Andy Coulson, the Met Police and Murdoch

[Streathamite]

That was the guy who walked after the case against him collapsed, over the Daniel Morgan murder, morgan being the guy who was about to blow the roof off a network of corrupt cops and private dicks in S E London. Rees almost defines 'dodgy'.
Oh this is getting juicier and juicier

 

[laptop]

juicier and juicier

The Guardian has previously identified other suspected targets of Rees, including Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, George Michael, Linford Christie, Gary Lineker, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, and the family of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.

Whee... Can't not be a NotW story, can it? Oh, wait...

 

[laptop]

According to journalists and investigators who worked with him, Rees exploited his position as a freemason to make links with masonic police officers who illegally sold him information

Uh-oh... will News International manage to set up a smokescreen of tinfoil?

 

[Streathamite]

Uh-oh... will News International manage to set up a smokescreen of tinfoil?

don't think it'll work, this one's too far gone, and dumping on the NOTW may be the only way for the met to lessen the shower of shit they themselves are in.
in fact, to me this looks like the murdoch press's biggest f-up since Hillsborough
e2a; especially now that saint Kate of middleton is involved!

 

[DexterTCN]

John Yates, who later supervised the failed phone-hacking inquiry for 19 months;

It's worth repeating...isn't it.

I'm nearly in tears just now.

 

[Gingerman]

It won't go away.





http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/08/phone-hacking-kate-middleton-tony-blair

Nice to see this back in the news,gotten a bit quiet recently on the old hacking front.

 

[Barking_Mad]

lolz

Other police contacts are said to have been blackmailed into providing confidential information. One of Rees's former associates claims that Rees had compromising photographs of serving officers, including one who was caught in a drunken state with a couple of prostitutes and with a toilet seat around his neck.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/08/phone-hacking-scandal-jonathan-rees

 

[Barking_Mad]

An investigator who worked for Rees claims he was also occasionally commissioning burglaries of public figures to steal material for newspapers. Southern Investigations has previously been implicated in handling paperwork that was stolen by a professional burglar from the safe of Paddy Ashdown's lawyer, when Ashdown was leader of the Liberal Democrats. The paperwork, which was eventually obtained by the News of the World, recorded Ashdown discussing his fears that newspapers might expose an affair with his secretary.

 

[ymu]

Keep digging, The Met. We'd like this hole deep enough to bury you and News International together.

Pauper's grave is fine, but make it good and deep.

Maybe line with garlic, if you have time for any fancy touches.

 

[Streathamite]

More on Rees and the coppers "on the square"
Oh, this gift that keeps on giving...

The Guardian has been told that Rees spoke openly about obtaining confidential data belonging to senior politicians and recorded their names in his paperwork. One source close to Rees claims that apart from Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell, he also targeted Gaynor Regan, who became the second wife of the former foreign secretary Robin Cook; the former shadow home secretary Sir Gerald Kaufman; and the former Tory cabinet minister David Mellor.

 

[laptop]

From what looks like a catch-up rewrite in the Indy:

Among the other targets were the former Conservative MP David Mellor, who as the former national heritage secretary threatened tighter regulation of the press and who was subsequently disgraced for his affair with an actress obtained with the help of covert recording equipment.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/m...glary-fraud-and-computer-viruses-2294967.html

If that recording equipment does what it says here, can I have some?

 

[stavros]

Nice to see this back in the news,gotten a bit quiet recently on the old hacking front.

It's only the Graun pushing though isn't it? In the mainstream press at least. My parent's Torygraph had a gigantic picture of Middleton on the cover this morning then a very short article. Bit surprised the Indie and the Beeb aren't digging into the Digger too.

 

[Streathamite]

It's only the Graun pushing though isn't it? In the mainstream press at least. My parent's Torygraph had a gigantic picture of Middleton on the cover this morning then a very short article. Bit surprised the Indie and the Beeb aren't digging into the Digger too.

WRT the Indie and the Torygraph, that maybe because of the long-standing unwritten convention that newspapers don't investigate other 'papers misdeeds

 

[stavros]

The would account for the Torygraph, as well as the Mirror, Fail, Express et al, but aren't the Indie and the Graun competing for a similar demographic?

 

[Streathamite]

The would account for the Torygraph, as well as the Mirror, Fail, Express et al, but aren't the Indie and the Graun competing for a similar demographic?

sure, but if I was to back any paper to 'rebel' against that convention, it would be the Graun rather than the Indie. Their occasional bouts of quirky awkwardness are their redeeming feature

 

[DexterTCN]

I'm sure a lot of the other papers, primarily the tabloids, were at it as well. Not on the same scale, most likely.

I'm sure most papers respect the unwritten rule that they don't go for each other but now we have targeting of people who were directly involved in the (so-called) policing of the press (Kaufman, Mellor,) the senior plod of the (so-called) original investigation into the hacking claims and apparent complicity all over the place, a plod famous for hunting corrupt cops....fucking everyone? This is possibly the biggest story in this country ever.

