Prophet Bob Hartley gives a “talk about a series of dreams about the Hope Healing Journey and the Yellow House.” YouTube
Heartbreaking allegations of sexual abuse at Bethel Church, a charismatic megachurch in Redding, California, has recently come to light. Bob Hartley, previously one of the core “prophets” at the International House of Prayer at Kansas City (IHOP-KC), used his spiritual authority to abuse young women, both at Bethel and IHOP-KC. A few weeks after the initial allegations came to light, new allegations surfaced alleging that one of the pastors sexually assaulted an intern who was also working as a nanny for his children.
When the church’s leadership learned of the assault, not only did they cover it up but they turned it into a feel-good story about God’s mercy and reconciliation, told in Danny Silk’s 2019 book Unpunishable. Instances of this kind of abuse in religious communities are relatively common, with experts often pointing to the presence of a contributing factor such as an independent governance structure, the elevated standing of clergy, or the desire to protect the institution above individual victims. With churches and parachurch organizations associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), we frequently find a perfect storm of all three, as is the case with Bethel.
according to researchers Holly Pivec and Doug Geivett, who have spent over two decades studying this movement from inside Christian scholarship, it represents a radical departure from historic Christianity that is reshaping churches, politics, and millions of lives worldwide.
I sat down with Holly and Doug on a recent episode of Cults, Culture & Coercion to discuss their latest book, Reckless Christianity: The Destructive New Teachings and Practices of Bill Johnson, Bethel Church, and the Global Movement of Apostles and Prophets. I’ve written about the New Apostolic Reformation in The Cult of Trump and interviewed researchers like André Gagné and Frederick Clarkson on these topics. Holly and Doug bring an essential angle: they are committed Christians sounding the alarm from within the faith, grounded in biblical scholarship and philosophy.
Attempted suicides, fights, pain: 911 calls reveal misery at ICE’s largest detention facility
The emergency calls from a Texas immigration detention center included repeated suicide attempts by detainees, seizures, injuries from fights and a pregnant woman in pain. Data from more than a hundred 911 calls, interviews with detainees and court filings offer a portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress. (AP Video/Allen G. Breed, Michael Biesecker)
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The calls to 911 poured in from staff at Camp East Montana in Texas, the nation’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, at a rate of nearly one a day for five months, each its own tale of pain and despair.
A man sobs after being assaulted by another detainee. Another bangs his head against the wall after expressing suicidal thoughts. A pregnant woman complained of severe back pain and also had coronavirus.
“Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year,” said Owen Ramsingh, a former property manager in Columbia, Missouri, who spent several weeks in the camp before his deportation in February to the Netherlands. “Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison.”
A series of hardened tents at the Camp East Montana immigrant detention center loom large in the desert at a U.S. Army base on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
Fueled by billions of dollars in new funding, ICE operations across the nation have roiled communities, separated families and created a culture of fear in pursuit of President Donald Trump’s vow to rid the country of unauthorized migrants.
apnews.com
Slave labour in camps:
There’s Slave Labor in ICE Detention. Why Aren’t We Talking About It?
Immigrants in U.S. detention are forced to scrub, cook, and clean for pennies, punished with solitary confinement if they resist.
ICE calls it a “voluntary work program” but inside of ICE detention, there’s nothing voluntary about it. At best, detainees are paid a single dollar a day. At worst, they’re forced to clean and labor without pay, punished with solitary confinement if they refuse.
Court filings from Georgia to Washington confirm it: threats, coercion, and deprivation are how private prison corporations keep their facilities running. That’s not a work program. That’s modern-day slavery.
According to various sources Susie Wiles worked on the Netanyahu campaign back in the day:
Susie Wiles serves as a key enabler of Zionist interests through her direct involvement in Benjamin Netanyahu’s election efforts, leveraging her expertise to sustain Israel’s settler-colonial project in occupied Palestine.
As an American political consultant and lobbyist with a history in Republican campaigns, including managing Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential run, Wiles now holds the position of White House Chief of Staff since 2025, where she wields significant influence over U.S. policy that aligns with Israel’s agenda.
In 2020, Wiles traveled to Jerusalem as part of a team dispatched by Trump to assist Netanyahu’s Likud party during Israel’s elections. She worked alongside Corey Lewandowski and Tony Fabrizio to transform Netanyahu’s campaign events into high-energy rallies modeled after Trump’s style, focusing on voter mobilization to counter opposition and ensure Netanyahu’s continued leadership.
