“No more buck passing” – Greens call on Keir Starmer to resign over latest Mandelson revelation

Spread the love
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.

Reacting to a report in the Guardian that Peter Mandelson was appointed as ambassador to the US despite failing the Government vetting process, Green Party MP Siân Berry said:

“Keir Starmer has lied and lied again over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson and he must resign. Starmer told Parliament ‘due process’ had been followed. This report makes clear that was untrue.

“He has tried to blame the vetting process, when in fact it is reported that a decision was taken to ignore a failed vetting. We need answers on what and when Starmer and David Lammy knew about this decision to overrule the vetting report.

“The precise reasons for Mandelson’s failure to pass this vetting must be made public, even though it was known to everyone that Mandelson was friends with the world’s most notorious paedophile prior to the appointment. It is outrageous that it is being reported that senior government officials are now considering whether to withhold from parliament documents that show Mandelson wasn’t given security clearance.

“No more buck passing, no more mysteriously vanishing mobile phones, the public need the truth.”

Continue Reading“No more buck passing” – Greens call on Keir Starmer to resign over latest Mandelson revelation

Arrest of Ex-UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson Over Epstein Ties Sparks Renewed Calls for Justice in the US

Spread the love

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Lord Peter Mandelson is seen leaving his home in Wiltshire, England, on February 20, 2026, days before his arrest by UK police on suspicion of misconduct in public office. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

“In the UK, they are prosecuting the Epstein class…” said Rep. Ro Khanna. “We need accountability in the United States.”

After a second prominent associate of Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in the UK, calls are growing louder for those in the US who may have been complicit in his crimes to face similar accountability.

Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the US, was arrested by police on Monday on “suspicion of misconduct in public office.” The arrest is reportedly in connection with an investigation opened into the former minister earlier this month.

RECOMMENDED…

'We Need Justice': Americans Envious as Elites in UK, Korea Face Legal Consequences

‘We Need Justice’: Americans Envious as Elites in UK, Korea Face Legal Consequences

'Our Broken Hearts Have Been Lifted': Epstein-Linked Prince Andrew Arrested in UK

‘Our Broken Hearts Have Been Lifted’: Epstein-Linked Prince Andrew Arrested in UK

Mandelson was dismissed from his ambassadorship by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in September after leaked emails showed that he’d maintained a close friendship with Epstein long after the financier had been convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.

A criminal probe was opened last month after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released more files, suggesting that in 2009, Mandelson—then a member of the UK government—had passed Epstein sensitive internal economic information that could have affected international markets.

Bank statements also show Mandelson accepting $75,000 from Epstein over several years for an unknown purpose.

He is the second powerful figure in British society to be arrested amid scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein this month. Last week, former Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in office, after emails showed him forwarding trade reports to Epstein, which were produced during his role as an official UK envoy.

Epstein had been charged with the sex trafficking of dozens of underage girls before his death in jail in 2019, and connections with the financier have led prominent individuals across Europe to be shamed out of office or out of influential corporate positions.

Neither Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor nor Mandelson has been criminally charged with any sexual misconduct related to the billionaire. However, at least two women have publicly accused Mountbatten-Windsor of having sex with them while underage after procuring them through Epstein.

In 2022, Mountbatten-Windsor settled a civil suit for about £12 million with Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that the former prince had sex with her when she was 17.

The arrest of yet another British government official for inappropriate dealings with Epstein has only heightened the contrast with the unaccountability of American elites, who have thus far emerged from the Epstein scandal unscathed despite damning connections.

“Peter Mandelson, the former British Ambassador to the US, was arrested today on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This is after files revealed Jeffrey Epstein sent $75,000 to accounts connected to him,” wrote the official social media account for the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, which oversees the release of the files. “As we have said before: No one is above the law. We will make sure accountability and justice come to everyone in Epstein’s world.”

