ah ah ah, i was headlines from outside the offshore assets of hundreds of the world's most powerful and richest people are revealed in the biggest epa leak of such data called the pandora papers. while it confirms the u. s. us of top level tax haven. no, well known american people firm dimension despite president biden's pledge to plant down on tax evasion. also this weekend, at least 12 people are reportedly killed and more than 30 wounded in a blast to cobbles. the 2nd biggest, most the taliban says it's detained. 3 people allegedly responsible plus in our review of the week of extraordinary disaster. but we didn't have a president. it was so ad old,

you all would be fired. i don't think anyone control anything. this person actually is brought up amsterdam, us law makers, lambaste president biden. and his top brass over walked some in congress called washington's humiliating withdrawal from afghanistan. we are so whether the whole afghan campaign might be a bigger failure than just the policy itself. kind of bombshell report the ledges the cia plan to abduct or assassinate with he makes founder julian songs with former agency chief might compare with the center of the plot. ah hello and welcome to the weekly i'm calling bray. we'll take you through some of the big stories reported on here over the past 7 days later in this bulletin 1st. so the weekends developments in the refresh revelations on the hidden tax haven assets of global billionaires world leaders and public officials and the largest ever league of off shore data called the pandora papers. earlier i discussed the

expo say with artes donald quarter clean no, all 12000000 documents and won't go good news for you. yeah, but you'd expect them to open with a blog post, a move, anything explosive in it? right, well people definitely were anticipating something as big as what happened in 2016 when the panama papers were released. but actually, this one hasn't made as much noise. the guardian sure had a click bady picture of vladimir putin face right at the front of its article, even though in the pandora papers vladimir putin was not even named. so that's a bit a bit interesting. but the investigation primarily deals with more or less obscure people. i mean, we have some examples being the king of jordan. so offshore properties, personal properties, the purchase of several theatres, by the general director of russia's channel one he was said to have been a silent partner in this operation. but he's already commented publicly that he hasn't concealed anything about his business dealings in connection to this. one

higher profile mentioned though, the ukranian president vladimir zalinski in 2019, he was elected and most enlarged part on his platform of promising to rid the country of corruption. and ukraine is notoriously, hasn't a problem with corruption. and according to this investigation, he actually transferred 25 percent of his stake in a foreign ad in an offshore company to his personal friend who is now the top presidential advisor. so, so far he hasn't commented on that seems a little bit shady, but no confirmations. usually when we think of tax havens. right. i mean, you think of maybe a financial center like hong kong or some sort of obscure caribbean island. but the pandora papers actually paint a very different picture there, showing that they, they actually revealed that south dakota has become the new hot spot for tens of millions of dollars that used to be in offshore accounts in the caribbean and europe. and this is despite of jo biden's promise to no combat corruption. earlier

this year to d, i'm issued a national security study memorandum of the fight against corruption to establish comp, since corruption as a cor, yes, national security interest, the united states will lead by example. and in partnership with allies, civil society and in the private sector to far this courage of corruption. and in fact, delaware, whereas mister biden, hales from i've got some pretty good the tax breaks, the company's them they. so if his big platform is to deal with tax evasion, as many leaders do, what are the americans on this list? well, it's a good question. they're basically not there. i mean, we hear report after report obviously about like a lot of american businessman and big corporate corporate owners avail. avoiding. busy taxes, and yet this report for some reason only mentions a couple of very obscure american billionaires that i personally never heard of. and so yeah, the, the big question is, you know, where are all the big american names? i mean, what about the richest man in the world? jeff bezos, his company, amazon paid 0 dollars and 0 cents and federal income tax. not just in 2020,

but also in 20182017. you must paid also 0 dollars and 0 cents and federal income tax. in 2018 donald trump paid $750.00 back in 2017. so it seems a bit fishy, that there, there might be nothing important or of value to mention about these offshore assets . now we also did hear from whistle blower, edward snowden. he let out a tweet today about this, the, these, the report on the sleek. so let's take alice, the humorous side of this very serious story is that even after 2 apocalyptic offshore finance law firm leaks, those industries are still compiling vast databases of ruin and still secure them with a posted note mark, do not leak hats off to the source this is just the beginning of these sir reports, and these leaks about these pandora papers, more of them are promised for the coming weeks. so we're gonna have to keep an eye out for them. i said, what's going to come of it then?

