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.
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.
A keen eye, a marvellous piece, a huge thank you Craig.
Seconded.
And again!
Craig, in my humble opinion, the incredibly controlled ‘Panama Papers’ are a part of a much wider agenda that will unravel over the coming months.
I will quote dear old Tony, from his recent piece in the Guardian…
“Britain and its western allies must be prepared to send ground troops to “crush” Islamic State forces or risk a terror attack in Europe of “such size and horror” that draconian security measures would have to be introduced
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/27/tony-blair-west-must-be-ready-to-deploy-ground-troops-against-isis
Well, Assad has been implicated, if that’s what you are getting at, Rob?
Has he, Daniel? All that I have seen on the subject is that a couple of his cousins are mentioned. Given that other of his cousins are involved in the Free Syrian Army, ought we to hold him accountable for treason against himself?
He’s a war monger with a record for dishonesty and bad judgement.
I wouldn’t put too much store in what he says.
Note that Jersey as well appears in the reports on the Panama Papers. Ha’aretz: Panama Papers: Massive Tax Haven Document Leak Exposes Corruption and Crime on Global Scale:
Think you’ll like this, Craig –
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/tory-donors-links-to-offshore-firms-revealed-in-leaked-panama-papers
#1 on the list, Tony Buckingham…
BTW, the Grauniad print edition today carried a graphic showing clearly that the BVI was the largest recipient of MF’s clientele’s anonymity. BTW, strangely, Gibraltar shells don’t figure, so I’m not expecting Blair to be immersed in this one. Maybe the next one. Although it is not unknown for a BVI or Cayman shell to be managed from Gib.
Wow!
I don’t think anybody ever thought the companies were registered in Panama, Panama isn’t a tax haven. It’s the firm of lawyers who have been creating companies in tax havens and keeping those they created them for anonymous who were based in Panama. I don’t think it comes as much of a surprise to anyone that Cayman Islands are a tax haven and rich people use them to avoid paying tax either. The only difference is now we know who some of them are otherwise we don’t need to be told that bears shit in the woods.
True, but sometimes ostriches need the bears to bite their arses to ensure their heads come out of the sand.
The BBC are extremely corrupt and dishonest and have for years been a “fifth column” or more accurately a fifth political party actively pushing a very extreme political agenda covering all aspects from constitutional reform of the house of lords to eliminating traditional marriage to destroying British industry.
You guys should get your aluminium hats out !!!
Yeah, good one bruce. No conspiracy, no lies, no hidden agendas. Keep up the good work mate. Fighting the great fight against these nutjobs who think there is something amiss when everything is simply fine in your world…
The bbc reported quite correctly that a firm of lawyers from Panama were facilitating the transfer of funds to tax havens. Panama itself is not a tax haven so the bbc were spot on in there broadcast. They weren’t hiding anything or misrepresenting so what’s the problem with the Beeb on this matter?
Panama is not a tax haven? Are you sure about that?
http://www.myoffshoretrust.com/panama-trust-formation/
Coming from Bliar that’s a bit rich, considering the degree of responsibility he and Bush had in stirring the pudding in the first place. Bet he’s got a bolthole somewhere.
Coming from Bliar that’s a bit rich, considering the degree of responsibility he and Bush had in stirring the pudding in the first place. Bet he’s got a bolthole somewhere.
No way! I’m relying on a good old WW2 tin one!
There is no way the MSM will expose the truth.
The truth is all the banks are ‘at it’, including the Vatican Bank and all the ‘Big Boys’, in conjunction with the CIA and US and other Banksters and puppet politicos; the Bushes (all of them) were heavily involved in massive financial scams, as were Popes.
For a hefty dose of truth, read the following:
‘The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World’:
by L. Fletcher Prouty
‘The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider’:
by Al Martin
.’The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II’s Vatican’:
by David Yallop
‘Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA’ by Terry Reed & John Cummings
Heck of a reading load, but the information is out there; don’t expect the complicit MSM to feed it to you, though. It ties in with the abomination of the MK-ULTRA program, and Nazi loot (used to set up hundreds of big corporations post-war).
I forgot ‘In Banks We Trust’ by Penny Lernoux.
A fearless Catholic (no, of course they are not all bad!) she wrote many books about the US-backed oppression of Latin Americans (including ‘Cry of the People’). She was writing yet another when she ‘contracted’ cancer (like so many ‘thorns in the side’ of the PTB), and died before finishing it.
So far, this is a total non-scandal. Everyone knows that there are huge numbers of bank accounts and corporations owned by people or corporations domiciled elsewhere. There is nothing necessarily illegal about that.
