[hnthrowaway0315]

Maybe this is part of the shadow money. CIA has been working with business people since the beginning of Cold War and I wouldn't be surprised that they have deep roots in the financial world -- after all both Intelligence and Finance need globalization.

[paradoxyl]

The cover of national security has allowed a certain type of organized crime to proliferate to the point it's breaking society.

[thrownthatway]

Son: dad, I’m thinking of getting in to organised crime

Dad: Public or private sector?

[moralestapia]

I don't think it's connected to this specific event, but there's a lot of lore about the CIA moving gold in/out of Afghanistan, Iraq and others during war time.

[hnthrowaway0315]

I used to read a lot about Michele Sindona who was supposed to be connected to the Mafia and the intelligence community. His currency trading firm was one of the first to trade the Eurodollar contracts back in the 60s, IIRC.

I think intelligence and finance really go hand in hand. It makes so much sense -- you see, the intelligence community really hates the congress or whatever to snoop around its operations before approving the budget -- wouldn't it a lot easier to just earn your own $$? And with all the information the intelligence agencies control, it is almost trivial to make quick money in finance. Last but not the least, wouldn't banker be the perfect cover for spies? They wear nice suites, too.

[esseph]

This also applies to tech now.

Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc all have Global Security branches.

[hnthrowaway0315]

Yep I wouldn't be surprised. I think Meta had seed $$ from some intelligence-backed VC, too?

[vintermann]

From Rockefeller to Sheldon Adelson (only naming dead ones), oligarchs have had an extremely close relationship to the CIA, and although the CIA probably gets something out of it, I think it goes more the other way.

[themafia]

They want globalization to make their jobs easier. In no sense do they "need" it. Whether we want a world where the desires of intelligence and finance are blindly prioritized is an open question. For my part the answer is obviously no.

[hnthrowaway0315]

I think most ordinary people would say No, but most of us do not have a say in any important things. They put up the facade of voting while all the important stuffs are decided within the circles.

I think it really makes sense to consider ourselves to be just intelligent cattle -- they still tolerate us because they need us to turn natural resources into machinery, weapon, insights and other stuffs they need, but once AI and robots keep up, they can probably get rid of 90% of us.

[themafia]

> I think it really makes sense to consider ourselves to be just intelligent cattle

That's too misanthropic for my tastes.

> to turn natural resources into machinery, weapon, insights and other stuffs they need

It's easy to live in our world and ignore the maintenance staff.

> but once AI and robots keep up

This is nowhere near happening. Your seeming rush into anticipatory compliance is exceedingly premature.

> they can probably get rid of 90% of us.

It's the same moronic death cult that's been active since the 1860s. They would like to believe this, more importantly they would like /you/ to believe this, but a sober examination of the facts shows it to be a mixture of bluster and folly designed to intimidate you into transferring your personal wealth into their profit.

[webnrrd2k]

There's a book that ties into this sort of thing - Gold Warriors [1]. It about how, post WWII, the US recovered a bunch of Gold looted from China and used it to set up an anti-communist slush fund.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249237.Gold_Warriors

[burnt-resistor]

Sounds like using an official position to make money.

A guy I used to know, a retired USAF Maj. pilot, acquired a bunch of racing cars, motorcycles, and a non-flyable MiG-21 through shady characters.

More than likely individual people try to get away with doing shady shit on the side rather than it being a grand UFO conspiracy.

[JumpCrisscross]

It’s almost certainly grift. If it were official, the arrest would have been scrubbed.

[electroglyph]

sometimes i wonder if the left hand knows what the right is doing. it looks like we arrested our own spy in this case: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/25/american-journalist...

[JumpCrisscross]

The CIA director requested the FBI intervene. This is almost certainly not a fuckup.

[esseph]

This could also be internal politics intentional designed to burn someone for pissing off the wrong people. That shit happens.

[mmooss]

That's their post hoc, uncorroborated claim. It's easy to imagine many other possibilities; it could just be face saving. It could be Rush is taking the fall. etc.