*Pandemic as unique opportunity to test propaganda techniques

*Recall? War of the World’s alien invasion was also a mass psyop

*Looks to me as if the Alberta separatist movement is a psyop- working on multiple levels and infiltrated by outsiders

The reality is we are manipulated every day. From what goods to buy through to selling war.
The push to attack Iran is chock full of psyops/propaganda intended to get us on board with this action.

Valour Canada- “If” Day

At 0700 hours the siren cried into the early morning sky of February 19, 1942, and before long the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was plunged into a blackout. The supposed enemy was inching closer and despite the 3,500 Canadian soldiers and reservists making up the defensive army, it crumbled to the Nazi invaders. Winnipeg surrendered at 0930 hours.

But there was nothing real about this invasion – it was all an elaborate ploy to bolster interest and donations to the Victory Bond campaign. “If” Day was meant show Canadians what would happen if Nazis were not sufficiently kept at bay.

For the duration of the day, Winnipeg turned into Himmlerstadt (after high-ranking Nazi officer and head of the SS Henrich Himmler), Portage Avenue became Adolfhitlerstrasse, and Canadian dollars were replaced by Reichmarks.

Mock events aimed to instill a sense of fear and show the extent to which rights and freedoms would be curtailed by an oppressive Nazi regime. Priests and politicians were arrested, churches and other places of worship were forcibly closed, books were incinerated on the front steps of Carnegie Library, brusque identification inspections were conducted on street cars, homes were vandalized, all while Nazi-approved music and speeches reverberated on the radio.

“Everywhere the force of the great and valiant Nazi army are bringing the New Order to the Provinz of Greater Germany. The great and valiant Nazi army is also bringing to the Provinz German Kultur and the blessings of German civilization,” celebrated the newly minted Das Winnipeger Lugenblatt (“formerly” The Winnipeg Tribune).

To create the ultimate illusion, volunteers with the Young Men’s Section of the Winnipeg Board of Trade paraded in Nazi uniforms specially rented from Hollywood. Their behavior towards locals was intentionally brash and rough – though unlike their veritable counterparts, the Winnipeg “Nazis” did not exert any physical violence.

The deception was very convincing for many. “A lot of people were very uneasy and quite intimidated about this thing. Maybe it made them think that it could happen here. They didn’t know how far these Nazis would go,” recalled George Hoffman who played a fake Nazi.

Although the true Nazis had no immediate interest in conquering Canada, “If” Day did give Manitobans a small taste of what life under Nazi occupation would be like in a bid to drive support for the second Victory Bond campaign and propel donations into high gear. Through this first-hand experience, Winnipeggers appreciated how crucial it was to fight in Europe so Canada would not be vulnerable to a real invasion. The original goal of $45 million was surpassed for a total of $47 million (or approximately $658 million in 2017 dollars) – if the “Nazi” invasion was not successful because it was all staged, the Victory Bond campaign definitely was successful.

It’s an amazement to realize just how far a government, any government, will got to manipulate the populace to advance it’s own ends/agenda

Manitoba History- “If” Day Feb 19/1942

The Dispatch Via Archive.ph

David Smilde/September 4, 2025

The nation is not a major source of drugs to the U.S., for starters.

The U.S. has sent eight warships and one attack submarine to international waters off the coast of Venezuela, nominally to combat “cartels [that] have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere…[and] flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.”

Part of this operation has been the designation of the “Cartel de los Soles” in July, as a specially designated terrorist group. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump celebrated the operation’s first result on Truth Social—a drone strike on a small wooden boat with outboard motors, that he claimed was being used to transport drugs to the U.S.

The entire naval operation raises a number of questions. First, Venezuela is not a leading source of the drugs reaching U.S. streets. The last estimates made by U.S. agencies suggest that between 10 and 13 percent of global cocaine supplies passes through Venezuela, and much of that goes to Europe.

Preferred route for cocaine is Columbia. And fentanyl is a bigger issue for the US.

Perhaps more important, there is no actual organization called Cartel of the Suns. The idea of such a cartel emerged 30 years ago as a sort of catchall term to refer to the very real involvement of military officers in drug trafficking. In Venezuela, military officers wear suns on their lapels rather than stars, hence the play on words. Insight Crime, an investigative journalism outlet that specializes in crime in the Americas, has said “the drug trafficking structures in the Venezuelan state are not a cartel, they are a series of often competing networks buried deep within the Chavista regime, with ties going back almost two decades.” Javier Mayorca, Venezuela’s most serious journalist writing about drug trafficking, has suggested the term Cartel of the Suns “has become something of an urban legend that has been growing in Venezuela and as time goes by, gets used to describe different actors.” 

So, the Cartel of the Suns is like a meme- a mind virus.

The existence of such a cartel gained more formal acceptance in 2020, when the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of a maximum pressure campaign, obtained an indictment naming Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as its leader. However, the actual text of the indictment includes no evidence or even concrete claims about a cartel. It accuses Maduro and others of facilitating or permitting various drug trafficking operations, including by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group. 

FARC is Columbian! And the US is very well aware of that fact! FARC started out as a rebel group- leftist in nature- The US armed certain factions in Columbia to kill FARC rebels. I’m not saying FARC is a bunch of good eggs. The article below lays out the background, minimally, but, it helps.

Here’s a link to a 2013 article documenting those early days

The covert program in Colombia provides two essential services to the nation’s battle against the FARC and a smaller insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN): Real-time intelligence that allows Colombian forces to hunt down individual FARC leaders and, beginning in 2006, one particularly effective tool with which to kill them.

In March 2008, according to nine U.S. and Colombian officials, the Colombian Air Force, with tacit U.S. approval, launched U.S.-made smart bombs across the border into Ecuador to kill a senior FARC leader, Raul Reyes. The indirect U.S. role in that attack has not been previously disclosed.

The covert action program in Colombia is one of a handful of enhanced intelligence initiatives that has escaped public notice since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Most of these other programs, small but growing, are located in countries where violent drug cartels have caused instability.