This intervention came at a critical time for Netanyahu, who faced corruption charges and political deadlock, ultimately leading to a unity government deal that kept him in power despite failing to secure a outright majority. Wiles’ efforts directly contributed to stabilizing Netanyahu’s rule, allowing him to escalate Israel’s genocidal policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
By bolstering Netanyahu — the architect of Israel’s intensified ethnic cleansing and apartheid system — Wiles perpetuates a pattern of U.S. complicity in Palestinian dispossession. Her actions align with broader Zionist strategies that displace Palestinians, expand illegal settlements, and justify mass violence under the guise of security.
Wiles has shown no remorse or retraction for her role, instead expressing pride in outcomes that advance Israel’s occupation. This support shields Netanyahu from international scrutiny, including ICC investigations into war crimes, and normalizes the dehumanization of Palestinians as threats to be eliminated.
Her involvement is not an isolated act but part of a consistent alignment with pro-Israel forces, undermining Palestinian liberation and contributing to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where confirmed death tolls exceed 40,000 as conservative estimates, with the actual number slaughtered well into the hundreds of thousands due to Israel’s destruction of hospitals, targeting of journalists, and blockade of aid.
Through these actions, Susie Wiles undermines global accountability for Israel’s crimes, framing Zionist expansion as legitimate while obscuring the root causes of Palestinian suffering under occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
The “Shield of the Americas” is a new security initiative announced by President Trump, for which Kristi Noem has been appointed as the Special Envoy after her removal as Secretary of Homeland Security. This initiative is expected to focus on security issues in the Western Hemisphere. Oregon Public Broadcasting Wikipedia
When you are not invited:
Cuba isn’t invited to Trump’s Shield of the Americas summit in Doral but it looms large
Story by Jacqueline Charles
• 15h
Miami Republican lawmaker Carlos Giménez says he believes the communist regime in his native Cuba is near its end, echoing comments by President Trump ahead of Saturday’s gathering of a dozen Latin American leaders in Doral.
“He believes the days are close. I believe the president,” Giménez said as he attended a welcome reception Friday for Trump’s Shield of the Americas Summit. “If I had to bet, I would say this regime’s days are numbered, and I’m not talking years, I’m talking days.”
On February 25, 2026, a Florida-registered speedboat was intercepted about 30 feet away from approaching the north coast of Cuba near Cayo Falcones in the province of Villa Clara, carrying a group of 10 Cubans who had come from the United States. The Cuban Ministry of the Interior accused them of trying to infiltrate the country and carry out terrorism, describing them as “anti-government Cuban exiles.” Cuban authorities alleged that when Cuban border patrol moved in to identify the boat, the occupants opened fire first, wounding the Cuban patrol commander. As a result, Cuban forces returned fire; according to Cuba’s official statements, four people were killed and six were wounded. Cuban officials also claimed they recovered weapons and other gear on board, including rifles, handguns, explosives/incendiary devices (e.g. Molotov cocktails), camouflage equipment, and later reported nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba would defend itself against the U.S., while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed it was not a U.S. government operation and said the U.S. would independently verify what happened Separate U.S. reporting later found that the boat had been reported stolen from a Florida Keys marina.
B. Surrounding Tensions
The recent tensions between Cuba and the U.S. also have previous context escalating the impact of this event on their relations. On January 3, 2026, U.S. President Donald J. Trump ordered a raid on the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, where Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores, were captured. Maduro’s regime in Venezuela led to an authoritarian socialist reign on the nation and a stolen election. Maduro regained power despite losing to his opponent in the national polls5. Currently, Maduro and Flores are awaiting trial in New York for narco-terrorism, cocaine importation, and possession of a machinegun. After the strike on Caracas, the Cuban State Media announced that 32 Cuban citizens were killed during the attack, including military personnel from Cuba6.
Since President Trump has taken office, he has held strongly in impeding on Latin American affairs, notably with his threats of tariff imposition against Mexico if there was not further action to control migration into the U.S. and against drug cartels7. Trump’s stances on immigration and border control have also come into fire from Latin-American communities in the U.S., especially from previously Trump-supporting Cuban-Americans8.
