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Thursday, February 12, 2026
[Salon] The Architect of Ghost Finance: Why the Press Failed to Decode Jeffrey Epstein - ArabDigest.org Guest Post
The Architect of Ghost Finance: Why the Press Failed to Decode Jeffrey Epstein
Summary: Jeffrey Epstein’s rise to power was not a result of "magnetic personality" or "lucky breaks," but rather his early career as a financial architect for the CIA-linked bank BCCI and the Safari Club. By mastering "mirrored oil options" to fund covert operations like Operation Cyclone, Epstein gained a level of intelligence-backed immunity that facilitated his global network and decades of criminal impunity.
The public fascination with Jeffrey Epstein has long been fed by a narrative of the “charming enigma”, a self-made Gatsby who climbed from a Brooklyn classroom to the pinnacle of global power. A recent, exhaustive investigation by the New York Times (NYT) has added significant texture to this story, unearthing what it calls the “fullest portrait to date” of Epstein as a “prodigious manipulator and liar”. Similarly, the Financial Times (FT) asks a pertinent question: “How did a college dropout from a working-class family in Brooklyn manage to do it?”. Yet, despite their rigorous investigations, both publications fall into the same trap that has ensnared Western media for decades. The Times frames Epstein’s rise as a series of “extraordinarily lucky breaks” and “unexplained magnetism”. The Financial Times suggests the answer lies in his "extraordinary ability to work out exactly what some of the world's richest and most powerful people wanted".
These explanations are incomplete because they fail to provide the structural logic that explains Epstein's absolute impunity. When one connects the new evidence from the New York Times and the Financial Times with the geopolitical realities of the late 1970s, specifically the rise of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and the CIA’s "Safari Club" - the “monster of Wall Street” reveals himself to be something far more clinical. Epstein was not a socialite who happened to be a financier; he was a specialist in “ghost finance,” purpose-built by the intelligence-industrial complex to facilitate the clandestine movement of arms and money through the Middle East.
The story begins in 1976, the year Jeffrey Epstein joined the floor at Bear Stearns. As the NYT correctly identifies, this was an “extraordinarily lucky break” for a man who had just been asked to leave his teaching job at the Dalton School for poor performance. He was hired by Ace Greenberg, a top executive who took a liking to Epstein despite the later discovery that Epstein had lied about his entire education. Yet, rather than being fired, Epstein was protected. The NYT attributes this to his “magnetism,” but the institutional context suggests a deeper utility.
This period (1976–1981) overlapped exactly with the scaling up of the BCCI and Safari Club network. The Safari Club was a covert alliance of intelligence services from France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and pre-revolutionary Iran, formed in 1976 to bypass post-Watergate congressional oversight that had heavily restricted the CIA’s powers. It was largely financed by Saudi petrodollars and required an “off-the-books” treasury to conduct anti-communist operations across Africa and Asia. To satisfy this need, Kamal Adham (the director of Saudi intelligence) and George H.W. Bush (then director of the CIA) helped transform BCCI, a Pakistani merchant bank, into a worldwide money-laundering machine, with documented links to the Mossad, Abu Nidal, Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega. BCCI was also involved in the sex trafficking of minors and high-end prostitution services throughout the Middle East, especially in the UAE.
Epstein’s post-Bear Stearns firm, Intercontinental Assets Group (IAG), specialised in "recovering stolen money" which mirrored the specialised services BCCI provided to intelligence agencies and dictators
Bear Stearns acted as a primary broker for Capcom Financial Services, a mysterious entity central to BCCI's criminality. Capcom was created by the former head of BCCI's Treasury Department and was largely controlled by Saudi spymasters, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil. It moved billions of dollars anonymously through the futures markets, essentially acting as the financial plumbing for operations like Operation Cyclone - the CIA-backed effort to fund the Afghan Mujahideen. By clearing trades through Bear Stearns, these clandestine funds gained a veneer of Wall Street legitimacy. Epstein’s rapid rise to partner by 1980, which the FT notes was a result of his being a “confidante” and “banker” to the elite, was actually rooted in his mastery of the “mirrored oil options” necessary to disguise these payments.