Colombia and the FARC have been in peace negotiations in Havana for a year. They have agreed so far on frameworks for land reform, rural development and for allowing insurgents to participate in the political process once the war ends. The two sides are currently discussing a new approach to fighting drug trafficking.

Let’s get back to Venezuela

Invasion? Not likely.

In fact, there are not nearly enough U.S. troops on these ships for such an operation, and if there is one thing Donald Trump has been consistent about throughout his career, it is an aversion to extended military occupations.

Regime Change? That’s what I see at play. An attempt at regime change– And not for the first or second time either!

The pressure provided by the U.S. military build-up could conceivably cause a crack in the regime.

Problems with the presentation;

This entire discourse lacks substantial evidentiary support and has been contradicted by U.S. officials. But as false stories of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq made clear two decades ago, in the right context the tall tales told by displaced politicians seeking foreign intervention in their home countries can take on a life of their own. In this case, claims of Maduro using criminal groups to invade the U.S. have been repurposed by an administration that lives and breathes conspiracy theories, loves political theater, and is willing to use whatever means possible to deport undocumented immigrants. 

Is this a show of strength for the American populace concerning undocumented immigrants?

Which brings us to an additional motivation for this operation. In March, Trump deported approximately 250 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador, without due process. He justified this action by invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which permits the government to deport citizens of an enemy country during a time of war, without due process. Lower courts barred Trump from deporting detainees without the opportunity to defend themselves, a decision upheld in May by the Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court did not actually rule on the legality of the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, but rather on procedural issues. They sent the case back to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which decided on Tuesday, in a split decision, that the administration could not use the AEA because the presence of Tren de Aragua in the U.S. did not amount to a “predatory incursion.” The case will undoubtedly return to the Supreme Court. 

In this context, having warships off the coast of Venezuela, presumably to fight off Cartel de los Soles and its supposed operational arm, the Tren de Aragua, from “flooding the U.S. with drugs,” could pass muster for a “military conflict.”

How about all that oil?

The Trump administration is big on promotion, so, it could be part of the illegal migrant issue? However, I don’t so. Because they (US admin/state department) are pushing the bogus drug issue- akin to Iraq & the WMD’s, plus the US has made multiple attempts to overthrow the Venezuelan leadership- Starting with Hugo Chavez, through to Maduro. And Venezuela has a lot of oil!!

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2019/08/more-interesecting-strands-epstein.html

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Brief Recap:

After coming upon a Vanity Fair article that reported the contact information for Edmond Safra appeared in Jeffrey Epstein’s “black book” my background research began. This took us all into the roots of the Magnitsky act. That act was signed into law by Mr Hope and No Change Obama. back in 2012.

Epstein, Lazard & Banker Contacts Including Edmond Safra (Russia/Browder/Magnitsky) 

President Obama signs legislation in December that would punish officials tied to the death of Sergei Magnitsky in Moscow.

CNN

The U.S. list is part of a December 2012 law, the Magnitsky Act, which imposes visa bans and freezes assets of Russian officials believed to be connected to the death of whistleblower Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered the country's largest known tax fraud.

The Magnitsky Act has it’s roots, believe it or not, in the ’90’s. Going back to the plunder of post Soviet Russia, as Russia had come under the thumb of the bankster class.

Striking at some of the root in the post below:

Intersecting Strands: Epstein, Lazard, Safra, Browder, Magnitsky & Berezovsky

Moved to this site;

The Magnitsky act has been used against Russia. As well as being proposed for use against both Turkey and Saudi Arabia… The Magnitsky Act is simply sanctions warfare/banker plunder under the guise of human rights.

Keep in mind banks launder money for all manner of criminal activity:

In 09 it was reported that laundered money had kept the global banks solvent through the financial crisis – Covered here (link inaccessible) For more one can read here as well. From 09/Guardian still viable

"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.

Despite whatever naive thoughts we hold in our minds, This is where the really big money comes from. Crime. Of all kinds. I’d posted the news about drug/criminal money being laundered through global banks in Feb 09. (See directly above) As mentioned Safra’s bank was involved in the money laundering that propped up the Iran/Contra Scandal

Magnitsky and the Murder of Edmond Safra: From Armstrong Economics
Blog/Conspiracy
Posted Aug 2, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Dear Mr Amstrong,
Following up on the Magnitsky Affair, you might be in a position to answer a question which has always puzzled me : Has Edmond Safra been murdered by the Russians instead of having died accidentally in his burning flat in Monaco?
What is you opinion?
Many thanks,

VP

ANSWER: I knew Dominick Dunne who wrote the story Death in Monaco for Vanity Fair. He told me he was in a restaurant in Paris and someone came up to him and said – be careful the questions you are asking. They tried to blame Safra’s male nurse for setting the fire. After a fake trial, he was sentenced to prison. He was later released by the high court stating that the prosecutor and judge conspired to deny him a fair trial and he was just released and send home to the States. That was the end of the case. Nobody else was ever charged and Dominick told me that bullets were found in Safra’s body. So do I “think” that Safra was murder? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was killed on December 3rd and they began the contempt on me to stop any trial and take all the lawyers away within 3 days.

Yeltsin had previously announced that he would not run in 2000 during March 1998. His heir apparent at that was expected to be Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin. Then he shocked the world on March 23rd, 1998 (I've highlighted the March 23rd date for  a specific reason) firing Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, and the entire government. It was then a major shift as Yeltsin changed his mind and announced on March 29th, 1998 that he WOULD run for office in 2000. I was solicited to invest $10 billion into Hermitage Capital at Republic National Bank. I refused. I was flat outright told that Boris Yeltsin would step down as President and they would have an inside track to the resources of Russia. I was not told of his successor, just that the fix was in so invest $10 billion. I even sent emails concerning this solicitation which took place in April/May 1999.

