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Mathew Ingram ✔@mathewi
Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung responded to the lack of U.S. individuals in the documents, saying "Just wait for what is coming next"
Follow
Mathew Ingram ✔@mathewi
Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung responded to the lack of U.S. individuals in the documents, saying "Just wait for what is coming next"
The banks that knowingly participate and facilitate this a big part of it in my mind.. Who knows what else lies in the 2.4 terabyte of info..
Maybe nothinv major but at least another step towards the have nots seeing the farse for what it is.. World needs a revolution against the status quo whores protecting it with all their might...
Maybe nothinv major but at least another step towards the have nots seeing the farse for what it is.. World needs a revolution against the status quo whores protecting it with all their might...
The middlemen will likely end up being the big part of the story .. And the story has just begun:.
The law firm, Mossack Fonseca, worked with 617 intermediaries operating in the U.S., according to the ICIJ. That could include banks, law firms and other middlemen that set up shell companies, foundations and trusts for customers seeking to move money into offshore accounts.
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/04/04/the-panama-papers-the-mysterious-u-s-connection/
The law firm, Mossack Fonseca, worked with 617 intermediaries operating in the U.S., according to the ICIJ. That could include banks, law firms and other middlemen that set up shell companies, foundations and trusts for customers seeking to move money into offshore accounts.
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/04/04/the-panama-papers-the-mysterious-u-s-connection/
Just one example of how western interests via banking support rat bastards more to come..
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[h=1]British banker set up firm ‘used by North Korea to sell weapons’[/h]A British banker who spent two decades living in communist North Korea set up a secret offshore finance company allegedly used by the Pyongyang regime to help sell arms and expand its nuclear weapons programme.
Nigel Cowie – a fluent Korean and Chinese speaker, who studied at Edinburgh University – was behind a Pyongyang front company, DCB Finance Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands, papers show.
He says DCB Finance was used for legitimate business and that he was unaware of any unlawful transactions.
Cowie moved to North Korea in 1995 when Kim Jong-il was in power, and went on to become head of its first foreign bank, Daedong Credit Bank. Initially operating out of a ramshackle Pyongyang hotel with a staff of three, Cowie led a consortium that in 2006 bought a 70% stake in the bank.
Giving his address as Pyongyang’s International House of Culture, he registered DCB Finance Limited, an offshoot of the bank, in the BVI in summer 2006, with a senior North Korean official, Kim Chol-sam. The Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonsecaincorporated the company, despite North Korea being an obvious high-risk destination.
That July Kim Jong-il signalled his defiance of US sanctions by firing seven ballistic missiles. In October, North Korea carried out its first nuclear weapons testwith a controlled underground explosion. The ensuing diplomatic crisis saw the UN impose asset freezes and and travel and trade bans.
In 2013, the US imposed sanctions on Daedong and Cowie’s front company, DCB, as well as on Kim Chol-sam. It alleged the bank provided “financial services” to North Korea’s main arms dealer, the Korea Mining Development Corporation, and its main financial arm, Tanchon Commercial Bank, which were subject to sanctions for the “central role they play supporting North Korea’s illicit nuclear and ballistic missiles programs”.
Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea until his death in 2011. Photograph: KCNA/AFP/Getty ImagesThe US Treasury claimed that since “at least 2006, Daedong Credit Bank had used its front company, DCB Finance Limited, to carry out international financial transactions as a means to avoid scrutiny by financial institutions avoiding business with North Korea”.
Kim was suspected of facilitating transactions worth hundreds of thousands and managing millions of dollars in North-Korean-related accounts.
Before moving to North Korea Cowie worked for HSBC in Hong Kong. From Pyongyang he gave several interviews to visiting foreign journalists, extolling North Korea as an under-appreciated investment opportunity. He told the Wall Street Journal he was part of an “effort to try to get the country going again”. Asked if he might prefer to work out of New York or Hong Kong rather than under an oppressive Stalinist dictatorship, he told the paper: “This is a lot more fun.”
[h=2]North Korea links ‘went unnoticed’[/h]The Panama Papers reveal Mossack Fonseca failed to notice Cowie’s companies were linked to North Korea – even though he gave an address there. The banker also used Mossack Fonseca to register another company, Phoenix Commercial Ventures Limited. In a joint venture with Pyongyang’s ministry of culture, the firm made CDs and DVD players.
It was only in 2010 that Mossack Fonseca realised it had been dealing with North Korean entities, and resigned as agent. The discovery came after the law firm got a letter from the British Virgin Islands’ Financial Investigation Agency asking for details of Cowie’s company. The next year, Cowie sold his share in the bank to a Chinese consortium.
