News Of The World hacking scandal

[Armand Tanzarian]

There could be an ulterior motive to her being arrested. She could, by being held in custody, protect Murdoch, herself and News Corp for just a little bit longer.

Indeed, MP Tom Watson is speculating that Brooks didn't confirm her attendance at the hearing until after making her appointment to be arrested—allowing her to avoid answering questions from parliament by citing "an ongoing police investigation." The New York Times' Don Van Natta, Jr. (who yesterday broke news of Scotland Yard's complicity in the scandal) tweets about a source who says, ominously that the timing of the arrest "helps her more than hurts her... [and h]elps the Met, too."

gawker.com/5821944/former-top-murdoch-exec-rebekah-brooks-arrested

[scotsgit]

So she can't answer MP's questions in a public forum because it would hurt an ongoing investigation, meanwhile the Met drags its heels in its own investigation?

Why do I feel this isn't going the way it should?

[Armand Tanzarian]

Jul 17, 2011 10:14:02 GMT -5 scotsgit said:

So she can't answer MP's questions in a public forum because it would hurt an ongoing investigation, meanwhile the Met drags its heels in its own investigation?

Why do I feel this isn't going the way it should?

Because, in a sense, we're hoping for the very people who actually had a hand in the scandal (the police and the politicians) to actually punish the News Corp idiots. Why must they do their jobs quickly, especially for the bobbies, who aren't exactly accountable to the people of England?

[chad sexington]

Speaking of the Met:

Britain's top police officer has resigned and turned on the prime minister in a dramatic escalation of the phone hacking scandal.

In a carefully-worded resignation speech that appeared aimed directly at Downing Street, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said the prime minister risked being "compromised" by his closeness to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

Number 10 stressed that David Cameron had not been pressing in private for Stephenson to stand aside. But he was caught by surprise by the attack, which came just while the prime minister was on a plane en route to South Africa.

Stephenson denied that he was resigning over allegations that he accepted £12,000 worth of hospitality from Champney's health spa, focusing instead on his decision not to inform the prime minister that the Met had employed Coulson's former deputy Neil Wallis as a strategic adviser.

"Once Mr Wallis's name did become associated with Operation Weeting [into phone hacking], I did not want to compromise the prime minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson," he said.

"I am aware of the many political exchanges in relation to Mr Coulson's previous employment. I believe it would have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the prime minister, or by association the home secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession of operational information in this regard."

To emphasise the point, Stephenson went on: "Unlike Mr Coulson, Mr Wallis had not resigned from the News of the World or, to the best of my knowledge been in any way associated with the original phone hacking investigation."

The shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper seized on that issue saying: "People will wonder why different rules apply for the prime minister and the Met, especially as Sir Paul said that 'unlike Andy Coulson', Neil Wallis had not been forced to resign from the News of the World."

Senior police sources confirmed the attack had been intentional and showed the anger at Scotland Yard that Stephenson has been willing to resign over the scandal while the political class has failed to take responsibility in the same way. An ally of Stephenson said: "The commissioner thought if the prime minister is happy employing Andy Coulson, and Neil Wallis has bid the lowest price, what reason would we have not to employ him?"

Stephenson had been due to appear before the home affairs select committee tomorrow. His sudden exit increases the pressure on assistant commissioner John Yates, the officer who led the phone hacking inquiry, to quit.

Rest of article under link

[scotsgit]

Jul 17, 2011 10:28:26 GMT -5 Armand Tanzarian said:

Jul 17, 2011 10:14:02 GMT -5 scotsgit said:

So she can't answer MP's questions in a public forum because it would hurt an ongoing investigation, meanwhile the Met drags its heels in its own investigation?

Why do I feel this isn't going the way it should?

Because, in a sense, we're hoping for the very people who actually had a hand in the scandal (the police and the politicians) to actually punish the News Corp idiots. Why must they do their jobs quickly, especially for the bobbies, who aren't exactly accountable to the people of England?

Well the Police and Politicians are accountable to the people of the UK: Politicians can lose their seat at a by-election (as happened with the Cash for Questions scandal) and the Police ultimately have to answer to the Home Office. Newscorp can be made to answer by putting pressure on their assets in this country, although I doubt that'll happen.

[Shane for Wax]

Guys, they're totally the victim

To the good: they treat hacking as a problem and scandal. To the incredible/bad: they present their (now closed) UK sister publication News of the World as a victim of the hacking problem, rather than as a perpetrator.

[ottery]

It's kinda creepy that among all this, the guy that said Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead in his home.

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare

[ironbite]

That's not suspicious at all.

[scotsgit]

Jul 18, 2011 18:10:46 GMT -5 ironbite said:

That's not suspicious at all.

Neither was David Kelly. And that's official.



Ironbite, start the fucking car, we're getting the fuck out of here RIGHT NOW!

[tiado]

Jul 18, 2011 18:10:46 GMT -5 ironbite said:

That's not suspicious at all.

No, it's not suspicious at all that a whistleblower has died mere days before he was scheduled to testify. I'd almost bet that he was found bound, with several gunshot wounds to the back of his head. The official story will rule it a "suicide".

[malicious_bloke]

If it is a conspiracy, they are very definitely doing it wrong.

For a shady, omnipotent [ZOMFG] CORPORASHUN to let it's nefarious dealings be splattered all over rival media is just too pathetically ham-fisted.

If I was being cynical, I'd say the daily mail or guardian bumped Sean Hoare off just to send the conspiritards into overdrive...

[chad sexington]

Big inquiry today! And LulzSec threatening to release dozens of potentially incriminating emails from the Sun. What a time to be alive...

[Shane for Wax]

Lulzsec confirmed to have hit the Sun

Though I would have at least put an apostrophe in 'Mogul's'.

[malicious_bloke]

Jul 19, 2011 4:19:19 GMT -5 Shane for Wax said:

Lulzsec confirmed to have hit the Sun

Though I would have at least put an apostrophe in 'Mogul's'.

The Sun's readership generally have no idea about the correct usage of such grammatical niceties.

[malicious_bloke]

Well, I guess now I'm going to need a popcorn refill.

This saga just keeps getting funnier.