Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Magda Hassan]

And it just keeps coming and coming.

Police investigate new computer hacking claims linked to News International

A police investigation is taking place into claims private investigators working for News International were involved in computer hacking.


The probe was prompted by allegations that Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein MP, was a British spy Photo: PA





By Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor
9:00PM BST 16 Jul 2011

The investigation is being carried out by detectives from Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Directorate. It is separate from the phone hacking investigation.

The team of officers from Operation Tuleta are looking at the activities of individuals who were paid by News International, including a firm of private detectives offering "ethical hacking".

Officers are understood to be collecting evidence about the activities of a former Army intelligence officer who is said to have offered hacking services to the journalists.

The probe was prompted by allegations that Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein MP, was a British spy. They first surfaced in Irish newspapers five years ago and were vehemently denied by Republicans.

Unpublished documents relating to the claims have now been unearthed by Scotland Yard.

The allegations focus on the use of "Trojan" emails. These involve a hacker sending a computer virus to the target's computer. The virus then allows full access to the computer's contents.
The investigation will examine allegations that information was then written up into memo form and faxed to the News of the World.
It is understood that some of this information was allegedly sent to the News International bureau in Dublin, although it is not known who it was sent to there. The private detectives, including a former member of the Force Research Unit (FRU) of the British Army, cannot be named for legal reasons.
Two of those targeted are believed to be Kevin Fulton, an alleged former British agent within the IRA, and Martin Ingram, a former British army intelligence officer. Mr Ingram, who was a member of the FRU, is the co-author of a book, Stakeknife, in which he disclosed details of the most highly placed British spy in the IRA, saying he was a man called Freddie Scappaticci. Mr Scappaticci denies he was an intelligence source.
The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that Mr Fulton met detectives last week and was asked if information from his computer had ever appeared in print without permission.
Mr Fulton told detectives of material relating to Mr McGuinness that had been stored on his computer.
Mr Fulton had believed that some of the information had been leaked by police who had seized his computer in a raid on this home in 2005. This alleged leak led Mr Fulton to complain to the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland, but his complaint was rejected due to lack of evidence.
The new discoveries apparently exonerate the police and suggest the information may have been stolen from his computer by a hacker. Mr Fulton wrote to the police in April alleging that some of his emails had been intercepted in 2006 by people acting on behalf of News International. In response, the Metropolitan Police replied to him: "As a result of the new inquiry being conducted by the [Met] into the unlawful interception of voicemail messages (Operation Weeting) and the various court actions relating to News International, the [Met] has received a large number of inquiries and allegations relating to access to private data that are broader than voicemail interception ...
"The [Met] has set up a small team in order to assess the various allegations that have been made with a view to establishing whether there is available evidence and if it would be appropriate to conduct any further investigation into these activities."
The latest disclosures follow a BBC Panorama investigating into the computer hacking claims.
The programme named Alex Marunchak, a former News of the Worldexecutive, as having obtained the emails. He denies any involvement.
In the programme, Mr Ingram said: "The BBC has shown me documents which contained parts of emails exchanged between me and a number of other people while I was living in France and some of these were later faxed to the Dublin office of the News of the World.
"The irony of the illegal procurement of information from my computer is that it was obtained by someone who also once worked for the Force Research Unit in the British Army. This person was being paid by News International to hack into my computer."
It is understood that the officers investigating the computer hacking claims have had no contact with News International.
News International declined to comment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/p...ional.html

[Peter Lemkin]

What started out as the application of only a bandage/plaster - and then became the lancing of a boil - is one stop short of a full autopsy....love it! :lol: Let it all hang out now!....there is much more 'dirt' to ooze out, methinks!!!! I only hope this crosses the Pond effectively and we get some sunshine on the germs in the Heimat too. mileymad:

Wade definitely deserved arrest, but the timing was choreographed to get her out of harms way in Parliament on Tuesday. One can expect LOTS more of that kind of deep political obstruction of Justice from the back rooms.

[Magda Hassan]

Could this scandal have connections with Princess Diana's death? Wasn't there something about spying going on in her case?

Indeed there was spying on Diana and others in the Windsor family. The infamous tampon reference and squidgy.

[Magda Hassan]

Non family members that is.