The Panama Papers: how to hide a billion dollars – video explainer The Panama Papers include acrimonious emails between Mossack Fonseca’s BVI office and its head office in Panama. In 2013, a member of the firm’s compliance department admitted Cowie’s North Korean address “should have been a red flag”. She wrote: “It is not the ideal situation and it is not gratifying issuing a letter highlighting the inefficiencies of Mossack Fonseca BVI.”
The US sanction against DCB was issued in June 2013, but it referred to a period from 2006, when Cowie was running Daedong. Cowie responded that he had left banking in 2011 to focus on other business commitments.
In a letter, his lawyer said: “My client was a shareholder in DCB Finance Ltd, a company set up to enable DCB to continue to operate after correspondent banks had closed its accounts. The name was specifically chosen in order to reflect the historical connection with DCB. DCB Finance Ltd was used for legitimate business. My client was, and still is to this day, unaware of any transactions being made with any sanctioned organisation or for any sanctioned purpose, during his tenure.”
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[h=1]British banker set up firm ‘used by North Korea to sell weapons’[/h]A British banker who spent two decades living in communist North Korea set up a secret offshore finance company allegedly used by the Pyongyang regime to help sell arms and expand its nuclear weapons programme.
Nigel Cowie – a fluent Korean and Chinese speaker, who studied at Edinburgh University – was behind a Pyongyang front company, DCB Finance Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands, papers show.
He says DCB Finance was used for legitimate business and that he was unaware of any unlawful transactions.
Cowie moved to North Korea in 1995 when Kim Jong-il was in power, and went on to become head of its first foreign bank, Daedong Credit Bank. Initially operating out of a ramshackle Pyongyang hotel with a staff of three, Cowie led a consortium that in 2006 bought a 70% stake in the bank.
Giving his address as Pyongyang’s International House of Culture, he registered DCB Finance Limited, an offshoot of the bank, in the BVI in summer 2006, with a senior North Korean official, Kim Chol-sam. The Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonsecaincorporated the company, despite North Korea being an obvious high-risk destination.
That July Kim Jong-il signalled his defiance of US sanctions by firing seven ballistic missiles. In October, North Korea carried out its first nuclear weapons testwith a controlled underground explosion. The ensuing diplomatic crisis saw the UN impose asset freezes and and travel and trade bans.
In 2013, the US imposed sanctions on Daedong and Cowie’s front company, DCB, as well as on Kim Chol-sam. It alleged the bank provided “financial services” to North Korea’s main arms dealer, the Korea Mining Development Corporation, and its main financial arm, Tanchon Commercial Bank, which were subject to sanctions for the “central role they play supporting North Korea’s illicit nuclear and ballistic missiles programs”.
Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea until his death in 2011. Photograph: KCNA/AFP/Getty ImagesThe US Treasury claimed that since “at least 2006, Daedong Credit Bank had used its front company, DCB Finance Limited, to carry out international financial transactions as a means to avoid scrutiny by financial institutions avoiding business with North Korea”.
Kim was suspected of facilitating transactions worth hundreds of thousands and managing millions of dollars in North-Korean-related accounts.
Before moving to North Korea Cowie worked for HSBC in Hong Kong. From Pyongyang he gave several interviews to visiting foreign journalists, extolling North Korea as an under-appreciated investment opportunity. He told the Wall Street Journal he was part of an “effort to try to get the country going again”. Asked if he might prefer to work out of New York or Hong Kong rather than under an oppressive Stalinist dictatorship, he told the paper: “This is a lot more fun.”
[h=2]North Korea links ‘went unnoticed’[/h]The Panama Papers reveal Mossack Fonseca failed to notice Cowie’s companies were linked to North Korea – even though he gave an address there. The banker also used Mossack Fonseca to register another company, Phoenix Commercial Ventures Limited. In a joint venture with Pyongyang’s ministry of culture, the firm made CDs and DVD players.
It was only in 2010 that Mossack Fonseca realised it had been dealing with North Korean entities, and resigned as agent. The discovery came after the law firm got a letter from the British Virgin Islands’ Financial Investigation Agency asking for details of Cowie’s company. The next year, Cowie sold his share in the bank to a Chinese consortium.
The Panama Papers: how to hide a billion dollars – video explainer The Panama Papers include acrimonious emails between Mossack Fonseca’s BVI office and its head office in Panama. In 2013, a member of the firm’s compliance department admitted Cowie’s North Korean address “should have been a red flag”. She wrote: “It is not the ideal situation and it is not gratifying issuing a letter highlighting the inefficiencies of Mossack Fonseca BVI.”
The US sanction against DCB was issued in June 2013, but it referred to a period from 2006, when Cowie was running Daedong. Cowie responded that he had left banking in 2011 to focus on other business commitments.
