British Tabloid Targeted Investigators’ Phone Data

[salin]

Source: New York Time

British Tabloid Targeted Investigators’ Phone Data

By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and RAVI SOMAIYA
Published: July 11, 2011

LONDON — Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own mobile phone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to.

The disclosure, based on interviews with former and current officials knowledgeable about the investigation, raises the question of whether senior criminal investigators had concerns that if they aggressively investigated The News of the World, they would be punished with splashy stories about their secrets, some of which were tabloid-ready.

As it turned out, several damaging allegations about two of the senior officers’ private lives were later published — charges that one had padded his expense reports and was involved in extramarital affairs and that the other used frequent flier miles accrued on the job for personal vacations.

“If it is true that police officers knew their phones had been hacked, it is a serious matter that requires immediate investigation,” said John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which investigated phone hacking. “It would be shocking.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/world/europe/12yard.html?_r=1&hp

---

Another example that this isn't just about "phone hacking". This is about corruption of power.

Side note: earlier today there was criticism of leaks to the press about the current police investigation - with the implication that News International (UK branch of NewsCorp) itself was leaking - in order to try to control/manipulate the investigation.

Hmmmmm.

Second side note: Thank you CREW (another LBN thread) for working to push this story into the US and into congressional hearings.

[Kingofalldems]

1. Kick and Recommend.

[babylonsister]

2. Drip, drip, drip... Rec'd. nt

[salin]

3. hi!

It is morbidly fascinating to see the many tendrils of this story hurtling forward and so out of Murdoch control.

[babylonsister]

5. Hello yourself! And yes, most gratifying! Here's another that will

inspire interest in the US with any luck...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1467078

[salin]

6. If/when verified... I think that story will unleash the same ick factor and interest

that the hacking into the abducted girl's story kicked off in the UK. I can think of no other story that captures the unified goodwill of the public in this country - than the shared horror and grief of 911. More than any other story - on a gut level - captures the attention and outrage. I am most definitely watching those developments with interest.

[leveymg]

4. In the U.S., that would be felony Obstruction of Justice. 10 yrs for each count.

Why did this wait five years to come out? Is there a statute of limitations on this under British law?

[AndyTiedye]

7. It Could be Prosecuted under RICO in the US

This is certainly a pattern of organized, ongoing criminal behavior that could trigger a RICO prosecution in the US.

Does the UK have anything like that?

[leveymg]

8. Third element is Espionage. Concerted attempt to blackmail Blair, Brown, Straw and others by Murd.

MI-5 - are you still there? You guys must have picked up on this . . . if you did, there's a problem. If you didn't, there's another problem . . .

News International papers targeted Gordon Brown

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account and legal file as well as his family's medical records.

There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him. That investigator also targeted another Labour MP who was the subject of hostile inquiries by the News of the World, but it is not confirmed whether News International was specifically involved in trawling police computers for information on Brown.

snip

Brown joins a long list of Labour politicians who are known to have been targeted by private investigators working for News International, including the former prime minister Tony Blair and his media adviser Alastair Campbell, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his political adviser Joan Hammell, Peter Mandelson as trade secretary, Jack Straw and David Blunkett as home secretaries, Tessa Jowell as media secretary and her special adviser Bill Bush, and Chris Bryant as minister for Europe.

The sheer scale of the data assault on Brown is unusual, with evidence of attempts to obtain his legal, financial, tax, medical and police records as well as to listen to his voicemail. All of these incidents are linked to media organisations. In many cases, there is evidence of a link to News International.

link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/11/phone-hacking-news-international-gordon-brown

[dipsydoodle]

9. Does the UK have anything like that?

No.

[fedsron2us]

19. Sadly no equivalent of RICO in the UK but Section 79 of the RIPA 2000 statute

makes executives of businesses criminally liable for breaches of this Act carried out by their staff

(1)Where an offence under any provision of this Act other than a provision of Part III is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of—(a)a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or(b)any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity,he (as well as the body corporate) shall be guilty of that offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

The offence is defined in Section 1

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/section/1

The act was intended to codify the British states own right to snoop on its people while punishing those who retaliated in kind. I was one amongst many who opposed it at the time while most of the UK media did not raise so much as a peep of protest. The rich irony is that this law has now potentially netted some very big corporate fish as most of the NI board were at the very least negligent and almost certainly connived at the law breaking. At the very least they face a fine and a criminal record. At worst it is jail time. Either way it is difficult to see how any regulator is going to approve the BSkyB takeover while there is a chance that some of the parties involved could wind up with criminal convictions.

[dipsydoodle]

10. Live: MPs quiz hacking police

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14118864

Should be able to get the narrative outside the UK but maybe not the video.

[salin]

11. am reading the guardian blog - they are doing a nice quick job of

getting the narrative out.

