Spy scares displace the real horror

Picture: Mossad logo

Anyone writing about the Epstein files needs to bear in mind the words of Marina Hyde, writing recently in the Guardian: “all the bits of the fallout we’re focusing on now are a mass displacement activity, driven subconsciously or consciously by men so we don’t have to reckon with the fact that we now have searchable records of the way some of the most powerful guys in the world, who have huge sway over our lives, talk and think about women. And about girls”.

But for John Green, author of the Morning Star’s only substantial piece on the scandal (8 March) “while the abuse of young girls is horrendous, that is merely the back story to the whole saga.” Much more important for Mr Green is speculation about Epstein’s links to intelligence agencies — and one agency in particular.

Evidence

There is certainly evidence to suggest the abuser’s network of powerful political figures and business leaders also brought him into contact with various international intelligence and security entities.

From early in his career (circa 1981), Epstein had interactions with the FBI. Officials and prosecutors involved in his 2008 case were told to back off because Epstein “belonged to intelligence” (probably the CIA) and was deemed “above [their] pay grade”.

John Schindler, a security expert and former US National Security Agency officer, has written that Epstein “was definitely a spy” but is not sure for whom, mentioning Russian and Israeli intelligence.

The files certainly show that Epstein had contact with high-level Russian figures, some of whom had intelligence links. In particular, Epstein’s circle included Sergei Belyakov, a graduate of Russia’s Academy of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and a former economy minister.

Emails from 2015 show Epstein asking Belyakov to collect information on a Russian woman he alleged was trying to blackmail a prominent US businessman. Belyakov then provided Epstein with a description of the woman’s background, including her “business problems”, which he speculated could be behind her blackmail attempts. In a further email (sent to himself and probably a draft response to the woman) Epstein told her that he had consulted “some friends in the FSB” who said she would be “dealt with extremely harshly” if she continued to threaten US businessmen.

Epstein also appears to have introduced Belyakov to US businessmen Peter Theil and Thomas Pritzker.

Other documents show that Epstein met with Vitaly Churkin, a former Russian diplomat and representative to the UN, and arranged an internship for Churkin’s son.

Publicist

According to journalist and researcher Craig Unger, Maria Bucher [nee Drakova], a Russian woman who had been head of Nashi, Putin’s youth movement, worked as a publicist for Epstein when she moved to the US. Unger cautions there is no evidence that Bucher was a spy and concludes that Epstein himself was probably a Russian “asset” rather than a spy: “An intelligence asset is someone who’s a trusted contact, you do favours for them, they do favours for you … but in the end, I think he was serving himself” Unger told The Cube, Euronews’ fact-checking team.

But you’d learn none of this from John Green’s Morning Star piece, lengthy as it is. Green is only interested in one suggested intelligence link: Israel’s Mossad.

There is, indeed, evidence of links between Epstein and prominent Israeli figures (notably the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak) and of his involvement in various business deals involving the provision of Israeli surveillance technology and security-related projects in Ivory Coast and Mongolia.

But there is — so far at least — no evidence of a direct link between Epstein and Mossad (the evidence of links between him and the FSB is, if anything, somewhat stronger.)

Having entirely ignored Russia and the FSB, Green concludes his piece with the kind of conspiratorial musing that — like much else in the paper when it comes to Israel — verges on antisemitism: “There are undoubtably very powerful forces both in the US and Israel determined to underplay these links and Epstein’s role on behalf of Israel. Whether we will ever know the whole truth is a moot point, but there is certainly much more to unearth.”