In a letter, his lawyer said: “My client was a shareholder in DCB Finance Ltd, a company set up to enable DCB to continue to operate after correspondent banks had closed its accounts. The name was specifically chosen in order to reflect the historical connection with DCB. DCB Finance Ltd was used for legitimate business. My client was, and still is to this day, unaware of any transactions being made with any sanctioned organisation or for any sanctioned purpose, during his tenure.”
The backstory from the source
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[h=1]About the Panama Papers[/h]
By Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, Vanessa Wormer and Wolfgang Jaschensky
Over a year ago, an anonymous source contacted the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and submitted encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sells anonymous offshore companies around the world. These shell companies enable their owners to cover up their business dealings, no matter how shady.
In the months that followed, the number of documents continued to grow far beyond the original leak. Ultimately, SZ acquired about 2.6 terabytes of data, making the leak the biggest that journalists had ever worked with. The source wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures.
The data provides rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows. It proves how a global industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manages the estates of the world’s rich and famous: from politicians, Fifa officials, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes.
[h=2]A group effort[/h]The Süddeutsche Zeitung decided to analyze the data in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ had already coordinated the research for past projects that SZ was also involved in, among them Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks. Panama Papers is the biggest-ever international cooperation of its kind. In the past 12 months, around 400 journalists from more than 100 media organizations in over 80 countries have taken part in researching the documents. These have included teams from the Guardian and the BBC in England, Le Monde in France, and La Nación in Argentina. In Germany, SZ journalists have cooperated with their colleagues from two public broadcasters, NDR and WDR. Journalists from the Swiss Sonntagszeitung and the Austrian weekly Falter have also worked on the project, as have their colleagues at ORF, Austria’s national public broadcaster. The international team initially met in Washington, Munich, Lillehammer and London to map out the research approach. [h=2]Making of[/h]
[h=2]The data[/h]The Panama Papers include approximately 11.5 million documents – more than the combined total of the Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks. The data primarily comprises e-mails, pdf files, photo files, and excerpts of an internal Mossack Fonseca database. It covers a period spanning from the 1970s to the spring of 2016.
Moreover, the journalists crosschecked a large number of documents, including passport copies. About two years ago, a whistleblower had already sold internal Mossack Fonseca data to the German authorities, but the dataset was much older and smaller in scope: while it addressed a few hundred offshore companies, the Panama Papers provide data on some 214,000 companies. In the wake of the data purchase, last year investigators searched the homes and offices of about 100 people. The Commerzbank was also raided. As a consequence of their business dealings with Mossack Fonseca, Commerzbank, HSH Nordbank, and Hypovereinsbank agreed to pay fines of around 20 million euros, respectively. Since then, other countries have also acquired data from the initial smaller leak, among them the United States, the UK, and Iceland.
[h=2]The system[/h]The leaked data is structured as follows: Mossack Fonseca created a folder for each shell firm. Each folder contains e-mails, contracts, transcripts, and scanned documents. In some instances, there are several thousand pages of documentation. First, the data had to be systematically indexed to make searching through this sea of information possible. To this end, the Süddeutsche Zeitung used Nuix, the same program that international investigators work with.Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ uploaded millions of documents onto high-performance computers. They applied optical character recognition (OCR) to transform data into machine-readable and easy to search files. The process turned images – such as scanned IDs and signed contracts – into searchable text. This was an important step: it enabled journalists to comb through as large a portion of the leak as possible using a simple search mask similar to Google.The journalists compiled lists of important politicians, international criminals, and well-known professional athletes, among others. The digital processing made it possible to then search the leak for the names on these lists. The "party donations scandal" list contained 130 names, and the UN sanctions list more than 600. In just a few minutes, the powerful search algorithm compared the lists with the 11.5 million documents.
[h=2]The research[/h]For each name found, a detailed research process was initiated that posed the following questions: what is this person’s role in the network of companies? Where does the money come from? Where is it going? Is this structure legal?Generally speaking, owning an offshore company is not illegal in itself. In fact, establishing an offshore company can be seen as a logical step for a broad range of business transactions. However, a look through the Panama Papers very quickly reveals that concealing the identities of the true company owners was the primary aim in the vast majority of cases. From the outset, the journalists had their work cut out for them. The providers of offshore companies – among them banks, lawyers, and investment advisors – often keep their clients’ names secret and use proxies. In turn, the proxies’ tracks then lead to heads of state, important officials, and millionaires. Over the course of the international project, journalists cooperated with one another to investigate thousands of leads: they examined evidence, studied contracts, and spoke with experts.
Among others, Mossack Fonsecas’ clients include criminals and members of various Mafia groups. The documents also expose bribery scandals and corrupt heads of state and government. The alleged offshore companies of twelve current and former heads of state make up one of the most spectacular parts of the leak, as do the links to other leaders, and to their families, closest advisors, and friends. The Panamanian law firm also counts almost 200 other politicians from around the globe among its clients, including a number of ministers.
