Selective Leaks Of The #PanamaPapers Create Huge Blackmail Potential
A real leak of data from a law firm in Panama would be very interesting. Many rich people and/or politicians hide money in shell companies that such firms in Panama provide. But the current heavily promoted "leak" of such data to several NATO supporting news organization and a US government financed "Non Government Organization" is just a lame attempt to smear some people the U.S. empire dislikes. It also creates a huge blackmail opportunity by NOT publishing certain data in return for this or that desired favor.
Already some 16 month ago Ken Silverstein reported for Vice on a big shady shell company provider, Mossak Fonseca in Panama. (Pierre Omidyar's Intercept, for which Silverstein was then working, refused to publish the piece.) Yves Smith published several big stories about the Mossak Fonseca money laundering business. Silverstein also repeated the well known fact that Rami Makhlouf, a rich cousin of the Syrian president Assad, had some money hidden in Mossak Fonseca shell companies. He explains:
To conduct business, shell companies like Drex need a registered agent, sometimes an attorney, who files the required incorporation papers and whose office usually serves as the shell's address. This process creates a layer between the shell and its owner, especially if the dummy company is filed in a secrecy haven where ownership information is guarded behind an impenetrable wall of laws and regulations. In Makhlouf's case—and, I discovered, in the case of various other crooked businessmen and international gangsters—the organization that helped incorporate his shell company and shield it from international scrutiny was a law firm called Mossack Fonseca, which had served as Drex's registered agent from July 4, 2000, to late 2011.
A year ago someone provided tons of data from Mossak Fonseca to a German newpaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The Munich daily is politically on the center right and staunchly pro NATO. It cooperates with the Guardian, the BBC, Le Monde, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and some other news organization who are all known supporters of the establishment.
The Sueddeutsche claims that the "leaked" data is about some 214,000 shell companies and 14,000 Mossak Fonseca clients. There is surely a lot of hidden dirt in there. How many U.S. Senators are involved in such companies? Which European Union politicians? What are the big Wall Street banks and hedge funds hiding in Panama? Oh, sorry. The Sueddeutsche and its partners will not answer those questions. Here is how they "analyzed" the data:
The journalists compiled lists of important politicians, international criminals, and well-known professional athletes, among others. The digital processing made it possible to then search the leak for the names on these lists. The "party donations scandal" list contained 130 names, and the UN sanctions list more than 600. In just a few minutes, the powerful search algorithm compared the lists with the 11.5 million documents.For each name found, a detailed research process was initiated that posed the following questions: what is this person’s role in the network of companies? Where does the money come from? Where is it going? Is this structure legal?
Essentially the Sueddeutsche compiled a list of known criminals and people and organizations the U.S. dislikes and cross checked them with the "leaked" database. Selected hits were then further evaluated. The outcome are stories like the annual attempt to smear the Russian president Putin, who is not even mentioned in the Mossak Fonseca data, accusations against various people of the soccer association FIFA, much disliked by the U.S., and a few mentions of other miscreants of minor relevancy.
There is no story about any U.S. person, none at all, nor about any important NATO politician. The highest political "casualty" so far is the irrelevant Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson who, together with his wife, owned one of the shell companies. There is no evidence that the ownership or the money held by that company were illegal.
So where is the beef?
As former UK ambassador Craig Murray writes, the beef (if there is any at all) is in what is hidden by the organizations that manage the "leak":
The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include
Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) which is financed by the U.S. government through USAID.
The "leak" is of data selected by U.S. friendly organization out of a database, likely obtained by U.S. secret services, which can be assumed to include much dirt about "western" persons and organizations.
To only publish very selected data from the "leaked" data has two purposes:
- It smears various "enemies of the empire" even if only by association like the presidents Putin and Assad.
- It lets other important people, those mentioned in the database but not yet published about, know that the U.S. or its "media partner" can, at any time, expose their dirty laundry to the public. It is thereby a perfect blackmailing instrument.
The engineered "leak" of the "Panama Papers" is a limited hangout designed to incriminate a few people and organization the U.S. dislikes. It is also a demonstration of the "torture tools" to the people who did business with Mossak Fonseca but have not (yet) been published about. They are now in the hands of those who control the database. They will have to do as demanded or else ...
Posted by b on April 4, 2016 at 4:25 UTC | Permalink
next page »I would guess that it's not just a demonstration to those who did business with Mossak Fonseca but a demonstration to anyone with offshore accounts. If MosFon accounts can be leaked, so can accounts of other firms.
FYI, Commenters at ZeroHedge have also raised another possible "benefit" to the establishment: promoting of a cashless society.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 4 2016 4:58 utc | 3
The contrast between the treatment of the 'Panama papers' and the Unaoil scandal is noteworthy. Yves Smith at nakedcapitalism.com wrote about the media blackout wrt Unaoil.
b informs us that the data was provided to Sueddeutsche Zeitung a year ago. What took so long to publish it? Was the recent Unaoil scandal a factor in publication timing? As in: Hey look over here - a big(ger) scandal!!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 4 2016 5:16 utc | 4
Anonymous needs to go after this data instead of wasting its time trying to take down Donald Trump.
Thank you for the run down and excellent links.
Posted by: AnEducatedFool | Apr 4 2016 5:19 utc | 5
George Soros is at it again.
The UK media have put Putin abd Assad front and centre on this story. Regime change is still on for them both it appears.
I do wonder however whether this type of smear coming on the back of everything else that has happened to their individual countries, war, sanctions etc etc, whether their people are wise enough to ignore it and see it as part of the information war?
Posted by: James lake | Apr 4 2016 6:11 utc | 6
@b nice analysis of this "news leak" by the Empire's MSM. Your take on this is spot on IMHO.
IMHO-another one of the ways the Empire has perfected to keep its puppets in Europe and elsewhere in line when their puppet strings are to be pulled. I've often wondered what the Empire has on these puppet politicians (Merkel, Holland etc etc) to keep them toeing the line. The purpose of MSM exposes is two-fold. One to keep their established puppets in line, two - to demonize those country leaders that refuse to buckle under and bend over. #1 demon de jour in the eyes of the Empire right now, hands down, is of course President Putin.
