Phone-Hacking Scandal (merged)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/07/how-do-you-hack-into-someones-voicemail.html

How Do You Hack Into Someone's Voicemail?



Phone hack; Creative Commons photo courtesy flickr.com/dinomite

Creative Commons photo courtesy flickr.com/dinomite
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinomite

The scandal that helped shutter Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid and left at least nine News International journalists facing possible criminal charges has brought phone hacking into the spotlight as a means of subversively gathering information for news articles. As investigators study the scope of the problem, including the role phone hacking played in News of the World's coverage of the disappearance and death of teen Milly Dowler in 2002, it's become clear that breaking into someone else's voicemail isn't very difficult.

This, of course, doesn't make phone hacking legal. In England, where the alleged offenses took place, it is a crime to intercept phone calls unless you're a police officer or intelligence agent with an official warrant, which can be granted only to protect national security. News International may also face legal problems in the U.S. under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) based on allegations that News of the World reporters offered to pay a New York police officer to retrieve the private phone records of victims of the September 11 attacks.

The key to breaking into someone's voicemail is to access that person's voicemail prompt and/or management systems, says Jim Broome, practice manager for enterprise consulting with Accuvant LABS, the security assessment and research division of Denver-based Accuvant, Inc. This can be done in several basic ways particularly if a person's voicemail account has no password or PIN, uses the default password that came with his account (typically 0000 or 1234, or something along those lines), or uses a simple password that's easy to guess, Broome says.

Voicemail prompts can also be accessed via caller ID spoofing. With the advent of caller ID, many voicemail systems have been created that simply check the number calling in and base authentication on that match, Broome says. Caller ID spoofing services like Spoofcard.com allow people to make it appear that their phone number is the same as the digits they are dialing. When the receiving phone recognizes its own phone number, it will often dump the caller directly into voice mail.

Apple apparently isn't amused by SpoofCard and has removed the app from its App Store , although it's still available through Spoofcard.com.

Obviously, setting a strong password (one that is not obvious, such as a birthday) is the primary measure for securing a voicemail account. It's also a good idea to change your PIN every few months. Of course, good luck remembering it.

This article is reproduced with permission from Scientific American. It was first published on July 11.

That isn't what bothers me, Chicane.
What bothers me is -

HOW DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE'S NUMBER TO HACK IT TO BEGIN WITH?

Sorry, I put that badly...

Let's pretend your real name is Chicane.

For whatever reason, Chicane has got into the news. Chicane has a cellphone.
So, then what?
Chicane may well have a default password like, 1234, but - how is anyone supposed to know Chicane's actual number?

For the royal family, it was police protection officers who sold the phone numbers.
Were there similar things happening with the victims of crime?

Over here, people's phone numbers are actually not that difficult to come by now as there are online companies who hand over the information for a small fee.

And there we have it, Lily - when we register our phones, we assume the data won't be sold on to the wrong people...

These phones could not have been hacked unless the actual numbers had been passed on....

Think about the implications for that. Now, I don't like cellphones, I only use them for boring things. But suppose I was someone Important, with a whizzy Blackberry that held everything about me?

I don't think the buck stops at News International.

I truly don't think the buck does stop at N.I, Bonny.

Look at how lists of phone numbers are sold to telemarketers? It's really disgusting. A similar thing, well, e-mail addresses and personal information etc happens on social networking sites.

I think...that may be the real horror that is about to erupt, Lily? It's beyond NI, they were just doing what journos have been doing since one of them apparently pretended to be Jack the Ripper to increase sales...

It's the idea that all the gadgets people take for granted actually are not being bugged by spooks, who at least have some discretion and know what is important and what is just chatter.

No, it is all being sold on to the highest bidder for the old favourites, money and power, with a bit of sex thrown in.

Yes, Bonny. They make money off people who buy their products and then the companies make more money by selling peoples information to other companies and so on......

People are reduced to commodities.

Time will tell, as ever....but I suspect that's it.
It isn't NI hacking phones, it's who gave them the info to hack...

That's how I also see it Bonny.

When I do give out a phone number, I always give out my cell # and if I want to be ultra devious, I give them my cell number with a digit off. In the US, it's illegal to tele-market to cell numbers (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/dnccellphones.shtm). Not saying telemarketing companies don't do it, but if they do and you ask them to stop and they don't, you can go after them for damages.

My sister at one point gave out her home # and she gets at least five calls a night from telemarketers. It's gotten so bad, she doesn't even answer her home phone anymore. If I want to get hold of her at home, I call her cell.

