It is understood Mishcon de Reya lawyer asked to to go to the Met with allegations made by Goody’s mother The Metropolitan police are to be asked to investigate allegations that reality TV star Jade Goody’s phone was hacked while she was dying of cancer. It is understood Charlotte Harris, the Mishcon de Reya lawyer representing several phone-hacking claimants, has been asked to represent her and to go to the Met with the allegations made by Goody’s mother, Jackiey Budden. Budden believes both her and her daughter’s phones were hacked, but did nothing about it until July this year when she read about murder victim Milly Dowler’s phone messages being intercepted by the News of the World. She could not understand how journalists were getting hold of information and, when she read the Dowler story, believed it could have been through phone-hacking. “She [Jackiey] will be going to the police. She believes her phone was hacked by the News of the World, and Jade’s. Jade told me ‘I’m convinced my phone is being hacked’,” said Max Clifford, who handled Goody’s PR after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August 2008. “Jade had said to me on many occasions that someone had been bugging her phone because of stuff that was coming out in the papers. She would say, ‘I’ve had these conversations and there’s no way any of these people would have revealed them’,” added Clifford. “This was all while she was ill. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.” Clifford said Goody was convinced calls she made to her mother in August 2008 from the Big Brother set in India to tell her she had cancer had been hacked. “She said to me ‘I think my phone is being bugged’,” he added. The PR man, who settled his own News of the World phone-hacking action for more than £1m last year, said the former Big Brother contestant was an obvious target – in the months between being diagnosed and her death in March 2009, there was “a feeding frenzy” and “immense interest” in getting exclusives about her personal life. If the allegations against the News of the World are substantiated, it would increase the duration of the now defunct News International title’s allegedly illegal activities. Up to now the News of the World has been implicated in phone-hacking allegations up to mid 2006 when Glenn Mulcaire, the phone investigator who formally worked for the title, was arrested. Mishcon de Reya said it “could not confirm” whether or not it had been instructed by Budden. News International declined to comment, but a spokeswoman said the company continued to cooperate fully with police investigation. Goody lived the last seven years of her life in the spotlight, with every twist and turn documented or exposed in the tabloids from her first appearance in Channel 4′s Big Brother in 2002, when she was branded “Miss Piggy” by the tabloids, to the day she died. Her on-off relationship with the father of her two children, a miscarriage, and then her cancer were all covered in minute detail by the tabloids, with 140 stories alone featuring Goody in the News of the World between diagnosis and her death seven months later. But she also regularly co-operated with the now defunct News International paper in “buy-ups” – deals in which she would talk about her life in exchange for payment. In a separate development on Friday, the actress Sienna Miller revealed that she accused her mother, her sister and her former boyfriend Jude Law of selling stories about her to the press because she could not understand how journalists were getting information about her private life. “I changed my mobile number three times in three months. There were clicks on the line. I would pick up the phone and it would drop, there were messages I would never get, coupled with articles [containing private information] coming out every week. “So I started to do tests. I would leave messages on people’s phones, like we’re going to rent this house or whatever, and it would appear next day in the papers,” she told the Independent . • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Phone hacking News of the World National newspapers Newspapers Jade Goody James Robinson Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
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Osborne said that eurozone must implement measures agreed in July to support troubled members of the single currency George Osborne warned on Friday that the leaders of the eurozone had six weeks to end their political wrangling and resolve the continent’s crippling debt crisis. Speaking in Washington, the chancellor said that the turmoil in the world’s financial markets meant there was now “a far greater sense of urgency” and mounting pressure on Europe from the G20 group of developed and developing nations. “There is a sense from across the leading lights of the eurozone that time is running out for them. There is a clear deadline at the Cannes summit [G20] in six weeks time”, Osborne said. “The eurozone has six weeks to resolve this political crisis.” With global financial markets again in jittery mood, the chancellor said “bad politics” were leading to “bad economics” in the eurozone. “We need political solutions that can help resolve the economic problems.” He added that the eurozone needed to implement the package of measures agreed in July to provide financial support for troubled members of the single currency, as well as ensure banks had enough capital to withstand market pressures. “I wouldn’t say all the pieces of the jigsaw are in place”, Osborne said, adding that the members of the eurozone had to supplement monetary union with closer fiscal ties. While the government had no intention of joining monetary union, the chancellor said it was in Britain’s interests that