IMHO- Tactics like these in the bag of tricks by the Empire are stop gap measures in the fight to keep the puppets tied to the petro-dollar. Thus real battle the Empire is facing is in the world's economic arena where the countries like Russia, China, Iran, India ? etc refuse to accept puppet status.
Posted by: curious | Apr 4 2016 6:21 utc | 7
I remember when The Guardian was in the actual news business. I had the same thought that b had when I read the articles over there. Nor should it go unnoticed that no comments were allowed for those particular articles. Half of their home page was taken up with a sinister picture of Putin framed in sickly yellow.
Thank goodness that they are protecting the privacy of the crooks not allied with Putin!
Posted by: chuckvw | Apr 4 2016 6:25 utc | 8
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35918844
~~~
Russian connection
It also reveals a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring that was run by a Russian bank and involved close associates of President Putin.
The operation was run by Bank Rossiya, which is subject to US and EU sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The documents reveal for the first time how the bank operates.
Money has been channelled through offshore companies, two of which were officially owned by one of the Russian president's closest friends.
Concert cellist Sergei Roldugin has known Vladimir Putin since they were teenagers and is godfather to the president's daughter Maria.
Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 4 2016 6:39 utc | 9
#9
So? An article on the bbc from a George Soros and USAID source and you quote it here?
I am actually really disappointed by the puppet status of the UK media.
Posted by: James lake | Apr 4 2016 6:57 utc | 10
If you read closely, The Guardian article says in a roundabout way that "all we have on Putin is that a friend his set up Panamanian companies more than thirty years ago, before 1985".
Asked about the offshore companies linked to him last week, Rodulgin said: “Guys, to be honest I am not ready to give comments now … These are delicate issues. I was connected to this business a long time ago. Before ‘perestroika’. It happened … And then it started growing and such things happened. The House of Music [in St Petersburg] is subsidised from this money.”http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore
Perestroika was 1985, iirc.
Posted by: passerby | Apr 4 2016 7:06 utc | 11
One could smell a rat - as soon as I saw that huffpost turned it into a Putin smear.
These guys will never tire of their deceptive ways.
This - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa - may have been one of the last time when Guardian was actually honest...
Posted by: GoraDiva | Apr 4 2016 7:26 utc | 12
bevin comments on the Craig Murray article:
bevin
April 4, 2016 at 01:49
” I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?”
Exactly.
The Guardian’s attempt to turn this into another anti-Putin rampage is a joke. The point is what do our politicians, our ruling class, do? What do these papers tell us about the people we are asked to vote for, and the people who own the corporations that dominate our societies?
Never mind Mugabe or Mubarak, or the Premier of Iceland, (or Bork for that matter) what do we know about Murdoch and the Cameron clan? What about The Guardian itself?
Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 4 2016 7:32 utc | 13
Or, another way to read the omissions, is cowardly Smithers but kissing the evil US empire showing how obedient and on point they are with their new waves of propaganda lies of omission. I would even bet that they needed no instructions from the evil US Empire about this Panama release.
These media whore of the empire have got a long history and very clear decades long understanding on which side of the evil they are on....THe US evil and its Western state minions.
The Western media clearly sees the ramping up of Cold War 2, and even WW3. They have chosen this side, exactly know their role, and salivate at pleasing their masters.
Posted by: tom | Apr 4 2016 7:53 utc | 14
USaid doing an Assange/Snowden! shouldnt they be arrested?
Posted by: brian | Apr 4 2016 7:54 utc | 15
The New Zealand papers are only really playing up the Malta Prime Ministers chief-of-staff & one of the Govt ministers involvement and the link to N.Z.'s tax avoidance facility (which our IRD dept has warned the govt about but been ignored) Of course our Prime Monster John Key - ex merchant banker on Wall St. - has poo pooed the whole thing - "nothing to see here, Move oalong. Clean Green & above reproach being the official NZG position
Couple of links to local stories. I have no doubt the Putin stuff will be "soon discovered" & written about.
Oh . . . I see our equivalent of the NYT & The Times have already done the Putin hit piece. Missed it earlier
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/78511167/Panama-papers-NZ-trusts-at-the-centre-of-Malta-money-scandal-Mossack-Fonseca-papers-show
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/300644/nz's-'world-class'-tax-system-defended
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11616372
Cheers
Chris In Ch-Ch
Posted by: kiwicris | Apr 4 2016 7:58 utc | 16
The Guardian article about Putin by Luke Harding was particularly fatuous. There was no real evidence, and yet it was headlined, along with the sinister yellow picture of Putin. I thought it discredited the whole project, if that's the best that can be done. They've had a year to put the story together, and apparently you can do searches on the 11.5 million items in the database quickly. Same with the story in the Independent: photo of Asad, and he's not even mentioned in the text. Though they say the name of Rami Makhlouf is in the database.
It's not surprising that the story is so feeble when we discover that the ICIJ is financed by USAID. It must be the equivalent of Human Rights Watch, i.e. organised by the US government as a quasi-independent entity to tacitly put over US policy.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 7:59 utc | 17
Thank you b. It was obvious from the beginning that that ICIJ is just a US Intel-"journalist" front. I notice that Iceland is a target too; they probably can't stand what Iceland did to her banks.
All of these "Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation"
are also documented as funding the AGW hoax, per the Congressional report 'The Chain of Environmental Command.'
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 4 2016 8:03 utc | 18
The engineered "leak" of the "Panama Papers" is a limited hangout designed to incriminate a few people and organization the U.S. dislikes. It is also a demonstration of the "torture tools" to the people who did business with Mossak Fonseca but have not (yet) been published about. They are now in the hands of those who control the database. They will have to do as demanded or else ...
This "leak" is proof positive(as if it needed)that all the spying on various leaders of governments and business has been about blackmail as a means to control all for the benefit of a few.
Posted by: alkomv | Apr 4 2016 8:05 utc | 19
@13
What about The Guardian itself?
The Guardian was the recipient of a "D Notice" when the HDDs with the Snowdon data were destroyed. Alan Rusbridger was given an offer he couldn't refuse and a new Editor In Chief was given control. It's been downhill all the way since then.
