Twitter verwijdert accounts vanwege 'propaganda', maar werkt zelf met een militair propagandist

Twitter heeft eindelijk duidelijk gemaakt voor wie men echt werkt: voor de overheid van landen als de VS en Groot-Brittannië en dat wordt met grote graagte gepropageerd...... Een Twitter topfunctionaris, t.w. Gordon MacMillan, werkt ook voor het Britse leger en houdt zich daar o.a. bezig met propaganda maken, letterlijk als onderdeel van een leger propaganda eenheid die voor dat doel is opgericht, de 77ste brigade van het Britse leger......

Het voorgaande, terwijl Twitter veel accounts heeft opgeheven van landen die niet VS gezind zijn, daar er propaganda gemaakt zou worden...... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Hoe totaal hypocriet kan een organisatie zijn? Overigens niet alleen Twitter censureert accounts van landen die niet in lijn lopen met wat de VS eist, maar ook individuele accounts van mensen die of werken voor alternatieve nieuwssites, dan wel zelf op een website of blog schrijven en alternatieve opiniemakers, daar deze zich zouden bezighouden met het manipuleren van het publiek en het brengen van fake news (nepnieuws)..... In werkelijkheid gaat het voor een groot deel om mensen die juist de manipulaties door de reguliere media en de enorme bak fake news van diezelfde media* openbaar aan de schandpaal nagelen....

Op de vraag aan Twitter door Middle East Eye (MEE) hoe e.e.a. mogelijk is, volgde het volgende antwoord: "Twitter is an open, neutral and rigorously independent platform. We actively encourage all our employees to pursue external interests in line with our commitment to healthy corporate social responsibility, and we will continue to do so." ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Wat een stel niet neutrale en afhankelijke oplichters, jezus!!

We leven in het westen zogenaamd in een vrije wereld waar vrijheid van meningsuiting als groot goed werd gezien, totdat de sociale media roet in het eten gooiden en het publiek op de waarheid wezen.... Ondanks dat jihadisten onze vrijheid van meningsuiting verfoeien en waar 'we' ons zogenaamd met z'n allen tegen hebben verzet: "Je suis Charlie" (Hebdo), is de vrijheid van meningsuiting de grote vijand geworden van de bestaande westerse status quo en de reguliere media die vooraan zouden moeten staan om het recht op vrije meningsuiting te verdedigen...... 

Echter deze reguliere (massa-) media hebben zich door de plutocratische en institutionele eigenaars in 'de neoliberale mangel' laten nemen, waardoor die media nu in feite tegen de vrijheid van meningsuiting zijn..... 'Mooi voorbeeld' is de overleden 'journalist' Max van Weezel, deze hufter durfde een paar jaar geleden voor de radio te zeggen dat hij zeker niet alles zomaar in de media zou brengen (ik meen in een gesprek over WikiLeaks)...... Voorts zou ik willen wijzen op de enorme bak fake news (nepnieuws) van die media, neem alleen al de berichtgeving voorafgaand en tijdens de illegale oorlogen die de VS deze eeuw begon.....*

Lees het volgende prima artikel van Caitlin Johnstone waar zij ook ingaat op hoe de maatschappij draait en de rol van de media daarin. En geeft het door mensen, de hoogste tijd dat men wakker wordt, voordat we op een dag ontwaken in een politiestaat, waar elke stap en scheet wordt geregistreerd en waar commentaar onmiddellijk gestraft zal worden, ofwel als we wakker worden in een vorm van dictatuur is het definitief te laat........ De censuur op platforms als Twitter en Facebook hoort in feite thuis in een dictatuur, waarnaar we dan ook hard op weg zijn......

