Report: UK tabloid hacked into voicemails

[Byrne]

I wonder who his PR predecessor was, during the 7/7 and Menezes years, though. They maybe didn't need one back then, with Hayman and Coulson being so close anyway.

The Met police PR man was Dick Fedorcio . Fedorcio received an OBE in the Queens Birthday Honour list of June 2006, despite the Met's news-management skills being described as 'anal' in the news a week before his OBE was announced.

Fedorcio also has some questions to answer to the Home Affairs Committee, tomorrow:

Home Affairs inquiry into Unauthorised tapping or hacking of mobile communications
15 July 2011

Mr Dick Fedorcio OBE, Director of Public Affairs and Internal Communication at the Metropolitan Police, has replied to a letter sent yesterday by the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee.

The Chairman had written to him to clarify evidence given to the committee by senior members of the Metropolitan Police when they gave evidence on Tuesday. Since then the issue of Mr Neil Wallis’ employment with the Metropolitan Police has been raised. The letter is copied below.

As result of this letter Mr Fedorcio has been asked to give evidence to the committee on Tuesday July 19th 2011 at 12:45 pm. The only other witness on Tuesday will be Sir Paul Stephenson the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

Committee Chairman, Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, said:

“Mr Fedorcio’s letter throws new light on these matters and we hope to explore these with him at the meeting on Tuesday.”

(1) Letter from the Chairman to Mr Dick Fedorcio OBE, Director of Public Affairs and Internal Communication at the Metropolitan Police

The Home Affairs Committee is in the process of obtaining final pieces of evidence in order to conclude its inquiry into the unauthorised tapping and hacking of mobile communication.

During our evidence session with Mr Andy Hayman on Tuesday, he stated that he had discussed with you his decision to accept hospitality from News International while they were under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

To assist us in our inquiry, please could you tell us in writing what advice you gave Mr Hayman on this occasion.

I would be grateful to receive a response by noon on Friday 15 July 2011.


(2) Reply from Dick Fedorcio OBE Director of Public Affairs of the Metropolitan Police to Chairman:

I am responding to your letter of 14 July 2011 asking me to comment upon an element of the evidence given by Mr Hayman to your Committee on 12 July 2011.

I first became aware of the investigation into phone hacking upon my return from a period of leave in August 2006.

To the best of my knowledge and recollection, the only dinner that I attended with Mr Hayman and News International staff was on 25 April 2006, some three months previously. The dinner was entered in the Specialist Operations Directorate Hospitality Register.

Therefore, I did not discuss with, or give advice to, Mr Hayman on any question relating to attending this dinner whilst the investigation was in progress. Furthermore, I did not have any conversation with Mr Hayman about phone hacking more generally at that time.

Code: Select all

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news/110715-phone-hacking/

Dodgy geezers, the lot of 'em

[seemslikeadream]

Second police resignation over hacking scandal

Senior London police officer John Yates has resigned, the latest casualty of the UK phone-hacking scandal which also claimed Britain's top police chief.

Mr Yates, who decided in 2009 not to reopen the investigation into the News of the World, had been facing calls for his resignation from the civilian body that oversees the force.

"Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority)," said a Scotland Yard statement.

"This has been accepted."

Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson had already resigned on Monday over the force's hiring of former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as a public relations consultant.

The latest resignation comes as a lawyer for former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks criticised British police for her arrest on Sunday, saying they inflicted "serious reputational damage".

Ms Brooks' lawyer Stephen Parkinson said police put no allegations to the 43-year-old after detaining her on suspicion of phone-hacking and bribing police, just two days after she quit Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper wing.

He also confirmed she was willing to testify to British politicians over the controversy on Tuesday after her arrest cast doubt on whether she would appear at the hearing, which Rupert Murdoch and son James will also attend.

"The position of Rebekah Brooks can be simply stated - she is not guilty of any criminal offence," Mr Parkinson said.

"The position of the Metropolitan Police is less easy to understand. Despite arresting her [Sunday] and conducting an interview process lasting nine hours, they put no allegations to her and showed her no documents connecting her with any crime.

