Heather Mills Alleges Mirror Group Hacked Her Phone During Piers Morgan’s Daily Mirror Editorship
August 4, 2011 No Comment
Heather Mills, Paul McCartney’s ex-wife has alleged that a senior journalist from the newspaper group that owns The Daily Mirror—along with many other papers in Britain—admitted to hacking her voicemail in 2001—while CNN host Piers Morgan was running the paper. Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, Mills recounted that a Mirror Group journalist had called her asking about an argument between her and her then-boyfriend Sir Paul McCartney, “quoting verbatim the messages from my machine.” Mills said the journalist admitted to hacking the voice mails after she questioned where the journalist had gotten their information and threatened to go to the police if the material was published. Mills said the journalist told her, “OK, OK, yeah we did hear it on your voice messages, I won’t run it.” She was clear that the journalist in question was not Piers Morgan—the editor of the Mirror at the time—but the message in question may be one that Morgan had admitted to hearing. In 2006, Morgan wrote in the Daily Mail that he “was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone.” “It was heartbreaking,” Morgan wrote. “The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back. He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang ‘We Can Work It Out’ into the answer phone.” Mills told the BBC that “there was absolutely no honest way that Piers Morgan could have obtained that tape that he has so proudly bragged about unless they had gone into my voice messages.” The new allegations from Mills draw both Morgan and the Daily Mirror deeper into the phone hacking scandal that started at the News of the World and widened to other British newsrooms and the United States. Even as allegations have mounted against the paper, Morgan and the Daily Mirror have denied all claims that they knew or participated in phone hacking. UPDATE: Piers Morgan issued this statement in response to Heather Mill’s allegations: Heather Mills has made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had with a senior executive from a Trinity Mirror newspaper in 2001. The BBC has confirmed to me that this executive was not employed by the Daily Mirror. I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills. What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media. This is well documented, and was stated in their divorce case. Further, in his judgment, The Honourable Mr Justice Bennett wrote of Heather Mills: ‘I am driven to the conclusion that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid. Overall she was a less than impressive witness.’ No doubt everyone will take this and other instances of somewhat extravagant claims by Ms Mills into account in assessing what credibility and platform her assertions are given. And to reiterate, I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone. Note: This article originally said that a journalist from the Daily Mirror allegedly admitted to phone hacking. In fact, it was a journalist from the broader Mirror Group.
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University urges students and employees to stay inside and secure doors after sighting near scene of 2007 massacre Virginia Tech, the site of the 2007 mass shooting that killed 33 people, is in lockdown after reports of a man armed with a handgun on campus. The university issued an alert on its website at 9.37am telling students and employees to stay inside and secure doors. The alert said the gunman was reported near Dietrick Hall, a three-storey refectory building yards from the dorm where the first shootings took place in the 2007 attack by Seung-Hui Cho. Virgina Tech said that at 9.09am three young people attending a camp at the university reported seeing a white man with “what may have been a handgun”. The man was described as 6ft, with light brown hair, a blue and white vertically striped shirt, grey shorts and brown sandals. The report said he had no facial hair or glasses. The reported weapon was covered by a cloth or covering of some sort. The man was reported near New Residence Hall East, walking quickly in the direction of volleyball courts. Staff and agencies responded immediately but found no one matching the description. United States Virginia Tech shooting guardian.co.uk
