Tag: intelligence community

Kincora: British intelligence-run sex abuse brothel?

Half a century after the public learned that boys at a Belfast group home were sexually assaulted by senior staff, a key question remains unanswered: was British intelligence implicated in the abuse conspiracy, and did Kincora serve as a ‘honeypot’ to entrap and blackmail powerful figures?

A vast trove of declassified files on Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual, political, and intelligence escapades released by the US Department of Justice has once again thrust disgraced former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor into the spotlight. With British police reportedly reviewing Andrew’s past sexual activities and links to Epstein, questions are growing about whether Britain’s spy agencies were aware of Andrew’s alleged escapades with minors.

If the darkest rumors turn out to be true, it will not be the first time a British royal had been embroiled in a child rape conspiracy with spy agency involvement. Back in 1980, a scandal erupted when the Kincora Boys’ Home in occupied Ireland was exposed as a secret brothel run by powerful pedophiles. Chief among the alleged perpetrators was Lord Mountbatten — Andrew’s great-uncle.

From the very beginning, hints began to appear that MI5/MI6 knew of the child abuse taking place Kincora, and could have even been running the group home as part of a dastardly intelligence plot. With Britain’s domestic and foreign spies engaged in a savage dirty war in Ireland, and both services running operatives in Republican and Unionist paramilitaries, Kincora would have provided an ideal means of recruiting and compromising potential assets. Official investigations have strongly insinuated British intelligence chiefs had a close bond with many individuals who ran the Boys’ Home. 

In May 2025, veteran BBC journalist Chris Moore published a forensic account of the case titled Kincora: Britain’s Shame. Featuring four and a half decades of firsthand research by the author, its groundbreaking contents have been met with general silence by British mainstream media.

In the book, Moore argues persuasively that the Boys’ Home was just one component of a more extensive child abuse network extending across British-occupied Ireland and beyond — in which London’s spying apparatus was not only aware, but likely complicit. 

In 2023, Moore met personally with Kincora victim Arthur Smyth in Australia. Smyth’s stay at the Home was brief, but the horrors he endured there left him scarred forever.

“Having interviewed a number of Kincora survivors, I found Arthur’s story familiar. Sent to the Boys’ Home by a Belfast divorce court judge aged 11, he was continually preyed upon by the pedophiles who ran it, and intimidated into silence,” Moore told The Grayzone. “Arthur was also brutally abused repeatedly by a man he knew only as ‘Dickie’, who raped him while bending him over a desk.”

In August 1979, two years after Smyth escaped Kincora, he learned the true identity of ‘Dickie’ was none other than Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, a member of the royal family and Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin. Mountbatten had just been murdered in an apparent IRA bombing attack on his fishing boat off the coast of Ireland. Though the British government appears to remain committed to concealing his crimes from the public, Mountbatten’s pedophilia was common knowledge among both British and US intelligence for decades.

As early as World War II, the FBI had identified Mountbatten as “a homosexual with a perversion for young boys.” A Bureau file detailing this was later identified by historian Andrew Lownie. After requesting other files the Bureau maintained on the royal, Lownie was informed by US authorities they had been destroyed.

Lownie says he was told by an FBI official that the files were only disposed of “after [he] asked for them” — indicating they were “clearly” shredded at the request of the British government.

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U.S. Intelligence Was Secretly Studying COVID Lab-Origin Scenarios in Early 2020

More than six years after COVID-19 emerged in China and killed millions worldwide, newly released intelligence records show that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was evaluating a detailed lab-origin scenario as early as March 2020 — weeks into the pandemic and well before the issue became a subject of public debate.

Dated March 27, 2020 — just 16 days after COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic — the DIA “Authoritative Assessment” appears as part of a slide deck and supporting material shared among analysts and senior officials within the Defense Department’s intelligence arm.

The assessment focuses heavily on the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and its leading coronavirus researcher, Zhengli Shi, whose laboratory for years conducted high-risk experiments on wild bat coronaviruses.

The never-before-published details were revealed in bits and pieces over the last three months in court-ordered productions of COVID-19 origins intelligence records released by the agency in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by U.S. Right To Know more than a year and a half ago.

The new details bring added context to slides that were previously released in early 2025, showing they were part of a broader, evolving assessment on the pandemic’s roots that the DIA had been shaping for months.

On a previously published slide headed “Hypothetical Laboratory Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” the assessment sketches a step-by-step timeline of real and speculative work at the WIV that explains the techniques for how the virus that caused the pandemic could plausibly have been created in a lab with insufficient biosecurity containment.