But I agree that this goes way beyond NI and hacking. You have to have a starting point of where to hack. That's really the crux of this whole situation. It angers me too 'cause it's like selling your soul for a story. Is the news business that cut-throat that you have to spy on people to get a story? Sad and pathetic.

bb1 wrote:Sorry, I put that badly...

Let's pretend your real name is Chicane.

For whatever reason, Chicane has got into the news. Chicane has a cellphone.
So, then what?
Chicane may well have a default password like, 1234, but - how is anyone supposed to know Chicane's actual number?

1. If Chicane (nick) works as a MP or for the government in Holland she is an easy target for phone hacking.
The news industry, all registred journalists do have a special handbook with ALL the home/cellnumbers
from all members of Parliament etc. only available for journo's. I suppose UK uses the same system.
Access to numbers of members of the Royal family is only available for special, screened journo's.

2. If Chicane is a celeb.....numbers are obtained from different sources, papparazzi etc.

3. Private persons...it depends on what the story is, but if it is to do with crime......police is the source.
Or citizens tipping journo's ...Press releases in UK often notice the persons name, address, city,
easy to ring the neigbors for information...if a journo wants his/her story....he/she will use their creativity
to get what they want.

Politicians, police, agents etc. and the press work together on basis of professional attitude, journalistic code, trust and organisations that controls the press..afterwards. etc.
If these rules are broken, its a death wish : you better end the paper you're selling, never to be trusted again.

Edit to add: the buck doesn't stop at NI....the horror is that we are talking about a world-wide scandal.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58887.html

9/11 families call for U.S. probe of Murdoch




By ELIAS GROLL | 7/13/11 12:34 PM EDT Updated: 7/13/11 2:36 PM EDT

Angry family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks and a growing number of lawmakers on Wednesday called for a U.S. investigation into allegations that journalists at the British News of the World tabloid sought to hack the phones of their lost love ones.

“Someone should look into it to see if their rights were violated – the family members I’ve talked to are appalled, they’re disgruntled, they have to relive the pain all over again,” Jim Riches, a former deputy chief in the New York Fire Department whose 29-year-old fireman son was killed in the attacks, told POLITICO.

“I think they crossed the line. They’re trying to get messages from loved ones in the last moments of their lives. It’s horrible, and they should be held accountable. It’s despicable and unethical,” Riches added.

Sally Regenhard, vice chairwoman of 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters & World Trade Center Victims, said that she also supports an American probe and added that the latest allegations come at a particularly hard time for victims’ families..

“It’s hard enough for people to deal with the 10th anniversary and now this – it just adds more salt to the wounds,” said Regenhard, who lost her 28-year-old firefighter son, on Sept. 11.

“If it’s true, then it’s an egregious violation of decency and respect. Whether it’s 9/11 victims or the British victim – the child who was kidnapped – I think we really need to look at national and international standards for security for privacy for this type of thing,” Regenhard added. “We need to put a hold on this no matter who it is.”

Meanwhile, an increasing number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill are now pushing for an investigation.

With many of the 9/11 victims having been New Jersey residents, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) called on the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into the conduct of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

“The limited information already reported in this case raises serious questions about the legality of the conduct of News Corporation and its subsidiaries under the [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act],” Lautenberg wrote. “Further investigation may reveal that current reports only scratch the surface of the problem at News Corporation.”

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro urging their respective agencies to probe whether employees of News Corp. subsidiaries attempted to bribe British police and whether Americans’ phones may have been hacked.

“The reported allegations against News Corporation are very serious, indicate a pattern of illegal activity, and involve thousands of potential victims. It is important to ensure that no United States laws were broken and no United States citizens were victimized,” the senators wrote in the letter.

In a separate letter, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) also called for a DOJ investigation.

Laura Sweeney, a DOJ spokesperson, said that the department would review the letters but declined further comment.

The 9/11 hacking allegations first surfaced in a report in the British newspaper, the Daily Mirror. The paper said journalists at the News of the World approached a New York private investigator and tried to buy phone records of victims from him. The investigator, who had been a cop, allegedly declined to provide the records.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gLu4UEojPekvWvwLCwJ5UtwiEWtQ?docId=0b9b1dc95ad6458ebcf94d108ac6915d

Nick Davies, The Guardian:
More to come........

AP Interview: Hacking reporter says more to come

October 2005 photo released by the British newspaper The Guardian in London, of journalist Nick Davies, who wrote a story about murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler which became the catalyst which has changed the face of British journalism and seems to have put News International and the whole Murdoch news media empire under scrutiny by a skeptical public, politicians and the police.

