Andy Coulson, the Met Police and Murdoch

[laptop]

They must either think that they're in the clear of any similar accusations, or be desperate to establish their credentials as the anti-hacking paper in the hope that any mud that does come their way doesn't stick too much.

I seem to recall that the Observer was in the frame.

As with the Sun and NotW, no love lost there

 

[ymu]

They must either think that they're in the clear of any similar accusations, or be desperate to establish their credentials as the anti-hacking paper in the hope that any mud that does come their way doesn't stick too much.

They're not the kind of paper that is likely to have any problems. Which is why they were the only media outlet plugging away at this for so long. The smug editorial line is unbearable, but they're worth checking for the stuff no one else will publish - Tomlinson video was them, phone-hacking their exclusive for a long time, wikileaks, the Palestine Papers. They do a lot of good content that just isn't to be found many other mainstream places. And for that, they deserve some praise.

 

[agricola]

They're not the kind of paper that is likely to have any problems. Which is why they were the only media outlet plugging away at this for so long. The smug editorial line is unbearable, but they're worth checking for the stuff no one else will publish - Tomlinson video was them, phone-hacking their exclusive for a long time, wikileaks, the Palestine Papers. They do a lot of good content that just isn't to be found many other mainstream places. And for that, they deserve some praise.

I dunno, on this issue at least I think the main driving factor is that Nick Davies happens to work for them.

 

[stethoscope]

100k damages payout to Sienna Miller
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13390991

 

[Santino]

Apparently at one time the News of the World was hacking... other Murdoch-owned newspapers.

The original police inquiry in 2006 found evidence that Mulcaire had succeeded in intercepting the voicemail of the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks. The current police inquiry is believed to have discovered that Mulcaire also targeted the Sun's former editor and columnist Kelvin MacKenzie. Both would have been rich sources of intelligence about the Sun's activities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/22/phone-hacking-journalist-lawsuit

 

[Streathamite]

Apparently at one time the News of the World was hacking... other Murdoch-owned newspapers.




http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/22/phone-hacking-journalist-lawsuit

oh yes! That is just too beee-yooo-tiful for words!

 

[Santino]

News on whether there will be a judicial review on phone hacking is imminent.

 

[laptop]

News on whether there will be a judicial review on phone hacking is imminent.

There is a judicial review - Prescott, Brian et al.

Are we expecting a result already, or another one?

 

[pk]

There is a judicial review - Prescott, Brian et al.

Are we expecting a result already, or another one?

Prescott initially lost his appeal for a judicial review to take place - now it appears he's been granted his review.

This should put some bent cops in the dock.

 

[Santino]

Story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/23/phone-hacking-lord-prescott

Lord Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, on Monday won his latest bid to mount a legal challenge over the Metropolitan police's handling of the News of the World phone-hacking case.

He and three others – Labour MP Chris Bryant, former Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick and journalist Brendan Montague – had asked a high court judge to give them the go-ahead for a judicial review.

 

[Streathamite]

Story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/23/phone-hacking-lord-prescott

useful that an ex-top cop, an ex-dep PM AND a hack are common plaintiffs on this one, as it were

 

[DexterTCN]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/31/phone-hacking-ali-dizaei

Ali Dizaei has another thread on another matter but this is relevant here.

Dizaei said he was "shocked and appalled" after detectives told him his police phone may have been hacked.

You have to wonder when the police found out that police phones were being hacked and what action they took after the discovery.

This must surely be a much more serious criminal offence given that it would have been used for operational matters.

The Sky News link http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Phone-Hacking-Ali-Dizaei-Is-Told-He-May-Have-Been-Targeted-By-News-Of-The-World/Article/201105416002907?lpos=UK_News_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_16002907_Phone_Hacking%3A_Ali_Dizaei_Is_Told_He_May_Have_Been_Targeted_By_News_Of_The_World
(a redirect from a google news link, don't know why)
...shows that they are shitting themselves - look at the emphasis in red, the posting of the notw apology.

Two policemen now...one openly gay and outspoken on cannabis and one active in supporting coloured plods, both of whom were (as far as I can recall) the subject of some scrutiny from the force.

 

[laptop]

Two policemen now...one openly gay and outspoken on cannabis and one active in supporting coloured plods, both of whom were (as far as I can recall) the subject of some scrutiny from the force.

No wonder a Scotland Yard press officer was seen (as I recall the report) "wildly waving his arms about" and strongly suggesting that the force shouldn't touch the Murdoch papers.

 

[DexterTCN]

Which implies the force was...is...still protecting certain parts of the media for reasons unknown.

 

[laptop]

Which implies the force was...is...still protecting certain parts of the media for reasons unknown.

I'd suggest symbiosis.

Take, for example, all the contempt of court (or sailing close to the wind) that the press indulge in - based on quite innocent unguarded coppers' comments - between arrest and charge of high-profile suspects, as discussed here whenever there's a crime celebre. It must make convictions so much easier to obtain.

Particularly when Dizaei and Paddick were going through various hearings...

 

[Streathamite]

Which implies the force was...is...still protecting certain parts of the media for reasons unknown.

not just that; it's that they've got in so deep with the murdoch empire that they can't extricate from that or hide the fact, so they prolly think they might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb

 

[DexterTCN]

Large parts of both most likely, guys. In fact probably the same thing just as much. More interesting court cases to come, surely.

 

[ymu]

Which implies the force was...is...still protecting certain parts of the media for reasons unknown.

Does it need to be any more complex than the coppers on the Murdoch payroll, often feeding private dicks leads fr hacking purposes as well as getting paid direct for leaks?