A “mirrored oil option” is a sophisticated form of wash trading designed for money laundering. In this mechanism, two distinct legal entities trade with one another, often across different jurisdictions. One entity purchases an identical quantity of financial instruments that the other sells, creating the appearance of two distinct parties while the beneficial owner remains the same. For the Safari Club, these “mirrored trades” allowed payments for illegal weapons or covert funding to look like standard market losses or legitimate hedges on the price of oil. This siphoned assets out of the official system into “safe havens” for intelligence use.
This Middle Eastern nexus explains why Epstein was found with an expired 1980s Saudi passport with his photo but a fake name. It was not a mere eccentricity but a tool for a man facilitating “crude oil deals” that were logistical covers for moving petrodollars through the Safari Club’s network. His high-profile connections to figures like Adnan Khashoggi, a legendary Saudi arms dealer and central figure in the Iran-Contra affair, were not social coincidences. Khashoggi’s own Mount Kenya Safari Club became a “safe house” for global power brokers and CIA assets during this exact era.
The NYT and FT both document Epstein’s subsequent life as a “social Ponzi scheme,” where he traded on proximity to figures like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The FT highlights how Epstein would “threaten and bully” when flattery failed, turning intimacy into a fear of exposure. Yet, neither publication admits that his ultimate protection came from his origins. His early exposure to the CIA’s proprietary banking operations provided him with a permanent “get out of jail free” card.
This is why, as the NYT notes, he was repeatedly given second chances after being caught “cheating” at Bear Stearns. It is why he was later protected by a “sweetheart deal” in Florida, where federal prosecutors were told he “belonged to intelligence”. His CIA connection gave him the immunity that allowed him to become the monster he was, orchestrating sex-trafficking operations from his Upper East Side townhouse and his private island, Little St James.
While the FT and the NYT have performed thorough investigations that unmasked Epstein’s “monster” status, they have failed to tell the whole truth. Like most Western media, they are unable to acknowledge that Epstein’s power was structural rather than personal. He did not become a plutocrat through “magnetism” or “luck” but because he was the common denominator between the four main intelligence agencies involved in the region: he had the Saudi connections via Khashoggi and Adham, the British link via his London partner, the arms dealer Douglas Leese; the US link via his roommate in New York, Stan Pottinger, who ran the US side of illegal arms transactions; and the Israeli link via dozens of documented meetings with Ehud Barak, the head of Israeli military intelligence.
Once we understand his origins at the Bear Stearns forex desk and the BCCI-Safari Club nexus, the “mystery” of Jeffrey Epstein’s life dissolves into a very clear and elegant explanation. He did not become one of the most powerful and protected men on the planet because of a magnetic personality or an innate genius for stock picking. He achieved his extraordinary wealth and status because he was, from the very beginning, a banker to the CIA and the architect of the shadow finance that powered the secret wars of the 20th century.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Fr. Bob's Reflection for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Guest Post
When we read the morning paper or watch the evening news, the experience can be discouraging. What confronts us is often the worst of humanity: images of death, destruction and chaos.
Our first instinct is to complain, to wish it were not so; to say we live in a sick world. Yet we must remember that Jesus lived in a world that was no less broken. In fact, it may have been worse than our own.
Government was harsh and oppressive. Human rights were virtually nonexistent. Slavery was accepted as normal. And entertainment was not a Super Bowl or a World Series, but gladiators fighting to the death. As a poet once wrote, “Those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.”
If we have reason to lament the condition of our world, Jesus had even more. And yet, He never did.
Instead of dwelling on the problem, Jesus focused on the solution. Part of that solution was the small group gathered around Him in today’s Gospel, to whom He boldly declares: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
It must have stunned them. They likely never thought of themselves that way. They had not caused the world’s sickness – and surely felt powerless to cure it. But Jesus saw them differently. He saw them as essential to God’s healing work. The same is true for us.
Jesus tells us today that we are meant to be distinct. We are not to hide our light, but to let it shine. If the world is a ship tossed in darkness, then we are called to be the lighthouse.
This does not mean Christians are better than others. It is not a matter of value, but of vocation. Still, this sense of distinction can be difficult to accept. In a world that prizes blending in, Jesus calls us to stand apart.
