Thread: Scotland Yard Basically Owned by Rupert Murdoch

He needs to be erased.

Originally Posted by LAM

Wondering why Scotland Yard botched the investigation into the News Corp phone-hacking scandal so badly? Well, it wasn't because the police agency was comically inept—at least, not entirely because it was comically inept—but because it was comically corrupt!

The New York Times' Don Van Natta Jr. has a big, juicy article about the Yard's role in the rapidly-expanding scandal, including the revelation that some 11,000 pages of notes pertaining to the hacking of phones at News International paper News of the World (containing, Natta writes, "nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked") sat unexamined in an evidence room for four years, despite public claims that the police had finished their investigation.

Meanwhile, News International executives and editors were routinely meeting for meals with top policeman, and entering and exiting through the "revolving door" of job offers between the institutions. Indeed, Scotland Yard and News International "became so intertwined that they wound up sharing the goal of containing the investigation." So intertwined that News International had, essentially, a double agent:

On Friday, The New York Times learned that... former editor, Neil Wallis, was reporting back to News International while he was working for the police [as a media strategist] on the hacking case.

[...]

It was not until Thursday night that Scotland Yard revealed that Mr. Wallis had worked for it for a year. That revelation came about 10 hours after he was arrested at his west London home in connection with the phone hacking.

"This is stunning," a senior Scotland Yard official who retired within the past few years said when informed about Mr. Wallis's secret dual role. "It appears to be collusion. It has left a terrible odor around the Yard."

Yes! A terrible odor! Can you smell it? It's the odor of... collusion. Anyway, if he has any sense Murdoch will just shutter Scotland Yard the way he did News of the World, and then re-open it later branded as The Sun Investigates or something.

Scotland Yard Basically Owned by Rupert Murdoch

You think foxed news is comprimised, too?!

Originally Posted by IronAddict

You think foxed news is comprimised, too?!

nah...totally unbiased with no political agenda at all

London police assistant commissioner resigns

LONDON (AP) — The London police Assistant Commissioner John Yates has resigned amid the firestorm surrounding the phone hacking scandal.

Yates made a decision two years ago to not re-open police inquiries into phone hacking, saying he did not believe there was any new evidence to consider. He has said in recent weeks that he regrets that decision.

He announced the decision Monday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday called for an emergency session of Parliament to brief lawmakers on the spreading phone hacking scandal, trying to gain control of a crisis that is threatening Rupert Murdoch's media empire, the upper echelons of London's police force and the country's leader himself.

Parliament is due to break for the summer on Tuesday after lawmakers grill Murdoch, his son James and his former British chief executive Rebekah Brooks about the scandal, but Cameron said "it may well be right to have Parliament meet on Wednesday so I can make a further statement."

Cameron was speaking in Pretoria, South Africa, on the first day of a two-day visit to the continent. He had planned a longer trip, but cut it short as his government faces a growing number of questions about its relationship with the Murdoch empire and a scandal that has taken down top police and media figures with breathless speed.

Opposition leader Ed Miliband said Cameron needed to answer "a whole series of questions" about his relationships with Brooks, James Murdoch and Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor later hired as Cameron's communications chief.

"At the moment he seems unable to provide the leadership the country needs," Miliband said.

In the latest twist in the legal saga, Britain's Serious Fraud Office, Britain's anti-fraud agency, said Monday it was giving "full consideration" to a request from a lawmaker that it open an investigation into Murdoch's News Corp.

The office said any possible probe would be limited to News Corp. activities in Britain, but it added that it is ready to assist authorities in the U.S., where the FBI has already opened an inquiry into whether 9/11 victims or their families were also hacking targets of News Corp. journalists.

Cameron insisted his government had "taken very decisive action" by setting up a judge-led inquiry into wrongdoing at the newspaper and relations between politicians, the media and police.

"We have helped to ensure a large and properly resourced police investigation that can get to the bottom of what happened, and wrongdoing, and we have pretty much demonstrated complete transparency in terms of media contact," Cameron said.

But he is under pressure after the resignation of London police chief Paul Stephenson and the arrest Sunday of Brooks — a friend of his — on suspicion of hacking and police bribery.

Brooks was detained and questioned for nine hours on Sunday before being released on bail. On Monday, her lawyer, Stephen Parkinson, released a defiant statement professing her innocence and claiming police faced serious questions about her arrest.

Parkinson said police would "have to give an account of their actions" considering "the enormous reputational damage" Brooks' arrest had caused to the ultimate social and political insider.

Brooks has hired an attorney experienced in helping out high-profile clients in a squeeze. Parkinson advised former Prime Minister Tony Blair during an inquiry into the Iraq War, helped guide former Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major during an inquiry into mad cow disease, and represented former police chief Ian Blair during the investigation into the killing of an unarmed Brazilian man mistaken for a terrorist.