Bugging, blackmailing, bribing, lying in court, complicity in so much shit. With the weight of the police and murdoch's lot along with ...well along with anyone they could bully, blackmail, buy.

“The Metropolitan Police are in possession of paperwork which details the dealings of criminal private investigator Jonathan Rees. It strongly suggests that on behalf of News International he was illegally targeting members of the Royal Family, senior politicians and high-level terrorist informants. Yet the head Operation Weeting has recently written to me to explain that this evidence may be outside her terms of reference.”

Mr Cameron said he was unaware of any terms of reference governing the Met’s investigation, adding: “They are able to look at any evidence and all evidence they can find.”

Cameron is unaware of any terms of reference.....what a normal person would be called no go areas?

I would have thought that, seeing as how he lost Coulson through this...he would be very aware of the 'terms of reference'. What is he some fucking dummy that isn't paying attention to this? My bum. He probably laid out the terms of reference himself.

 

[Streathamite]

Cameron is unaware of any terms of reference.....what a normal person would be called no go areas?

I would have thought that, seeing as how he lost Coulson through this...he would be very aware of the 'terms of reference'. What is he some fucking dummy that isn't paying attention to this? My bum. He probably laid out the terms of reference himself.

Yeah, my jaw dropped at that bit as well. bollocks is he unaware. he must think people are really stupid, to think they'll fall for that

 

[DexterTCN]

Alistair Campbell just brought it up on This Week, BBC1.

 

[agricola]

I'm sure a lot of the other papers, primarily the tabloids, were at it as well. Not on the same scale, most likely.

Actually it was (at least based on the Information Commissioners investigation into Whittamore) the Mail who were the worst offenders. As for "terms of reference", Cameron was actually correct - albeit with the proviso that I am sure he, the rest of the political class and the wider print media would desperately hope the investigation does have terms of reference limiting it to those bad apples at News International, otherwise as you say this massive scandal is more likely to see the light of day, and lots of people will be off to jail (probably for proper terms now, not the joke sentence that Whittamore et al got).

 

[William of Walworth]

I read that excellent Nick Davies Guadian article about Jonathan Rees this morning -- it's a follow up of the first one by Davies about him, a couple of months ago. The first one came straight after that murder trial collapsed and dug up enough dodgy shit of its own, but this second one is pretty damned juicy too.

My question is, how easy will it be for the Police at all, to be able to avoid extending their investigation to cover the Rees related areas? Ther's talk in the article of them having already seized 'boxes and boxes' of Rees' paperwork.

 

[Streathamite]

I'm sure a lot of the other papers, primarily the tabloids, were at it as well. Not on the same scale, most likely.

I'm sure most papers respect the unwritten rule that they don't go for each other but now we have targeting of people who were directly involved in the (so-called) policing of the press (Kaufman, Mellor,) the senior plod of the (so-called) original investigation into the hacking claims and apparent complicity all over the place, a plod famous for hunting corrupt cops....fucking everyone? This is possibly the biggest story in this country ever.

actually, you have a point there. It's astonishing the other 'papers aren't covering it; i can only assume they're scared shitless of their misdeeds coming out

 

[agricola]

My question is, how easy will it be for the Police at all, to be able to avoid extending their investigation to cover the Rees related areas? Ther's talk in the article of them having already seized 'boxes and boxes' of Rees' paperwork.

It depends - on the one hand there is the pressure from the Guardian and (more importantly, unless they pay everyone off) the ongoing legal issues which should mean the investigation has to be seen to be as thorough and wide-ranging as possible, but on the other hand there is the strong interest that nearly everyone involved has (including the various Labour figures, who lets not forget were quite happy to see all this going on when they were in power) in that it doesnt turn into some kind of great purge* of Fleet Street and its hangers-on.

* albeit unlike the Soviet example this one will probably have been well-deserved

 

[laptop]

And Ryan Giggs piles in

 

[laptop]

And now it seems that Rebecca Brooks had her phone hacked.

That'd be the editor of the Scum, hacked by the News of the Screws

 

[Streathamite]

they've gone and hacked one of their own? Fucking priceless!

 

[DexterTCN]

This may also be Brookes starting to cover her own arse. And the beeb have that link in entertainment and arts for some reason.

 

[stavros]

And the beeb have that link in entertainment and arts for some reason.

I suppose it is quite good fun to watch and hope for the Dirty Digger's empire to implode. I'm not holding my breath though.

 

[Santino]

There's got to be a decent chance that he'll die before it's all resolved.

 

[stavros]

There's got to be a decent chance that he'll die before it's all resolved.

Isn't Mummy Murdoch still alive though, at somewhere over 100? If not, I think she snuffed it fairly recently, so family history suggests we may have to live under his rule somewhat longer.

 

[ymu]

It would certainly be interesting to know how much in damages NI can afford before the whole business is threatened.

Anyone got an idea. Cos this is potentially billions just on what we know so far.