Puppet MastersS


Light Sabers

Wikileaks accuses Panama leaker ICIJ to be Soros-funded "soft-power tax-dodge", criticizes limited release of data

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 17:33 UTC
tax free sign
The Anglo-American ruling elite invented tax havens!
Earlier today, for the first time we got a glimpse into some of the American names allegedly contained in the "Panama Papers", largest ever leak. "Some", not all, and "allegedly" because as we said yesterday, "one can't help but wonder: why not do a Wikileaks type data dump, one which reveals if not all the 2.6 terabytes of data due to security concerns, then at least the identities of these 441 US-based clients. After all, with the rest of the world has already been extensively shamed, it's only fair to open US books as well."

The exact same question appeared in an interview conducted between Wired magazine and the director of the organization that released the Panama Papers, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, or ICIJ, Gerard Ryle.
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Dollar

Putin has been fighting offshore capital flight for years

Scott
The Saker
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 16:52 UTC
sberbank
Since the April 4th, we all have been enjoying the "revelations" coming from OCCRD, an organization funded by the George Soros' Open Society Foundation and the USAID, a front for C.I.A. operations and operatives. In brief, they claim that people known to President Putin personally shifted $2bln though some offshore shell companies to avoid sanctions on financial translations with Russia that were imposed by Obama regime.

For several years we have witnessing a frantic search for the "Putin's fortune" in banks and companies around the world. In 2014 it was estimated $400bln. In 2015 it shrunk to $40bln. This year, it's meager $2bln they are now talking about.

What all of these American and European small time neo-liberal crooks don't understand is that Vladimir Putin thanks to his work to restore Russia has already become a figure comparable to Saint Vladimir and Peter the Great. We don't need to wait for centuries to recognize his place in history.

The West refuses to understand that Vladimir Putin has already taken everything in Russia, but not in terms of money or wealth, but in terms of responsibility.
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Safe

The Panama deception: America is the biggest tax haven in the world

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 07:45 UTC
Obama Panama papers
"Do what we say - not what we do!"
In his speech yesterday, following the Treasury's crack down on corporate tax inversions, Obama blamed "poorly designed" laws for allowing illicit money transfers worldwide. Since the speech came at a time when the entire world is still abuzz with the disclosure from the Panama Papers, Obama touched on that as well: "Tax avoidance is a big, global problem" he said on Tuesday, "a lot of it is legal, but that's exactly the problem" because a lot of it is also illegal.

There is one major problem with that: of all the countries in the world, it is none other than the country of which Obama is president, the United States, that has become the world's favorite offshore "tax haven" destination.

As Bloomberg, which first broke the story about Nevada's use as a prominent tax haven early this year, writes, "Panama and the U.S. have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money."
Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists, regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape has shifted. In an effort to catch tax dodgers, almost 100 countries and other jurisdictions have agreed since 2014 to impose new disclosure requirements for bank accounts, trusts and some other investments held by international customers -- standards issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a government-funded international policy group.

Comment: Just another in the myriad of ways the US is egregiously hypocritical about what it says (or accuses others of), and what it actually does.

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Light Saber

Austrian president calls for sanctions against Russia to be lifted


TASS
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 16:42 UTC
Heinz Fischer
© Alexander Shalgin/Russian State Duma Press Office/TASSAustria’s President Heinz Fischer
Austria considers it necessary to consider the ways of lifting sanctions introduced by the European Union against Russia, the country's President Heinz Fischer said on Wednesday.

"I always say that sanctions are not beneficial for both sides," he said at the meeting with Russia's State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin.

"It is important to draw up a way to lift them in the near future and to overcome these sanctions," Fischer added.

Fischer stressed that Austria takes an active part in discussions on this issue inside the EU. "Our position in these issues is that it is necessary to consider the opportunity to develop cooperation with Russia in all the spheres," he added.
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Gold Bar

Rickards on the coming world financial reset

Greg Hunter
USAWatchdog
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
Jim Rickards
Jim Rickards
Financial expert and best-selling author James Rickards says another economic collapse is coming. Rickards contends, "It's very clear, and you can prove this scientifically. The next collapse will be bigger than anything in history or maybe since the Bronze Age or the fall of the Roman Empire. Why do I say that? . . . We have these things coming together. The system is larger. That means systemically it is exponentially more risky. The central banks don't have any dry powder, and it is just a matter of time before the collapse comes. In 1987, the stock market fell 22% in one day, not in a week or a month, but one day. Today, that would be the equivalent of a 4,000 point drop. . . . In 1998, the Long Term Capital crisis shut almost every stock and bond exchange in the world. In 2000, the Dot Com; 2007, the mortgage crisis; and in 2008, you had Lehman and AIG (failures). In other words, these events are not rare, and they happen every three, four or five, six or eight years. It's not like clockwork, but nobody should be surprised if it happened tomorrow. We've got the systemic scale. We've got exponential increase in risk. The central banks are out of dry powder, and it's been eight years since the last one. It's just a matter of time."