II. Policy Problem
A. Current Stances
Tensions between the United States and Cuba have risen sharply after the February 25, 2026 confrontation when Cuban border forces intercepted a Florida-registered speedboat entering Cuban territorial waters, resulting in four people killed and six wounded; Cuba claims the vessel was part of an armed infiltration, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says U.S. government personnel were not involved and that Washington will conduct its own investigation before deciding next steps, even as Cuban officials emphasize national defense and condemn what they call aggression. Cuba’s leadership, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel, has framed the event as resisting “terrorist” threats and reaffirmed its sovereignty, while Russia and other allies have warned against provocative actions. Within U.S. politics, Republican officials have called for accountability and scrutiny of Cuba’s account, and some Democrats are pushing legislation to ease the longstanding trade embargo, revealing divisions over how to approach Havana.
B. Policy Impact
In response to ongoing tensions, the Trump administration has escalated economic pressure on Cuba; President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order in late January 2026 declaring a national emergency on Cuba and authorizing tariffs on goods from countries that supply oil to the island, part of a strategy aimed at restricting Cuba’s fuel access and signaling U.S. determination to counter what it calls threats to national security. Meanwhile, Congress has begun debating changes to long-standing Cuba policy, with Representative Jim McGovern introducing the United States-Cuba Trade Act to repeal or amend laws underpinning the decades-old embargo, marking one of the few legislative efforts to shift U.S. engagement with Havana; however, broader support remains mixed, and major bipartisan foreign policy reforms specific to Cuba have not yet passed.
III. Impact On Youth
The February 25, 2026 speedboat incident between Cuba and the United States will likely have significant effects on young people both domestically and abroad. For youth in Cuba, the event reinforces feelings of instability amid ongoing economic hardship, including shortages of fuel, electricity, and basic goods. Government framing of the incident as a defense of national sovereignty may strengthen nationalist sentiment among Cuban youth and shape their perceptions of the United States as a continued external threat. Increased tensions could also lead to heightened state messaging and reduced space for open political dialogue, further influencing how young people understand global affairs. For Cuban diaspora youth in the United States—particularly in Florida—this incident brings foreign policy into their personal lives. Many may experience grief, anger, or fear, especially if they have family ties on the island. The event could increase political engagement among young Cuban-Americans, deepening debates over sanctions, diplomacy, and human rights. More broadly, U.S. youth may view the altercation as an example of how quickly geopolitical tensions can escalate and how foreign policy decisions directly impact civilians. Exposure to this conflict through social media and news coverage may shape a new generation’s views on diplomacy, military action, and U.S.–Latin American relations. Across all communities, the psychological impact should not be overlooked, as anxiety and uncertainty surrounding international conflict can affect young people’s sense of security, identity, and trust in political institutions.
Trump faces fresh sex assault allegations: ‘Schoolgirl’ claims surface in bombshell Epstein files
The documents include FBI interview notes from 2019 in which an unnamed woman accused Trump of sexually and physically assaulting her when she was a teenager in the 1980s after being introduced to him by Epstein.
She alleged that during one encounter in a large building in either New York or New Jersey, Trump made inappropriate comments and attempted to force her into sexual acts. The woman said she fought back and resisted the alleged assault.
FLASH: A TRUMP HIGH RISK GAMBIT: The 82nd Airborne Is About To Seize An Iranian Chokepoint, Kharg Island And Adjacent Oil Infrastructure (moving 2.7 million barrels per day), Within A Matter of Days
‘Amount of firepower over Iran is about to surge dramatically,’ says Hegseth
Russia is reportedly supplying Iran with intelligence on US military assets in the Middle East, a development that could impact relations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
According to The Washington Post, Moscow has been providing Iran with locations of US warships and aircraft since the conflict began last Saturday.
The conflict has escalated, with joint US-Israeli strikes killing at least 1,200 people in Iran, and fighting spreading to areas including Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka.
Russia has condemned the conflict as an ‘unprovoked act of armed aggression’ by the US and Israel, despite its own invasion of Ukraine, and warned of Iran potentially acquiring a nuclear bomb.
Donald Trump stated there would be ‘no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender,’ while the US Secretary of Defence indicated a dramatic surge in firepower over Iran.
This kind of miscalculation happens in war, btw. The thing that does not is that while the USA was begging for aid from Ukraine, it was providing protection and a windfall of support for the power trying to destroy Ukraine—Russia. So we have a situation that the Ukrainians are helping the USA and the USA is helping/protecting Russia. This must be the lead story for the week.