the eurozone worked. “The break-up of Europe would be bad for Britain”. The chancellor said Europe needed to show that it had enough firepower to convince the markets it was getting ahead of the curve, and made it clear that the €400bn (£350bn) European Financial Stability Facility needs to be beefed up. “I am not sure it is adequate”, Osborne said. The chancellor refused to speculate on whether Greece would be forced to default on its debts, but said the government had contingency plans in the event that the worst-affected eurozone country did capitulate. “I have made it a priority for the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England to make sure that the UK banking system is adequately capitalised and have sufficient liquidity to deal with all eventualities. We have stress-tested sovereign write downs.” Osborne admitted that the darkening international economic outlook would have repercussions for the UK but insisted that he had no intention of amending his tough deficit reduction plans. It was up to the Bank of England, he added, to support demand over the coming months. “A credible fiscal plan allows you to have a looser monetary policy than would otherwise be the case. My approach is to be fiscally conservative but monetarily active.” His comments come amid signs from Threadneedle Street that it will re-start its quantitative easing programme over the coming months. The Bank pumped £200bn of electronically-created money into the economy between early 2009 and early 2010 in an attempt to lift the economy out of recession. Asked how bad the situation in the UK would have to get before he would consider changing course, Osborne said: “The UK is taking appropriate action. It is very clear what has got to happen. We are sticking to the plan. “These discussions in Washington are about the eurozone and the challenges there not about market pressures on the UK. We have got ahead of the curve and have credibility.” The chancellor said the heavily-indebted state of Britain meant he could not simply “pull a lever” to boost demand. “This was a different sort of recession and it is a different sort of recovery”, he said. The chancellor said there was a certain amount of flexibility built into his budget plans because weaker growth would allow the automatic stabilisers – a bigger budget deficit caused by higher benefit payments and lower tax receipts – to kick in. The government would announce supply side reforms of the economy to remove obstacles to growth over the coming months. European debt crisis European banks George Osborne IMF Economics Global economy Greece Europe Bank of England Banking Financial crisis Global recession Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu address the UN general assembly – live • Read a summary of Palestine’s bid for UN statehood 12.49pm: Abbas makes his plea for Palestine to be recognised as a full member of the UN. “This is a copy of the application,” he says, interrupted by long applause. “I call upon the Secretary-General to transmit our proposal to the Security Council.” “Your support for the recognition of the state of Palestine is the greatest contribution to the state of peace in the region,” Abbas tells the leaders in the general assembly. “I hope we shall not have to wait for long.” That’s it, Abbas finishes after 35 minutes. Israel’s delegation declined to join in the standing ovation and applause for Abbas as he steps down from the podium. 12.47pm: “We have one goal: to be. And we shall be,” says Abbas, winning a loud round of applause. 12.43pm: “Enough, enough, enough,” says Abbas. “It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and their independence”: The time has come for the Palestinian spring, the time for independence. The time has come for our men, women and children to have normal lives. For them to be able to sleep without fear of what the next day will bring. 12.39pm: Finally, Abbas gets around to mentioning the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment of truth … we are the last people in the world to be occupied. Will the world allows this to continue by the state of Israel? 12.35pm: The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Julian Borger, is disappointed by Abbas’s effort : “So far, this is a fairly routine speech by Abbas. Little by way of soaring rhetoric.” Calling the speech “ill-chosen,” Foreign Policy editor Blake Hounshell says : “This is not a speech that will give Israeli doves much to go on.” 12.33pm: “Our efforts are not aimed at isolating Israel or delegitimising it, “says Abbas. “I am here to say, on behalf of the Palestinian people … we extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people.” He continues: “Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints.” 12.29pm: Abbas is now listing the conditions for continued negotations, including a call for Israel to cease all settlement building as a pre-condition. 12.22pm: “These are but a few examples of the policy of the Israeli colonial occupation,” says Abbas, who says the sttlements will “destroy the chances of a two state solution”: This settlement policy threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestine national authority and its very existence. 12.18pm: Abbas now goes into greater detail about Israel’s settlement building, particularly in the Arab parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank, and describes it (or his translator does) as an attempt to establish “a fait accompli “. Only CNN of the US news networks has stayed with live coverage of Abbas’s speech this far, although Fox News and MSNBC are giving analysis rather than carrying the live feed from the UN. 12.15pm: Abbas says that a year ago there were high hopes for a peace agreement. “We entered those negotiations with open hearts and attentive ears,” Abbas said. “But these negotiations broke down just weeks after they were launched.” We did not leave a door locked or path to be taken … we positively considered the various ideas and initiatives presented by parties. But all of these ideas were repeatedly smashed agaisnt a rock by Israeli negotiations. 