let's talk to economists to know for richard wolf. i that i'm sure you remember the 2016 panama papers in the collective gossips and shook them, but not much else. would you make this latest league? well, i think your point is the key point that there's a lot of hand wringing there's a lot of promises. but one thing you can take away even from these early documents, is that many of the political leaders oh, come in the office, promising to do away with corruption, are themselves are knee deep in that kind of corruption. look, you don't have to hide your wealth. if there is nothing to be hidden, this is hiding wealth because you have something to hide. and there is no such thing as i have the right to keep it secret. if you want to be a leading industrialist or a leading politician or a leading, anything in the public eye, with all the benefits that come from that,

then you are required to be transparent in a world that is a wash in corruption. and i think what you're seeing here is that trillions of dollars more money than it would take to really deal with climate catastrophe, more money than it would did that it would take to deal with the infrastructure, updating that is being throwing the congress of the united states into a tizzy, we are all fighting over small amounts of money when the amount that is illegally being hidden in the corruption could solve all the social problems if we just didn't allow it. the real question is, how do we continue to allow this to be done? and what are your thoughts on the, the lack of large american companies in this report? because it is known that they do have very clever accountants and are legally

moving their profits and revenues around in order to minimize that tax. nothing illegal in that it might seem a little, ethically shady but they're doing nothing actually wrong. is that why we're not seeing their names in this report? that's part of the reason the, the big corporations have understood for decades. that by far the best way to proceed is to spend a great deal of money donating their candidates and political parties. an even greater amount of money to maintain the armies of a lobbyist, not only in washington, but in every $1.00 of the 50 state capitals. so that the laws can be written in such a way that what used to be illegal and therefore risky, is now made legal. and therefore you can do this kind of thing. that is the major way that this kind of corruption is now our handle. but the irony is the

greed of these people is so deep that they few remaining ways. you can't quite hide all of your money. the assessment paid, the british virgin island, think companies and all the rest of it. and so you're seeing a mixture of the legalized corruption alongside the illegal corruption. and what about the us status as a tax haven? as mentioned in this triple, this is going to be something that's going to confuse a few people because of course, the us tax and the i r. s. demands that american firms and people abroad declared that for an income, but the u. s. doesn't share that information going back the other way. so that's when, as our correspondence said, you have places like north dakota. there's also places like delaware that i have pretty good deals in terms of tax status does. nice. so where's that going to leave jo biden's idea of timing down on tax evasion? cuz technically, he'll them be shoving it off shore. absolutely, look. one of the already bombshell announcements of that portion of the pandora

papers that were released today indicates that out of the 20 top places in the world to hide wealth. the united states accounts for 17, out of the 20, with south dakota leading. but several other states following sued rewriting their laws so that you can legally move the money in and out, and thereby hide it because they pass a law which denies other countries the right to find out about this information. the very thing that the united states criticized switzerland in the past whore it is now doing the famous numbered accounts. look, the real lesson here is, if you will allow the distribution of wealth and income to be as only equal as it

now is in the world. today you create the incentive and the means for those at the top to continue to accumulate from one generation to another. if you don't go to that problem of inequality, every effort to limit this kind of corruption will be proven to be as hollow as we now see. all the ones before this one. clearly we're yeah, as of the moment, it's just a lot of pious toughing. i suppose a very the staff to this, we're going to get more names to come. may be things might be different. we'll talk to you again. no doubt when we get some big names for now that economists north reachable. thank you. thank you. next in afghanistan, the death toll from a blast at a major mosque has risen to 12 more than 30 others have been wounded. an incident in the capital cobbled, i'll t senior correspondent or i guess d, of called the explosion and reports next from the city. we had the blast clot,