[h=2]The company[/h]The company at the center of all these stories is Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian provider of offshore companies with dozens of offices all over the world. It sells its shell firms in cities such as Zurich, London, and Hong Kong – in some instances at bargain prices. Clients can buy an anonymous company for as little as USD 1,000. However, at this price it is just an empty shell. For an extra fee, Mossack Fonseca provides a sham director and, if desired, conceals the company’s true shareholder. The result is an offshore company whose true purpose and ownership structure is indecipherable from the outside. Mossack Fonseca has founded, sold, and managed thousands of companies. The documents provide a detailed view of how Mossack Fonseca routinely accepts to engage in business activities that potentially violate sanctions, in addition to aiding and abetting tax evasion and money laundering.
[h=2]About Süddeutsche Zeitung[/h]Headquartered in Munich, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) is one of Germany’s leading newspapers. SZ has a total readership of 4.4 million for its print and online media. Its investigative journalism team counts five people, three of which are members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The Süddeutsche Zeitung has won a number of prestigious awards for its research work. Its team has cooperated with other media organizations on a number of projects, including Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, and Lux Leaks, which ICIJ coordinated. At the beginning of 2015, an anonymous source began sending the Süddeutsche Zeitung data from Mossack Fonseca, a provider of offshore companies. This marked the beginning of the Panama Papers project.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung, in cooperation with the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, sent Mossfon several written requests for comment. In response Mossfon sent two general statements, which can be viewed here.
---------
[h=1]About the Panama Papers[/h]
By Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, Vanessa Wormer and Wolfgang Jaschensky
Over a year ago, an anonymous source contacted the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and submitted encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sells anonymous offshore companies around the world. These shell companies enable their owners to cover up their business dealings, no matter how shady.
In the months that followed, the number of documents continued to grow far beyond the original leak. Ultimately, SZ acquired about 2.6 terabytes of data, making the leak the biggest that journalists had ever worked with. The source wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures.
The data provides rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows. It proves how a global industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manages the estates of the world’s rich and famous: from politicians, Fifa officials, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes.
[h=2]A group effort[/h]The Süddeutsche Zeitung decided to analyze the data in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ had already coordinated the research for past projects that SZ was also involved in, among them Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks. Panama Papers is the biggest-ever international cooperation of its kind. In the past 12 months, around 400 journalists from more than 100 media organizations in over 80 countries have taken part in researching the documents. These have included teams from the Guardian and the BBC in England, Le Monde in France, and La Nación in Argentina. In Germany, SZ journalists have cooperated with their colleagues from two public broadcasters, NDR and WDR. Journalists from the Swiss Sonntagszeitung and the Austrian weekly Falter have also worked on the project, as have their colleagues at ORF, Austria’s national public broadcaster. The international team initially met in Washington, Munich, Lillehammer and London to map out the research approach. [h=2]Making of[/h]
[h=2]The data[/h]The Panama Papers include approximately 11.5 million documents – more than the combined total of the Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks. The data primarily comprises e-mails, pdf files, photo files, and excerpts of an internal Mossack Fonseca database. It covers a period spanning from the 1970s to the spring of 2016.
Moreover, the journalists crosschecked a large number of documents, including passport copies. About two years ago, a whistleblower had already sold internal Mossack Fonseca data to the German authorities, but the dataset was much older and smaller in scope: while it addressed a few hundred offshore companies, the Panama Papers provide data on some 214,000 companies. In the wake of the data purchase, last year investigators searched the homes and offices of about 100 people. The Commerzbank was also raided. As a consequence of their business dealings with Mossack Fonseca, Commerzbank, HSH Nordbank, and Hypovereinsbank agreed to pay fines of around 20 million euros, respectively. Since then, other countries have also acquired data from the initial smaller leak, among them the United States, the UK, and Iceland.
[h=2]The system[/h]The leaked data is structured as follows: Mossack Fonseca created a folder for each shell firm. Each folder contains e-mails, contracts, transcripts, and scanned documents. In some instances, there are several thousand pages of documentation. First, the data had to be systematically indexed to make searching through this sea of information possible. To this end, the Süddeutsche Zeitung used Nuix, the same program that international investigators work with.Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ uploaded millions of documents onto high-performance computers. They applied optical character recognition (OCR) to transform data into machine-readable and easy to search files. The process turned images – such as scanned IDs and signed contracts – into searchable text. This was an important step: it enabled journalists to comb through as large a portion of the leak as possible using a simple search mask similar to Google.The journalists compiled lists of important politicians, international criminals, and well-known professional athletes, among others. The digital processing made it possible to then search the leak for the names on these lists. The "party donations scandal" list contained 130 names, and the UN sanctions list more than 600. In just a few minutes, the powerful search algorithm compared the lists with the 11.5 million documents.
