industry representatives dozens of times in the first few months after President Donald Trump took office. [The meetings] were followed by a series of regulatory rollbacks and a downplaying of pesticide concerns by the administration's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) Commission. From February to mid-May, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaders accepted meetings with representatives from at least 50 industry associations and companies, including agricultural and chemical giants such as Bayer, Corteva, BASF, Dow and the agrichemical lobbying group CropLife America, as well as the American Soybean Association, the National Cotton Council and others. Critics of the agrichemical industry said corporate influence in regulatory matters was underscored earlier this month when the Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) Commission released its long-anticipated report on how to address chronic disease and clean up the food supply. The final version was significantly more friendly to the agricultural industry than a May MAHA report that cited the health risks posed by the widely used farm chemicals glyphosate and atrazine. The September report took aim at synthetic dyes and junk food, among other things, but deleted references to glyphosate and atrazine and made no mention of pesticide exposure routes or risks.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and toxic chemicals.
In response to conservative influencer Charlie Kirk's murder, both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have suggested the White House will target left-wing groups and their donors. Fear of political retribution is not the only reason U.S. think tanks may be reluctant to share financial information. Even before these new threats against left-leaning groups, a Quincy Institute report found that over a third of the major foreign policy think tanks do not disclose any donor information, oftentimes because of their heavy reliance on special interests. The top 50 American think tanks received at least $110 million from foreign governments and $35 million from defense contractors in the past 5 years alone. Despite their positioning as objective and independent institutions, reliance on special interests can lead to self-censorship and perspective filtering. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would be canceling 83% of USAID's programs. The decision impacted think tanks all around the world. The Trump administration also cut funding for the Wilson Center and U.S. Institute for Peace, two congressionally-established think tanks. Many think tanks will no doubt look to other sources to fill the gaps in U.S. funding, particularly private companies and foreign governments willing to dole out millions of dollars with the intent to influence think tank research. Those sources will likely come with strings attached.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on corruption in government and in the corporate world.
Pesticides once appeared to be a clear target for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s desire to "make America healthy again." Before becoming the health secretary, he described Monsanto, the maker of the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, as "enemy of every admirable American value," and vowed to "ban the worst agricultural chemicals already banned in other countries." Since he came to power, many of Kennedy's fans have waited eagerly for him to do just that. Kennedy has yet to satisfy them: In the latest MAHA action plan on children's health, released last week, pesticides appear only briefly on a laundry list of vague ideas. The plan says that the government should fund research on how farmers could use less of them, and that the government "will work to ensure that the public has awareness and confidence" in the EPA's existing pesticide-review process, which it called "robust." Several studies have found neurological impacts associated with pesticides. UC Davis's MIND Institute put out a study in 2014 that found autism risk was much higher among children whose mothers had lived near agricultural-pesticide areas while pregnant. A 2017 paper found that zip codes that conducted aerial spraying for mosquitoes–a pesticide–had comparatively higher rates of autism than zip codes that didn't. Others have linked pesticides to a range of behavioral and cognitive impairment in children.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and toxic chemicals.
California has long led the way on school meals. In 2022, it became the first state in the country to make school meals free for all students, regardless of income. Many districts have implemented farm-to-school programs to bring local foods into the cafeteria. And last year, months before the "Make America healthy again" movement would make its way to the White House, it became the first state in the nation to ban six synthetic food dyes from school meals. This week, it passed legislation that will put it in the lead on school meals in yet another way – banning ultra-processed foods. On Friday, California lawmakers passed a bill that will define, and then ban, ultra-processed foods from school meals. Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are industrially formulated products that are often high in fats, starches, sugars and additives, and make up 73% of the US food supply today. The text of California's new law defines a UPF as any food or beverage that contains stabilizers, thickeners, propellants, colors, emulsifiers, flavoring agents, flavor enhancers, nonnutritive sweeteners or surface-active agents – and has high amounts of saturated fat, sodium or added sugar, or nonnutritive sweeteners. "We actually had food service directors come in and testify," [state assembly member Jesse Gabriel] said. "Not only had it not cost them more, but in many districts they had actually saved money by switching to healthier alternatives."