clearly even this distance for kilometers till it got mosque where the explosion took place. and it was evidently a powerful blast by the, by the sound that it made even, even at that distance. also, it is not surprising that the number of casualties is being revised upwards. that is the patent to these things. usually, the 1st count that we hear is on the low side of things. 3 people, the taliban says have been arrested in connection with this blas. it is unclear, but organisation they belong to or what their role in this explosion must. but according to our unconfirmed reports at the time of the blas those a funeral underway at the most, the funeral of the mother recently deceased mother of the taliban se spokespersons . i beulah maggio head, so perhaps it may have been isis. it's usually eas, them who, who claim responsibility in these latest attacks that have been happening all over

all over afghanistan. and especially here in cobble, we regularly here and read about fire fights, raids carried out by the taliban. them trying to track down cracked down and isis k cells here. and i've got to saw the 2 organizations have been at war for years now . and the taliban is evidently trying to solidify its control over of got to stop. there was also another attack yesterday that has been attributed by locals to isis k, whereby they say that of the terrorists drove by, ah taliban taliban members and began firing at them in a drive by attacking the in a vehicle attack were where 4 people were killed and another attack, another part of, of canister, and attack on a taliban convoy, which has also been attributed to isis at 17 people was said to have been killed in that. so suddenly, that violence, the spot, the end of the afghan war,

the pull out of american and allied troops. the violence here in afghanistan hasn't abated. and want to get back a bit this week also sal tough talks in the u. s. congress's lawmakers lashed out at joe biden, and his military commanders over the afghanistan withdrawal. humiliating is just one of the ways the pullouts been described. the president said, none of his commanders said that he should keep troops in afghanistan was at a false statement by the president. remember, you do not have a duty to cover for the president. what is not telling the truth? i've given you my judgment on it. now let's think we all know it was a false state. i have been frustrated by the lack of someone in charge on the biggest national security fiasco in a generation. there has been 0 accountability, no responsibility from anybody. we have poured cache and blood and credibility into a ghani government. that was a mirage. it fell immediately. we were buying into the big lot,

the big lie that this, that this was ever going to be successful new year. here's the thing. there's only 3 possibilities here. either the president lie to the american people, or he legitimately cannot remember the counsel of his top military advisors in winding down the longest war and american history or you have not been fully accurate under oath. we didn't have a president that was so adult. you all would be fired, but it's not just the pull out that's been attacked. the entire afghan campaign is now coming in for increasing criticism as kind of open now explains a testimony before congress was dancing. not only was the pull out of afghanistan, a fiasco, but the campaign failed to achieve its primary aim. it was an extraordinary disaster. it will go down in history, is one of the greatest failures of american leadership. we have 0 presence in afghanistan. it could be as little as 12 months before al kato will use afghanistan as a base conduct as a base to conduct airstrikes or strikes against the united states. frankly,

after this debacle of a withdrawal, i don't think anyone can trust anything. this president says about afghanistan, we need to consider some uncomfortable truce that we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership and nursing your ranks. that we did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by president ghani of his commanders. and that we fail to fully grasp what there was only so much for which and for home. many of the afghan forces would fight. so after an entire war aimed to eliminate a terrorist threat to america, that threat could now be worse to real possibility in the not too distant future, 612182436 months that time the time frame for re constitutional kite are isis terrorist organizations seek ungoverned spaces so that they can train and equip and thrive. and there is clearly a possibility that that can happen. here are going forward. afghanistan in effect

now has become an entire terrorist state taliban. even though they may think that they're trying to govern that place itself to slit and already we're seen isis attacking caliber on. and there's no guarantee them that taliban can ensure that attacks will not be planned. and launched from that from afghanistan, thought there were more revelations in the testimony, apparently behind closed doors. the biden administration was more divided on afghanistan. i think a while we is conceivable that you could stay there. my view was that you would have had to deploy more forces in order to protect ourselves and accomplish any mission that we would have been assign. it appears that the department of defense was not fully on board with pulling out of afghanistan. and they are arguing for maintaining some presence in the country. my view was that we needed to maintain