By MEERA SELVA, Associated Press – 1 hour ago

LONDON (AP) — He broke the story that destroyed a 168-year-old newspaper, humiliated one of the world's most powerful media moguls and cast a spotlight on a phone hacking scandal that has embroiled politicians, police and journalists.

And he says there is more to come.

Guardian journalist Nick Davies spent years investigating phone hacking claims in the face of police indifference and ridicule from rivals.

"It's a great story about the abuse of power," Davies told The Associated Press. "That's what all journalists want to expose, isn't it? The abuse of power."

It all began in 2005, when the News of the World tabloid published a story about Prince William suffering a knee injury.

Royal household staff believed the paper, part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, could only have known about the injury by listening to the prince's messages and asked police to investigate.

The inquiry led to two men working for the News of the World: Reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who were jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on messages left on the cell phones of royal aides, including some from Prince William and his brother Harry.

The tabloid's editor, Andy Coulson, said he knew nothing about the men's actions but still resigned. Soon after, then-opposition leader David Cameron hired Coulson as his communications chief and kept him on when he became prime minister in May 2010.

Although interest faded in the story, Davies stayed on the trail.

Suspecting the practice of phone hacking was more widespread, Davies turned to sources he had cultivated during some 30 years at The Guardian.

The Guardian ran his piece in 2009. It revealed that Rupert Murdoch's papers had paid out more than $1.6 million (1 million pounds) to settle law suits involving allegations of hacking into phone messages, as well as illegally accessing tax records, social security files and bank statements of politicians, actors and sports stars.

Davies said police had evidence that thousands of people — from celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Sienna Miller to politicians including former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott — had been targeted by private investigators working for Murdoch papers.

He said court papers showed a suit brought against the News of the World by Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballer's Association, was settled in exchange for a gag order preventing Taylor from talking about the case.

It wasn't until last week, however, that the scandal exploded with Davis' revelation that the News of the World had hacked into the phone of a 13-year-old murder victim, Milly Dowler, and may have impeded a police investigation into her 2002 disappearance by deleting some messages.

Until then, the public believed the phone hacking scandal only affected celebrities, sports stars, politicians and the royal family — powerful people who needed no help in battling the British tabloids. But the idea of reporters listening in to messages left for a murdered schoolgirl proved too much.

Cameron, who had once defended Coulson, was forced to distance himself from him. Murdoch's U.K. company, News International, shut down News of the World, saying the paper had become too toxic to survive. Police officers, too, offered up a series of apologies for not investigating earlier.

And on Wednesday, Murdoch withdrew his bid for control of satellite broadcasting behemoth British Sky Broadcasting after Cameron joined opposition parties in opposing the takeover.

"When I wrote the story about Milly Dowler, I sent an email to (my) editor saying I think this is the most powerful story so far. But I did not foresee the extent of the emotional impact," Davies told the AP.

"It was almost unreal to watch ... The prime minister, who had been so close to Murdoch and keen to defend the BSkyB and defend Coulson suddenly flipped his position."

Davies has also clashed with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whom he persuaded to work with The Guardian in releasing Wikileaks material.

The two men later fell out after Davies reported that Swedish police were investigating allegations that Assange sexually assaulted two women. Some of Assange's supporters criticized The Guardian for running the story against such a key source, but Davies says that's how journalists become corrupt — by staying away from stories about people they are close to.

Davies says his latest reports about the hacking scandal are only the beginning.

"There are still ways this story can expand its scope," he said. "The story may expand to other newspapers and other techniques for getting information. And it could well expand to other countries."

Ooow ooops...these last two articles should be placed in the Phone hacking thread...
Sorry if this causes work

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634372/Phone-hacking-phone-calls-voicemails-and-emails-in-the-News-of-the-World.html

TelegraphNews Daily Telegraph News
Excellent database of News of the World stories that may have been obtained by Phone hacking: phone calls, voicemails and emails in the News of the World


We searched the News of the World archive over the last ten years looking for mentions of private phone calls, voicemails and emails. Some of the subjects of articles include Milly Dowler, Prince William and Ulrika Jonsson. Here's what we found.

http://www.propublica.org/article/our-readers-guide-to-the-phone-hacking-scandal?utm_source=socmed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=tweetB&utm_campaign=phone%2Bhacking

Our Reader’s Guide to the Phone Hacking Scandal



by Braden Goyette
ProPublica, July 12, 2011, 3:38 p.m.

