Governments, NGOs and journalists across the globe have condemned a leak of personal data of more than 4,000 media staff, accused by pro-Kiev activists of "collaborating with terrorists" for their reporting from war-torn eastern Ukraine.

The names on the list include people working for respectable outlets, such as news agencies AFP, AP and Reuters, broadcasters BBC, CNN, CCTV, Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera, newspapers, including the New York Times, Gazeta Wyborcza and Kyiv Post, news websites Vice News and Daily Beast and many others. RT journalists are on the list too.

"This is a very alarming development which could further endanger the safety of journalists, who report on issues of public interest and they should not be harassed for doing their job," said OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović.

Some of the journalists, whose data was leaked, have complained they have started to receive threats.

This is simply spectacular.

Watch until the end, it gets better and better.

Suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's defense team is calling for the entire prosecution at Guantanamo Bay to relieve themselves of their duties after suspicions arose that they secretly destroyed evidence in the long-running case.

They also believe the entire case against Mohammed should be dismissed, based on the alleged actions of the prosecution, which the defense labeled as "at least the appearance of a collusion." "Now, and indeed over other matters previously, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's military commission is fatally flawed," lead defense attorney David Nevin told the Guardian.

US President Barack Obama's term is nearly up, and if the defense gets its way, it will be the new administration that has to figure out what to do with the suspect, who has been in custody for 12 years now for his suspected role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Mohammed, who confessed under interrogation to being the architect of the attacks.

Washington DC insiders are trying to guess the name of the mysterious "Congressman X," whose tell-all memoir exposes the inner workings of US politics. The book is already a political best-seller, although it has yet to be published.

Confessions of Congressman X is currently available for pre-order, and the 84-page booklet is scheduled for publication on May 24. The $10 paperback is already outselling books by politicians Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama in Amazon's "Congress" category - though it still trails behind JFK's Profiles in Courage.

"I've come to the conclusion the whole Washington scene represents a diminishment of civilization. Our country's in a free-fall to mediocrity, and Congress is leading the way," says a brief introduction on the book's website.

Several excerpts have been made available on the site, leaving no doubts as to the author's opinions of voters, fellow legislators and the American public in general.

The Treasury Department released a new rule and several proposals last week that they said are intended to address the problem of corruption and dirty money in secret U.S. shell companies.

A White House news release announced what it called "several important steps to combat money laundering, corruption, and tax evasion, and called upon Congress to take additional action to address these critical issues." (A White House fact sheet is available here.)

The new rules at first glance appear strong. But after examining the details, several watchdog groups are warning that the new regulations and proposals leave open several glaring loopholes, and even practically provide instructions for how to get around the regulations.

The New Rules

Reuters has the story on the new rules, in" U.S. issues rule requiring banks to identify shell company owners":

The Obama administration is issuing a long-delayed rule requiring the financial industry to identify the real owners of companies and proposing a bill that would require companies to report the identities of their owners to the federal government, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The Customer Due Diligence (CDD) rule, in the works since 2012, and the proposed legislation are meant to hinder criminals from using shell companies to hide ownership and launder money, finance terror, and commit other threats to the global financial system.

[. . .] The final CDD rule will require banks, brokers, mutual funds and other financial institutions to collect and verify the identities of the real people, or "beneficial owners," who own and control companies when those companies open accounts.

The new rule requires banks to do more checking to find out who owns corporations that are getting bank accounts, so "shell corporations" can't hide their owners. According to the White House, the rule will require "financial institutions to know and verify the identities of the natural persons (also known as beneficial owners) who own, control, and profit from companies when those companies open accounts."

So this is the way the Panama Papers end. Not with a bang—as in "Putin hiding US$2 billion"; you all remember the original headlines. But with a whimper; everyone lining up to duly access a prosaic database and find out the names of nearly 320,000 entities/offshore companies/trusts/foundations engaged in beautifying the finances of the rich and powerful.

The Soros-financed International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has not exactly fulfilled its mandate of heaping dirt on selected BRICS nations and the odd enemy of imperial interests/values—based on a NSA-style hack of Mossack Fonseca.

So what's left is for everyone to freely peruse names and addresses of companies in 21 jurisdictions—including Hong Kong and Nevada in the U.S. Yet don't expect to see bank account numbers, phone numbers or compromising emails.