Many are content with being average, thinking as everyone else thinks, or letting the media do the thinking for them. But Jesus calls His followers not to conform, but to lead. We are the Church, and we are meant to shape the world, not be shaped by it.
When Jesus speaks of salt and light, He is not elevating us above others; He is calling us to be different. To follow Christ means we cannot simply go along with the crowd.
So how are we different? Isaiah gives us the answer in today’s first reading: “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked.”
The source of this difference is invisible, but its fruits are clear. The source is faith; the fruit is love. Faith cannot be seen, but its impact can – whenever we care for those in need, check on an isolated neighbor, listen to a struggling friend, or offer practical help with compassion.
Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God. And in loving God, we naturally learn to love our neighbor. To claim love for God without love for others is like trying to irrigate a field without water.
So, Jesus urges us: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven.”
My friends, let your light shine. Be the salt of the earth. Dare to be different.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Monday, February 9, 2026
[Salon] Syrian Kurds turn to their Iraqi brethren - ArabDigest.org Guest Post
Syrian Kurds turn to their Iraqi brethren
Summary: amid a series of setbacks for Syria’s Kurds in recent weeks one potential silver lining has emerged for their political future.
We thank Sirwan Kajjo for today’s newsletter. Sirwan, a regular contributor to the AD podcast, is a Kurdish American journalist based in Washington D.C. focussing on Kurdish politics, Islamic militancy, extremism, and conflict in the Middle East and beyond. He is the author of Nothing But Soot a novel about a twentysomething Kurdish man whose quest for a permanent home never ends. You can find his latest podcast here.
As the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came under attack by forces aligned with the Syrian interim government, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stepped into a leading role, both diplomatically, in efforts to prevent the violence from spreading further into Kurdish areas, and politically, by offering direct support to embattled Kurdish actors in Syria.
The rapid pace of developments in northeast Syria in recent weeks was met by an equally swift humanitarian and political response from Iraqi Kurds in support of their counterparts in Syria. The scale of solidarity, demonstrated by both political forces and ordinary citizens across Iraqi Kurdistan, has few parallels in the Kurds’ complicated political history. It has even surpassed the cross-border mobilisation seen when Kurdish communities in both countries faced attacks by the Islamic State more than a decade ago.
Kurdish women in Erbil braid their hair in an act of defiance in solidarity with a Kurdish fighter who had her braid cut off by a Syrian soldier, 23 January 2026
Despite the loss of much of their hard-won de facto autonomy in recent events, Syrian Kurds may yet find long-term benefit in the strong support emerging from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. If the current ceasefire between the Syrian government and the SDF holds and evolves into a durable political settlement, Syrian Kurds stand to gain significantly from a close and sustained relationship with the KRG. Here is why:
The KRG possesses substantial diplomatic reach across the region and in Western capitals. In recent weeks, the ruling Barzani family and its Kurdistan Democratic Party, as well as their rivals in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by the Talabani family, demonstrated their ability to leverage this political influence in support of Syria’s Kurds. Even before the latest crisis, Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, had emerged as a key destination for regional and international diplomats seeking to defuse tensions between Syria’s Kurdish actors and the central government in Damascus.
For Iraqi Kurds, support for their brethren across the border is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic calculation. The threats confronting Syrian Kurds are not confined to Syria alone. This is a reality Iraqi Kurdish leaders and society recognised clearly during the recent crisis in northeast Syria. With Kurdish autonomy in Syria under pressure, Iraqi Kurds perceived potential spillover effects on their own autonomous region. Although the Kurdistan Region of Iraq enjoys a more institutionalised form of autonomy within Iraq’s federal system, Kurdish leaders nonetheless view the Kurdish political experiment in Syria as strategic depth that reinforces the security and viability of their own political entity.
Syrian Kurds, many of whom have long supported the historic leadership of the Barzanis, also recognised that at this critical juncture it was the Iraqi Kurds who stepped in to support them at a time when most countries – including the United States – aligned with Damascus.