Twitter Suspends Accounts For Propaganda, Has Literal Propagandist As High-Level Executive by Caitlin Johnstone Middle East Eye's Ian Cobain has published an exclusive titled "Twitter executive for Middle East is British Army 'psyops' soldier", exposing the fact that Twitter's senior editorial executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa also works for an actual, literal propaganda unit in the British military called the 77th Brigade. Which is mighty interesting, considering the fact that Twitter constantly suspends accounts from non-empire-aligned nations based on the allegation that they are engaging in propaganda. "The senior Twitter executive with editorial responsibility for the Middle East is also a part-time officer in the British Army’s psychological warfare unit," Cobain writes. "Gordon MacMillan, who joined the social media company's UK office six years ago, has for several years also served with the 77th Brigade, a unit formed in 2015 in order to develop 'non-lethal' ways of waging war. The 77th Brigade uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as podcasts, data analysis and audience research to wage what the head of the UK military, General Nick Carter, describes as 'information warfare'." Ian Cobain ✔@IanCobain EXCLUSIVE: Twitter executive for Middle East is British Army 'psyops' soldier https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/twitter-executive-also-part-time-officer-uk-army-psychological-warfare-unit … EXCLUSIVE: Twitter executive for Middle East is British Army 'psyops' soldier Head of editorial for MENA is part-time officer in the 77th Brigade, an 'information warfare' unit which has worked on 'behavioural change' projects in the region middleeasteye.net 487 10:38 AM - Sep 30, 2019 MacMillan's presence in a government psyops unit was not a secret; until Middle East Eye began raising questions on the matter, it was right there on his LinkedIn profile. This is not something that anyone considering him for promotion was likely to have been unaware of. According to his (now-edited) LinkedIn page, MacMillan has been in his current position as Head of Editorial EMEA since July 2016. According to Middle East Eye, MacMillan was already a captain in the 77th Brigade by the end of 2016. His current rank there is being hidden behind a wall of government secrecy. When questioned by Middle East Eye about MacMillan's work in the British Army's online propaganda program, Twitter hilariously responded, "Twitter is an open, neutral and rigorously independent platform. We actively encourage all our employees to pursue external interests in line with our commitment to healthy corporate social responsibility, and we will continue to do so." That's very nice of Twitter, isn't it? They encourage their employees to pursue wholesome external interests, whether that be tennis, volunteering at a soup kitchen, or moonlighting at a military program explicitly devoted to online psychological warfare. You know, just everyday socially responsible pastime stuff. The fact that Twitter not only employs known propagandists but actively promotes them to executive positions is a very large and inconvenient plot hole in their "open, neutral and rigorously independent platform" story. Especially since, as I documented recently, the mass purges of foreign Twitter accounts we've been seeing more and more of lately always exclusively target governments and groups which are not in alignment with the interests of the US-centralized power alliance of which the UK is a part. We've seen mass suspensions of accounts from Cuba, China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and the Catalan independence movement on allegations of “coordinated influence operations” and “covert, manipulative behaviors”, yet Twitter currently employs a high-level executive for whom coordinated influence operations and covert, manipulative behaviors on behalf of the British government are a known vocation. "On September 20 Twitter deleted a large number of accounts, including in MacMillan's area of responsibility. How many of those were designated by the British state?" asks Moon of Alabama of this new report. How many indeed? Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz Have You Noticed How Social Media Purges Always Align With The US Empire? "There is no legitimate reason to go on pretending that these plutocratic Silicon Valley institutions are meaningfully separate from the US government." https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/have-you-noticed-how-social-media-purges-always-align-with-the-us-empire-63293f1a22e2 … — Caitlin Johnstone  (@caitoz) September 12, 2019 This is just one more item on the ever-growing mountain of evidence that these giant, immensely influential social media platforms we've all been herded into are nothing other than state propaganda for the digital age. True, they operate in a way which disregards the official lines that are drawn between government power and corporate power and the lines that are drawn between nations, but then, so do our rulers. We are living in a globe-spanning corporate oligarchic empire, and these government-aligned Silicon Valley giants are a major part of that empire's propaganda engine. The real power of that empire and that oligarchy lies in their invisibile and unacknowledged nature. Officially we all live in separate, sovereign nations run by democratically elected officials; unofficially we live in a massive transnational empire ruled by a loose alliance of plutocrats and opaque government agencies where military propagandists are employed by social media monopolies to manipulate public narratives. The official mask exists only on the level of narrative, while the unofficial reality is what's actually happening. Yet whenever you try to publicly discuss the threat that is being posed by oligarchic narrative control online, you get told by establishment loyalists and libertarians that Twitter is just a simple private business running things in a way that is entirely separate from government censorship and state propaganda. All we clear-eyed rebels can do is keep documenting the evidence of what's going on and pointing to it as loudly as we can. So once again for the people in the back: Twitter employs literal government propagandists as high-level executives while purging accounts from unabsorbed governments for circulating unauthorized narratives. This is a fact. Remember it.

