Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / A Gift From Mecca and a Seat at the Table: Epstein’s Documented Saudi Connections (Part 2)

Transcript

A Gift From Mecca and a Seat at the Table: Epstein’s Documented Saudi Connections (Part 2) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode we're going to pick up
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: where we left off with the Miami Herald article talking
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: about Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to the Arab Royals.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Shirsho Dasgupta. Epstein first got
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: acquainted with Yemeni billionaire Shahar Abdul Haq in the spring
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of 2012 and Abdul Haq, at the time, was in
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a fix. His son, Farouk, was a suspect in the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: rape and murder of a 23-year-old Norwegian student, Martin Vik Magnusson,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in London in 2008. According to the British press, British
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: authorities wanted him for questioning, but Farouk had fled to Yemen.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Sounds about right. What, he's going to stick around and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: face justice? Yeah, right. Epstein, the record show reporter, claimed
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to have facilitated an introduction with British attorney Lord Ken MacDonald,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: who had previously served as the top prosecutor in England
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and Wales. Epstein told Abdul Haq in a June 2012
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: email that he'd spoken to MacDonald, who believed that Farouk
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: could get a reduced charge and be granted bail, records show.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Epstein advised Abdul Haq to focus on what punishment would
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: be acceptable. I think you're right. Something like house arrest
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: plus charity work, Abdul Haq replied. The rape and murder
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of 23-year-old Norwegian student Martine Vic Magnusson. And these motherfuckers
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: are talking about charity work and house arrest? What I
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: think you mean is helicopters and volcanoes, right? Imagine being
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the family members of Miss Martine Vic Magnusson and these
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: scumbag pieces of shit are talking like this in these emails,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and later on down the road you see them? It's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: not bad enough that your daughter was murdered by some
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: piece of garbage, but then you have to read the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: emails of her murderer's father conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein on
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a way to get the son off? What an absolute
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: nightmare that must be. I have no recollection of the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: single telephone call I seem to have received from Jeffrey Epstein,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and I had no dealings with him prior to it
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and on afterward. What, did he just find you in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the phone book? Hey, go get me the yellow pages.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I need a lawyer in England. Nobody buys that. McDonald
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: told the Herald he was never my client and I
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: have never met him. The attorney said that his fees
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: were paid by Abdul Haq, not Epstein. He would never
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: have told Epstein that Abdul Haq's son would have got bail,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: he added. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure you never had
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: a conversation with him, you lying prick. You stiff upper-lipped
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: lion prick. Let me guess, you're hanging out at Lord
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Mandelson's house? Sounds about right. I expect Epstein was embellishing
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: our conversation for his own purposes, he said. The records
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: do not detail what happened next. Farouk is still in
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Yemen and remains wanted in the UK, according to the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: British press. Yo, you remember that movie Taken? That would
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be me. If my daughter was raped and murdered... and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: there was no justice for her, and the dude was
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: hiding in Yemen? I'd be finding a soldier of Fortune magazine,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: putting together a team, and going to find him. The
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: fact that this dude could run to Yemen and hide
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: is just unbelievably disgusting. Maybe he'll get hit with a
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: missile strike. That would be cool, right? One of those
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: missiles happens to just drop right into his bedroom window.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: That wouldn't be so bad. Around the same time that
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Epstein was helping Abdul Haq with his son, the Arab
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Spring reached Yemen. That led to the ouster of Abdul
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Haq's friend, President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In the next few years,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a power-sharing agreement between the Yemeni government and the Iran-backed
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Houthi rebels broke down. A Saudi Arabia-led alliance intervened against
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the rebels, precipitating a civil war. In 2018, Abdul Haq
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: called Epstein, a potential peacemaker in Yemen, and requested him
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to speak to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed to freeze bombing
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: for four days, so Abdul Haqq could navigate the various
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: factions and broker a peace deal. Well, that didn't work
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: out so well, did it? Considering that Yemen is an
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: absolute hellhole. I mean, famine, war. But sure, instead of
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: feeding our people and fixing infrastructure and giving people a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: chance at life, let's buy some more missiles to launch
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: at our so-called enemies. And what's really frustrating is that
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: this region of the world is a beautiful region. Can
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: you imagine if they would just stop the bullshit? The
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: kind of money they could make? You build yourself a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Riviera on that coast. And people will flock to it.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Look at Dubai. Look at, you know, several places in
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  Speaker 1: the Middle East. If you build it, they'll come. But
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you have to provide security. But to do that in
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the proper way, you have to get rid of all
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the corruption. And unfortunately, that's just not going to happen
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: in a place like Yemen. Whether Epstein ever corresponded with
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the prince about Yemen is not known. There was a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: brief ceasefire in the country that year, but it was