Martin Armstrong is reporting that he was solicited to invest 10 Billion dollars in Bill Browder’s Hermitage Capital because they, Hermitage Capital/Bill Browder, would have the inside track to the resources of Russia. “The fix was in”

Mr Armstrong continues:

The Bank of New York money-laundering case begins in August 1999. It was Edmond Safra’s Republic National Bank that ran to the Department of Justice and reported its rival Bank of New York was engaged in a money-laundering case of $7 billion. This is when everything begins to go crazy. The letter from the FSA claiming to be verifying I had $10 billion on deposit at Republic is dated August 18th, 1999. It was corrected on August 31st, 1999 to $1 billion, but Republic had already stolen the money. 

On August 27th, that is when I was told that the head of the bank in New York, George Wendler, was “just the messenger” and that to me meant this theft I believed was directed from Edmond. I told them to tell Edmond I would be on a plane in the morning to Geneva the next day, which was a Saturday. I was then told that Edmond left Geneva and went to Monaco “for security reasons” which they did not explain. 

There was $7 billion that was wired through Bank of New York which involved money stolen from the IMF loans to Russia. The attempt to takeover Russia by blackmail was set in motion. As soon as that wire was done, that is when Republic National Bank ran to the Department of Justice to say it was money-laundering. I believe this started the crisis and Yeltsin was blackmailed to step down and appoint Boris A. Berezovsky as the head of Russia.

Back to Boris Bezovsky.. who was found dead March 23, 2013. 15 years to the day Yeltsin “shocked the world”

Clearly, Republic National Bank was involved with the US government for they were sending also skids of $100 bills to Russia. It was written up and called the Money Plane.(Read the money plane article) Yeltsin then turned to Putin realizing that he had been set up. This is how Putin became the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia on August 9th, 1999 until August 16th, 1999 when he became the 33rd Prime Minister and heir apparent of Yeltsin. Yeltsin resigned on January 1st, 2000. By the end of September 1999, Russian prosecutors began their own criminal investigation into the allegations of money-laundering through the Bank of New York and Lucy Edwards:

Further to the “Money Plane” article, check out this pdf- Congressional Record Feb 13/1996-

https://armstrongeconomics-wp.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/11/Money-Plane-Congressional-Record-Volume-142-Issue-19-Tuesday-February-13-1996.pdf

Regarding the activities around the money plane

Here is what CNN Money wrote on September 1st, 1999 12 days before my case began:

The saga that’s brought money laundering issues to the fore this summer allegedly began back in 1994, when Russia’s International Monetary Fund representative, Konstantin Kagalovsky, left the organization to join Menatep Bank in Moscow.

Over the next three years, it’s alleged, Kagalovsky arranged to funnel billions of IMF money meant to help transfer Russia’s communist economy into a capitalist one through a private company called Benex Worldwide Ltd. Eventually, the money went into and back out of Bank of New York (BK) and Republic National Bank, a unit of Republic Bancorp (RBNC), as well as several institutions in Europe, including the Union Bank of Switzerland AG and Deutsche Bank AG and its Bankers Trust Unit.

Money Laundering it’s what banks do…

An IMF representative Konstantin Kagalovsky leaves the organization, joins Menatep Bank and arranges to funnel billions of dollars of IMF money into and out of Russian banks- That were wildly corrupt at the time.

Suddenly I’m back in time. Menatap bank is involved in funneling billions of dollars. Laundering money with the help of numerous banks and the US Federal Reserve. Say it isn’t so?

Digression.. Intersecting Strands Through Time and Space

Let’s go back to 2010 and revisit yet another Oligarch. One Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev. And, Menatap Bank.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky & Platon Lebedev found guilty of embezzlement.

- In 1987 - four years before the fall of the USSR - he (Khodorkovsky founded what would become Menatep, one of post-Soviet Russia's first private banks.  

-In December 1995, as a result of the so-called shares-for-loans auctions, Khodorkovsky's Menatep Group took control of the Yukos oil company. For the knockdown price of $350m. 


-Mikhail Khodorkovsky, even served as deputy fuel and oil minister during Boris Yeltsin's presidency. (conflict of interest, insider knowledge) 


- In 2003, when Khodorkovsky was arrested, he signed over all his shares in Yukos, to one Jacob Rothschild, of the Rothschild banker and Oil family.

Followed up with another report

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now in prison, has been accused of money-laundering, among other things. Menatep was implicated in the diversion of US $4. 8 billion in IMF funds lent to Russia in 1998: this gave rise to the Kremlingate.

And yet another post on the topic:

    She said the resulting profits were "concealed in Switzerland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and the United States." She said transfers to the "great money-center banks" such as J.P. Morgan Chase, the Bank of New York and Citibank appear on the bank statements of the Swiss accounts under her signatures.

The money laundering through the the ‘great money center banks’ jibes with the information from the Armstrong Report.

Armstong continues: The very person that I suspected would become the head of Russia was Boris A. Berezovsky, who I knew was a friend of Safra. 

Interestingly, Berezovsky was tied into the Bank of New York case when the money-laundering climbed to the highest levels. Interestingly enough, Bill Browder actually got his start under the patronage of Robert Maxwell who mysteriously died falling off his yacht, Lady Ghislaine,  on November 5th, 1991. 

The pension funds of his company were being used in schemes it was alleged to manipulate markets and Russia. I believe that Maxwell was killed to protect the “club” which was involved in manipulating a lot of markets.

After Maxwell’s death, Browder then joined with Safra. Edmond Safra provided Browder with working capital for his investment fund Hermitage Capital. HSBC, which bought Safra’s Republic National Bank, ended up as the claimed independent manager and custodian of Hermitage Capital.

And there we have yet another strand connecting back to Epstein, one Robert Maxwell. Robert Maxwell’s daughter is Ghislaine Maxwell. Ghislaine is infamous as a consort, procurer and associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Browder, Boris Berezovsky and Safra, all linked to laundering money, that was earmarked for Russia, through various bank schemes. Safra provides Bill Browder with working capital for Hermitage. Hermitage was up to no good in Russia.