And he spots the rot in the present US military:
Now this was not just a sign of Trump’s pathological need to criticize Zelensky and Biden whenever he can, it was also a desperate attempt to deflect the blame for his own incompetence. Because as this was being said, the war he unleashed, by cboice, against Iran was already showing how elements of “rot” had set in to the US military and diplomatic services
For those who missed it, I had a piece come out on Thursday in the Atlantic about this phenomenon and sent out a follow up Substack on Friday. Both pieces pointed out that the Trump administration seemed to have missed preparing for low cost UAV interception, overlooking probably the most important technological development in the Russo-Ukraine war over the last four years. It was one of the reasons I used the word “rot” to describe what we are seeing. Here is a quick summary from the Friday piece.
The most incompetent military/industrial preparations for war In US history. Guess what? Cheap drones are a thing and you need to shoot them down efficiently. You would have had to be living under a rock for the last four years not to know this, but apparently the Trump administration and US Department of Defense had not learned the lesson. The US started burning through expensive anti-air armaments at a pace that shocked them when this campaign started. It was only afterwards that Trump called in industry leaders for a panic stricken meeting demanding more construction
7th Mar 2026
And as Bessent, Kushner and foreign friends acquires US gaming company Electronic Arts for 55 billion dollars, guess what? :
Tapper blasts Trump administration for depicting Iran conflict ‘like a game’
Story by Sophie Brams
CNN anchor Jake Tapper blasted the Trump administration on Friday for depicting the ongoing conflict in Iran “like a game” after the White House released clips on social media mixing footage of what appeared to be U.S. military strikes with clips from video games and Hollywood productions.
“Well, the last day or so, the White House has been in at least one way treating going to war like a game, frivolously releasing what we will charitably call hype videos about their war,” Tapper said on “The Lead.”
Cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, forced to drink water from unsafe ditches and streams.
Source: Water Witness
The Côte d’Ivoire supplies the major chocolate importing nations in Europe and the US, and major brands including Mars, Nestle, Ferrero, Cadbury-Mondelez, Lindt, Ben and Jerry’s (Unilever), Tony’s Chocolonely, Godiva, Hershey’s and Starbucks.
Report by Catherine Early
As much as 40 per cent of the world’s cocoa crop is grown in the West African country.
The global cocoa trade had an estimated worth of $130 billion in 2025, with the three main trading companies – Cargill, Barry Callebaut and Olam Group – making profits between $400 million and $3.8 billion the financial year from April 2023 alone.
Bathtubs
Yet Côte d’Ivoire is one of the world’s poorest economies. The United Nations Human Development Index places it 157 out of 191 countries.
A third of the country’s population of 33 million people relies on the cocoa trade directly, which generates 15 per cent of its gross domestic product.
Nearly three quarters 73 per cent of the rural population lacks access to safely managed water, and 86 per cent has no sanitation.
The water footprint of cocoa has received relatively little attention, despite the fact that around 2,400 litres, or 16 bathtubs of water, are needed to produce 100g of chocolate.
Dirty
Cocoa crops need a significant amount of water, meaning that chocolate has one of the largest water footprints of any food product by volume of finished product.
Between 2023 and 2024, a team of Ivorian and international academics and NGOs interviewed farmers, communities and representatives of government and the private sector in Côte d’Ivoire about the impacts of the chocolate’s water footprint.
They found that not a single cocoa-growing community has reliable access to safe water, sanitation, or
hygiene facilities, neither on farms, public places, workplaces nor in growers’ homes.
Farming communities they visited have no option but to take drinking water from unsafe ditches, streams and shallow wells. They also lack decent toilets, safe sanitation and handwashing facilities, and there is widespread open defecation.
“We have no water here,” Mrs Koua, a cocoa grower from the Moronou Region of Côte d’Ivoire, told the researchers: “The children go on bikes to the well. It might be dirty, but we have no choice – we can’t afford to care about quality.”
Refurbished
Malaria and diarrhoea are common due to the lack of good sanitation, she added.
The research identified that water and sanitation issues are a blind spot for government, cocoa traders and buyers and chocolate companies.
Many of the cocoa growers are members of cooperatives certified by voluntary standard systems including Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance.
In one case, a primary school serving more than 150 children had no toilets, running water, or soap. Pupils defecated in the surrounding bushes, which they also used as their playground.
This is despite the fact the school was recently refurbished by the local producer organisation with support from Barry Callebaut, Ben and Jerry’s and Fairtrade Premium funds. Barry Callebaut did not respond to a request for comment.