It then posits that an uncharacterized virus escaped in mid-2019, sparking the outbreak, and that the WIV later published disinformation that analysts speculated helped to bolster a natural-origin narrative.

On a final slide titled “Concluding Points” — also previously released, but now shown to be part of the March 2020 assessment package — a comment bubble appended to a list of observations about WIV’s capabilities reads:

“The molecular biology capabilities of WIV and the genomic assessment are consistent with the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 was a lab-engineered virus that was part of a bank of chimeric viruses in Zhengli Shi’s laboratory at WIV that escaped from containment.”

The new material also shows the DIA’s detailed early assessment circulated through the agency’s top ranks just weeks into the pandemic, but the DIA’s official position remained that the virus’s origins were “unknown.”

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HERE WE GO AGAIN: CIA, Clinton-Linked Trump Impeachment Originator Peddles New ‘Whistleblower’ Intel Complaint.

The lawyer who spearheaded the first failed partisan impeachment effort against President Donald J. Trump is now setting his sights on Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, complaining that his client’s complaint has yet to be sent to Congress due to classification issues.

The classified whistleblower complaint has remained stuck inside Gabbard’s agency for months, prompting an unusual internal standoff and drawing attention to the lawyer representing the whistleblower, Andrew P. Bakaj, known for his role in President Trump’s first impeachment case.

The current complaint was submitted in May 2025 to the intelligence community’s inspector general and was classified at a level that has complicated its handling. According to people familiar with the matter, the document has been stored in a secure safe accessible only under strict protocols.

Bakaj has publicly complained about the situation, saying, “From my experience, it is confounding for [Gabbard’s office] to take weeks—let alone eight months—to transmit a disclosure to Congress.”

Gabbard’s office has pushed back strongly, rejecting claims that it is obstructing the process. Officials have characterized the allegations as “baseless and politically motivated,” arguing that the complaint presents unique classification and jurisdictional challenges that must be resolved before any congressional notification can occur.

Bakaj, the chief legal counsel at the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, has repeatedly pressed intelligence officials to transmit the complaint to Congress. He previously served as lead attorney for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer whose 2019 whistleblower disclosure helped trigger the first failed impeachment of President Trump during his first term. Later reports revealed the whistleblower had direct ties to the Biden family’s business affairs in Ukraine.

Bakaj’s continued involvement in sensitive national security complaints appears to reinforce perceptions that whistleblower mechanisms are being abused as political weapons. In the current case, intelligence officials say the inspector general determined some of the allegations against Gabbard lacked credibility, while being unable to assess other claims. Bakaj has disputed that characterization, saying he was never informed that any part of the complaint had been deemed not credible.

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Western spies say Iran not making nukes – NYT

Western intelligence agencies see no indication that Iran is enriching uranium for “bomb-grade material,” the New York Times has reported, citing sources. While activity has been detected at nuclear sites, including those damaged by last year’s strikes, no high-level enrichment is underway, the report claims.

Last summer, the US and Israel carried out coordinated strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, justifying the campaign as preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons – an ambition Iran denies. The attacks targeted the Fordow and Natanz enrichment plants and the Isfahan research center.

In its report published on Thursday, the NYT claimed uranium buried at the struck sites – material closest to weapons-grade levels – remains in place. Work at the sites appears limited to excavation aimed at creating more secure facilities. No new nuclear sites have been detected, though limited activity has been observed at two incomplete sites near Natanz and Isfahan, according to the paper.

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Trump family secretly signed $500m crypto deal with ‘spy sheikh’ who has been pushing for access to US intelligence

The Trump family quietly signed a $500 million cryptocurrency deal with a powerful Abu Dhabi royal just days before Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

A previously undisclosed agreement that sent nearly $200 million to Trump-linked entities and was followed months later by the US granting the same foreign power sweeping access to sensitive artificial intelligence technology.

The deal, involving Trump-backed crypto firm World Liberty Financial, was signed on January 16, 2025, by Eric Trump and executives tied to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother of the country’s president.

The previously undisclosed deal was confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, company documents and others familiar with the matter. 

The transaction made a foreign government official the largest shareholder in a company tied to the US president. The move is unprecedented in modern American politics, raising questions about conflicts of interest and the influence of foreign powers.

The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, a company controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, one of the most powerful figures in the Middle East. 

The agreement granted Aryam a 49 percent  ownership stake in World Liberty for $500 million – with $250 million paid immediately, and $187 million of that first installment directed to Trump family entities, according to documents reviewed by the Journal.

Tahnoon, who serves as the UAE’s national security adviser and oversees a sprawling business empire worth more than $1.3 trillion, has long been viewed with suspicion inside Washington’s intelligence and national security circles.