*Billionaire Sex Trafficker/Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Arrested, Again 

    *Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Procurer/provider/girlfriend in UK Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine’s father was a known Mossad agent, who died in extremely mysterious circumstances. Same as Edmond Safra.
Jefferey Epstein had some type of connection to Safra hence the black book listing.- Jeffrey Epstein has a well known connection to Ghislaine Maxwell. Did he know Robert Maxwell as well?

2025-I would expect that he did know Robert Maxwell

We’ll briefly look back at Robert Maxwell before moving on:

Robert Maxwell- A Dark and Mysterious Figure- Much Like Jeffrey Epstein

Even his death remains a mystery. In November 1991 he disappeared from the deck of his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, named for his youngest daughter, as it was anchored off the Canary Islands.
His naked body was found floating 15 miles away by a fisherman. Pathologists who performed post-mortem examinations disputed the cause of death.

The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel’s Superspy

https://www.martindillon.net/the_assassination_of_robert_maxwell__israel_s_superspy_26176.htm

It triggered an identical light on the phone of Shabtai Shavit, Israel’s meheume, the country’s supreme head of intelligence and Director General of Mossad. The conversation recorded by both Prime Minister and Shabtai Shavit, is a model of brevity and understatement.

Have you heard?’ demanded Shamir.
‘Yes, I’ve heard.’
‘What happened?’
‘He just vanished.’
Are you sure?’
‘We’re looking for him.’

On that day, far out in the Atlantic, Robert Maxwell met a fate that had been decided in secret three months before.’

Once you go down the Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole one finds it to be a nearly endless tunnel of connections/intersections and suspicious deaths. I’d assume that if Epstein knew Safra that he likely also knew Berezovsky. Ghislain Maxwell and Robert Maxwell? Mossad connections? Again? CIA connections? Perhaps Jeffrey Epstein will meet a similar fate? A fate like that of many of his associates?

There have been questions about how it is Jeffrey Epstein came to be such a wealthy person- Well, it would seem to me, given his ties to the massive plunder of Russia- He made some money, probably lots of it, in those money laundering schemes. It just makes sense.

The blackmail potential cannot be dismissed- given all the access to and the trafficking of young girls. Globally.

The Trump campaign machine played the Epstein episode to their advantage- Or so they thought? Presenting themselves, through their influencers & Trump himself as a sort of bringers of justice. It’s one thing to run a campaign on that. It’s quite another to govern after having done so.

There is talk that Pam Bondi is going to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell. We’ll she spill the beans, entirely? Or will Ghislaine give the Trump administration the out they need? In exchange for her “get out of jail” free card?

Below is the original url and post as it was published July 26/2019

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2019/07/intersecting-strands-epstein-lazard.html?zx=f5ad3319ccde1b6e

 In trying to keep this post to a readable length I’m going to break it into 2 parts

As mentioned in yesterday’s report, Epstein, Lazard & Banker Contacts Including Edmond Safra (Russia/Browder/Magnitsky) one name included in the “black book”,  that of Edmond Safra, took me back in time. 

This above paragraph is a reference to the report moved here yesterday

 Back to 2011, when a few of us got together and worked on this article Tuesday, 16 August 2011 Magnitsky Report at the then cooperative blog Suspicious Deaths.

Edmond Safra was connected, in a very shrouded manner, with Browder & Magnitsky. Take notice that the Lazard family is mentioned in the 2011 post. As reported in yesterday’s report Lazard employees loomed large in the black book of Jeffrey Epstein.

2011 report:

“In reviewing the stories of the Safra murder, as well as another associate of Browder who died in suspicious circumstances, Edouard Stern, it becomes very clear that these people — Browder’s close partners and associates — are extremely wealthy people. Stern, for instance, married into the Lazard family, one of the top banking families of the world. These are Browder’s peers. Stern was supposed to meet Browder the morning he was discovered dead in a latex bodysuit in his penthouse Geneva apartment, a murder which shocked the financial elite. Many people thought Safra and Stern were Russian mafia hits related to business deals, but both mysteries were supposedly solved otherwise”

 Russian mafia hits? Who or what constitutes the Russian mafia in the late 90’s? If we could define or clarify those questions it might help to understand these suspicious deaths.

Partying like it’s 1999?

 December 1999- Billionaire who blew whistle on Russian cash scandal is killed in Monte Carlo

“DEEP MYSTERY is surrounding the murder of one of the world’s wealthiest men, the banker Edmond Safra who died from smoke inhalation after two masked men set fire to his penthouse flat in Monaco

The attack – a month before the completion of the pounds 7bn sale of Mr Safra’s New York and Luxembourg banks to the British banking giant HSBC

The bodies of Mr Safra and a young woman, believed to be the nanny of his wife’s granddaughter, were found in a bathroom where they had taken refuge. Mr Safra’s bodyguard, who was stabbed by the raiders, was in a critical condition last night in the Princess Grace memorial hospital.”

  In time murder changed to accident and the “nanny” became a nurse. Doubtful this was an accident and it’s a question to me if  the ‘young woman’ in the bathroom was either a nanny or a nurse, when one considers the reports of Mr Safra having two bullets in him!

Safra Fortress Fire

“The two masked men, unable to break down the bathroom door, started a fire on the balcony of the apartment, which spread to the roof of the sea-front building and the flat itself.”

 Wouldn’t starting a fire on the balcony of the “apartment” in Monaco attract a whole lot of attention?

“The deal, agreed in outline in May, was held up when two employees of a subsidiary of Republic New York were accused, by a Japanese company and others, of helping a US financial guru to mount an elaborate fraud.

Legal claims in the “Princeton affair” are still outstanding but HSBC completed the Republic National deal last month after Mr Safra volunteered to take a $450m (pounds 280m) cut in his $3bn share of the sale”

1999 – Safra death raises questions and inspires reflections on banking dynasty

“The tragic and mysterious death of international banker Edmond J. Safra inspired reflections on a banking dynasty that dates back to the Ottoman empire, but had lately been tainted by scandal.