Copies of Britain's News of the World (Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)

Though News of the World shut its doors on Sunday, the UK's hacking scandal is deepening. Allegations of illegal activity have spread beyond News of the World to other Murdoch papers, and far beyond hacking into people's voice mails. With all the new details emerging, it's getting hard to keep track. Here's a brief rundown of the latest revelations. (See our first reader's guide for an explanation of the early days of the phone hacking scandal.)

News of the World drew fresh outrage last week as news broke that the family members of dead soldiers, murdered children, and 7/7 terrorist attack victims may have had their phones hacked by the paper. There have also been allegations that the paper hacked the email account of a soldier who died in Iraq.

Scotland Yard has been combing through 11,000 pages of documents seized from the home of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who hacked phones for News of the World. The papers include around 4,000 names of potential phone hacking victims. Investigators are working through the list and contacting the victims—as of yesterday, they'd only gotten in touch with 170 of them. Meanwhile, a News International senior executive is suspected of deleting "massive quantities" of phone hacking-related emails.

The Guardian reported yesterday that private investigators hired by News International papers targeted former Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the past decade, attempting to access his bank account, legal files, tax forms, and his son's medical records. News International today denied that they had "commissioned" anyone to obtain the son's medical records. Though it's still unknown exactly how this information was accessed, these revelations could implicate other News International papers, particularly the Sun and the Sunday Times.

Since late June, investigators have been trying to identify which Scotland Yard officers reportedly received a total of £100,000 in bribes from News of the World between 2003 and 2007. Yesterday, reports came out alleging that the News of the World bribed police officers in order to obtain contact information for members of the royal family. Scotland Yard accused News International in a press release of intentionally leaking this information to the press to undermine their investigation. (As we’ve reported, if they did in fact make these bribes, Murdoch employees have violated U.S. law.)

Today's New York Times also reports that top Scotland Yard investigators' phones had been hacked during the initial police inquiry in 2006, raising questions about whether police limited the scope of their now-famously flawed investigation for fear that News of The World might start airing their dirty laundry. According to the New York Times, some investigators' secrets did indeed make it into the media:

The lead police investigator on the phone-hacking case, Andy Hayman, left the Metropolitan Police in December 2007 after questions were raised in the news media about business expenses he had filed and the nature of his relationship with a woman who worked for the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

At the time, Channel 4 News [not owned by Murdoch] reported details of 400 text messages and phone calls that Mr. Hayman had sent to her.

John Yates, the assistant commissioner who has become a lightning rod for the police's handling of the phone-hacking case, had reportedly used frequent flier miles earned in the line of duty to pay for flights for his relatives.

Through all this, News Corporation has been gearing up to take over British Sky Broadcasting Group, also known as BSkyB. News Corp currently owns over a third of the company. The New York Times breaks down the details of the BSkyB deal and the actions Murdoch took this week to help its chances for survival. Parliament is expected to pass a resolution tomorrow opposing the takeover, but it would have no legal effect.

Though the weekly News of the World has closed, Murdoch's Sun seems geared to expand their operations to Sundays, raising concerns that the closing is merely symbolic.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband are meeting tonight to discuss the details of an inquiry into the way the original police investigation was conducted and a review of the U.K.'s current system of self-regulation of the press. Currently, an independent body called the Press Complaints Commission exists as an arbiter to help the press regulate itself and to maintain national standards of journalistic ethics in the U.K. (Our managing editor wrote last week that "press commissions have never worked well" in the United States)

For breaking developments on the scandal, one of the best places to turn is the Guardian's live blog—they've been out in front of this story since 2009. We're also constantly adding stories about new developments to our MuckReads feature, which collects the best watchdog reporting. Here are all the phone hacking stories.

July 7, 3:20 p.m.: Rupert Murdoch’s News International just announced its decision to close News of the World, the paper that’s been accused of hiring private investigators to hack into cell phones and staging a widespread cover-up to conceal it.

We’ve invited two esteemed journalists who’ve been covering the story to guest edit our #MuckReads feature for the day: Don Van Natta, Jr. (@dvnjr), investigative reporter at the New York Times, and Sarah Ellison (@sarahlellison), contributing editor at Vanity Fair. They’ve been sharing the most essential reporting about the scandal and their thoughts on why each piece is significant. It’s a great resource for those just coming to the story to get oriented.

Here’s a brief summary to get you started:

The scandal goes back to 2005 (The Guardian has a useful timeline of the whole affair; here’s another from the Times), when Prince William and members of the royal staff suspected their voice mail was being tampered with and asked Scotland Yard to investigate. If you’re wondering how that’s even possible, the New York Times has an explanation of how phone hacking works.