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and reimagining the economy.
There has been a surge of concern and interest in the threat of "surveillance pricing," in which companies leverage the enormous amount of detailed data they increasingly hold on their customers to set individualized prices for each of them – likely in ways that benefit the companies and hurt their customers. The central battle in such efforts will be around identity: do the companies whose prices you are checking or negotiating know who you are? Can you stop them from knowing who you are? Unfortunately, one day not too far in the future, you may lose the ability to do so. Many states around the country are creating digital versions of their state driver's licenses. Digital versions of IDs allow people to be tracked in ways that are not possible or practical with physical IDs – especially since they are being designed to work ... online. It will be much easier for companies to request – and eventually demand – that people share their IDs in order to engage in all manner of transactions. It will make it easier for companies to collect data about us, merge it with other data, and analyze it, all with high confidence that it pertains to the same person – and then recognize us ... and execute their price-maximizing strategy against us. Not only would digital IDs prevent people from escaping surveillance pricing, but surveillance pricing would simultaneously incentivize companies to force the presentation of digital IDs by people who want to shop.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on corporate corruption and the disappearance of privacy.
After House Democrats released a scrapbook gifted to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday, questions have emerged about whether the late child-sex trafficker's proclivities were an open secret. Indeed, the so-called birthday book, which was compiled by Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, contains multiple letters that are laden with sexual innuendo – including one alleged missive from Donald Trump. A mysterious message, typed on a naked female torso, quotes Trump as stating: "We have certain things in common, Jeffrey." Part of this birthday note implored that "every day be another wonderful secret". "Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?" a quote on the drawing attributed to Trump also stated. Trump is listed under the "friends" section of the book's table of contents, as are former president Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz. Jean-Luc Brunel, a former model agency head suspected of supplying young girls to Epstein, was also included in the friends section. Maxwell introduced Brunel to Epstein in the 1980s. Brunel, who was arrested in 2020 by French authorities on suspicion of rape, was found hanged in prison while awaiting trial. Epstein died in jail pending trial six years ago. Several familiar with the 1980s and 1990s scene inhabited by moneyed men, such as Epstein, said that mistreatment of women and girls was well-known. [Model] CarrĂ© Otis ... said she did not meet Epstein but "definitely knew his name" from a whisper network among her colleagues.
Note: When undeniable evidence of Epstein's child sex trafficking ring came to court in 2008, the entire system moved to shield him and his associates from the gravity of his crimes. Major news outlets suppressed key evidence. Prosecutors shut down an FBI investigation and gave him a sweetheart deal. Alexander Acosta, the US attorney who signed off on the deal, later said he was told Epstein "belonged to intelligence, and to leave it alone." Even after his conviction as a sex offender, Epstein was meeting with top officials at the CIA and the White House. Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.
In his 1963 scifi story "The Invincible," the Polish writer StanisĹ‚aw Lem imagined an artificial species of free-floating nanobots which roamed the atmosphere of a far-off planet. Like tiny bugs, the microscopic beings were powerless alone, but together they could form cooperative swarms to gather energy, reproduce, and ultimately defend their territory from predators with deadly force. Lem probably never imagined his evolutionary parable of living dust was just a few decades from becoming a reality – or that it would become the inspiration for the development of a real-life military technology known as "smart dust." Starting out as a theoretical research proposal to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ... smart dust is now being developed for use in a wide variety of industries, from environmental studies to commercial mining. That's according to Interesting Engineering, which recently published a rundown of the state of present-day smart dust after decades of development. Though "dust" remains a bit of a misnomer – it's more like a bunch of tiny sensors capable of delaying data to a central device – there's a large body of theoretical and simulated work laying a path for practical microengineering that's steadily coming into its own. In the future, [smart dust is] hoped to be able to report a near-infinite amount of data in suspended, 3D environments. The current "smart dust industry" ... was valued at around $115 million in 2022.
Note: Smart dust can theoretically be used to spy on human thought. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and the disappearance of privacy.