[h=2]The research[/h]For each name found, a detailed research process was initiated that posed the following questions: what is this person’s role in the network of companies? Where does the money come from? Where is it going? Is this structure legal?Generally speaking, owning an offshore company is not illegal in itself. In fact, establishing an offshore company can be seen as a logical step for a broad range of business transactions. However, a look through the Panama Papers very quickly reveals that concealing the identities of the true company owners was the primary aim in the vast majority of cases. From the outset, the journalists had their work cut out for them. The providers of offshore companies – among them banks, lawyers, and investment advisors – often keep their clients’ names secret and use proxies. In turn, the proxies’ tracks then lead to heads of state, important officials, and millionaires. Over the course of the international project, journalists cooperated with one another to investigate thousands of leads: they examined evidence, studied contracts, and spoke with experts.
Among others, Mossack Fonsecas’ clients include criminals and members of various Mafia groups. The documents also expose bribery scandals and corrupt heads of state and government. The alleged offshore companies of twelve current and former heads of state make up one of the most spectacular parts of the leak, as do the links to other leaders, and to their families, closest advisors, and friends. The Panamanian law firm also counts almost 200 other politicians from around the globe among its clients, including a number of ministers.
[h=2]The company[/h]The company at the center of all these stories is Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian provider of offshore companies with dozens of offices all over the world. It sells its shell firms in cities such as Zurich, London, and Hong Kong – in some instances at bargain prices. Clients can buy an anonymous company for as little as USD 1,000. However, at this price it is just an empty shell. For an extra fee, Mossack Fonseca provides a sham director and, if desired, conceals the company’s true shareholder. The result is an offshore company whose true purpose and ownership structure is indecipherable from the outside. Mossack Fonseca has founded, sold, and managed thousands of companies. The documents provide a detailed view of how Mossack Fonseca routinely accepts to engage in business activities that potentially violate sanctions, in addition to aiding and abetting tax evasion and money laundering.
[h=2]About Süddeutsche Zeitung[/h]Headquartered in Munich, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) is one of Germany’s leading newspapers. SZ has a total readership of 4.4 million for its print and online media. Its investigative journalism team counts five people, three of which are members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The Süddeutsche Zeitung has won a number of prestigious awards for its research work. Its team has cooperated with other media organizations on a number of projects, including Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, and Lux Leaks, which ICIJ coordinated. At the beginning of 2015, an anonymous source began sending the Süddeutsche Zeitung data from Mossack Fonseca, a provider of offshore companies. This marked the beginning of the Panama Papers project.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung, in cooperation with the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, sent Mossfon several written requests for comment. In response Mossfon sent two general statements, which can be viewed here.
Ultimately, SZ acquired about 2.6 terabytes of data
That is HUGE, I have a 250GB library which is more than anyone could read in a lifetime.
A full size bible is about 600MB, so there are about 4500 Bibles worth of reading material, lol
They've downloaded the entire fucking office kinda thing, incredible
That is HUGE, I have a 250GB library which is more than anyone could read in a lifetime.
A full size bible is about 600MB, so there are about 4500 Bibles worth of reading material, lol
They've downloaded the entire fucking office kinda thing, incredible
Bezos has his own issues. Post hasn't been kind to Trump and he said when he is president that Amazon has problems. "Oh do they have problems, believe me." Good times.
Anyway Iceland PM had to resign. Doubt anyone from Russia or the ME is resigning over this, lol.
Of course the President pounces on the greedy corporations, never thinking that the US has sky high corporate tax rates.
Anyway Iceland PM had to resign. Doubt anyone from Russia or the ME is resigning over this, lol.
Of course the President pounces on the greedy corporations, never thinking that the US has sky high corporate tax rates.
We had a local Islamic guy murdered recently and like many I assumed it was a non-Islamic.
Not the case here, it was an Islamic guy who had traveled all the way up country to find him.
The accused issued a statement today (apparently he was the wrong kind of follower)
The highly unusual statement was made through Mr Ahmed's lawyer, John Rafferty after his second appearance at court before sheriff Brian Adair.
The statement given was: "My client Mr Tanveer Ahmed has specifically instructed me that today, 6 April 2016, to issue this statement to the press, the statement is in the words of my client.
"This all happened for one reason and no other issues and no other intentions.
"Asad Shah disrespected the messenger of Islam the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Mr Shah claimed to be a Prophet.
"When 1400 years ago the Prophet of Islam Muhammad peace be upon him has clearly said that 'I am the final messenger of Allah there is no more prophets or messengers from God Allah after me.