It is important to note, however, that solidarity in times of crisis does not necessarily translate into political consensus among divergent actors. In the Kurdish case in particular, ideological differences between Kurdish political movements across national boundaries run deep. Over the past century, Kurdish political history has been marked by fragmentation and ideological divisions, shaped in large part by the fact that Kurds are spread across four different states (Iraq, Iran, Syria and Türkiye), each with distinct political environments that have compelled Kurdish elites to adopt differing strategies and priorities.
This polarisation has been most evident in Syria and Iraq, where Kurds have adopted two distinct models of governance, largely reflecting ideological differences between the dominant political forces in each region. In Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is generally characterised as conservative and nationalist. In contrast, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the de facto ruling party in Kurdish Syria, espouses a leftist ideology heavily influenced by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). These divergent ideologies have frequently placed the two Kurdish groups at odds and, at times, led to confrontation.
There are, therefore, clear limits to how far political alignment between Syria’s and Iraq’s Kurds can extend. Yet the recent developments in northeast Syria have been significant enough that many Kurdish ideologues and political figures on both sides have openly called for setting ideological differences aside and prioritising the protection of what remains under Kurdish control in Syria.
It is this shift in attitude, unthinkable even months ago, that has led many Kurds to believe a durable political partnership between Kurdish actors in Iraq and Syria may no longer be far-fetched. With a new generation that is increasingly politically aware, both within the region and across the diaspora, Kurdish unity, at least in a political and strategic sense, appears increasingly realistic more than ever before.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Friday, February 6, 2026
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Fr. Bob's Reflection for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Gospel reading today can feel strange, and even unsettling. In the Beatitudes, Jesus seems to turn the world upside down. Instead of praising the successful, the assertive, or the powerful, He tells us that the Kingdom of God is set up to reward the poor, the sad, the meek and the hungry.
Before we hear those words, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of a hard truth about themselves. Most of them were not wealthy. They were not highly educated. They did not hold positions of power or influence.
And yet, Paul tells them plainly: God chose you, on purpose. Those whom society overlooked were the very ones God called His own.
God wants each of us to know that we matter deeply to Him. Abraham Lincoln once joked, “God must love the common man – He made so many of them.”
Joseph Stalin later mocked the Church by asking, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” By worldly standards, the Church looked weak compared to Stalin’s power and cruelty. Yet today, the Church endures, while Stalin’s empire has long since collapsed.
Time and time again, God works through what the world deems weak, in order to shame the strong. As Saint Paul reminds us, “God chose the weak to confound the strong. God chose the foolish to confound the wise.”
Who else but God could use someone like Mother Teresa – a small, unassuming woman working quietly among the dying in India. She moved nations and governments toward compassion.
To those outside the faith, Christianity often doesn’t make any sense. We believe things that seem impossible. We may even appear foolish in the eyes of the world.
We believe in one God in three Persons. We believe that God was born in a stable, died on a cross and rose from the dead. We believe that Christ comes to us under the humble appearances of bread and wine. We believe in loving God above all else and loving our neighbor as ourselves – even neighbors we don’t like or barely know.
No wonder the world sometimes looks at us as if we’re crazy. But maybe being Christian means being willing to look foolish.
Have you ever been to a rodeo? The cowboys are the stars of the show – strong, skilled and daring. The crowd cheers them on. But when a cowboy is thrown from his horse and lies helpless in the arena, it’s the clowns who rush in. With silly costumes and funny antics, they distract the animal while others pull the fallen rider to safety.
The crowd laughs, but in truth, the clowns are the real heroes. When danger strikes, when someone is vulnerable and in need of mercy, it takes courage and compassion to step in. When someone is down, send in the clowns.
They’re all around us: ordinary Christians trying to live the Gospel, day by day. Not seeking applause or recognition – only striving to do God’s will.
Today’s Gospel invites us to ask an honest question: What qualifies us to be called “blessed” by Jesus? Are we merciful? Are we peacemakers? Are we poor in spirit?
There are no easy answers. It might be simpler to ignore the challenge altogether. But perhaps there’s an unspoken Beatitude for us as well: “Blessed are those who struggle with the issues; who suffer criticism for acting on behalf of the Gospel.”
If Christ were to look at you today and say, “Blessed are you because…”
How would you finish that sentence?
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
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