Jeffrey Epstein was a very wealthy man, but exactly how wealthy and where that money came from remains shrouded in mystery. Newly unearthed emails last week shone light on Epstein's role as freelance client development officer, acting as a channel between political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence. Figures in Epstein's network of billionaires, politicians, celebrities, royalty and intellectuals were assembled into schemes of influence. The spheres of influence Epstein created, emails showed, relied simultaneously on access and gifts Between his collection of lavish homes in New York, Palm Beach and Paris, two private Caribbean islands, two jets and helicopter, Epstein held nearly $380m in cash and investments, according to his estate. That wealth arrived suddenly. Until the end of the 90s, Epstein was living in a two-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side close to the river. It was only when Maxwell arrived from London that his lifestyle was dramatically elevated. Epstein moved to a townhouse on 68th Street and later to a 28,000-sq-ft mansion on 71st Street, later transferred to him by Wexner in 2011. Steven Hoffenberg, a former business partner of Epstein convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, claimed that Maxwell's father, the disgraced press baron Robert Maxwell, introduced his daughter to Epstein in the late 1980s. A 2022 Miami Herald exposé showed complex Maxwell family transactions passing through companies in Jersey, the British Virgin Islands and Panama that it called "a decades-long modus operandi of financial deception".
Note: There is significant evidence suggesting that Robert Maxwell was a superspy for Mossad, Israel's intelligence and covert operations unit. US attorney Alexander Acosta was once told Epstein "belonged to intelligence, and to leave it alone." Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.
In an exchange this week on "All-In Podcast," Alex Karp was on the defensive. The Palantir CEO used the appearance to downplay and deny the notion that his company would engage in rights-violating in surveillance work. "We are the single worst technology to use to abuse civil liberties, which is by the way the reason why we could never get the NSA or the FBI to actually buy our product," Karp said. What he didn't mention was the fact that a tranche of classified documents revealed by [whistleblower and former NSA contractor] Edward Snowden and The Intercept in 2017 showed how Palantir software helped the National Security Agency and its allies spy on the entire planet. Palantir software was used in conjunction with a signals intelligence tool codenamed XKEYSCORE, one of the most explosive revelations from the NSA whistleblower's 2013 disclosures. XKEYSCORE provided the NSA and its foreign partners with a means of easily searching through immense troves of data and metadata covertly siphoned across the entire global internet, from emails and Facebook messages to webcam footage and web browsing. A 2008 NSA presentation describes how XKEYSCORE could be used to detect "Someone whose language is out of place for the region they are in," "Someone who is using encryption," or "Someone searching the web for suspicious stuff." In May, the New York Times reported Palantir would play a central role in a White House plan to boost data sharing between federal agencies, "raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power."
Note: Read about Palantir's revolving door with the US government. As former NSA intelligence official and whistleblower William Binney articulated, "The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control." For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and the disappearance of privacy.
The emails from [Jeffrey] Epstein's inbox span a 20-year timeframe, but the message traffic is most active between 2005 and 2008. (There are indications that many of the emails were deleted.) Epstein's abuse has been well documented, but the emails detail a methodical and callous approach he took to recruiting young women. His female contacts and assistants sent him steady streams of photographs and descriptions of women like this one: nice personality, student, a little curvy, Russian, 19. Epstein often replied with a brief yes or no. Sometimes he was more expansive: "fat and Asian sorry," he wrote in one email. One exchange referencing [Donald] Trump came on Sept. 14, 2006, two months after Epstein was charged in Florida with solicitation of prostitution. It includes a list of 51 politicians, business executives and Wall Street powerbrokers. The list includes people who've previously been linked to Epstein, including Jimmy Cayne, former chief executive of Bear Stearns; Jes Staley, who would later be named the CEO of Barclays; and Trump. "Plse review list and add or remove peeps," [Ghislaine] Maxwell wrote. "Remove trump," Epstein responded. In 2014, one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, accused Maxwell of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls. Shortly thereafter, Maxwell sent Epstein a request: "Can you send me the file on Virginia?"
Note: It was reported that Virigina Giuffre killed herself earlier this year, even though she had once declared, "In no way, shape or form am I suicidal ... I have made this known to my therapist and GP – If something happens to me – in the sake of my family do not let this go away and help me to protect them. Too many evil people want to see me [quieted]."