"'I am leaving you the final Quran. There is no changes. It is the final book of Allah and this is the final completion of Islam. There is no more changes to it and no one has the right to claim to be a Prophet or to change the Quran or change Islam.'
"It is mentioned in the Quran that there is no doubt in this book no one has the right to disrespect the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and no one has the right to disrespect the Prophet of Islam Muhammad Peace be upon him.
"If I had not done this others would and there would have been more killing and violence in the world.
"I wish to make it clear that the incident was nothing at all to do with Christianity or any other religious beliefs even although I am a follower of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him I also love and respect Jesus Christ."
Hundreds attended a silent vigil in Mr Shah's memory and more than £110,000 has been raised for his family through public donations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35976958
Not the case here, it was an Islamic guy who had traveled all the way up country to find him.
The accused issued a statement today (apparently he was the wrong kind of follower)
The highly unusual statement was made through Mr Ahmed's lawyer, John Rafferty after his second appearance at court before sheriff Brian Adair.
The statement given was: "My client Mr Tanveer Ahmed has specifically instructed me that today, 6 April 2016, to issue this statement to the press, the statement is in the words of my client.
"This all happened for one reason and no other issues and no other intentions.
"Asad Shah disrespected the messenger of Islam the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Mr Shah claimed to be a Prophet.
"When 1400 years ago the Prophet of Islam Muhammad peace be upon him has clearly said that 'I am the final messenger of Allah there is no more prophets or messengers from God Allah after me.
"'I am leaving you the final Quran. There is no changes. It is the final book of Allah and this is the final completion of Islam. There is no more changes to it and no one has the right to claim to be a Prophet or to change the Quran or change Islam.'
"It is mentioned in the Quran that there is no doubt in this book no one has the right to disrespect the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and no one has the right to disrespect the Prophet of Islam Muhammad Peace be upon him.
"If I had not done this others would and there would have been more killing and violence in the world.
"I wish to make it clear that the incident was nothing at all to do with Christianity or any other religious beliefs even although I am a follower of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him I also love and respect Jesus Christ."
Hundreds attended a silent vigil in Mr Shah's memory and more than £110,000 has been raised for his family through public donations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35976958
Trumps chances of POTUS have always been zero.. Might not even make it to GOP nom vs Hillary at this point seems to be in crash mode now...
Us politics complete facade giving the illusion of choice.. One party system of the establishment.. Trump a false prophet helping get Hillary elected..
Panama Papers: Where are the Americans???
The huge leak of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca has revealed how tax havens are used to hide wealth.
It is the biggest leak in history, but many have questioned why only a few Americans have been implicated so far.
US news outlet Fusion, which was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that revealed the files, said journalists were able to identify 211 people with addresses in the US who owned companies in the data. But it was not clear if all of them were US citizens.
Experts said more names could become clear as other files of the 11.5m leaked documents were examined. Americans seeking to avoid tax, they said, might prefer other well-known tax havens or US states with relaxed regulations.
Another reason could be that stricter US laws had made tax evasion more difficult for American citizens.
'Americans do not need to go far'
Laws in the US states of Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming have made it easy for corporations to create shell companies there to avoid higher taxes in their own states, experts say.
Foreign companies are also said to have taken advantage of these regulations.
Critics say these arrangements were responsible for transforming Delaware into an onshore version of the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven, according to a report by the New York Times.
Officials in Delaware said this comparison was "inaccurate".
But watchdog group Transparency International said the state was "synonymous" with "anonymous companies and ghost corporations", being "one of the most symbolic cases of corruption".
It is not only about Delaware. Prof Jason Sharman, at Griffith University in Nathan, Australia, told Reuters news agency in 2011: "Somalia has slightly higher standards than Wyoming and Nevada."
These two US states were among the many places Mossack Fonseca said it offered services.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35966612
The huge leak of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca has revealed how tax havens are used to hide wealth.
It is the biggest leak in history, but many have questioned why only a few Americans have been implicated so far.
US news outlet Fusion, which was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that revealed the files, said journalists were able to identify 211 people with addresses in the US who owned companies in the data. But it was not clear if all of them were US citizens.
Experts said more names could become clear as other files of the 11.5m leaked documents were examined. Americans seeking to avoid tax, they said, might prefer other well-known tax havens or US states with relaxed regulations.
Another reason could be that stricter US laws had made tax evasion more difficult for American citizens.
'Americans do not need to go far'
Laws in the US states of Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming have made it easy for corporations to create shell companies there to avoid higher taxes in their own states, experts say.
Foreign companies are also said to have taken advantage of these regulations.
Critics say these arrangements were responsible for transforming Delaware into an onshore version of the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven, according to a report by the New York Times.
Officials in Delaware said this comparison was "inaccurate".