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In October 25, 2007, a U.S. Army specialist in Afghanistan braved enemy fire in an attempt to save a fellow soldier who had been wounded in an ambush. An insurgent bullet struck his armored chest plate, knocking him down. He got up and rushed back into enemy fire to retrieve his fallen comrade. He threw several hand grenades toward the enemy, and was able to grab his colleague and immediately begin first aid. Though the man he'd risked his life for later died from the wounds, his heroic actions didn't go unnoticed. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, received the medal of honor on November 16, 2010 from the White House for his valiant actions in attempting to save his fellow soldier. But you won't hear much about this real life hero in the media or in Hollywood. Chances are, you didn't even know his name. But you probably do know the names John Gotti, Whitey Bulger, D.B. Cooper, Julian Assange. You've no doubt heard of the “Barefoot Bandit.” Those are the anti-heroes whose stories the media chooses to tell. Murderous mob bosses on the run for years, bank-robbing skyjackers, mysterious international computer hackers and whimsical thieves are called “notorious legends,” celebrated for their daring, Hollywood movie-like crimes. Meanwhile, those who suffered bullet wounds and amputations for protecting our freedoms are mentioned in passing, maybe called “heroes,” before the media skips to the next story. While it's true that people have always been fascinated with crime and have a tendency to romanticize outlaws, but there wasn't a shortage of tales about conventional heroes to balance things out – especially during war time. In the 1940s, for every film about gangsters there was one (or more) about the heroism of the U.S. armed forces. But since the 1960s, anti-hero stories have been standard Hollywood fare. And we can expect more of the same. The FBI has what it calls a “promising” lead in the case of D.B. Cooper, the man suspected of skyjacking a plane in 1971, demanding $200,000, and parachuting out of the plane with the cash, never to be heard from again. According to recent reports, a man unrelated to the case, has come forward with an item that could prove to be a promising link to the 40 year case. 'A forensics lab in Quantico, Virginia is testing the unnamed item, an NBC news report read. “DNA from it will be compared to a tie clip left behind on the hijacked plane.” The D.B. Cooper case sounds like a Hollywood movie (and it was made into one, 1981's “The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper,” starring Treat Williams and Robert Duvall), as does the case of missing mobster Whitey Bulger, who inspired Jack Nicholson's character in “The Departed,” a 2006 Hollywood blockbuster. A famous New England mob boss, Whitey Bulger is wanted for 19 counts of murder and has been on the run from federal authorities for 16 years. That is, until June 22, 2011 when authorities found and captured Bulger in Southern California. But these exciting stories and the media coverage that ensues only serves to make these criminals into heroic rebels. And it isn't just the 30 and 40 year old cases that fascinate the media, but recent crime sprees as well. The “barefoot bandit” was another example of media fascination with a criminal on the run. The 20-year-old shoe-less thief was on the run for nearly two years and wanted in nine states for a series of burglaries. Colton Harris-Moore was caught and pleaded guilty for several crimes on June 18, 2011. Harris-Moore was featured in more than 80 network news shows since October 2009, with many describing him as “notorious” and “famous” as the police “hunt for a legend.” The AP called the 'barefoot bandit' a man of “international notoriety.” On the July 25, 2010 “Good Morning America” broadcast, ABC's Bill Weir called the chase a “fascinating saga.” Another recent case, and one that provides a profound contrast with the story of Sgt. Giunta, is that of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Assange attained hero status among his left-wing, anti-American supporters, and the media fawned as well. Assange, who published thousands of leaked U.S. Military war documents, has been called “mysterious” and “eccentric” by CBS's reporter Steve Kroft, who also repeated that Assange has been called a “hero” and “martyr.” Richard Stengel, a Time magazine editor called him “idealist” and “information anarchist.” The most egregious examples come from the left wing sites that hailed the international villain. Salon.com suggested he was a hybrid of a Bond villain or Jason Bourne character. Amnesty International called him a “new-media innovator” and Australian newspapers called him an “outlaw folk hero.” DreamWorks has bought the rights to the WikiLeaks story, according to a March ABC news story that dutifully referred to Assange as “the international man of mystery himself” and speculated on which Hollywood star would play the America-hating Australian. As for the “Barefoot Bandit,” Variety reported last year that Fox bought the feature rights. But don't hold your breath for bio-pics about heroes like Army Staff Sgt. Giunta and Medal of Honor winner Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry. U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Leroy Petry received the medal of honor from the White house last month and was recognized for his actions in May 2008 in Afghanistan when he (after being shot in both legs) picked up a live grenade that had been thrown at his platoon of Army Rangers, and threw it in order to save his fellow soldiers. Petry's hand was blown off from the grenade's explosion, but he somehow applied a tourniquet and continued to fight until all his men had been evacuated. It's the stuff movies are made of – or, at least, used to be made of.
