Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Lauren Johnson]

It just livened up. Someone tried to hit and/or throw something at RM. His wife Wendy hit him with a right hook~! :rocker:

However, throwing a foam pie in Rupert's face achieved nothing other than generating misplaced sympathy for "his courage in facing his interrrogators". So much so that I am suspicious of the motives of the pie thrower. angryfire

Wendy seemed very ready for the attack. She get's to play a role as well. Great opportunity to change the subject.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Murdoch has always prided himself on "news management".

The headlines will now focus on the foam attack, and Wendy "leaping to the rescue" of her old man.

The grisly details of the Murdoch interrogation, which are considered "too boring" for "ordinary people", can be shifted off the front pages.

Ffs. :thumbsdown:

[Peter Lemkin]

It just livened up. Someone tried to hit and/or throw something at RM. His wife Wendy hit him with a right hook~! :rocker:

Sorry but this is a disaster.

Those who don't know the true nature of the Murdoch empire will now have sympathy for this old man and his (third?) wife springing to rescue the geriatric old fool from a foam pie.

Unfortunately, from the few minutes I've seen of the Parliamentary Committee, they were crap, and didn't even manage to land a custard pie on him.

I'm off to have a nose around.

However, throwing a foam pie in Rupert's face achieved nothing other than generating misplaced sympathy for "his courage in facing his interrrogators". So much so that I am suspicious of the motives of the pie thrower. angryfire

It is early days. However, there were images of [no sound] of the police with the pie thrower. They were suspiciously gentle and kind with him, even delicately wiping off the foam from his face and whispering in his ear by one officer.......just say'n,

[Jan Klimkowski]

For the record, The Guardian's analysis of the new evidence of Stephenson, Yates, and Head of PR Fedorcio.

Senior police officers are professional investigators, adept at framing interview stategies, asking seemingly innocent questions to entrap their interviewee at a later time etc. Given this, it is not surprising that their testimony was tight.

However, even reading between the lines, it is clear that the Scotland Yard hierarchy was (to steal a phrase) entirely relaxed about continuing a close relationship with NI despite the fact the force was supposed to be investigating the Murdoch empire on serious allegations of criminality and corruption.

There's also some buck passing and ass protecting in the testimony below.

10 things we learned from the Met police at the phone-hacking hearing

Sir Paul Stephenson, John Yates and Dick Fedorcio provided some illuminating moments in front of the select committee

Peter Walker guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 July 2011 16.07 BST

1. David Cameron's chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, turned down the opportunity for the prime minister to be briefed on the fact that Neil Wallis was giving PR advice to the Metropolitan police, according to the force. The outgoing Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson first alluded to an unnamed "No 10 official" who briefed the force that Cameron should not be "compromised" over the issue. The outgoing assistant commissioner John Yates subsequently named the official as Llewellyn.

2. The buck does not always stop at the top in the Met. Stephenson deflected a number of tough questions by telling MPs this was a matter for Yates, giving evidence later.

3. No one properly checked Wallis before he began work for Scotland Yard. The force's head of PR, Dick Fedorcio, told MPs that "due diligence" was carried out by Yates, even though Yates and Wallis were friends. Not so, said Yates: all he did was make a single phone call to Wallis to ask whether anything he had done could "embarrass" the force.

4. Stephenson resigned despite, he believed, still having the full support of Theresa May, the home secretary, London's mayor, Boris Johnson, and the bulk of the force. He told MPs: "It was against the advice of many, many colleagues and, indeed, my wife." He added: "I'm not leaving because I was pushed or threatened."

5. Yates passed on the CV of Wallis's daughter within the force, thus possibly assisting her to get a job with the Met. He insisted he had done nothing wrong but "simply acted as a postbox".

6. The Metropolitan police has 45 press officers, 10 of whom previously worked for News International, figures revealed by Stephenson.