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I'm trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

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* De berichtgeving over de illegale oorlogen die de VS deze eeuw is aangegaan, zijn allen op basis van leugens begonnen, leugens waarmee het publiek wordt gemanipuleerd..... Als je alle leugens, manipulaties en fake news bij elkaar zou willen zien in papiervorm, kan je er een dossier van vele meters lang mee maken (en dat is nog maar één voorbeeld)

Zie ook:
'Facebook keurde advertenties goed die waren gericht op neonazi's'

'VS presidentschap wordt gekocht met 100 dollar per uitgebrachte stem'

Media en politiek bepalen waar wel en niet over gesproken wordt >> over manipulatie en desinformatie gesproken'

'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grilt Zuckerberg over misleidende advertenties op Facebook: liegen in verkiezingstijd is toegestaan'

'Tulsi Gabbard (Democratische presidentskandidaat) en de gestoken verkiezingen'

'Hillary Clinton manipuleert democratische voorverkiezingen'

'Assange in de gevangenis: Zweden laat voor de derde keer de aanklacht wegens verkrachting vallen'

'Snowden vindt het ongelofelijk dat de media VS politici niet aanspreken op totaal verschillende reacties n.a.v. 'klokkenluiden''

'CNN met nog smeriger lastercampagne tegen Julian Assange'

'Belangrijk account voor de verdediging Julian Assange geblokkeerd door Twitter'

'Twitter launches tool to report misleading content ahead of Indian & EU elections'

'Twitter meldpunt voor nepnieuws in aanloop EU verkiezingen'

'Brekend nieuws: EU neemt internet censuurwet aan......'

'WaPo waarschuwt voor Russische digitale controle over de hersenen van VS burgers'

'VS geweldcultuur gevaar voor iedereen' (zie ook de links in dat bericht over agressie van de VS)

'Gelekte documenten tonen aan dat Google en Pinterest censuur uitoefenen'

'Robert Mueller lijdt aan dementie en maakt van Russiagate een nog belachelijker verhaal'

'CNN met nog smeriger lastercampagne tegen Julian Assange'

'Britse regering weigert RT en Sputnik voor conferentie over persvrijheid..... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'Julian Assange: Speciaal VN rapporteur martelen heeft grote twijfels bij onafhankelijkheid rechter'

'Het westen vervolgt journalist Assange, Rusland laat journalist vrij na onrust over diens gevangenschap' (en nog hadden de reguliere media een grote bek over Rusland, media die niet anders hebben gedaan dan collega Assange besmeuren en fake news brengen over de illegale oorlogen die de VS is begonnen.....)

'VN rapport: Assange is gedemoniseerd en psychisch gemarteld'

'Media wakker geschrokken en ontwaken in Assange nachtmerrie'

'Julian Assange weer vervolgd wegens 'verkrachting', waarvoor het Zweedse OM eerder geen bewijs kon vinden......'

'Dag van Persvrijheid: Assange wordt zoveel mogelijk uitermate hypocriet gemeden door de pers'

'Australische politie valt kantoor ABC binnen vanwege gelekte documenten'

'Facebook stelt klimaatsceptisch Daily Caller aan als 'factchecker...' ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'Twitter launches tool to report misleading content ahead of Indian & EU elections'

'Twitter meldpunt voor nepnieuws in aanloop EU verkiezingen'

'Russiagate geslaagd: geen impeachment van Trump, waar Clinton en haar team na bewezen misdaden vrijuit gaan.....'

'Facebook: uit gelekte documenten worden de steeds veranderende regels voor censuur op dit platform openbaar gemaakt: Facebook als geheime tak van de VS overheid'

'NewsGuard, het nieuwste wapen van Big Brother VS tegen de alternatieve media'

'Netflix censureert aflevering van humoristisch programma, 'na een geldig verzoek' op grond van Saoedische wetgeving....'