12.12pm: Abbas starts off with congratulations to South Sudan for its admission to full UN statehood. “The question of Palestine is intricately linked with the United Nations,” Abbas says, plunging into the issue at hand. 12.09pm: Now it’s Mahmoud Abbas’s turn to take the podium before the UN general assembly. A big round of applause greets him. 12.07pm: Jim Jordan, chair of the influential Republican Study Commitee in Congress, backs the Obama administration’s position on the Palestinian statehood bid: The United States is correct to block the Palestinian Authority’s effort to pursue statehood through the United Nations. It is important that American leaders, from the Congress to the State Department to the White House, send a clear message to the world that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally Israel. 11.56am: Chris McGreal watches Mahmoud Abbas hand over the letter to Ban Ki-moon at the UN: Abbas walked in to room with Ban. They stood, shook hands, posed for photos. Then Abbas handed over the application in a large white envelope with the Palestinian Authority crest on it. They shook hands again and that was it: Palestine made its bid to become a member of the United Nations. Abbas and Ban sat down at a table with their officials for a short discussion. Abbas is to speak to the general assembly shortly, as soon as the president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, has finished. Sargsyan is discussing relations with Turkey, another low-point in international relations. There’s a live video feed at the UN website here . 11.49am: Harriet Sherwood, in Ramallah for the Guardian, reports on an unfortunate accident: As crowds gathered in Ramallah’s Manara Square, the celebratory event got off to an unfortunate start when the large screen on which people will watch Mahmoud Abbas’s speech fell forward on top of Palestinian singers who were mid-performance. Three were hit on the head and taken to hospital in neck braces. 11.46am: This just in: Mahmoud Abbas has handed over the letter requesting a UN vote on Palestinian statehood recognition to Ban Ki-moon. Abbas is expected to speak to the general assembly shortly. 11.30am: Anne-Marie Slaughter – the former director of policy planning for the US state department in the Obama administration – regards the US veto of Palestianian statehood in apocalyptic terms in the FT (subscription only): So, fine, let the US issue its veto. Then what? The move is likely to trigger violence in Gaza and possibly the West Bank; Israeli countermeasures risk igniting more anti-Israel demonstrations across the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, and possibly in Syria. In both cases a direct clash between the Israeli and Egyptian or Syrian soldiers in the Sinai or the Golan Heights is all too possible, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Beyond Israel’s immediate neighbourhood the situation is just as bad. Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal has already said that a US veto would trigger a Saudi re-evaluation of the extent to which it will work with the US, particularly with respect to Iraq and possibly Yemen too. Saudi opposition to the Shia government in Baghdad would destabilise Iraq, and heighten tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The beleaguered Yemeni president is currently in Riyadh; Saudi refusal to co-ordinate its diplomacy in Yemen with the US would make it nearly impossible to resolve the current impasse. These are threats growing daily on the horizon. The move from threat to confrontation may seem unlikely, but remember the inexorable, deadly sequence of mobilisation that turned the assassination of an Austrian archduke into first world war. These things can get out of hand quickly. 11.16am: Quartet envoy Tony Blair told the BBC today that he’s not a supporter of the statehood bid: You can pass whatever resolution you like at the United Nations, or at the Security Council, and it doesn’t actually deliver you a state. And if you don’t have a negotiation, whatever you do at the UN is going to be deeply confrontational. Blair seems to think that statehood recognition somehow precludes peace negotiations, which is not necessarily the case. 11.08am: The Israeli Defence Forces news desk has issued a statement confirming the death in Qusra on the West Bank reported earlier today. The IDF statement is headlined “Events Following Violent Riot near Qusra”: A mutual rock hurling incident that occurred earlier this afternoon between Israeli civilians and approximately 300 Palestinians near the village of Qusra incited a violent riot, during which Palestinians hurled rocks at security personnel. During the riot, security personnel used riot dispersal means and eventually, live fire. As a result, Palestinian sources reported that three rioters were injured. Initial reports suggest that one of them was wounded and subsequently, passed away. The IDF and the Palestinian Security Authority is jointly investigating the incident. 11am: The meeting between Abbas and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been brought forward – so that Abbas is expected to deliver requesting statehood recognition very shortly. 