too close to the sun .....

Dramatic new evidence to the Leveson inquiry this week is expected to unleash a "bloodbath" of bitter recriminations between police and prosecution officials arguing over failings in a series of investigations into allegations of phone hacking, computer hacking and bribery by journalists.

News International (NI) insiders say that the launch of The Sun on Sunday, which appears today, only nine days after Rupert Murdoch's announcement it was to go ahead, was brought forward because to launch a new paper in the wake of fresh revelations would be virtually impossible. But last week a new bout of allegations undermined NI's attempt to seize the PR initiative. It was reported that emails were being deleted until 2010, and yesterday it was reported that the Independent Police Complaints Commission was looking into a claim that a senior NI figure was given a report from inside the Metropolitan Police on the progress of the original police investigation. The day before, court documents emerged showing the systematic deletion of emails relating to phone hacking.

The Leveson inquiry will this week begin to examine police-press relations, hearing evidence from the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, former deputy assistant Met commissioner Brian Paddick, former assistant commissioner John Yates, Andy Hayman - who led the original inquiry - former Metropolitan Police commissioners Sir Ian Blair and Sir Paul Stephenson and others.

They are expected to reopen old wounds and make a series of startling new allegations relating to widespread bribery of officials for stories. "It is jaw-dropping stuff," said one legal source familiar with the evidence. "We will see the most sensational developments yet." A second source claimed the allegations and counterallegations would result in a "bloodbath".

Revelations will include allegations that a web existed of corrupt public officials who received money from national newspapers, along with details of journalists who, over a period, have paid officials - in one case well into six figures - for stories.

Such allegations are certain to stoke fury at the failure of the original police inquiry in 2005/06 to unearth the full extent of unlawful behaviour. After the home of Glenn Mulcaire was raided, police collected several bin bags of evidence which revealed he had been repeatedly commissioned by many reporters. Despite this, NI persisted in its claims it was the work of just one "rogue reporter".

This failure to broaden the inquiry has given rise to accusations of an unhealthily close relationship between the police and NI. Two of those who have faced questions over the relationship with NI are John Yates and Andy Hayman. Mr Yates, who resigned last summer over the affair, is believed to be anxious to clear his name in the face of expected attempts to pin the blame on him. He has admitted shortcomings in the police investigation, but vehemently denies any personal impropriety, saying that the Director of Public Prosecutions set the bar impracticably high for securing a conviction for phone hacking, that counsel's advice gave him no reason to believe there was widespread wrongdoing and that terrorism had a more pressing claim on police resources.

Last year, friends revealed he was "incandescent" at the cursory nature of the search carried out by some of his colleagues which, friends said, resulted in him making inaccurate public statements.

It is believed that Mr Hayman, who led the original inquiry and went on to write a column for NI, will be scrutinised over the circumstances of his departure from the Met. His expenses have been the subject of much speculation, as have allegations of an affair. He, too, has vehemently denied wrongdoing.

Sources at the Met have privately expressed fury at the failure of NI to collaborate fully with the investigation, or to unearth anything in its own inquiries. "They pretended they were co-operating and they weren't," said one source. By seemingly helping the police, NI made it difficult for the police to ask a judge for a warrant for a more exhaustive search. Other serving officers in the Met have pointed fingers privately at the performance of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Yesterday, it was alleged that there were American phone numbers on the files of Glenn Mulcaire, which would be a significant development in terms of News Corps' attempt to move on from the scandal. Bloomberg website said that the numbers of the singer Charlotte Church's Los Angeles agent and New York publicist were found in Mulcaire's files. According to the report, the evidence is in the hands of the police in London.

Opponents of the Murdoch organisation have said that if evidence emerged of phone hacking in the US, the damage to News Corps would dwarf the UK-based damage. Insiders at the Leveson inquiry are also expecting more evidence to emerge about how much Mulcaire was paid and who exactly commissioned him, while previously unknown phone-hacking targets are expected to be identified.

The inquiry will hear from a number of victims of phone hacking, including the former deputy PM John Prescott and Lib-Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes. They are expected to relate how detectives mishandled their cases. Mr Prescott will reiterate his anger at the Metropolitan Police's failure to inform him his name and phone details had been found in Mulcaire's files. The police knew in 2006, for example, there was evidence that Tessa Jowell had had her phone hacked, yet she was not informed until years later.

"Leveson knows the victims were kept in the dark for far too long: he is absolutely determined to make sure they aren't kept in the dark a moment longer," one source told The Independent on Sunday last night.

Was 'Sun on Sunday' Brought Forward To Beat Revelations?

By John Richardson at 27 Feb 2012 - 10:39am
John Richardson's blog
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thank god he's american .....

from Crikey …..

The News International-police hybrid: a monster is revealed

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

CORRUPTION, LEVESON INQUIRY, NEWS CORPORATION, NEWS INTERNATIONAL, PHONEHACKING

Sometimes the conspiracy theories turn out to be true. Sometimes, the worst-case, most-paranoid scenarios turn out to be accurate.

News International wasn’t just a rogue corporation, systemically engaged in corrupt and criminal activities, politically connected at the highest levels: it had co-opted an entire police force, an arm of the state, to protect it. That’s the clear outcome of the first day of the resumed hearings of the Leveson inquiry in Britain, which has switched its attention from phone hacking to illegal payments to police.

Sue Akers, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, gave remarkable evidence yesterday from the investigation of what she called the Sun’s "culture of illegal payments" to police and other public officials.

The Sun has been maintaining the investigation is an assault on free speech and investigative journalism, but Akers demolished that with revelations some public officials had been placed on retainer, one had been paid 80,000 and a "network of corrupt officials" existed to provide The Sun primarily with "salacious gossip". This wasn’t journalists buying the local copper a beer or lunch.