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: brokered by the United Nations, not Epstein. Abdul Haq passed
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: away in 2020. The Yemeni civil war is still ongoing.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And probably not going to end anytime soon. There are
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: way too many disagreements. between the factions in Yemen for
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: them to come to the table. Or I guess you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: would say to the tent, whatever you want to call it,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: they're not going to do it. At least not anytime soon.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, the caveat to that is the ceasefire with Iran.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: So we'll have to see what goes on there before
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: we know, geopolitically speaking, how that's going to affect other
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: countries in the region. But I don't see the civil
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: war in Yemen stopping anytime soon. Epstein's involvement with Abdul
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Haq was not the only time that the financier waded
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: into political affairs of the Middle East. Qatar was in
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the midst of an international crisis in 2017. An alliance
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, had initiated a
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: de facto blockade, claiming that Qatar was funding terrorist organizations
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, an allegation that the
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: country steadfastly denied. Epstein had advice for Jabor Youssef Alfani,
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  Speaker 1: a member of the Qatari ruling family. Qatar should stop
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: kicking and arguing, he wrote. Qatar needs to come out
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: against terrorism loud. Foreign Minister Mohamed Alfani is not experienced
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and it shows. Epstein's suggestions recognize Israel, put $ 1 billion
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: into a fund to benefit the victims of terrorist acts,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: that would be administered by the US, the UK, and
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the United Nations, pay for electricity in Gaza, and support
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: an international committee to look into terrorism financing around the world. El-Thani,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: whom Epstein knew from at least 2012, agreed with some
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: of Epstein's views, their correspondence suggests, but whether they were
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: conveyed to the foreign minister of Qatar's leader, Amir Tamim
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: bin Hamad El-Thani, is unclear. Epstein was also in frequent
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: correspondence with Anas al-Rashid, an academic and former information minister
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: from Kuwait, which was mediating between Qatar and the other
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Arab countries. Epstein, the records show, tried to initiate a
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: back-channel meeting between the Saudi crown prince and Qatar's ex-prime minister.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I know that HBJ, Qatar's Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani, would
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: like to sit with MBS in a face-to-face. Epstein wrote,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in July of 2017 to Al Rashid, I think that
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: would be a good step. It's unclear whether such a
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: meeting ever took place. The crisis was finally resolved in 2021,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: long after Epstein was found dead in federal custody on
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: August 10th, 2019. Well, I think what it really shows you,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and gets right to the heart of it, is that
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein was a free agent, and that he was
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: working for whoever he felt could enrich him, or give
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: him an inroad, to get closer to power, because that's
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: what it was all about. It wasn't about just his proclivities,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: like the government's trying to tell you. And I don't
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: know how much more evidence is needed to make people
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: see what was really going on here. Epstein also facilitated
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a meeting between former Israeli Prime Minister Ahud Barak and
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  Speaker 1: Qatar's former Prime Minister Amir Hamad bin Jasim Al Thani
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  Speaker 1: in the winter of 2018, in Knightsbridge, an upscale neighborhood
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in London. I think that what we can take from
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: all of this is just how well connected Jeffrey Epstein
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: was in this region in the world. And I think
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: it's important to understand just how connected he was in
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: all of these regions. Because it wasn't just here. It
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't just America. It wasn't just the Middle East. It
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: was Russia. It was South America. It was Asia. Everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: So please, somebody explain to me How just some lone
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  Speaker 1: predator who had some real disgusting, disgusting behaviors could be
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: so well connected. Please explain that. Well, the only explanation
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: is that he was so well connected because that's what
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: he did. That was his job. That's how he made
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: his money. And I think that's fine. coming to light.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: The release record showed that Barack had made a pitch
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to the Qataris. Carbine, an Israeli tech startup for which
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Barack was a lead investor and board chairman, wanted to
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: provide security services and anti-drone technology when Qatar hosted the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Soccer World Cup in 2022. Barak was cognizant of how
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the Arab populace would perceive Israeli involvement. We can work
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: through a European company of your choice and minimize Israeli profile,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: he wrote. What neither Barak nor Epstein mentioned was that
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: at least one million of Barak's investment into Carbine had
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: come from Epstein's Southern Trust Company. Bruce Goodman, an attorney
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: for Barak, told the Herald that Barak, had conducted some
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: preliminary due diligence to explore whether Carbine could support security
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: at the World Cup, but it quickly became clear that
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  Speaker 1: the company was not suited for that role. He said
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: that Carbine did not pursue a bid and added that
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  Speaker 1: all of Barak's activities were conducted in compliance with all laws. Oh,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I have a hard time believing that. We all know
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: how deep the ties ran between Ehud Barak and Jeffrey Epstein.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And we also know what Virginia said about Ehud Barak.
