Phone hacking scandal deepens

[David Guyatt]

[URL="http://cryptome.org/2013/05/lord-stevens-secrets.htm"]http://cryptome.org/2013/05/lord-stevens-secrets.htm

[/URL]The Met gagged Leveson Inquiry over claims that senior police officer sold secrets to News of the World


[B]Campaigning Labour MP calls on May to ensure vital documents were not
[/B]

The Met "gagged" the Leveson Inquiry from revealing intelligence that a very senior former police officer passed on sensitive information to the News of the World, the Standard reveals today.

The force claimed a "public interest immunity certificate" to ban the disclosure of a report that alleged the officer was obtaining highly confidential information on decisions taken by Lord Blair when he was Commissioner.
The classified document, which the Met withheld from the Leveson Inquiry until after it could have been usefully raised in the public hearings, suggested the officer who is not named for legal reasons passed the leak on to the tabloid for money.
When it was finally passed to the inquiry, Scotland Yard claimed "public interest immunity" which prevented Lord Justice Leveson from referring to it in public or considering it for the conclusions in his landmark report into inappropriate relationships between the press and police.
Tom Watson, the campaigning Labour MP, said: "These are remarkably serious events uncovered by the Evening Standard. As the Prime Minster has said, this inquiry was supposed to have left no stone unturned but it now appears to have been gagged by the very force it was set up to investigate.
"I'm sure the current Commissioner would wish to urgently review what happened and I will be writing to the Home Secretary Theresa May to ask that she satisfies herself that all seemingly vital documents from the Yard were not withheld from Lord Justice Leveson."
When the Evening Standard asked counsel to the inquiry Robert Jay QC why he did not raise these matters during the public hearings, he broke a 10-month silence and issued an extra-ordinary public statement.
The senior barrister, who was "gatekeeper" to the inquiry and had a huge influence over what evidence was made public, wanted to "make clear" that he and Lord Justice Leveson were "never shown" the intelligence report until "well after" it could have been used.
He added: "The Met is claiming public interest immunity in relation to any police intelligence report, the contents of which are neither confirmed nor denied.
"I also owe continuing obligations of confidence to the Met and others in relation to information I received during the course of the inquiry. These factors have at all stages limited what I am able to place in the public domain, and continue to do so."
A source close to Lord Justice Leveson told the Standard the intelligence report would have been used by the inquiry if the Met had passed it over before Lord Blair gave evidence.
Unable to refer to the intelligence of police corruption at a very senior level, Lord Justice Leveson was forced to publicly clear the Met and found the force conducted itself with "integrity" at all times.
News that the Met successfully gagged a public inquiry investigating its own conduct has raised serious questions that Lord Justice Leveson was unable to deliver the aims of David Cameron when he established the milestone judicial investigation in July 2011.
After setting up the inquiry in the wake of the Milly Dowler scandal, Mr Cameron told the Commons: "What this country has to confront is an episode that is frankly disgraceful, accusations of widespread law-breaking by parts of our press; alleged corruption by some police officers; a failure of our political system over many, many years to tackle a problem that's been getting worse."
Later, he added: "No one should be in any doubt of our intention to get to the bottom of the truth and learn the lessons for the future."
Bob Quick, Scotland Yard's former head of counter-terrorism operations, said: "The contents of this intelligence report, if true, are disturbing. When it was discovered, it was swiftly and properly handed over to the Met prior to the Leveson hearings and I am surprised its content was not subject of some examination during the inquiry."
The intelligence report, dated 2006 and created by Scotland Yard's anti-corruption command, said a key News of the World hacking suspect, who shall be called Mr Root for legal reasons, was aware of unauthorised disclosures to the former senior officer, who had left the Met.
However, it is understood the alleged breach in Lord Blair's senior management team, which regularly discussed matters of national security, was never passed on to the Commissioner.
The former commissioner first learned of the report when a whistleblower handed it to him in December 2011 at the height of the Leveson Inquiry.
When he learned that Met anti- corruption officers had intelligence to suggest his senior team had been compromised six years earlier yet told him nothing about it, Lord Blair visited Scotland Yard's headquarters in Victoria. He passed the report to detectives working on multiple criminal investigations into corrupt police officers leaking sensitive information to the Murdoch media empire and other newspapers.
Lord Blair, who led the Met between 2005 and 2008, asked his former colleagues to investigate the allegations, find out who knew about the security breach and discover why he was not told.
It is understood the Yard assured him the intelligence report, written by a named detective inside the Met's powerful directorate of professional standards, would be handed to Lord Justice Leveson to evaluate and consider for his report.
The Standard has been told that Lord Blair also discussed the contents of the document with Neil Garnham, a QC leading the Met's interaction with the Leveson Inquiry. However, the former police chief was astonished when he was not questioned over the report's implications during his time in the witness box last March.
Now, it can be disclosed that the Leveson Inquiry was not passed the document until April, six weeks after Lord Blair gave evidence and six months after he handed it to the Met.
The senior former police officer, who shall be called "Zed" for legal reasons, has not been arrested by detectives investigating alleged leaks of information to journalists for payment. However other officers, including the assistant commissioner of City of London police and a Met borough commander, have been seized by detectives investigating unauthorised disclosures to reporters despite, on each occasion, no money changing hands.
Since Lord Justice Leveson effectively cleared Scotland Yard, police across the country have launched a crackdown on the media, arresting whistleblowers who leak journalists information in the public interest and introducing new rules under which the identities of people they arrest will be kept secret from the public.
A Met spokesman said: "The intelligence report referred to dates from 2006. It did not identify an individual as the source of information allegedly being disclosed from the Met management board and it was not considered that it warranted further action.
"Intelligence reports may contain sensitive information and this document was therefore shared with the inquiry on a confidential basis.
"The Met will neither confirm nor deny whether Public Interest Immunity was sought in relation to any material provided to the inquiry. It was not for the Met to determine what was or was not put to any witnesses or used as evidence."
A spokesman for Zed said: "These claims are utter nonsense and the implications are possibly defamatory."[URL="http://cryptome.org/2013/05/lord-stevens-secrets.htm"]
[/URL]http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/the-me...23514.html

