ONE OF THE intellectual gargoyles that has crawled out of Donald Trump’s brain is the idea that we should “open up” libel laws to make it easier to punish the media for negative or unfair stories. Trump also wants top officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, so they never write memoirs that upset the boss. Trump is so disdainful of free speech that he has even vowed to use the Espionage Act to imprison anyone who says or leaks anything to the media that displeases him.
Actually, that last bit is made up; Trump hasn’t talked about the Espionage Act. Instead, the Obama administration has used the draconian 1917 law to prosecute more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. Under the cover of the Espionage Act and other laws, the administration has secretly obtained the emails and phone records of various reporters, and declared one of them — James Rosen of Fox News — a potential “co-conspirator” with his government source. Another reporter, James Risen of the New York Times, faced a jail sentence unless he revealed a government source (which he refused to do).
Obama has warned of the imminent perils of a Trump presidency, but on the key issue of freedom of the press, which is intimately tied to the ability of officials to talk to journalists, his own administration has established a dangerous precedent for Trump — or any future occupant of the Oval Office — to use one of the most punitive laws of the land against some of the most courageous and necessary people we have. One section of the Espionage Act even allows for the death penalty.
Obama’s gift to Trump was unintentionally highlighted in a speech the president delivered last week at a ceremony to honor the winner of the Toner Prize for Excellence in Journalism. Obama lamented the financial challenges facing the journalism industry and lauded the assembled reporters and editors for the hard and vital work they do. He made no mention of the ways in which his administration is making that job even harder, however, and that omission prompted the winner of the prize, ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis, to gently note, “That does not get him off the hook for his administration taking so long to respond to our FOIAs.”
Two years ago, Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia University, gave a series of lectures in which he discussed the idea of “fastening the procedures of totalitarianism on the substance of democratic society.” Moglen’s lectures were mostly concerned with surveillance by the National Security Agency — the title of his talks was “Snowden and the Future” — but his idea applies to other procedures the U.S. government has recently become fond of. Few are more important than targeting whistleblowers and journalists, and Obama has begun the fastening process.
The Release, a new film about Stephen Kim, directed by Stephen Maing.
It’s a maddening situation that becomes all the more maddening when you think of the lives of the leakers and whistleblowers the Department of Justice has ruined. I have previously written at length about two of them, Jeffrey Sterling of the CIA and Stephen Kim of the State Department. A new documentary about Kim, directed by Steve Maing and released this week by Field of Vision, the film division of The Intercept, powerfully shows the personal hell of living under Obama’s crackdown. After serving a prison sentence for discussing a classified report on North Korea with Fox’s James Rosen, Kim now finds it impossible to return to his old life. Although he has advanced degrees from Harvard and Yale, he cannot get a foreign policy job because of the taint of being a convicted leaker. Kim now describes himself as “homeless, penniless, family-less,” and adds, “I cannot go back to what I was. That person is gone.”
Leakers and whistleblowers are not just categories of people — they are actual people with names and careers and children and lives that have been unjustly crushed. David Petraeus, the former four-star general and CIA director, leaked far more classified data to his biographer-girlfriend than Sterling or Kim or John Kiriakou, and lied to the FBI about it. Petraeus, however, was let off with a misdemeanor plea bargain, because if you are powerful you can do as you like. That deal is another gift to Trump or any menace-in-waiting. The president has set a precedent that says it’s okay to literally give a get-out-of-jail card to your friends.
Now that we live in the shadow of a political era that goes by two words — President Trump — it’s time for Obama to disavow the precedent he has set. The next time he gives a speech on the importance of journalism and free speech, he should admit he has made a terrible mistake and pardon the people who were wrongly prosecuted, including Manning, Kim, Sterling, Kiriakou, and Thomas Drake. He should ask their forgiveness. Obama does not have the power to stop us from electing a terrible president, but he can limit the damage that one can do.
Related:
This is why I’m afraid of a Hillary presidency (albeit not terrified, as I would be of a Trump same). With regard to these matters, in particular matters of Wall Street/finance, Hillary will simply be “Obama, the Third Term.”
And this is not just a Feel-The-Berner regurgitating Bernie’s (and Liz’s) words; Senator Clinton’s record is abysmal (as is Obama’s) when it comes to cozy relationships with (and appointments to regulatory positions of) those from lower Manhattan.