Posted by: alkomv | Apr 4 2016 8:11 utc | 20
Good response to the ludicrous Guardian piece on OffGuardian
Posted by: prosceptic | Apr 4 2016 8:12 utc | 21
As usual, Russia's Putin is ahead of the west's anti-Russia/Putin propaganda; this from March 28th, 2016 Fort Russ;
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/03/kremlin-warns-of-impending-information.html
Posted by: V. Arnold | Apr 4 2016 8:26 utc | 22
In fact, it's uncanny how spot on this above article is in fact.
Posted by: V. Arnold | Apr 4 2016 8:34 utc | 23
This focus is on Ukraine and its current leader president Poroshenko because he is the poster child for the US to battle oligarchs and corruption ahead of close cooperation with the European Union and the additional $335 million funding the military because NATO membership is still impending. This week the Dutch will vote for Ukraine's EU Association agreement ...
this could get interesting: did panamapapers break the law?
Mossack Fonseca responded by refusing to validate the information contained in the leaks and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by criminal and civil means. Representatives of the above mentioned officials weren't available for immediate comment.
Posted by: brian | Apr 4 2016 9:26 utc | 25
did panamapapers break the law?So what? All leaks break the law.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 9:51 utc | 26
Telesur must be enjoying this!
Macri not long on the job
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mauricio-Macri-Implicated-in-Massive-Offshore-Tax-Haven-Scandal-20160403-0026.html
Posted by: brian | Apr 4 2016 9:52 utc | 27
@26
only these leaks not by a lone rebel but by USAID backed CIA linked journalists...what sort of leaks would USAID support?
Posted by: brian | Apr 4 2016 9:55 utc | 28
Write them an email and let them know you're onto their selective leak and want some real reporting..I did.
https://www.occrp.org/en/contact?alias=general-inquiries
Posted by: Greg Bacon | Apr 4 2016 10:53 utc | 30
Now we know why Russia said this a week ago,
Kremlin warns of planned ‘information attack’ against Putin
https://www.rt.com/politics/337450-putins-spokesman-warns-of-fresh/
Nice sum b, although majority of western sheep will not understand the agenda behind the leak.
Posted by: Merde | Apr 4 2016 11:36 utc | 31
russian response
#Panamapapers leak nothing more than speculations, don't need response' - Kremlin spox http://on.rt.com/7927
Posted by: brian | Apr 4 2016 12:03 utc | 32
Is anyone asking who might have hacked into Mossack Fonseca's client database and found the names of the various client politicians and other significant people who had used MF's services to set up offshore accounts?
Surely MF's client database had to be very secure to prevent most everyday hackers from prying into it. Whoever was able to breach any cyber-security barrier and gain access to that database must have been a fairly sophisticated hacker or a hacker able to rely on hacking tools that, say, only an intelligence or surveillance agency could have given.
If the hacker had such an employer, that could explain why so far no US, EU, IMF, NATO, World Bank or UN officials, private corporations or individuals from the corporate world have not been mentioned in the Panama Papers. But governments should be on the alert that their politicians could very well be mentioned in another leak of similar emails from MF. The fact that the name of David Cameron's father appears in the Panama Papers suggests that the hacker may have seen names of prominent British politicians and British resident multi-millionaires and billionaires.
Posted by: Jen | Apr 4 2016 12:07 utc | 33
@15 Brian,
This does appear to be another Wikileaks/Snowden psyop, although not by right-wing Libertarians but by old money establishment ties working thru foundation vehicles?
This too at a time of the Paul Le Roux unraveling I posted in the open thread.
The Le Roux affair wreaks of a transnational criminal intelligence conspiracy which I think includes the German BND, Israeli Mossad, and US counterparts as well as peddling government-funded, military made software solutions to the public with Truecrypt, Tails, TOR, Redphone, etc. I'd like to see Cannonfire investigate this but even he too is drinking the Snowden kool-aid.
Posted by: Shadow Nine | Apr 4 2016 12:43 utc | 34
Some more thoughts on this story here: https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/some-thoughts-on-the-putin-corruption-story/
Posted by: KMF | Apr 4 2016 12:53 utc | 35
the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The Munich daily is politically on the center right and staunchly pro NATO.
Süddeutsche is certainly not "center right", rather center left. But that's only a smokescreen. Much like Springer's Die Welt and Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche got its publishing license right after the Allies took over Germany. That tells you everything you need to know. The political slant is only cover to confuse the rubes. The rule of thumb is that the more left-leaning the facade, the worse the intelligence agency collaboration. All these mainstream papers have deep CIA/NATO/Neocon connections.
Posted by: frin | Apr 4 2016 13:17 utc | 36
the giveaway were the Putin and Assad smears by association. that's all they had. and they scrambled over everything else in order to get that in first. how telling.
iceland got a beating also, for daring to put some bankers in jail.
like us say b, what about all the western pols, banks, organisations and companies?
these intel leaks are becoming so loathsome, just another tool with which to supress the real deal.
Posted by: frin | Apr 4 2016 13:34 utc | 37
another thing is, why now? is it frustration at having been stalled in Ukraine and Syria? is it an attempt to take down BRICS? Currently there are color revolutions being fostered in Brazil (code: yellow) and South Africa (Economic Freedom Foundation - code:red)
Posted by: frin | Apr 4 2016 13:43 utc | 38
Another recent data dump that is receiving no MSM attention ...
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/DCmadamdata.php#axzz44n8bGbaB
Posted by: ALberto | Apr 4 2016 13:48 utc | 40
Panama papers?Lets twist one up!
Wtf credibility could anything coming out of Panama possibly have?Its an American puppet.
Freedlands folly.
Posted by: dahoit | Apr 4 2016 13:53 utc | 41
Nice analysis and speculation, b. Given the selective nature, dubious origins, and thinly veiled Yankee agenda, I'm thinking of this story as Panama Pap. It's funny that the Gruaniad decided not to let its readers comment on the story. When it was interested in News it probably attracted critical thinkers who would be less than happy with the Graun's New Direction.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 4 2016 14:13 utc | 42
...
iceland got a beating also, for daring to put some bankers in jail.