Panama—where no one can flush a toilet without the U.S. government knowing about it—is for suckers; the real elite, connected (or profiting) even indirectly from the real Masters of the Universe and the liquid modernity enablers of top of the line turbo-capitalism use hack-proof Luxembourg, Virgin Islands or Cayman Islands connections - not to mention secure, Empire-based Delaware and Nevada loopholes.

Fictional scenarios, anyway, will continue to prosper, such as the myth the Panama Papers leak came from one John Doe—an "anonymous" whistleblower who allegedly contacted the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the ICIJ with a mini-manifesto titled "The revolution will be digitized".

Extensive networks of underground tunnels and bunkers, dug out by ISIS terrorists to store ammo and weapons, have also served as sleeping quarters and shelters against airstrikes, an RT crew has discovered touring the liberated Syrian town of Shaddadi.

For nearly two years the town of Shaddadi in northeastern Syria was a stronghold of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). In February, fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish and Arab militias, battled the jihadists for 10 days before liberating the city in fierce fighting, supported by anti-terror coalition airstrikes.

Touring the remains of the war-torn city, the RT crew were impressed to glimpse for themselves a warren of tunnels and underground bomb shelters built by now-vanquished radical Islamist fighters. Militants used them to burrow under enemy positions to plant explosives, create underground bunkers or run pipes to export illicit oil shipments.

IS also designed a comprehensive network of trenches so that fighters could avoid getting exposed as they maneuvered around the city undetected. In every house that RT visited, the crew discovered an underground facility. Furthermore the level of underground fortifications varied among the hierarchy of ISIS fighters, with rookie foreign recruits being forced to hide in less secure structures, while the elite were offered well-reinforced concrete bunkers.

Newly-elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan has snubbed Republican nominee Donald Trump's suggestion he will allowed entry to the US as an exception under any future country-wide ban on Muslims, labelling Trump's views "ignorant." The first Muslim mayor of a major Western city denounced Trump's proposed ban, arguing it risks radicalizing Muslims around the world.

Khan's comments came after Trump said he was happy to see the Labour politician elected mayor of London. Asked by the New York Times about his proposed temporary ban on Muslims, Trump said: "There will always be exceptions."

Khan, however, rebuffed the offer on Tuesday and said it was not the solution. "This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," the London mayor said.

More than any other group, the 1% has been convinced that the stock market represents some sort of leading indicator of wealth and prosperity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, the stock market can function as such an indicator. It is such an indicator when the rising stock market reflects a dynamic, capitalist economy where new industries and companies are rising to the top and improving standards of living for the populace.

It represents the opposite indicator when it merely reflects the ownership interests of the oligarchs in a crony-capitalist, fascist economy that is picking away at the dying carcass of what little economic freedom still remains. This is what a rising stock market actually represents today. When people look at it they should understand it is merely a measure of the oligarchs getting wealthier and more powerful and you becoming more of a debt slave.

It represents their interests in multinational corporations with record profit margins because they refuse to pay their employees a living wage. A rising stock market today is actually a leading indicator of the destruction of the middle class, cultural destitution and a society in collapse.

- From the 2013 post: The Stock Market: Food Stamps for the 1%

Eh, so what? It's good for stocks.

The recent Russian concert in Palmyra was an event loaded with symbolism. While it was the Syrians who liberated this ancient city and while the Russian only provided support, this support was crucial and, besides, it was not just Palmyra which Russia saved, but the Syrian nation. I would even argue that Russian in Palmyra saved not just Syria, but all of civilization.


Imagine you are an extraterrestrial watching our planet from space. Not only would you see the unspeakable atrocities committed by the Daesh liver-eating psychopaths, but you would see that the Empire which runs most of the planet, and the so-called "western civilization" which shaped our modern world more than any other civilization, have given their full backing to the Daesh.

You would see the US TOW missiles used against the only army capable of standing up against Daesh, you would see all the countries making up the so-called "concert of nations" (about, maybe, 1/3rd of the countries out there) calling for the overthrow of the legal and legitimate President of Syria even if that means that a black Daesh flag over Damascus.

You would see the genocide of Christians while the putatively Christian world looks away and the genocide of (all non-Takfiri) Muslims while the putatively Muslim world looks away. You would see the self-described "Leader of the Free World" condemn the (very limited) Russian military intervention in Syria and you would see a member of the most powerful military alliance on the planet (Turkey) make millions by trading stolen oil with Daesh.

This list could go on and on, but I think that we can agree that any extra-terrestrial observing this would be overcome by a total sense of disgust with the human race.