We are living in interesting times.
I’m confused.
On the one hand, Fox News has long been lambasted as a front for Rupert Murdoch’s love affair with the military industrial complex. Then there is the New York Times, which has admitted multiple breaches of its own conduct codes.
On the other, we read here that Fox News employs “journalists” and so does the New York Times?
One appears to have absolutely no code of ethics or conduct that it follows, while the other regularly flouts its own rules, promises to do better, then flouts them again, and again, and again.
More seriously, both news outlets have actively promoted falsehoods that have cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives through cheerleading for fake markets and fake wars.
As journalists attempting to expose corruption, where do we draw the line? Do we attack such ethical failures in one breath, then defend them with the next?
Could it be that the Obama administration is targeting the charlatans of corporate media?
My question is more by the way of devil’s advocacy than genuine belief, for no administration has proven itself immune to the corrupting influences, sought or unsought, that Eisenhower warned about so long ago.
But never mind what Obama does to “journalists”. What are we, as journalists, doing about so-called colleagues who drag our profession down into the muck, in the name of some very dubious agendas?
Obama LIED about change .. he became Bush Jr’s 3rd and 4th term and the odds are good the next President will be his 5th term. The AIPAC control of the US Government is giving us a police state.
Obama has been such a big disappointment to so many of us. His “circle the wagons” approach to addressing malfeasance in his own administration has left a gaping wound in public trust.
When the New York Times, a supposedly liberal media outlet, was caught red handed colluding with W Bush administration officials to publish lies that led directly to the Iraq war, it became obvious that the mantle of liberal and conservative has little sway over the process by which the US is manipulated by a compliant press. Ethical considerations are obviously not in play.
These faithful sycophants are the “journalists” Obama is praising, not the brave souls who risk all to expose the schemes and intrigues of an errant US administration. For them Obama has only scorn and persecution. It saddens me and cheapens us all who put Obama in power.
Obama’s approach to whistleblowers and journalists has a lot of similarities to the Nixon administration with its ‘Plumbers’ who were tasked with tracking down leaks to the media – but Nixon didn’t have the expanded resources of the NSA mass surveillance program at his disposal.
It’s also telling to look at the list of high-level government officials who’ve leaked all manner of classified material and only gotten slaps on the wrist, if that: Leon Panetta & Michael Vickers (leaked classified material to Zero Dark Thirty producers as part of government PR campaign), James Cartwright (leaked information about U.S. offensive cyberwarfare operations in Iran related to Stuxnet), David Petraeus (bragging to his mistress about classified information, apparently), John Brennan (leaked material about Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula bomb plot).
The important thing to note is, when the leaks of classified material support the propaganda operations of the White House administration, then they are ignored. If they are ‘accidents’ by top officials, then they are also ignored. However, if the leaks expose government corruption and incompetence, if they are embarrassing to the White House, Pentagon, State Department, CIA, NSA or to any other federal agency, Obama goes after the leakers and their partners in the journalistic world with everything at his disposal – Espionage Act prosecutions, National Security Letters, FBI harassment – all aimed at silencing the critics.
Which, again, is just what Nixon did. It is a real disappointment, coming from the 2008 “Hope and Change” candidate who in the end, just turned out to be another servant of Wall Street financiers (who also escaped prosecution for their role in the 2008 collapse) and of the corrupt federal bureaucracy.
it is very true Obama has been a huge disappointment. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-unpardonable-inaction-on-pardons/2016/03/25/dfe670a8-f07a-11e5-a61f-e9c95c06edca_story.html
If Bernie Sanders is truly the social progressive that he claims to be, then he will pardon Chelsea Manning as one of his first acts in office. Let’s see how that plays out (not).
Thanks for highlighting what I’m sure was an oversight. Also don’t forget Edward Snowden in the pantheon of true American heroes. It is Presidential pardon time. Cue the music. Obama’s 180 degree turn as he protects his ‘legacy’ is simply staggering.
I hope you’re not ‘holding your breath and turning blue’ ‘cuz it ain’t gonna happen under the Oman’s regime.
Remember he says one thing; and does another. Since the very beginning of his ‘governing in prose’. Americans bought the ‘poetry’. Fortunately I have the perspective of age coupled with wisdom. I bought neither.