Stephenson, the police chief, resigned Sunday over his ties to a former News of the World executive editor who has been arrested over the scandal. In his resignation speech Stephenson made pointed reference to Cameron's hiring of Coulson, a former editor of the shuttered tabloid who was arrested earlier this month over hacking.

Cameron said the situations of the government and the police were "completely different," because allegations of police corruption "have had a direct bearing on public confidence into the police inquiry into the News of the World and indeed into the police themselves."

Other senior police officers are under fire, including Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who decided against re-opening the investigation in 2009 following reports in the Guardian newspaper.

Brooks' arrest was the latest blow for Murdoch, the once all-powerful figure courted by British politicians of all stripes. Now Murdoch is struggling to tame the scandal, which has already destroyed News of the World, cost the jobs of Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton and sunk the media baron's dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.

Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets — including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are based. Sky News reported Monday that News Corp. had appointed a senior lawyer to head an internal probe on phone hacking.

Brooks' arrest had thrown into doubt her appearance on Tuesday before the committee that also will quiz Rupert and James Murdoch. But her spokesman, David Wilson, said Monday she planned to attend.

She was the bold chief executive of News International, Murdoch's British newspaper arm, whose News of the World stands accused of hacking into the phones of celebrities, politicians, other journalists and even murder victims. But, the revelation that journalists accessed the phone of Milly Dowler in search of scoops while police were looking for the missing 13-year-old fueled an explosion of interest in the long-simmering scandal.

At an appearance before U.K. lawmakers in 2003, Brooks admitted that News International had paid police for information. That admission of possible illegal activity went largely unchallenged at the time and lawmakers are keen to ask her about it again. But she always said she did not know any phone hacking was going on when she was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003.

Police have already arrested 10 people, including other former News of the World reporters and editors. No one has yet been charged.

Even more senior figures could face arrest, including James Murdoch, chairman of BSkyB and chief executive of his father's European and Asian operations. James Murdoch did not directly oversee the News of the World, but he approved payments to some of the paper's most prominent hacking victims, including 700,000 pounds ($1.1 million) to Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor.

James Murdoch said last week that he "did not have a complete picture" when he approved the payouts.

Hinton, too, could face questioning over wrongdoing at the News of the World during his 12 years as executive chairman of News International. But Hinton is an American citizen living in the U.S., so British authorities would have to seek his extradition if he refused to come willingly.

Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year and now say they have the names of 3,700 potential victims.

Cameron's office said he will be back in Britain on Wednesday after visits to South Africa and Nigeria. He had also planned to visit Rwanda and Sudan but a decision was made last week to drop that part of the itinerary.

He defended his decision to make the trip despite the hacking crisis.

"Just because you're traveling to Africa doesn't mean you suddenly lose contact with your office," he said.

___

Danica Kirka contributed to this report.

London police assistant commissioner resigns - Yahoo! News

I love how Fox covers their own story...

British PM drags opponents into hacking scandal

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister David Cameron dragged his political foes into Britain's phone-hacking scandal Wednesday, as he sought to distance himself from his former aide at the heart of the allegations and denied that his staff had tried to thwart police investigations.

Cameron, who flew back from Africa early to address the emergency session of Parliament, defended his decision to hire former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief, saying his work in government had been untarnished.

Coulson was arrested this month in connection with the tabloid's alleged practice of intercepting the voicemails of celebrities and crime victims to get scoops. Cameron reminded lawmakers Wednesday that he has yet to be found guilty of anything.

But the prime minister also sought to put some distance between him and Coulson.

"With 20/20 hindsight, and all that has followed, I would not have offered him the job, and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it," Cameron told lawmakers who packed the House of Commons for the special address. "You live and you learn, and believe you me, I have learnt."

Cameron then dragged Labour Party officials into the spotlight, saying that most British politicians had tried to court media baron Rupert Murdoch — whose News Corp. owned the now-defunct News of the World and still owns three other British newspapers.

The prime minister added that Labour should be careful before casting stones about hiring choices. Labour's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell was accused of exaggerating government documents in the lead-up of the Iraq war, and the party's former special adviser Damian McBride quit amid allegations he circulated scurrilous rumors about political opponents.

"You've still got Tom Baldwin working in your office!" Cameron exclaimed, referring to Labour's political strategist who has been accused of illegally obtaining private banking information in 1999 while working as a journalist for The Times, another Murdoch paper. Baldwin could not immediately be reached for comment.

Labour was in power when the phone hacking scandal broke in 2005 over a News of the World story about Prince William's knee injury — information that royal household staff believed could have only come from illegal voicemail intercepts. The scandal has since embroiled top politicians, police and journalists in Britain.

