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"Common thieves" George Osborne Tweet on tax evasion is pretty awkward for David Cameron now

Christopher York
Huffington Post
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:12 UTC
osborne tweet
© Twitter
On 29 October 2014, George Osborne tweeted "Tax evasion is not just illegal it's immoral.People evading tax should be treated same as common thieves."

On 7 April 2016, his boss, David Cameron admitted befitting from a tax-avoiding offshore fund.


Unsurprisingly, Osborne's original tweet is now doing the rounds again with more than a few people pointing out the irony.

Comment: Also see: "Morally repugnant": Chancellor George Osborne family business' £6m offshore deal

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Magic Wand

"Morally repugnant": Chancellor George Osborne family business' £6m offshore deal

Paul McNamara and Guy Basnett
Channel 4 News
Tue, 07 Jul 2015 15:28 UTC
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne
© Toby Melville / Reuters
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne
Chancellor George Osborne's family business made £6 million in a property deal with a developer based in a tax haven, a Channel 4 News investigation has found.


Wallpaper firm Osborne & Little teamed up with a secretive corporation in the British Virgin Islands, to draw up plans to redevelop its former London headquarters into housing.

The companies jointly applied for planning permission for around 45 flats and houses, and once given the go-ahead, Osborne and Little sold its site to the offshore firm for £6,088,000.

A legal expert shown contracts obtained by Channel 4 News said Osborne & Little must have known the developer was based offshore, and had the potential to avoid millions in tax.

At the time, the Chancellor was the beneficiary of a family trust that owned at least 15% of Osborne and Little, so would have personally benefitted from the sale.

It is not known what the Chancellor's personal stake was.

The deal calls into question his commitment to clamping down on offshore firms avoiding tax, a practice he has gone on to publicly condemn as "morally repugnant".

The offshore company, called Nightingale Mews Incorporated, went on to redevelop the site, in Denning Mews, Clapham, and is estimated to have avoided up to £2 million in tax on its profits.

Comment: "I regard tax evasion and, indeed, aggressive tax avoidance, as morally repugnant" - George Osborne

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Treasure Chest

Hillary's emails confirm France and US killed Qaddafi for his gold and oil

Bob Fitrakis
Free Press
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:27 UTC
Muammar Gaddafi
With the recent release of Hillary Clinton's emails by Wikileaks, the public now knows exactly how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) went from a collective defense organization to the new Barbary Coast Pirates of imperialism.

During the 2011 Libyan uprising, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which called for a ceasefire and authorized military action to protect civilian lives. A coalition formed, centered around NATO with the March 17, 2011 passing of the Resolution. Its purpose -- a so-called "no-fly zone" over Libya.

The irony that the U.S.-dominated NATO military organization would be concerned with "protecting" Arab civilians is all too obvious since the United States is the nation most responsible for killing Arab civilians.

The real reasons for the attack have been dealt with most directly by America's famous reformed "economic hitman," John Perkins.

Perkins points out that the attack on Libya, like the attack on Iraq, has to do with power and control of resources, not only oil, but gold. Libya has the highest standard of living in Africa. "According to the IMF, Libya's Central Bank is 100% state owned. The IMF estimates that the bank has nearly 144 tons of gold in its vaults," Perkins wrote.

NATO went there like modern Barbary Coast Pirates -- to loot Libya's gold. The Russian media, in addition to Perkins, reported that the Pan-Africanist Qaddafi, the former President of the African Union, had been advocating that Africa use the gold so plentiful in Libya and South Africa to create an African currency based on a gold dinar.

"It is significant that in the months running up to the UN resolution that allowed the U.S. and its allies to send troops into Libya, Muammar al-Qaddafi was openly advocating the creation of a new currency that would rival the dollar and the euro. In fact, he called upon African and Muslim nations to join an alliance that would make this new currency, the gold dinar, their primary form of money and foreign exchange. They would sell oil and other resources to the US and the rest of the world only for gold dinars," Perkins explained.

Comment: See also:

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Extinguisher

Turkish MP charged with terrorism, revealed Daesh's source of sarin gas


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 15:26 UTC
Eren Erdem
© theiranproject.com
Eren Erdem, journalist and Republican People's Party deputy accused of treason for telling the truth.
Eren Erdem, from Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), who revealed that Daesh terrorists had obtained sarin gas supplies through Turkish territory, now faces terrorism charges in his country; the lawmaker says that the accusations are based on some "secret witness statements" without any documentary evidence.