...
Posted by: frin | Apr 4, 2016 9:34:17 AM | 37
Bullseye! Nice one! I'd forgotten about that.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 4 2016 14:23 utc | 43
I’m afraid that the Panama Papers will overshadow, and diminish the visibility, of the Unaoil matter, which is *directly* about bribery and corruption in the oil industry. To my mind, Unaoil is both politically and economically far more important.
After all, offshore accounts, shell companies, trusts, and even plain-in-yr face foreign accounts, are in most countries of the world, perfectly legal. Tax evasion has to be distinguished from tax ‘optimisation’ as the French say, and money laundering (i.e. dealing with the sources of illegitimate income or wealth) is another ball of wax.
Link is to part 1 - from the Age and HuffPo.
V. Arnold, 22, you beat me to it. (Impending ‘scandal’ about Putin.) The publishers of these early leaks have said there will be more revelations coming… However, their pick for the first ‘revelations’ is damning, and note there is no analysis whatsoever of what all this means.
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 4 2016 14:38 utc | 45
I'm starting to wonder whether this site is funded by the Russians.
Posted by: falcone | Apr 4 2016 14:38 utc | 46
@46 I think you may be on to something. If you watch closely you may spot some of MOA's leading posters...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXd3wX_USc
Posted by: dh | Apr 4 2016 14:44 utc | 47
WikiLeaks has a poll running on twitter with an interestingly formulated question:
Should we release all 11 million #PanamaPapers so everyone can search through them like our other publications?93% Yes, make them searchable
7% No, let media cherry pick41,308 Votes, 6 days left
Leaked leak? If this "investigation" went as we all suspect and then WikiLeaks comes along and releases the full archive - BOOOM! :oD
When b wrote: "is just a lame attempt to smear some people the U.S. empire dislikes" the rest of the post was just supporting details. That clause said all that needed to be understood about the 'stories emerging in the MSM."
So, as usual, thanks b.
Posted by: rg the lg | Apr 4 2016 14:49 utc | 49
Many thanks to b and commenters for placing this huge beast of a news story in proper context.
Desperately trying to get out 'ahead of the story' would be my perception of the selective targeting you describe.
Surely we ordinary people are becoming wise to these tactics after so much disinformation was spewed
(if I may descend to such a descriptive level) on Ukraine and Syria by the so-called news
organizations that we shouldn't need reminding about their character - but what do they have left
to do? One tactic has to be to obfuscate, with tangled webs of complicity taking time for
stressed and exhausted minds to sort out the muddle. I doubt I could have done so on my own.
Again, thank you.
Posted by: juliania | Apr 4 2016 14:53 utc | 50
@5: i'm a little suspicious about Anonymous. If they really were a rogue outfit, surely every major intel angency would be after them by now. who are their real handlers?
Posted by: frin | Apr 4 2016 14:57 utc | 51
For those who are interested, the Angry Arab points to a good list of the Arabs in the Panama Papers. All the most unpleasant rich men, particularly in Saudi and the Gulf. The only Syrians are Rami and Hafez Makhlouf, the businessmen of the Asad family. Not of course Asad himself; that seems to have been just a smear.
By the way, Craig Murray's site has become inaccessible this afternoon. DDOS attack, I should think, after the post last night on the Panama Papers that was so widely read.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 15:01 utc | 52
Noirette | Apr 4, 2016 10:38:28 AM | 45
Yes, we have to be nimble; able to pivot on a dime; such is the world of dis-information and obfuscation.
Many skirmishes, many battles, but victory is elusive in this battle of ideologies.
Cheers and never give up...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Apr 4 2016 15:06 utc | 53
@51
AFAIK (from memory only), they were 'busted' by FBI (most of the main people were arrest). Ever since what they do seems a bit strange, weak, suspect.
I remember soon after they were 'busted' they had some trove of material that they released on Bank of America that was supposed to be big news. Nothing came of it. Maybe those who downloaded it (I didn't) got put on some list?
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 4 2016 15:07 utc | 54
falcone @46
Probably one of the silliest comments that I have ever seen.
1) It's not unpatriotic to question the motives of our puppet leaders and their lackeys.
2) We are not at war with Russia. And those who try to push confrontation/conflict seem to be corrupt, greedy NWO bastards that we owe no allegiance to.
3) Legitimate concerns have been raised here (and elsewhere).
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 4 2016 15:28 utc | 55
Xymphora has devoted his entire 4/4 posting to the Panama Pap. There is an almost unlimited range of possibilities and I suspect that PP will become the "gift that keeps on giving" for the perps and the intended targets. PP's meme is "bigger than wikileaks" but if wikileaks gets hold of it the perps will wish they'd never been born...
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 4 2016 15:55 utc | 56
I'm really happy B wrote this. I thought this wreaked of a defamation campaign aimed at leaders the US hopes to depose the second i saw it. The main stories about this mention no American officials. Sure. Americans are all good. They talk about CEOs of fortune five hundred companies people from the forbes list of the richest in the world but actually mention none of them.
Go to hell Soros
Posted by: alaric | Apr 4 2016 16:27 utc | 57
I am reminded of The Guardian and Greenwald and the slow drip of Snowden Stories and the promise of big things to come which amounted to nothing. (Except a big league pay day for Greenwald).
Absolute corruption, pay to play, billionaire backroom deal making, legalizing the illegal...
False memes, limited hangouts, head fakes, diversions, false flags...
Consolidated Mainstream Media "reports" in lockstep.
"Progressive", Reagan-loving, Nobel Prize President folds like a lawn chair - unable to do anything to benefit the common citizen (his hands are tied!) yet pushing the most nefarious "Trade Agreement" in world history. The corruption is systemic. Blackmail cannot be discounted as a conspiracy theory. Blackmail dovetails well with a corrupt and broken system. This one will keep the players in line and corral any strays back into the pen.
Chances are that no one high up the political chain will be revealed any time soon to suffer any consequences.
Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 4 2016 17:04 utc | 58
It was lucky that Mark Ames asked Richard Silverstein about his Mossack Fonseca piece for Vice. It lead to Silverstein saying that Omidyar refused to publish and then confiscated his fee from Vice.
