General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow the heck does a guy like Epstein even get a Saudi passport...and why would he want it ?
Given the historical relationship between Saudi and Israel, it feels out of place. Given his money, he could probably buy his way into just about any passport he wanted - so why did he choose Saudi...or did Saudi choose him.
I don't have any inside information but I have to believe that there are damn few, if any, other Jews wander around the world on a Saudi passport. Heck, if you've got an Israeli stamp on your passport you can't even enter the Kingdom.
Just trying to figure out what a Saudi passport lets one do that he couldn't do with one from Switzerland, Singapore, just about any of the top tier passports that are for sale.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Easy. That's my guess about how he got it. "You can pick her up at my island."
librechik
(30,674 posts)seemingly not a problem for Epstein.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Some are found and returned. Others disappear in one way or another.
Most are troubled for some reason. Maybe they are being abused at home. For whatever reason, runaways are vulnerable to the typical exploiters. They know how to get their confidence and them get them to do all sorts of things.
Epstein seems to me to be a manipulator of troubled young girls. Either he or one of his surrogates befriends a girl and grooms her for further abuse. Happens all the time. In some cases it is some pimp who then turns the girl out to turn tricks for him. Or, it's someone like Epstein, who uses the girls and, probably, hands them off to others, in exchange for whatever he needs.
Many girls who have disappeared are never seen again. They are lost to the sex trafficking business. Epstein is a world traveler, and has many properties. It's not difficult to imagine him giving a young girl to someone who can get him a foreign passport. The girl is taken out of the United States and never seen again.
There are runaway teenagers everywhere, in every city. Some are recovered and saved. Others just disappear into a shadow world and are lost forever.
That's sex trafficking. That's the horror of what Epstein is probably up to. For ever girl he has abused and might speak out against him, there are others nobody will ever know about, I'm certain.
librechik
(30,674 posts)and opened the gates of hell when we let that cheater get inaugurated.
Oh, right, you are talking about Epstein, not Trump.
They are two dirty demonic bugs hiding under that same rock.
And where is Justice? He's that big fat dirty bug in the attorney general's office, chewing up the Constitution.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Most of them are rather ugly. Many are slimy. None are creatures we know much about, nor want to know.
Trump and Epstein are like that, I think.
Their depravity probably remains unknown, but might be discovered at some point. Both appear to be over-enamored of underage girls. Since most people consider abuse of such girls to be a terrible thing, they have carefully hidden their exploitation.
I hope it gets discovered and made known. However, there's a fair chance that it will not. If, as I suspect, very powerful people are entangled with that whole thing, it will probably remain hidden from the public.
One thing's certain, though: What we know is only the tip of the filthy iceberg they have created.
Skraxx
(2,977 posts)The Saudi's are all over that business.
no_hypocrisy
(46,130 posts)1. Quick getaway
2. Saudi Arabia doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.
3. Epstein's likely lost count how many SA princes he's gotten laid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradition_treaties
Recursion
(56,582 posts)He wants it because they don't extradite
LiberalFighter
(50,950 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)That's just the one they found and announced.
dameatball
(7,398 posts)hlthe2b
(102,297 posts)I'm sure there is no shortage of those willing to create fake passports for the right amount of $$ in S. Arabia any more than anywhere else.
Not to mention S. Arabia is among several Arab countries with NO US extradition treaty.
dalton99a
(81,526 posts)Mossad 'factory' churned out fake Australian passports
Updated 25 Feb 2010, 3:52pm
A former Mossad officer has alleged the Israeli spy agency has its own "passport factory" to create or doctor passports for use in intelligence operations.
Relations between Australia and Israel are under strain after three Australian passports were apparently used by suspects in the killing of top Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
Dubai police say they are 99 per cent sure Mossad was behind the operation to smother Mabhouh with a pillow in his hotel room.
Victor Ostrovsky, a case officer at Mossad for several years in the 1980s, says he has no doubt Australian passports have been forged or fraudulently used for similar operations in the past.
CincyDem
(6,363 posts)Sounds like land but then again, I think we're starting to learn that almost anything is possible these days.
CincyDem
(6,363 posts)I suppose if he ever needed to pull the ripcord and move to Saudi, he wouldn't be too worried about not finding a local minyan.
