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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... king/print
Phone hacking: Met police to investigate mobile tracking claims
Whistleblower Sean Hoare claimed the News of the World would pay officers to illegally procure phone-tracking data
Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 July 2011 12.52 BST
The Met police have been asked to guarantee they will investigate all cases where someone suspects a tabloid tracked their whereabouts using their mobile phone signal. Photograph: Felix Clay
Scotland Yard has been asked to inspect thousands of files that could reveal whether its officers unlawfully procured mobile phone-tracking data for News of the World reporters.
There were half a million requests by public authorities for communications data in the UK last year – of which almost 144,000 were demands for "traffic" data, which includes location.
A Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) member has asked the force to investigate allegations that News of the World reporters were able to purchase this data from police for £300 per request.
The claims were made by Sean Hoare, the News of the World whistleblower, days before he was found dead at his home on Monday. His disclosure about the purchase of illicit location data was first made to the New York Times, which said the practice was confirmed by a second source at the tabloid. Police have said Hoare's death was not suspicious.
Mobile phone location data, which is highly regulated, would give tabloid reporters access to a method of almost total surveillance, arguably even more intrusive than hacking into phone messages.
Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the MPA, has written to the commissioner requesting an audit of all cases where the Met obtained tracking data from mobile phone companies.
She has also asked the commissioner to guarantee that anyone with reason to suspect a tabloid may have gleaned their whereabouts from their mobile phone signal will have their case looked into.
Two police surveillance sources with knowledge of the system said location data was routinely used by police. Both said any corrupt purchase of information would require a fabricated request under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) and therefore the knowledge of a senior officer.
The Met and other forces have central databases where they record Ripa authorisations for audits by the interception of communications commissioner. Police are also compelled to keep Ripa authorisations files under the same rules that compel them to keep evidence connected to criminal investigations, which in some cases can mean paperwork is stored for decades.
Records are also kept by mobile phone providers, with at least one company maintaining an "indefinite" database of Ripa requests since 2009.
This detailed audit trail contrasts with the paucity of evidence in cases of phone hacking, due to the fact that records of phone activity are generally destroyed after 12 months.
The New York Times first reported that the News of the World may have had access to phone-tracking data last week, days before Hoare's death.
It said Hoare, a reporter who was sacked from the News International title in 2005, alleged that his editor Greg Miskiw could locate information about a person's precise whereabouts via their mobile phone number.
Hoare claimed that Miskiw had once helped him locate a person in Scotland, and said the information came from "the Old Bill".
The following day he told the Guardian that reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say: 'Right, that's where they are.'"
He added: "You would just go to the news desk and they would come back to you. You don't ask any questions. You would consider it a job done."
Hoare made no reference to which police force may have sold the data, although the Metropolitan police are currently investigating evidence that corrupt officers from within its ranks were selling information to the News of the World.
Mobile phone companies can provide police with real-time location information about the whereabouts of suspects or missing people at 15-minute intervals. More commonly, police request a "cell site dump", which gives a complete historical record of the whereabouts of person's mobile phone.
There are two ways the data is obtained. When a phone is used for a call or SMS message, details of its location are logged. Alternatively so-called "pinging" can be used when a phone is not in use, by sending the device signals and triangulating the results from cellphone masts. The level of accuracy ranges from a few hundred metres to around two kilometres, depending on proximity to the masts.
Mark Lewis, a solicitor who represents phone-hacking victims, said: "I have sources that I can't reveal who tell me they could do it [obtain the data]." He said he had clients who suspected they had been tracked: "One or two were very suspicious about how they had been found – simply because they were where they were not supposed to be."
If police want to monitor the contents of emails or calls to combat terrorism or serious crime they require a warrant from the home secretary.
Far more common however is the interception of communications data, which relates to the "who, where and when" of messages or calls. There is a complex framework through which the data is channelled from phone companies to police.
Phone companies provide data to "police liaison units" – funded by the Home Office – which contain a handful of people with maximum security clearance to deal with incoming requests.
Police in turn have special points of contact (Spocs), who liaise with the mobile phone companies and process the requests.
They are trained and accredited by the National Policing Improvement Agency and given unique pin numbers. There are almost 600 accredited Spocs in police forces on a nationwide register maintained by the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Under Ripa, these gatekeepers require detailed justifications from a senior officer to request phone information as part of an investigation, in a process that can take up to ten days. In emergencies, senior police can request the information orally, but paperwork is retrospectively filed centrally.