Ames and Yasha Levine do great work, I wish they were more well known and were properly compensated.
And thank you b, for your refined media ops instincts
Posted by: Cresty | Apr 4 2016 17:12 utc | 59
PANAMA PAPERS HOAX EXPLAINED: BLAME PUTIN
The Panama Papers infowar operation follows the same model as the infamous 'Caesar Torture Photos' from Syria.
- Claim a massive leak of data. However never reveal any of the raw data to the public.
- Search the data for 'Assad's crimes' or 'Putin's crimes'. Claim that you found 'proof'.
- Make massive public propaganda about your leak and your 'find'. Display it at the National Holocaust Museum. (Yes, REALLY!) Accuse Assad and Putin.
Putin or Assad are not once mentioned in the documents. Yet all the news coverage concentrates on them. The main page on the leak investigation by OCCRP names Putin on row 2. It then goes on to repeat the unsubstantiated and totally off-topic accusations of Assad 'killing his own people'.
A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies. The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians...The page then goes on to accuse people the US has blacklisted for its geopolitical reasons. Add some innuendo about 'Mexican drug lords'.
They also include at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the U.S. government because of evidence that they’ve done business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.
...and 'Assad killing his own people.'
One of those companies supplied fuel for the aircraft that the Syrian government used to bomb and kill thousands of its own citizens, U.S. authorities have charged.
Note, that the data was shared by 2 organizations with a history of blaming Putin: ICTJ, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. OCCRP in the East plays a role similar to alternative media in the West. Except that OCCRP is funded by Soros and USAID. Western corporate media protects the rich 1%. Western alternate media would have found the data useful, but they were never given access to the data.
The 'leak' is most likely yet another an infowar operation by the CIA and NSA against BRICS!
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Apr 4 2016 17:15 utc | 60
You can call this dead-on-arrival. The hypocrisy involved in this so-called leak is transparent, only fools would pay it any serious attention.
Posted by: Anionym | Apr 4 2016 17:33 utc | 61
I think we should encourage this sort of behaviour. It's the elite eating their own; let's see it escalate. Soon there will be material on the USA; etc.
Posted by: Bakerpete | Apr 4 2016 17:40 utc | 62
Tax evasion money laundering and governmental failure to do anything about it are three components PLUS Ngo sellouts controlling the narrative.
DEMAND ALL DOCUMENTS BE RELEASED IN SEARCHABLE FORM.
Start petitions DEMANDING DOJ act - and don't let your interest wan.
drug money laundering, procurement of nuclear materials and SLAVERY/sex trafficking profits are all being legitimized by bent lawyers and greedy banks. HSBC 3.0.
It's up to us. Ten percent of Iceland is in the streets as I type - the revoution won't be televised; but it will be livestreamed.
Demand a ALL the DOCUMENTS for ALL of us! #CoughThemUp ...
Posted by: Virginia Simson | Apr 4 2016 18:11 utc | 63
I wish all the msm were as enthusiatic as they are now during the ourbreak of wikileaks and other such leaks. If the bbc, cnn and all the discredited western media houses are pushing this sh*t, you know something's up.
They're effectively going after all enemies of the trans-atlantic mafia... Fact is, many policy makers, lobbyists and assorted posers all hide their stolen loot offshore for a rainy day.. taxes are for the peasants!!!
Posted by: Zico | Apr 4 2016 18:47 utc | 64
The more I think about it, the Panama papers may have been a mistake by the anti-Russian party in the US. I'm not quite sure whether it was an American leak, or from elsewhere. But they've had a year to get their story right. But it has gone disastrously wrong. The attribution to Putin is unconvincing, even less to Asad. On the other hand it's raised the question of who is stashing money through these people. That story will run and run, always raising questions of who is at it, as mentioned by VS in 63.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 18:52 utc | 66
Off Guardian has a good analogy / analysis of this:
"Certain species of lizard – when threatened, cornered or in danger of being eaten – have the ability to “drop” their tail. This process, “Autotomy” (from the Greek, auto=self, tome=severing), enables the lizard to flee whilst the predator gets a brief distraction and small meal. The lizard survives. Tails grow back.
A simple, efficient survival method. The body ejects a replaceable part in protection of the vital whole. Easily adapted for the “Grand Chess Board”. Pinochet, the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein. All have played their part, only to be dropped when it became convenient. Despots and puppets grow back, too."
I'm getting the impression that as in the fable of "the boy cries wolf", too many of these psyops are taking place now and the public are starting to realize, slowly, that they are being mislead. "You can fool the some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time" as the saying goes. This whole system relies on the public's trust in it, once that trust fades so the system loses its omnipotence and will collapse due to the public's rebellion and rejection of it. This is what the 1% understand and are preparing for. The fact that, in their selfish arrogance, they need to use these methods on the public mass indicates their fear of the power of the masses to destroy them; that they are using this misinformation technique more frequently reveals that they see that point in time is drawing nearer.
Posted by: Dean | Apr 4 2016 18:59 utc | 67
When I read the name Mitt Romney or Anybody Clinton in association with the 'Panama Papers' then I will give it a read. Till such time arrives, heh, I will assume that this is just another in a long line of Fourth Reich controlled disinformation.
Is this just presstitute generated noise used to cover up the late Washington Madam Deborah Palfrey's full data spill of her client list? A list that includes client Ted Cruz the Golman Sachs hand puppet?
https://themarshallreport.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/cruz-why-is-your-number-on-the-list-of-d-c-madam/
Posted by: ALberto | Apr 4 2016 19:12 utc | 68
@61 That's the point. The gatekeepers willfully ignore the realities of the news focal-point, because the agenda is all that matters. With 'proof', the agenda is laid and policy action can be taken.
The policy does not need any authorization from the nebulous entity known as 'the public'; it needs only a pretext. There may be detractors in the media, but they will be ignored/counterpointed, then eventually fall by the wayside once the act is rendered.