Safra, a devout Jew, was born in Beirut in 1932, and by the age of 16 he was working at the side of his father Jacob. In the late 1940s, when anti-Semitic riots swept the city, the younger Safra moved the family business to Brazil, which was a major refuge for Aleppo Jews fleeing Syria.

The Safras founded Banco Safra, Brazil’s fifth largest private bank, catering to the wealthy.

He later sold his interests in Brazil to his brothers and moved to Switzerland, where he started the Trade Development Bank, another private bank.

In New York, he launched Republic National Bank in the former Knox Hats Co. building on Fifth Avenue. Today, Republic New York Corp. has $67.8 billion in assets and is the 16th-largest bank holding company in the United States with branches in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Delaware and Washington.”

 Keep the Republic National Bank name in your mind…

“In 1983, he sold the Trade Development Bank to American Express, but their relationship quickly soured. When Safra started a competing company in 1988, American Express launched a smear campaign, linking Safra to drug trafficking and the Iran-Contra scandal, according to Bryan Burrough’s book “Vendetta.”

Did American Express “launch a smear campaign” or did they simply ‘leak’ some inconvenient truths out to the public in order to pressure Safra for some unknown reason?

1999- Iran/Contra and the Safra Mystery – Robert Parry

“Press accounts continue to state erroneously that banker Edmond J. Safra, who died mysteriously when a fire swept his Monaco penthouse apartment, was cleared over involvement in the Iran-contra scandal and related money-laundering investigations.

Contrary to reports in The New York Times and other leading news outlets, Safra’s Republic National Bank was implicated – not cleared – in connection with the Iran-contra affair. According to the final report by Iran-contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, an officer of Republic National Bank in New York arranged clandestine cash transfers to Oliver North’s secret network in 1985-86."

After escaping any Iran-contra fall-out – thanks largely to the U.S. news media’s failure to examine the details of Walsh’s investigation – Safra’s Republic National Bank went on to become a major recipient of money from Russia. (in the 90’s when the Western bankers were plundering Russia) Millions of rubles poured into the New York-based bank from Boris Yeltsin’s government and from the shadowy world of Russian business.

Safra sold the bank to American Express in 1983 for $550 million.

After the deal, American Express executives grew suspicious about Safra’s rumored links to the Iran-contra operations and drug money laundering. Given their corporate responsibility for the Trade Development Bank, top American Express executives hired private detectives to examine those suspicions, some of which began surfacing in the international press.

When Safra got wind of the American Express investigation, he ordered counter-investigations of American Express, with Safra’s private investigators tailing the private eyes working for American Express. Safra then sued American Express for alleged defamation. At that point, American Express chose to avert a costly legal battle and limit the negative publicity by agreeing to apologize and donate $8 million to charities of Safra’s choice.

The American Express retreat was big news at the Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers that took Safra’s side and portrayed him as an innocent man smeared by a business competitor.

So, by the time Walsh’s report appeared in 1993 – confirming that Safra’s bank indeed was implicated in both the Iran-contra affair and illicit money laundering – the U.S. news media showed no interest in correcting the record. The false conventional wisdom held.”

 Safra, Iran-contra and illicit money laundering? The banking game never changes and we can see the routine, money shuffle/laundering in the situation with Yeltsin led Russia. 

Millions of rubles poured out of Russia, into the New York bank while IMF funds that were supposed to go to Russia made there way to the Republic National Bank and stayed put. 

For now this post will end with an odd but informative little documentary made by the BBC covering the intrigue around Safra, Browder, Magnitsky, Boris Berezovsky, Safra’s bank in New York and Browder’s Hermitage Capital Fund.

Safra’s bank was implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair. Edmond Safra’s name was in Epstein’s “little black book.” Jeffrey Epstein was linked to the Iran- Contra affair as well- Mentioned in the Cooper/Tucker interview- Intersecting Strands.

Back to my 2019 report- I'd included at the end of this report a link to a 2014 presentation- Through Sherlock's Eyes. It's about 25 minutes in length- Non fiction presented as fiction?

Truth is so very often much stranger than fiction.

original url below

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2019/07/epstein-lazard-bankers-edmond-safra.html

It’s being reported that Jeffrey Epstein was found injured in his cell-

2am Epstein UPDATE: Jeffrey Found in Fetal Position – Tried to Hurt Himself Some Say via Nomadic Everyman
Call me unsympathetic.

Vanity Fair has an interesting piece- The Mysteries of Jeffrey Epstein’s Financial Black Book

 Call me gobsmacked while experiencing a certain ‘blast from the past’ from a name dropped in the article, that got my wheels turning about the inter-connections between Mr Epstein and bankers, globally.
 It’s a digression which will be expanded upon at a later date. For now I’ll just touch on the topic.

Vanity Fair-

“But the biggest unanswered question remains how he made the nearly $600 million that he and his attorneys listed on his unaudited and unverified financial statement.

In order to find out how he amassed his fortune, it may take subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York to Wall Street types in Epstein’s inner circle—people such as Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder and CEO of L Brands, Glenn Dubin, the billionaire cofounder of the hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management, and Leon Black, the billionaire founder of Apollo Global Management, the private-equity behemoth.

While we await subpoenas and depositions—if they ever come remains to be seen—there is a road map of sorts in the form of Epstein’s so-called “little black book,” 92 pages of names, emails, and phone numbers of people Epstein knew, or wanted to know, but in any event had detailed information about. Wall Street people comprise a significant amount of the entries. “He was a kind of wholesale collector of people, including people he didn’t know,” one of the Wall Street guys in the black book tells me. “I guarantee you that 90% of the people whose names are in his book, he’s not in their book. Many of these people don’t even know him.”

