Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive leak of their documents ought to be a wonderful thing.
Unfortunately the leaker has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results. In consequence the first major story, published today by the Guardian, is all about Vladimir Putin and a cellist on the fiddle. As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.
But why focus on Russia? Russian wealth is only a tiny minority of the money hidden away with the aid of Mossack Fonseca. In fact, it soon becomes obvious that the selective reporting is going to stink.
The Suddeutsche Zeitung, which received the leak, gives a detailed explanation of the methodology the corporate media used to search the files. The main search they have done is for names associated with breaking UN sanctions regimes. The Guardian reports this too and helpfully lists those countries as Zimbabwe, North Korea, Russia and Syria. 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)
among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.
Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.
The corporate media – the Guardian and BBC in the UK – have exclusive access to the database which you and I cannot see. They are protecting themselves from even seeing western corporations’ sensitive information by only looking at those documents which are brought up by specific searches such as UN sanctions busters. Never forget the Guardian smashed its copies of the Snowden files on the instruction of MI6.
What if they did Mossack Fonseca database searches on the owners of all the corporate media and their companies, and all the editors and senior corporate media journalists? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on all the most senior people at the BBC? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every donor to the Center for Public Integrity and their companies?
What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every listed company in the western stock exchanges, and on every western millionaire they could trace?
That would be much more interesting. 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?
And what if you corporate lapdogs let the people see the actual data?
UPDATE
Hundreds of thousands of people have read this post in the 11 hours since it was published – despite it being overnight here in the UK. There are 235,918 “impressions” on twitter (as twitter calls them) and over 3,700 people have “shared” so far on Facebook, bringing scores of new readers each.
I would remind you that this blog is produced free for the public good and you are welcome to republish or re-use this article or any other material freely anywhere without requesting further permission.
Almost every TV detective show I ever saw said, “Follow the money”. From the deafening crackle and roar of the not so distant vast wildfire; I think we can infer someone has taken that thought to its natural conclusion. The Little Emperors’ now realise they’re stark naked. They find themselves trapped in a crazy Mexican standoff. But with barrels of sh*t in place of revolvers. The more you is hit the faster you wanna throw. Game theory fans are salivating. In light of this I think a Raw Dump is way too reckless. Eventually it’s all gonna come out. Though with 11.5 million files this has gotta be the DeepWater Horizon of leaks. Hope panDora the Explorer is A-Okay.
Ps Will Casper be a friendly ghost??
It’s so obvious that it would take fool to have a doubt about what they say about the so called “exposure.” LOL!
Putin bent?
By: gerryhiles
Quote: “As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.”
Oh really. Proof? I stopped reading, just skimmed a little and, sure, it’s ridiculous to pillory Russia to distract from the “West” … BUT/so why feed the beast?
I have a fairly well placed Russian friend who wrote to me a couple of weeks ago and I will give you a partial quote:
“My faith in my leader is not a blind one – Putin has my faith because he has never given me any reason for doubt!
I am told by my non-Russian friends that I should not take it so personally and not let it upset me so. They do not understand. Every citizen of Russia IS Russia Herself, and when our leader or our culture is wrongly criticised, we take it personally because it is WE who are being criticised!
Please forgive my rant. I am still very angry this morning.”
From everything I know, quite a lot, I have every reason, so far, to endorse this and condemn the unsupported assertion that “Putin is bent”.
He would not bother to sue you, he would just laugh. He has been savaged by far more dangerous sheep than you. The day I am proved wrong will be the day I burn my Tee shirt and totally give up … huge numbers of people everywhere feel quite similarly, despite the MSM and the likes of you disinforming “on the sly”. Go spout in Damascus, see how you get on!!
Putins as bent as the sickle on the flag of the USSR. He’s a murderor and is responsible for 1000s of deaths in Ukraine. He quickly bailed out of Syria when people in his own party started raising issue with his tactics. Embargoes are crippling Russia and now that oil is losing value he’s totally and utterly screwed as the entire economy is based on projections of oil value. Not only is he ruining the country now he’s setting it up for hundreds of years of misery for future generations, that’s if his constant military piss taking doesn’t start WW3 first.