Files released by the DOJ in January, in compliance with a law passed last year, showed that at least one woman had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s after being introduced to him by Epstein, and that the FBI considered her to be credible, speaking to her on at least four occasions. It is not known what happened as a result of the investigation, and the DOJ slideshow referencing her allegation has since been scrubbed from the department’s website.

Meanwhile, at least six other members of the current Trump administration have documented ties to Epstein revealed by the files.

Most notably, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was revealed to have lied when he claimed to have cut off connections to the billionaire in the early 2000s. In fact, Lutnick maintained a relationship with Epstein for nearly a decade after the billionaire registered as a sex offender and even visited his infamous Caribbean island with his family.

Many other figures in the upper echelon of American society also maintained close relationships with Epstein despite his criminal conviction, including former President Bill ClintonTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Following news of Mandelson’s arrest, US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—who has led the charge for the release of the files in full to the American public, along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—said he wanted to see similar investigations and charges against Epstein’s American associates.

“In UK, they are prosecuting the Epstein class ⁦[Massie]⁩ and I have exposed,” Khanna wrote on social media. “We need accountability in the United States.”

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Keir Starmer discusses the UK Labour Party's tradion of excusing and protecting child rapists.
Keir Starmer discusses the UK Labour Party’s tradion of excusing and protecting child rapists.

Continue ReadingArrest of Ex-UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson Over Epstein Ties Sparks Renewed Calls for Justice in the US

What Is Palantir? How a US Spytech Firm Penetrated the British State

Spread the love

https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/19/what-is-palantir-how-a-us-spytech-firm-penetrated-the-british-state/

The Palantir Technologies logo. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto)

From Epstein to ICE to the IDF.

A US spytech firm deeply embedded in the most sensitive areas of the British state is being scrutinised as part of the fallout from the latest tranche of documents related to the financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Palantir Technologies, co-founded and chaired by billionaire Peter Thiel, holds over £670m in UK government contracts across NHS patient data, defence operations, police intelligence databases and nuclear weapons management. The multibillion-dollar US company has also provided military tech to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the genocide in Gaza, and helped facilitate Donald Trump’s brutal immigration enforcement crackdown across the US.

The most recent dump of Epstein files sheds light on the links between Palantir, Thiel, Epstein and the former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson. 

What is Palantir?

Palantir Technologies, worth approximately $300bn, is a software company that pulls together and analyses data from different sources. 

Headquartered in Miami, Florida after a recent exit from Denver, Colorado, Palantir describes its software as powering “real-time, AI-driven decisions in critical government and commercial enterprises in the west, from the factory floors to the front lines”. Its products are extensively deployed in military, policing and healthcare contexts. 

The name Palantir is inspired by the crystal balls from JRR Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings. By looking into a palantír, the evil Lord Sauron is able to see in any direction, at any distance.

Built with CIA funding to support the US ‘war on terror’ following the 11 September attacks, Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, Jon Lonsdale and Nathan Gettings, but didn’t go public until 2020. 

Much of its work has been shrouded in secrecy, but today its flagship products – Palantir Gotham and Palantir Foundry – connect fragmented stores of information, forming them into big, searchable databases that can then be used for analysis, intelligence-gathering, policing and business analytics. 

Gotham is Palantir’s defence and intelligence platform, marketed as an “operating system for global decision making” and primarily used by militaries and counterterrorism analysts. It’s built to handle vast datasets and employed by the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and Department of Defense in the US, and across Europe, including by the Ukrainian military. 

In Ukraine, Palantir’s Gotham system is credited with shaping the future of warfare by pulling together images, drone footage and battlefield data to create an operational map to form an “AI-powered kill chain”

Gotham supports alerts, geospatial analysis and prediction, with the latter drawing criticism from rights groups over the impact of predictive policing and intrusive mass surveillance. A 2019 predicting policing project between Palantir and the Los Angeles Police Department was cancelled after accusations that it reinforced racism and didn’t reduce crime.