Justice
Fairtrade certification requires that all workers have access to clean drinking water, as well as access to toilets and hand washing facilities.
A spokesperson said: “Fairtrade recognises that there is a lot of work to do in order to help remediate water poverty and we are committed to our role and are open to work with organisations and partners to help make a difference.”
The Ecologist delivers high-impact environmental journalism, exposing the threats to our planet and highlighting solutions for a fairer, more sustainable world.
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And low taxes ensure high income for some and poverty for the rest.
Côte d’Ivoire farm firms pay only 2% of potential profit taxes, World Bank
Thursday, 11 September 2025 10:33
World Bank report highlights weak tax contribution from agriculture despite large exports
Farm companies achieve only 2% of potential corporate tax revenue, versus 63% in industry
Export duties on cocoa and cashew remain key revenue source, not profit taxation
Agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire is among the sectors that remain lightly taxed, alongside mining, trade, construction, and telecommunications, according to the World Bank’s latest economic report on the country. The study points to a sharp imbalance in tax collection.
Based on analysis from the CIRES economic policy unit (CAPEC), the report shows that farm companies contribute only 2% of their potential in corporate profit taxes, leaving a 98% gap between actual and potential tax revenue. By comparison, industry reaches 63% of its potential and services 80%. The shortfall is even larger in export agriculture, with just 1% effort for fishing and forestry products.
The World Bank notes that this gap stems from multiple factors, including preferential regimes and exemptions often granted for political or social reasons, administrative complexity, and the size of the informal economy. Reforms in tax administration and emerging economic changes have cut the informal sector’s share of GDP by nearly 10 points since the 2000s, to 38% in 2020. But the sector still employs over 80% of the workforce and remains a major barrier to broader tax collection.
When Donald Trump criticised Keir Starmer for failing to sufficiently support American and Israeli operations against Iran, he did so with a historical flourish. “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” he complained.
The implication was clear: Churchill would have stood shoulder to shoulder with Washington in a confrontation with Tehran. The remark invites an obvious question: what would Churchill have made of war with Iran?
The answer is not as straightforward as Trump’s comparison suggests. Churchill’s record shows a mixture of hawkish rhetoric, strategic caution and a constant concern with maintaining Anglo-American unity. Far from embodying a simple instinct for confrontation, he tended to see war and diplomacy as inextricably linked.
Churchill’s famous 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri, is a case in point. During this address, he warned that an “iron curtain” had descended across Europe. But the speech – formally titled The Sinews of Peace – was not simply a call to arms against Soviet expansion. Churchill simultaneously emphasised the need for understanding between adversaries and the importance of strengthening the United Nations. His core message was that peace could best be preserved if the western powers demonstrated sufficient unity and strength to deter aggression.
Iran already featured in the geopolitical crisis surrounding that speech. At the time, Soviet troops had failed to withdraw from northern Iran despite wartime agreements. The episode formed part of the early tensions that would harden into the cold war. Churchill therefore already viewed Iran through the lens of great-power rivalry.
That perspective had deep roots. During the second world war, Churchill had travelled to Tehran in 1943 to meet Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the first conference of the allied “big three”. The gathering took place in the capital of Iran because the country had become a crucial logistical corridor through which allied supplies flowed to the Soviet Union.
For Churchill, the conference was a sobering experience. Roosevelt increasingly cultivated Stalin’s goodwill, sometimes at Britain’s expense. Afterwards Churchill reflected ruefully that he had sat “between the great Russian bear … and the great American buffalo,” while Britain resembled “the poor little British donkey”. The remark captured his growing awareness that Britain was no longer one of the world’s dominant powers.
That realisation reinforced a central element of Churchill’s postwar strategy: the cultivation of an enduring Anglo-American partnership. His call at Fulton for a “special relationship” between the British Commonwealth and the United States was not a mere rhetorical gesture. It was an attempt to anchor Britain’s future security within the emerging American-led order.
The irony of a Churchill reference
But Churchill’s thinking about Iran did not stop with cold war diplomacy. In 1953, during his second premiership, Britain and the US supported a covert operation that overthrew Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the authority of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The coup was organised largely by the CIA, under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt Jr., but Churchill enthusiastically backed the plan. When Roosevelt later described the operation to him at Downing Street, the ageing prime minister reportedly declared that he would gladly have served under his command in such a venture.