The real scandal is that governments create rules that permit people and corporations to legally avoid taxes using off-shore structures. For example, at the time that Paul Martin was Canada’s Finance Minister, his own shipping company was registered in the Bahamas with which jurisdiction Canada had a tax treaty such that profits of Bahamian companies paid up to a Canadian parent company were not subject to Canadian corporation tax. Now since the Bahamian corporate tax rate was only a modest 3%, this was, and remains, a really cool arrangement for ex Canadian PM Paul Martin, and countless other Canadian individuals and corporations who collectively have invested hundreds of billions in the Bahamas.
You make a point very similar to that which Greenwald makes:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/04/key-similarity-between-snowden-leak-and-panamapapers-scandal-whats-been-legalized
The scandal, which is not hidden at all, is that the tax system only applies to ‘little people’ who are caught up in PAYE and consumption taxes such as GST or VAT.
The doctrine that the wealth of the wealthy must be protected from society is central to liberal (and neo-liberal) ideology.
Brilliant Fast eye there Craig. Another Great post Thanks
It’s amazing what people Don’t Know…Then Argue Blind over what they Don’t Know..Arms all Flapping Antics
Wouldnt expect anything less from the EBC Craig did you see the hatchet job they did on the RTE Easter rebellion piece.
Its pure distraction propaganda and will probably work on the majority of the population in England and they have the cheek to say China were trying to hide this from their population.
The BBC is a propaganda broadcaster its secret remit is to protect the idea of Britain one nation which we all know is a lot of rubbish and just a throw back to colonialism unfortunately large sections of the English population still believe they are being told the truth and buy into the imperialist mentality,its all over the TV every where you go British this British that and any time they get into a spot of bother its look at the big bad Russians,typical neo liberals only way they can survive is to keep the idiots scared into voting for them.
Hopefully this is just the start of these kinds of revelations might wake up some people to the kind of ideological garbage being forced on them and the kind of people they are allowing to run the damn UK.
And they wonder why we want out of the union.
Spot on Derek
My antennae were up once they went all in against Putin.
He’s (Putin) exposing them (Western “leaders”) all for what they are, weak and ineffectual.
One of the main justifications Islamic institutions use for extortion, corruption and haram money sources is the corruption of Worldwide financial law and institutions. On the day of judgement the guilty of the Muslim nation will plead that their sister nations, the followers of Jesus pbuh and Moses pbuh lead them astray. Away with them, not an acceptable excuse.
Specifically the campaigns of political Islam in Pakistan under Bin Laden and now Al CIAda in Syria under Egyptian crook Zawahiri, have had to admit that their oppressive practises, extortion and arrogance led to their rejection by the Muslim population and a total collapse of their local support. Political Islam is now solely funded by Western NATO gangsters against the Muslims for colonial expansion.
Fleas on the back of bigger fleas. If Cameron or Erdogan did not have millions stashed away in offshore trusts they could not direct public money, our money, to fund terror and covert neo-con global hegemony because they would have nothing to fall back on their illegal public operations were exposed.
This is a form of social welfare to the politicians who serve the swivel-headed neo-cons. War criminal relief. A worthy cause which in the Western world is funded by bent government jurisdictions and in the Muslim world by Saudi Arabia. War criminal welfare is therefore a collusion across apparently conflicting parties.
Colluders are called Ahzab in the Qur’an, translated as ‘confederates’ and their status in the eyes of Allah is that He will never forgive them even if the prophet found it in his heart to forgive SAW.
As Maggie says in the cartoon where she descends into the flames of Hell ‘ Why is this pit still open?’
Political Islam is finished
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-steve-bell-cartoon
This Monthly Review article on the BBC is excellent. Long though.
http://monthlyreview.org/2016/04/01/the-broken-bbc/
Pacific Quay/ Cayman Islands….good question.
So.. read the Guardian then? Or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Or the Sydney Morning Herald. Or any number of publications. Diversity of new sources is important. Look at all these links:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-04/australian-company-wilson-linked-to-hong-kong-corruption-scandal/7291178
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-05/australians-identified-in-mossack-fonseca-panama-papers-leak/7297964
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/tory-donors-links-to-offshore-firms-revealed-in-leaked-panama-papers
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/bhp-owned-companies-triggered-high-risk-alert-at-panama-law-firm
http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/ato-gets-fresh-list-of-australian-rich-tax-skirters-20160404-gnxwud
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Hundreds-of-Israeli-companies-and-shareholders-listed-in-Panama-Papers-450203
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.712497
How do you reconcile the content at those URLs with your claim that there’s some kind of systematic corporate cover up preventing this information from being publicly reported?