Thanks for the insight.
hlthe2b
(102,297 posts)fleur-de-lisa
(14,627 posts)This gets more interesting: Seems that Epstein was perhaps the sex trafficker of little girls for Saudi Prince MBS, and had a Saudi Passport given to him by the Kingdom. Was he a spy for the House of Saud? This actually makes sense
12:07 PM - Jul 15, 2019
Link to tweet
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)SDNY didn't say that, they said it listed Epstein's address as KSA, but only said the passport was issued by a foreign gov't.
JI7
(89,252 posts)mitch96
(13,912 posts)The why's and where for's are for another story. Anyhoo she said many of the "girls" who worked for her would take "contracts" in Saudi.. The younger the more money they would make. They could make $10,000 for about 4 days work. All expenses paid including private jet.
She also would get "gifts" from the guys in white robes so it probably would be very easy to get papers and/or a new identity... Take it for what it's worth and I wish she would have written a book, her stories were fascinating..
m
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)The Rock has been turned over and the Ugliest creatures are being exposed.
Princess Turandot
(4,787 posts)It may be that the document itself was issued by Saudi Arabia. But so far, SDNY hasn't said that.
From the Miami Herald continuing coverage:
BY JULIE K. BROWN AND DAVID SMILEY
JULY 15, 2019 10:59 AM, UPDATED 27 MINUTES AGO
In another twist, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller announced that FBI agents, in addition to finding nude and semi-nude photographs of possible minors in Epsteins home safe, also discovered a pile of cash, dozens of diamonds and an expired passport bearing Epsteins photograph but an alias. The passport, issued from a foreign country, listed Epstein as a resident of Saudi Arabia, Rossmiller said.
Frankly there is a lot of material we are still working through, Rossmiller said of the evidence found in a raid last week at Epsteins Manhattan mansion.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Good for people to know the facts before running off half-cocked.
In fact I'd say it's UNLIKELY that SDNY would've mentioned the KSA address if it was a KSA-issued passport ... clearly they want to keep it's provenance a secret for now.
I'd suspect it's an Israeli-issued passport myself (or appears to be, at least).
Vinca
(50,279 posts)PRETZEL
(3,245 posts)not sure if the dates would line up, but isn't there something out there that may or may not have the following rumors?
Acosta mentioned that Epstein had "intelligence connections" that were above his pay grade?
Passport may or may not have been issued by Saudia Arabia?
The passport in question is from the mid 80's?
Saudia Arabia was rumored to be funding the mujhadeen in the Soviet-Afghan War?
Not much information on where or how Epstein made his fortune?
My tin foil hat brings me to Charlie Wilson's War?
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Which might explain how he got off so easy the first time ... he was able to pull strings at a level above Acosta, and not just with money.
DFW
(54,410 posts)What I read said that he had a passport (long expired, and thus useless for travel) from an unnamed nation, with a Saudi residence permit (like a green card) stamped in it, and issued to a phony name. Presumably the Saudis, even 30 years ago, were not in the habit of granting residence permits to people with names like "Epstein."
PRETZEL
(3,245 posts)but I had thought I had heard it was Epstein's photo but under a different name?
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)the country of the passport's provenance.
KSA was his supposed place of residence per the passport.
And yes, it was his pic, but with a different name.
DFW
(54,410 posts)But if it had been a Saudi passport, he wouldn't have needed a Saudi residence permit any more than someone with an American passport would need a green card. I suspect it was from a "nationality-for-hire" country (there used to be several, no idea about today), where $100,000 got you full nationality, including a passport, without needing to reside there or speak the local language.
I don't know his family history, either. Some countries will grant you a "second" passport if you can prove at least one grandparent born there. Ireland, Germany and Luxembourg fall into this category. I know a guy from California who proved a German grandfather, got a German passport, renounced his US citizenship, bought a small apartment in Gibraltar, got legal residence there, and pays all of £22,000 a year in taxes on maybe half a million euros in income. He was gloating for a while, but Brexit has taken the wind out of his sails. His German passport will no longer be valid for automatic residence on the Rock if the UK (and with it, Gibraltar) leaves the EU.
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Money buys things you aren't supposed to have...
Officials say the scheme brought in more than a $1 million for the DMV employees.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/DMV-Workers-Made-1M-Off-Fake-IDs-85068692.html
watoos
(7,142 posts)but I wasn't paying attention.
Epstein was working to retrieve "stolen money" from a Saudi royal. I believe he is now deceased.