In 2006, News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and a private investigator named Glenn Mulcaire were arrested and charged with hacking the cell phones. The two men served some jail time, and the editor of News of the World resigned. Scotland Yard and the U.K. Press Complaints Commission, an independent body that oversees the self-regulation of the press, conducted inquiries that didn’t result in any shocking new findings. The story died down.

In July 2009, an investigative report by the Guardian’s Nick Davies drew fresh attention to the case. Davies found that, far from being a one-off event, the phone hacking had been more widespread—and that the paper had made massive payoffs to keep the story quiet. Ellison notes in #MuckReads that the payoffs were the News of the World’s “first and fatal step into denial that has led them to their untenable position today.”

In response, the Press Complaints Commission criticized the Guardian’s story, saying that there was no evidence the hacking was more widespread than News of the World initially said.

As court cases began to reveal new details about the extent of the phone hacking, a September 2010 story in the New York Times raised questions about how much News of the World editors and reporters knew and why Scotland Yard hadn’t been very aggressive in pursuing the case. Van Natta Jr., one of the three Times reporters on the story, recalls a top Scotland Yard investigator’s defense of the weak police response: “We were not going to set off on a cleanup of the British media.”

In April, Scotland Yard opened up a new investigation and arrested a former News of the World editor and two reporters. In a June Vanity Fair piece, Ellison took a broad look at the scandal, looking at what’s at stake and how this kind of thing could have happened.

This week, the Guardian reported that the News of the World had hacked into the voice mail of a murdered school girl and deleted some messages, triggering calls for a public inquiry.

Here’s a list of the reported phone hacking victims so far and a round-up of phone hacking-related denials.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/13/news-international-rogue-intelligence-agents?CMP=twt_fd

News International accused of dealings with 'rogue' intelligence agents

Labour MP Tom Watson asks David Cameron if phone-hacking inquiry will examine alleged MI5 and MI6 links to scandal


Tom Watson MP asks about News International's alleged links with 'rogue' elements of the intelligence services during prime minister's questions on Wednesday. Photograph: PA

MI6 and MI5 were drawn into the phone hacking scandal when News International executives were accused in parliament of having close dealings with "rogue" members of the intelligence services.

David Cameron said the inquiry into hacking would be free to examine the allegations made in the Commons by Tom Watson, the former Labour defence minister who has campaigned against phone hacking.

Watson said: "Can I ask the prime minister would he allow Lord Leveson [who will be leading the inquiry] access to the intelligence services as well? At the murkier ends of this scandal there are allegations that rogue elements in the intelligence services had very close dealings with executives at News International. We need to get to the bottom of that."

Cameron replied: "The judge can take the inquiry in any direction the evidence leads him. He [Watson], like others, is free to make submissions to this inquiry and to point out evidence and to point out conclusions from that evidence and ask the inquiry to follow that."

Watson praised Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg for agreeing the terms of the inquiry. He said: "If these measures are carried out, I think some good might come out of evil. I find myself in the slightly embarrassing position of being able to commend all three party leaders for coming together to make sure this happened. So thank you."

Earlier, he had asked the prime minister to investigate whether the phones of victims of the 9/11 attacks had been targeted by News International. He said: "The debate this afternoon will be vital because it shows the house will be united in its revulsion at what was done to Milly Dowler's family. But could I ask the prime minister to make urgent inquiries as to whether families of the victims of 9/11 were similarly targeted by the criminals of News International? If they were will he raise it with his counterparts in the United States?"

Cameron said: "I will certainly look at that."

I can see that I shall have to get a Cell Phone after all. The thought of my tres interessant life being exposed.....and all that money....... is too good to ignore.

Incidentally, I can think of a few people I wouldn't mind hacking, but it wouldn't be with a phone.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2011/07/murdoch-folds-em-prepares-for-inquisition.html



Murdoch Scandal: Gordon Brown Goes For Death Blow

Murdoch Folds ’Em; Prepares for Inquisition
Posted by John Cassidy


During his long career as the pantomime villain of the media world, Rupert Murdoch has seen out many scandals, but nothing like this one. Back in 1983, under attack for his decision to publish a set of diaries from Adolf Hitler that turned out to be forged*, he famously remarked, “After all, we are in the entertainment business.” Today, nobody, least of all Murdoch, is laughing.

With the British parliament about to come together in an unprecedented move to thwart him, Murdoch this morning accepted the inevitable and called off News Corporation’s takeover bid for British Sky Broadcasting, which, together with the BBC, dominates British television. Meanwhile, one of his own papers, the Wall Street Journal, confirmed my suspicion that he might even be prepared to sell his three remaining British newspapers—the Times, the Sunday Times, and the Sun—assuming a buyer can be found.