“He was a wholesale collector of people. including people he didn’t know” Claims anonymous Wall Street guy who is also named in Epstein’s book. Of course unnamed claimant is speculating. Although he claims to be able to “guarantee” that 90% of the people whose names are in the book are unknown to them. How would he guarantee this? 
 Why is unnamed Wall Street guy presenting this type of narrative?  Is he being employed to create a distance between Epstein and the named individuals? In order to preserve reputations, etc?  
 Personally speaking, no one is in my “black book” unless I’ve had some contact with them. Which makes it very hard to believe that Epstein’s black book was filled, 90%, with people he had no contact with.

“What the book tells us is that Epstein knew, or aspired to know, some of the biggest names on Wall Street and in Washington. Sure there are the Trumps—Donald, Ivana, and Ivanka—and Bill Clinton’s surrogate Doug Band in the book. But once you get past their names, there is the horde of Wall Street executives.
The Wall Street names in the book range from the highly prominent to the obscure, and, for some unknown reason, a disproportionate number of names of bankers in it worked once upon a time at Lazard, my old firm. The prominent are easy to identify, but why were their names in the book? Why would the late David Rockefeller’s name be in there? He was, of course, the textbook definition of moral rectitude before he died two years ago, at the age of 101. (Was he? ) Also in the Epstein book are deceased financiers, such as Lord Hanson, the British industrialist; John Gutfreund, the onetime “King of Wall Street,” who presided over a major Treasury market scandal when he was the leader of Salomon Brothers; Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft; Edmond Safra, a billionaire banker who perished in a fire in his apartment in Monaco in 1999; and Al Taubman, the billionaire Detroit real-estate tycoon who was caught up in a scandal involving Sotheby’s. (Taubman’s son Bobby is also in Epstein’s book).

Digression and a darn good one to boot!

Edmond Safra… now that name rings a bell- He died under some very weird circumstances..

Officially asphyxiation, but, he was reported to have had two bullets in him!

His wife, Lily,  was very much the social climber… who became an even wealthier women when two of her husbands died in such unusual circumstances.

The Billionaires Widow

 “Safra is also seen as having shrewdly positioned herself to inherit millions from the two very rich men she married, both of whose deaths have been investigated for a variety of strange circumstances.
 In 1988, the Safras purchased a huge villa in the south of France, and Safra spent $2 million in decorator fees on her bedroom alone. In 1996, the couple moved into a 10,000-sq.-foot apartment in Monaco, a mini-fortress over which Mossad-trained guards stood watch.”

Curiously Edmond Safra, whose mini fortress was guarded over by Mossad trained guards, died of smoke inhalation as fire alarms rang through the home...

The man charged in the incident maintains his innocence to this day and has written a book on the incident

We will revisit Jeffrey Epstein’s contact Edmond Safra because he ties to the Mossad, banker Bill Browder, Oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Russia- Weaving the web, as they say, weaving the web.  Funny how it is we just can’t get away from Browder his global bully Magnitsky act and intelligence agencies..

 For now back to Epstein’s other contacts as mentioned in the Vanity Fair article

There is the multi-billionaire philanthropist and staunch conservative David Koch; Mike Bloomberg, the multi-billionaire former mayor of New York City and erstwhile presidential candidate; and there is Eddie Lampert, the billionaire hedge fund manager now presiding over the bankruptcy of Sears. There are the Forbes brothers—Steve, a onetime presidential candidate, and Chris, known as “Kip”—whose father was Malcolm Forbes and who may have at one point been billionaires. There are also the billionaires Ron Burkle, the onetime supermarket buyout impresario (and great friend of Bill Clinton), and Edgar Bronfman Jr., the spirits scion who took the family’s fortune and went Hollywood, with mixed success.

Recall that the Bronfman name, specifically Clare, has a connection to the NXIVM Cult?

•  Clare Bronfman Pleads Guilty in the NXIVM Cult Sex Slave Case
• Nxivm Cult Gathering Financial Information on Journalists, Judges, Senators and others

 Nxivm cult, based in New York State (near Albany), was peddling women for sexual blackmail.
Any connections to Epstein?

“Also among the billionaires are Conrad Black, the Canadian media tycoon turned prominent historian and convicted felon, and Nicolas Berggruen, the fabulous and fabulously itinerant art collector and the founder of the annual $1 million Berggruen Prize that is given to a “thinker” who helps to shape “human self-understanding” and to “advance humankind.” There is also Henry Kravis, the billionaire cofounder of KKR, the onetime buyout king. How did Kravis, who is usually oh so careful about such things, get into Epstein’s book? I am not the least bit surprised to see billionaire Ron Perelman’s name in the book, especially since he lives blocks from Epstein’s East 71st mansion.

But the real fun of Epstein’s tome comes in wondering about the names of the less well-known bankers, and why Epstein would be in touch with them. Jes Staley, a former senior executive at JPMorgan Chase and now the CEO of Barclays Plc, the big British bank, was, as the New York Times reported, Epstein’s conduit to JPMorgan Chase back in the day. Epstein introduced Staley to the billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin. Dubin, who did not respond to a request for comment, met Epstein through his wife, Eva Andersson, a former Miss Sweden, and of course they are both in the book. When JPMorgan Chase bought a majority stake in Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management in 2004 (and the rest five years later), Epstein got a fee. (Staley did not respond to a request for comment.)

Bill Berkman, the wealthy investor whose secretary once sued him about being forced to look at pornographic pictures of women in emails (the suit was dismissed with prejudice in 2015), is in the Epstein book, as are the hedge fund managers Boykin Curry and Adam Dell, the brother of Michael Dell, the multi-billionaire founder of Dell Computer. There is Alan Patricof, the prominent New York venture capitalist John Paulson, the billionaire hedge fund manager who made a fortune betting against the mortgage market in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis; and Michael Ovitz, the onetime Hollywood super-agent and Disney executive.