Eren Erdem, the deputy of Turkey's CHP political party, who is also an investigative journalist, now faces terrorism charges in his own country. The Turkish government has submitted a motion to remove Erdem's parliamentary immunity opening up Erdem to a possible lifetime in prison for 'terrorism links.'

Sputnik Turkey got in touch with the Turkish lawmaker regarding the investigation in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) against him. Erdem explained the reasons behind the charges to Sputnik, calling the investigation yet "another conspiracy" against him. "They have launched an investigation into me for being a member of the 'parallel structure' which is a nondescript and ambiguous terrorist organization," the lawmaker says. "This investigation is based on 'secret witness' statements. There is no documentary evidence except this 'secret witness.' So, who is the secret witness?" he wonders.


Comment: Remove a dignitary's immunity, after the fact? The "fact" is Turkey supplies Daesh with chemical weaponry and profits from it. As with every pathological despot, Erdogan externalizes blame, not for his actions but for his exposure, unwittingly tightening his own noose a victim at a time. Funny thing...the more you suppress truth, the more dramatic its rebound.

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Bad Guys

Media blackout: 1.5 million starving in Donbass as Kiev escalates conflict


Russia Insider
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 11:35 UTC
Ukraine Donbass war
The situation on the contact line remains very tense, especially in the north of Donetsk and Gorlovka and in the area of the Yasinovatsky checkpoint situated in between. At the beginning of the week, the intensity of bombardment decreased slightly. But by the middle of the week, it at least doubled. This increase in the shelling of the Republics by the Ukrainian side may be related to the beginning of the next round of the Contact Group negotiations in Minsk on April 6. Donbass residents noticed long ago that on the eve of meetings in both the Minsk and Norman formats, the intensity of bombardments on the Ukrainian side increased accordingly.

The shelling by the Ukrainian military involved mostly mortars as well as rounds fired from infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms. The Ukrainian military press service also reported daily mortar bombardments of their positions by the DPR side, but this was of a lesser intensity than that visited on the territory of the Republics.

The significant difference in the level of bombardment carried out by the Ukrainian and DPR sides can be explained by reference to the experience of residents living in areas controlled by Kiev near the front. They relate that the DPR army returns fire only when the intensity of bombing increases, after having first allowed several salvos to go unanswered. Their return fire, residents explain, is usually conducted twice: the first to observe the fall of shot, and the second to suppress the firing point. After which, the bombardment coming from the Ukrainian side stops

Comment: Thanks to a media black-out it's easy to forget that a war is being waged in Ukraine, and that millions of people are suffering under Kiev's constant aggression. It's no wonder that the Dutch voted 'no' to a Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, but do the people of Europe really understand the devils their leaders let loose on the people of the Ukraine?

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Quenelle - Golden

Dutch Referendum may bring EU's pro-NATO foreign policy to a 'shuddering halt'

Gilbert Doctorow
Russia Insider
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 11:28 UTC
Nein-Stimmen EU-Assoziierung Ukraine
© AFP 2016/ANP/Bart Maat
On this overcast Thursday morning in Brussels, the Capital of Europe, rays of bright sunshine are breaking through from the East as the latest results of vote counting in neighboring Netherlands suggest that yesterday's referendum on the EU's Association Agreement with Ukraine passed the 30% quorum requirement of all eligible voters, while those who cast their ballots came out nearly two to one against the Ukraine deal.

If validated when the official results are released on 12 April, this marks a resounding defeat for the Brussels-led conspiracy to pursue Russia-bashing policies of sanctions and information war without consulting public opinion at home. To change metaphors and speak in terms of Dutch folklore, it is the crack in the dam many of us have been waiting for, the opportunity for common sense to prevail over the illogic, hubris and plain pig-headedness of those who control the EU institutions in Brussels, and afar from Berlin and Washington.

While the referendum was formally just "advisory," both the public statements of parliamentarians and the acknowledgements of the Dutch government ahead of the voting indicated that it will force a new vote in parliament on ratification and likely send Prime Minister Rutte to Brussels hat in hand, requesting a renegotiation of the Association Agreement. As such, it may bring the EU foreign policy machinery to a shuddering halt and open the illogic of all the Union's policies towards its eastern borderlands these past several years to public scrutiny and, hopefully, to revision.
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Dollar Gold

The Panama Papers - Secrets of the Super Rich and Super Corrupt

Four Corners
ABC, Australia
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 10:55 UTC
Cameron panama papers

Front man for the corrupt: David Cameron is directly linked to hiding large sums of dirty money in 'tax havens'.
It's the shadowy world of secret international finance and tax avoidance.