Thank goodness we still have The Intercept, Democracy Now and a handful of other media sources. The realist in me wonders how long they will exist.
If you take advertising dollars away from Public Radio and the Media we’d see true journalism, but what we really get are advertorials. Yes, NPR isn’t very good either. It’s astonishing how un-informed MOST people are, not just Americans.
Thanks to very excellent information from folks like Glenn Greenwald, we can still believe the truth can be told.
The media is focused on PERSONALITIES right now in the election sphere, not facts, figures and important stuff – so that sort of proves that true journalists do not work at any of the major networks, cable and internet news sites.
They work at the Intercept.
George Soros is a major contributor to NPR
When I think of how the first Black American President completely BLEW his chance to mend relations in the Country and solve so many issues on the Black front – it’s astonishingly obvious that was never the intentions of him in the first place.
So if any Democrat thinks Hillary or Bernie can out do a Black President with Black people – they are crazy, stupid and ignorant.
Hi Chuck. Is there some missing idea linking your 1st and 2nd paragraphs?
Also, is “the Black front” a weather system?
Probably the greatest effect the Obama presidency has had on me is to develop a thick callous to statements by political types. He has consistently broken his promises without acknowledging them. It is what a politician DOES that matters; the words are mostly window-dressing, if not outright attempts to deceive. By that logic, Trump bothers me a lot less than Hillary. He has no record of invading foreign countries or bringing about bad trade agreements. He has cheated and lied in business, but that’s how it’s done, isn’t it? Who knows what he’d do as president (even he probably doesn’t know) but Hillary’s 25 year record in national politics makes clear what she’ll do , which is more of the same.
Agree. The media are tyrants. https://jackblueblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/07/the-new-social-contract/
What a gratuitous piece about Trump. The piece documents actions of Obama, backed by Killary, and some words by Trump.
But as usual from the faux leftists words speak louder than actions.
Well, when those words are about “opening up libel law”, I think we have reason to worry. There are a lot of backward regimes where the local jefes will sue you silly over anything they don’t like – this proposal is 100% pure Banana Republican.
I guess America First just doesn’t please some people.Especially Zionists.
Important words, Peter, thank you and all at The Intercept – and especially every whistleblower, too.
Thanks, appreciate it.
Obama still has the power to waterboard Trump (&’a whole lot worse’.), Peter. .. although, at this point, I’m not sure even that would shut him up.
Shoot, can you train a military attack dog to lick peanut butter off Trump’s balls? The U.S. military has some prior data, but I think it’s classified. That would one reality show Trump can star in that I would actually watch!
I was thinking the same thing, Wnt!
*Sure, Obama could bring back waterboarding (& a hell of a lot worse!), at a moments notice right … but it might prove tricky to waterboard Trump since he talks exclusively out of his ass?
Mr. Obama has set some significant precedents. These increase the allure of being president and have helped attract some super predators to the chase – not only Mr. Trump, but also Mr. Cruz and Mrs. Clinton.
However, I think the joy of jailing journalists is only a secondary thrill. An even greater adrenaline rush is created by exercising presidential powers to kill Americans, using remote controlled drones. That really motivates the candidates. So Mr. Obama’s greatest achievement may be to boost the morale of his successor.
Timing “Tap dead-center.”
Obama’s “presidential powers” include a “kill list.”
Wow. 1984? A President can decide who lives and who dies? Without trial?
How could this happen?
A little thing called the “National Defense Authorization Act”?
Or more likely, the AUMF.
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/from_democracy_to_pathocracy_the_rise_of_the_political_psychopath
Under TTIP this kind of legislation will pose no problem.
This kind of law will put corporate revenue under pressure. Hence, newsagencies / journalist can sue the government.
Trump just “shouts” anything that he thinks might yield an extra vote.
By using this kind of “lesgislation” and political behaviour the government & establishment actually acknowledge that there are massive “piles of dirt” they are afraid of.
If they are really interested in the truth the government would indict Bush and his cronies for war-crimes.
Only totalitarian regimes use this kind of measures to shut-up – oppresss – criticism…
I have a couple of problems with this article:
1. What’s with the “gift to Trump” ad nauseum? He’s not going to get elected.
2. Although he was not actually prosecuted, Edward Snowden is conspicuously missing from the list of persons named in the article’s final paragraph. His present situation is the direct result of Obama’s disgusting and unethical actions. Snowden too deserves an apology and far more.