A former Goldman Sachs vice chairman and director—Robert Hurst—makes an appearance in Epstein’s book, as does Tony Dub, a former senior banker at First Boston back in the day. Lew Ranieri, the billionaire creator of the Wall Street securitization market when he was at Salomon Brothers—which eventually led us down the rabbit hole of mortgage-backed securities—is in the book. And, not surprisingly given that Epstein worked there briefly, two of the former leaders of Bear Stearns—Jimmy Cayne, the former CEO, and Warren Spector, the former president of the firm—are included.
But it is the former employees of Lazard—the prominent but relatively small M&A and investment management firm—that are disproportionately showing up in the book. There is Roger Barnett, who was a former colleague of mine, and is now the CEO of Shaklee, the Japanese nutrition and green cleaning-products company. (Barnett is married to Sloan Lindemann, the daughter of the late billionaire George Lindemann, whose name is also in the book.)”

“There is Eva Lorenzotti, a former junior banker at Lazard and New York socialite who is now affiliated with the Raine Group (started by two former Lazard bankers); there is Todd Meister, also a former junior banker at Lazard when I was there, whose father Robert “Bob” Meister (also in the book), a vice chairman of Aon Group, the insurance brokerage, introduced Epstein to Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of the Limited (who of course was in the book.) Robert Meister and Jeffrey Epstein were said to have had a falling out long ago but Wexner did help Todd Meister get his hedge fund off the ground with an investment of many millions of dollars. (Todd Meister was once briefly married to Nicky Hilton Rothschild, the sister of Paris Hilton.)
Wexner was also a longtime Lazard client. Former Lazard CEO William Loomis was once on the Limited’s board of directors. (Loomis’s name is not in the Epstein book.) Nina Griscom, a New York socialite and the stepdaughter of longtime Lazard honcho Felix Rohatyn, is in the book, as is Raymond McKenzie, who also worked at Lazard around the time I was there too. (“When it rains it pours,” McKenzie emailed me when I inquired why he was in the book.) And there is Jeffrey Leeds, a longtime friend, who left Lazard in the 1990s and started his own private-equity firm focused on the education sector. (Lazard did not respond to a request for comment.)

Two other entries caught my eye. One is for Tom Barrack, the founder of hedge fund Colony Capital and a longtime friend of Donald Trump. Barrack was head of Trump’s inauguration committee; he has agreed to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into Trump. But Barrack, like Ron Burkle, lives mostly in California so that complicates somewhat being in Epstein’s social circle, ameliorated for sure by private jet travel. The most bizarre entry of all is that of Anton “Tony” Valukas, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and a senior partner at the prominent Chicago law firm, Jenner & Block. Valukas’s biggest claim to fame was probably as being the acclaimed author of the 2010 nine-volume report examining the causes of the biggest bankruptcy in American history—the 2008 liquidation of Lehman Brothers Why in the world would Epstein and Valukas want to have anything to do with each other? Valukas did not respond to an email request for comment”

I come away from reading the Vanity Fair article with the sense that it’s an exercise in damage control… Ya know don’t look at these contacts because according to the author they just don’t make any sense. And, yet……………….

The JCPOA, P1+5, took years to negotiate and Trump during his first administration destroyed this deal which would inevitably lead to the theater of a new negotiation, setting Iran up for an attack, should this new deal not be accomplished in a very narrow time frame.

Covered in 2018 at my former site, moved here as reference and reminder of history

NYT’s

https://archive.ph/QScpj#selection-4961.0-4975.397

Mr. Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel

The debate highlighted fault lines between historically hawkish American cabinet officials and other aides more skeptical that a military assault on Iran could destroy the country’s nuclear ambitions and avoid a larger war.

Israeli officials had recently developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites in May. They were prepared to carry them out, and at times were optimistic that the United States would sign off. The goal of the proposals, according to officials briefed on them, was to set back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by a year or more.

Almost all of the plans would have required U.S. help not just to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, but also to ensure that an Israeli attack was successful, making the United States a central part of the attack itself.

For now, Mr. Trump has chosen diplomacy over military action. In his first term, he tore up the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration But in his second term, eager to avoid being sucked into another war in the Middle East, he has opened negotiations with Tehran, giving it a deadline of just a few months to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program.

Earlier this month, Mr. Trump informed Israel of his decision that the United States would not support an attack

Israel has long planned to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, rehearsing bombing runs and calculating how much damage it could do with or without American help.

Initially, at the behest of Mr. Netanyahu, senior Israeli officials updated their American counterparts on a plan that would have combined an Israeli commando raid on underground nuclear sites with a bombing campaign, an effort that the Israelis hoped would involve American aircraft.

Some American officials were at least initially more open to considering the Israeli plans. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, both discussed how the United States could potentially support an Israeli attack, if Mr. Trump backed the plan, according to officials briefed on the discussions.

With the United States intensifying its war against the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, General Kurilla, with the blessing of the White House, began moving military equipment to the Middle East. A second aircraft carrier, Carl Vinson, is now in the Arabian Sea, joining the carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.

The United States also moved two Patriot missile batteries and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as a THAAD, to the Middle East.

Around a half-dozen B-2 bombers capable of carrying 30,000-pound bombs essential to destroying Iran’s underground nuclear program were dispatched to Diego Garcia, an island base in the Indian Ocean.

Even if the United States decided not to authorize the aircraft to take part in a strike on Iran, Israel would know that the American fighters were available to defend against attacks by an Iranian ally.
There were signs that Mr. Trump was open to U.S. support for Israeli military action against Iran. The United States has long accused Iran of giving the Houthis weapons and intelligence, and of exercising at least a degree of control over the group. On March 17, as Mr. Trump warned the Houthis in Yemen to stop their attacks, he also called out Iran, saying that it was in control of the Houthis.

Etc., etc.,

Don’t be distracted by the Trump dog and pony show- The preparations are being made- Patriot missiles, THAADS, B-2 Bombers, the so called negotiations are distractions- We saw the exact same scenario played out before the US brutally attacked Iraq. Recall the ongoing weapons inspection drama? All the while the military machinery, weapons, aircraft carriers were all being put in place? I remember this well. And, of course, there were NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

History may not repeat exactly, but, it does rhyme. What does makes this a bit different this time? The US is not as dominant globally as it was when it bombed Iraq to smithereens. Is this enough to prevent WW3? Let’s hope so.