7. Corporate PR consultancy can be a lucrative business. The Met received three tenders for a two-day-a-month contract to advise senior officers on press matters. The winning bid and "by far the cheapest", came from Wallis's company, at £1,000 a day.

8. Stephenson is not a fan of ex-colleague Andy Hayman's new career as a journalist. Asked whether he reads Hayman's Times column, the response was: "No, I do not."

9. Stephenson was determined to go out with a bang. He began quoting (inexactly) Macbeth on his resignation "If it's done then best it's done quickly" before vehemently defending his £12,000 free stay at Champneys health spa. He signed off with a clearly pre-prepared statement of defiance, describing his resignation as "an act of leadership".

10. We are living in strange times: there have been very few previous select committee hearings at which a Conservative MP (Mark Reckless) and a commissioner of the Metropolitan police go out of their way to praise the Guardian.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Rupert at his most feeble:

Mr Watson pointed out that former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks admitted in 2003 that police were paid for information.

Mr Murdoch senior said: "I am now aware of that, I was not aware at the time. I'm also aware that she amended that considerably very quickly afterwards."

Mr Watson said: "I think she amended it seven or eight years afterwards but did you or anyone else in your organisation investigate it at the time?"

Mr Murdoch replied: "No. I didn't know of it.

"I'm sorry, if I can just say something and this is not as an excuse, maybe it's an explanation of my laxity.

"The News of the World is less than 1% of our company. I employ 53,000 people around the world who are proud and great and ethical and distinguished people, professionals in their work.

"I'm spread watching and appointing people whom I trust to run those divisions."

Source.

Murdoch said he was also not informed about out-of-court payments sanctioned by his son James to settle phone-hacking cases involving Gordon Taylor and PR consultant Max Clifford. The News Corp chief said he had "never heard" of Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of footballers' union the PFA.

James Murdoch said his father had only become aware of the payments after they were made public by a newspaper (the Guardian, although he pointedly declined to refer to it directly). He said the level of the payments were "below the approval thresholds that would have to go to my father as chairman and chief executive of a global company".

Rupert Murdoch also said he had "never heard" of the News of the World's former chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, who was arrested and bailed earlier this year on suspicion of phone hacking. "That is the first I have heard of that," said Murdoch. "I can't answer. I don't know."

He also said he had not been aware that the culture select committee, in 2009, had accused News International executives of "collective amnesia" about the extent of phone hacking at the News of the World.

"I don't know who made that particular charge. I haven't heard that," he said. "You're really not saying amnesia, you're really saying lying," he told the committee.

Murdoch's performance before MPs today was being seen as a key test of his authority at the head of his global empire amid speculation that independent directors were weighing up the possibility of replacing him as chief executive.

Watson, who turned down successive offers by James Murdoch to take over answering questions on his father's behalf, said he wanted to put the questions to Rupert because he was ultimately responsible for corporate governance at News Corporation.

Source.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Guardian investigative journalist Nick Davies on Scotland Yard's PR Chief.

Oh what a tangled web we weave....

Phone-hacking spotlight falls on Met PR man, Dick Fedorcio

Director of public affairs faces heavy scrutiny by MPs at select committee over links between Scotland Yard and NI

Nick Davies The Guardian, Tuesday 19 July 2011

The search for the truth about the ties that bind Scotland Yard to News International is now likely to focus on the role of one man: Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan police.

Normally in the wings, Fedorcio will enter the bright lights of the home affairs select committee on Tuesday to answer questions about his role in the background to the phone-hacking scandal.

Guardian inquiries suggest that his 14 years at the head of the Yard's media operation made him a powerful figure, able to intervene in policy decisions; and that he has a history of particular closeness with the News of the World.

There is no evidence Fedorcio has done anything wrong, but there are troubling questions on which MPs want his help:

Was Scotland Yard's failure to get to the truth in the original investigation in 2006 simply a case of incompetence (which is, in effect, their defence), or did the Yard deliberately cut short that inquiry as a favour to powerful friends at News International? MPs will want to know whether Fedorcio formally or informally had any influence over the decision.