Obama will do nothing. He is a white collar criminal and nothing positive can be expected from him. It remains for his successor to clean up the mess he has made.
Obama’s legacy: destroyed any belief in the words ‘hope’ and ‘change.’ Obama has done more to destroy citizens’ trust in politicians, and more so our trust in our government. In my lifetime a government controlled by a few belligerents of yet untold psychopathic acts to achieve and assure themselves of unchallenged power. They have almost succeeded. Obama and the Clinton’s are accessories to the demise of democracy in the United States in the worst way; we trusted them!
Snowden is missing due to my oversight; of course he belongs in that paragraph. Thanks for pointing it out.
If Trump wants to “to punish the media for negative or unfair stories,” then how should he be punished for outright lies to the public in the pursuit of power?
@PI –
Excellent question, but it seems TPTB never get punished for the sin of lying.
Hey, I just remembered something John Mellencamp said in some tv interview; I believe he was talking about Bill Clnton. He said something like – didn’t we elect him because he was the best liar; isn’t that what Presidents do?
Can’t say I condone the lying, but I do believe there might be some truth to Mellencamp’s observation.
President Obama will never admit he made a mistake. I will admit I made a mistake by voting for him twice. He wanted to appear tough when he got into office, but instead he ended up just acting like Dick Cheney, who we thought we were getting rid of when we voted for him. Instead we got the 2nd coming of Dick Cheney.
I feel your pain and disgust. I remember and old joke where a bum in a food line said look there is a dime in the gutter and everyone got out of line and he moved to the front. Another bum said look there is a half dollar in the gutter and he got out of line and lost his place. A friend asked why did you do it? The bum answered “I know it was a lie but it was so good I had to look.
Red Skelton -Freddie the Freeloaded. Just dated myself.
From the horses mouth, “I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws.”
Actually this is not a bad idea and here is why. Let’s rephrase what he said.
I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative or horrible or false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws.
The is a libel law in the U.K. that allows for punitive measures for lies in the press. THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS. There is a good reason this is a commandment.
Journalists can get things wrong. If that happens when they write about a public figure and they have not acted recklessly, U.S. libel laws protect them. That’s right, I think. Also, “purposely negative” defines just about every opinion story that is critical of any politician.
I don’t believe in libel period. The problem is that people don’t always agree on the facts – and when they disagree, whoever is poorer loses. Whatever law you pass, the National Enquirer will know how to not break it while giving everybody a hint of what they mean … while some guy who gets up and complains at a town hall meeting gets screwed for everything he has. Too many “SLAPP” type opportunities, and when the government is involved, they are a particularly bad bully about these things.
The way to defuse libel is to DEMOCRATIZE THE MEDIA. By that I don’t just mean breaking up ownership (though it is a start) – I mean that we need to come together as a people and intentionally choose ways to speak that let more people be heard rather than fewer. For example, on corporate outlets like Twitter, almost anything most people write goes unread; but a few people are read by millions – as a result, occasionally ordinary people who misspeak end up suffering remarkable bouts of bullying. By contrast, on a comment section like this, we all say our piece and get ignored more or less equally. That’s social engineering that we can choose – and shouldn’t let companies choose for us. Choose right, and “libel” becomes a non-issue, one newspaper saying something wrong and ten disagreeing. Choose wrong, and people will have paroxysms of destruction over twenty characters of text – as some already have.
That UK libel law is vicious. Living Marxism was put out of business by a politicking justice in the ITN/Penny Marshall lawsuit case. That guy’s determination followed by Western idea of crushing socialism by any means necessary.
Is this why we are not hearing the American names connected to the Panama Papers or the Unaoil bribery being investigated by the FBI and internationally in our media?
Why expose persons of note when you can use your silence to Blackmail them?
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. It’s odd to look back at the photo’s of FDR with the press and Mr.O with the press in comparison. Yes, FDR had his share of detractors but not as many as Mr. O, as far as I can see. Style and thick skin, that’s what FDR had, don’t see that much of it now though. I do look forward to the day when the jack-boot gets off my neck, our neck’s. All Empire’s end, it’s just a matter of time. The shame of it though is that so many lives are destroyed or lost in the waiting.
