Jeffrey Epstein and Iran-Contra (nonfiction)
1/ Epstein shared a penthouse with an Iran-Contra lawyer, worked for an Iran-Contra arms dealer, and moved the Iran-Contra planes to Ohio for use by Wexner.
Ehud Barak was the head of Israel’s military intelligence during the planning for Iran-Contra, and he supervised the CIA’s first delivery.
- Post @ Bluesky (25 December 2025)
2/ This says John Stanley Pottinger was Iran-Contra lawyer and Epstein's roommate.
When Iran-Contra plane was shot down and the story blew up, the plane belonged to Epstein’s Southern Air Transport, a CIA front company.
3/ This article looks really good, but hell of a long one.
"Using Southern Air Transport planes, the CIA was shipping weapons to Iran, using Israel as a middleman, and deploying the profits to arm the Contras against the leftist Nicaraguan government."
4/ Southern Air Transport declared bankruptcy on Oct 1, 1998—exactly 1 week before the CIA IG released findings on the Iran–Contra affair, linking airline to Contra cocaine trafficking from Nicaragua. Ohio officials dropped inquiries, Epstein’s role never became public.
- Epstein, Israel, and the CIA: How The Iran–Contra Planes Landed at Les Wexner’s Base @ Europe Says (20 December 2025)
5/ 👆 1981, Epstein resigned from Bear Stearns (insider trading) and began traveling to London where he grew close with Douglas Leese.
👇 British arms dealer Sir Douglas Leese, who collaborated with Khashoggi on at least one British-Saudi arms deal in the 1980s.
6/ "The CIA planned to fuel a war between Iran and Iraq to ensure neither Hussein nor Ayatollah Khomeini could gain control of the Strait of Hormuz while keeping the Soviet navy out as protector of the Gulf. But the hostage crisis had added a wrinkle to their plans."
7/ "Instead, in a strategy aimed at reducing Soviet influence with Iran, the CIA tacitly supported weapons sales from China. Beijing began shipping armaments to both Iran and Iraq in 1980. In spring 1983, Iran signed a $1.3 billion arms deal with China."
8/ The tapes revealed that John Stanley Pottinger, Hashemi’s (Iranian banker) attorney, was helping the Iranians circumvent the arms embargo using phony invoices and overseas shell companies.
Pottinger, it turns out, was working together with Epstein in New York.
9/ “arms-for-hostages”
Hashemi, Khashoggi, and Israel’s PM Shimon Peres had met secretly in Hamburg. With CIA's William Casey’s blessing, the U.S. would ship the weapons to Israel, Israel would sell its own weapons to Iran, and Washington would commit to replenishing Israel’s stockpile later.
10/ After Peres agreed to facilitate Khashoggi’s shipments to Iran, the logistics were handled by Israeli military intelligence. Epstein’s close friend and confidante, Ehud Barak, was the head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate during the planning phases, from April 1983 to Sept 1985.
11/ The CIA shielded BCCI from federal investigators to conceal the money trail to their illicit arms deals. BCCI operated as a Cayman Islands entity structured as a charitable trust, funneling capital into employee-benefit funds and philanthropic foundations in the UK and South Asia... shell cos.
12/ With each successful delivery, an American hostage was freed in Lebanon, and the intermediaries earned $.
13/ Epstein often made vague boasts about being a “financial bounty hunter” who tracked down “hidden” money. In 1987, while Robert Maxwell was allegedly “hiding” money from arms deals, Epstein bragged to a journalist about “finding” money for Adnan Khashoggi in such detail, the journalist thought Ep
14/ After the Southern Air Transport plane carrying Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua on Oct 5, 1986, the Iran–Contra scheme began to unravel. On Oct 9, Hasenfus confessed in a conference before the world’s press that he was working with the CIA to ferry weapons to the Contras, secretly backing ... [see image text]
15/ Towers Financial became a slush fund that subsidized Epstein’s lavish lifestyle in NY. After it collapsed in 1993, Steve Hoffenberg pleaded guilty to defrauding investors out of nearly half a billion in what the SEC at the time called the largest Ponzi scheme in US history. Epstein was never charged.
16/ Epstein lied to Ward about his ties to the Leese family: He knew both of Douglas Leese’s two sons very well. Nicholas, wrote a bawdy letter in Epstein’s 50th “birthday book” containing anecdotes of escapades—including description of a sexual assault...
17/ While the Towers Financial Ponzi scheme was taking off, Epstein became Wexner CFO.
1991, Columbus PD was investigating the mob assassination of Arthur Shapiro. 1985, Shapiro was due to testify before a GJ in a major tax evasion case—but the day before testimony, he was shot twice in the head.
8/ In 1996, customs agents discovered cocaine hidden aboard a SAT plane, according to a report in a Mobile, Alabama paper.
On Oct 1, 1998, SAT abruptly filed for bankruptcy—exactly one week before the CIA Inspector General released its official findings on Contra cocaine trafficking allegations.
19/ Southern Air: "SAT obtained a lucrative contract from Angola’s state-owned mining company to carry equipment to the mining towns, and carry diamonds out. While making trips to the mines, the SAT planes were suspected of air-dropping weapons to the rebel group UNITA with South Africa’s support."
20/ Decades later, Epstein bragged to journalists about making his fortune out of “arms, drugs, and diamonds.”
21/ Reagan front for CIA VP Bush. CIA brought in drugs on Epstein’s Southern Air Transport planes. Full circle Nazi link here. (HWB: Bush lost in 1952 due to his platform and belief in eugenics (Nazi). He came back rebranded and hid as CIA director and then VP for front man Reagan, just like Cheney Bush, Trump Putin. Prescott Bush and Nixon)
22/ Both articles in this thread 🧵 are by same name. Finally just looked who is @dropsitenews.com ✔️ Intercept George Soros $ / Drop Site News is a nonprofit investigative news outlet founded by @ryangrim.bsky.social and @jeremyscahill.com in 2024.
...
George Soros's philanthropic org, the Open Society Foundations, has funded media projects associated with journalist Ryan Grim.
In 2024, the Open Society donated $250,000 to Drop Site News, a media outlet co-founded by Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill, to support its Middle East coverage.
- Post @ Bluesky (10 March 2026)
External links
- The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich @ The New York Times - Dec 16, 2025 — Back in New York, he joined forces with John Stanley Pottinger, a lawyer who had recently left a senior post in the Justice Department.
- Epstein, Israel, and the CIA: How the Iran-Contra Planes Landed at Les Wexner's Base @ DropSite - Jeffrey Epstein helped Leslie Wexner repurpose the CIA’s Iran-Contra planes from arms smuggling to shipping lingerie.
