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Was Jeffrey Epstein a Spy?

rollingstone.com

120 points by zimbu668 4 years ago · 68 comments

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hrh 4 years ago

Since the revelations have come out, I've been baffled and bewildered that Bill Gates, a guy with more connections and money than pretty much anyone who has ever existed and surely, surely must know what opposition research is....spent years hanging out with Epstein after his first conviction for treating high-schoolers as prostitutes.

I don't get it. Gates has never come across as completely depraved (greedy, maybe) so I don't think he was using Epstein's services, but I can tell you in working class US, if you find out that anyone did what Epstein did, you never talk to them again because they are a predator, much less befriend them.

What was Gates doing and why is there a collective sigh about it? Tech does not care. Microsoft does not care.

https://www.thecut.com/2021/05/what-we-know-about-bill-gates...

Gates is either careless, foolish, a creep, or all three. But this kind of bullshit is the stuff that made him the absolute worst person to head up things like virus response and we need to get these predators out of industries.

  • dragonwriter 4 years ago

    > Gates has never come across as completely depraved (greedy, maybe) so I don't think he was using Epstein's services,

    Maybe Gates just has the wealth and skill to craft a PR image that covers up his depravity, so that you dismiss the conclusion of his affiliation with Epstein even after being confused as to what other explanation it might have.

    • IntrepidWorm 4 years ago

      There are numerous allegations from female staff at Microsoft extolling Bill Gates' creepiness. He seemed to have a bad habit of constantly asking his employees on dates, as well as making strange and awkward advances to women in the workplace. I'm not certain the full extent of his dealings with Epstein- we may never know given Gate's power and wealth, but it's fairly clear from just a bit of research that he has a very creepy side that is usually kept hidden from the media.

    • recursivedoubts 4 years ago

      > Maybe Gates just has the wealth and skill to craft a PR image that covers up his depravity

      Many such cases.

  • quantumsequoia 4 years ago

    One plausible explanation that is less damaging: Gates is a utilitarian and determined that the net benefits that could come from networking with Epstein outweighs the risks.

    It can kind of be perceived as the trolly problem in real life. Do you pull the lever and get one person's blood on your hands, but result in 4 met lives saved? Or do you stay morally pure by refusing to kill someone... and let the 5 people die by your inaction?

    Gates does strike me as an analytical, ends-justify-the-means kind of guy

    • briefcomment 4 years ago

      I doubt Epstein could draw anyone that Gates couldn't draw himself.

    • inter_netuser 4 years ago

      What are the benefits he derived?

      • rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4 years ago

        Epstein was friends with many other wealthy people (who could potentially donate to the Gates foundation), and he had the power to persuade them.

        • jjeaff 4 years ago

          I can't imagine a single wealthy person that wouldn't take a cold call from Gates and probably at least agree to a sit down meeting on the spot. Epstein was virtually anonymous relative to Gates.

        • voisin 4 years ago

          Given the value of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, why would Gates spend any of his own valuable personal time networking to raise more money for it and not trying to put more of the existing money to work?

          Seems like the opportunity cost of fundraising is high.

      • rasz 4 years ago

        Media Lab, "Negroponte: Windows key to OLPC philosophy" https://www.cnet.com/news/negroponte-windows-key-to-olpc-phi... cha-ching!

  • Traster 4 years ago

    I don’t know what Gates did, it’s possible the worst accusations are true but without evidence I won’t take it seriously. However, we do know that Epstein was essentially a very good conman. I can absolutely believe he figured out a way to ingratiate himself to his most important targets- it’s been suggested Gates thought he could help with a Nobel prize - something that sounds comical, but is absolutely the sort of ego trip you would sell to the worlds richest man.

  • rasz 4 years ago

    Jeff: Hey Bill, Iv been watching a Tape of us having good time with the girls two years ago. They both turn 18 next month, how the time flies! You are invited to their birthdays. We should definitely hang out more.

  • skue 4 years ago

    > What was Gates doing and why is there a collective sigh about it? Tech does not care. Microsoft does not care.

    Melinda does care.

  • hindsightbias 4 years ago

    This view of Gates is colored by his reimagining as managed by/with Melinda from the 90s on.

    The MS crew whoring around in the 80s was a well known thing. Zebras dont change their stripes and none of this matters wrt to having a clue/foresight about vaccines and doing good things with wealth/influence.

