Jeffrey Epstein Was a Warlord. We Have to Talk About It.

"The prospect of chaos and war excited Jeffrey Epstein. The late New York financier and child abuser kept a keen eye on news about foreign conflicts that could be exploited for commercial gain. On February 21, 2014, Epstein sent an e-mail to Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, with whom he would partner the following year as investors in a security tech firm Reporty Homeland Security (later renamed Carbyne)."

"Epstein's name is inextricably linked with sexual predation, as it should be. But it should just as readily be linked to global militarism and authoritarianism. Epstein trafficked not just in the bodies of the children he abused but also in social connections that could bring elites together. He well understood that the "desperation of those in power" could make them eager to buy what he was selling: connections with other powerful figures and security systems to clamp down on dissent."

"The Epstein scandal has once again exploded thanks to the release this week by House Democrats of an immense cache of e-mails between Epstein and many of his famous associates. As my Nation colleagues Chris Lehmann and Joan Walsh have written, these e-mails are politically damaging to Donald Trump, adding yet more evidence that the president was close friends with Epstein for many years, aware of Epstein's predations, and possibly a participant in some of Epstein's crimes."

Jeffrey Epstein monitored foreign conflicts as commercial opportunities and cultivated chaos to profit from security demand. He partnered with powerful figures, including an investment with Ehud Barak in a security-tech firm later renamed Carbyne. Epstein explicitly tied civil unrest in Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, and Libya to marketable security solutions and sought to sell connections and systems to those in power. He trafficked in abused children while also trafficking in elite social capital that enabled access, contracts, and influence. A large release of Epstein's e-mails revealed ties that damage political figures and show longstanding proximity to power.

Read at The Nation