Palantir has also built custom tools for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency has reportedly spent more than $200m on Palantir contracts to help it identify targets for deportation by integrating travel histories, visa records, biometrics and social media data. In the past month, immigration enforcement agents in the US have kidnapped children and shot dead citizen observers as part of Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown.

A protestor at a demonstration targeting tech billionaires on 13 June 2025 in Los Angeles. Credit: Madison Swart/Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

See the original article at https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/19/what-is-palantir-how-a-us-spytech-firm-penetrated-the-british-state/

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Continue ReadingWhat Is Palantir? How a US Spytech Firm Penetrated the British State

DoJ Released Much More on Epstein’s Israel Ties—But Media Still Aren’t Much Interested

Spread the love

Original article by Drew Favakeh republished from FAIR under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Late last month, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) published 3.5 million pages about convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

On top of the grotesque and horrifying photos and emails that appear to offer more evidence of systemic and widespread child abuse, the Epstein files revealed further allegations of his ties to Israel and its intelligence agency Mossad.

London Times: Was Epstein a Mossad agent? New files deepen mystery over Israel links

London Times (2/8/26)

The Epstein/Israel revelations have been covered at length by independent and overseas media outlets:

  • “The Israeli government installed security equipment and controlled access to a Manhattan apartment building” that Epstein managed (Drop Site News2/18/26). Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli spy Yoni Koren were frequent guests at the apartment, and Rafi Shlomo, then–director of protective service at the Israeli mission to the United Nations, “controlled access to the apartment for guests, and even conducted background checks on cleaners and Epstein’s employees.”
  • An informant told the FBI he “became convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad agent” (Middle East Monitor2/8/26).
  • Epstein emailed Barak in December 2018: “You should make clear that I don’t work for Mossad :)” (Dissident2/2/26). Barak responded, “You or I?” Epstein replied, “That I don’t :).”
  • Epstein emailed Barak twice in November 2017 (London Times2/8/26): “Did Boies ask you to help obtain former Mossad agents to do dirty investigations?” and “Boies said he got to the Mossad guys through you? True? This is getting a lot of press.” Barak responded, “Call me. [Redacted] in Paris.” (Epstein was likely referring to attorney David Boies, who was facing scrutiny at the time for hiring a private firm, run largely by former Mossad officers, to investigate women who accused his client Harvey Weinstein of rape, and journalists trying to expose the allegations—New Yorker11/6/17.)
  • Epstein’s foundation backed pro-Israel projects like Friends of Israel Defense Forces and the Jewish National Fund, which buys land in Palestine to build settlements (Middle East Eye2/7/26).

Adding to existing evidence

Al Jazeera: What were Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Israel?

Al Jazeera (2/9/26)

It is important to note that the Epstein emails contain allegations and intimations, and don’t prove that Epstein was an Israeli agent, formally or informally. However, they do add to the existing evidence that Epstein used his considerable connections and wealth to assist the Israeli state.

The Epstein/Israel ties were reported before the latest DoJ release by various independent media outlets, particularly Drop Site NewsDrop Site’s reporting received scant coverage by US corporate media, as I documented at the time (FAIR.org11/14/25).

Drop Site based its reporting on a hack purportedly emanating from Iran’s government. The hack’s source seemed to have explained—at least in part—the lack of US corporate media coverage. The latest Epstein/Mossad ties, on the other hand, were uncovered in a release by the DoJ—a more acceptable source by US corporate media standards. (The Justice release confirmed some of the details in Drop Site‘s reporting based on the Iranian hack, such as Epstein’s close ties to the Israeli spy Yoni Koren—Drop Site11/11/25Al Jazeera2/9/26.)

And yet only a few US corporate media outlets—most notably AxiosNew York magazine, the New York TimesWall Street Journal and Atlantic—have referenced the latest Epstein/Israel revelations.