about 2500. and that we also needed to work with our coalition partners. we had about 6000 troops and their nato and other cor countries that would, that would remain there. this flies in the face of the biden administration's claim that pulling out was the unanimous decision. it's unclear what would really change if the united states stayed in the country. it has been 20 years after all, and the security situation in afghanistan has not improved. so maybe the mistake wasn't pulling out in 2021, but rather going in in 2001. now that's a discussion you won't hear on capitol hill, but it's probably taking place in many american minds for officials on capitol hill to attribute that. so way to the somewhat chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan is completely absurd. if the u. s. officials had dealt with these crime on september the 11th as what they were and found out who was responsible and

brought them to justice. and, you know, this would have been, you know, at this point something that just something that happened 20 years ago. that was dealt with instead, they used september the 11th as a pretext for 20 years of war. what the so called war on terror was doing was fueling tech terrorism. and the jesse armed resistance in country after country the united states has, has actually increased the risk of terrorism. meanwhile, human rights groups of fuming over a decision by the international criminal court to resume a probe to war crimes in afghanistan, but to no longer look at the allegations of american atrocities that instead the focus will be exclusively of the taliban and ices k. i have therefore decided to focus my offices investigations, enough gun histone on crimes, allegedly committed by the taliban and the islamic state chorus on province. on to

d. prioritize other aspects of this investigation. the prosecutors telling war criminals around the world that the u. s. playbook of delay and intimidation works . it also validates one of the court criticisms of the i, c. c that it only takes action against politically weaker individuals or nations while giving western powers a pass. by d prioritizing, investigating us and former afghan national security forces, the i, c. c prosecutor is shamefully hunting and get out of jail free card. the tribunal is set up in 2002 was a corporate could only intervene if the perpetrators of war crimes could not be brought to justice by a country's authorities. it's been more than a decade investigating war crimes by all sides in afghanistan. but the u. s imposed sanctions on 2 officials from the court after it started a probe into alleged us atrocities. the icy c decision is particularly disturbing for right organizations as it comes in the wake of august's disastrous drone strike

by the pentagon. cobble in which 10 civilians, including 7 children, were killed. the harpers o. busy busy last month, the pentagon prob admitted the drone attack was a tragic mistake and offered an apology. it back tracked on the targeted initially claimed was linked to isis k saying it was unlikely, it actually posed any threat to washington to pull out or relatives of the victims . say, the u. s. officials responsible for the attack must be brought to justice. as my can lady on this horse, i will keep demanding that each person who has committed a crime here must be convicted and punished with the due process of law. it's

unfair. if a person commits a crime and then a different person is brought to court to answer, the criminal must be punished, no scapegoats. if americans committed a crime, they must be brought to justice. they should be held to account. americans attacked our house, not the taliban. how the taliban will answer for this attack is a logical reco. it's been revealed, the c i plotted to abduct or assassinate wiki leaks, found a julian a sound when he was in the ecuadorian embassy in london a while back. the u. s. media report was based on statements from 30 former u. s. officials and sent it on mike pompei when he was c. i a director during trump presidency. pompeo denies the accusations and indeed wants action taken against the people who made the claims. or they should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified activity inside the central intelligence agency. maybe they didn't, maybe as the cap just made it up. but you should, i take seriously my responsibilities to protect that information. this can be seen

as pompei ions, confirmation of the assange kit, not or kill story. why else would you want to prosecute those sources? speaking about classified activity, kidnap ariel man, hunt and shootout with russian spies in central london. a new james bond movie. not exactly. in fact, these are the highlights from a reported cia secret plan to silence the journalist already who revealed americans for dirty secrets. location london, the year 2017 starting julian, a sorry man of interest. heidi ecuadorian embassy might compare, then c. i a chief. evil mastermind behind the operation. the russkies. the essential ingredient for any good spice dory. doubtless ya would break every possible law to silence independent journalist. stay to the upcoming details may surprise you. we are rewarding. chapter one,

