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 The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.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.
And why are the NSA and GCHQ databases that have recorded every electronic communication and every financial transaction for many years not being used to identify these criminals?
I agree with everything except your first sentence. If the person who originally leaked the material is an independent whistleblower, then nothing is stopping him from leaking the material again. To me it looks like this person might actually be working for a Western secret agency, most likely from the US.
@JohannesLiebert my earlier comment was intended as a reply to your post
We pay their wages.
We let them off the hook.
Because we live in a bully system, and few of us are able to confront bullies with any clarity, because schooling and religion are inherently a bully system, and 12 years of schooling ensures we normalise to that shituation such that we don’t see it anymore for what it is.
I don;t blame the people for that = I hold those who design and implement Government Education Policy the most accountable, just like I hold the Catholic Church responsible for it’s followers indoctrinated stance more than I blame those followers for the crimes of The Vatican.
Lateral Violence is when people who are stressed from above, pass on that stress to those around them or under them.
It’s a displacement activity, and people on left/right, Rep/Dem dualist sides are playing that game out – they attack each other rather than confront the bully system itself, mostly because they have internalised aspects of the bully system.
Such as the concept of ‘just war’ to ‘protect our values’ carried out by poor young men wearing ‘our sacred flag’ which people on all sides seem to accept as a ‘natural’ and therefore a moral stance.
We will not resolve this until we stop fighting amongst ourselves and confront our own social conditioning,and that of those around us, and act with a degree of empathy rather than venting at each other…
I agree with the writers thesis, that this information will be carefully ‘managed’.
The prime directive of Power is to retain, enhance and project that power and to defend it with all the might available to it. Everything a power establishment does meets these criteria. It’s what bullies in the home do.
Our system is a mirror of the behavioural dynamics of an abuse family, a mirror that has become institutionalised over time. Take ten people with an anti-social psychology, get them to build a social structure, and that structure will express their core psychology.
It really is that simple.
What makes it complicated is the secrecy, the violence and the social conditioning, because these are all crutches that are repeatedly reformed as people emerge and resist.
well said.
“stop fighting amongst ourselves and confront our own social conditioning,and that of those around us, and act with a degree of empathy rather than venting at each other”
Amen to that.
damn
So you saying that everyone in the United States will not be leaked out as it should be?
I’ve been trying to tell Americans that Capitalism is slavery of the masses to make a few people rich for over 20 years, because they cannot believe they’re really slaves! But look at Walmart: it’s a slave plantation owned by one family, who enslave every person even those who don’t work for them. ALL corporations are slave plantations who enslave every person, & USA corporations cause world poverty because all nations are connoted financially, but USA can’t believe it! Wage slavery is better for the rich than unpaid, because it means they don’t have to pay for any food, shelter clothing or medical care like they did when not paid! USA forced all attempts of Socialism/Communism to fail by starting wars, teaching torture, & much more killing millions of people! Read THIRD WOELD TRAVELER & “Rogue State” by Wm Blum & many more books & help wake up AMERICA!
Let me guess. Public school right?
Third World Traveler is a thundering good website.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/
The US are conspicuous by their absence from these files? What excuse will they conjure up to explain that?
I am sick to death of this Government . TAKING FROM OUR PENSIONS ,The disabled. The N H S , THE Schools the Teachers The Steel works . In fact they have Robbed us Blind cos of the Bankers Crash ,,,, And what are we to assume from This there has never been a need to rob the poor With austerity When These people squirreling away cash from the TAX MAN Get a grip . Get it out in the open , Cos you can bet your boots This is just the start ,,,,,, THERE ARE A lot of hackers out there . There will be no where to hide …. UNLESS its under the bed
I agree with you completely. Free trade with Panama when their limited exports are mostly money laundering operations? Wake up people! We no longer are a democracy. Our government has become what the founders were trying to escape.
Bernie Sanders spoke out in 2011 against the free trade agreement with Panama. http://youtu.be/LrsI0Sw2hq8
Thank you for your marvelous work trying to expose this. I saw the post on FB and I appreciate the share. We will prevail if we just keep speaking up and telling the truth. The American people deserve to know.
Diane Pagen
Brooklyn, NY
Thankyou…
I smelled this rat as soon as the story broke on BBC with pictures of Gaddafi and Assad showing while the narrator discussed entirely unrelated aspects of the investigation.
Good blog/analysis
I was getting a very similar feeling too. Where’s the torrent links, where’s the wikileaks coverage!
……….. trying to figure out if this database is available. It needs to be released.