Ahh, another government controlled troll.
get with the bbc programme david everyone knows putin strangles kittens not only that he laughs with tears in his eyes when he does it.
how can you be so blind to this russian empire city of london and tel aviv menace.
i smell a mossad in a mossack
i smell blackmail and goy hit
“ PRESIDENT: You think, you think we want to, want to go this route now? And the–let it hang out, so to speak?
DEAN: Well, it’s, it isn’t really that–
HALDEMAN: It’s a limited hang out.
DEAN: It’s a limited hang out.
EHRLICHMAN: It’s a modified limited hang out.
PRESIDENT: Well, it’s only the questions of the thing hanging out publicly or privately.
A “limited hangout” is the deliberate revelation of some information (i.e. about malfeasance) to try to prevent discovery of other information.
Evidence!
I know, you haven’t got any. But let’s say it anyway!
You are so blind,ignorant and stupid in your distorted views of reality.The issue in the Ukraine began with a US backed coup.Putin was not the aggressor.It was your friend the good old US.
Propaganda much? You do realise we are constantly being lied to by our ‘free’ press?
Very well said Gerry Hiles, this morning the first I noticed were the countries named, Russia, Syrian and Iran, by media. I think a lot of the world knows what is happening. Media can be as corrupt as the ‘bent’ Panama elite. It will be up to the people now.
I am from Russia and I disagree. Me and all of my friends are witnesses of thieving government and president himself. Putin is the most hateful person among russian citizens. A several recent causes are:
1. Crimea intervention which lead to sanctions. That means no quality food from Europe, no cheap money for banks – credits get more expensive, mortgage is almost impossible.
2. No economic diversification has been made in rich years, and now when oil prices dropped our currency is weak, so everyone pay rate is double less than it used to be, if expressed in dollars – and almost every price in shop is connected to $, so everything is more expensive now.
This is not a life, it is a struggle.
Sounds like you’ve been reading ‘Open Russia’ sites. I am in contact with Russians and Russian speakers and your unsubstantiated view is very much in the minority, in the mould of Nemtsov.
BS Frontline did a great expose on the little Putin and concluded he was probably a billionaire from corrupt dealings. See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/putins-way/
It’s so obvious that it would take a fool to have a doubt about what they say about the so called “exposure.” LOL!
The Royal Bank of Canada was mentioned .
The BBC is a publicly owned company. Surely a request for the entire document under a freedom of information request can’t be denied?
As a UK serviceman who deployed to Iraq is very much like to see how Tony Blair did on the back of the lies he peddled for years. After having been to Afghan too if be curious to know of Cameron’s links to firms that did very well out of military contracts.
http://usuncut.com/politics/panama-papers-bernie-sanders-white-house/
[mod: caught in spam filter at 04:04, timestamp updated]
Chris:
There are documents that link Cameron to the Ponzi fake shell oil & gas shell company fraud at 788-790 Finchley Road. 250,000 companies have been formed at this address alone.
These fake shell mining companies that eventually fold with out striking oil – whilst the money is spirited away through hundreds of offshore companies – have robbed pension funds and investors of hundreds of billions of pounds.
What’s more relevant though to your post is guess where the limited companies that control the BBC, Press TV and Russia Today (rt.com) were formed?
788-790 Finchley Road. See Gordon Bowden and this:
http://atrueindependentscotland.com/bbc-handed-explosive-evidence-of-massive-corruption-that-is-set-topple-the-british-establishment/
Welcome to the Rabbit Hole..
I’m very interested in getting to the whole truth!
http://usuncut.com/politics/panama-papers-bernie-sanders-white-house/
For the frustrated, Stefan Plöchinger of the SDZ responds on Twitter with: “Just sit tight for what’s coming … We’ll spare no one.”
https://twitter.com/ploechinger/status/716763595820941312
@whoever commented April 5, 2016 at 01:35
( https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/comment-page-8/#comment-587802 )
Your ‘name’ appears to be chosen in such a way as to be:
a) very offensive to Catholics (you’re fairly safe there though, aren’t you)
or
b) a very boastful (but patently untrue) way of ‘coming out’.