Anyone who suspects their phone was inappropriately tracked is able request details from police or their phone provider under the Data Protection Act.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-14178114
17 July 2011 Last updated at 11:01 ET
Three men flee scene of fatal crash in Hertfordshire
Three young men who fled the scene of a fatal road crash in Hertfordshire are wanted for questioning by police.
The crash took place at 1320 BST on Saturday on the A41 Tylers Way in Watford.
The men walked away from a silver Audi which was in collision with a white van.
Police believe the men, all wearing jeans, walked up the hard shoulder of the A41 towards the A411 Elstree Road, near The Fisheries pub.
Officers believe one of them sustained an injury in the crash.
Insp Andy Piper of Hertfordshire Police said: "We are also appealing to anyone who may have seen these three young men moving away from the scene, possibly in a hurry.
"If you are one of those three, then we would urge you to get in touch."
Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, 59, who revealed just after the 7/7 London transport bombings that Al Qaeda was the name of a CIA database of US-trained Mujaheddin and who was a harsh critic of Tony Blair and the United States for the Iraq War, collapsed while walking near Laxford Bridge in northwest Scotland. ..
http://suspiciousdeaths.blogspot.com/20 ... -cook.html
wintler2 wrote:Robin Cook - 2005Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, 59, who revealed just after the 7/7 London transport bombings that Al Qaeda was the name of a CIA database of US-trained Mujaheddin and who was a harsh critic of Tony Blair and the United States for the Iraq War, collapsed while walking near Laxford Bridge in northwest Scotland. ..
http://suspiciousdeaths.blogspot.com/20 ... -cook.html
Neither a suicide nor accident, but damn suspicious imho. And ta JR for Hoare's last tip.
Tony Blair predicted John Smith's early death
Tony Blair predicted to his wife that John Smith would die prematurely and he would win the race to become the next Labour leader, not Gordon Brown.
By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor
6:04PM BST 01 Sep 2010
He made the “strange” statement during a stay in a French hotel with his family in April 2004, the month before Mr Smith suffered a fatal heart attack,
Mr Blair woke his wife, Cherie, one morning and told her: “If John dies, I will be leader, not Gordon. And somehow, I think this will happen. I just think it will.”
Mr Smith had suffered a previous serious heart attack in 1988 and Mr Blair argued this was thanks to his lifestyle and, in particular, his heavy drinking.
www.telegraph.co.uk/
DALLAS - Dallas billionaire Charles Wyly, whose $20 million gift to the AT&T Performing Arts Center helped build the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, but who was facing insider trading charges, was killed Sunday in a car wreck in Colorado.
Wyly, 77, was trying to turn his Porsche onto a highway near the Aspenitkin County Airport around 11 a.m. when another car struck him, according to the Colorado State Patrol. He was declared dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Wyly was alone in the car, Deputy Coroner Eric Hansen said. The other driver sustained moderate injuries. While the coroner's office says the crash was an accident, the state patrol is still investigating and an autopsy is pending.
The vanishing passengers: It's a mystery as bizarre as it is disturbing - why have 165 people gone missing from cruise ships in recent years?
By Natalie Clarke
Last updated at 11:06 PM on 21st September 2011
Over the past few years, there have been an alarming number of unexplained and unsolved disappearances on board cruise liners.
According to the U.S.-based International Cruise Victims Association, 165 people have gone missing at sea since 1995, with at least 13 this year alone — many of them from vessels popular with British holidaymakers.
Cruise ship holidays are enormously popular. According to the Passenger Shipping Association, 1.7 million cruises will be taken in Britain this year (many will be repeat cruises by the same holidaymakers). But what is happening to all these passengers who simply vanish while at sea, never to be seen again?
Are they the victims of a sinister crime wave? Have they had a mishap at sea and fallen overboard, or perhaps chosen to take their own lives?
continued :
www.dailymail.co.uk
The head of a troubled South Korean savings bank has fallen to his death while customers queued outside the building.
Police said the chief executive of the Jeil 2 savings bank, Chung Ku-haeng, appeared to have jumped from his office on the sixth floor.
The government had suspended the bank's operations last Sunday for suspected irregularities.
Mr Chung's body was found on the pavement near the bank's door.
Police officers were quoted as saying that he appeared to have committed suicide, although they said they had not found a suicide note.
The bank's offices had just been raided by investigators looking for evidence of malpractice in risky property deals.
Depositors have been rushing to withdraw their funds from the Jeil 2 bank - and six other small deposit takers - after their operations were suspended on Sunday. There has been concern that the panic could spread to other banks.
