"Blair offered to advise in hacking scandal" by Jeremy Hodges | Bloomberg News, February 20, 2014
LONDON — Former prime minister Tony Blair of Britain offered to unofficially advise Rebekah Brooks and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch at the height of the phone-hacking scandal in 2011 that led to the closure of the News of the World tabloid, prosecutors said.
Rebekah Brooks, then the head of News Corp.’s British unit, had an hourlong discussion with Blair in which he also proposed an independent inquiry into allegations that the newspaper accessed voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians, and murder victims, according to an e-mail disclosed at a criminal trial in London Wednesday.
Related: “Your Lies Killed My Son’’
So when is the trial at the Hague?
Brooks, 45, sent the e-mail describing the conversation to Murdoch’s son James, then the New York-based company’s deputy chief operating officer, on July 11, 2011, the day after the final issue of the News of the World was published. The scandal deepened a week earlier after the discovery that News Corp. journalists had hacked the phone of a murdered school girl.
Blair offered his services as an unofficial adviser to the Murdochs and Brooks, but the offer ‘‘needs to be between us,’’ Brooks told James Murdoch in the e-mail. Brooks was arrested six days later.
I'll always like James, and here is why:
“Murdoch said he didn't see what the Palestinians' problem was and James said it was that they were kicked out of their f---ing homes and had nowhere to f---ing live,” said the account in The Guardian."
Maybe that's why the scandal made the papers, 'eh? Can't take a chance on the son after the old man dies.
Brooks is one of seven people on trial for charges related to phone hacking, bribery of public officials, and hiding evidence. Andy Coulson, another former editor of the tabloid who later advised current Prime Minister David Cameron, is also on trial in the case.
Blair also told Brooks to keep a clear head and ‘‘tough up,’’ according to her e-mail.
‘‘Keep strong and definitely sleeping pills,’’ Blair said, according to the e-mail submitted by prosecutors.
Oh, a pep talk from Tony Bliar!
An earlier e-mail between the two discussed sales of the final issue of the News of the World. Brooks mentioned a ‘‘Hutton-style’’ investigation, referring to a judicial review related to the Iraq war.
Whatever happened to the final report?
‘‘This was Mr. Blair simply giving informal advice over the phone,’’ Blair’s office said. ‘‘Though he knew nothing personally about the facts of the case, in a situation as serious as this it was essential to have a fully transparent and independent process to get to the bottom of what had happened.’’
Not in an AmeriKan newspaper!
Days before the tabloid was scheduled to close, Brooks sent an e-mail to James Murdoch on July 8, prosecutors said. The note, titled ‘‘Plan B,’’ outlined her plans to distance herself from the growing scandal and lay blame on other company officials, including Les Hinton, then chief executive of News Corp.’s Dow Jones unit, and Colin Myler, who was editor of the News of the World.
The prosecution has now officially closed its case in the trial that has lasted almost four months. Brooks’s lawyers will begin their defense Thursday.
With only intermittent coverage in my Globe at best!
Brooks’s husband, Charlie, her former assistant Cheryl Carter, and the British unit’s former head of security, Mark Hanna, face charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. All seven have pleaded not guilty.
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"Former UK editor denies knowing of payments" Associated Press, February 22, 2014
LONDON — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks told jurors at her phone-hacking trial Friday that she did not know of a substantial contract between her newspaper and a private investigator who has admitted illegal eavesdropping.
That excuse doesn't work for children.
She said she was unaware of a contract for her newspaper to pay 92,000 pounds a year to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. She acknowledged that such an expenditure normally would have required her approval.
Brooks, 45, faces one charge of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office, as well as charges of conspiring to hack phones and obstruct police. Her husband, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, and her former deputy and former lover Andy Coulson are on trial as well.
First I've seen of that!
The jury had learned of her affair with Coulson when the prosecution presented its case earlier in the trial, which has lasted four months so far. The affair was introduced to show the close relationship between Brooks and Coulson.
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No Eve Arden she.
"UK paper paid sources, editor testifies" Associated Press, February 28, 2014
LONDON — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks admitted in court Thursday that she sometimes paid public officials for information, but insisted she only did so when it was in the public interest.
The former chief of Rupert Murdoch’s United Kingdom newspapers said she had authorized payments half a dozen times.
‘‘My view at the time was that there had to be an overwhelming public interest to justify payments in the very narrow circumstances of a public official being paid for information directly in line with their jobs,’’ she said.
Brooks said the definition of public interest was subjective and varied with each media organization. She said she did not know the name of a defense ministry source The Sun had paid for stories over a period of eight years. The Sun is part of the Murdoch news group she headed.
Brooks denies conspiracy to hack phones, bribe officials, and obstruct police, charges that stem from the phone-hacking scandal that led Murdoch to shut down the best-selling News of the World in 2011.
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"Ex-editor testifies about tabloid life" by Katrin Bennhold | New York Times, March 06, 2014
LONDON — When Rebekah Brooks first entered the witness box in the phone-hacking trial, her lawyer reminded the jury that she was not on trial for running Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid papers.
Even so, her testimony over the past two weeks has offered a rare view into the skating-on-the-edge culture of the popular press here, one that fascinates and revolts Britons in equal measure: the hidden recording devices; the six-figure sums paid for exclusive access to the mistresses of celebrities.
Not crap I care about.
When is Bliar's war trial?
Not to mention the illegal interception of mobile phone voice-mail messages, which Brooks is accused of condoning when she was editor of News of the World, the sensational weekly that Murdoch shut down because of the scandal.
