With all the talk about Korean market forces being a driving force behind the bitcoin, it is worth revisiting the origins of modern Newsweek. It is a potential conspiracy that interests me a lot. Is it interesting that when Newsweek returned to print in March 2014, that the first cover story was about bitcoin, then trading close to $500?

At the time, at least one Reddit user joked (?) this meant that David Jang (‘David’ Jang Jae-Hyung), a long-controversial “Christian” figure connected to the ownership of the ‘new’ Newsweek was actually bitcoin mastermind Satoshi Nakamoto.

March 2014 is obviously an important milestone in ‘Hybrid Warfare History’, and I have already connected bitcoin to Russian propaganda/intelligence. It bears worth asking if we can ‘mine’ for a connection.

‘“We are thrilled to welcome this iconic brand and global news property into our portfolio. We believe in the Newsweek brand and look forward to growing it, fully transformed to the digital age,” IBT Media Chief Executive Etienne Uzac said in a release regarding the purchase of Newsweek.

I guess IBT liked the brand so much, they decided to change their name to it as they’ve now rebranded as Newsweek Media Group.

It is undoubtedly a strong household brand name in American journalism, with a somewhat-equivalence to TIME from a public consciousness perspective.

Some people may not know that the former IBT Media is connected closely to the enigmatic South Korean religious figure David Jang, a.k.a. the “‘Second Coming Christ”. IBT Media was regularly in touch with David Jang throughout the purchase of Newsweek and in addition, David Jang’s Olivet University has been associated with sweat-shop like journalism and labor conditions for the IBT Media companies.

The former IBT Media’s ownership are one-time adherents to Jang’s church known as “The Community“. Etienne Uzac’s (55% ownership) business partner, Johnathan Davis (45% ownership) has a wife (Tracy McBeal Davis) who is the President of Olivet University. Uzac’s wife is a top translator for Jang. IBT denied a formal business connection, but it was found that funds had been exchanged between IBT and Olivet.

It is worth pointing out some of the parallels between David Jang and the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church; a cult (“Moonies”) that was a supposed one-time front for the Korean intelligence services. Not the least of these parallels is that Jang was a long-time senior level follower of the Reverend Moon. Moon operated an anti-Communist right wing propaganda media empire which included The Washington Times, and was seemingly useful to the Reagan-era agenda.

Surely a secretive religious organization called “The Community” with a mysterious leader who may have become known as the “Second Coming Christ” among his followers deserves scrutiny from a “cult watch” perspective. Potential connections of such an organization to a model of past media businesses connected to intelligence services and propaganda also deserves reasonable consideration from a national security perspective.

Now, I am not trying to help Russia. But Russia Insider calls Newsweek a front for the CIA. Russia Insider is almost certainly connected to formal Russian political interests via a relationship with oligarch Konstantin Malofeev . I don’t buy the Newsweek accusation from RI. A person I believe may be a troll has been covered in Newsweek as the victim of Russian intelligence . Given Russia and LinkedIn’s troubled history, I have a hard time accepting that LinkedIn is working on behalf of the Kremlin at all, as some folks may argue. More like Russia is at war with LinkedIn.

On the other hand, Newsweek is not only seemingly obsessed with bitcoin, they are obsessed with Putin too.

Is there a connection between “David Jang’s Orthodoxy” and Vladimir Putin’s Orthodoxy? Or is Newsweek’s expose of bitcoin simply representative somehow of South Korean cultural interest in bitcoin reflected through the relationship with Jang? Maybe it is none of the above. Maybe I am down the rabbit hole in a hall of mirrors here.

Newsweek’s seeming mis-identification of Satoshi Nakamoto was widely considered a journalistic bellyflop. But Newsweek’s promotion of bitcoin comes very early in the cycle of the cryptocurrency product in a way which could be seen as contributing to an “awareness campaign” for bitcoin (much like ZeroHedge perhaps), and may align with Russian hybrid warfare interests (and a similar ‘awareness campaign’ in that regard).

1/22/2018 update: I just noticed last night that Newsweek got raided on Thursday 1/18/2018 by the Manhattan DA’s office (cached link) in relation to their relationship with Olivet! This has nothing to do with the n01r blog or Newsweek content but it was fortuitous timing.