"They will in due course have to give an account of their actions and in particular their decision to arrest her with the enormous reputational damage that this has involved."

Mr Parkinson said Ms Brooks "remains willing to attend and answer questions" at Tuesday's parliamentary inquiry, but suggested parliament might decide to postpone her appearance following her arrest.

Ms Brooks, the 10th person and most senior Murdoch aide so far to be arrested over the scandal, was bailed late Sunday after being quizzed at a London police station.

She was editor of the News of the World tabloid - which was axed earlier this month as the scandal gathered pace - from 2000 to 2003, when phone hacking was alleged to have taken place.

Meanwhile, prime minister David Cameron has bowed to opposition pressure and called an emergency session of parliament to deal with the spiralling scandal.

"I am asking for parliament to sit an extra day on Wednesday so I can make a new statement adding to the details of the judicial inquiry and answer questions that come up from today's announcements or indeed tomorrow's announcements," he said.

Labour leader Ed Miliband piled further pressure on Mr Cameron - who has also faced criticism for his social contacts with Murdoch aides, including Ms Brooks - by calling on the Conservative leader to apologise for hiring former News of World editor Andy Coulson as a media adviser.

"It is his failure to do that that now draws the sharp contrast between his actions and the honourable actions of Sir Paul Stephenson who resigned over the hiring of Mr Coulson's deputy," he said.

Mr Cameron said there was no suggestion that while in government the work of Coulson, who quit Downing Street in January and was arrested on July 8, "was in any way inappropriate or bad".

With the scandal coming to the door of Scotland Yard, Mr Stephenson resigned but defended his "integrity", while pointedly comparing the Cameron's Coulson issue with the force's employment of Neil Wallis.

Wallis was himself arrested last week.

Mr Murdoch's US-based News Corp is in crisis, having also had to abandon its bid for full control of pay-TV giant BSkyB and accept the resignations on Friday of Dow Jones chief Les Hinton, who had worked with him for 52 years.

Critics: WSJ edit is suck-up to Murdoch

News about Rupert Murdoch is displayed on the Fox News ticker at a building which houses the News Corp. headquarters, Friday, July 15, 2011, in New York.
“(The) WSJ Editorial is sad,” wrote Sarah Ellison, former Journal reporter on Twitter.
By REID J. EPSTEIN | 7/18/11 9:38 AM EDT

Safe to say the Wall Street Journal’s defiant editorial page defense of News Corp. in the growing phone hacking scandal did not convince anyone in the liberal blogosphere or the Journal diaspora.

The scathing editorial, which attacks the Guardian, the New York Times, ProPublica and politicians who have called for investigations into News Corp., drew outrage from both inside the Journal newsroom – anonymously, of course – and from former Journal reporters.

“(The) WSJ Editorial is sad,” wrote Sarah Ellison, former Journal reporter and author of “War at the Wall Street Journal,” on Twitter. “I’ve always defended the Edit page, but now It’s a PR arm.”

Felix Salmon, who writes about the business press for Reuters, wrote on his Tumblr that there are three possible explanations for the editorial.

“1. It was essentially dictated by Rupert Murdoch, 2. It was written by Paul Gigot or someone else in an attempt to write what Rupert Murdoch would like to see. 3, It’s a genuine statement of what the WSJ actually believes. Genuine question, here: which of these three options would be the worst?”

The liberal blogs, while perhaps taking the editorial less personally than Journal-affiliated journalists, slammed the paper for its attempt to blame-shift.

In an item headlined: “WSJ Editorial: It’s everyone else’s fault that News Corp illegally hacked phones,” Chris in Paris at AmericaBLOG called the piece “a fine example of boot licking for the boss.”

The piece, he wrote, “shows how out of touch Murdoch’s camp really is. They could get away with this before it was discovered that they were hacking into the phones of young murdered girls but those days are long gone.