'Facebooks departement voor censuur: een hoognodige uitleg over een maatregel die alleen in een dictatuur thuishoort'

'Facebook censureert foto's van verhongerende Jemenitische kinderen als 'sexual content''

'Google manipuleerde VS presidentsverkiezingen van 2016 en censureert niet alleen linkse/alternatieve sociale media'

'Facebook gebruikte 'fake news' beschuldiging om de aandacht voor schandalen af te leiden'

'Google Maps veegt Palestijns gebied van de kaart'

'Twitter weert waarheid: Paul Craig Roberts in de ban, Roberts >> de grote criticus van de illegale oorlogen die de VS voert'

'Bolsonaro, de fascistische nieuwe president van Brazilië, werd volgens Avaaz en fake news brengers als de NYT gekozen door manipulatie via WhatsApp'

'Facebooks zuivering van de alternatieve (nieuws) media staat nog in de kinderschoenen'

'Facebook censureert de waarheid over Columbus en de verovering van de Amerika's.......'

'Facebook censuur gestuurd door het westers militair-industrieel complex en de NAVO in het bijzonder..........'

'Bedrijf dat voor 'Russische bots' waarschuwde, heeft een leger met nep-Russische bots'

'Britse militaire geheime dienst bedient zich van moddergooien en andere manipulaties om Europese en VS politiek te manipuleren, zo blijkt uit gelekte documenten'

''Fake news': alternatieve media en bloggers in het westen zouden onzin brengen, echter niet als dit soort groepen wat roepen in landen die het westen niet welgevallig zijn'

'Two More Spiegel Employees Out After Fake News Scandal Expands' Ofwel: het zoveelste 'gevalletje fake news', gebracht door de reguliere massamedia........

Jeffrey Epstein en Ghislaine Maxwell werkten mede voor de militaire geheime dienst van Israël

Een voormalige 'hoge' medewerker van de Israëlische militaire geheime dienst, Ari Ben-Menashe  liet onlangs in een interview weten dat Jeffrey Epstein en Ghislaine Maxwell werkten voor de Israëlische geheime dienst....... Volgens deze figuur werd het seksnetwerk van Epstein gebruikt om vooraanstaande personen, zoals machtige politici (o.a. Bill Clinton en Tony Blair), te chanteren. Deze geheime dienst heeft de chantage dienst opgezet en..... gebruikt!

Het was overigens al duidelijk dat het netwerk van Epstein werd gebruikt om vooraanstaande politici te chanteren daar zij kinderen seksueel misbruikten, kinderen die hare kwaadaardigheid Ghislaine Maxwell 'trash' noemde, ofwel vuilnis waar je mee kan doen wat je wilt........ Vreemd genoeg hebben de reguliere westerse massamedia vooral aandacht aan Epstein besteed, waar ze zijn zelfmoord als zeker bestempelden, terwijl het meer dan duidelijk is dat Epstein werd vermoord en dat moet een overheidsinstantie hebben gedaan, of deze instantie heeft een ander de opdracht gegeven, Epstein mocht de rechtszaal nooit bereiken, teveel belangrijke en machtige figuren zouden van hun voedstuk donderen, neem Trump, Clinton en ga nog maar een tijdje door.......

Ari Ben-Menashe heeft overigens wel meer te vertellen, bijvoorbeeld dat hij in de 80er jaren van de vorige eeuw samen met Robert Maxwell betrokken was bij de Iran-Contra-Affaire........ Dezelfde Maxwell introduceerde Ben-Menashe bij Jeffrey Epstein in het midden van die jaren 80.

Maxwell had trouwens een heel netwerk in Israël en daar maakte ook Ariel Sharon deel van uit, Sharon de beestachtige oorlogsmisdadiger die verantwoordelijk was voor de massamoord in Sabra en Shatila, het Palestijnse vluchtelingenkamp en de aangrenzende wijk in Beiroet, Libanon......

Voorafgaand aan een interview met Robert Parry in 2012 over Iran Contra en andere smerige geheime acties in de 80er jaren van de vorige eeuw, ging het huis van Ben-Menashe in Montreal in vlammen op, e.e.a. als gevolg van een aanval met een brandbom waarin een vloeistof die alleen door militairen wordt gebruikt, het is dan ook wel duidelijk dat Israël Ben-Menashe de mond wilde snoeren....... 

Eén ding is zeker, de continue westerse steun voor de (nu officieel) fascistische apartheidsstaat Israël, is bepaald niet alleen ingegeven door een schuldgevoel over de holocaust........