[dipsydoodle]

18. Have they picked this up ?

Breaking News

Labour MP Tom Watson says Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and his son James have been asked to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee next Tuesday.

[salin]

20. yep - but also that they have no power to compel such an appearance.

I would think Brooks and the Murdoch's would choose to avoid such a scene.

But they are arrogant - and arrogance can make people choose foolish paths.

[salin]

12. newest NYT piece - covers what we know then adds more - Pinging via gps of targets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world/europe/13hacking.html?_r=4&hp=&pagewanted=all


Separately, an inquiry by The New York Times, which included interviews with two former journalists at The News of the World, has revealed the workings of the illicit cellphone tracking, which the former tabloid staffers said was known in the newsroom as “pinging.” Under British law, the technology involved is restricted to law enforcement and security officials, requires case-by-case authorization, and is used mainly for high-profile criminal cases and terrorism investigations, according to a former senior Scotland Yard official who requested anonymity so as to be able to speak candidly.

According to Oliver Crofton, a cybersecurity specialist who works to protect high-profile clients from such invasive tactics, cellphones are constantly pinging off relay towers as they search for a network, enabling an individual’s location to be located within yards by checking the strength of the signal at three different towers. But the former Scotland Yard official who discussed the matter said that any officer who agreed to use the technique to assist a newspaper would be crossing a red line.

----

A former show business reporter for The News of the World, Sean Hoare, who was fired in 2005, said that when he worked there, pinging cost the paper nearly $500 on each occasion. He first found out how the practice worked, he said, when he was scrambling to find someone and was told that one of the news desk editors, Greg Miskiw, could help. Mr. Miskiw asked for the person’s cellphone number, and returned later with information showing the person’s precise location in Scotland, Mr. Hoare said. Mr. Miskiw, who faces questioning by police on a separate matter, did not return calls for comment.

A former Scotland Yard officer said the individual who provided the information could have been one of a small group entitled to authorize pinging requests, or a lower-level officer who duped his superiors into thinking that the request was related to a criminal case. Mr. Hoare said the fact that it was a police officer was clear from his exchange with Mr. Miskiw.

ahem. NYT is starting to be a gift that keeps giving. They seem to be getting some big stories from former NoTW insiders.

[Lars77]

13. British Tabloid Targeted Investigators’ Phone Data

Source: New York Times

LONDON — Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own mobile phone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to.

The disclosure, based on interviews with former and current officials knowledgeable about the investigation, raises the question of whether senior criminal investigators had concerns that if they aggressively investigated The News of the World, they would be punished with splashy stories about their secrets, some of which were tabloid-ready.

As it turned out, several damaging allegations about two of the senior officers’ private lives were later revealed by other news outlets — charges that one had padded his expense reports and was involved in extramarital affairs and that the other used frequent flier miles accrued on the job for personal vacations.

“If it is true that police officers knew their phones had been hacked, it is a serious matter that requires immediate investigation,” said John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which investigated phone hacking. “It would be shocking.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/world/europe/12yard.html?_r=2&hp

[Snoutport]

14. Very very dirty....thanks Lars!

[PATRICK]

15. Like hacking the FBI

Hmmm. And no, mysteriously no reporter in America sees a possible query there. Hacks love hacks.

I still think despite this widening revelation(wonderfully designed to discredit the entire government as the firewall expands) there is the little question of what uses the hacking was put to beside selling papers and blackmailing "foes". Control of businesses, banks, foreign policy, British Intelligence?) After all, we really know only what we read in the papers, not the clearing house or special operations that might have been a bit outside the "journalism" usages.

You can almost read between the lines though. As Murdoch gets threatened out comes the trash on the Royals and the government as Murdoch descends out of the clouds to scoop up more media. So they go for what was done to common citizens. Then the tearful fond farewell to the last edition of the paper to counter that public outrage. Then the attacks on Scotland Yard. Then the "why didn't Scotland Yard react"? This from government officials on the take or on the hook. But the great man rises above the taint. His girlfriend is getting close to being "held to account" and a bit farther off, Murdoch's son who was running the Empire, then untouchable, godly and surrounded by auras and lightning bolts of money and respectability comes the biggest journalistic fart on the planet.

Is this what kicking and screaming sounds like, or determined government reaction? In their greasy hearts they want to give him the world, a medal, praise beyond Caesar, merit measured by his holdings. Instead they are suddenly forced to hold their own sellout to account and pretend to be a government again, like Murdoch pretends to be a journalism mogul, not just another out of control bloated spider in the sad declining human drama of power and money.

[AndyTiedye]

16. Our Media Won't Talk About It

Faux won't talk about it for obvious reasons,
the rest won't because it kind of gives the game away.

[OnyxCollie]

17. They didn't talk about the Pentagon pundits.

Why would they talk about this?