The BSkyB announcement marks a humiliating climb down for Murdoch. At this stage, however, he has more important issues to deal with—namely, insuring the survival of himself and his family at the helm of his beloved News Corporation. In the midst of a media frenzy, it is always dangerous to make definitive judgments, but at the moment it is hard to see how Murdoch can ever fully recover from the blows he has suffered in the last few days.

Failing in his designs for BSkyB was the least of it. To all intents and purposes, the media company, whose satellite dishes protrude from the roofs of ten million British homes, is already part of the Murdoch empire. News Corp. owns thirty-nine per cent of BSkyB’s shares, and Murdoch picks its boss. From 2003 until 2007, his youngest son, James Murdoch, was BSkyB’s C.E.O. Since then, Murdoch, Jr., who now runs all of News Corp.’s operations in Europe and Asia, has held the post of non-executive chairman of BSkyB, a post he will continue to hold, the company said today.

The motivation for the takeover bid was purely financial. Having spent more than twenty years building up BSkyB—which was loathed on the left when it was launched, but which has since established itself as part of the fabric of British life—Murdoch is understandably keen to consolidate the business with the rest of News Corp., thereby gaining access to a hundred per cent of its cash flow. But now that the takeover bid has failed, nothing much has changed. News Corp. remains a formidable company with profitable businesses all over the world. After today’s announcement, its stock price actually rose.

The question marks hang over the Murdochs, not News Corp. In the coming months, both Rupert and James will be called before a British judge to explain what they knew about phone hacking and when. The judicial inquiry that David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, announced today will be modelled on the 2003 Hutton Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, the British weapons scientist who had expressed skepticism about government claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The evidence that Lord Hutton unearthed, about which I wrote a long article for the magazine, effectively destroyed Tony Blair’s reputation.

Lord Justice Leveson will want to know not only about the phone hacking itself, much of which took place five or ten years ago, but about News Corporation’s 2007 internal inquiry, which purported to establish that the misdeeds were the work on one “rogue reporter.” From the outside, only two possibilities present themselves. The inquiry was horribly botched, or there was a deliberate coverup.

Leveson, a Liverpudlian with a reputation for independence, is also sure to take an interest in what happened subsequently. News International, the News Corp. subsidiary that runs the British newspapers, reached legal settlements with a number of phone-hacking victims, effectively buying their silence. James Murdoch, it is now known, explicitly approved some of these payments.

Scotland Yard, meanwhile, will be continuing its investigation into allegations that journalists from the Murdoch newspapers bribed police officers to obtain information about celebrities, the royals, and others. Bribery is a serious charge which carries long prison sentences. Who authorized these payments? Who else knew about them? From 1995 to 2007, the head of News International was Les Hinton, a longtime Murdoch aide who is now chief executive of Dow Jones. In 2009, Rebekah Brooks, who previously edited the Sun, took over as head of News International, a post she still holds, despite calls from all sides for her resignation.

Then there is the U.S. angle, such as it is. Yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, called on the American authorities to determine whether phone hackers tied to News International had targeted U.S. individuals. “I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans. If they did, the consequences will be severe,” Rockefeller said in a statement.

In short, the Murdochs and News Corp. are going to be besieged for months and years to come. What now are the chances of James Murdoch, or any of his siblings, taking over from his father as chairman and chief executive of News Corp.? The odds are a lot longer than they were this time last week.

* It should be recalled that Murdoch and his editors weren’t the only ones to fall for Konrad Kujau’s handiwork: Hugh Trevor Roper, the late Oxford historian, pronounced it genuine; Stern and Newsweek both published extracts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/14/phone-hacking-60-year-old-arrested

Phone hacking: former NoW executive editor Neil Wallis arrested in London

Neil Wallis taken for questioning at local police station, the ninth person to be arrested over phone hacking at News of the World



11.31am: Breaking: The Guardian understands that Neil Wallis has been arrested by Operation Elveden – the Met police's investigation into alleged payments by journalists to police – rather than Operation Weeting – the investigation into phone hacking.

http://www.thejournal.ie/brooks-to-be-questioned-over-hacking-176932-Jul2011/?utm_source=shortlink

Brooks to be questioned by parliament over hacking



REBEKAH BROOKS IS to answer questions put by a parliamentary committee regarding the News International phone hacking scandal.

The chief executive of News International will appear before the House of Commons select committee on culture, media and sport on Tuesday at 2.30pm.