I’d leave visiting Belfast off your bucket list, if I were you.
Seems you’ve come to a conclusion already. Weird, since the vast majority of the information hasn’t come out yet. But hey, cling tightly to whatever gets you thru the night.
Oh, and your conspiracy theorizing makes you look so edgy!
Right on man.
What a pity to see this discussion focus on Putin and Russia, the USA Center for Public Integrity will raise their glasses and toast on a mission accomplished. One step closer to war in Europe. Let’s hack these bastards and bring everything out in the open and hope this lethargic selfish generation of go-getters realises their kids have no future and that it’s time to turn against the master and not to our neighbours. On another note; I stopped following main stream media many years ago. The important things do filter through and when they do I used to have a look at what The Guardian had on the subject. Trusting there was one newspaper who would break real news, the only ones Snowden trusted. Stupidly I never realised they bowed out on orders by MI6. So from now on I’m without reliable source of information. For the internet is the most unreliable source of information there is. Sift and refine and hold your findings against the main stream news who serve as an excellent notion of what the ultra rich want.
Good news, thank you..
I love the saying the truth will out. Watching news reports commenting on Putin and a few others, I thought why are they not outing their western clients? Maybe for the same reason they don’t cover the democratic Primary candidate Bernie Sanders. He wants money out of politics and big media has something at stake in that, and likely in Panama too. Bernie has been talking about these people and corporations on the campaign trail and had spoken out against the Panama trade deal because it would make it easier to launder money.. Hillary supported it.
I love the saying the truth will out. Watching news reports commenting on Putin and a few others, I thought why are they not outing their western clients? Maybe for the same reason they don’t cover the democratic Primary candidate Bernie Sanders. He wants money out of politics and big media has something at stake in that, and likely in Panama too. Bernie has been talking about these people and corporations on the campaign trail and had spoken out against the Panama trade deal because it would make it easier to launder money.. Hillary supported it.
Anyone, pls update if you come across anyone ftom Singapore. Thks. I am keen yo know !,
True
Who ever leaked this information needs to expose it once more for the soul purpose of exposing Hillary Clinton! Then it’s “game over” for her and we can move on with what really matters to the other 99%!!!!
LOL so we need a leak for the leak? What a world!
Think you for your follow up , I think a lot of us out here are aware that people in our government and many of the rich in the US has long been I evolve in not only money laundering, but a whole lot worst…. What’s shameful and hard to understand is why zoo many in the US refuse to believe this is true….. Most common people and some so-called well educated in this country still chose to believe their biggest problems are race and or colour, people are so easily misled by others who mean them no good !!!
Thanks again.
This is utter nonsense. A quick research in German tells me that several major Banks, the government of Iceland, German secret agents, Siemens, to name but a few were involved in this.
It is not only the English speaking media that counts.
True not only in the UK!
In Germany the headlines are filled with Putin and the cellist. What is the reason that “our” guys like the president of Ucraine Poroshenko who owned one of these enterprises isn’t there? Not a single word about any german, though it’s very unlikely that there’s not a lot of german owned of these enterprises…
Here I think it’s easy. The top five “information groups” – news papers, information portals, TV and news networks – control about 90% of the market and these groups are controlled by only five familys all worth more than 200 million Euros. Does really anybody believe they would want to have their multi millionaire friends on top of their news papers? Does really anybody believe reporters would write articles who would pie on the friends of the “atlantic bridge” where they are members of?
Get them all now!
Spread their names on the Net!
Join hands with other trusted organisations to get, decipher and distribute the information!
Empower the people.
Guess they’re all morally, ethically the same!
dear all
This is been a very interesting discussion. Panorama film last night very little mention of other UK capital owners who were named. Does anybody have this information. I am personally working to prevent some sell off of NHS assets to chums of the government (Especially Nhs), and keen to see if there are any links between those in receipt of NHS firm(Especially NHS), and keen to see if there are any links between those in receipt of NHS Funds and the Panama bunch. Can anybody point me in the direction of individuals identified in the leak and the companies they are involved with?