Posted by: aaaa | Apr 4 2016 19:16 utc | 69
I know you lot are not very interested in British affairs, but even so, I thought the trashing of Craig Murray's blog (www.craigmurray.org.uk) this morning a significant event. It was classic DDOS - first the site became unreliable, then it disappeared entirely. Murray, you will remember, was a British ambassador who was sacked for complaining about the brutalities of Islamkarimov in Uzbekistan. Excellent knowledge of diplomatic procedures, but rather a renegade these days.
Last night he wrote a critical commentary of the Panama Papers affair, the first or one of the first. This morning his site is trashed. There's some sensitivity there. Since then, the anti-Putin line has been pretty well rubbished, as Putin's name is not in the data-base, and there's no proof. The same wouldn't be done now.
Not difficult to imagine what happened. Immediate fury at criticism. Orders given out to the agency hackers to trash the site. The order carried out this morning. Only, um, they discover that the point of view is widespread and cannot be stopped.
The agency hackers weren't that bothered, as there is a gap of 8-10 hours between the post and the trashing. When they came into work at 9 am Eastern time.
Murray's site is still not up: after all, he only has his personal resources.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 20:20 utc | 70
@laguerre #70, https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ works for me right now.
Sometimes especially with personal websites it happens that when one is in the "trending" news, a DDoS happens all of its own (distributed - by real people - storm of service requests which can't be served). In Germany this is nicknamed a Heise-DDoS after the widely popular IT magazine publisher Heise's website which has brought down countless websites through mentioning them in their articles over the years. Would be my guess here as well.
@3 Jackrabbit
Is ZeroHedge comment section the world's most difficult web site to read or what? I would have liked to read their proposals but I just can't read those damned comments it's so messed up with one or two words per line.
Posted by: Joanne Leon | Apr 4 2016 20:35 utc | 72
Laguerre @70
I got to site from a US-based connection.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 4 2016 20:36 utc | 73
Oh dear. USSA-ZWO is really scrape-ing the barrel bottom for some mud to sling around. Panama? Really? Hallowed birthplace of John McCain? Where Zionists and CIA cavort? This story is fucking hilarious. Cuz the average 'Merican won't read past the first 2 lines. They couldn't care less about Iceland. Or how much money Putin's friends deposit. In Panama. Yawn. American's are ONLY interested in 1) shutting off their tax dollars to ISIS and NATO (same thing), 2) depriving Trumps ex-wife of illegal hispanic household help and 3) watching UNC beat the shit outta those fucking catholics from that 3rd rate school. Oh. And sending more chalk to college fraternities so they can write 'TRUMP 2016' all over campus Safe-Spaces.
The Tribe gets more desperate and hilarious every day.
Posted by: 4H | Apr 4 2016 20:40 utc | 74
So if this is a limited hangout "leak" and Silverstein wanted to publish it at the Intercept but they wouldn't, what does that say about Omidyar and the Intercept and Silverstein? I think people's first assumption was that they didn't want to publish information about tax havens, money laundering and oligarchs but couldn't it also indicate that Silverstein was trying to worm a limited hangout "leak" into the Intercept and they recognized it for what it was and wouldn't publish it? On the other hand, if that was the case, why did they have Silverstein working for them at all? Unless Silverstein was a a so called "useful idiot" who didn't realize his source was handing him a controlled leak/limited hangout.
I hate to use the term limited hangout because it feels like conspiracy theory realm stuff, but I guess it is the established term for this old as the hills technique.
But if we're going there, then do we assume that the 100 media organizations and 400 journalists involved in the Panama Papers project are all just "useful idiots" grabbing at this sensational project because of the attention and the scoop, and maybe the desire to expose real corruption? Or is it possible that, at least the lead media organizations, are more likely to have ties with the CIA, in the kind of situation that Carl Bernstein wrote about the "Mighty Wurlitzer"? http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
Posted by: Joanne Leon | Apr 4 2016 20:46 utc | 75
64 I wish all the msm were as enthusiastic as they are now during the ourbreak of wikileaks and other such leaks. If the bbc, cnn and all the discredited western media houses are pushing this sh*t, you know something's up.
The consolidated MSM has no real enthusiasm for any given topic. It is literally owned by members of the elite 1/2 percent. The owners dictate to the worker bees what to print and what to broadcast. Once the Republican-ordered and Democrat-approved media consolidation was complete, the owners fired anyone with a 1/2 a brain. Only droids, stenographers and craven assholes like Geraldo Rivera are employed.
The Panama Money Laundering Nazi Law Office of Shell Corps and some "teasers" have been exposed purposefully for reasons which have been pointed out.
Posted by: fast freddy | Apr 4 2016 21:03 utc | 76
@75 I think we need to know more about Silverstein's source. Why the leak? Why now? And what was the motivation? Did the leaker want to bash Putin and a few 'bad guys' or was he/she hoping to shine some light on the 'respectable' citizens who hide their assets offshore?
Posted by: dh | Apr 4 2016 21:07 utc | 77
Text As soon as the Washington Madam X notebook is released it will be followed by the PanamaPapers.
Posted by: hal | Apr 4 2016 21:11 utc | 78
Agree with Petri Khron! This is vintage Putinophobia propaganda. I am sick of it. I think that truth will overcome❗️
Posted by: Robert Perschmann | Apr 4 2016 21:21 utc | 79
USAID has a history of doing dirty work for the CIA. CIA Front, USAID, “Spreading Democracy”, Gearing Up in Ukraine – Suharto II?
Posted by: lysias | Apr 4 2016 21:21 utc | 80
re 71 and 73, Murray is still out for me, even after rebooting. Perhaps I'm wrong. We'll see what he has to say later. Overload could happen.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 21:31 utc | 81
Blackmail or incentivizing or both? What better way to secure new clients than to cast sunlight on MFs, as I'm sure with all of the other havens, technological vulnerabilities such as a massive leak of confidential client accounts.
From the post - "As Bloomberg writes, "last September, at a law firm overlooking San Francisco Bay, Andrew Penney, a managing director at Rothschild & Co., gave a talk on how the world’s wealthy elite can avoid paying taxes. His message was clear: You can help your clients move their fortunes to the United States, free of taxes and hidden from their governments. Some are calling it the new Switzerland."