But watchdog group Transparency International said the state was "synonymous" with "anonymous companies and ghost corporations", being "one of the most symbolic cases of corruption".
It is not only about Delaware. Prof Jason Sharman, at Griffith University in Nathan, Australia, told Reuters news agency in 2011: "Somalia has slightly higher standards than Wyoming and Nevada."
These two US states were among the many places Mossack Fonseca said it offered services.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35966612
Google turning tech gadgets into doorstops.... the moral being avoid cloud based services or yer fooked
The problem with forced tech obsolescence
Revolv is a little device that you can use to control other smart devices in your home, like light bulbs or entertainment equipment. There's a clever back-end that means you can control and monitor your home using an app, wherever you are. It's part of the connected home future companies have been trying to get the public excited about for a few years now.
One person excited by that possibility was Arlo Gilbert - chief executive of health app specialists Televero - who has Revolv set up in his home. He calls controlling all of his devices like conducting a "beautiful orchestra of home technology".
The orchestra will stop playing on 15 May when Nest switches the Revolv system off. To be clear - that doesn't just mean it will no longer be updated. It means it'll stop functioning altogether. Cease to be. An ex-hub.
"My house will stop working," wrote Mr Gilbert.
"My landscape lighting will stop turning on and off, my security lights will stop reacting to motion, and my home-made vacation burglar deterrent will stop working. This is a conscious, intentional decision by Google/Nest."
Unlike the scarce parts needed by the poor folk trying to maintain the Bart service, Mr Gilbert isn't dealing with old, niche hardware. Revolv was being sold up until September 2014.
Is that acceptable? Should Google be allowed to make a decision like that, rendering a $300 (£213) product useless because it doesn't see any lucrative potential for it?
Writing in Wired magazine, Klint Finley described the move as proof that the so-called "Internet of Things" cannot be trusted.
"We generally expect our old gadgets to still be useful as hand-me-downs or backup devices. We don't expect to have to send them off to landfills just because the company we bought them from decided to stop supporting them," he wrote.
"Until that changes, the Internet of Things will remain a dream."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35984185
The problem with forced tech obsolescence
Revolv is a little device that you can use to control other smart devices in your home, like light bulbs or entertainment equipment. There's a clever back-end that means you can control and monitor your home using an app, wherever you are. It's part of the connected home future companies have been trying to get the public excited about for a few years now.
One person excited by that possibility was Arlo Gilbert - chief executive of health app specialists Televero - who has Revolv set up in his home. He calls controlling all of his devices like conducting a "beautiful orchestra of home technology".
The orchestra will stop playing on 15 May when Nest switches the Revolv system off. To be clear - that doesn't just mean it will no longer be updated. It means it'll stop functioning altogether. Cease to be. An ex-hub.
"My house will stop working," wrote Mr Gilbert.
"My landscape lighting will stop turning on and off, my security lights will stop reacting to motion, and my home-made vacation burglar deterrent will stop working. This is a conscious, intentional decision by Google/Nest."
Unlike the scarce parts needed by the poor folk trying to maintain the Bart service, Mr Gilbert isn't dealing with old, niche hardware. Revolv was being sold up until September 2014.
Is that acceptable? Should Google be allowed to make a decision like that, rendering a $300 (£213) product useless because it doesn't see any lucrative potential for it?
Writing in Wired magazine, Klint Finley described the move as proof that the so-called "Internet of Things" cannot be trusted.
"We generally expect our old gadgets to still be useful as hand-me-downs or backup devices. We don't expect to have to send them off to landfills just because the company we bought them from decided to stop supporting them," he wrote.
"Until that changes, the Internet of Things will remain a dream."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35984185
up[h=1]The hacker who built his own self-driving car is ushering in the age of cheap AI[/h]Silicon Valley was taken aback when Bloomberg profiled a 26-year-old named George Hotz in December who said he had single-handedly built a self-driving car in his garage. It was true that Hotz was an accomplished hacker, being the first person to jailbreak an iPhone. But could a solo effort comprised of $13 cameras really produce results to rival the work of giants like Google, Ford, and General Motors, not to mention well-funded upstarts like Tesla?
The skepticism has turned to validation, as Hotz—who made a name for himself by hacking the first iPhone and later, the Playstation 3—has received $3.1 million in funding, led by one of the Valley’s most prestigious firms, Andreesen Horowitz. A partner at the firm, Chris Dixon, wrote on Medium that he had tested Hotz’s car, brought AI experts to inspect it, and generally “dug deep” into the system. The result was the freshly cut cheque to Hotz’s company, Comma.ai.