Obomba detractors?Only the Israeli assholes calling an executioner a hero have said anything negative re Obomba.He is the most teflon pos in american history,with a track record of poopie cockie.
Yes,the rethugs put on a show,but his policies are all republican.
“The Obama administration has used the draconian 1917 law…the Espionage Act … to prosecute more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined.”
Obama is just following in the footsteps of John Adams whom when our Republic was in its infancy enacted and enforced the Alien and Sedition Acts, which immediately wrecked the most sacred pillars of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, just after they were established.
And he then further followed in the path of Woodrow Wilson whom many consider the darkest of American figures with his Espionage Act, which silenced and imprisoned all that opposed him, quelled all decent to his putting us in a war to serve the bankers, banished any real socialist voice that could have brought to the Republic some sense of fair play, established The Federal Reserve mankind’s foremost group of extortionists, and took the first shot at establishing a New World Order to satisfy the elite’s unquenchable thirst for greed and power.
Obama is just following the directions of whom he really serves by his excessive use of the Espionage Act as his elite masters feel a clear sense of worry. They will do anything to forestall an inevitable revolution caused by the current state of vast inequality with its horrific and merciless ramifications.
Thank you Peter Maass for this article. I want to believe that Mr. Kim and all of the unjust treatment of whistle blowers that are weighted with conscience are being separated out by a just God. I want to believe that there is a ‘better’ place waiting for them. Gandhi…Mandela…Dalai Lama…all became favored. Mr. Kim will know how to bring about justice in a day waiting for him. God Bless you Mr. Kim…and just as the doe looked upon you may peace do the same.
Mr. Maass,
Is there a way to send Mr. Kim money?
Thank you
Stephen Kim Legal Defense Trust
Kind thanks…
Your kind heart inspires me. Good words.
Thank you for your comment.
Bush and Obama have intimidated both press and Government personnel to the point free press is a joke and civil servants are just servants. They are the enablers that sent the stage for a real strongman or woman to make the trains run on time. No need to single out Trump, what Hillary and friends might do with the new “normal” is known only to God. If you build a Police State, at some point “They” will come.
Don’t hold your breath!
The Republicans are trying their level best to ignore their vote tallies and put in whoever they want. The Democrats have already promised it will be so. When they go up against each other, it will be more skulduggery. Who believes in democracy? Not the people who want a billionaire on a white horse to take control of them. Not the people who want a hired hand for the fossil fuel industry. Not the people who want a woman to arrive in the White House on her back. Not even such socialists as know a little history or read a couple of unreadable books.
Facebook is the new Usenet, Twitter is the new IRC, the Mall of America is the new village square. A rock band knows they’ve made it when they star in a commercial. The world agrees the purpose of college education is to get a job. Bullying is the new politics, and terrorism is the new democracy. One terrorist, one vote – the rest is just mental masturbation, no different than grabbing the controls of an old-time arcade game and trying to imagine you’re controlling the preview when you haven’t actually put in a quarter. And so the world slouches steadily toward an ugly fate, and when it comes, let no one say it was not justice. (Seriously – they won’t…)
There is some real irony in this article. The very same people who knew Obama would be a wonderful president now know that Trump would be a terrible one! I’m afraid they are not very convincing. Liberals are way too sensitive to words. Way too PC which apparently originated in modern times with Lenin.
Obeying church laws, like compulsory prayer in school, was “politically correct” for over a century. “In God We Trust” on your money is politically correct. And nothing is more politically correct than the Fox News whine about a “War on Christmas”.
“Obama’s gift to Trump”? I understand the sentiment, but seriously – why are we talking about a Trump presidency as an eventuality? Why lend it that much credence?
It’s certainly a possibility, though not, I think, a probability. And as the story notes, the powers and actions undertaken by Obama can be used by future presidents (not just Trump) who may be just as dangerous or nearly so.
spot on.
Barack’s entire theme has been “transparency”, as if to provide to the of-by-for the people who own their government the information and what’s going on in their government. However, the only transparency the people are getting is that our own president has, in a transparent manner, turned off the lights.
America is now over-run by wannabe dictators who are owned by wealthy thieves who loot Americans of jobs, rights, homes and return on productivity. America made moves to solve that problem in 1775 and it worked for only a short while.
Yes Barabbas, spot on.