Was Scotland Yard's rapid decision to refuse to reopen the case in July 2009 influenced in any way by its close links with the News of the World? In relation to that controversial decision, was there any form of contact between Fedorcio and anyone at News International?

Did Fedorcio play any role at all in the subsequent police statements to parliament, press and public which, we now know, included falsehoods, half-truths and evasions?

Fedorcio, 58, is a conservative figure, with a rugby player's chest and a businessman's suit, who was given an OBE in 2006. He rose through the ranks of local government PR (at the Greater London council, West Sussex, and Kent) and took over as head of public affairs at the Yard in September 1997, shortly before the arrival as deputy commissioner of John Stevens, who became a close ally. When Stevens became commissioner in 2000, the two men set out to find allies in Fleet Street, particularly among the conservative tabloids and the Daily Mail.

Fedorcio was far less close to Stevens's successor, Ian Blair. Indeed, several Yard sources claim that Fedorcio disliked the new commissioner. But his job gave him power: specifically, a seat on the elite senior management team which oversees major operational decisions and where Fedorcio's voice is said to be highly influential.

The fact of his link to Fleet Street reinforced that power. Like the PR heads of other organisations, he is said to have freely intervened on policy issues, changing strategy in search of better press coverage. One source recalls him sitting in with the July Review Group dealing with the aftermath of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, and effectively chairing a meeting, even though he had no operational standing.

Those who have worked closely with Fedorcio all agree he is particularly close to Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World and then of the Sun; and to Lucy Panton, the News of the World's crime correspondent. They say Fedorcio sometimes has caused friction with his press officers by providing the News of the World with information in preference to other newspapers.

MPs will want to know whether Fedorcio's close working link with Brooks influenced the Yard's decision to take no action when they discovered that a News of the World executive, Alex Marunchak, had apparently used the paper's resources to mount surveillance on a senior officer, DCS Dave Cook, acting on behalf of two men who were suspects in a murder investigation being led by Cook.

Fedorcio was present at a meeting when DCS Cook and his commander, Andre Baker, confronted Brooks with details of the surveillance, which could have been regarded as an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

The surveillance included following DCS Cook and his children; "blagging" personal data from confidential police databases; and attempting to access his voicemail and that of his wife.

Cook subsequently suspected that "Trojan horse" emails may have been sent to his computer, though no confirmation was ever found.

Fedorcio's personal links with the News of the World are part of a wider picture of close alliance. When John Stevens stepped down as commissioner in 2005 he was given a job as a columnist at the News of the World (a post that was secured, according to Yard sources, by Fedorcio).

When Ian Blair took over as commissioner his son was allowed to go on work experience at News International.

When Andy Hayman, the assistant commissioner in charge of the original phone-hacking inquiry, left under a cloud, he was given a job as a columnist on the Times, who also bought the serial rights to his memoirs.

Fedorcio is believed to have approved the highly controversial decision in September 2009 to hire the News of the World's former deputy editor, Neil Wallis, as a part-time media consultant at the same time as the paper was being publicly accused of crimes committed when Wallis worked there. It is still not clear whether Wallis had any influence over the Yard's handling of the affair.

[Peter Lemkin]

From what I've seen THUS FAR, the UK is as structurally unable to do an investigation of this type as is the USA. The same 'cover-your-ass and the asses of the rich and powerful' applies over the truth in both systems.....the details differ.....the results are the same. :wirlitzer: Today's 'investigations' = ZERO, IMO.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Hmmmm - the whispering corridors of power and squabbling over whose head is next on the block to save PM Cameron.

My money is on Fedorcio being next to get a big cheque to fuck off and keep quiet.

I don't find any of this testimony particularly credible.

Phone hacking: Cameron chief of staff 'turned down' Met police briefing

John Yates names Ed Llewellyn as senior official who asked police not to tell PM in 2010 about decision to hire Neil Wallis

Adam Gabbatt and Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 July 2011 16.21 BST

David Cameron's chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, turned down the opportunity to be briefed on phone hacking, according to former Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates.