The current crop consists of: Natalie Bancroft, a 31-year-old opera singer inherited as part of the Dow Jones deal; Jose Maria Aznar, former president of Spain, Peter Barnes, a veteran of Big Tobacco with Philip Morris and now a very busy Australian-based NED, being chairman of Ansell, Metcash and Samuel Smith & Son; Viet Dinh, academic lawyer and former assistant US attorney general under George W Bush; John Thornton, former president of Goldman Sachs and now "Professor and Director of Global Leadership" at Tsinghua University in Beijing; Andrew Knight, a former journalist and editor of The Economist, now chairman of J Rothschild Capital Management, and the only independent director with media experience; and 79-year-old venture capitalist, Thomas J Perkins.
Rod Eddington also is a director, but it might be difficult to call him an independent, being a former Murdoch employee at Ansett. Eddington's CV includes spells on other boards Rio and Allco - that, in my opinion, tended to go along with strong executives on matters that didn't end well for shareholders.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/worst-is-...z1SQwngnTc

[url=http://www.smh.com.au/business/worst-is-yet-to-come-for-murdoch-20110718-1hkve.html#ixzz1SQwngnTc][/url]

[Bernice Moore]

Most people now paying attention to the practices of Rupert Murdoch's papers have no idea what came before. Here's an article I wrote 13 years ago for the Columbia Journalism Review that provides useful background as the News of the World scandal continues to widen….
http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/07/14/how-has...-with-age/


Many thanks,
Russ Baker
www.WhoWhatWhy.com

[Peter Lemkin]

And here is R. Baker a few days ago, briefly, on RM.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Around lunchtime today, Asst Commissioner John Yates learnt that he was to be suspended by the Met Police Professional Standards Committee. Within 30 minutes of receiving the news, Yates resigned as a police officer.

So, Scotland Yard's two top cops have both now resigned within 24 hours.

I note that it is accepted practice that a police officer who resigns from the force is no longer subject to Professional Standards discipline.

The key problems for Scotland Yard are:

i) that their investigations failed to examine the evidence, with Yates notoriously saying "I don't do bin bags" in connection with the 11,000 pages of notes from PI Mulcaire dumped by the Met into trash bags and left to moulder in some dusty corner. The evidence in the "bin bags" has now led to the arrest of senior NI figures such as consiglieres Brooks and Hinton;

ii) that senior officers had frequent (at least 18) meetings with NI execs whilst the investigation was live;

iii) that the Met hired Neil "Wolfman" Wallis on a £1k a day PR contract. According to the Daily Telegraph, citing the BBC, Yates was in ultimate charge of approving Wallis' police contract. During the period Wallis was working for the Met, senior officers, including Stephenson and Yates, told The Guardian their story was wrong and asked that they not pursue it.

See my post in this thread on July 15 (below).

Stephenson and Yates were right to resign.

Oh my.

Scotland Yard's finest told The Guardian their story was wrong, investigative journalist Nick Davies was out of line, and the newspaper should back off.

Scotland Yard's finest failed to declare that they were being advised by former NOTW exec Neil "Wolfman" Wallis at the time. The rozzers were paying the Wolfman £1000 per day for his "PR advice". A ridiculous and disproportionate sum.

The Wolfman was arrested yesterday (see previous page in this thread).

The editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, has now written to Scotland Yard demanding answers. His letter can be seen in full here.

Phone hacking: Met police put pressure on Guardian over coverage

Top officers told the Guardian its stories were exaggerated without revealing they had hired former NoW deputy editor

Scotland Yard's most senior officers tried to convince the Guardian during two private meetings that its coverage of phone hacking was exaggerated and incorrect without revealing they had hired Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, as an adviser.

The first meeting in December 2009, which included the Metropolitan police commissioner Paul Stephenson, was two months after Wallis was employed by the Yard as a public relations consultant.

Wallis, 60, who was deputy to Andy Coulson, the NoW editor at the time of the phone hacking, was arrested on Thursday as part of Operation Weeting. Coulson has also been arrested and bailed.

Theresa May, the home secretary, has referred Scotland Yard's hiring of Wallis to the judicial inquiry on phone hacking which will be chaired by Lord Justice Leveson.

During the meetings in December 2009 and February 2010, which also involved the assistant commissioner John Yates and the force's director of public affairs, Dick Fedorcio, the senior officers said articles written by Nick Davies about phone hacking were incorrect, inaccurate and wrongly implied the force was "party to a conspiracy".

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, has written to Fedorcio about failing to mention that the Yard was being advised by Coulson's former deputy.

In the letter Rusbridger wrote: "Paul Stephenson and you came in to meet me and Paul Johnson [deputy editor] in my office on 10 December 2009. Among the things we discussed was the commissioner's strong feeling that Nick Davies's coverage of phone hacking was overegged and incorrect.


"In February 2010 you wrote to me complaining that another Nick Davies story 'once again presents an inaccurate position from our perspective and continues to imply this case has not been handled properly and we are party to a conspiracy' ... You suggested a follow-up meeting with Assistant Commissioner John Yates.

"That meeting took place on 19 February. John Yates also tried to persuade us that Nick's doggedness and persistence in pursuing the story was misplaced."

The letter ends with Rusbridger posing five questions to the Met: "Why did you not think it appropriate to tell me at the time of these meetings that you, Paul and John were being advised by Coulson's former deputy?

"What advice did he give you about the coverage of phone hacking?

"Was Wallis consulted in advance of these meetings or subsequently informed of the nature or contents of our discussions?

"Why did you think it was appropriate to hire Wallis, given his closeness to events which the Guardian and other media organisations were reporting at the time?