Even then, these outlets cast doubt on the legitimacy of the connections by framing them as conspiracy theories, or conspiracy-adjacent—hardly a surprise, given previous US corporate media coverage.

‘Ample fodder for speculation’

New York: The Truth Is Out There How the Epstein files turned everyone into conspiracists.

New York (2/6/26)

Axios (2/3/26) wrote:

FBI source reports and internal emails contain unverified claims and secondhand suspicions about Epstein’s possible ties to Mossad and other intelligence services—material that stops well short of proof, but offers ample fodder for speculation.

A week later, Axios (2/10/26) acknowledged that Barak and his wife “stayed at Epstein’s apartment multiple times from 2015 to 2019,” citing Israeli media reportsAxios‘ Rebecca Falconer wrote that Barak “has said he ‘deeply regrets’ his past relationship with Epstein, and that he never saw nor participated in any inappropriate behavior during their meetings.” Falconer added:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected conspiracy theories peddled online that his longtime political rival Barak’s “unusual close relationship” indicated that Epstein was an Israeli spy.

Although New York features writer Simon van Zuylen-Wood (2/6/26) mentioned “former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak” as one of the “seemingly endless list of VIPs” corresponding with Epstein, it warned against looking too hard at Epstein’s ties to the Israeli state by linking an interest in the issue to antisemitism:

The horseshoe nature of the scandal makes it hard to untangle speculation about, say, Epstein’s intelligence ties from the antisemitism that is pervasive in Epstein discourse. “Yes, we are ruled by Satanic pedophiles who work for Israel,” announced the YouTubeCandace Owens, who may have been reading the same emails that prompted the left-wing commentator Cenk Uygur to post, “To my knowledge no one in legacy media has ever even discussed the possibility that Epstein was Mossad when it is all over the files.”

Right-wing conspiracy theories based in antisemitism (like Owens’) are a toxic form of discourse. But the latest batch of files—and Drop Site’s previous coverage, which Uygur has previously covered—is not hard to distinguish from antisemitism, and does more than just offer “ample fodder for speculation.”

‘Dark workings of cabals’

Atlantic: What Everyone Assumes About Jeffrey Epstein

Atlantic (2/7/26)

Still, pundits like the Wall Street Journal‘s Barton Swaim (2/11/26) treated questions of Epstein and Israel as necessarily conspiratorial, heaping scorn on “influencers and politicos determined to attribute all bad things to the dark workings of cabals,” and citing how “Tucker Carlson conjectured that Epstein worked with the Mossad to blackmail its enemies.”

And the Atlantic (2/7/26) wrote that, “in death, Epstein has taken on far more significance than he did in life”:

Some Americans were already primed to believe in international pedophilia rings. Bonus points if they were run by wealthy Jews—Jews who were perhaps on the Mossad payroll, as many conspiracists have insisted Epstein was.

Jacob Shamsian of Business Insider (2/14/26) asked whether “there were any truth to the rumored connections to the CIA or the Mossad,” only to handwave away those connections by citing anonymous sources. Shamsian pointed to “four people who had access to the Justice Department’s files,” who “said there was no trace of intelligence material, which would have been the case if Epstein or Maxwell’s  crimes were tied to the CIA or Mossad.”

To Compact editor Matthew Schmitz (Washington Post2/12/26), the “scourge of rising antisemitism in recent years has found its latest manifestation in the government’s release of millions of files about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.” Schmitz referenced “antiestablishment voices” that “have advanced the claim that Jewish networks and interests are corrupting American society.” He lumped together “antisemites on the left and right,” linking Owens and Tucker Carlson with “progressive influencers” Ana Kasparian and Briahna Joy Gray. But Schmitz omitted any mention of Epstein and Barak’s very real relationship.

A selective list of ‘powerful men’

New York Times: Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Mingled With Silicon Valley Start-Ups

New York Times (2/5/26)

The New York Times, for its part, largely downplayed the relationship between Epstein and Barak, and omitted key context. A Times article (2/5/26) on Epstein’s ties with tech start-ups briefly mentioned that Epstein “suggested to Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, that he speak with Mr. Thiel about an advisory role” at Palantir.