And take a guess what global technology firm is invested in this new Rothschild firm? I won't spoil it b/c you may want to read the article - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-27/how-rothschilds-made-america-their-private-tax-fraud-backyard
I wonder where 'journalists' in the pay of the CIA/MI6 hide their ill-gotten gains? Presumably not Mossack Fonseca.
Posted by: Yonatan | Apr 4 2016 21:39 utc | 83
It could also be seen as a way of directing clients to the ultimate corrupt off-shore tax haven (for non-US citizens) - the US.
I wonder how many Russian oligarchs are on the list?
Posted by: Yonatan | Apr 4 2016 21:41 utc | 84
@Laguerre #81, one of those "down for me or everybody" sites also says "It's just you", indicating that the site is up. Maybe that's an internal UK censorship?
Corbett has some interesting thoughts on this leak as well, particularly about some "common reporting standards" the OECD had problems getting Panama to comply with two months ago as reported by The Economist. I take Corbett with a grain of salt but admiration for his fast working mind and huge information pool to pull from.
frin @38 - why now?
Russia is exposing Turkey, a NATO member, as the main supplier of weapons for ISIS - buried that quickly.
Turkey is supporting the US-encouraged agression of Azerbaijan against Nagarno-Karabakh. It is sending military advisors and allowing ISIS members to cross over to Azerbaijan - bury that too.
Posted by: Yonatan | Apr 4 2016 21:46 utc | 87
It takes so little money for CIA/MI6 to bribe journalists that they don't have the money to offshore.
Posted by: lysias | Apr 4 2016 21:49 utc | 88
Think the Russians did this? Personal data of 50 million Turkish citizens, incl Erdogan’s reportedly leaked online:
A database reportedly containing the personal information of nearly 50 million Turkish citizens, including that of the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was posted online by a hacking group. The database, which comprises 49,611,709 documents, was posted on the website of an Icelandic group that specializes in divulging leaks on Monday.Hacktivists claim the leaked information uploaded in the 6.6 GB file includes the first and last names, parents’ names, national ID number, gender, place of birth, date of birth, full address, current city and district of those in the database.
Posted by: lysias | Apr 4 2016 21:52 utc | 89
re 86.
one of those "down for me or everybody" sites also says "It's just you", indicating that the site is up. Maybe that's an internal UK censorship?Of course, if a site is "down for me" but "up for you", it is self-evident that the problem is in my machine, not in Murray's. We'll see what he says.
Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 4 2016 22:05 utc | 90
Craig's site has been flooded with visitors today. So you may just have tried to enter it at a bad moment.
Posted by: lysias | Apr 4 2016 22:34 utc | 91
lysias @88 - You are right. I forgot the old adage that one should not be surprised that politicians (journalists) can be bought, rather we should be surprised at how cheaply they can be bought.
I suspect the Russians were not surprised by this fakerage (fake outrage).
28 March Kremlin warns of planned ‘information attack’ against Putin
https://www.rt.com/politics/337450-putins-spokesman-warns-of-fresh/
29 Mar Planned smear attacks on Putin are last-ditch Western attempt to destabilize Russia, claim MPs
https://www.rt.com/politics/337575-planned-attack-on-putin-is/
Posted by: Yonatan | Apr 4 2016 22:36 utc | 92
Laguerre: accessing Craig Murray's blog was no trouble for me (here in Australia) but if you live in the UK, your access problem might be due to internal UK censorship.
CM's most recent piece is "Disgraceful BBC Panorama Propaganda Hides Grim Truth About Britain". Would this be something the UK government might try to suppress, knowing that everyone in the UK who owns a TV set must pay a licence fee to the BBC?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
Text only:
'Richard Bilton of the BBC today exposed himself as the most corrupt and bankrupt of state media shills – while pretending to be fronting an expose of corruption. There could not be a more perfect example of the western state and corporate media pretending to reveal the Panama leak data while actually engaging in pure misdirection.
In a BBC Panorama documentary entitled Tax Havens of the Rich and Powerful Exposed, they actually did precisely the opposite. The BBC related at length the stories of the money laundering companies of the Icelandic PM and Putin’s alleged cellist. The impression was definitely given and reinforced that these companies were in Panama.
Richard Bilton deliberately suppressed the information that all the companies involved were in fact not Panamanian but in the corrupt British colony of the British Virgin Islands. At no stage did Bilton even mention the British Virgin Islands.
Company documents were flashed momentarily on screen, in some cases for a split second, and against deliberately unclear backgrounds. There is no chance that 99.9% of viewers would notice they referred to British Virgin Islands companies. But instantly reading a glimpsed document is an essential skill for a career diplomat, and of course I happen to know immediately what BVI or Tortola mean on a document. So I have been back and got screenshots of those brief flashes ...
[Screenshots]
... Is it not truly, truly, astonishing the British Virgin Islands were not even mentioned when the BBC broadcast their “investigation” of these documents?
In deliberately obscuring the key role of the British money-laundering base of British Virgin Islands in these transactions, the BBC have demonstrated precisely why the entire database has to be released to the scrutiny of the people, rather than being filtered by the dubious honesty of state and corporate journalists. The BBC targeting of two very low level British minions at the end of their programme does not alter this.
The BBC could also address why their Pacific Quay HQ in Glasgow is leased for £100 million from a hidden ownership company in the Cayman Islands.'
Posted by: Jen | Apr 4 2016 23:04 utc | 93
The question seems to be, will the data ever 'fall' into credible hands? It appears that it was given to Sueddeutsche Zeitung and that they turned over possibilities for its use for a year, in consultation with the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment, the Rockefeller Family Fund, the W K Kellogg Foundation, the Open Society Foundation (Soros), and ... oh yeah, the US and all the NATO governments.
If the data are real, other analysts can discover the US presidents, senators, ceos, etc with offshore accounts in Panama.
If the data never fall into credible hands the whole episode can be dismissed as a play by someone ... the CIA?, competitive tax havens? the above named endowments/funds/foundations?/all of the above? ... for what it is.
A data dump is a data dump. So far, this is a selective cull at best ... not unlike the culled results now delivered the food & drug administration in the US by Big Pharma.