Dixon writes that Hotz’s project is a harbinger of what he calls “the WhatsApp effect” on AI. He’s referring to the fact that WhatsApp had a tiny team of engineers capable of building a platform serving an enormous number of people. The chat app, the world’s most popular, has 57 engineers and a billion monthly active users. (For perspective: when Facebook acquired it in 2014, it had fewer than 50 engineers, and 400 million active users.)
WhatsApp’s low headcount also meant it could raise a relatively small amount of money. It took about $58 million in funding before it was acquired by Facebook—for $22 billion.
Dixon thinks the same thing is starting to happen in AI, and Hotz is among the first people to capitalize on the trend. “I came away convinced that George’s system is a textbook example,” he wrote. “He’s … riding a wave of exponentially improving hardware, software, and, most importantly, data. The more his system gets used, the more data it collects, and the smarter it becomes.”
What’s Hotz going to do with the money? Hire very few people, for one. “I’m looking for the kind of person who can make YouTube in a month,” he told Recode.
Hotz’s long-term plan, according to the Bloomberg profile, is to sell a $1,000 kit made of cheap cameras and software, either to automakers or directly to car owners. His more immediate goal is to beat the giants of the self-driving car industry, like Mobileye that supplies software to Tesla, BMW, General Motors, and others, by doing things faster and cheaper than them.
Hotz made that clear when Tesla’s Elon Musk offered him a multimillion dollar job at the car company, according to Bloomberg:
The skepticism has turned to validation, as Hotz—who made a name for himself by hacking the first iPhone and later, the Playstation 3—has received $3.1 million in funding, led by one of the Valley’s most prestigious firms, Andreesen Horowitz. A partner at the firm, Chris Dixon, wrote on Medium that he had tested Hotz’s car, brought AI experts to inspect it, and generally “dug deep” into the system. The result was the freshly cut cheque to Hotz’s company, Comma.ai.
Dixon writes that Hotz’s project is a harbinger of what he calls “the WhatsApp effect” on AI. He’s referring to the fact that WhatsApp had a tiny team of engineers capable of building a platform serving an enormous number of people. The chat app, the world’s most popular, has 57 engineers and a billion monthly active users. (For perspective: when Facebook acquired it in 2014, it had fewer than 50 engineers, and 400 million active users.)
WhatsApp’s low headcount also meant it could raise a relatively small amount of money. It took about $58 million in funding before it was acquired by Facebook—for $22 billion.
Dixon thinks the same thing is starting to happen in AI, and Hotz is among the first people to capitalize on the trend. “I came away convinced that George’s system is a textbook example,” he wrote. “He’s … riding a wave of exponentially improving hardware, software, and, most importantly, data. The more his system gets used, the more data it collects, and the smarter it becomes.”
What’s Hotz going to do with the money? Hire very few people, for one. “I’m looking for the kind of person who can make YouTube in a month,” he told Recode.
Hotz’s long-term plan, according to the Bloomberg profile, is to sell a $1,000 kit made of cheap cameras and software, either to automakers or directly to car owners. His more immediate goal is to beat the giants of the self-driving car industry, like Mobileye that supplies software to Tesla, BMW, General Motors, and others, by doing things faster and cheaper than them.
Hotz made that clear when Tesla’s Elon Musk offered him a multimillion dollar job at the car company, according to Bloomberg:
I appreciate the offer, but like I’ve said, I’m not looking for a job. I’ll ping you when I crush Mobileye.
Bloomberg article good read http://qz.com/653957/the-hacker-who...iving-car-is-ushering-in-the-age-of-cheap-ai/
From 2007 on, Hotz became a coding vagabond. He briefly attended Rochester Institute of Technology, did a couple five-month internships at Google, worked at SpaceX for four months, then at Facebook for eight. The jobs left him unsatisfied and depressed. At Google, he found very smart developers who were often assigned mundane tasks like fixing bugs in a Web browser; at Facebook, brainy coders toiled away trying to figure out how to make users click on ads. “It scares me what Facebook is doing with AI,” Hotz says. “They’re using machine-learning techniques to coax people into spending more time on Facebook.”
From 2007 on, Hotz became a coding vagabond. He briefly attended Rochester Institute of Technology, did a couple five-month internships at Google, worked at SpaceX for four months, then at Facebook for eight. The jobs left him unsatisfied and depressed. At Google, he found very smart developers who were often assigned mundane tasks like fixing bugs in a Web browser; at Facebook, brainy coders toiled away trying to figure out how to make users click on ads. “It scares me what Facebook is doing with AI,” Hotz says. “They’re using machine-learning techniques to coax people into spending more time on Facebook.”
Here come another distraction for Musk....
Bezos and musks space related stuff totally different vision
bezos wants to take up rich people for space tourism and shit
musk doing more technically challenging and mankind important stuff... And Today he did just that payload off to space station and landed the rocket perfectly..