This brings an entirely new meaning to "no stone unturned" I think. In future no one is gong to believe an effing thing any government or government agency ever says. It's just said to blind the public while they get on with their corrupt practises.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The senior barrister, who was "gatekeeper" to the inquiry and had a huge influence over what evidence was made public, wanted to "make clear" that he and Lord Justice Leveson were "never shown" the intelligence report until "well after" it could have been used.
He added: "The Met is claiming public interest immunity in relation to any police intelligence report, the contents of which are neither confirmed nor denied.
"I also owe continuing obligations of confidence to the Met and others in relation to information I received during the course of the inquiry. These factors have at all stages limited what I am able to place in the public domain, and continue to do so."

This completely, fatally, undermines the Leveson inquiry.

On what basis can evidence that a very senior police officer sold information to a newspaper be withheld on the basis of PUBLIC INTEREST IMMUNITY, and POLICE INTELLIGENCE?

It looks as if police intelligence established that a police officer was corrupt but this evidence could not be shared with a public inquiry because this was not in the public interest and was police intelligence....

:pinkelephant: :flypig:

Since the inquiry effectively exonerated Scotland Yard, police across the country have launched a crackdown on the media.

Dozens of journalists have been arrested, as have police officers and other public servants accused of leaking information, even when no money changed hands.

Bob Quick, Scotland Yard's former head of counter-terrorism operations, said he was 'surprised' the report was not examined during the inquiry.

He told the Evening Standard: 'The contents of this intelligence report, if true, are disturbing.

'When it was discovered, it was swiftly and properly handed over to the Met prior to the Leveson hearings and I am surprised its content was not subject of some examination during the inquiry.'

A Met spokesman said: 'The intelligence report referred to dates from 2006. It did not identify an individual as the source of information allegedly being disclosed from the Met management board and it was not considered that it warranted further action.

'Intelligence reports may contain sensitive information and this document was therefore shared with the inquiry on a confidential basis.

'The Met will neither confirm nor deny whether Public Interest Immunity was sought in relation to any material provided to the inquiry. It was not for the Met to determine what was or was not put to any witnesses or used as evidence.'

[Jan Klimkowski]

In case this history has been forgotten....

Rebekah vetoed BBC man and told Cameron he should give No10 job to Andy Coulson

By Simon Walters
UPDATED: 23:15, 16 July 2011

Daily Mail

Disgraced former News International boss Rebekah Brooks intervened to persuade David Cameron to make ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson his spin doctor, it was claimed last night.

She is understood to have urged Mr Cameron to scrap plans to give the job to a senior BBC journalist. Mr Cameron was told it should go to someone who was acceptable' to News International.

The disclosure increases pressure on Mr Cameron over his close links to Mrs Brooks and the Murdoch empire.


Rebekah Brooks (left) is understood to have urged David Cameron to make Andy Coulson (right) his spin doctor

It follows the revelation that Mr Coulson stayed at the Prime Minister's country residence, Chequers, two months after he was forced to quit as Downing Street's head of communications over the phone-hacking scandal.

Cameron had intended to appoint the BBC's Guto Harri as his media chief

Mr Cameron met News International executives 26 times in 15 months.

Mr Cameron had been on the brink of appointing the BBC's Guto Harri as his media chief when he was Opposition leader. Mr Harri and his family spent a weekend with the Camerons in 2007 to discuss the job offer.

However, it went to Mr Coulson after Mrs Brooks got involved, according to sources in the Tory party and at News International.

