Unfortunately, the person behind the leak of the Mossack Fonseca papers has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results, writes British author an former ambassador Craig Murray in an essay.
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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 percent, 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 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.
«There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires»
The «Süddeutsche 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 (George 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 The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.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 U.K. peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.
The corporate media – the «Guardian» and «BBC» in the U.K. – 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.
«I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that»
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?
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.