 

[laptop]

Does it need to be any more complex than the coppers on the Murdoch payroll, often feeding private dicks leads fr hacking purposes as well as getting paid direct for leaks?

That's basically a "bad apple" theory.

Senior press officers, for example, didn't get there by being stupid enough to take cash. They get paid loads for being completely the creatures of the command - who (these days) probably didn't take cash either.

They calculate interests. Politically.

I would hope that these questions can be explored at judicial review

 

[DexterTCN]

Does it need to be any more complex than the coppers on the Murdoch payroll, often feeding private dicks leads fr hacking purposes as well as getting paid direct for leaks?

Sitting MPs, high profile policemen? They wouldn't shit where they eat in cases like that.

 

[Streathamite]

somehow, I think the names Rees, Whittamore and mulcaire are gonna occupy a LOT of print space over the next few months!

 

[agricola]

That's basically a "bad apple" theory.

Senior press officers, for example, didn't get there by being stupid enough to take cash. They get paid loads for being completely the creatures of the command - who (these days) probably didn't take cash either.

They calculate interests. Politically.

I would hope that these questions can be explored at judicial review

I have said this oft times on this thread - but IMHO the way the Met has dealt with this is probably more about the complexity, scale, potential rewards of (the Motorman defendants got conditional discharges), likely grief that would result and difficulty involved in any wide-ranging, fair and comprehensive investigation, than it is about protecting corrupt cops (though of course its almost certain that there are officers and staff who have been acting corruptly on behalf of the media).

What went on at News International is not unique, indeed if Flat Earth News and previous enquiries are any indication they were by no means the worst offenders. An investigation that looked at everything that had gone on (which it would probably have to, in order to be fair) would require hundreds of cops, months of work, would come up against the active opposition of almost the entire print media, its political hangers-on (who was it Coulson worked for again?) and a small army of lawyers, and even if they did get convictions, they might only result (as Motorman did) in sentences that might be termed piffling. It would make cash-for-honours seem low-key and uncontroversial by comparison.

 

[ymu]

Sitting MPs, high profile policemen? They wouldn't shit where they eat in cases like that.

Ya think?

Precisely why the desperate attempts at cover-up innit. Paddick and Dizaiei were both brought down from within. There's some serious shit to come out here.

 

[Streathamite]

Ya think?

Precisely why the desperate attempts at cover-up innit. Paddick and Dizaiei were both brought down from within. There's some serious shit to come out here.

actually, Paddick wasn't. The Daily Fail did for him as Commander of Lambeth cops, but he was subsequently promoted to DAC, and then retired some time after. Also, dizaei was convicted of trying to frame someone (he's now out on appeal), so I'd like to see the case for either of them being 'brought down from within' (but |I'd agree they had enemies 'within', as the most senior gay copper and asian copper, respectively)

 

[laptop]

actually, Paddick wasn't. The Daily Fail did for him as Commander of Lambeth cops, but he was subsequently promoted to DAC, and then retired some time after.

But there was a leaking campaign against him while he was DAC (around unfounded allegations concerning a boyfriend - I think these got as far as an internal Met investigation but not sure); and soon after that he was made DAC I/C paperclips as a heavy hint that he should retire.

 

[ymu]

But there was a leaking campaign against him while he was DAC (around unfounded allegations concerning a boyfriend - I think these got as far as an internal Met investigation but not sure); and soon after that he was made DAC I/C paperclips as a heavy hint that he should retire.

Exactly. And tgat Dizaei was bent doesn't mean they weren't out to get him.

This is power struggles in the Met and some dirty laundry at least one faction is determined to hide.

 

[Streathamite]

But there was a leaking campaign against him while he was DAC (around unfounded allegations concerning a boyfriend - I think these got as far as an internal Met investigation but not sure); and soon after that he was made DAC I/C paperclips as a heavy hint that he should retire.

no, you're conflating the two.the boyfriend allegations were the Mail thing, the internal bust-up was over De Menezes, (someone as yet unidentified trying to shift blame onto him , and BC reching foer his lawyers) with most of the latter unproven. Paddick did get sidelined into the 'paperclips' job tho, but my understanding of it was that he was only to glad to retire (full pension, natch) by that point.
e2a; reason why he was glad to go was that the only met job he ever really loved was Lambeth Commander

 

[laptop]

I'd better shut up now, because I'm forgetting at the moment what I heard from whom and under what conditions

 

[Streathamite]

I'd better shut up now, because I'm forgetting at the moment what I heard from whom and under what conditions

worry not - we've known each other long enough etc. you're thinking of James renolleaux, Paddick's ex, who was given £100k and a one-way plane ticket out of the country by the Mail, in return for alleging he smoked spliff in Paddick's presence. Oddly, the Met supported him to the hilt over that (one can only presume they wanted exclusive rights to stitching up their employees...)

 

[Santino]

It won't go away.

Pressure is building on the Metropolitan police to expand their phone-hacking inquiry to include a notorious private investigator who was accused in the House of Commons on Wednesday of targeting politicians, members of the royal family and high-level terrorist informers on behalf of Rupert Murdoch's News International.


Guardian inquiries reveal that the former prime minister Tony Blair is among the suspected victims of Jonathan Rees, who was involved in the theft of confidential data, the hacking of computers and, it is alleged, burglary. According to close associates of Rees, he also targeted:


• Jack Straw when he was home secretary, Peter Mandelson when he was trade secretary and Blair's media adviser Alastair Campbell;


• Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent, all of whom are said to have had their bank accounts penetrated, and Kate Middleton when she was Prince William's girlfriend;


• The former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir John Stevens, and the current assistant commissioner, John Yates, who later supervised the failed phone-hacking inquiry for 19 months

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