Lees het volgende artikel geschreven door Whitney Webb en dat eerder verscheen op MintPressNews en ook jij zal begrijpen dat Epstein zijn mond moest houden, ofwel hij werd vermoord:

Former Israeli Intel Official Claims Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Worked for Israeli Intel

A recent interview given by a former high-ranking official in Israeli military intelligence has claimed that Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual blackmail enterprise was an Israel intelligence operation run for the purpose of entrapping powerful individuals and politicians in the United States and abroad.

October 02nd, 2019

By Whitney Webb Whitney Webb

Since the apparent death by suicide of Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan prison, much has come to light about his depraved activities and methods used to sexually abuse underage girls and entrap the rich and powerful for the purposes of blackmail. Epstein’s ties to intelligence, described in-depth in a recent MintPress investigative series, have continued to receive minimal mainstream media coverage, which has essentially moved on from the Epstein scandal despite the fact that his many co-conspirators remain on the loose.

For those who have examined Epstein’s ties to intelligence, there are clear links to both U.S. intelligence and Israeli intelligence, leaving it somewhat open to debate as to which country’s intelligence apparatus was closest to Epstein and most involved in his blackmail/sex-trafficking activities. A recent interview given by a former high-ranking official in Israeli military intelligence has claimed that Epstein’s sexual blackmail enterprise was an Israel intelligence operation run for the purpose of entrapping powerful individuals and politicians in the United States and abroad.

In an interview with Zev Shalev, former CBS News executive producer and award-winning investigative journalist for Narativ, the former senior executive for Israel’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, Ari Ben-Menashe, claimed not only to have met Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, back in the 1980s, but that both Epstein and Maxwell were already working with Israeli intelligence during that time period. 

“They found a niche”

In an interview last week with the independent outlet Narativ, Ben-Menashe, who himself was involved in Iran-Contra arms deals, told his interviewer Zev Shalev that he had been introduced to Jeffrey Epstein by Robert Maxwell in the mid-1980s while Maxwell’s and Ben-Menashe’s involvement with Iran-Contra was ongoing. Ben-Menashe did not specify the year he met Epstein.

Ben-Menashe told Shalev that “he [Maxwell] wanted us to accept him [Epstein] as part of our group …. I’m not denying that we were at the time a group that it was Nick Davies [Foreign Editor of the Maxwell-Owned Daily Mirror], it was Maxwell, it was myself and our team from Israel, we were doing what we were doing.” Past reporting by Seymour Hersh and others revealed that Maxwell, Davies and Ben-Menashe were involved in the transfer and sale of  military equipment and weapons from Israel to Iran on behalf of Israeli intelligence during this time period.

He then added that Maxwell had stated during the introduction that “your Israeli bosses have already approved” of Epstein. Shalev later noted that Maxwell “had an extensive network in Israel at the time, which included the then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to Ben-Menashe.”

Ben-Menashe went on to say that he had “met him [Epstein] a few times in Maxwell’s office, that was it.” He also said he was not aware of Epstein being involved in arms deals for anyone else he knew at the time, but that Maxwell wanted to involve Epstein in the arms transfer in which he, Davies and Ben-Menashe were engaged on Israel’s behalf.

Ariel Sharon (right) meets with Robert Maxwell in Jerusalem on Feb. 20, 1990. Photo | AP

However, as MintPress reported in Part IV of the investigative series “Inside the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal: Too Big to Fail,” Epstein was involved with several arms dealers during this period of time, some of whom were directly involved in Iran-Contra arms deals between Israel and Iran. For instance, after leaving Bear Stearns in 1981, Epstein began working in the realms of shadow finance as a self-described “financial bounty hunter,” where he would both hunt down and hide money for powerful people. One of these powerful individuals was Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer with close ties to both Israeli and U.S. intelligence and one of the main brokers of Iran-Contra arms deals between Israel and Iran. Epstein would later forge a business relationship with a CIA front company involved in another aspect of Iran-Contra, the airline Southern Air Transport, on behalf of Leslie Wexner’s company, The Limited. 

During this period, it is also known that Epstein became well acquainted with the British arms dealer Sir Douglas Leese, who collaborated with Khashoggi on at least one British-Saudi arms deal in the 1980s. Leese would later introduce Epstein to Steven Hoffenberg, calling Epstein a “genius” and describing his lack of morals during that introduction. Thus, there are indications that Epstein was involved with Middle Eastern arms deals, including some related to Iran-Contra, during this period. In addition, Epstein would later claim (and then subsequently deny) having worked for the CIA during this period.