    • bastawhiz 4 years ago

      As someone not alive in the 80s, what does "The MS crew whoring around" mean? If "whoring around" means "sleeping around" (or even paying for sex) then I'm confused because that doesn't really compare to pimping teens.

      • baud147258 4 years ago

        well, if one is going around hiring sex workers, they'd need to contact a pimp, right?

        • bastawhiz 4 years ago

          Strictly speaking, no. But even if they did, it's a real stretch to try to say that people hiring sex workers are morally on the same level as men pimping teenage girls.

    • AndrewBissell 4 years ago

      Maybe you're not very familiar with the details of the Epstein case, but "whoring around" doesn't even begin to capture the level of sociopathic harm that Epstein and his pedophile ring inflicted on the children it abused. If Gates was capable of partaking in that sort of arch predatory behavior, why in the world would anyone continue to trust him when it comes to any other matter? Even the ostensibly good stuff with no apparent harms or ill will could just be some kind of cover in service of a longer con.

    • swader999 4 years ago

      I don't understand the down votes. You are spot on.

  • roenxi 4 years ago

    > Gates is either careless, foolish, a creep, or all three.

    Or there is something going on that we don't know about. It seems unlikely that all the politics in the world is conducted in places that random people like us have access to.

  • adultSwim 4 years ago

    Stephen Hawking didn't seem like a sex pest either. It's too bad about them.

  • mizzack 4 years ago

    Charitable attribution? They have/had a shared interest in transhumanism and the funding of research in that area.

    Non-charitable attribution? They like young girls.

    • jjeaff 4 years ago

      At least public evidence seems to indicate that Gates actually likes older women.

    • AndrewBissell 4 years ago

      I wouldn't even call the transhumanist part particularly charitable. Epstein's interest in it went hand-in-glove with his eugenicism -- he may have wanted to create tech to help him and his rich psycho friends live eternally as augmented superheroes, but that was never meant for the general betterment of humankind.

KoftaBob 4 years ago

Let’s look at some facts:

- Alexander Acosta has been quoted as saying that he was told Epstein “is intelligence” and to “leave it alone”

- Ghislaine Maxwells father, who died under mysterious circumstances, was very likely to have been involved with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency

- Collecting blackmail material on powerful people is intelligence agency 101, Epsteins trafficking ring had scores of that.

- Epstein got large amounts of funding from Lesley Wexner, with no logical reason ever given as to why. Wexner by coincidence, is one of the founding members of the MEGA group, a group of businessmen who donate money to causes related to Israel’s national interests.

Occam’s razor says the simplest and most likely explanation is that Epstein worked for Mossad, and was running a sex trafficking ring in order to collect blackmail material on powerful people for the Mossad to wield.

  • fortuna86 4 years ago

    Why on earth do you think US Intel would allow an American citizen to run a "a sex trafficking ring in order to collect blackmail material on powerful people" when those people includes ex-US Presidents?

  • jjtheblunt 4 years ago

    A current documentary says Epstein posed (for years) as an expert financial advisor for billionaires, and Wexler hired him to legitimately sort out complicated tax etc situations.

    All normal. He did that. Wexler screwed up majorly by letting Epstein have "power of attorney" rights on Wexler's accounts.

    It seems Epstein was stealing money from Wexler, who was just not interested enough to notice....if the current round of documentaries are a fixed point of the story, of course.

  • jjeaff 4 years ago

    Epstein was a money manager. Seems like a more logical assumption that he was managing Wexner's fortune and then embezzled it or otherwise conned him or blackmailed him out of it.

  • seniorivn 4 years ago

    I don't really remember all the facts, but it seems that you cherry picked some of them so it happens to point at Mossad directly.

    If i remember correctly it's unclear which particular agencies Epstein could be a part of/have cover from, so it's better to not point at Israel alone

    • srean 4 years ago

      If you have concrete examples please cite, otherwise this is cheap dirt throwing.

    • KoftaBob 4 years ago

      Do you know of any meaningful evidence pointing to him being connected to a different intelligence agency?

adamnemecek 4 years ago

Fun fact, the current business model of science publishing is attributed to Robert Maxwell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell), the father of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-b... Sounds like Ghislaine wasn’t the worst pimp in her family.

He also had ties to Mossad.

nnx 4 years ago

His socialite story certainly reminds of Eli Cohen.

  • BuildTheRobots 4 years ago

    Sometimes spelt Elie Cohn. 'Our Man in Damascus' is an excellent read (if you can manage to find a copy).