Comment: There is little doubt that a financial collapse and system reset is coming - initiated by a collapse in confidence. It might be wise to pay attention to the thinning gold market supply and the gold appetites of China, India, Russia, and those countries that are attempting to repatriate their gold stocks.

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Flashlight

Limited hangout operation: Panama leaks part of West's hybrid war against Russia

Dr Tatiana Yugay
Russia Insider
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:46 UTC
mossack fonseca
A limited hangout operation
The other day the leading Munich daily 'Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)' published a "sensational" article titled: "Panama Papers: The secrets of dirty money". The on-line version is presented in the best traditions of the yellow press. .

The article begins like a fairy tale:
"Over a year ago, an anonymous source contacted the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) with encrypted documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sells anonymous offshore companies around the world".
The mysterious messenger delivered megatons of compromising information while seeking no financial compensation. He simply "wanted to make these crimes public". Frankly speaking, I'm willing to bet that behind this modern Robin Hood are special services. In order to make the story more credible, the SZ added a video with a sort of "script" of the messenger's call.

Then it describes how journalists worked for 12 months with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
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Snakes in Suits

UK cuts programs for the poor while increasing tax breaks for the rich


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:34 UTC
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne
© Toby Melville / ReutersBritain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne
Welfare programs for the long-term unemployed in Britain will have funding slashed this Parliament, while top earners will see their take-home pay increase thanks to generous tax breaks.

A new work program for the long-term unemployed next year will be significantly less well funded than its predecessor.

More than £2 billion (US$2.8 billion) was paid out to work program providers in the four years from 2011. The new program guarantees that spending will fall to just £130 million a year by 2020.

The government's drastic cut risks sparking a fresh battle with disability campaigners, who last month forced Chancellor George Osborne to backtrack on planned cuts to disability payments.
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Light Sabers

Kofi Annan's son linked to offshore property deal in Panama Papers


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:22 UTC
Kojo Annan
© Reuters / AFPFormer UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan (L) and his son Kojo Annan
The son of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is among hundreds of high-profile figures named as having links to offshore firms in the largest ever document dump in journalistic history.

The so-called Panama Papers, 11.5 million internal files leaked from the secretive Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, revealed that 42-year-old Kojo Annan purchased an apartment in central London for £400,000 (about US$560,000 at current rates) in 2004 through an offshore company headquartered in the South Pacific nation of Samoa.

The property is now listed as being worth nearly £1.5 million. Documents show that correspondence continued between the Chelsea address and Mossack Fonseca into 2015.

In addition to being listed as the sole director of the Samoan firm Sapphire Holding Ltd, Kojo is also registered as a director of two other companies, based in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

Comment: This is another "limited hangout" by Western intelligence to try and make it look like the the leak is going after anyone who has acted criminally. The reality is that not only are the real criminals being left out of the Panama Papers leak, but the claims against Kojo Annan are extremely tame in comparison to what the real Western criminals are doing on a daily basis.

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Heart - Black

Ex-Abu Ghraib interrogator regrets 'horrible mistakes' of US torture policy


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 11:10 UTC
torture
© Flickr/ Ray
A number of Bush-era officials continue to defend the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But in a new interview, former interrogator Eric Fair confesses that the US military was unequivocally engaged in torture.

"We hurt people, and not just physically," Fair told NPR's Terry Gross. "We destroyed them emotionally, and...I think at the very least it's a just punishment for us that we suffer some of those consequences, too."

Employed by a private contractor, Fair was an interrogator in Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, another detention facility managed by US forces in Iraq. While his actions were deemed legal according to the US government, he has no illusions that what he did was, in fact, torture. Years later, what happened at the prisons still weighs heavily on Fair.

"It was not the way I should've behaved. There are long discussions about why those things happened...and how difficult it was to sort of break from those expectations of being a soldier - but none of that matters. I made horrible mistakes," he said. "I have a responsibility to confess those things openly."
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Info

Head of Austrian General Staff: 'Russia closer to Austria than other major world powers'


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 12:52 UTC
Austrian General Staff Lieutenant-General Othmar Commenda
© Leonhard Foeger / ReutersAustrian General Staff Lieutenant-General Othmar Commenda.
Austrian armed forces are ready to cooperate with Moscow as "Russia is much closer to Austria than other major world powers," chief of the Austrian General Staff said in Moscow, where he joined his president at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin.

Vienna's top military figure noted that one of the reasons for his visit to the Russian capital was to disobey others' orders.

"I'm not going to carry out instructions and follow orders on who's worth talking to and who's not. That's exactly the reason why I decided to pay you a visit," Austrian General Staff Lieutenant-General Othmar Commenda said at a meeting with the chief of Russia's General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov.
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