She is said to have told Mr Cameron that the post should go to Mr Coulson to strengthen links between the Tories and News International. He had resigned a few months earlier as News of the World editor over the phone-hacking storm.

An individual intimately involved in Mr Coulson's recruitment said: Rebekah indicated the job should go to Andy. Cameron was told it should be someone acceptable to News International.

'The company was also desperate to find something for Andy after he took the rap when the phone hacking first became an issue. The approach was along the lines of, "If you find something for Andy we will return the favour".'

Mr Coulson, who was arrested this month over the phone-hacking furore, resigned from the News of the World in January 2007. Weeks later, the paper's Royal correspondent Clive Goodman was jailed for phone-hacking.


Coulson got the job for Cameron after Brooks got involved

Mr Coulson's appointment as Mr Cameron's communications director in July 2007 came after he was close to agreeing to give the post to Welshman Mr Harri, who was then the BBC's North America business correspondent.

When Mr Coulson moved into Downing Street after last year's Election, Mr Cameron's director of strategy Steve Hilton was given confidential information concerning the extent of Mr Coulson's alleged involvement in phone-hacking. He passed it on to the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn.

Mr Cameron now says the information was not passed on to him.

George Osborne, who was then Shadow Chancellor, also urged Mr Cameron to pick Mr Coulson over Mr Harri. George is fixated with following how Tony Blair did everything but the decisive factor was Rebekah,' said a Tory aide.

In 2009, the News of the World and The Sun abandoned support for Gordon Brown and switched to Mr Cameron.

Mr Harri went on to be communications director for Mr Cameron's Tory rival, London Mayor Boris Johnson.

A Tory source said: Lots of people said Andy would do a good job but it is not true that anyone from News International lobbied Mr Cameron to get him the position.'

[Jan Klimkowski]

Also in the spirit of lest we forget....

Andy Coulson was never given top security clearance in government

Andy Coulson was granted only mid-level clearance, so avoiding the most rigorous security checks into his background


Richard Norton-Taylor, Robert Booth and James Ball
The Guardian, Wednesday 20 July 2011 20.48 BST

Andy Coulson went through the 'basic level of vetting', David Cameron said in the Commons. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Andy Coulson did not face the rigorous government security checks into his background that most recent Downing Street press chiefs have undergone, it emerged on Wednesday.

The former News of the World editor was granted only mid-level security clearance when he was appointed by David Cameron as his director of communications, so avoiding "developed vetting" involving a detailed interview by government investigators looking for anything in his past that could compromise him.

The checks would have involved a review of his personal finances and cross-examination by investigators of referees, who could include friends and family. Coulson would have been asked by government vetters, some of whom are former police officers, such questions as: "Is there anything else in your life you think it appropriate for us to know?"

Alastair Campbell and Dave Hill, who ran communications for Tony Blair, and Michael Ellam, who did the same job for Gordon Brown when he was prime minister, were all subject to the more rigorous checks which are said to be in part targeted at uncovering potentially damaging secrets in an employee's background.

In the Commons, Cameron said Coulson had gone through the "basic level of vetting" and was not able to see the "most secret documents in government".

The prime minister added: "It was all done in the proper way, he was subject to the special advisers' code of conduct."

The disclosure will fuel suggestions that Cameron failed to take proper steps to check allegations that Coulson had been involved in illegal behaviour at the NoW.

The Cabinet Office denied that Coulson was spared high-level security vetting to avoid any potentially embarrassing information coming out which could have compromised his appointment.

A spokesman declined to comment in detail on Coulson's security status but said he would have been consulted by a senior official over which level of vetting he should undergo. "In normal circumstances at a senior level the postholder would be consulted. You get the standard level and you discuss whether to go higher."

Jonathan Powell, Blair's former chief of staff, said: "In our time in No 10, the press officers were all cleared at the highest level. It is essential if you are going to work on international matters to be able to read intelligence and other relevant material."

The Cabinet Office said that, unlike Campbell and Powell, Coulson's job did not require him to have high-level security clearance. He did not attend cabinet meetings, the bi-weekly national security council meetings, or Cobra, the government's emergency committee.

"He had 'security check' level of security clearance which most officials in No 10 and most special advisers would be subject to," a spokesman said. "The only people who will be subject to developed vetting are those who are working in security matters regularly and would need to have that sort of information. The only special advisers that would have developed vetting would be in the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and maybe the Home Office. Andy Coulson's role was different to Alastair Campbell's and Jonathan Powell. Alastair Campbell could instruct civil servants. This is why [Coulson] wasn't necessarily cleared. Given [the nature of] Andy Coulson's role as more strategic he wouldn't have neccesarily have been subject to developed vetting."

Coulson was also screened by a private company when he started working for the Conservatives in 2007. Asked in the Commons, Cameron refused to name the firm involved.