And it seems more is yet to come.

Only some 200 of the nearly 4,000 people whose information is believed to have been targeted have been notified by police, and detectives have started a separate inquiry into whether other news organizations over the years have breached data privacy laws.

Scotland Yard said Wednesday that it was increasing the number of staff assigned to the phone-hacking inquiry from 45 to 60 to meet a "significant increase in the workload" due to a surge of inquiries and requests for assistance from the public and lawyers.

Among the evidence police want to examine are emails and other documents from an internal investigation into hacking conducted in 2007 by a law firm hired by News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch's global News Corp. The firm, Harbottle and Lewis, said client confidentiality meant it could not hand over the files.

On Wednesday News International said it had told Harbottle and Lewis to answer questions from police and lawmakers.

Already 10 people have been arrested, including Coulson, who was editor at the News of the World when royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were arrested and jailed in 2007 in connection with the Prince William story.

Police dropped their investigation into the hacking claims in 2007 once the men were prosecuted, and Coulson quit the paper shortly after. It was then that Cameron, who was Conservative opposition leader at the time, hired him as his communications chief.

Police reopened the hacking investigation this January and both police and News Corp. now acknowledge hacking was far more widespread than previously admitted.

The scandal exploded two weeks ago when it emerged that the News of the World had intercepted — and deleted — the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old who was kidnapped in 2002 and later murdered.

The uproar has forced Murdoch to shut the 168-year-old News of the World and abandon a bid to take control of British Sky Broadcasting, raising questions of whether police accepted bribes to give reporters' tips, and highlighting the way politicians sought to curry favor with News Corp.

Meanwhile, a judge on Wednesday awarded actor Hugh Grant — one of the most prominent celebrity critics of the Murdoch empire — the right to see whether he was one of the targeted celebrities. Others who allegedly had phones hacked include Sienna Miller and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Cameron said a special panel would be set up to investigate practices at other news organizations and the relationship among media organizations, politicians and police.

"The problem has been taking place over many years — the problem is for both our main parties and the problem is one the public expect us to stop playing with and to rise to the occasion and deal with it for the good of the country," Cameron said.

He adamantly denied, however, that anyone on his staff ever tried to influence the police hacking investigation.

"To risk any perception that No. 10 (Downing Street) was seeking to influence a sensitive police investigation in any way would have been completely wrong," he said.

Cameron has acknowledged meeting with News Corp. executives more than two dozen times between May 2010 and this month, including several meetings with Rebekah Brooks, a News International executive who has been arrested in the scandal and who is a friend and neighbor of Cameron's and attended his birthday party in October.

Cameron told lawmakers he was not involved in the government's decision to approve the BSkyB takeover and "I never had one inappropriate conversation" with Brooks.

Cameron's meetings with News Corp. executives were criticized in Parliament by Labour leader Ed Miliband, who said Cameron had made a "catastrophic error of judgment" in hiring Coulson.

Miliband also reminded Cameron that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had warned the prime minister against bringing Coulson into Downing Street. Clegg sat stone-faced during much of Wednesday's raucous session.

News Corp. announced Wednesday that it had stopped legal payments to Mulcaire — a day after Murdoch told lawmakers in a special parliamentary committee hearing that he would try to find a way to stop the payments. Mulcaire's lawyer, Sarah Webb, declined to comment on the development.

The saga captivated audiences from America to Murdoch's native Australia on Tuesday, as Murdoch endured a three-hour grilling by U.K. lawmakers. The media baron said he had known nothing of allegations that staff at News of the World hacked into cell phones and bribed police to get information on celebrities, politicians and crime victims.

He also said he had been humbled by the allegations and apologized for the "horrible invasions" of privacy.

Murdoch flew out of London on Wednesday, the same day that police charged Jonathan May-Bowles, 26, for trying to hit Murdoch with a foam pie at the U.K. hearing.

Buckingham Palace, meanwhile, reacted to a claim by one lawmaker that it had raised concerns with Cameron's office over his decision to hire Coulson. "It is outrageous to suggest this," said a palace spokesman.

Also Wednesday, a House of Commons committee blasted both News International and the London Metropolitan Police for their performance on the scandal.

"We deplore the response of News International to the original investigation into hacking. It is almost impossible to escape the conclusion ... that they were deliberately trying to thwart a criminal investigation," said the Home Affairs committee, which has been grilling past and present Metropolitan Police officials about their decision not to reopen the hacking investigation in 2009 when other allegations were coming to light.

___

Cassandra Vinograd, Raphael Satter and Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of Damian McBride's first name.)

British PM drags opponents into hacking scandal - Yahoo! News