Why is the UK media focused on Putin? The Guardian and the BBC are UK media.
BBC R4 Today programme this morning -stated that over half the companies are registered in the BVI: had a little discussion, broadly agreed with idea that there’s a big grey legal area which needs sorting out. Jim – take your point and agree, but the UK media have been rather slow in picking up the involvement of specifically UK tax-avoiders, and I think that’s what Craig’s on about. As others have said, it’s no secret it’s going on; we don’t need the Mossack Fonseca leak to tell us about it, and how it works (opaquely!). What we do need is an acknowledgement from our lords and masters that it is somewhere between grossly unfair and organised crime. and a credible undertaking to level the playing field.
As regards Putin, he’s as big a crook as anyone we have to offer, but doesn’t seriously pretend to be otherwise. Our own
law-skirtingshining examples of financial integrity do. The BBC/Guardian’s lead on Putin yesterday was unjustifiable. Probity begins at home.Some people (like you for example Jim) are incapable of seeing beyond the headlines.
What am I supposed to be seeing? You’re being inconsistent. It’s a bit rich to claim that journalists are somehow hiding things when we wouldn’t even be talking about it now if they hadn’t reported it. Did you read the articles in any of the links in my comment?
Do you have good, forensically detailed evidence for your claim that there’s something hidden behind the reports? Where are you sourcing that evidence from? Those evil journalists who are supposedly hiding things from you? The same journalists who investigated the data aren’t they received it? The same journalists who reported the Panama papers in the first place? The same journalists who will continue to report it? If so, then you’ve proven that your claim is false.
These conspiracy theories are a little sad to witness.
Are you seriously saying there is nothing in the documents about UK business leaders, companies or politicians past or present so that’s why the Guardian has had to concentrate on Putin and Assad?
Andy, read my comments again carefully. Read the articles in the links I provided. You’ve misunderstood what I have said.
Right wing blogger Guido Fawkes is highly unlikely to be a popular read here, but he has run several interesting pieces on offshore ownership at the Guardian.
Obviously Guardian are not alone….Telegraph….Mail…..
Private Eye, too.
IMO everyone commenting on this issue should be aware of this:
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry
Real journalism.
There’s no part of this a surprise. Money begets money and the rich will rip off their grannies to keep as much of it as possible. London is the oldest financial centre in the world, the ‘Empire’ gave the elite ways to hide: they did. No wonder we want out. We need to put wide, clear water between us and them. People are waking up. About blimmin’ time.
Thanks again Craig.
Shared.
Nice one about Pacific Quay as well. Perhaps some more digging will turn up more information.
Fortunately for the great unwashed, between the Internet and smart observers, lying propaganda is not so easy to slip over nowadays. Why not try some honest reporting for a change.
Guardian today has quite a bit on BVI and indeed it made the BVI role clear through its big pie chart yesterday. Also has a nuanced long piece in Greece, Germany, Sovereignty, the EU and opposing Brexit by Yanis Varufakis.
His concluding point is that neither Greece nor Britain would join the EU if now invited, but as we are we should stick it out because it is our environment.
Something for the SNP to reflect on there maybe in relation to the UK.
His point about north and south Europe being mire muddled and less clear cut than stereotypes suggest us a good one. Ut also applies to the nations of the UK.
Interesting blog, encountered via diaspora social media network.
Encourage you all to join and be further free of corporate control! 🙂
https://diasp.eu/posts/4145746
Mr Murray: please beware that your web site host restricts access to certain web users via anonymous proxies.
And who does the huge Guardian front page photo lead on? The Assad family’s offshore accounts.
It is essential that the access to the raw data is not controlled by the corporate media prostitutes.
This might have something to do with it (sorry about the source):
http://order-order.com/2012/11/26/the-guardians-offshore-secrets-guardian-media-group-still-operates-caymans-company/
Or not… Just picked up my copy of the print Grauniad – I buy it for the cartoons – looks just like this:
http://guardian.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
Doesn’t look much like Assad to me. Not as intelligent, for one thing.
Where do you buy your Graun, Craig?
My Guardian (I don’t like that expression). My copy of the Guardian leads with attack on Cameron.
Maybe old, but Cameron’s Blakemore might have been more aptly called More Blair.
The BBC can no longer be relied to tell the truth when anything of a political nature is involved. The BBC are a self serving corrupt institution that should be disbanded and then made to sell their output through buy to view.