Mark Howard at News Corpse, a site that campaigns against corporate media, called the editorial a “tone-deaf defense of Murdochalypse.”

“The only thing more grating than their arrogance is their victimehood ,” he wrote. “Apparently the only controversy is that the rest of the media world is ganging up on the long-suffering Wall Streeters and their bosses.”

And at Daily Kos, dweb8231 wrote that the piece is “a true WSJ editorial work of art.”

“With the executive leadership of News Corp either in court, out of work, or about to testify before Parliamentary committees,” dweb8231 wrote, “one wonders if the WSJ’s piece was written as part of a corporate plan or simply drafted in a moment of high dudgeon by the paper’s editorial board which has been particularly famous since the Murdoch takeover for its heated defenses of conservative positions on everything from Wall Street reform to environmental and consumer regulation and … of course … foreign bribery laws.”

Jesse Eisinger, a former Journal reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize this year with ProPublica, tweeted: “Best adj to use for this WSJ editorial: delusional, oedipal, sycophantic or craven?”

Eisinger, who is married to Ellison, also suggested Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot has gone from “being the champion of rich men to the champion of one rich man. Almost sad.”

[Stephen Morgan]

I smell chicanery going on with regards to Rebekah Brooks -

1) She was INFORMED on FRIDAY that she would arrested on SUNDAY. This is highly irregular. Suspects are not informed that they will be arrested in a couple of days - they are usually swooped upon without notice so they can't collude with who needs to be colluded with.

That's what the rich get. SOP.

2) Rebekah Brooks is due to appear before a Commons Committee Inquiry this week. I suspect her arrest conveniently means that she can no longer comment - she'll be jeopardising her case now that she's formally been arrested and bailed.

I hope someone can come up with a reason to put her in prison. A reason they'll actually act on, I mean.

3) slightly different matter - about 3 years ago I told everyone I knew that George Osborne would sooner or later be Prime Minister in the UK - based primarily on the fact that he had attended Bilderberg consistently for the last few years and is one of the lucky 'Bullingdon Club' members. Now, with Cameron on the rocks (he's OUT in my opinion) the Tories are going to be tearing their hair out about Nick Clegg (a guy from the LIB DEMS for god's sake!) being the deputy (and obvious choice to replace Cameroon) Prime Minister. This cannot be allowed to happen.

Gideon. Worth shooting.

[coffin_dodger]

the cleanup operation has begun:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... sean-hoare

News of the World phone hacking whistleblower found dead

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious

[semper occultus]

Cameron in crisis: PM forced to call emergency session of Parliament as a SECOND Yard chief quits over hacking

Cressida Dick will take over from John Yates as Assistant Commissioner
www.dailymail.co.uk

Damn it - why didn't I go public with my intuitive premoniton like gnostic-h....as soon as it was mooted Yates was at risk the first word that popped into my mind was ( if you'll pardon the expression ) Dick - the woman in charge who metaphorically speaking pulled the trigger on De Menezes & was subsequently promoted.

of the De Menezez operation...

A CATALOGUE of police errors was today condemned at the inquest into the shooting of John Charles de Menezes.

● The failure to obtain a good photograph of Osman to identify the suspect.

● The failure by the police to stop Mr de Menezes before he reached public transport.

● The doubts of some officers about the correct identification of the suspect which were not relayed to the firearms team.

● The fact that the position of the cars containing the firearms officers was not accurately known to the command team running the operation.

● The shortcomings of the radio system linking the officers.

●The failure to conclude that the surveillance officers should still have stopped Mr de Menezes, even when the firearms officers were reported to be ready to make the stop.

www.thisislondon.co.uk

just a few minor issues, quickly smoothed-over compared to the serious career-blight that could arise from being involved in..oh I don't know...a cash-for-honours enquiry for example...

interesting she is also a "supporter of" Common Purpose
news.bbc.co.uk

[2012 Countdown]

Rupert Murdoch assembles US legal team over phone-hacking scandalAppointment of litigation veteran Brendan Sullivan suggests News Corp boss is readying for bitter legal battle in America

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... legal-team

===
Laywering up here too...and yes the first killing.
Or was he suddenly feeling sad about life? Could be 'suicide'.

