The whole world is witnessing a burly din of snake-oil corporations managed by the proxies of existing and former state heads, their relatives, friends, sportsmen, sport bodies, celebrities and crime mafias.
The data submitted is about the clientele of Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm, by an undisclosed identity which investigated and publicized by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), a German newspaper under project “Panama Papers”.
"As the tornado of Panama Papers spread, its aftershocks are expected to wobble the world for many months to come, even years. Here is a brief enlightenment of how this all this fuss initiated, concise background of the contributors, the data and the victims."
How It Started
In early 2015, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), a German newspaper, starts receiving encrypted internal data of Mossack Fonseka, a Panamanian law firm, provides consultancy to integrate shadowy offshore companies to cover up their money, shifty or candid.
Mossack Fonseca
Mossack Fonseca owns a dozen of offices all over the world to sell shell companies in cities such as Zurich, London, and Hong Kong which assists you buy a shell company for as low as $1,000. Though owning an offshore company is not prejudice or illegal but as often the providers use proxies to conceal the name of clients like state heads or millionaires, it originates doubts and apprehensions.
At the same time, its clients also embrace criminals and individual from different mafias as well as money proceeds through bribery and corruption by assorted state heads. Also almost 200 politicians consisting of many ministers are counted in the clientage of the Mossack Fonseca.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
SZ is a known newspaper, is headquartered in Munich and has a viewership of about 4.4 million in both print and digital media. It has a team of investigation journalists of five members, three of which are the members of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
In the next few months, the data acquired from the unidentified source reaches 2.6 terabytes demanding nothing in return except a few financial measures. This was the moment SZ decided to seek cooperation from ICIJ to get the data analyzed.
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
This international cooperation between “Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)” and “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)” marked the beginning of “Panama Papers” which are leaked set of 11.5 million documents – “more than the combined total of Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks”.
In a year or so, nearly 400 journalists from more than 80 countries associated with over 100 media organizations contributed to analyze and research the documents with the help of “the Guardian and the BBC in England, Le Monde in France, and La Nación in Argentina”. Besides these, SZ journalists also have cooperated with public broadcasters and journalists in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The international team has some initial meetings in Washington, Munich, Lillehammer, and London to concoct the map towards the research loom.
The Data
Panama Paper also provided data about 214,000 companies including banks, legal firms and asset management companies which secretly manages the estates of world’s prominent personalities “from politicians, FIFA officials, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes” from Argentina, Ukraine, Russia, Iceland, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Austria, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Canada, United Arab Emirates, and many others.
Victims of Panama Papers
Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk became the pioneer victims of Panama Papers who have to resign after losing public support whereas British Prime Minister David Cameron and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are facing austere criticism demanding a resignation from opposition and public.
Panama Papers, the Ugly Side
When the entire media, public, and analysts are utterly relying on Panama Papers, a joint piece of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper, there are some voices in credible media and intellect panning this story.
They are characterizing the report or papers as influenced, motivated and selective linking ICIJ and Mossack Fonseca as spongers of CIA and Mossad. China is one of those countries who condemned Panama Papers calling it a “Western Conspiracy” and has its censors has restricted access to the leaked cache of 11.5 million documents.
Global Times spots “powerful force is behind Panama Papers” criticizing western media immediately inking arresting information from the documents and leaders from non-western countries. There has been a media hype created as Putin himself is involved in scam on an allegation accusing his close friend to have laundered $1 billion.
The Western media has taken control of the interpretation each time there has been such a document dump, and Washington has demonstrated particular influence in it. Information that is negative to the US can always be minimized, while exposure of non-Western leaders, such as Putin, can get extra spin.
Vice terming it a mainstream media blockade to preventing the world to knowing the truth and all media attacks on Putin are bias. ICIJ is on the payroll of US government and is partnered with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project with the objective that all the Panama papers are a US hit on Russia
"We know this so-called journalistic community perfectly well, it is clear to us that a number of journalists who are part of it have hardly majored in journalism; there are many former representatives of the [US] State Department and the CIA, along with other intelligence agencies, Kremlin spokesperson."
Editor’s Note in Veterans Today slams Panama Papers terming it as the “new Wikileaks wannabe scam is playing out as we expected”. The journal displays ICIJ logo with caption “There are layers of smokescreens in this story”. It also claims to have contacted with Gerard Ryle of International Consortium of Journalists for an interview who is yet to respond.
“World media seems to never republish the gems of confessional material to be found in the Israeli media, especially the Hebrew platforms. Public record is treated like top secret material”.
“In digging into Assange’s background, we found him saying that Rupert Murdoch was “his hero and role model”, and he is as dirty as they come. We consider his entire media network an intelligence platform for the Israelis.”
Then the article “NEO – Panama Papers – The New Wikileaks Scam” discloses CIA and Mosssad are the primary clients of Mossach Fenseka and the data received “obscure” German newspaper. It reveals that the “dump” will now be capitalized “to blackmail some to protect others and documents, too many for anyone to examine or vet, have, for the last year, been seeded with fabrications and fictions just like WikiLeaks”.
“For those unaware, former National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, ousted WikiLeaks as a Mossad operation on December 5, 2010, while on National Public Radio with Judy Woodruff. Brzezinski asserted that WikiLeaks was run by an intelligence organization and its leaks were largely chickenfeed with fabricated material seeded into the mix.”
Craig Murray, a former British ambassador turned human rights activist, writes in his article “Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak”:
“What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Journalists” which is funded and organized 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”.
“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.”
Vocativ in “The Most Bonkers Panama Papers Conspiracy” give the main themes guiding the conspiracy narrative such as this is an attack on enemies of western capitalism, distraction from US election, and strategic/tactical leak but the most terrible of them all is “Brace yourself for a staged terrorist attack”:
Many conspiracy theorists do think this leak is legitimate, but they think the “global elite” will soon create a massive distraction. One popular post on r/Conspiracy by chugs1984 contends that intelligence agencies within the affected countries will orchestrate “a good ole terrorist attack on a major western city,” and suggested that “some sleep[e]r cell is being activated right now and we’ll see something major within the next 12-24 hrs.”