Merck killed 19 times as many Americans with Vioxx than the 9/11 hijackers did with their planes, according to David Graham, MD, of the FDA. And it was intentional. Early clinical trials had alerted Merck executives to the fact that Vioxx caused coronary damage. Their response was to exclude from future trials anyone with a history of heart trouble. Once Vioxx was on the market, Merck suppressed indications that it was causing strokes and heart attacks at twice the normal rate.
The corporate disease is endemic, and NGOs are just corporations without shareholders, all their 'profits' are paid out in salaries. The continued existence of the corporation itself is the sole aim. And that depends upon their utility to their contributors ... the corporations and their shareholders who do, often literally, 'make money' and take profits.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 4 2016 23:13 utc | 94
Lovely TV interview on UK Channel 4 news tonight. A Russian guest said it is well known that CIA run Panama, then some of the other guests got stuck into the British involvement with money cleaning. You get a sense that we are waiting for other names to be caught in this net, instead of the usual suspects. "Oops!Didn't see that one coming"
Posted by: midan | Apr 4 2016 23:37 utc | 95
It's actually pretty desperate looking stuff from the western MSM. All that data...and all that is managed upon first look is a Putin/Assad smear that doesn't even connect the dots...?
Haha, that's not journalism....that's Fleet St For Idiots 1.01 at best, criminal negligence at worst.
Posted by: MadMax2 | Apr 4 2016 23:38 utc | 96
Nah, Putin is not the target here. I b'lieve I read all this stuff
about Putin during the Friends of Syria meetings/negotiations.
Remember when they outed his daughter, about where she was & her &
Putin's money. They even mentioned the godfather. At the time I
commented that it was possible that outing her whereabouts was a form
of pressure on Putin during the meetings.
Frin has the right question, "Why now?" Unlikely this is being done
just to harm somebody. More likely to affect future events.
They're not mentioning Erdogan in connex w these leaks, yet? I STILL
think they want to partition Turkey. They are puposely greatly
weakening the economies of both US & EU. This leaves Turkey too
strong by comparison.
Well, it's a mystery what the purpose of this is. Don't think we've
seen it yet.
Fast Freddy, I think you're right about Snowden. Probably
a CIA op against the NSA getting too powerful. I think Sibel
Edmonds had an informed theory about it.
Posted by: Penelope | Apr 5 2016 0:04 utc | 97
@41 dh 'Panama papers ...'
Telesur reminds us ...
1. That in 1903, the administration of Theodore Roosevelt created the country after bullying Colombia to hand over what was then the province of Panama. Roosevelt acted at the behest of various banking groups, among them J. P. Morgan & Co., which was appointed as the country’s official ‘fiscal agent’.”
2. That according to an in-depth research report published by the Financial Secrecy Index,“The history of Panama as a tax haven started ... when it began to register foreign ships to help Standard Oil escape U.S.-American taxes and regulations. Offshore finance followed in 1927, when Wall Street interests helped Panama introduce lax company incorporation laws, which let anyone start tax-free, anonymous corporations, with few questions asked.”
3. According to various reports, including one by Tax Justice Network, the U.S. is one of the country's mainly responsible for tax evasion of huge corporations and multinationals, which along with U.S.-backed dictators and high-level politicians, have up to US$32 trillion hidden in tax havens.
4. Many of the roots of the current global economic crisis can be traced back to offshore financial centers located in offshore tax havens.
@45 Noirette
thanks for the reminder on unaoil
Unaoil: THE COMPANY THAT BRIBED THE WORLD is the link without the man-in-the-middle.
@57 alaric
I'm really happy b wrote this too. In fact there is nothing that I can remember that I wish he had not written. Thank you b. Please keep up your good work.
@60 Petri
Thanks for all your posts. Here and elsewhere ... but especially here, so easily and likely to be seen by me :) You put in the time and deliver the goods.
@67 Dean
This whole system relies on the public's trust in it, once that trust fades so the system loses its omnipotence and will collapse due to the public's rebellion and rejection of it. This is what the 1% understand and are preparing for. The fact that, in their selfish arrogance, they need to use these methods on the public mass indicates their fear of the power of the masses to destroy them; that they are using this misinformation technique more frequently reveals that they see that point in time is drawing nearer.
You've said a mouthful there. I no longer believe anything in the news, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's always been a question of how much and in which direction the news is spun, but nowadays its a question if there's any 'there' there at all. I suppose I should be more tolerant of pen's hoax, hoax, hoax everywhere, but its the 'subtler' ones - the real ones, in my opinion - like this one that do the pervasive, longterm damage to the public discourse : they still allow 'free speech' so that they can push their bogus 'human rights' pogrom yet because all faith is lost and nothing is believed, nothing is communicated, as at the proverbial Tower of Babel.
The only system that is irreplaceable is the one between actual living, breathing humans in direct contact with one another, and we can nurture and expand that system. Use it to construct and replace the system of lies and distrust our 'leaders' have presently crafted for us. And b provides this forum which serves exactly that purpose.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 5 2016 0:13 utc | 98
@45 Noirette
From your link ...
The leaked files reveal that some people in these firms believed they were hiring a genuine lobbyist, and others who knew or suspected they were funding bribery simply turned a blind eye.
That one was good for a laugh!
The leaked files expose as corrupt two Iraqi oil ministers, a fixer linked to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, senior officials from Libya’s Gaddafi regime, Iranian oil figures, powerful officials in the United Arab Emirates and a Kuwaiti operator known as “the big cheese”.
Oh, oh. This exposé is beginning to smell like limburger itself ... but you can see I've just started, and it's only part 1 of 3.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 5 2016 1:13 utc | 99
Why is David Cameron's father on list? No news Cameron's family is dirty. But why are they being exposed?
Is it to punish Cameron because his Brexit plebiscite?
Posted by: Nick | Apr 5 2016 1:39 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
thanks b...
i think you are reading this exactly correct... smear, blackmail, and an ongoing managed leak from the likes of these creepy organizations tells anyone all they need to know..
"Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation"
Posted by: james | Apr 4 2016 4:40 utc | 1