History has a way of echoing. In 1933, German conservatives believed they could “control” Hitler by bringing him into government. Within 18 months, many of those same men were either executed, exiled, or forced into silence. Once authoritarian movements consolidate power, they are rarely dislodged by polite debate or parliamentary maneuvering—they consume their rivals and remake the system itself.
That lesson reverberates now in the shadowy overlaps between finance, technology, and state power. Newly leaked emails from the inbox of Ehud Barak, Israel’s former prime minister, show how Jeffrey Epstein positioned himself as a global fixer, brokering introductions between political leaders and billionaires. The cache of roughly 100,000 emails and documents—verified by The Sunday Times as authentic—shows Epstein urging Barak in 2014 to “spend real time with Peter Thiel” and offering to set up a dinner between them . Barak later wrote to another contact about his “first date” with Thiel, noting they had crossed paths at Davos but that Thiel might not recall it .
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epstein, barak, and the business of surveillance
Epstein was not just trafficking in influence for vanity. By 2016, he was pitching Reporty Homeland Security, a surveillance technology startup founded by Barak, to Valar Ventures, the investment firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. Valar passed at the time, calling it “way too early,” but two years later Thiel’s Founders Fund joined a $15 million Series B funding round for the same company, which by then had rebranded as Carbyne .
Carbyne now markets itself as an “emergency services” platform, but civil liberties advocates have warned that its technology functions as a back door for mass surveillance. It can track phone locations in real time, collect live video from bystanders, and feed data into predictive policing systems. When you map this onto the web of actors—Epstein as connector, Barak as founder, Thiel as financier—you see a deeper pattern: intelligence, private capital, and surveillance technology fusing together.
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the thiel factor
Peter Thiel is not just another investor. Through Palantir, he helped build some of the most powerful data-mining tools in existence, many of which are used by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. Palantir’s software has powered immigration raids, predictive policing programs, and military operations. Thiel is also a co-founder of Founders Fund, which ultimately invested in Barak’s company after Epstein pitched it.
Thiel has acknowledged meeting Epstein in 2014, though he maintains it was a single encounter and denies ongoing involvement . Still, the fact that Epstein was actively promoting Barak’s surveillance startup to Thiel’s circle suggests that Epstein saw an opportunity to tie Israeli security technology to Silicon Valley’s most influential financier.
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barak’s denials & israel’s intelligence shadow
Barak has admitted meeting Epstein multiple times and even visiting his Manhattan townhouse, but has denied wrongdoing and dismissed allegations of Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence as a “vicious slander” . Yet, the optics remain troubling: a former Israeli prime minister, a disgraced financier with intelligence links, and a billionaire tech mogul who would later help fund the same surveillance venture.
The leaked emails show how Epstein acted as a node in a shadow network, using his social capital to bind together elites across politics, finance, and security technology. That’s where the real story lies—not in lurid headlines about Epstein’s personal crimes, but in how his connections paved the way for the rise of new power centers that remain deeply embedded in our governments and tech industries.
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lessons from history
Just as conservatives in 1930s Germany believed they could ride the tiger of authoritarianism, many today seem confident they can harness billionaire technocrats and shadowy networks for their own ends. But history suggests that once such systems consolidate control—through data collection, surveillance, and militarized force—they often serve themselves, not the public.
When we learn that Epstein was urging Barak to meet Thiel, and that Thiel’s fund later bankrolled Barak’s surveillance company, the implications go far beyond individual scandal. These connections illustrate how authoritarian infrastructures are built quietly, behind closed doors, through introductions and investments.
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timeline
2014
Epstein emails Barak urging him to meet with Peter Thiel, offers to set up dinner
Barak tells a contact he had a “first date” with Thiel, mostly on geopolitics
2016
Epstein pitches Barak’s company Reporty (a surveillance startup) to Thiel’s Valar Ventures, which declines, saying it’s “too early”
2018
Thiel’s Founders Fund joins a $15M Series B round for Reporty (renamed Carbyne)
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the big picture
Epstein is gone, but the networks he cultivated are not. His emails show us how the boundaries between private wealth, national security, and global politics blur—and how easily authoritarian tools can be financed and normalized under the guise of safety.
History tells us that once power concentrates in this way, it rarely loosens its grip without resistance. The question is not just what Epstein did, but what remains of the machinery he helped set in motion.
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Stay curious.
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sources
Reason – Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Spy Industry Connections
The Sunday Times – Prince Andrew ‘stayed in touch with Epstein five years longer than claimed’ (verification of the Barak inbox leak)
TIME – Former Israeli Leader Rejects Allegations Jeffrey Epstein Worked for Mossad
Bloomberg – Epstein’s Valar Ventures Stake Still Worth $170M
A Curious Stack 
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