"What we're looking at here is really a parallel universe."

This Four Corners investigation will reveal how the rich and powerful exploit the system.

"What this really says is a lot about the system itself and how broke the system is and how crazy the whole thing is."

Four Corners reporter Marian Wilkinson follows the money trail and it's worth trillions of dollars.

"I was on their immigration stop list. But we've gotten in." Marian Wilkinson, Reporter

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has recently been campaigning against tax havens and prosecuting all ordinary people who attempt to dodge paying taxes, has been exposed as benefiting from his father's long-term use of tax havens to hide his dirty money.

What the Panama Papers reveal, is something that has been known to all clued-in people for many years: that we, the ordinary people of this world, are ruled by a cabal of immoral, conscienceless psychopaths who profit massively from war, suffering and death. Chief among those psychopaths we find Western politicians and corporate big-wigs who are the most vocal in extolling the virtues of justice, freedom and democracy.
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Eye 2

Turkish crackdown leaves Kurdish town of Cizre 80% destroyed


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 02:33 UTC
turkey bombs kurds
© Ilyas Akengin/Agence France Presse
A woman reacts while walking among the rubble of damaged buildings following heavy fighting between government troops and Kurdish fighters in the Kurdish town of Cizre in southeastern Turkey, which lies near the border with Syria and Iraq, on March 2, 2016
Dirayet Tashdemir, a member of Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said that around 600 people were killed in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, and 99 of them were children. Four-fifths of the Kurdish town of Cizre has been destroyed as a result of the Turkish crackdown on the minority, a member of Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said Thursday.

"80 percent of Cizre is already destroyed, including even those parts that were not under a blockade before," Dirayet Tashdemir told reporters at a press conference in Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

He estimated the death toll in the town less than 2 miles north of the Syrian border at nearly 300 residents. Eighty-six have died in the Sur district of the unofficial Kurdish capital of Diyarbakir, followed by 74 in Idil and 32 in Nusaybin, he added.
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Gold Coins

'Fessing up: Cameron comes clean on father's offshore trust, admits profiting from tax haven


RT
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 02:16 UTC
David Cameron
© Dan Kitwood / Reuters
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron addresses students at Exeter University in Exeter, Britain April 7, 2016.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted that he has benefited from shares in an offshore trust set up by his father, Ian, which was revealed in the Panama Papers leak. Cameron claims to have sold the shares before taking office in 2010, however.

"We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000 (about $42,000)," he told the UK's ITV news, admitting that these have been "a difficult few days."

Cameron says that, between 1997 and 2010, he and his wife, Samantha Cameron, owned shares in Blairmore Investment Trust, a multimillion-pound offshore trust fund established by his late father, Ian Cameron. "I sold them all in 2010 because I was going to become prime minister," he said. "I didn't want anyone to say you've got other agendas, other interests, all the rest of it." Cameron said he sold the shares months before taking up residence at 10 Downing Street in January of 2010 and paid income tax on the dividends from the units. The family's offshore firm also was moved to Ireland that year.

Comment: Even among the elites there are hierarchies. The US PTB appear to have ramped up the fear factor for "world leaders" to remind them who's really the boss. They now know that any and all possible pressure will be used to keep everyone in line.

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Eye 2

Panama Papers: U.S. intel op to solidify western elite's global domination?

Jay Syrmopoulos
Free Thought Project
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 23:29 UTC
Panama papers map better
© Brian Kilmartin
Map of Panama Papers companies by country
The bombshell revelations contained in the Panama Papers have resulted in the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland, massive censorship in China, and outright denials in Moscow after both of their respective Presidents were implicated in the scandal.

But curiously, not a single member of the political/corporate elite within the U.S. has been named out of the 441 U.S. clients identified in the leaked documents.

The surprising lack of U.S. power elite appearing in any of the articles written on the leak could potentially be related to the entities funding the organization investigating the papers — or perhaps something even more nefarious.

While there oddly have been no U.S. power brokers connected to Mossack Fonseca, Zero Hedge reports Brian Kilmartin has created an interactive map, based on the leaked data, that reveals there are at least 441 clients, 3,072 companies, 211 beneficiaries and 3,467 U.S.-based shareholders of the Panamanian law firm.

The 441 clients would put the U.S. among the countries with the most clients serviced by Mossack Fonseca in the world. With so many U.S. clients — yet none who are connected to the ruling elite — it raises some serious questions about the nature of the leak itself.

Some have questioned whether the leak itself could be a strategic intelligence operation called a "limited hangout."
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