Rupert Murdoch will not attend and James Murdoch is said to be “not available on the day” according to a statement from News International.

A summons from the House of Commons has been issued for both Murdochs to appear.

More to follow…

http://www.globalnews.ca/story.html?id=5101329

Murdoch pressed to testify before lawmakers over phone hacking; police make another arrest

Video

LONDON - Media titan Rupert Murdoch and his son James refused Thursday to appear in public next week before a parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking and bribery by employees of their British media empire, whose chief executive said that she would address the committee.

The chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee said it had issued summonses to the Murdochs but it was unclear if Rupert Murdoch could be compelled to testify because he is a U.S. citizen.

In a letter to the committee, James Murdoch, the chief of his father's European and Asian operations, offered to appear in August.

Rupert Murdoch said he would appear before a separate inquiry initiated by Prime Minister David Cameron and led by a judge, and was willing to discuss alternative ways of providing evidence to parliament.

News International chief Rebekah Brooks, a British citizen, said that she would appear Tuesday, chairman John Whittingdale said.

Meanwhile, the criminal investigation into the Murdoch empire widenened as the former deputy editor of the News of the World was arrested by detectives probing phone hacking at the defunct tabloid.

Metropolitan Police said Neil Wallis, deputy editor under Andy Coulson from 2003 to 2007, was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications. They did not confirm that it was Wallis.

Police have so far arrested seven people for questioning in their investigation of phone hacking and two others in a separate investigation of alleged bribery of police officers. No one has been charged.

Coulson, Cameron's communications director from 2007 until January this year, was arrested on July 8.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Murdoch had big questions to answer about the accusations of eavesdropping and police bribery at his British papers, which have forced the media titan to drop his bid to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting.

"If they have any shred of sense of responsibility or accountability for their position of power, then they should come and explain themselves before a select committee," Clegg said in an interview with BBC radio.

Brooks was editor of News of the World in 2002 at the time of the most damaging allegation so far, that the paper hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into the 13-year-old's disappearance.

Brooks has said she was unaware of any phone hacking at the time.

Murdoch's hope of making BSkyB a wholly owned part of his News Corp. empire collapsed on Wednesday in the face of what Cameron called a "firestorm" that has engulfed media, police and politicians.

Cameron has appointed a judge for a wide-ranging inquiry into the News of the World scandal and wider issues of media regulation, the relationship between politicians and media and the possibility that illegal practices are more widely employed in the industry.

"It clearly goes beyond News International," Clegg said.

"It is clearly something much more systemic," Clegg said. "I don't think we should allow ourselves to believe that it is just because of the Murdochs, or Rebekah Brooks, or it's all about one commercial transaction, however significant."

Shares in BSkyB opened higher in London on Thursday but retreated toward noon to trade down 0.6 per cent at 701.5 pence ($11.30). The shares closed higher on Wednesday for the first time since they began falling sharply last week amid fresh phone hacking allegations.

Read it on Global News: Murdoch pressed to testify before lawmakers over phone hacking; police make another arrest

http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2010/12/andy-coulson-andy-hayman/

Andy Coulson and Andy Hayman: Friends

Andy Coulson: innocent until proven guilty



Andy Coulson (L) and Andy Hayman (R)

To follow this recent post about John Lennon, and in response to the perfectly formed announcement of Andy Coulson’s complete and total innocence, I thought I would blog something about true friendship, because I’ve seen evidence that it can exist between tabloid scum and (some) public figures…


FT.com – Coulson knew officer in phone hacking affair

Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, said on Friday he was on friendly terms with the senior police officer who oversaw a criminal investigation that sent one of his reporters to prison for hacking into the mobile phones of the royal household.

Giving evidence to a Scottish criminal court, Mr Coulson said he remembered having tea with former assistant commissioner Andy Hayman and “may well have had lunch with him” as well.

But he denied that he had been in possession of personal information about the officer that the News of the World could have used to prevent Mr Hayman mounting a thorough investigation of the scandal.


Of course he didn’t have dirt on the man; that’s not how friends behave.
Let me show you how friends behave:

In 2005, Andy Coulsonwas editor of News of the World, and Andy Hayman was head of Specialist Operations, leading the investigation into the London bombings of July 2005


Jean Charles de Menezes

An innocent man by the name of Jean Charles de Menezes was shot on Hayman’s watch.
Here’s how Andy Coulson shaped the response:


Click for hi-res if you wish to read the full article

As you can see, the headline doesn’t read ‘police kill innocent man’; instead, it offers readers a decidedly (ahem) loaded question. The article also seeks to lead the public with a series of mitigating circumstances that would go some way to excusing what police had done… if any of it were true:

The article states as fact that Jean Charles de Menezes was wearing “a bulky winter coat
despite the warm weather” (i.e. something conspicuous that might have hidden a bomb belt).
He wasn’t

The article states as fact that the police shouted a challenge to Jean Charles de Menezes
“screaming for him to stop”.
They hadn’t.

