Brooks arrested, top cop resigns over NotW scandal
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It may have been the weekend, but there has been no rest for the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. In just three days it has caused the top UK police chief to resign, seen — until very recently — a top News Limited executive arrested and forced Rupert Murdoch to publicly apologise. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson announced his resignation after it became public that Neil Wallis, a deputy editor at NotW who was arrested last week, had been hired in recent years as a communications consultant for the Met. In a statement, Stephenson stressed that he had no idea that Wallis was involved:
In a move that may leave PM David Cameron facing some difficult questions, Stephenson also said he had kept appointment of Wallis quiet in order to protect Cameron from his involvement in the scandal since Cameron hired former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his chief spinner.
Cameron’s office bowed to pressure yesterday and released a memo revealing that Cameron has met with News Limited executives a whopping 26 times since becoming Prime Minister a year ago. That includes two trips to Chequers, the country estate of the UK PM, for Rebekah Brooks, the former NotW editor with the fiery mane, a privilege most of his most senior cabinet colleagues have not received, says The Independent. Meanwhile, Brooks has been identified as a criminal suspect and arrested by police over her involvement in alleged police bribes and phone hacking. Scotland Yard arrested her at noon yesterday and kept her in for questioning all day. She’s the 10th person to be arrested by police over the NotW scandal. Police have two separate operations to examine the NotW scandal, Operation Weeting, which examines hacking into voicemails of mobile phones and Operation Elveden, which investigates the alleged £130,000 paid to police officers for information by NotW Brooks announced her resignation from her News executive position on Friday, saying in a statement that her remaining in her position was “detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past”. Brooks had been asked to appear for an appointment at the police station on Sunday, but according to a spokesperson, the arrest came as a surprise. It also comes as a surprise to others who were wanting to question Brooks at a parliamentary inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal on Tuesday. Mark Lewis, lawyer for the family of Milly Dowler, the murdered 13-year-old whose voicemail was hacked, questioned the police’s decision to arrest Brooks now:
News is in damage control, as it tries to clean up its seeping mess. National papers in the UK ran a full-page mea culpa signed by chief Rupert Murdoch over the weekend:
But the police handling of this crisis may be even more destructive. As Don Van Natta jnr writes in The New York Times, serious mistakes were made by Scotland Yard due to its cosy relationship with News Corp.
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13 Comments
Murdochs tardy apology just dosent ring true.
Does anyone believe that he knew nothing of these despicible practices that went on for years at his biggest selling newspaper?
Sorry Rupe we just dont believe you .Wringing your hands now just dosent cut it Son.
Here’s a suggestion
If Rupert is going toss the s*rry word around why not accept the following?
That all 175 editors of News Corp papers that backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq should be required to say s*rry.
There’s a need out there to get the stain of nearly 5000 ‘coalition of willing’ dead soldier’s blood off their hands.
I believe that editor of the News Corp’s Papua New Guinea Courier Mail at the time should should exempt. Apparently he was more concerned in early 2003 with law and order issues than WMDs.
The confected shock-horror from the Murdoch camp probably reflects a realisation that they should never have attacked their own mass readership.
From their point of view, the best thing for the Murdochracy to tell the bottom-feeders in the offices of News Ltd was politicians’ phones are fair game, also those of royalty and celebs. But leave those of people our readers sympathise and identify with, like family of soldiers slain in Afghanistan right out of it. As it is, they might as well have taken a swipe at Harry Potter as well.
Murdoch’s purported horrification over what has been done at News is a bit like the indignation expressed by the owner of a brothel over the demeanor of some of the customers coming through the front door.
What did the man expect?
A rather self-serving resignation letter from Stephenson. Although certain atrocities (the Menezes shooting) did not occur on his extremely well paid watch, it could be charged that he continued his predecessor’s cosy arrangements with the media. Our former top cop, meanwhile, has just got a gong from this government for an appalling personal betrayal committed in service of the former government. Yep, that one and that one.
The charge sheet reveals that the real name of the Pre-Raphaelite poseur Rebekah is Elizabeth Siddal, aka Mrs D.G. Rossetti.
Is it my imagination or is there an easing-off by the Australian on the Labor government in the last week or so?
The front page of the Weekend Oz didn’t have one article attacking the government and this is unusual.
The Dowlers’ lawyer is spot-on. Brooks obviously has dirt on cops and politicians (and the Murdochs). The question needs to be asked “Will she be found in a cell ‘suicided’?” This is a blatant abuse of Executive power to sabotage the Legislature’s perfectly reasonable attempt to investigate a criminal matter that said Executive failed to investigate due to its own corruption.
FWIW I think that no entity should have more than 10 per cent market share of the TV, radio or newspaper market. This stuff is what Murdoch can do with 40 per cent - imagine what he’s been getting away with here with 70 per cent!
Once the Murdochs are removed from control of News Corp it will be much easier to lay charges against them.
If only Murdoch would shut the vile Sydney Telegraph .
Will the Met be in contempt of Parliament for arresting key witnesses to stop them appearing? Fishy.
Why is Brooks so close to Cameron?..and Police Commisioner Stephenson? If anyone fails to grasp it I am sure MI6 would have the answers. At the heart of this issue is the International Intelligence Community and make no mistake about it as she is shielded from the Parliamentary Enquiry and as we watch Miss Brooks tippy toe through all this without one single Red Hair out of place.
Seeing the Met has acted to forclose the posibility of determining a level of guilt regarding this with Brooks, the parliamentary committee should assume that she is 100% guilty - not for the purposes of punishing her in anyway, but for the purposes of assessing what the level of deliberate organised action was by taken by the media group. They should assume it was a conspiracy and legislate for the forced break up of the media organisations in question and for specific laws against police relationships with the media on that basis.
Oh, this is all so unfair, and horrid!
How is what Murdoch has done via News of the World any different from what Julian Assange has done via Wikileaks?
There’s no difference at all!
Now is not the time to accept an insincere apology from this tyrant.
The News Limited juggernaut has more arms than Shiva. Some are used for backscratching while others wield daggers vindictively at any who would try to hold it accountable for its lies and propaganda.
During this scandal, political leaders were threatened not to ‘make it personal’ by shining the spotlight onto Brooks or the Murdochs.
Those sound like the actions of a mafia organisation.
We must dismantle Mudoch’s mafia while we still have the opportunity, or it will return more powerful and insidious than before.