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Mike Benz exposes the dark underbelly of U2’s Bono…

We’ve been told over and over that celebrity “humanitarianism” is the purest form of goodness on the planet. Big stars, concerts, movies, emotions, giving back, bla bla bla. The message is always the same: open your heart, open your wallet, and don’t ask too many questions, because celebrities would never steer you wrong.

But every once in a while, someone comes along and does ask questions. And when they do, many uncomfortable dots start showing up.

And that’s exactly what’s happening with Bono, the frontman of U2. But beyond his lead vocals, Bono has very carefully cultivated an image as a global humanitarian icon. Nobody asked questions, because Bono had everybody convinced he was an angel, doing the purest work. However, there’s a lot more to it, according to Mike Benz.

He says Bono’s humanitarian work may not have been driven purely by compassion but by something much darker: elite power networks, intelligence operations, and narrative control.

What makes this even more disturbing is how often USAID keeps popping up in Bono’s so-called “humanitarian” work. As you likely recall, USAID spent years selling itself as a charitable force while quietly operating as a political operator overseas. Once DOGE started digging, the fraud and true mission were revealed, and Team Trump moved to gut large portions of the agency. Only now are Americans beginning to understand just how much of this so-called “aid” wasn’t what it appeared to be.

Which brings us right back to Bono and Mike Benz, the guy who just pulled back the curtain on U2’s singer.

Mike points out how celebrity activism, government agencies, and intelligence agencies all come together under the phony banner of “humanitarianism.”

Benz points to massive USAID-linked fundraising concerts, including events that were supposed to stop hunger in Somalia. The thing is, that didn’t happen, because most of the money allegedly financed CIA-backed warlords and weapons purchases.

This is where the glossy “Hollywood humanitarian” story really starts to crack.

Benz goes through how these shady operations really run. They use aid vans that can’t be inspected because “the food will spoil,” and the relief funds move through layers of contractors and other shady folks.

While the public PR stunts stir up emotions, all the sketchy stuff happens in the shadows. What’s sold to the public as compassion is actually a delivery system for covert action.

And then there’s the politics…

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Zelensky’s Ousting of Popular Intel Leaders Is Drawing Heavy Criticism – Kiev Leader Accused of Clearing the Field of Competitors Before Eventual Election

Is Zelensky getting rid of the competition?

While the eyes of the world are fixated on US moves in Venezuela or Greenland, and on the popular uprising in Iran, the war in Ukraine is unfolding, brutal as ever.

But, getting more exposure than the actual movements in the ground, with Russian forces making gains in the southern Zaporozhie region, it’s the internal machinations of the Kiev regime that is being talked about.

We have reported here on TGP about the removal of the two most powerful directors of intelligence in Ukraine: SBU’s Vasily Malyuk and Kyrylo Budanov from the military intel agency GUR.

The two men were credited with successful operations and countless assassinations.

Their ousting is part of leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s largest intelligence reshuffle of the war.

But the reaction to the changes has been mixed at best.

The New York Times reported:

“Critics say the shake-up risks disrupting operations already underway and may have been made in part for political reasons.

’I see it as removing two competent leaders’, said Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, a former director of the SBU, Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, and now a member of Parliament in the political opposition. ‘During the war, my suggestion would be to keep, not shake up, the leadership’. I see nothing good for the security of the country and for special operations.”

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What corporate media refuses to say about how the world is run

Corporate media dogma perpetuates a false narrative that the West consists of democracies where the popular will is expressed, when in reality, there is a merged intelligence community and an Anglo-American Establishment that exerts significant control.

The Bank for International Settlements, the City of London and other subsidiary policy makers, such as the World Economic Forum, wield significant power and influence global policies, often circumventing sovereignty and democratic processes.

Additionally, the intelligence community, including the CIA, MI6 and Mossad, has been involved in various regime change activities and covert operations, and has formed a merged criminal entity that acts against the interests of their supposed sponsor countries.

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Tinker, tailor, publisher, spy: how Robert Maxwell created the academic peer review system

Publication of research results, theoretical propositions and scholarly essays is not a free-for-all. As shown by the dogmatism around climate change and Covid-19, sceptics struggle to get papers in print. The gate-keeper is the peer-review system, which people take for granted as a screening process to ensure rigour in scientific literature.

But it is not always been that way. Until at least the 1950s, the decision to publish was made by the editors of academic journals, who were typically eminent professors in their field.

Peer review, by contrast, entails the editor sending an anonymised manuscript to independent reviewers, and although the editor makes a final decision, the reviews indicate whether the submission should be accepted, revised or rejected. This may seem fair and objective, but in reality peer review has become a means of knowledge control – and as we argue here, perhaps that was always the purpose.