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Judge orders investigation into controversial decision made by new IMF chief in 2007 when she was French finance minister A French court has ordered a formal investigation into whether the IMF head Christine Lagarde abused her position when she was finance minister in allowing a huge state settlement to a businessman friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy. The court of justice of the republic, a special tribunal qualified to judge ministers, ruled there were grounds to examine Lagarde’s role in arbitrating in favour of the controversial tycoon Bernard Tapie in 2008. Tapie, the former owner of the football club Olympic Marseille and Socialist minister, served a seven-month jail term in 1997 for match-fixing and has a tax fraud conviction. In recent years he has made a remarkable public comeback as an actor, singer, chatshow host – and prominent supporter of the president. The Largarde investigation concerns a decades-long legal dispute Tapie had with a former state-owned bank which he claimed cheated him when handling the 1993 sale of his Adidas sports empire. In 2007, Lagarde ended the dispute by ordering a special panel of judges to arbitrate an out-of-court settlement. They ruled that Tapie should receive €285m (£247m) in damages from the public purse, a ruling that scandalised opposition politicians. A judicial inquiry will now examine Lagarde’s decision to order arbitration instead of letting the Tapie affair be decided by the courts. It will also consider whether she refused expert advice to appeal against the huge payout, simply allowing Tapie to walk away with his cheque. The French inquiry into Lagarde is likely to drag on for years and could cast a shadow over her leadership of the IMF. At the end of the investigation, judges will decide whether she should face trial. Lagarde has denied any misconduct in the case. Lagarde, a lawyer who was one of Sarkozy’s most popular ministers, took over leadership of the IMF in Washington on 5 July after the former head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned amid allegations he attempted to rape a New York hotel maid. Lagarde’s lawyer, Yves Repiquet, immediately issued a statement saying the French judicial inquiry would not affect her IMF duties. “This procedure is in no way incompatible with the current functions of the managing director of the IMF,” he said. Christine Lagarde IMF Nicolas Sarkozy France Marseille guardian.co.uk
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A succession of oil spills by Shell and other companies over half a century will cost $1bn to clean up, according to a major report • Read the UN’s Ogoniland report here Cleaning up a succession of oil spills in the Niger delta that have occurred over five decades will cost $1bn and take up to 30 years, according to a major UN report into oil contamination in the region. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) will announce on Thursday that Shell and other oil companies have for half a century systematically contaminated and failed to clean up a 1,000 square kilometre area of the Niger delta with devastating consequences for human health and wildlife. A leaked summary of Unep’s Ogoniland study – the first major scientific study of pollution in the oil rich area – has been seen by the Guardian. It calls for a $1bn clean-up fund and says it will take 25-30 years to restore the environment. Much of the funding for the clean-up would need to come from the oil companies. The three-year-long investigation records heavy contamination of land and underground water courses more than 40 years after oil was spilled; communities’ drinking water with dangerous concentrations of benzene and other pollutants; and soil contamination reaching more than five metres deep in many areas studied. It recommends that emergency measures be taken to warn communities and immediately remediate drinking water wells, and that Shell and other companies working throughout the delta should completely overhaul the way they operate. The Unep team of more than 50 international pollution experts collected more than 4,000 samples of soil, fish and air and investigated in-depth 69 out of many hundreds of historical oil spills that have taken place in Ogoniland in the past 50 years. The team studied 5,000 medical records and held 260 meetings with communities. It is expected that the report will act as a baseline study for a massive clean-up operation that the UN wants to see. Other findings include: • Most of the oil spill sites that the companies claim to have cleaned up are still highly contaminated; • Oil companies have dumped contaminated soil in unlined pits; • Bodies of water are coated with hydrocarbons more than 1,000 times the level allowed by Nigerian drinking water standards; • Shell and other companies have not met minimum Nigerian requirements or their own standards. Oil drilling in Ogoniland ceased in 1994 after Shell was ejected from the communities for widespread pollution and failing to help development in the area. More than £30bn of oil has been extracted from the area but the vast majority of people are worse off than before the companies arrived. “Even though oil operations have ceased in Ogoniland, oil spills continue to occur in alarming regularity. Since life expectancy in Nigeria is less than 50 years it is a fair assumption that most people in Ogoniland have lived with chronic oil pollution throughout their lives,” the report says. “Ogoniland has a tragic history of pollution but systematic scientific information has been absent about the ensuing contamination,” says the report. Because oil company records and investigations of spills in the delta are heavily disputed and politically sensitive, the UN has been careful not to apportion blame for any particular spill. But because Shell subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Corporation which works in partnership with the Nigerian government, has been by far the largest operator in the region, the report will be seen as effectively an investigation of their practices. The independent report was paid for in part by Shell, and commissioned by the Nigerian government. The UN team was clearly shocked at some of their findings. In