Pesticides banned years ago in the European Union are drifting through the skies and turning up in clouds above France, raising concerns about how long these toxins persist and how far they can travel, with potentially harmful global health impacts, according to a pathbreaking new study. The research ... is the first to detect dozens of agricultural chemicals–including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other substances–suspended in cloud water droplets. That means pesticides not only linger in the environment but also move through the atmosphere and fall back to Earth in rain or snow, sometimes at levels exceeding European safe drinking water limits. The study found that clouds can carry current-use pesticides, long-banned compounds, and "emerging contaminants"–industrial chemicals that either build up in the environment or form when older pesticides break down. Some even transform into new compounds in the atmosphere itself, beyond what regulators have known to consider. Researchers estimate that French skies alone may contain anywhere from a few tons to more than 100 tons of pesticides at any given time–most carried in from distant sources. Out of 446 possible chemicals screened–including pesticides, biocides (compounds that kill harmful organisms), additives, and transformation products (breakdown products of pesticides)–researchers found 32 different compounds in cloud water.
Note: Across the US, a powerful legislative push is underway to protect pesticide manufacturers from being held accountable for the harms caused by their products. Check out our latest Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate."
Seth Harp's The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces [is] an exposĂ© of the criminality and violence carried out by returning Special Forces personnel in American communities. We're in the middle of a political crisis right now in which the military's role is being radically expanded, including into US domestic life, all on the basis of fighting crime and drugs, and drugs being a national security threat. Yet ... damaged soldiers end up carrying out crime and violence at home as well as getting involved in the drug trade. Todd Michael Fulkerson, a Green Beret who was trained at Bragg, was convicted earlier this year of trafficking narcotics with the Sinaloa cartel. Another guy, Jorge Esteban Garcia, who was the top career counselor at Fort Bragg for twenty years – his job was to mentor and coach retiring soldiers on their career prospects – was literally recruiting for a cartel and was convicted of trafficking methamphetamine and supporting a violent extremist organization. And then a group of soldiers in the 44th Medical Brigade at Fort Bragg – all these soldiers are at Fort Bragg – were convicted of trafficking massive amounts of ketamine. You can look at every single region of the world that's a massive drug production center – which there really are not that many of them – and in every case, you can see that US military intervention preceded the country's becoming a narco state, not the other way around.
Note: Don't miss our in-depth investigation into the dark truths behind the War on Drugs. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption and the War on Drugs.
By law, the Central Intelligence Agency isn't allowed to operate domestically in the United States. But ... going back to its earliest years, the agency has, in fact, interfered in homeland affairs to combat dissident movements (historically, from the Left), to defend its institutional prerogatives – and, increasingly, to recruit assets among the financial elite. Two former CIA officers and one former intelligence official told me that the [CIA's National Resources Division] is conspicuously absent from the Epstein debate. This, even as the NR must have conducted interviews with the man going back decades. The NR should also have maintained records of those conversations, according to all three officials. Under Attorney General Guideline 12333, intelligence officers, including those serving in the NR, are required to report criminal wrongdoing to the Department of Justice during the course of their investigations. But over scotch and soda on the 50th floor, why would an officer ask, and an executive tell, anything other than what both parties want to hear? "It is inconceivable given Jeffrey Epstein's travel record and associations that he was not approached by the NR at some point before his death," one former CIA officer said. "It would have left the New York NR division in the lurch not to have contacted him." And if that's the case, there should be a paper trail. "Every walk-in, every contact, every handling, every meeting, every termination – you are supposed to document it."
Note: This article exposes the CIA's hidden entanglement with Wall Street, revealing that officers in its National Resources Division not only mingled with top bankers and hedge-fund managers but even authorized them to collect private paychecks while on the CIA payroll, blurring the line between national security and corporate profit and creating a secret web of influence that Epstein was almost certainly a part of. US attorney Alexander Acosta was once told Epstein "belonged to intelligence, and to leave it alone." Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.
Important Note: Explore our full index to key excerpts of revealing major media news articles on several dozen engaging topics. And don't miss amazing excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.