That episode suggests that Churchill could certainly favour forceful action when he believed western interests were threatened. Yet it also highlights a historical irony. The overthrow of Mosaddegh became one of the central grievances invoked by Iran’s revolutionary leaders after the Iranian revolution. Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly invoked foreign intervention – particularly the Anglo-American coup – to legitimise its rule and to portray itself as the defender of Iranian sovereignty against external domination.
In other words, the legacy of western interference in Iran has become one of the regime’s most powerful political weapons.
Churchill was well aware that wars and interventions could produce unintended consequences. Reflecting on his experiences as a young officer during the Boer war, he later wrote that once the signal for conflict was given, statesmen lost control of events. War became subject to “malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations”. This was not the sentiment of a pacifist. But it was the observation of someone who had seen how quickly political decisions could unleash forces that no government could fully control.
What would Winston do?
How might these instincts translate to the present crisis? Churchill would almost certainly have regarded Iran’s regime with deep suspicion. His cold war mindset inclined him to see international politics in terms of ideological confrontation and strategic balance. He might well have argued that weakness in the face of aggressive regimes invited further challenges.
At the same time, Churchill rarely believed that military action alone could resolve geopolitical disputes. His preferred approach was to combine firmness with diplomacy – to negotiate from strength while maintaining channels of communication with adversaries. Even at the height of the cold war he hoped that a position of western strength might eventually persuade the Soviet leadership to strike a bargain.
Above all, Churchill believed that Britain’s influence depended on maintaining close alignment with the US. But that alignment, in his mind, was meant to shape American power rather than simply echo it. The “special relationship” was supposed to be a partnership, not a blank cheque.
Trump’s invocation of Churchill therefore rests on a simplified image of the wartime leader as an instinctive advocate of military action. The historical record reveals a more complicated figure: a strategist who believed in strength, certainly, but also in diplomacy, alliances and the careful management of great-power rivalries.
If Churchill were alive today, he might indeed be urging western governments to demonstrate resolve. But he would probably also recognise that Iran’s political system has been forged in the memory of past foreign interventions – and that any new conflict would risk reinforcing the very forces it seeks to weaken.
Churchill once observed that war, once unleashed, rarely follows the tidy paths imagined by those who start it. That warning may be as relevant as any of his more famous phrases.
Extract from Jack Poulson Substack in September 2025
Exclusive: How private intelligence brought the U.S. treasury secretary into contact with Epstein’s corporate web
Leaked emails from former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak document how his ‘Cogito/Ergo/Sum’ trio of companies wove together a Manhattan PI firm, Soros Fund, Scott Bessent, and Jeffrey Epstein.
The investor Scott Bessent during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the year before he became President Trump’s second-term treasury secretary. Credit: The photographer M. Scott Brower by way of Instagram.
Updated September 30, 2025
=========
“Mr. Prime Minister, There is perhaps only one firm I think is a sham, and your [Ivory Coast] hosts have found them,” wrote R.P. Eddy, the dapper chief executive of the Manhattan-based private intelligence firm Ergo and former chief of staff to the legendary U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, according to a leaked archive of emails with former Israeli prime minister and intelligence chief Ehud Barak. Originally published by the hacktivist group ‘Handala’, the emails have received widespread attention since their August 27 curation by the American transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets.
It was August 4, 2013 and Barak had just flown to Abidjan to meet with Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara as part of an ultimately unsuccessful pitch for a large contract to support the country’s intelligence apparatus – with a similar trip to Nigeria planned soon after – and had heard that the government was working with Ergo’s older, D.C.-based competitor, Jefferson Waterman International (JWI).
“Their [JWI’s] guy who claims to be a serious intel expert makes up his entire background, transforming himself from a mid-level analyst into James Bond + a delta force soldier,” continued Eddy’s apparent response to Barak’s inquiry about the company. While not named in the email, JWI’s paramilitary and clandestine operations expert at the time was Enrique Prado, an infamous Cuban former CIA paramilitary officer and chief of station in Khartoum who had left the agency for the controversial private military contractor Blackwater in 2004 in an attempt to privatize his idea for a post-9/11 assassination squad.
A previously unreported trio of Israeli companies, designed around the Latin phrase “Cogito, ergo sum,” formed the backbone of a corporate tax scheme whose central component, Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd., served as the face of many of Barak’s business relationships. According to Barak’s leaked email archive, current U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was a significant client of Barak’s, both indirectly through the Manhattan-based private intelligence firm Ergo, and then later through Barak’s Israeli Ergo. Bessent was at the time chief investment officer for the hedge fund of the prominent Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.