The article states as fact that Jean Charles de Menezes then “made the decision that
cost him his life” and “vaulted over the ticket barrier and ran down the escalator”.
He didn’t.

As you can see, when police shot an innocent man and Andy Hayman’s arse was on the line, Andy Coulson acted like a true friend; rather than rely on any of the investigative journalism that News of the World is supposed to be famous for, Coulson chose instead to take a friend at his word and not bother looking at or into any of the pesky detail.

Later, in 2006, Andy Coulson was editor of News of the World, and Andy Hayman was the officer in charge of the inquiry into the News of the World phone hacking affair

When it was suspected that News of the World had targeted hundreds if not thousands of innocent people and Andy Coulson’s arse was on the line, Andy Hayman acted like a true friend; rather than rely on any of the investigative skills the police are supposed to be famous for, Hayman chose instead to take a friend at his word and not bother looking at or into any of the pesky detail:

Guardian – Police ‘ignored News of the World phone hacking evidence’

Police who investigated the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World obtained previously undisclosed telephone records which showed a vast number of public figures had had their voicemail accessed – and then decided not to pursue the evidence…

Guardian – Phone-hacking inquiry left a mountain of evidence unexplored
Here’s the riddle. If the Guardian, the New York Times and Channel 4′s Dispatches can all find numerous journalists who worked at the News of the World who without exception insist that the newspaper routinely used private investigators to gather information by illegal means, why can’t Scotland Yard find a single one who will tell them the story?

In their original inquiry into the phone-hacking affair, in 2006, detectives arrested the paper’s royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, and charged him with listening to messages on the royal household’s mobile phones. Goodman refused to answer questions.

Scotland Yard then interviewed not one single other journalist, editor or manager from the paper. Detectives took this decision despite holding evidence that – we now know – clearly identified other News of the World journalists who were involved in handling illegally intercepted voicemail.

In their recent inquiry, which ended fruitlessly last week, they attempted to interview only three journalists, all of whom were identified for them by news organisations.

They approached those three not as witnesses but as suspects, warning them that anything they said could be used to prosecute them: two gave interviews in which they declined to answer questions; the third challenged them to arrest him in handcuffs, and so they never even spoke to him.

There are some who might describe this as something dangerously close to corruption, but obviously such people are reactionary leftist scum with an anti-Murdoch agenda…. the same type of people who would dare to raise an eyebrow at Hayman later leaving the police to work for News International as a columnist.

Clearly, what we are looking at here is nothing more than innocent goodwill shared between two men who know and trust that their good friend is on the level. Surely this is a quality to be applauded in these deeply cynical times.

* See also
Bloggerheads – News of the World vs. Big Society: snakes in the grass

Related blogagge:Septicisle – Coulson in knowing nothing shocker

Associated Press

AP source: FBI probing News Corp. 9/11 phone link

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

The decision to investigate was made after U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican, wrote FBI Director Robert Mueller demanding an investigation, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The FBI had received letters from King and other members of Congress.

News Corp., based in New York, has been in crisis mode because of a scandal that sank its U.K. newspaper the News of the World.

A rival newspaper reported last week that the News of the World had hacked into the phone of U.K. teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into her disappearance.

More possible victims soon emerged: other child murder victims, 2005 London bombing victims, the families of dead soldiers and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The FBI's New York office didn't immediately comment Thursday. There was no immediate response to a phone message left for News Corp. The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan referred a call to the Department of Justice, which declined immediate comment.

On Thursday, Murdoch caved in to pressure from Britain's Parliament as he and his son James first refused, then agreed, to appear next week before lawmakers investigating phone hacking and bribery by employees of their newspaper empire.

Murdoch began his media career in Australia in 1952 after inheriting The News newspaper after the death of his father, and he has built News Corp. into one of the world's biggest media groups. Assets include Fox News, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and three newspapers in Britain — down from four with the death of the News of the World.

Also Thursday, Scotland Yard said it had made its seventh arrest related to the inquiry into phone hacking at the now-defunct tabloid, whose closure was a doomed effort to keep alive a bid for the highly profitable network British Sky Broadcasting. Police didn't disclose the name of the arrested man.
—Copyright 2011 Associated Press