If so please let me know
“Putin is bent” A pity that this vague and insulting comment spoiled an otherwise excellent article. First, so far there is no evidence at all that Putin is bent. Second why would he bother? He is never likely to be short of money. Any one who follows his agenda knows he has no time for personal interests at all other than ice hockey and judo. Third there is some evidence from his political past, from someone who had to consult him on business, that he is clean. See: — http://www.russiaotherpointsofview.com/2014/04/russia-report-putin-.html
It is good to hear a view not tainted by what our secret services feed the media.
I have no evidence that Putin is corrupt. I have seen no real evidence from elsewhere. For me the vilification of Putin is akin to the vilification of Julian Assange, and just as wrong without evidence. So all those mouthy people who join this bandwagon should either put up or shut up.
Now I’ve read Sharon Tennison’s article. It comes from someone with first-hand experience, having met Putin and taken testimony from many others who have come across his straight dealing nature.
————————————————————————————–
“Throughout the 2000’s: St.Petersburg’s many CCI alumni were being interviewed to determine how the PEP business training program was working and how we could make the U.S. experience more valuable for their new small businesses. Most believed that the program had been enormously important, even life changing. Last, each was asked, “So what do you think of your new president?” None responded negatively, even though at that time entrepreneurs hated Russia’s bureaucrats. Most answered similarly, “Putin registered my business a few years ago”. Next question, “So, how much did it cost you?” To a person they replied, “Putin didn’t charge anything”. One said, “We went to Putin’s desk because the others providing registrations at the Marienskii were getting ‘rich on their seats.'”
————————————————————————————–
Discuss!
Sharon Tennison’s article: http://russialist.org/sharon-tennison-russia-report-on-putin/
Good find, John.
Any journalistic organisation truly interested in ‘fair and balanced’ reporting should be carrying this article rather prominently, IMHO.
You already forgot the massmurdering of putin in tschetschenia? shame on you!
This man is a bloodthursty dictator – nothing less and nothing more. a real leader would look for freedom of each individuum in his country, not to steal the last rubel of the already hungry people.
Another indoctrinated mouthpiece. All mouth and trousers.
Well have you ever seen or been in Grosny? If so, that says it all, no more words needed. No sane leader would allow this.
@Adrian Renton. Some 208 MP’s and Lords have a vested interest of sorts in the privatisation of the NHS, some 80% of those are Conservatives. They all voted for the various privatisation stages, the process is in full swing with auxiliary services to the tune of 1.6 billion already being private.
It is despicable for public representatives with vested interest to first declare it, and then vote themselves some financial favours.
Looking forward for the SDZ to come out with some more names today, insofar they are feeding on this leak as it provides them with oodles of publicity for a while to come. But this will seize when the proprietors of the SDZ are slapped by the banks/ ministers, international outcry’s to stop diese ‘verueckte Hetzjagd’ of those poor hounded rich celebrities/leaders/pirates.
Nevermind
Many thanks for this
Can you point me at any sources for this very helpful information
It would be really helpful
Hansards voting record on the proposal to privatise auxiliary services, Adrian Renton.
Others have picked it up, but it never made the news. I’m afraid I have no link,. sheer memory of the most obnoxious moves by these so called representatives.
Please read this and analyse the charts.. Atleast somewhere some of the western companies and interests are being aired publicly.
http://qz.com/654027/the-five-most-important-graphs-from-these-panama-papers-leaks/
http://usuncut.com/politics/panama-papers-bernie-sanders-white-house/ Video of Bernie Sanders speaking Against the Deal in 2011…….another reason to Vote for him!
So then, people of the world discovered how world economic system is corrupted, What next then? who help corrupted people to corrupt? basically who build the world economic system?
It is transnational corporates (based in west), Banks (from west), International monetary organisations (established by western govs) and east supplied one only thing ………. the wealth.
So what?
do western world will allow stolen people from countries in Africa, Asia and even Europe to collect money gathered through corruption? AS lawyer will I ( and similar fellows from named countries )be able to claim for compensations or remedies for western greedy?
I agree with you filtering the documents may hided much more than what revealed
Good article. It helps understand.