"What conversations formal or informal did you, Paul or John have with Wallis about the subject of the NoW and phone hacking during the period he was working?"

Fedorcio, who has held his post since 1997, has been invited to testify before MPs on the home affairs committee on Tuesday.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said it could not comment on why it did not mention Wallis's employment in the private meetings at the Guardian. Because of the judicial inquiry, it would not comment on why it was thought appropriate to hire Wallis, nor could it comment on any formal or informal conversations Stephenson or Yates had with the former Murdoch executive while he worked part-time at the Yard.

The spokesman denied that Wallis had been consulted about phone hacking or gave any advice about it, in their first on-the-record denial: "He was not involved in any operational activity and that includes giving any advice on phone hacking."

Source.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Newspapers as organs delivering blackmail and leverage on behalf of their Sponsors - keeping the Mechanics, and the independently minded, scared and obedient.

The Murdoch empire bosses are Facilitators.

Now busted.

They'll be tossed out with the garbage by the Sponsors.

As I noted a few pages back, Sen Jay Rockefeller's intervention was a deep political signal.

In a Rolling Stone piece, Tim Dickenson corroborates Cooper's account of a "black-ops" room deep within Fox HQ:
Befitting his siege mentality, Ailes also housed his newsroom in a bunker. Reporters and producers at Fox News work in a vast, windowless expanse below street level, a gloomy space lined with video-editing suites along one wall and an endless cube farm along the other. In a separate facility on the same subterranean floor, Ailes created an in-house research unit known at Fox News as the "brain room" that requires special security clearance to gain access. "The brain room is where Willie Horton comes from," says Cooper, who helped design its specs. "It's where the evil resides."If that sounds paranoid, consider the man Ailes brought in to run the brain room: Scott Ehrlich, a top lieutenant from his political-*consulting firm. Ehrlich referred to by some as "Baby Rush" had taken over the lead on Big Tobacco's campaign to crush health care reform when Ailes signed on with CNBC. According to documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Ehrlich gravitated to the dark side: In a strategy labeled "Underground Attack," he advised the tobacco giants to "hit hard" at key lawmakers "through their soft underbelly" by quietly influencing local media a tactic that would help the firms "stay under the radar of the national news media."

Faux News - Murdoch tried to copyright the tag line "fair and balanced".

"Fair and balanced"?

Naked Propaganda: Don't Believe a Word - is surely more appropriate.

[Jan Klimkowski]

FRU Computer Hacking Claims Linked to Murdoch

And it just keeps coming and coming.

Police investigate new computer hacking claims linked to News International

A police investigation is taking place into claims private investigators working for News International were involved in computer hacking.



By Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor
9:00PM BST 16 Jul 2011

The investigation is being carried out by detectives from Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Directorate. It is separate from the phone hacking investigation.

The team of officers from Operation Tuleta are looking at the activities of individuals who were paid by News International, including a firm of private detectives offering "ethical hacking".

Officers are understood to be collecting evidence about the activities of a former Army intelligence officer who is said to have offered hacking services to the journalists.

The probe was prompted by allegations that Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein MP, was a British spy. They first surfaced in Irish newspapers five years ago and were vehemently denied by Republicans.

Unpublished documents relating to the claims have now been unearthed by Scotland Yard.

Magda - important find.

I'm intrigued by the appearance of this material in the (hardcore Tory) Daily Telegraph.

As you know, these are not "new" claims suddenly "discovered" by detectives.

This is about British military intelligence's dirty war in Northern Ireland.

Specifically, it's about the established phone hacking of an Inquiry into Operation Motorman by a PI named Steve Whittamore who had been hired by journalists from several newspapers. For more on Motorman, see DPF thread here.

It's also about the "unmasking" of a British intelligence asset known as Stakeknife (various spellings) high up in the IRA. Ultimately, Freddie Scappaticci, head of the IRA's "nutting squad", was named as Stakeknife. However many Republicans believe the British spy was higher up in IRA, and the finger has been pointed at Martin McGuinness - who has denied the allegation.

The FRU (Force Research Unit) was a covert British military intelligence unit in Northern Ireland which allegedly commissioned and allowed assassinations and atrocities to occur during "The Troubles".

"Martin Ingram" is a former FRU agent turned whistleblower. "Kevin Fulton" is a Roman Catholic turned FRU agent turned whistleblower.

This is deep politics, and dirty secrets that the British state does not want in the public domain.

One of the allegations is that a Murdoch journalist was hiring a PI to send "trojans" to grab the contents of emails and other material on the computers of "Ingram" and "Fulton".

It begs the fundamental question: who wanted this information, and was it to be used as leverage?

The secondary question is: why is the Tory Telegraph raising this spectre now? Who is being sent a warning?

[Jan Klimkowski]

And Now for Something Completely Different....

And very very Silly.....

Rebekah Brooks's arrest damaged her reputation, says her lawyer

Source.