10.46am: The Guardian Chris McGreal is at the UN in New York City – and he reports that Mahmoud Abbas is to very shortly submit the letter effectively requesting recognition by the UN security council of Palestine as a state to Ban Ki-moon, the UN’s Secretary-General, before making his speech to the UN general assembly pleading the case: No one expects the Palestinians to win in the security council because the US has said it will veto the request even if the Palestinians get the necessary nine votes in favour – and it looks as if they’ll fall short after an intense American campaign to get countries such as Portugal and Bosnia to abstain. In any case, there is unlikely to be a vote any time soon. But Abbas can claim a victory of sorts at the end of a week that has seen a dramatic shift in the diplomatic ground in the Palestinians’ favour. His resistance to pressure not to submit the request has prompted the most serious attempt to revive the peace process in years as Washington, London and Paris sought to avoid a showdown in the security council that could severely damage their standing in other parts of the Middle East, particularly for Britain and France which are heavily involved in Libya. The US’s claim to dominate mediation has been damaged by its unrelenting opposition to the Palestinian move and Obama’s astonishingly pro-Israel speech to the UN earlier this week. That has provided a chink for the Europeans and Arabs to press for a greater role. Certainly it has exposed Washington as a partisan player. 10.35am: Here’s a brief summary of the background to today’s UN speeches by Abbas and Netanyahu: • Palestinians are to ask for full membership status at the UN, on the grounds that decades of negotiations with Israel have failed to gain it statehood • The move is opposed by Israel and the US, who maintain that the only way to create a fully-fledged Palestinian state is through negotiation • The US has pledged to veto any Palestinian bid for full statehood through the UN Security Council • The Palestinians could opt to go through the UN general assembly – but the assembly only has the power to upgrade Palestine’s status from “entity” to a “non-member state” • Palestine’s improved diplomatic status could allow it to take Israel to the International Criminal Court 10.24am: The Associated Press reports that a Palestinian has been shot dead in a clash with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank: The incident, witnessed by an AP reporter, began when some 200 settlers burned and uprooted trees Friday near the village of Qusra. Villagers threw stones at the settlers. Israeli troops arrived and fired tear gas, then live rounds. Settlers also fired their weapons. The man killed was identified as 35-year-old Issam Badran. A Palestinian medic says he was shot in the neck. Another Palestinian was wounded and taken by the army. 10.11am: According to Reuters, there appear to be three possible outcomes to the Palestinian plan to seek full UN membership: a miracle, a muddle and a mess: The miracle would be if diplomats dream up a document that may persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to talk peace after nearly a year of impasse and acrimony. The muddle would be if the Palestinian letter requesting full membership simply sits in the UN Security Council’s inbox, ushering in a period of limbo while diplomats try to coax the parties into negotiations. The mess would occur if violence erupts after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hands over the letter, throwing the diplomatic efforts to the winds. 10am ET / 3pm BST: Welcome to live coverage of addresses by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the UN general assembly in New York – with Abbas expected to argue the case for recognition of Palestine as a state. Abbas is expected to begin speaking sometime after 11.30am ET (4.30pm BST), with Netanyahu to follow in the afternoon, at around 1pm ET (6pm BST). The central issue for both leaders will be Palestine’s admission as a full member state under UN rules. Here’s how the Guardian’s correspondents in New York and Jerusalem previewed today’s actions and potential consequences: The Palestinian leader is expected to hand over a letter asking for Palestine to join the UN as a state shortly before he addresses the general assembly to plead the case for admission. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is scheduled to speak shortly afterwards. He is likely to denounce the Palestinian move as destabilising and a threat to the peace process – even though that is largely dormant. We’ll be providing live coverage of both speeches here, as well as reaction and feedback from around the world – including in Palestine’s West Bank and in East Jerusalem, where thousands are expected to gather after Friday prayers. United Nations Palestinian territories Israel Binyamin Netanyahu Mahmoud Abbas United States Richard Adams guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …John Baer offered this column yesterday in the Philadelphia Daily News for United Nations Peace Day: A startling “Costs of War” study, recently released by the Eisenhower Research Project, at Brown University, says our government low-balls war costs, and by a bunch. Figures most often cited by Washington, Obama and the General Accounting Office are $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion. The Brown study, a comprehensive examination and estimate of the full and ongoing price, put together by 20 economists, anthropologists, lawyers and humanitarians, says that it’s at least $3.7 trillion and climbing to $4.4 trillion. Government accounting, the study says, is just too narrow to measure everything. Catherine Lutz, a Brown research professor and the “Costs of War” project co-director, tells me that the Pentagon and GAO report only “direct” or “special war” allocations. There are other costs that are basically hidden. Lutz says that the true costs of wars since 