Spooky Ghislaine

You've probably seen this story in the NY Post...

Jeffrey Epstein’s former gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell isn’t holed up in her British manor or summering on the Massachusetts coast.

The Post found the socialite hiding in plain sight in the least likely place imaginable — a fast-food joint in Los Angeles.

I recognize the neighborhood from the photos: She was dining in the Studio City In-N-Out on Cahuenga, a short ways away from the former location of the world's greatest art supply shop, the now-deceased World Supply. I have fond memories of that area. (Although I'm probably the only Californian who is not a huge fan of In-n-Out.)

Here's the part that jumped out at me:

Maxwell, 57, the alleged madam to the multimillionaire pedophile, was scarfing down a burger, fries and shake al fresco at an In-N-Out Burger on Monday while reading “The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives,” a nonfiction best seller by journalist Ted Gup.

That's a pro-Agency book published in 2001. Normally, I'd say it was only mildly odd for a socialite to immerse herself in espionage history -- but her choice of reading matter ties in with other things we know.

I've cited this before and I'll probably reprint it many more times.

Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient answer and went ahead and hired Acosta.

Ghislaine Maxwell's father, publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, is widely known to have been a Mossad asset (and to have worked with Russians before the downfall of the USSR). Most people think that Ghislaine has followed in her dad's footsteps. It's a little misleading to state that the elder Maxwell was a Mossad agent, since Mossad directly employs very few people. It is unique among intelligence services in that it relies on a worldwide network of "helpers" called sayanim.

If Ghislaine is a sayan, she may soon be tossed under the bus -- just as her dad was tossed under the boat.

The publisher of the above-cited article, the NY Post, is doing everything it can to prepare the way for the Big Smear. (That's my name for the right-wing plot to finger Clinton as the power behind Epstein.) In that light, I'd like to draw your attention to a paragraph in Whitney Webb's remarkable investigative work, published by Mint Press.

Cohn was also the attorney and friend of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and, according to New York Magazine, “Whenever Roy wanted a story stopped, item put in, or story exploited, Roy called Murdoch;” and, after Murdoch bought the New York Post, Cohn “wielded the paper as his personal shiv.” According to the late journalist Robert Parry, the friendship between Murdoch and Cohn first began thanks to their mutual support for Israel.

Webb's work exemplifies the virtues and problems of left-wing conspiracy research: Her writing is detailed and she cites sources, most of which are good. (Some are iffy.) Unfortunately, her writing is too kaleidoscopic, too lacking in structure, too ambitious. To repeat a line I've used often: This isn't an essay; it's a brain dump.

For all of their faults, left-wing conspiracy researchers are usually lightyears ahead of their right-wing counterparts. The lefties understand scholarship. They may sometimes bend the rules of scholarship, but at least they know that the rules exist. The righties appear to get most of their data from visions, tarot cards, fever dreams, "friends" from St. Petersburg, and a certain body cavity located below the beltline.

Although Webb sometimes argues beyond the evidence, she deserves to be read. Her basic thesis is that Epstein's ring was the latest manifestation of a long-running effort on the part of American intelligence to control VIPs via sexual blackmail. A key player in this effort (back in the day, as they say) was Roy Cohn, mentor to Roger Stone and Donald Trump.

This section deserves your respectful attention:

Though Wilson’s main specialty was front companies used to covertly ship and smuggle goods on behalf of U.S. intelligence, he also ran sexual blackmail operations for the CIA, particularly around the time of the Watergate scandal, according to his former partner and fellow agent at the CIA, Frank Terpil.

Terpil later told author and investigative journalist Jim Hougan:

Historically, one of Wilson’s Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary... Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasy in the flesh... A remembrance of these occasions [was] permanently recorded via selected cameras... The technicians in charge of filming...[were] TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]. The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of [whom] may still be in office.”

"Wilson" is Edwin P. Wilson, one of the most notorious CIA agents of all time. I'm sure Ghislaine recognizes the name. Terpil was his partner.

DeCamp later reported that Wilson’s activities were a spin-off of the same sexual blackmail operation in which Cohn became involved during the McCarthy era with Lewis Rosenstiel and J. Edgar Hoover.

Well...let's not get into DeCamp. Big can of worms there. But Jim Hougan is trustworthy.

Surprisingly, in her history of sexual blackmail, Webb leaves out one of my favorite examples: Xaviera Hollander, who achieved fame as the Happy Hooker. American spooks wired her bedroom with microphones and video cameras, to record her adventures with various VIPs from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. Her clients didn't know that she was Jewish.

I should have more to say about Webb soon. She's definitely on the right track -- but as I said: Read critically.

(That's how you should read everyone. Including me.)