Something government agencies can do with impunity, but which also makes one wonder if Rupe's operation was nothing more than an arm of some intelligence agency data collection.
Like her six codefendants in the trial, Brooks — who was later promoted to run all of Murdoch’s British newspapers — denies all the charges against her, including paying a public official for information and hiding evidence from police.
I thought she was not on trial.
Brooks, 45, was questioned about some of the crasser highlights of her career by her own lawyer Wednesday.
Under cross-examination later, she was asked by the prosecutor whether as editor of either tabloid she had ever actually given her journalists the “specific instruction, ‘Do not hack phones.’ ”
“No, that phrase I did not use,” Brooks replied.
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Related: British Press Back Up and Running
Also see: FBI Saves Fox
That investigation went nowhere!
"Man sentenced to life in killing of UK soldier" by Sylvia Hui | Associated Press, February 27, 2014
LONDON — An Al Qaeda-inspired extremist was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for hacking to death an off-duty British soldier on a London street in front of horrified passers-by.
He won't be talking to anyone.
Images of Michael Adebolajo, 29, holding a butcher knife and cleaver with bloodied hands in the moments after the May 22 killing of Lee Rigby shocked people around the world and sparked fears of Islamist terrorism in Britain.
And it was ALL FAKE! All a staged and scripted piece of mind-manipulating, agenda-pushing propaganda!
The self-described ‘‘soldier of Allah’’ was sentenced at Central Criminal Court along with his accomplice, Michael Adebowale, 22, who was sentenced to life with a minimum of 45 years in jail because of his age and lesser role in the murder.
The day ended in drama when both men were pinned to the ground and led out of the courtroom after scuffling with guards and shouting at the judge moments before their sentences were read out.
Adebolajo yelled ‘‘Allahu akbar’’ — God is great — while Adebowale called out ‘‘that’s a lie’’ as the judge told them they had been radicalized.
Outside the court, protesters from two far-right groups erected gallows and demanded death for the two men.
I oppose the death penalty, but will never stand in the way of the mob if that is what they wish.
The pair were convicted in December of murdering Rigby, 25, who was walking near his barracks in south London when the men ran him over with a car. They then dragged his body onto the road, and repeatedly stabbed him with knives.
Adebowale attacked his torso, while Adebolajo attempted to cut off the soldier’s head with a cleaver.
I saw that the production values were really bad.
Moments after the killing, Adebolajo was filmed delivering a rambling monologue justifying the attack.
What silliness over a staged and scripted hoax, and a very poor one at that -- so poor it hurts to laugh now.
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While on the subject of butchery:
"There have been two previous attempts to transplant a womb — in Turkey and Saudi Arabia — but both failed to produce babies. Doctors in Britain and Hungary also are planning similar operations. The transplants are intended to benefit women unable to have children because they lost a uterus to cancer or were born without one."
Back to the British butchers:
"UK police arrest ex-Guantanamo detainee over Syria" Associated Press, February 26, 2014
LONDON — A former Guantanamo Bay detainee who is a well-known advocate for the rights of terrorism suspects was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offenses, British police said.
West Midlands police said Moazzam Begg was one of four people detained in the Birmingham area of central England.
Police said Begg, 45, is suspected of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas.
He was arrested along with a 44-year-old woman, her 20-year-old son, and a 36-year-old man, all suspected of facilitating terrorism overseas. Their names were not released.
Police in Britain do not usually name suspects until they are charged. The force said it was identifying Begg to the media ‘‘as a result of the anticipated high public interest.’’
The four suspects were being questioned at a Birmingham police station and their homes were searched.
In 2002, Begg was arrested in Pakistan as an ‘‘enemy combatant.’’ He was detained by US forces at Bagram in Afghanistan and later sent to the prison camp in Cuba.
After his release without charge in 2005 he became a director of the advocacy group Cage, which campaigns against alleged abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism. He is a well-known figure who appears frequently in British media. Cage called Begg’s arrest a government attempt ‘‘to ensure that any travel to Syria is deemed suspicious’’ and to criminalize legitimate activism.
It's why they are cracking down on the Syrian straw man.
British officials say hundreds of Britons have traveled to Syria to join the battle against the forces of President Bashar Assad. Authorities fear they could present a risk when they return home after fighting with Al Qaeda-affiliated groups.
British police have stepped up arrests over suspected Syria-related terrorism.
Begg has said that authorities revoked his British passport last year, even though his trips to Syria in 2012 were approved by Britain’s domestic intelligence service.
He is an MI6 agent!
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I wouldn't believe them even if they begged.
"UK aide arrested in child porn inquiry" Associated Press, March 05, 2014
LONDON — A senior aide to Prime Minister David Cameron has been arrested and has resigned after images potentially related to child pornography were found on computers.
Cameron’s Downing Street office said officials found out about the potential offense on Feb. 12 and notified the National Crime Agency.
A spokesman said Patrick Rock was arrested at his home the next day.
Cameron’s office said police have searched information systems and offices at Downing Street.
The Daily Mail first reported Rock’s arrest and his resignation, which were confirmed by Downing Street officials.
The 62-year-old Rock served as deputy head of a Downing Street policy unit and was also advising the British government on its plans to have Internet providers use filters to prevent the distribution of child pornography.
Then he was just doing research and tests, right?
He has long ties to the Conservative Party.
He must have been a procurer.
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Related: Taking Out the British Trash
Another elite sex scandal swept under the rug.
Also see: UK opposition leader says no quick vote on leaving EU