Yates, who resigned on Monday, reviewed the phone-hacking evidence in 2009. He told the home affairs select committee that he offered to brief Llewellyn in September 2010, but Llewellyn said he would be "grateful" if the matter was not raised.

It came as Yates clashed with the director of public affairs at the Met, Dick Fedorcio, over who was responsible for the appointment of the former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis.

Llewellyn now appears to be under pressure after Yates revealed he was the "senior official" who asked the Met not to brief the prime minister on the hacking scandal in September 2010.

The Met police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, giving evidence before Yates, said a senior official in No 10 had advised the Met not to inform the prime minister about the police's decision to hire Wallis.

Yates then confirmed Llewellyn was the adviser in question. He said Llewellyn told him it was not appropriate for him to brief the PM on the phone-hacking investigation, adding "and I'd be grateful if it wasn't raised".

Last week it emerged Llewellyn also failed to pass to Cameron the Guardian's warnings about the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson over hacking and his connections to Jonathan Rees, a private detective who was then facing charges for conspiracy to murder. Despite the warnings Llewellyn took the judgment that the information was already substantially contained in news reports in the public domain.

Separately Yates disputed the evidence given to the committee by Fedorcio, who had suggested Yates was responsible for screening Wallis before his appointment to the Met.

Fedorcio said Yates conducted "due diligence" on Wallis before his appointment, but Yates told the committee that would be "slightly over-egging the pudding".

He said he had sought personal assurances from Wallis before his appointment, but said that was not due diligence.

Yates also denied helping Wallis's daughter get a job at the Met, saying he "simply acted as a postbox" by forwarding on her CV by email, and said while he was "friends" with Wallis, this relationship mainly revolved around sport.

[Bernice Moore]

http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CT...OttawaHome

Murdoch has no plans to step down

[Jan Klimkowski]

You can't make this stuff up.

For our international friends, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the part of the criminal justice system that the police formally approach, with the evidence gathered during their investigation, to learn whether charges should be pressed or not.

So, in 2006-7, when Lord Macdonald was the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), head of the CPS, the body he led did not pursue the phone hacking investigation.

Now, in June 2011, when the Murdoch empire called him in to "examine" evidence, it took him 3-5 minutes to identify "blindingly obvious" evidence of corrupt payments to police officers.

Oh the tangled games the British deep state plays. :angeldevil:

News Corp board shocked at evidence of payments to police, says former DPP

Lord Macdonald tells committee it took him 'three to five minutes' to decide NoW emails had to be passed to police

Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 July 2011 21.26 BST

"Blindingly obvious" evidence of corrupt payments to police officers was found by the former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, when he inspected News of the World emails, the home affairs select committee was told.

Explaining how he had been called in by solicitors acting for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation board, Lord Macdonald said that when he inspected the messages it took him between "three to five minutes" to decide that the material had to be passed to police.

"The material I saw was so blindingly obvious that trying to argue that it should not be given to the police would have been a hard task. It was evidence of serious criminal offences."

He first showed it to the News Corp board in June this year. "There was no dissent," he recalled. "They were stunned. They were shocked. I said it was my unequivocal advice that it should be handed to the police. They accepted that."

That board meeting, the former DPP said, was chaired by Rupert Murdoch.

Lord Macdonald shortly afterwards gave the material to Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick at the Metropolitan police. The nine or 10 emails passed over led to the launch of Operation Elveden, the police investigation into corrupt payments to officers for information.

Lord Macdonald, who had been in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service when the phone-hacking prosecution of the NoW's royal correspondent took place, said he had only been alerted to the case due to the convention that the DPP is always notified of crimes involving the royal family.

Members of the committee were highly critical of the CPS's narrow definition of what constituted phone hacking, claiming that it was at odds with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.