Barak simultaneously leveraged the legal entity used to engage with Bessent’s team to form Sum (E.B.) 2015 LP, an Israel-based limited partnership between his Israeli Ergo and the now-deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s U.S. Virgin Islands-based Southern Trust Company, Inc. Despite any apparent direct relationship between Bessent and Epstein, the uncomfortably close business dealings could help explain the new treasury secretary’s refusal to provide the U.S. Senate Finance Committee with financial records relating to Epstein. Ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) recently characterized Bessent as “a willing participant in the Trump administration’s Epstein cover-up.”
Jeffrey Epstein was Ehud Barak’s business partner as late as 2015
Former PM’s connection to financier accused of sex-trafficking minors becomes an issue ahead of national elections in September
By ToI Staff and JTA11 Jul 2019, 9:40 pmUpdated at 1:24 am
Former prime minister Ehud Barak announces the formation of a new party at Tel Aviv’s Beit Sokolov on June 26, 2019. (Flash90)
American financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender now embroiled in a sex-trafficking case involving minors, was an active business partner with former prime minister Ehud Barak as late as 2015.
Barak formed a limited partnership company in Israel in 2015, called Sum (E.B.) 2015, to invest in a high-tech startup then called Reporty, now named Carbyne, which developed video streaming and geolocation software for emergency services. A large part of the money used by Sum to buy Reporty stock was supplied by Epstein, Haaretz reported Thursday
Scott Bessent Connection to George Soros Explained as Trump Mulls Cabinet
Published
Nov 12, 2024 at 01:54 PM EST
updated
Nov 22, 2024 at 07:10 PM EST
Scott Bessent speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C.,…Read More | Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images/(Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/M
Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager once involved in George Soros‘s investment operations, has recently emerged as a potential pick for Treasury secretary in a second Trump administration.
Having spent decades working alongside Soros—a prominent donor to Democratic causes—Bessent’s evolution into a key supporter of President-elect Donald Trump marks a striking political shift. Once a reliable donor to Democratic campaigns, Bessent’s contributions shifted rightward after he left Soros’s firm.
By 2016, Bessent had distanced himself from mainstream Democratic causes, contributing significantly to Republican-aligned super PACs and, ultimately, to Trump’s campaign.
Now Kait Justice on Substack refers to Jack Poulson’s investigative work and picks up from there in her Substack:
The three entities were Cogito (E.B.) 2015 Ltd, Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd, and Sum (E.B.) 2015 LP, and as Poulson documented, the Sum structure was designed by Darren K. Indyke, Epstein’s longtime lawyer. Ergo produced intelligence reports that were sold to hedge fund managers as commercial products, the kind of research Wall Street pays for to get an edge on geopolitical developments.
She goes on to link the money flows:
June 23, 2014 email referenced a “co-investment arrangement with one of the world’s largest family offices” using the code name “Sterling,” a reference to Soros Fund Management named after the 1992 currency crisis where Soros made $1 billion betting against the British pound, the same crisis where Bessent made his reputation. Bessent served as Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund managing approximately $25 billion.
In May 2015, a Soros Fund staffer emailed requesting that someone described as “working with Scott Bessent” be added to Barak’s Ergo distribution list, and Bessent’s own personal assistant coordinated calendar meetings with Barak’s wife regarding potential meetings during Barak’s New York visits.
Great, but what does any of it actually mean? Here is why the corporate structure matters: By January 2016, Epstein’s Southern Trust Company, the U.S. Virgin Islands entity he wholly owned, became a limited partner in Sum, acquiring 50% ownership. The same corporate entity that received consulting payments from Bessent’s Soros Fund Management, Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd, served as the general partner for Sum (E.B.) 2015 LP, meaning Ergo controlled how Sum’s money was invested and where it went. Epstein’s money flowed into Sum, and Ergo decided what happened to it.
Epstein’s money then flowed through Sum into an Israeli emergency technology company called Carbyne, where Barak served as chairman.
I documented in my investigation last October how Epstein’s money flowed through Southern Trust into Carbyne, the Israeli emergency call platform that can remotely activate a caller’s smartphone camera, GPS, and audio, chaired by Barak with Unit 8200 veterans technology now embedded in American 911 systems. The man who oversaw the fund that was a client of Ergo is now the Secretary of the Treasury, which means he controls the financial records that could map the full pipeline, he chairs the regulatory body reviewing the EA deal (we’ll get into that), and he runs the agency where banks are supposed to report suspicious transactions.