9/11 must also include budget increases for the Pentagon, the State Department and Homeland Security, enormous future-obligated costs to veterans and – since the wars are almost completely financed by borrowing – nearly $200 billion in interest so far, a number constantly climbing. “It’s not really acceptable that the public doesn’t know what the government is obligated to,” she says. One might think that our government purposely hides such short- and long-term encumbrances for fear that a full airing would make our wars much less attractive to the paying public. (The preceding paragraph is an attempt at understatement.) The truth is, military spending and foreign policy take what they want, warranted or not, hide the true cost and answer to no one, all while providing anything but peace. More than 50 years ago, three days before leaving the White House, President Eisenhower addressed the nation and warned of the then-growing powers of what he called “the military/industrial complex.” Here, in part, is what he said: “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military/industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist . . . “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” Maybe we should have listened. Peace. If you agree, you can join October2011.org on Oct. 6th, when they begin their sit-in at Washington’s Freedom Square.
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The people exercising the greatest influence over the UK’s reading habits – right now Christine Oliver
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Coroner gives first spontaneous combustion verdict in 25-year career after man found dead in unexplained circumstances An Irish pensioner found burnt to death at his home died from spontaneous human combustion, an inquest has concluded. The West Galway coroner, Kieran McLoughlin, said there was no other adequate explanation for the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, also known as Micheal O Fatharta. He said it was the first time in his 25 years as a coroner that he had returned such a verdict. An Irish police crime scene investigator and a senior fire officer told the inquest in Galway that they could not explain how Faherty burned to death. Both said they had not come across such a set of circumstances before. The assistant chief fire officer, Gerry O’Malley, said fire officers were satisfied that an open fire in Faherty’s fireplace had not been the cause of the blaze. No trace of an accelerant was found at the scene, and there was no sign that anyone else had entered or left the house in Ballybane, Galway city. The inquest heard that asmoke alarm in the home of Faherty’s neighbour Tom Mannion had gone off at about 3am on 22 December last year. Mannion said he went outside and saw heavy smoke coming from Faherty’s house. He banged on the front door but got no response, and then banged on the door of another neighbour. Gardai and the fire brigade arrived quickly at the scene. Garda Gerard O’Callaghan said he went to the house after the fire had been extinguished and found Faherty lying on his back in a sitting room, with his head closest to the fireplace. The rest of the house had sustained only smoke damage. O’Callaghan told the coroner that the only damage was to Faherty’s remains, the floor underneath him and the ceiling above. . The inquest heard that fire officers had been unable to determine the cause or the origin of the fire. The state pathologist, Prof Grace Callagy, noted in her post-mortem findings that Faherty had Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, but concluded he had not died from heart failure. His body had been extensively burned and, because of the extensive damage to the organs, it was not possible to determine the cause of death. McLoughlin said: “This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation.” Ireland Europe Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Coroner gives first spontaneous combustion verdict in 25-year career after man found dead in unexplained circumstances An Irish pensioner found burnt to death at his home died from spontaneous human combustion, an inquest has concluded. The West Galway coroner, Kieran McLoughlin, said there was no other adequate explanation for the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, also known as Micheal O Fatharta. He said it was the first time in his 25 years as a coroner that he had returned such a verdict. An Irish police crime scene investigator and a senior fire officer told the inquest in Galway that they could not explain how Faherty burned to death. Both said they had not come across such a set of circumstances before. The assistant chief fire officer, Gerry O’Malley, said fire officers were satisfied that an open fire in Faherty’s fireplace had not been the cause of the blaze. No trace of an accelerant was found at the scene, and there was no sign that anyone else had entered or left the house in Ballybane, Galway city. The inquest heard that asmoke alarm in the home of Faherty’s neighbour Tom Mannion had gone off at about 3am on 22 December last year. Mannion said he went outside and saw heavy smoke coming from Faherty’s house. He banged on the front door but got no response, and then banged on the door of another neighbour. Gardai and the fire brigade arrived quickly at the scene. Garda Gerard O’Callaghan said he went to the house after the fire had been extinguished and found Faherty lying on his back in a sitting room, with his head closest to the fireplace. The rest of the house had sustained only smoke damage. O’Callaghan told the coroner that the only damage was to Faherty’s remains, the floor underneath him and the ceiling above. . The inquest heard that fire officers had been unable