This is the outlet Rupert Murdoch claims is one of the world’s finest newspapers and one of his proudest achievements.

But the most explosive revelation related to the intersection of this corruption and phone hacking. The inquiry was read a confidential email from then News International’s legal manager, Tom Crone, to Andy Coulson, then editor of the News of the World, in 2006, explaining what Rebekah Brooks (Wade), then editor of The Sun, had relayed to him about what the police had told her about their case against Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire for phone hacking members of the royal family:

· The police knew there had been 100-110 "victims" at least and not just members of the royal household;

· The News of the World had paid over 1 million for the phone hacks;

· The police were only contacting the "bigger victims";

· NotW journalists had accessed phone messages themselves, Mulcaire’s phone records, and

· "they are going to contact RW [Rebekah Wade] today to see if she wishes to take it further."

The email only incidentally reveals that the police and senior News International executives knew that phone hacking had gone on at an industrial scale at NotW, thereby showing that the "rogue reporter" defence (maintained until 2010) was always a willful lie. And even the normally remarkable fact that Brooks had been fully briefed on the details of the police investigation of the another section of her company pales before the fact that the police actually left it up to her to determine how far they should go in investigating and prosecuting other offences.

It now makes sense as to why the police found a way to never undertake further investigations of phone hacking until forced to do so by The Guardian’s coverage, despite being aware of another fact that came to light overnight, that Mulcaire had obtained details of people's new identities in witness protection programs from police.

The revelations suggest a prosecution of News Corporation under the United States’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is almost assured now.

The creature being slowly revealed to the world, incriminating email by incriminating email, is a monstrous hybrid, part corporation, part government, all corrupt: a company intertwined in the operations of the state at the highest levels, created by prime ministerial friendships, provision of advisers, threats and rewards, with the police acting virtually as the company’s private security firm, taking their orders from politically connected executives.

The revelations would place further pressure on Visa and Mastercard to stop payment services to News International following its WikiLeaks blockade. Indeed, Visa Europe told Crikey last week.

"When a merchant wants to accept Visa payments, it must abide by our operating regulations and also the applicable laws in the country or countries where the card holder and merchant are based. When concerns are raised that this may not be the case, Visa Europe can take action to investigate and if appropriate suspend payments. Visa Europe's suspension of Visa payments to WikiLeaks' website remains in place."

On that basis, News International must clearly be a potential target for investigation and suspension of payments. Crikey asked Visa Europe if it would be doing so, or whether it ruled out such a response; the company declined to add further to its statement, leaving the door open to actions against News International.

By John Richardson at 28 Feb 2012 - 7:55pm
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sweet baby james .....

from the Power Index …..

Things don't look good for James Murdoch, Rupert's son and would-be heir.

As the number of arrests nears two dozen, and four official inquiries dig ever deeper into phone hacking and corruption at the family's British tabloids, James has quit his post and hightailed it to New York.

This week he resigned from the board of the famous auction house, Sotheby's, having previously quit as a director of pharmaceutical giant, Glaxo Smith Kline, and he is now under renewed pressure to step down from the board of News Corporation.

The mini mogul's chances of taking over from his famous father now look slim. But don't write him off yet. James hasn't yet been charged with any crime, apart from being a dope and strangling the English language. And with Dame Elisabeth Murdoch still going strong at 103, it may be years before anyone gets to take over from Rupert. So he could have a decade to repair his wretched reputation.

Plus, let's not forget, the Murdoch family still holds around 40% of News Corporation's voting shares, so it will be they that decide who fills the top job.

The immediate threat to the young tycoon's succession is the report of the House of Commons Culture committee, which is already three months past its due date. It has been clear for some months that its members are deeply divided over how hard James should be whacked, and it is said that the report is being fought over line by line.

Interestingly, the balance of power is held by a Liberal Democrat MP, whose party has long disliked the way the Murdochs have abused their power in Britain. The other ten members of the committee comprise five Tory and five Labour MPs.

At one extreme is Labour firebrand, Tom Watson, who has accused James jokingly of being "the only Mafia boss in history who didn't know he was running a criminal enterprise". Shoulder to shoulder with him (but not on the committee) is his fellow Labour MP, Chris Bryant, who has characterised hacking and its aftermath as "the largest corruption case in 250 years" and accused James Murdoch of being involved in a cover-up that went "to the very highest levels".

But committee chairman, Tory MP John Whittingdale, who has been described as "an old buffer", is likely to be far more merciful. And so are his four Tory colleagues, some of whom have been briefing the media that the committee will not find James guilty of lying to parliament.

Single mother Louise Mensch MP, who famously left early to pick up her kids in July 2011, when the committee was grilling the Murdochs, is said to have formed an alliance with Tom Watson to ensure James gets a beating. But we wouldn't bet on that.

Last week James wrote the committee a 7-page letter stating: "I have not misled Parliament. I did not know about, nor did I try to hide wrongdoing. I do not believe the evidence before you supports any other conclusion." James admitted in the letter that, "it would have been better if I had asked more questions, requested more documents and scrutinised them carefully," but he maintained he was lied to by Tom Crone and Colin Myler, the News of the World's lawyer and editor in mid-2008, whom he also accused of giving false evidence to the committee.

All members of the committee would be inclined to agree with that one.

Significantly, The Guardian's Media Editor, Dan Sabbagh, also appears to back James, saying his "letter looks pretty accurate". Sabbagh also appears to buy the line that James is a dope rather than a liar.

But what is the real evidence against him? How much shit is young James in? Tomorrow, we'll look at it, (alleged) crime by crime -- from phone hacking to destroying evidence to misleading paliament.

How Deep In Doodoo Is James Murdoch

By John Richardson at 20 Mar 2012 - 7:07pm
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