    • jazzyjackson 4 years ago

      Several copies are listed on ebay at the moment so it is not so rare.

      • BuildTheRobots 4 years ago

        Good to know, thanks. I tried to buy a copy in 2016 and it took me over 6 months to find a copy for less than £60. I had a couple of friends wanting copies too, so I don't think it was just me failing to google.

        There seems to be a limited number on ebay and amazon at hte moment for the £10 mark which seems far more reasonable.

cjdaly 4 years ago

['belonged to intelligence'](https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epsteins-sick-story-pl...)

TeeMassive 4 years ago

Let's nor forget that Maxwell's father had ties to Mossad and died in suspicious circumstances.

gigatexal 4 years ago

Why all the conspiracy theories? Can’t he just be the mathematically inclined wealthy pervert that he was?

  • jdc 4 years ago

    He died under suspicious circumstances before he could testify against powerful people against whom he likely had devastatingly compromising information.

    • speeder 4 years ago

      There is also the thing with the judge that judged his first case, claiming he HAD to give Epstein a deal, because he was "warned" that Epstein "belonged" to intelligence.

      • belltaco 4 years ago

        It was the prosecutor, not a judge. He later became the Labor secretary in Trump's cabinet.

        • economusty 4 years ago

          I thought the original judge was removed at the last minute and replaced with a judge willing to make that call?

    • tablespoon 4 years ago

      > He died under suspicious circumstances before he could testify against powerful people against whom he likely had devastatingly compromising information.

      You're speaking like that's almost certainty, which is little more than speculation.

      The more reasonable assumption is that he knew he was ruined, his life was essentially over, and became suicidal because of his lack of a future. If he had real dirt on anyone, it's quite possible that they were just other forgettable rich dudes like himself with no significant power or influence.

      • atatatat 4 years ago

        > just other forgettable rich dudes

        Bells didn't start going off until this part of your comment.

        No.

        • tablespoon 4 years ago

          > Bells didn't start going off until this part of your comment.

          How so? Jeffrey Epstein was rich, but that was about it. What kind of power or importance did he have? AFAIK, he only got rich by leeching off other even richer dudes. I'm sure most of his friends were the same. Not exactly the kind of people who I think would resort to murder (of a guy in solitary in a maximum security prison), or could pull it off and leave barely a trace if they tried.

          • timcambrant 4 years ago

            ”Maximum security prison” - which is rather the regular security jail where he had been taken off suicide watch, and whose camera system, which was covering his corridor, was out of order. Plus the guards didn’t really seem to pay much attention.

            • mrguyorama 4 years ago

              >been taken off suicide watch, and whose camera system, which was covering his corridor, was out of order. Plus the guards didn’t really seem to pay much attention.

              The problem is that those are way more common in american prisons than you would hope. Meaning we can't really know whether epstein was executed or just allowed to die by an apathetic and malevolent prison system.

              That doesn't excuse the absolute lack of effort by Barr and Garland to try to find anything out.

            • tablespoon 4 years ago

              > ”Maximum security prison” - which is rather the regular security jail

              IIRC, he was in a SHU, which is closer to the former than the latter.

              > where he had been taken off suicide watch, and whose camera system, which was covering his corridor, was out of order. Plus the guards didn’t really seem to pay much attention.

              That's definitely conspiracy theory fodder, but little more than that.

              • void_mint 4 years ago

                > That's definitely conspiracy theory fodder, but little more than that.

                A common trend in this thread seems to be labeling speculation as "conspiracy theory", seemingly to get out of having to justify one form of speculation is more valid than another.

                Why are statements-of-fact "conspiracy theory fodder"?

                • tablespoon 4 years ago

                  > Why are statements-of-fact "conspiracy theory fodder"?

                  Conspiracy theory fodder are facts that offer no evidence of a conspiracy, but that the conspiracy-prone can't help but use as springboards for baseless speculation about one.

                  • void_mint 4 years ago

                    Ah but isn't that the interesting part. A person that dismisses an idea as a "conspiracy theory" is inclined to dismiss evidence too, no?

          • atatatat 4 years ago

            You may have missed the various bits of the story that make it apparent that he was an intelligence asset, and connected to others.

    • machinehermiter 4 years ago

      The problem with the conspiracy theory is Ghislaine Maxwell would have met the same fate. It makes no sense Epstein gets wacked in jail but Maxwell outside of jail does not.

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