My VERY FIRST thought when I heard this story was that our own country, the United States of Corporate America, has to be THE worst offender!! I’m so hoping that it will come to light. Although I’m skeptical that it will. Hopefully Bernie will be talking about this on the campaign trail and that he will remind everyone that HE CALLED THIS IN 2011!!
Maybe the people that are “In the Know” should be watching what else is happening on
the political or financial scenes.
This whole ‘leak’ might be re-directing public and media attention for a bigger atrocity
to be committed by the Powers that Be.
That is their usual modus operandi.
Damn good point. Forever vigilant. There is no such thing as coincidences and “distraction” has become the new “subliminal”. It’s highly unfortunate that “reality is just an illusion; albeit a very persistent one”. *
* quote from Albert Einstein
Cameron snr all over the ‘corporate media’ today. How to look like a meeja conspiracy foilhat in 24 hours.
Now it becomes crystal clear why FEMA camps are being prepared.
…go on..?
Good article, I just have a few question. It seems to me (from a WikiLeaks tweet) that they have access or will get access to the full database? The Germans have also said that they will release the US data later (which is probably smart – get the support to big media / corporate and govt from U.S so that they cannot backtrack later)… Also won’t the full data be made public in May? Unless the exposer themselves are from western US-based corporates… hope to hear for some clarifications.
You may be right. Either that or the entire leak was created by Western warmongers to make Putin, Iran and Syria look bad since none of their other propaganda methods have been convincing. They’ll stop at nothing to turn the Middle East fiasco into a real war.
Blurring the view
In my opinion the leaked criminal incidents are real.
Its the selective publishing that stinks.
Therefore we must assume, that the ‘leaker’ had access to everything, but was advised by a higher command to release mainly the skeletons in the closet of the enemies. Again, like in 2001 , 9/11, ask yourself:
Cui bono ? / who benefits of this ?
Great piece of sleuthing the provenance – the No 1 priority for every commentator today.
Amusing the disconnect (I think that’s the current buzzword now) between the resignation of the Icelandic PM, and Cameron’s reaction to having been put through Eton with the help of offshore tax evasion: “It’s a private matter”. That seems to me a privacy too far.
Especially as womens’ pensions are being crushed, and Osborne’s ideological incompetence is making things worse.
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/anti-pension-scammer-ros-altmann-silent-on-unfunded-sir-h-pensions-as-osborne-briefs-pro-tory-media-to-blame-awful-deficit-figures-on-brexit-fears/
C’mon, Craig…Putin references re Panama Papers are by association only. Not a single doc has been produced that actually proves he is involved in off-shoring money. The reason his name appears is because the West’s, primarily USA and UK, ISIS connections were exposed by the Russian military action that basically disrupted ISIS within three months while the West’s coalition spent 18 months without ANY progress thereby proving that the War on ISIS was a fiction perpetrated on behalf of Israel’s demand for regime change.
More names will filter out. We’ll have to see if the Guardian and BBC actually lets out the biggest Western offenders. Probably not. They know what side their crumpets are buttered.
rest assured steven no jewish folks are on that list because it is not the way we roll or is it role.
we has no fore knowledge of the event
we never do
do
Charles you do yourself and us all a disservice by labeling the jewish as the baddies! It would be better for the progressive agenda of combatting these crooks if you don’t make basic errors of tarnishing the whole jewish race because of a few bad apples, if your gonna call them something call them zionists.
WWIII has begun…and it opening salvo is propaganda.
Have no fear, there exists a second copy. We already knew going into this that the media agencies would not do the right thing (and release everything all at once), but we had a backup option in case that happened (index and torrent the whole dataset; it took time but the results were well-worth it). Unfortunately, doing that will harm intelligence agencies the world over who use that lawfirm for funding their projects and maintaining slush funds. On the other hand, you can’t put a price on doing the right thing, even if it could cost you your life.
Godspeed
Thought crossed my mind if this suits US ambitions. They never did get over the Torrijos- Carter deal , did they? Panama must make a lot out of the Tax Haven business- damage this and is there an opportunity to get a foothold again? I just have that gut feeling there’s a whole other agenda behind this.
En France idem http://www.les-crises.fr/panama-papers-le-plus-gros-scandale-devasion-fiscale-de-lhistoire/
Blog’Dissent economist Oliver Berruyer read
How about a few UN sanctions against Tax Havens. The 99% need international cooperation to bring the 1% into line.
Please don’t tell me that The Guardian is complicit!
Bravo! The corporate media ologopoly in the US has become such an obstacle to free speech that the First Amendment should be rewritten.
“and so it goes” Kurt Vonnegut
No, sir! Not “And so it goes” but “So it goes”.
Thank you ..Many of us are quite aware that there are many Westerners involved and want to know who..