[ShinShinKid]

Zero Hedge, via The Guardian is reporting that the main whistleblower in the case has been found dead...what a co-inky-dink!

[seemslikeadream]

Current TV - Keith Olbermann will have live coverage of the grilling Tuesday morning

[Harvey]

Cameron is already on route back from Africa tonight, the third or fourth revision of his itinerary today. Panic?

[justdrew]

Reporter who blew whistle on Murdoch found dead
By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, July 18th, 2011 -- 1:49 pm

The reporter who blew open the phone hacking scandals now threatening to topple News Corporation has been found dead in his London home, according to a report in The Guardian.

Sean Hoare, who covered show business for the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World, was the first journalist to go on record as claiming his bosses knew about efforts to hack into the voicemails of top officials, soldiers, celebrities, a murder victim and others.

Hoare alleged in an interview with the BBC that World editor Andy Coulson had asked him personally to hack into phone accounts. Coulson was later hired to be the director of communications for British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was said to have met with Murdoch officials 26 times in his first 15 months in office.

Hoare in recent weeks has proved a source second-to-none in the ongoing hacking scandals, speaking with reporters at The New York Times and The Guardian about how News Corp. employees were able to obtain GPS location data from any phone they wanted to, simply by bribing police.

He also accused Coulson, with whom he worked at The Sun before moving to The World, of lying to investigators about the systemic hacking practices at Murdoch's British newspapers. Hoare further named a private investigator who News Corp. allegedly paid to carry out even more invasive spying operations.

Hoare was reportedly fired from The World over drug and alcohol problems and had been in rehab therapy. There were no indications that authorities were treating his death as suspicious, but the timing of his death is likely to keep the questions he raised at the forefront as an investigation gets underway.

[Nordic]

He worked for News of the World and his name was "Hoare?"

REALLY?

As in Media Hoare?

You can't make this shit up.

[Harvey]

Murdoch is finished whether it's murder or natural causes. This thing is global front page news and the court of public opinion can go only one way...

[Harvey]

If I didn't know better I'd say this a Karl Rove script. It couldn't have worked out better for Tory/Lib/Labour to have suspicions of a News International execution as the backdrop to the story. Focus the whole thing toward the press. Away from Whitehall certainly, if not away from the Met.


(Edited to grudginly add Lib Dems in there as well.)

[Nordic]

Murdoch is finished whether it's murder or natural causes. This thing is global front page news and the court of public opinion can go only one way...

i dunno ... fox news viewers will stand by fox news no matter what. they're cultists basically. i see his empire shrinking but in the u.s. guys like him have total immunity.

i would love to see his ugly evil corpse hanging from a lamppost but this is the u.s. of a.

[Harvey]

Murdoch is finished whether it's murder or natural causes. This thing is global front page news and the court of public opinion can go only one way...

i dunno ... fox news viewers will stand by fox news no matter what. they're cultists basically. i see his empire shrinking but in the u.s. guys like him have total immunity.

i would love to see his ugly evil corpse hanging from a lamppost but this is the u.s. of a.

Few guesses from a friend of mine:


Murdoch will step down.

Brooks will turn out to be heavilly implicated in phone hacking, 'evidence' both damning and mitigating will be 'found.' She'll take one for the company.

Murdoch will move into the shadows.

Suspicion of Met or NI involvement in the death of Sean Hoare will continue to rumble on with nothing ever proven.

Other journalists may think twice before hitting send.

Cameron appears humble.

Milliband appears vindicated.

Press powers curtailed.

Everyone forgets.

News international goes from strength to strength.

Ireckon he's dead wrong on some counts although if anyone seriously wanted to know who was hacking or location pinging __________ (insert celebrity cell number) at any given time all they ever had to do was look at relevant telecoms company logs for all those phones and, well, I guess they're not really looking.