After having been introduced to Epstein, Ben-Menashe claimed that neither he nor Davies were impressed with Epstein and considered him “not very competent.” He added that Ghislaine Maxwell had “fallen for” Epstein and that he believed that the romantic relationship between his daughter and Epstein led Robert Maxwell to work to bring the latter into the “family business” — i.e., Maxwell’s dealings with Israeli intelligence. This information is very revealing, given that the narrative, until now at least, has been that Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein did not meet and begin their relationship until after Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991, after which Ghislaine moved to New York.

Ben-Menashe says that well after the introduction, though again he does not specify what year, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein began a sexual blackmail operation with the purpose of extorting U.S. political and public figures on behalf of Israeli military intelligence. He stated: 

In this case what really happened, my take on it, in the later thing, is that these guys were seen as agents. They weren’t really competent to do very much. And so they found a niche for themselves — blackmailing American and other political figures.” 

He then confirmed, when prompted, that they were blackmailing Americans on behalf of Israeli intelligence. 

In response to his statement, Zev Shalev replied, “But, you know, for most people it’s hard for them to think of Israel as being … blackmailing their leaders in the United States, it’s a very …” at which point, Ben-Menashe interrupted and the following exchange took place:

Ari Ben-Menashe:  You’re kidding? [laughs]…. It was quite their M.O. Sleeping around is not a crime, it may be embarrassing, but it’s not a crime, but sleeping with underage girls is a crime. 

Shalev:  It was a crime in 2000 as well, but they let him off that… 

Ben-Menashe:  And that it is [why] always so he [Epstein] made sure these girls were underage.

In addition, when Shalev asked Ben-Menashe about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Ben-Menashe stated “After a while, you know, what Mr. Epstein was doing was collecting intelligence on people in the United States. And so if you want to go to the U.S. if you’re a high-profile politician you want to know information about people.” Ben-Menashe subsequently stated that Barak was obtaining compromising information (i.e., blackmail) that Epstein had acquired on powerful people in the United States. 

PROMIS, sex, and blackmail

If Robert Maxwell did recruit Epstein and bring him into the “family business” and the world of Israeli intelligence, as Ben-Menashe has claimed, it provides supporting evidence for information provided to MintPress by a former U.S. intelligence official, who chose to remain anonymous in light of the sensitivity of the claim.

This source, who has direct knowledge of the unauthorized use of PROMIS to support covert U.S. and Israeli intelligence projects, told MintPress that “some of the proceeds from the illicit sales of PROMIS were made available to Jeffrey Epstein for use in compromising targets of political blackmail.” As was noted in a Mintpress series on the Epstein scandal, much of Epstein’s funding also came from Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner, who has documented ties to both organized crime and U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

After the PROMIS software was stolen from its rightful owner and developer, Inslaw Inc., through the collusion of both U.S. and Israeli officials, it was marketed mainly by two men: Earl Brian, a close aide to Ronald Reagan, later U.S. envoy to Iran and close friend of Israeli spymaster Rafi Eitan; and Robert Maxwell. Brian sold the bugged software through his company, Hadron Inc., while Maxwell sold it through an Israeli company he acquired called Degem. Before and following Maxwell’s acquisition of Degem, the company was a known front for Mossad operations and Mossad operatives in Latin America often posed as Degem employees. 

With Maxwell — Epstein’s alleged recruiter and father of Epstein’s alleged madam — having been one of the main salespeople involved in selling PROMIS software on behalf of intelligence, he would have been in a key position to furnish Epstein’s nascent sexual blackmail operation with the proceeds from the sale of PROMIS. 

This link between Epstein’s sexual blackmail operation and the PROMIS software scandal is notable given that the illicit use of PROMIS by U.S. and Israeli intelligence has been for blackmail purposes on U.S. public figures and politicians, as was described in a recent MintPress report.

Can an ex-spy be trusted?

When dealing in the world of deception and intrigue that defines intelligence operations, it is often difficult to determine whether any individual linked to an intelligence agency is telling the truth. Indeed, in the United States, there are examples of elected intelligence officials committing perjury and lying to Congress on several occasions with no consequences, and of intelligence officials feeding politically motivated and untrue information to agency assets in the media. 