to determine the cause or the origin of the fire. The state pathologist, Prof Grace Callagy, noted in her post-mortem findings that Faherty had Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, but concluded he had not died from heart failure. His body had been extensively burned and, because of the extensive damage to the organs, it was not possible to determine the cause of death. McLoughlin said: “This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation.” Ireland Europe Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini describes Knox team’s criticism of Italy’s national police forensic service and its findings as slander The Italian prosecutor who put Amanda Knox in jail has accused her and her lawyers of using the same tactics as the Nazis and asked the court that will decide her appeal not to be swayed by a campaign designed to discredit Italian justice. In an emotional closing address on Friday, during which he also showed the jurors grisly crime scene footage of the dead British student, Meredith Kercher, the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, described criticism by Knox’s defence of Italy’s national police forensic service and its findings as slander. But then, he added, slander had played an important role in the case. Knox, he said, had slandered the police and her employer, Patrick Lumumba. After she was arrested for Kercher’s murder four years ago, the American student claimed she was slapped by police during her interrogation and made a statement, which she later withdrew, naming the Congolese bar owner Lumumba as the murderer. “Slander, slander and some of it will stick,” declared Mignini. “It’s what the noted propaganda minister of the Nazis used to say in the 1930s.” Earlier, he told the court: “Our judicial system has been subjected to a systematic denigration by a well-organised operation of a journalistic and political nature.” Knox is appealing against a 26-year sentence. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, the son of an Italian doctor, is also challenging his 25-year sentence. Their convictions have been widely questioned in the US media. But, in court, the biggest setback for the prosecution came in June when two court-appointed Italian experts made scathing criticisms of the crucial forensic evidence used to convict the two alleged killers. Kercher was found stabbed to death four years ago at the age of 21 in the flat she shared with Knox while they were both studying at Perugia’s university for foreigners. A third man, Rudy Guede, a small-time drugs peddler from the Ivory Coast, has also been convicted of the murder, which the lower court decided arose from a four-way sex game resisted by Kercher. The national sensitivities that have always lurked below the surface of this tangled affair had also surfaced earlier when Giancarlo Costagliola, the associate chief prosecutor of Perugia, said he and his colleagues were victims of an “obsessive” media campaign helped by American ignorance of the Italian justice system. With Knox’s mother, father and stepfather sitting just a few feet away, he said the outcry over the alleged failings in the case against her “makes everyone feel like the parents of Amanda Knox”. Looking at the two judges and six jurors (technically lay judges), he went on: “We hope, in deciding, you will feel a little like Meredith Kercher’s parents.” The Leeds university student was, he said, someone who was “clever, serious and very tied to her family and whom these kids from rich families prevented from living”. Knox had entered the court for the start of the prosecution summing-up looking tense and serious, her face notably pallid. Amanda Knox United States Meredith Kercher Europe Italy John Hooper guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini describes Knox team’s criticism of Italy’s national police forensic service and its findings as slander The Italian prosecutor who put Amanda Knox in jail has accused her and her lawyers of using the same tactics as the Nazis and asked the court that will decide her appeal not to be swayed by a campaign designed to discredit Italian justice. In an emotional closing address on Friday, during which he also showed the jurors grisly crime scene footage of the dead British student, Meredith Kercher, the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, described criticism by Knox’s defence of Italy’s national police forensic service and its findings as slander. But then, he added, slander had played an important role in the case. Knox, he said, had slandered the police and her employer, Patrick Lumumba. After she was arrested for Kercher’s murder four years ago, the American student claimed she was slapped by police during her interrogation and made a statement, which she later withdrew, naming the Congolese bar owner Lumumba as the murderer. “Slander, slander and some of it will stick,” declared Mignini. “It’s what the noted propaganda minister of the Nazis used to say in the 1930s.” Earlier, he told the court: “Our judicial system has been subjected to a systematic denigration by a well-organised operation of a journalistic and political nature.” Knox is appealing against a 26-year sentence. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, the son of an Italian doctor, is also challenging his 25-year sentence. Their convictions have been widely questioned in the US media. But, in court, the biggest setback for the prosecution came in June when two court-appointed Italian experts made scathing criticisms of the crucial forensic evidence used to convict the two alleged killers. Kercher was found stabbed to death four years ago at the age of 21 in the flat she shared with Knox while they were both studying at Perugia’s university for foreigners. A third man, Rudy Guede, a small-time drugs peddler from the Ivory Coast, has also been convicted of the murder, which the lower court decided arose from a four-way sex game resisted by Kercher. The national sensitivities that have always lurked below the surface of this tangled affair had also surfaced earlier when Giancarlo Costagliola, the associate chief prosecutor of Perugia, said he and his colleagues were victims of an “obsessive” media campaign helped by American ignorance of the Italian justice system. With Knox’s mother, father and stepfather sitting just a few feet away, he said the outcry over the alleged failings in the case against her “makes everyone feel like the parents of Amanda Knox”. Looking at the two judges and six jurors (technically lay judges), he went on: “We hope, in deciding, you will feel a little like Meredith Kercher’s parents.” The Leeds university student was, he said, someone who was “clever, serious and very tied to her family and whom these kids from rich families prevented from living”. Knox had entered the court for the start of the prosecution summing-up looking tense and serious, her face notably pallid. Amanda Knox United States Meredith Kercher Europe Italy John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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FSB using psychological techniques developed by KGB to intimidate and demoralise diplomatic staff, activists and journalists Russia’s spy agency is waging a massive undercover campaign of harassment against British and American diplomats, as well as other targets, using deniable “psychological” techniques developed by the KGB, a new book reveals. The federal security service (FSB’s) operation involves breaking into the private homes of western diplomats – a method the US state department describes as “home intrusions”. Typically the agents move around personal items – opening windows, or setting alarms – in an attempt to demoralise and intimidate their targets. The FSB operation includes bugging of private apartments, widespread phone tapping, physical surveillance, and email interception. Its victims include local Russian staff working for western embassies, opposition activists, human rights workers and journalists. The clandestine campaign is revealed in Mafia State, a book by the Guardian’s former Moscow correspondent Luke Harding, serialised in Saturday’s Weekend magazine. The British and American governments are acutely aware of the FSB’s campaign of intimidation. But neither has publicly complained about these demonstrative “counter-intelligence” measures, for fear of further straining already difficult relations with Vladmir Putin’s resurgent regime. Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, was head of the FSB. British sources admit they have files “five or six inches thick” detailing FSB break-ins and other incidents of harassment against Moscow embassy staff. “Generally we don’t make a fuss about it,” one said. So pervasive is the FSB’s campaign the British government is unable to staff fully its Moscow embassy. The intrusions are designed to “short-tour” diplomats so they leave their posts early, the source said. Despite a recent improvement in US-Russian relations, the FSB has also targeted US diplomats and their families. In a 2009 confidential diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks, the US ambassador in Moscow John Beyrle complains that the FSB’s aggressive measures have reached unprecedented levels. Mafia State recounts how the KGB first became interested in “operational psychology” in the 1960s. But it was the Stasi, East Germany’s sinister secret police, that perfected these psychological techniques and used them extensively against dissidents in the 1970s and 1980s. These operations were given a name, Zersetzung – literally corrosion or undermining. According to former Stasi officers the aim was to “switch off” regime opponents by disrupting their private or family lives. Tactics included removing pictures from walls, replacing one variety of tea with another, and even sending a vibrator to a target’s wife. Usually victims had no idea the Stasi were responsible. Many thought they were going mad; some suffered breakdowns; a few committed suicide. It was Erich Honecker, East Germany’s communist leader, who patented these methods after concluding that “soft” methods of torture were preferable to open forms of persecution. The advantage of psychological operations was their deniability – important for a regime that wanted to maintain its international respectability. Putin spent the late 1980s as an undercover KGB officer based in the east German town of Dresden. Harding was himself the victim of repeated FSB break-ins, and last November was, in effect, expelled from Russia when the foreign ministry said it was not renewing his journalist’s accreditation. Mafia State also reveals: • FSB officers privately admit the agency was involved in the assassination of dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko. They regret, however, the bungled way it was carried out. • The British embassy in Moscow has a “polonium” chair sat on by Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the Litvinenko murder. Uncertain what to do with it, officials have locked it in a room in the Kremlin. • Russia’s footballing union knew a week before a vote in December that Fifa’s executive committee would give Russia, rather than England, the 2018 World Cup The FSB never explained why they targeted Harding with such zeal. Other western correspondents have also suffered from occasional “home intrusions”, but on a much lesser scale. Russia Europe Alexander Litvinenko Vladimir Putin guardian.co.uk
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