assassination. my compared wanted the cia to be create instructors. these subordinates not to self center themselves. when it comes to dealing with unix. sometimes, oh tricks, work best they might have thought and came up with a good old assassination plot. detailed sketches options on how to murder sounds reportedly discussed in the whiteness that the highest possible level. why would a cia achieve plots of the killing of an independent journalist? well, it was an act of personal vendetta. back in march 2017, the newly appointed cia chief found himself in a very difficult position. when wikileaks released top secret cia papers, they were completely detached from reality because they were so embarrassed about vault 7. they were seen blood chapter to kidnapping. but somebody in the white house might have thought tape, no killings where

a civilized nation that's kidnapped this journalist and sentenced him to death by american law. the plan was simply break into the embassy drag assange out and bring him to where we want one small issue. the u. s. justice department failed to keep up with cia fantasies. they were still processing the case and didn't file charges against the wikileaks founda. so the cia was going to kidnap a foreign citizen from the capital of washington's closest ally with no legal basis tool. a perfect master black deed. you could possibly spoil the fun russians of course, chapter 3, fighting russians. what if vladimir putin intelligence gets there 1st, a dunce assange, and then flies him to moscow? that's a possibility. the paranoid ca offices thought brace yourself, the plans accounts of russians may just blow your mind. the cia left nothing to

chance. the sand gets into the car with the russian operatives. the cia initiates a car crash with the russian diplomatic vehicle. god knows how many other londoners collateral damage is. they say, assange gets on the plane. the cia blocks it on the runway by shooting its tires. as well as anything and anybody else's way the plane takes off with a flat tire. the cia hub is a helicopter over. it still manages to leave the ground. they demand that the european countries close their recipes. we are still talking about catching julian sod, not the number one terrorist. oh, well, if you are an independent journalist who happens to cross the american governments pass the cia, it's pretty much the same thing. the rule of law may not surprise you. but for now, gillian assaults remains in a maximum security prison in the u. k. despite a british judge ruling against his extradition to the united states of affairs for

his mental health, he faces a 175 years in prison and america. if he's convicted of hacking and espionage charges in 2019 assange was forcibly removed by police from the ecuadorian embassy in london after the country terminated his 7 year asylum. there are following the recent developments we heard from a former c. i a analyst em whistleblower and also from wiki leaks, current editor in chief melissa, stunning. revelation is quite shocking to see that this was being conquered in the states, so kids moping them possibly killing. if julian is expedited to, to the only states, it will be in the hands of the seo his faith on you as ground. it would be in the hands of those who were planning to kill him. when these discussions were going on, there was no guide meant out against julia. he hadn't been charged with anything. so if there was any bell to put the political nature of the indictment and the

creation of the entire case, it is now confirmed to be so it is a political persecution and nothing else. the world to understand that the united states is trying to criminalize journalism. they refused to accept the fact that julian assigned is a journalist that the american people own this information and they have the right to know what it is. and that the government behind their backs, the backs of the american people, is trying to assassinate someone who has not been kid victim of a crime. in one of the things that we learned in this article was that the british intelligence serves the external intelligence service. and my 6 was apparently involved, you know, where they were talking about, shoot out the potential for shoot outs in front of the ecuadorian embassy. that was the british that were supposed to be doing the shooting when they talk about shooting out the, the tires of a russian plane that might have been taking jillian assigned to,

to russia. that was the british that were supposed to be doing the shooting. so i would certainly hope that the british courts finally say enough is enough. there's no way that julian assange should or could be extradited to the united states and he should be free to go. and those were our case stories from the past week. thanks for watching half an hour from now, sharon thomas will be here with our headline news and you'll next addition of the weekly ah. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy foundation . let it be in arms, race, movies on very dramatic development. only personally, i'm going to resist. i don't see how that strategy will be successful, very critical time time to sit down and talk

with me. hello. welcome to was, are the most international players formulating their reaction to your sped drove from afghanistan is quite a challenge to many profit gone to tightly intertwined, excuse notable exception. while the india decry as the worst possible outcome and enact banding before tara written pakistan is celebrated as an indication of that on strategy and a recognition of the reality on the ground. last week, we brought you video from the valley. so let's now go to is la to speak to.