Politicians will be politicians. Judges and Justices are the real weak link here. They receive lifetime or lengthy terms so they can be independent “Guardians of the Constitution” insulated from politics.
The fact that in 2016, the Judicial Branch hasn’t “checked” the constitutionality of the other two branches at the federal, state and local levels is the real scandal here.
The U.S. Constitution requires “speedy justice” from the Judicial Branch, this a scandal of mass proportion nearly 15 years after 9/11. They don’t seem to fundamentally understand the post-9/11 blacklisting programs where the federal government “deputized” state and local officials to defame and destroy innocent citizens within their communities.
Obama isn’t insulated from politics, judges and justices are insulated politically and it’s their duty to provide Judicial Review. The Judicial Branch can also issue “Writs of Mandamus” to force the other two branches to follow the U.S. Constitution.
How can Hillary possibly emerge from server-foundation-benghazi scandal untarnished? Obama’s legacy b/c of perceived hypocrisy will take a huge hit if she gets a slap on the wrist, right? Although he was in on the same Benghazi lies, isn’t he forced now to do something about the other alleged crimes if proven to be such?
Not at all, she’s quite a damaged and obviously corrupt candidate – that’s why Sanders (an independent) is stomping on her in many primaries – however she is who the equally corrupt Democratic establishment / lobbying coordination group decided long ago should “win” – and the lobbying groups in D.C. cannot wait.
In the end you’ll have her and all her issue versus Ted or The Donald – presenting the U.S. citizenry with yet another – “whose the least worst” choice? Compared to Ted or Donald she’ll probably do well in that choice.
“The purpose of an Espionage Act prosecution, however, is not to punish a person for spying for the enemy, selling secrets for personal gain, or trying to undermine our way of life. It is to ruin the whistleblower personally, professionally and financially. It is meant to send a message to anybody else considering speaking truth to power: challenge us and we will destroy you.” — John Kiriakou, via http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/06/obama-abuse-espionage-act-mccarthyism
Thanks for a powerful piece, and for highlighting the moving FOV film, “The Release”, directed by Stephen Maing.
“Kim now describes himself as “homeless, penniless, family-less,” and adds, “I cannot go back to what I was. That person is gone.””
This is precisely what happens to many people, like Kim, even if prison isn’t the outcome. I wish him well. I wish him peace.
We must turn things around.
Obama is much more dangerous than Bush. He is intelligent and Bush is a donkey. When he lies he does it in a way that makes people believe him and even the skeptical think about his words. He fooled me in 2008 until I realized he was no better than his predecessors. Now I don’t believe him not even when he goes to church, I am sure he is trying to fool God…and he will make him believe. That’s for sure. One of the biggest liar of modern politics.
No wonder no U.S. politicians names have emerged from the “Panama Papers” scandal!
All the reporters that investigated the world wide corruption have been put on notice that if they start outing members of “the club” (in the U.S.) that THEY will be investigated and their phone records will be put through the NSA and the FBI microscope.
It’s inconceivable that there are soooooo many politicians from other countries involved in the “Panama Papers” shell corporations scandal and none are from the U.S. The chilling effect of the NSA & FBI has been achieved!
Be patient. As the group of journalists is primarily European, their initial focus has been on the eastern hemisphere. Coverage of the US has been promised. With over 200,000 accounts and 2.6TB of data, not everything can be analyzed at once.
The more interesting connection is between the very constituency of the partnership that is analyzing and writing about the Panama Papers, and the story above. There are no US participants, and I think there is a very good reason for that: the US MSM are untrustworthy, being the servants of the very elites that is so extensively engaged in tax evasion, money laundering, and other illegal financial activities.
“There are no US participants . . .”
Not quite correct. McClatchy is the single US participant.
Hi all –
There ARE some U. S. names beginning to come out. See the link I posted on Mackey’s article about the Iceland PM.
Thanks for the post feline. But the article still fails to mention ANY U.S. politicians:
“While the Washington and Wall Street establishments have emerged relatively unscathed – “How have Americans so far escaped the biggest leak of financial data of all time?” asked the influential Politico website – some colourful characters who fell foul of the law are identified in Mossack Fonseca’s files.”
The only people in the U.S. that are mentioned are ones that have already been convicted of crimes. They only seem to be the sacrificial lambs thrown to the lions.
As long as they don’t open any special deliveries from Fort Detrick.