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  Speaker 1: And in fact, I believe her. Qatar's embassy in Washington
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and the country's international media office, which handles all press requests,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: did not respond to the Herald's queries. The Herald also
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: tried to contact Al Thani through Saib Insurance, on whose
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: board he sits, but did not receive any response. Sultan
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Ahmed bin Sulaym, then chairman of DP World, Dubai's primary
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: cargo logistics company, emailed Epstein on May 9th, 2009. At
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the time, Epstein was serving his 18-month sentence in the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Palm Beach County Stockade, but was allowed to spend 12
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: hours a day, six days a week, in his office
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  Speaker 1: under a work release program his attorneys had negotiated, which
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of course is one of the biggest travesties of this
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: whole entire sordid ordeal. I can't imagine anyone getting that
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: kind of deal. never mind somebody that committed crimes against children.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Bin Suleiman, who had a years-long relationship with Epstein, was
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: in a fix. The 2008 global recession, triggered by the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: US subprime mortgage crisis, had dried up the funds for
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: DP World's $ 3 billion project built, the London Gateway, a
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: commercial megaport roughly 30 miles east of the British capital.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: The project is now on hold. Ben Suleiman wrote in
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: a memo to Epstein on May 9th, 2009. We would
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: like the UK government support to fund this immediate off-site infrastructure.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Epstein forwarded the memo to Lord Mandelson, who said he
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: would speak to Ben Suleiman. Mandelson was the UK business
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: secretary at the time. Is it all starting to make
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: sense yet how this worked? Do you think Jeffrey Epstein
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: didn't get any money for any of this? You think
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: he was just passing this information on? Out of the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: kindness of his heart? Or do you think that he
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: was getting a bag? Other correspondence, many after Epstein's release
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: in July of 2009, show him triangulating communication between the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: British bureaucrat and the Emirati businessman. In November correspondence, Epstein
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: edited a letter Ben Suleiman sent Mandelson demanding funding guarantees
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: from the UK government. Unfortunately, without vast assurances that the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: UK government would cover any funding shortfall, the viability of
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the project remains uncertain, the letter said. The records do
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: not reveal what conversations Mandelson may have had with the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: country's financial institutions about the project and what role Epstein
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: may have played in them. The Royal Bank of Scotland
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: was the only British institution that participated in roughly $ 800
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: million financing package put together by a consortium of global banks.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: It always leads back to the financial sector, doesn't it?
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Every last bit of this. I'm proud of you, Epstein
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: wrote in an email to Ben Suleiman after the public
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: announcement of the opening date for the port in 2011.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: British authorities arrested Mandelson earlier this year for allegedly passing
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: sensitive government information to Epstein while serving as his business secretary.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Mandelson has not been charged and is currently out on bail.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: The Herald sent questions to attorneys representing him, but did
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: not receive any answers. How could he not be charged? Like,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: are you for real right now? There's an absolute paper
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: trail that is telling us exactly what was going on.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: I would think that there's going to be charges coming.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Or is the UK just giving us the runaround? Which
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be shocked by. Let's not act like Scotland
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yard's above reproach. I mean, they vastly ignored Jeffrey Epstein
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and his crimes for years. And it wasn't until all
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of this craziness started happening, where people started demanding answers,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: where they decided that they'd have a new investigation. So
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not all that confident in Scotland Yard. Epstein, whose
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: relationship with Ben Suleiman began before the financier's arrest, you
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: mean pedophile, right? in Florida in 2008, on the prostitution charges.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: What you mean is molesting kids, right? Prostitution charges, really?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Met and corresponded with the Emirati for more than a decade.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Bin Suleiman sought to introduce the financier to Sheikh Hamdan
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: bin Mohammed al-Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, and shared
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the prince's contact information with him, the records show. Whether
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the prince and the financier ever spoke is unclear. Bin
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Suleiman often kept Epstein abreast of sensitive meetings between the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates and heads of other countries like Vladimir
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Putin and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. Bin Suleiman stepped down
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: from his post as DP's world chairman and chief executive
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: in February this year following immense pressure regarding his relationship
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: with Epstein. Neither the Emirati embassy in Washington nor DP
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: World responded to the Herald's queries. The Herald also attempted
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: to reach bin Sulaym, through an email ID that was
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: released along with the records, but did not receive any response.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Among the last correspondence Epstein had about the Middle East
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: is a chat with far-right provocateur Steve Bannon in June
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: of 2019. They were discussing the arrest of George Nader,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a Lebanese-American businessman, and once advisor to the UAE for
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: possession of child pornography. Can you imagine, Epstein wrote? He, Nader, actually, literally,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: had pictures of some kid effing a goat. What the fuck? Like,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: what does that even mean? And I know Epstein likes
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to embellish, but when we're talking about this part of
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: their world, I have questions. Epstein himself was arrested by
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: federal agents in New York just a month later on
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: sex trafficking charges. He was found dead on August 10th,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: 2019 in a federal detention center in lower Manhattan. When
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: we're talking about Epstein, we have to remember that this
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: guy was connected to a lot of powerful people. And
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: it wasn't just people in Israel or people in the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: United States. We're talking about movers and shakers from all
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: over the world. So when I tell you that Jeffrey
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Epstein's trafficking ring, his criminal empire, stretched from continent to continent,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not kidding you. And when we talk about Jeffrey
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Epstein being a free agent and being somebody that only
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: cared about himself and his own wealth and his own well-being,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I think that this is the kind of evidence that
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: really slams it home. Because at the end of the day,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: for Jeffrey Epstein, the only thing that mattered was Jeffrey Epstein.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: All the information that goes with this episode can be
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: found in the description box below.