Electoral Commission returns show that the party last year used Control Risks Screening to vet several staff at a cost of £145.70 per check. If this is the level of vetting undergone by Coulson it is likely to have involved only the most cursory checks of online records.

The party said last night it would not comment on the company or the level of scrutiny involved in Coulson's clearance, which involves a check of health records, police files, financial history, MI5 records and possible interview if recommended by the security service.

[David Guyatt]

Just a passing thought, but perhaps we should now change the name of this thread from phone hacking to something like, oh I don't know... "No. 10 secret love affair - who shagged whom"?

Whaddya think?

[Magda Hassan]

Just a passing thought, but perhaps we should now change the name of this thread from phone hacking to something like, oh I don't know... "No. 10 secret love affair - who shagged whom"?

Whaddya think?

On the available evidence it looks like it would fit right in here. It was obliging of Levison to comply in the cover up wasn't it? What was he there for again?

[David Guyatt]

For the guilty parties, Dave & Beck's has a certain ring to it doesn't it.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Last we heard, News International was picking up the massive legal tab for its hired goons.

Rebekah Brooks pleads not guilty to charges related to phone hacking

Ex-News International chief denies conspiracy to commit phone hacking, pervert course of justice and unlawfully pay officials

Lisa O'Carroll
The Guardian, Wednesday 5 June 2013 12.26 BST

Rebekah Brooks: pleaded not guilty to charges related to phone hacking. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, has pleaded not guilty to a series of criminal charges over a nine-year period when she edited the News of the World and the Sun, and latterly ran the newspaper publisher.

She pleaded not guilty to five charges relating to three separate police investigations on Wednesday at Southwark crown court, where she appeared alongside a number of other defendants including her husband, Charlie Brooks, the racehorse trainer and friend of David Cameron.

Brooks pleaded not guilty to one charge relating to an alleged conspiracy to hack phones between October 2000 and August 2006 and not guilty to two further charges relating to an alleged conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office by paying public officials money for stories.

The former News International chief also pleaded not guilty to two further charges connected to allegations that she conspired to pervert the course of justice after she was arrested in July 2011 in relation to alleged phone hacking.

Brooks sat throughout the two-hour hearing taking notes on the back of a blue envelope.

Brooks's former secretary, Cheryl Carter, who sat in front of her in the dock, also pleaded not guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice.

The second charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice was made against Brooks along with six other defendants who sat with her in the glass dock and all of whom pleaded not guilty. These were her husband, News International director of security Mark Hanna, security officer Lee Sandell, chauffeur Paul Edwards and her former bodyguard, David Johnson.

A number of former News of the World executives and journalists were also in court facing one charge relating to phone hacking arising from the Metropolitan police's Operation Weeting.

The paper's former managing editor Stuart Kuttner, reporter James Weatherup and ex-royal reporter Clive Goodman all pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Court number 4 was packed with journalists and lawyers sitting in front of Mr Justice Saunders, who recently took charge of the cases arising from the phone-hacking scandal.

Among those forced to stand after queuing for an hour were the Labour MP Tom Watson who was at the vanguard of parliament's investigation into News of the World phone hacking and Mark Lewis, the solicitor representing alleged phone hacking victims.

The crown told the court it had changed the indictment in relation to alleged phone hacking to combine all of the original 19 charges into one.

Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former director of communications, and ex-editor of the News of the World will appear in court on Thursday to enter pleas on three charges. One charge relates to allegations that he was involved in a conspiracy to hack phones while the other two relate to allegations of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office.

[David Guyatt]

From Guido

I'm damn sure he wouldn't issue this warning if it were me being prosecuted.

MEDIA ADVISORY NOTE

STRICTLY NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Rebekah Brooks and Andrew Coulson, along with others, currently await trial in relation to allegations of misconduct and corruption at the News of the World and various other publications.Editors and publishers are reminded of their responsibilities under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 (the Act).In particular, the Attorney General wishes to draw attention to the risk of publishing material which could be seen to impede or prejudice the administration of justice in these proceedings such as by publishing details of material which has not yet been called in evidence, and which may be subject to an application to exclude.Editors and publishers should take legal advice to ensure they are in a position to fully comply with the obligations they are subject to under the Act.-Ends-For media enquiries please contact: The Attorney General's Press Office

[Peter Lemkin]

For the record, I note that the title of this thread is the phone hacking scandal 'deepens'! Seems to me it is already very deep and the grave-diggers 'aint finished yet. How low can it go?!?!......and will we ever see Mr. Murdoch hanging from under the Blackfriar's Bridge with bricks in his pocket?...doubt it...but there would be a modicum of 'street justice' were it to happen. He and his ilk and many named in this scandal have control over investigations and the Courts, so I wouldn't expect more than a few lowly scapegoats to end up with sentences or fines...the rest will do just dandy.....