The Times quoted a Palantir spokesperson as denying “Epstein ever investing in or being a shareholder in Palantir,” and asserting that Palantir “has never had a business relationship with Ehud Barak.” They failed to mention that Palantir signed its first contract with the Israeli government a year after the Epstein/Barak conversation.

Less than a week later, the Times (2/11/26) wrote that “political score-settling has played a part in the reaction in other countries,” including in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “played up disclosures of emails” between Epstein and Barak.

The Times noted in that piece that “India’s foreign ministry dismissed an email from Mr. Epstein, in which he appeared to take credit for the ingratiating approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a landmark state visit to Israel in 2017.”

The paper omitted the detail that Epstein had connected Barak to Anil Ambani, an Indian billionaire close to Modi, ahead of the trip. Drop Site (1/31/26) reported that the introduction “helped accelerate the burgeoning relationship” between Israel, India and the US.

More tangible ties

Guardian: ‘I woke up and he was on top of me’: six women on being abused by fashion agent Jean-Luc Brunel

Guardian (5/28/22)

The sparse US corporate media coverage of the Epstein/Israel angle sharply contrasts with the extensive reporting of Epstein’s alleged ties to Russia.

Epstein visited Russia at least three times during the 2000s. He maintained a network of recruiters in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, whom he tasked with finding “girls”—often using modeling agencies as a front to traffic them to the US or Europe. He maintained Russian bank accounts and sought investments in Russia.

Although Russia was referenced somewhat more often than Israel in the files—about 5,400 to 4,800 times—Epstein’s connections to Barak were far more tangible than his ties to Russian government figures.

Epstein tried to meet with Putin multiple times, but there is no evidence that he ever succeeded (Washington Post2/7/26). Epstein maintained relationships with Russian oligarchs, tech investors and former Russian government officials, but there isn’t a Russian equivalent to Barak, with whom Epstein shared over 4,000 email messages.

Indeed, Epstein and Barak arranged to meet face-to-face more than 60 times between September 2010 to March 2019. At least seven of these meetings took place while Barak was serving as minister of Defense for Israel (Jacobin, 2/6/26).

‘Might replace Putin’

Kyiv Independent: Epstein's Russia Connections, Explained

Kyiv Independent (2/5/26)

At least one email thread even connected Epstein to an anti-Putin dissident. Politician Ilya Ponomarev sent an email in 2011 to Bill Gates’ adviser Boris Nikolic, asking how he could gain access to the World Economic Forum in Davos “to communicate what is going on, so that not only official Putin’s voice is heard.” His email came as Ponomarev was participating in mass protests against Putin and his reelection during the 2011 Russian presidential election.

Nikolic forwarded Ponomarev’s email to Epstein, writing: “We should go soon to Russia and you should meet my friend Ilya Ponomarev,” who he described as the “main organizer of the uprising against Putin.” He “might replace Putin and become a president by himself” if “he does not get killed before,” Nikolic said. He asked how Epstein could help, “not with Davos but with the other stuff in general.”

Epstein replied: “I can do end of March.”

It’s not clear from the files whether Epstein ever met with Ponomarev, but the email thread was noteworthy, showing Epstein’s willingness to meet with an anti-Putin dissident.

Yet it received only one mention in the US corporate media—from Yahoo (2/5/26), which republished an article from the Kyiv Independent (2/5/26), a Ukraine-based news outlet that receives funding from the CIA-linked National Endowment for Democracy.

Beyond including the email in the article, the Kyiv Independent didn’t bother expanding on its significance. Instead, the outlet wrote:

The documents do not prove that Epstein worked for Russian intelligence.