The Central Intelligence Agency regards Donovan as its founding father. When Donovan died, on February 8, 1959, the C.I.A. cabled its station chiefs around the world: “The man more responsible than any other for the existence of the Central Intelligence Agency has passed away.” Today, Donovan’s statue stands in the lobby of the C.I.A.’s headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, and some old agency hands still celebrate Donovan’s bravado and élan—“an attitude,” says the C.I.A.’s chief historian, David Robarge, “of do it, try it, derring-do.” Robarge, like many of his contemporaries in the U.S. intelligence community, is at once awed by Donovan and wary of his legacy. Presidents have been tempted from time to time to use the C.I.A. as a secret and “deniable” weapon. The lure of covert action “creates an expectation,” says Robarge, choosing his words carefully, “that cannot always be fulfilled.”

Liberal democracies need secret intelligence services to protect against their enemies, (that’s a weird statement- why should you take that at face value?) even more so when the enemy is a shadowy web of suicidal terrorists. Donovan and his spiritual heirs relished the fight. There are in the intelligence community today latter-day Donovans who want to take big risks, and damn the consequences. But there are also highly risk-averse bureaucrats who have seen the C.I.A. burned by “flaps” (the old C.I.A. term for blown operations) and by “blowback” from operations that in the long run have done more harm than good (the C.I.A.-backed coups in Iran and Guatemala in 1953 and 1954 are the classic examples). Old-fashioned espionage—known as human intelligence, or humint—can seem glamorous in the movies. In real life, it often produces meager results. Donovan’s legacy has been the willingness of the intelligence community to take chances by staging coups and mounting other daring covert operations. Its history has been one more of failure than success.

The Room

Donovan was drawn to Europe. In 1939, he met Spain’s Generalissimo Francisco Franco on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, where he observed Nazi Germany’s weapons and warplanes getting a tryout in the Fascist cause. He visited Mussolini in Italy and journeyed through various nations along the periphery of Hitler’s Germany. Ostensibly traveling for business and pleasure, he was in fact gathering intelligence for a secretive private organization known as the Room, a group of international businessmen and lawyers who traded tips on the increasingly ominous developments on the European continent.

At the time, the U.S. government had no formal spy agency. In 1929, the Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson, had abolished the highly effective Black Chamber, a code-breaking organization left over from World War I. “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail,” Stimson famously declared. Colonel Stimson was an honorable-schoolboy type, and his intentions were noble, the product of peacetime idealism and a certain American innocence. British gentlemen were not burdened by such scruples. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service dated back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the 16th century. In 1939, with Britain facing a gathering storm and the task of safeguarding an empire, the foreign-intelligence service, known as M.I.6, began looking for ways to lure the Americans to the cause. They spotted a potentially useful ally in Donovan.

The British enlisted the help of a debonair Canadian businessman named William Stephenson. A self-made millionaire and former lightweight-boxing champion, Stephenson had been, like Donovan, a much-decorated World War I hero. He actively courted Donovan’s friendship. The strapping Donovan and diminutive Stephenson eventually became so close that they were known as “Big Bill” and “Little Bill.”

Intrepid (read this book some time ago)

Stephenson was, secretly, a spy for M.I.6, who went by the code name “Intrepid.” At some point Stephenson revealed his double life to Donovan—and implored him to join the fight against the Axis. On July 14, 1940, Donovan flew to London to meet Colonel Stewart Menzies, the chief of M.I.6, known to his fellow spies simply as “C.” Donovan met “C” at M.I.6 headquarters in an old Victorian manse on London’s Broadway, where the porters wore brass buttons engraved with the motto on the royal coat of arms, “Honi soit qui mal y pense” (“Evil be to him who evil thinks”). British intelligence should “bare their breast” to Donovan, Stephenson had cabled Menzies. Donovan was shown the inner workings of the British war effort and invited to dine with King George VI.

Returning to Washington as the Battle of Britain raged and the fate of England seemed to hang in the balance, Donovan reported to Roosevelt that he believed Britain would survive the German blitz but needed America’s help. That is what F.D.R. wanted to hear, and the president soon put Donovan to work as a lawyer trying to find ways around congressional strictures against selling armaments to Britain. By December, Donovan was back in London, where he met with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who recognized a kindred spirit. Together the two former cavalrymen recited heroic poetry (“And oh! the thundering press of knights,” they declaimed together, “When as their war-cries swell, / May tole from heaven an angel bright, / And rouse a fiend from hell”). New Year’s 1941 found Donovan aboard a Royal Air Force plane, skirting German fighters over France en route to Gibraltar, and dining on a picnic provided by Lord Mountbatten: three bottles of Moselle, a flask of hot turtle soup, fresh lobster, cold pheasant, and Stilton cheese, served by an orderly in a white jacket and white gloves.

After touring the Mediterranean and the Balkans, where he witnessed British commandos waging a desperate secret war, Donovan came home determined that America should join the fight with the same sort of cloak-and-dagger tools. “Hopeless to do anything with Bill,” Ruth wrote forlornly in her diary. “He has the British Empire for breakfast.” Working with a British naval commander named Ian Fleming (Yes, he was a spy) —later the author of the James Bond saga—Donovan drafted a blueprint for a secret American intelligence service based on the British model. F.D.R. agreed to the idea, appointing Donovan to run an organization called Coordinator of Information, an intentionally innocuous-sounding name. “Little Bill” Stephenson cabled “C” back at M.I.6 headquarters in London: “Donovan accuses me of having intrigued and driven him into the appointment. You can imagine how relieved I am after months of battle and jockeying for position in Washington that our man is in a position of such importance to our efforts.”

Interesting piece- read entirely at the link