In the Barak leaked files, I found an Ergo intelligence report dated July 2, 2014, just weeks after Bessent was named as a client.
You can follow the money with her on her Substack.
Kait Justice update, Mar 8th 2026, read her Substack:
The minimum disclosed value of his assets totals over $521 million. Because the form uses ranges capped at “over $50,000,000” rather than exact figures, analysts estimate his actual wealth at somewhere between $500 million and $700 million, and the true numbers are likely higher.
What the document shows is a man who arrived at the Treasury Department personally entangled with the very decisions his office was about to control.
This concerns the process of acquiring Electronic Arts, the funds are linked to a Goldman Sachs deal and Bessent:
Electronic Arts (EA) is being acquired for $55 billion by a consortium that includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. This deal marks one of the largest private equity buyouts in history and is expected to provide EA with more opportunities for growth and innovation. cepr.net CNBC
Kait Justice points out:
Here is why that matters specifically, Goldman Sachs is the sole financial advisor to Electronic Arts in the $55 billion Saudi Arabia acquisition that Bessent’s CFIUS committee is reviewing. CFIUS is the federal committee that decides whether foreign acquisitions of American companies pose national security risks, and Bessent chairs it. Goldman’s fee for the EA transaction, according to EA’s SEC filing, is $110 million, structured as $10 million upfront and $100 million paid at closing, and because the deal has not yet closed, that $100 million has not been collected. The decision about whether Goldman ever collects that $100 million runs through the committee chaired by the man who disclosed a $50 million debt to Goldman when he took office.
What should have happened here sees fairly straightforward. Standard ethics practice requires a Cabinet official to recuse themselves from any decision in which their personal financial interests are entangled. If you owe your bank $50 million and that bank stands to collect $100 million the moment you sign off on a deal, you step back and let someone without that conflict make the decision, because that is the rule the ethics system exists to enforce.
The Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), an influential organization in Los Angeles, is smearing the film — whose executive producers include Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, and Jonathan Glazer — as “propaganda” and “manipulation, casting doubts on the circumstances that led to her killing by Israeli soldiers.
The war crime made international news: On Jan. 29, 2024, 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family sought to escape the violence surrounding them in Gaza – only to be met with the very thing they were fleeing from. The Israeli military brutally killed several of her family members as they attempted to flee. Then her cousin. Hind was then left alone for hours, pleading with emergency workers on the phone to help her. After agonizing hours, paramedics finally got approval from the Israeli government to rescue her.
Then the Israeli military killed Hind and the paramedics – who were found dead just hundreds of meters from her.
This sequence of events is documented in painstaking detail in ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab.’ Final voting for the Oscars ends Thursday evening.
‘Propaganda’
According to its website, the CCFP was founded in 2012 by David Renzer, the former chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing, and Steve Schnur, who is the president of music at Electronic Arts (EA) and the former chairman of the Grammy Foundation. The group describes itself as an “apolitical” organization that’s made up of “prominent members of the entertainment community,” and says it “strives to provide balance to the discourse regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.” The CCFP counts professionals from Warner Bros., Sony, Atlantic Records, Amazon, and more as members of its advisory board and networking committee. Its annual gala has been sponsored by a wide range of companies and individuals, including the foundations of Len Blavatnik, a Russian oligarch, and Casey Wasserman, chairman of the Los Angeles organizing committee for the 2028 Olympics – both of whom are featured
Zeteo Substack
CCFP were in the news September 2025:
Sharon Osbourne and Debra Messing among 1,200 stars rejecting boycott of Israeli film industry
Open letter condemns boycott pledge as antisemitic censorship, with Hollywood and global leaders backing Israeli filmmakers
Sharon Osbourne and Debra Messing are among more than 1,200 entertainment leaders to sign an open letter rejecting calls to boycott Israel’s film and television industry, denouncing the pledge as “discriminatory and antisemitic.”
The statement organised by Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) and grassroots group the Brigade was released in Los Angeles on Thursday. It comes in response to a pledge by “Film Workers for Palestine” urging colleagues to sever ties with Israeli film companies, festivals and cultural institutions.
Hollywood and global figures including Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik, Gene Simmons, Greg Berlanti, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lisa Edelstein, Anthony Edwards, Rebecca De Mornay and Haim Saban are among the signatories.
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