So, are Ari Ben-Menashe’s claims regarding Epstein and the Maxwells trustworthy? In addition to the aforementioned, corroborating information for his claims, a review of Ben-Menashe’s post-intelligence career suggests this is the case.


Ari Ben Menashe arrives at Harare International Airport, in Zimbabwe, Feb. 22, 2002. Photo | AP

Prior to his arrest in November 1989, Ben-Menashe was a high-ranking officer in a special unit of Israeli military intelligence. He would later claim that his arrest for attempting to sell American-made weapons to Iran was politically motivated, as he had threatened to expose what the U.S. government had done with the stolen PROMIS software if the U.S. did not cease providing Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with chemical weapons. Ben-Menashe was later acquitted when a U.S. court determined that his involvement in the attempted sale of military equipment to Iran was done on behalf of the Israeli state.

After his arrest, Ben-Menashe was visited in prison by Robert Parry, the former Newsweek contributor and Associated Press reporter who would later found and run Consortium News until his recent passing last year. Parry remembered that, during that interview, “Ben-Menashe offered me startling new information about the Iran-Contra scandal, which I thought that I knew quite well.”

Israel’s government immediately began to attack Ben-Menashe’s credibility following his interview with Parry, and claimed that Ben-Menashe had never worked for Israeli intelligence. When Parry soon found evidence that Ben-Menashe had indeed served in Israeli military intelligence, Israel’s government was then forced to admit that he had worked for military intelligence, but only as a “low-level translator.” Yet, the documentation Parry had uncovered described Ben-Menashe as having served in “key positions” and performed “complex and sensitive assignments.”

A year later, Ben-Menashe would be interviewed by another journalist, Seymour Hersh. It would be Ben-Menashe who first revealed to Hersh secrets about Israel’s nuclear program and the fact that British media mogul Robert Maxwell was an Israeli spy, revelations that Hersh would not only independently corroborate but include in his book The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Hersh was then sued by Robert Maxwell and the Maxwell-owned Mirror Group for libel. The case was later settled in Hersh’s favor, as the claims Hersh had made were true and not libelous. As a result, the Mirror Group paid Hersh for damages, covered his legal costs, and issued him a formal apology.

After Ben-Menashe’s interviews by Hersh and Parry, Israel’s government was apparently concerned enough about what Ben-Menashe would tell congressional investigators that it attempted to kidnap him and bring him back to Israel to face state charges, much like Israeli intelligence had done to Israel’s nuclear-weapons whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu. The plan was foiled largely thanks to Parry.

Parry, who broke many key stories related to the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s and beyond, was tipped off by a U.S. intelligence source about a joint U.S.-Israel plan to have Ben-Menashe first be denied entry to the United States on his planned trip to give congressional testimony. Per the plan, Ben-Menashe would be denied entry to the U.S. in Los Angeles and then be deported to Israel, where he would have stood trial for “exposing state secrets.” Parry called Ben-Menashe and convinced him to delay his flight until he secured a guarantee for safe passage from the U.S. government. 

Ben-Menashe subsequently gave a sworn statement to the House Judiciary Committee that mostly focused on U.S.-Israel collusion regarding the theft and creation of a “backdoor” into the PROMIS software. Ben-Menashe offered to name names and provide corroborating evidence for several of his claims if he was offered immunity by the committee, which, for whatever reason. declined that request. 

Prior to the conclusion of the Hersh “libel” trial, which would later uphold Ben-Menashe’s claims regarding Robert Maxwell’s Mossad activities as true, there was a concerted effort in the U.S. press to downplay Ben-Menashe’s credibility. For instance, Newsweek — in an article on Ben-Menashe entitled “One Man, Many Tales” — claimed that “inconsistencies may undermine Ben-Menashe’s testimony in the British courtroom proceedings,” citing inconsistencies from sources in Israel’s government and Israeli intelligence as well as Ben-Menashe’s ex-wife and Israeli journalist Shmuel (or Samuel) Segev, a former IDF colonel. It goes without saying that such sources had much to gain from any effort to discredit Ben-Menashe’s claims.