They do, however, reveal sustained, multi-year efforts by Epstein to embed himself in Russia’s political, financial and diplomatic circles—efforts marked by persistence, access-seeking and repeated attempts to present himself as useful to the Kremlin.

‘Whom Epstein was really working for’

NY Post: Emails reveal new theory about whom Jeffrey Epstein was really working for

New York Post (2/2/26)

Among the US corporate media outlets to cover the Epstein/Russia connection in-depth are the New York PostWashington Post and New York Times.

A headline in the New York Post (2/2/26) read: “Emails Reveal New Theory About Whom Jeffrey Epstein Was Really Working For.”

The right-wing outlet relied on two anonymous sources—”people close to the Russian tyrant” and “US security officials”—and an article by the British tabloid Daily Mail (1/31/26), which based its reporting on “intelligence sources.”

In the final four paragraphs of the article, the New York Post acknowledged Epstein’s well-established connections to Israel—noting that his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was the daughter of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, widely reported to be a Mossad agent—but excluded any mention of the recent revelations.

Two days later, the New York Post ran an article (2/4/26) that detailed how Poland was launching a probe into whether Epstein was working as a Russian spy.

The right-wing outlet also published an article (2/7/26) about Epstein’s ties to “key Russian government figures.” These figures included Sergey Belyakov, who the Post described as “Russia’s deputy economic minister at the time, and a Kremlin secret service–trained spy who Epstein often appeared to use as his personal fixer in Moscow,” as well as Vitaly Churkin, “Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, between 2015 and his 2017 death.” The New York Post did not mention that Epstein introduced Belyakov to Barak in April 2015 (Reason8/27/25Drop Site10/30/25Washington Post2/7/26).

‘Added momentum to previous suspicions’

WaPo: Epstein built ties to Russians and sought to meet Putin, files show

Washington Post (2/7/26)

The Washington Post (2/7/26) similarly hyped up a Russia connection under the headline “Epstein Built Ties to Russians and Sought to Meet Putin, Files Show.”

Jeff Bezos’ Post—which recently largely gutted its foreign reporting desk—wrote that the files “show repeated attempts in the 2010s to arrange a meeting” with Putin, but added that there was  “no evidence in the Justice Department files that such a meeting ever took place.”

The Post (2/6/26) ran another article about the Russia ties, this time about “Russian expatriate tech investors who have drawn scrutiny from US intelligence agencies over their past ties with the Kremlin.”

The Post speculated:

The newly revealed extent of Epstein’s Russian connections, which also include senior Russian government officials, has added momentum to previous suspicions that he worked with or was targeted by intelligence agencies because of his personal connections to international elites.

In its own longform article on the Epstein/Russia connection, the New York Times (2/10/26) similarly wrote that the latest batch of files have “raised new questions among Russia’s critics about whether the relationships opened the door to Russian intelligence activity.”

It is possible that Epstein was a Russian intelligence asset. However, there is no good reason for the US corporate media to frame these allegations as a real possibility, while ignoring the Epstein/Israel ties, or  continuing to paint them as a far-fetched conspiracy theory.

The latest batch of files deepens the evidence, documented by Drop Site and others, that Epstein was engaged in assisting the Israeli state, serving as a go-between on commercial, diplomatic and intelligence matters. Although Epstein maintained relationships with Russian oligarchs, tech investors and former Russian government officials, no evidence has yet surfaced that he advocated on behalf of Russian interests. The only reasons to think that the former is more newsworthy than the latter are purely political.

FAIR’s work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. Donate today to be a part of this important mission.