You may be surprised to know that the instigator of peer review was the media tycoon Robert Maxwell. In 1951, at the age of 28, the Czech emigree purchased three-quarters of Butterworth Press for about half a million pounds at current value. He renamed it as Pergamon Press, with its core business in science, technology and medicine (STM) journals, all of which instilled peer review.

According to Myer Kutz (2019), ‘Maxwell, justifiably, was one of the key figures — if not the key figure — in the rise of the commercial STM journal publishing business in the years after World War II’.

Maxwell’s company stole a march on other publishers and its influence was huge. By 1959 Pergamon was publishing 40 journals, surging to 150 by 1965. By 1996, one million peer reviewed articles had been published. Yet despite the increase in outlets, opportunities for writers with analyses or arguments contrary to the prevailing narrative are limited.

Maxwell was instrumental to peer review becoming a regime to reinforce prevailing doctrines and power.

Back in 1940, Maxwell was a penniless 16 year-old of Jewish background, having left his native land for refuge in Britain. His linguistic talents attracted him to the British intelligence services. On an assignment in Paris in 1944 he met his Huguenot wife Elisabeth. After war ended in 1945 he spent two years in occupied Germany with the Foreign Office as head of the press section.

Four years later, with no lucrative activity to his name, this young man found the money to buy an established British publishing house. According to Craig Whitney (New York Times, 1991), Maxwell made Pergamon a thriving business with ‘a bank loan and money borrowed from his wife’s family and from relatives in America’.

But how was he able to acquire Butterworth Press, initially? A clue is given by a BBC video clip (2022) on Maxwell’s links to intelligence networks. While operating as a KGB agent in Berlin, he presented himself to MI6 as having ‘established connections with leading scientists all over the world’. According to investigative journalist Tom Bower, ‘unbelievably what he really wanted was for M16 to finance him to start a publishing company’.

This point is corroborated by Desmond Bristow, former M16 officer, who states that Maxwell asked the secret security service to finance his venture. Seven years after launching Pergamon Press, Maxwell moved into Headington Hill Hall, a 53-room mansion in Oxford, which he leased from Oxford City Council.

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Western intelligence lawfare op plotted illegal sting on EU fraud office, leaks reveal

After The Grayzone exposed CIJA – the Western gov’t-funded regime change outfit – for collaborating with al-Qaeda and its allies in Syria, files show the group sought to penetrate and “intimidate” European financial regulators who charged them with corruption.

Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone reveal the intelligence-linked Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) launched a malicious effort to infiltrate and subvert the European Commission and EU anti-fraud office after it accused them of corruption. In order to carry out these attacks, its director solicited the services of at least one longtime MI6 operative, Ian Baharie.

The group, which came to prominence in the early stages of the Western-backed dirty war on Syria, describes itself as a “non-governmental organisation dedicated to collecting evidence… for the express purpose of furthering criminal justice efforts” across the world.” CIJA’s work in gathering supposed evidence of the abuses of the Syrian government of deposed President Bashar Al-Assad earned it gushing praise from Hillary Clinton and puff profiles from The New Yorker, New York Times and The Guardian.

As The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal revealed in a 2019 profile on CIJA – one of the first critical investigative reports on a group touted by mainstream media as “independent” – one of the NGO’s top funders was the US State Department, which granted it over $500,000 in a short period. Today, CIJA boasts that it “currently works to support prosecutions in 16 countries” and is “assisting 52 law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies and 14 prosecutorial offices globally.” 

Unmentioned there, and entirely ignored by English-language legacy media outlets, is the fact that the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) placed CIJA on an EU blacklist as punishment for unethical activities including cooking accounting books, forging documents, and graft. The group has been on EU regulators’ radar since at least 2015, when OLAF conducted a raid of CIJA’s registered headquarters only to find no trace of the organization actually operating there.

Now, leaked documents and emails reviewed by The Grayzone indicate CIJA’s founder and executive director William “Bill” Wiley undertook a retaliatory campaign of dirty tricks aimed at removing his organization from the EU blacklist. His grand scheme included a ruthless sting operation on a former staffer he accused of whistleblowing, as well as plans to gather dirt on OLAF officials which European Commission officials would be “intimidated by.” 

With a career skirting the line between the world of NGOs, multinational corporations and Western intelligence, Wiley sought out a veteran British MI6 operative to assist his dirty tricks campaign. Though CIJA promotes universal jurisdiction for purported crimes committed by rogue foreign governments, the leaked files show the group is more than willing to circumvent the law to advance its own objectives.

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