Customers are covered by national deposit insurance for about $40,000 (£26,000). Many of those trying to get their money back were elderly depositors attracted by the higher interest rates on offer.
barracuda wrote:DALLAS - Dallas billionaire Charles Wyly, whose $20 million gift to the AT&T Performing Arts Center helped build the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, but who was facing insider trading charges, was killed Sunday in a car wreck in Colorado.
Wyly, 77, was trying to turn his Porsche onto a highway near the Aspenitkin County Airport around 11 a.m. when another car struck him, according to the Colorado State Patrol. He was declared dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Wyly was alone in the car, Deputy Coroner Eric Hansen said. The other driver sustained moderate injuries. While the coroner's office says the crash was an accident, the state patrol is still investigating and an autopsy is pending.
Profiles in Culture
Morbid Curiosity: A Final Farewell to Michael Showers, Charles "Bubba" Smith and Others Who Died in August 2011
By Marc Brubaker Thu., Sep. 1 2011 at 12:30 PM
...
Entrepreneur Charles Wyly passed on August 7, after his vehicle was involved in a car wreck in Colorado. Wyly was a major contributor to Republican candidates, including both Georges Bush and Rick Perry. In addition, he founded the arts and crafts store chain Michaels and dropped $20 million for the construction of the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas. Charles and his brother Samuel also helped fund the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack ... t_2011.php
Lifestyle
Soros Cracks Top Forbes' 10 Richest Americans
Sep 21 2011 | 1:34pm ET
Double-dip recessions, sovereign debt crises and political gridlock notwithstanding, it's been a good year for hedge fund billionaires
...
Two alternatives players dropped off the list this year. Blackstone Group co-founder Peter Peterson has given away a huge chunk of his fortune over the past year, while Maverick Capital Management's Samuel Wyly, who just made the cut last year, fell short this year. Wyly is facing Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges and this year lost his brother and business partner, Charles Wyly, in a car accident.
http://www.finalternatives.com/node/18139
elfismiles wrote:barracuda wrote:DALLAS - Dallas billionaire Charles Wyly, whose $20 million gift to the AT&T Performing Arts Center helped build the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, but who was facing insider trading charges, was killed Sunday in a car wreck in Colorado.
Wyly, 77, was trying to turn his Porsche onto a highway near the Aspenitkin County Airport around 11 a.m. when another car struck him, according to the Colorado State Patrol. He was declared dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Wyly was alone in the car, Deputy Coroner Eric Hansen said. The other driver sustained moderate injuries. While the coroner's office says the crash was an accident, the state patrol is still investigating and an autopsy is pending.
Thanks for that cuda. Apparently that article has been memory-holed.
denver and the west
Texas billionaire Charles Wyly dies in Aspen crash
By Joey Bunch
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/08/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
Charles Wyly, 77, had a home in Woody Creek. He was a philanthropist and a major supporter of Republican candidates.
Texas billionaire investor and philanthropist Charles Wyly was killed in a traffic accident in Aspen on Sunday.
Wyly, 77, of Dallas, has a home in Woody Creek, near Aspen. His Porsche 911 Targa was hit on Airport Road when he turned left and was broadsided by a Ford Freestyle sport utility vehicle just before 11 a.m., the Colorado State Patrol said.
Wyly died from his injuries at Aspen Valley Hospital, state Trooper Heather Cobler said. Sunday night, Pitkin County deputy coroner Eric Hansen said the cause of death is pending an autopsy.
The SUV driver, Genezi Lacerda, 40, of Snowmass Village, had "moderate" injuries, Cobler said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, but Cobler said it did not appear drugs or alcohol was a factor.
Wyly is survived by his wife, Caroline "Dee" Wyly, four children and seven grandchildren.
Records indicate he has had a home in Pitkin County at least since 2008. Property records value his Woody Creek estate at more than $17.2 million.
According to his personal website, Wyly was born in northeast Louisiana and settled in Dallas.
He was a co-founder and past chairman of the Michaels arts-and-crafts stores. He also founded USACafes, which franchised more than 600 Bonanza Steakhouse restaurants before he sold the business in 1989.
He and his younger brother, Sam, founded Sterling Software, a business-software company they sold for $4 billion in 2000.
Charles Wyly was a past chairman of the Dallas advisory board for the Salvation Army and board chairman for the Dallas Theater Center. He served on the boards of the United Way of Dallas, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Summer Musicals, among numerous civic involvements.
The Securities and Exchange Commission last year accused Charles and Sam Wyly of reaping $550 million from illegal insider trading over a 13-year period.
They allegedly traded tens of millions of shares in Michaels, Sterling and other companies on whose boards they served, allegedly administering the transactions through offshore trusts named after "Louisiana towns and schools associated with the Wylys' youth," according to the SEC's lawsuit against the Wylys.
