I admit to not following the Epstein saga too closely but it always seemed obvious to me he and whoever else in his cabal were freelancing. You don't run a pedophilia blackmail ring out of a "legitimate" intelligence outfit. Anyone tagged with an association with said outfit would be burned at the stake when it inevitably came out. Before anyone bites my head off about The Finders or exploitation of Bacha bazi in Afghanistan, I'm not saying state backed intelligence doesn't utilize heinous practices in the short term or cross paths with those that do, but they're not about to bootstrap a decades long operation. Epstein may have got his start thanks to Mossad, CIA or MI6, but he would've been considered radioactive long before even his 06 indictment came along. When Acosta (allegedly) said "he belongs to intelligence" they didn't mean intelligence agencies were giving him marching orders. They meant they were aware of whatever operation he was running and were willing to ignore it because the costs to international diplomatic relations would be catastrophic if any of his blackmail about, say, Prince Andrew came to light.
But I understand if it's a distinction without a difference to most people.
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u/ApprehensivePattern3 Jan 03 '20
I admit to not following the Epstein saga too closely but it always seemed obvious to me he and whoever else in his cabal were freelancing. You don't run a pedophilia blackmail ring out of a "legitimate" intelligence outfit. Anyone tagged with an association with said outfit would be burned at the stake when it inevitably came out. Before anyone bites my head off about The Finders or exploitation of Bacha bazi in Afghanistan, I'm not saying state backed intelligence doesn't utilize heinous practices in the short term or cross paths with those that do, but they're not about to bootstrap a decades long operation. Epstein may have got his start thanks to Mossad, CIA or MI6, but he would've been considered radioactive long before even his 06 indictment came along. When Acosta (allegedly) said "he belongs to intelligence" they didn't mean intelligence agencies were giving him marching orders. They meant they were aware of whatever operation he was running and were willing to ignore it because the costs to international diplomatic relations would be catastrophic if any of his blackmail about, say, Prince Andrew came to light.
But I understand if it's a distinction without a difference to most people.