Original article by Drew Favakeh republished from FAIR under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Donald Trump and his pedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Donald Trump and his pedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Donald Trump with his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein's associate Ghislane Maxwell.
Donald Trump with his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislane Maxwell.
Donald Trump picture with one of his wives, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Donald Trump picture with one of his wives, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Reed Lindsay on the War on Cuba

Continue ReadingDoJ Released Much More on Epstein’s Israel Ties—But Media Still Aren’t Much Interested

Privacy for your ‘guests’: Mandelson’s email to Epstein recommending exclusive villa

Spread the love

Original article by Simon Lock republished from TBIJ under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Image of Jeffrey Epstein, Peter Mandelson and a waiter

Redacted email deciphered by TBIJ shows former politician suggesting holiday home for convicted sex offender

Peter Mandelson emailed Jeffrey Epstein after his release from house arrest to recommend a holiday home where the financier could host his “guests”.

Mandelson said he had found a villa in Italy that Epstein could use, offering “privacy with accompanying rooms for your ‘guests’” – with quote marks around the word guests.

It is not clear who this was in reference to. Epstein’s connections among the global elite included bankers, royals and Middle Eastern sheikhs.

The email was published this week by the US government as part of the Epstein Files cache. Its sender has been redacted but we were able to identify it as coming from Mandelson.

A spokesperson for Mandelson said: “Lord Mandelson regrets, and will regret until to his dying day, that he believed Epstein’s lies about his criminality. Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019. He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved.”

The email chain is from August 2010, a month after Epstein had been released from house arrest following his conviction for child sex offences.

In the message in question, Mandelson tells Epstein that he is due to arrive back in London from “Myk”, shorthand for the Greek island of Mykonos, at the end of August. He goes on to say: “Found you a great place to stay on the Amalfi coast near to Positano. Zeferelli home converted into beautiful suites and privacy with accompanying rooms for your ‘guests’.”

While the identity of the sender is blacked out in the published file, other emails from the same period confirm that Mandelson travelled at that time to Mykonos, which he also referred to as “Myk” in separate emails. The email in question was sent from a Blackberry, Mandelson’s favoured method of communication at the time.

The redaction in the files leaves some parts of the email address visible, and we were able to match it with an address used by Mandelson (see video below).

The conversation with Epstein took place during a period of frequent contact between the pair following Mandelson’s exit from frontline politics after Labour’s election defeat.

The men discussed job opportunities for Mandelson, including with mining giant Glencore, investment banks Lazard and Deutsche Bank, and his own advisory firm, Global Counsel.

The house Mandelson refers to in the email appears to be Villa Treville, an exclusive 16-suite luxury hotel located on a clifftop overlooking the Gulf of Salerno.

There is no evidence that Epstein ever visited the villa.

Villa Treville as it appears today

Lead image: Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein pictured together. Credit: Department of Justice / ZUMA Press Wire / Shutterstock

Reporter: Simon Lock
Enablers editor: Eleanor Rose

Deputy editor: Katie Mark

Editor: Franz Wild
Production editor: Alex Hess

TBIJ has a number of funders, a full list of which can be found here. None of our funders have any influence over editorial decisions or output.

Original article by Simon Lock republished from TBIJ under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts a business roundtable
Keir Starmer(R) and his boss Peter Mandelson(L).

Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts a business roundtable
Two Labour Party total s***s, David Lammy and Peter Mandelson.

CONFIDENTIAL – STRICTLY NOT FOR PUBLICATION: Ipso has asked us to circulate the following advisory:

Ipso has today been contacted by a representative acting on behalf of Peter Mandelson.

Mr Mandelson’s representatives state that he does not wish to speak to the media at this time. He requests that the press do not take photos or film, approach, or contact him via phone, email, or in-person. His representatives ask that any requests for his comment are directed to [REDACTED]

We are happy to make editors aware of his request. We note the terms of Clause 2 (Privacy) and 3 (Harassment) of the Editors’ Code, and in particular that Clause 3 states that journalists must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist, unless justified in the public interest.

Please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss any Code issues on [REDACTED] or out of hours on [REDACTED].

[IPSO official]

13.15pm Don’t know why this was not displaying properly.

Continue ReadingPrivacy for your ‘guests’: Mandelson’s email to Epstein recommending exclusive villa