The SEC claims the Wylys used part of the profits to buy two Pitkin County ranches and two downtown Aspen condominiums, as well as a ranch in Texas. They also bought art and jewelry and made donations to charities, SEC investigators alleged.
The Wylys have denied the allegations. At the time the charges were filed last year, The Associated Press reported that the Wyly brothers and their wives had donated almost $2.5 million to more than 200 Republican political causes and candidates.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
Read more: Texas billionaire Charles Wyly dies in Aspen crash - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18636 ... z1Z4J53hqx
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18636452
Monday, August 8, 2011
Charles Wyly dies after car accident near Aspen
Billionaire's family funded art center
Aspen Times staff report
Aspen, CO Colorado
ASPEN — Dallas billionaire Charles Wyly, whose family owns two ranches in Woody Creek and funded the Wyly Community Arts Center, among other local philanthropic efforts, died Sunday in a car crash on State Highway 82 near Aspen, the Colorado State Patrol said.
Wyly, 77, was killed when the Porsche Targa he was driving was struck by a Ford Freestyle sport utility vehicle, driven by Genezi Lacereda, 40, of Snowmass Village, according to a news release from the State Patrol. The other vehicle struck Wyly's Porsche on the driver's side, the patrol said.
Wyly was trying to turn left onto Highway 82 from Airport Road when his vehicle was struck, the patrol said. Lacereda suffered moderate injuries, according to published reports. The accident occurred around 11 a.m., resulting in the temporary detour of eastbound traffic through the airport.
Wyly was transported to Aspen Valley Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after noon.
The State Patrol said both drivers were wearing their seat belts, and neither alcohol nor drugs is a suspected factor in the crash, which remains under investigation. Charges have not been filed.
Charles Wyly was the brother of Sam Wyly, who both face insider trading charges. The two have denied any wrongdoing.
They also gave more than $1 million to the Republican National Committee between 2000 and 2004, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Locally, Charles and his wife, Dee, funded the construction of the Wyly Community Arts Center in Woody Creek in 1996, before it moved to Basalt in 2005. Sam Wyly owns Explore Booksellers in Aspen. Charles Wyly had four children and seven grandchildren.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20110 ... ofile=1058
Rare Taliban praise for Pakistan's Maulana Abdul Ghani
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
BBC News, Karachi
27 October 2011 Last updated at 14:51
The Taliban in Afghanistan have issued an unprecedented condolence statement on the death of a top right-wing Pakistani politician.
Maulana Abdul Ghani died in a car crash on 26 October in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan.
It is the first time that the Taliban have publicly admitted receiving help from members of Pakistan's ruling establishment.
Maulana Ghani's JUI-F political party has close links to Pakistan's military. It was part of the governing coalition until earlier this year.
Pakistan's leadership has always denied any links to the Taliban. But a Taliban spokesman told the BBC in a statement that Maulana Ghani - a deputy leader of the JUI-F - was a "martyr for the cause of jihad" - and it would be difficult to replace him.
The former parliamentarian was laid to rest on Wednesday in his native town of Chaman in Balochistan.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC the Taliban's top leadership was in attendance - along with hundreds of local citizens and Taliban foot soldiers.
Later - without giving details - a Taliban spokesman said that Maulana Ghani had shown what he called great courage in supporting the movement after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
He added that the maulana's services and commitment for the cause of jihad would never be forgotten.
Mystery swirls around Penthouse model's death
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
TODAY.com
updated 1 hour 1 minute ago
In 1975, Anneka Vasta was the Penthouse Pet of the Year. But on Jan. 4, 2011, joggers found Vasta's nude, dead body washed up on the shores of Camp Pendleton, the major Marine Corps base near San Diego. She was still so slim and youthful looking, the San Diego Union Tribune reports, that military police thought she was a teenager.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is now asking anyone who has information about Vasta's death or saw her before her body was found to contact them. She had a broken neck and back, and police have yet to determine whether she was the victim of accidental drowning or committed suicide. Her family has "vehemently denied" she would have killed herself, the Union Tribune reports.
Her car was found parked on a viewpoint 60 feet above the Pacific Ocean, and the Union Tribune reports that a bloody bra and blouse, as well as a blood-stained steak knife, were found in the car.
...
Bruce Dazzling wrote:Let's compile a comprehensive list of people who very well may have been eliminated via staged suicide, accident, or as 8bit suggested, through hits disguised as "random" crimes.
I'll continue to update the main list here in the OP.
Please provide details and links when possible...
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