According to Parry, this media campaign, which employed American journalists with close ties to Israel’s government and intelligence agencies, was very successful “in marginalizing Ben-Menashe by 1993, at least in the eyes of the Washington Establishment.” After a years-long media campaign to discredit Ben-Menashe, “the Israelis seemed to view him as a declining threat, best left alone. He was able to pick up the pieces of his life, creating a second act as an international political consultant and businessman arranging sales of grain.” The effort to marginalize Ben-Menashe has continued well into recent years, with mainstream news outlets still referring to him as a “self-described ex-Israeli spy” — despite the well-documented fact that Ben-Menashe worked for Israeli intelligence — as a means of downplaying his claims regarding his time in Israel’s intelligence service.

After the conclusion of the Hersh libel trial, Ben-Menashe became an international political consultant who “surrounded his far-flung business activities in secrecy and got involved with some controversial international figures, such as Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe,” and “conducted his international consulting business … in a wide variety of global hotspots, including conflict zones,” according to Parry. In addition to Mugabe, Ben-Menashe has also recently come under fire for his consulting work on behalf of Sudan’s military junta and Venezuelan opposition politician Henri Falcón.

Ben-Menashe has also maintained ties to several different intelligence services and eventually became a controversial whistleblower whose information led to the arrest of the former head of Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee, Arthur Porter.

As far as his character is concerned, Parry noted that Ben-Menashe could often be “his own worst enemy” and that, even though Parry considered his information regarding Iran-Contra and PROMIS reliable and noted that much of it was later corroborated, he “often compound[ed] his media problem by treating journalists in a high-handed manner, either due to his suspicions of them or his arrogance.”

Bill Hamilton, the original developer of the PROMIS software and head of Inslaw Inc., also found Ben-Menashe’s claims regarding the illicit use of PROMIS by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies to be credible, though he expressed doubts about Ben-Menashe’s character. 

Hamilton told MintPress the following about Ben-Menashe: 

Ari Ben Menashe was the first source to tell us reliable information about the role of Rafi Eitan and Israeli intelligence vis-a-vis PROMIS but, in the end, of course, he was a clandestine services-type guy whose official duties include the ability and willingness to lie, cheat, and steal.”

A threat revived

While Ben-Menashe may have been viewed as a “declining threat” after the early 1990s, his plans to meet with Robert Parry of Consortium News years later in 2012 to discuss Iran-Contra and other covert dealings of the 1980s appeared to change that. Right before he planned to travel from Canada to the United States to meet with Parry and “finally prove” the truthfulness of his past claims, a fire-bomb was thrown into his Montreal home, destroying it.

Air Ben-Menashe surveys the damage to his home after it was mysteriously firebombed. Photos | Robert Parry

Though Canadian media referred to the incendiary device as a “molotov cocktail,” Consortium News reported that “the arson squad’s initial assessment is said to be that the flammable agent was beyond the sort of accelerant used by common criminals,” leading to speculation that the accelerant was military-grade.

Had it not been for the bomb, the origins of which Canadian police failed to determine, Ben-Menashe would have traveled to the U.S. alongside a “senior Israeli intelligence figure” to be interviewed by Parry. The other intelligence-linked individual, according to Parry, “concluded that the attack was meant as a message from Israeli authorities to stay silent about the historical events that he was expected to discuss.”

Though neither Ben-Menashe nor Parry directly blamed Israel’s government for the destruction of Ben-Menashe’s home, Parry noted that the bombing did succeed in “intimidating Ben-Menashe, shutting down possible new disclosures of Israeli misconduct from the other intelligence veteran, and destroying records that would have helped Ben-Menashe prove whatever statements he might make.”

While Ben-Menashe’s post-intelligence associations with controversial governments and individuals have given plenty of fodder to the still thriving media campaign to discredit his claims about covert U.S.-Israel operations in the 1980s, there remain troubling indications that the Israeli government sees his information on decades-old events as a threat. 

Now, with the major efforts by powerful Americans and Israelis to distance themselves from Jeffrey Epstein and other figures associated with his depraved sex trafficking operation, Ben-Menashe may soon again find his reputation — and perhaps more — under fire.

Feature photo | Graphic by Claudio Cabrera

Whitney Webb is a MintPress News journalist based in Chile. She has contributed to several independent media outlets including Global Research, EcoWatch, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has made several radio and television appearances and is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism.

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