I have seen Craig’s Sunday article reproduced on numerous websites across the Internet, sometimes where I have never seen his words before. I only had a slight problem with it.
Evidence that Putin is bent by Craig Murray: “As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent. ”
Evidence that Putin is bent by Robert Parry :
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/04/corruption-as-a-propaganda-weapon/
Extract
“Sadly, some important duties of journalism, such as applying evenhanded standards on human rights abuses and financial corruption, have been so corrupted by the demands of government propaganda – and the careerism of too many writers – that I now become suspicious whenever the mainstream media trumpets some sensational story aimed at some “designated villain.”
Far too often, this sort of “journalism” is just a forerunner to the next “regime change” scheme, dirtying up or delegitimizing a foreign leader before the inevitable advent of a “color revolution” organized by “democracy-promoting” NGOs often with money from the U.S. government’s National Endowment for Democracy or some neoliberal financier like George Soros.
We are now seeing what looks like a new preparatory phase for the next round of “regime changes” with corruption allegations aimed at former Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The new anti-Putin allegations – ballyhooed by the UK Guardian and other outlets – are particularly noteworthy because the so-called “Panama Papers” that supposedly implicate him in offshore financial dealings never mention his name.
Or as the Guardian writes: “Though the president’s name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern – his friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage. The documents suggest Putin’s family has benefited from this money – his friends’ fortunes appear his to spend.”
Note, if you will, the lack of specificity and the reliance on speculation: “a pattern”; “seemingly”; “suggest”; “appear.” Indeed, if Putin were not already a demonized figure in the Western media, such phrasing would never pass an editor’s computer screen. Indeed, the only point made in declarative phrasing is that “the president’s name does not appear in any of the records.”
A British media-watch publication, the Off-Guardian, which criticizes much of the work done at The Guardian, headlined its article on the Putin piece as “the Panama Papers cause Guardian to collapse into self-parody.”
But whatever the truth about Putin’s “corruption” or Lula’s, the journalistic point is that the notion of objectivity has long since been cast aside in favor of what’s useful as propaganda for Western interests.”
I am sorry that the recent change to this website didn’t have an ignore button. It also should have had a like/dislike button so we could show our appreciation (or not as the case may be) for excellent and enlightening comments like the above.
Excellent post!! thank you for calling attention to Robert Parry coloumn.
It is a calm and objective assessment of these Pansma papers and the accusations regarding Putin.
Parry writes without all the subjective, opinions accusations we have seen in the Guardian
FFS, If Putin is being named as part of “Western propaganda”, why is Cameron being named? Brexit propaganda?
So we have no actual evidence that Putin is bent but people like CM have said that Putin is bent so many times that we know he is. LOL.
More interesting would be to know how bent Putin is compared with say the Bush family or the Clintons who are demonstrably bent but don’t attract negative attention from the likes of the Soros funded crowd.
Cameron’s denial of tax haven involvement should be viewed in the light of Putin’s alleged use of proxy owner/directors implied above: so many pinches of salt needed!
The bbc supposedly publicly owned and unbiased, truly exposes itself as a tool of the wealthy aristocracy, we need clarity on all tax evaders and immoral wealth management.welldone this needs exposing
No different to what we expect from the dear old BEEB
Thank you Craig, I hope one day the truth will come out.
So an Expose that is in fact a Cover-up.
Typical BBC fare – that’s what they’re there for after all.
I’m just surprised that intelligent people can still be “shocked” by this stuff.
And as for Putin I don’t really care. As long as he’s keeping us a step away from Nuclear War and throwing a few sticks in the spokes of the “Western” shower of shit, he can be as “Bent” as he bloody well likes.
“And as for Putin I don’t really care. As long as he’s keeping us a step away from Nuclear War and throwing a few sticks in the spokes of the “Western” shower of shit, he can be as “Bent” as he bloody well likes.”
My sentiments, exactly.
Although I went along with Craig’s casual characterisation I now see that it was irresponsible: Craig is followed by thousands of readers many of whom, presumably, regard his opinions as grounded in knowledge. Thus, when he calls Putin ‘bent’ without any evidence, so far as I know, he is not only libelling the man but adding strength to a dangerous and malicious campaign against Putin, Russia and world peace.
Those who speak from elevated platforms have a duty to be honest, precise and careful.
Those who speak from elevated platforms have a duty to be honest, precise and careful.”
That may be so, Bev, but it has very rarely been the case for UK politicians, has it now?
I can’t speak for politicians of other nationalities, of which I know little, but it does not concern me unduly.
Spot on, Mr Galt!