one place, Ejama Ebubu, the study found heavy contamination from a spill that took place more than 40 years ago “despite repeated clean up attempts”. In Nisisoken Ogale in Eleme, close to a Nigerian national petroleum company pipeline, researchers found 8cm of refined oil floating on ground water that served community wells. “Pollution of soil is extensive and widespread and severely impacting,” says the report, which will be presented to the president, Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian state capital Abuja on Thursday and will be released on Friday in London. “The widespread pollution of Ogoniland as documented does not come as a surprise because the manifestation is physical and people have been living in that putrid situation of decades now,” said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International and director of Nigeria-based Environment Rights Action . “Now we know that it will take up to 30 years to remediate the impacts, especially on the mangroves of the region. The entire saga smacks of a situation of complete livelihoods decimation of the Ogoni people.” “Unep’s recommendation that an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland be set up with a take off sum of $1bn is applauded. But we need a larger fund for the entire Niger delta.” On Wednesday the Guardian revealed that Shell had accepted responsibility for two massive oil spills in the region that devastated a community of 69,000 people . Combined, the spills could be larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska and Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. Oil spills Pollution Oil Oil Energy Fossil fuels Nigeria Africa United Nations Royal Dutch Shell Oil and gas companies Natural resources and development John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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FTSE falls below the 5500 mark after European commission president’s crisis warning and fears of new US recession Stock markets took another tumble on Thursday after the European commission president warned that the crisis in the eurozone was threatening to engulf Italy and Spain. Fears over the health of the global economy, and predictions that America could slide back into recession, also helped to drive the latest bout of heavy selling. The FTSE 100 index fell below the 5500 mark, leaving the blue-chip index firmly on track for its lowest closing level in nearly a year . The worst of the selloff came after commission president José Manuel Barroso called for the eurozone rescue fund to be significantly enlarged. Barroso warned the crisis was spreading and that Europe risked losing the faith of the financial markets. “Markets remain to be convinced that we are taking the appropriate steps to resolve the crisis,” Barroso told European leaders, as he urged them to review “all elements” of the €440bn (£382bn) European financial stability facility (EFSF) and its €500bn replacement , the European stability mechanism (ESM). “We are no longer managing a crisis just in the euro-area periphery,” Barroso said. “Euro-area financial stability must be safeguarded.” Analysts have warned that neither the EFSF nor the ESM has sufficient firepower to handle a bailout of either Italy or Spain. With Italian and Spanish 10-year bond yields above the 6% mark, investors are losing their taste for risk. Gold touched yet another record high, hitting $1.678.31, while the FTSE 100 slumped to 117 points to 5466. “We’re back to worrying about the future of the eurozone and the sovereign debt crisis, and the generally stuttering economy,” said Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index. European markets were also in retreat, with Germany’s DAX down 1.35%. The FTSEurofirst 300, which tracks the top 300 listed companies across Europe, recorded its lowest level in 11 months. The euro fell sharply against other major currencies, losing nearly 1.5 cents against the US dollar to $1.4170. There was frenzied action on the foreign exchanges after the Bank of Japan intervened to drive down the value of the yen . Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the European Central Bank, appeared to hint that the ECB was buying up bonds issued by the region’s weaker governments. This week has seen a steady flow of disappointing economic data, with few bright spots . Economists have been speculating that America’s economy could contract again since last Friday’s disappointing GDP data . Many traders now accept that the world economy faces a much tougher time. “It is increasingly becoming apparent that this economic recovery will be slower and more difficult because nations and some consumers are overladen with debt,” said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners. “Repaying the loans will take longer and be more painful than we had previously anticipated. We are in a catch-22 situation. We desperately need growth to pay off the debt, but we cannot grow because of the amount of debt we owe.” European debt crisis Economics Global economy Stock markets Currencies European banks Banking Europe European commission European Union Italy Spain European Central Bank US economy Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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Some of the Islamist al-Shabaab group denies a famine is taking place in Somalia and are trying to stop people fleeing the areas it controls An appeal by a senior UN official, Augustine Mahiga, for all Somalis inside and outside the country to work together in the face of a growing famine is unlikely to cut much ice with hardline elements of al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgents. A report by Associated Press from Mogadishu provides a grim picture of how some militants are dealing with those trying to flee areas under their control, which also happened to be the first regions declared to be in famine by the UN last month. Al-Shabaab deserters, some of whom are child soldiers, described how the militants are trying to stop people from leaving. Some men are being killed or are told that their women and children will be killed if they leave. Some members of al-Shabaab deny a famine is taking place, and fear that if people leave its strongholds in southern Somalia, its pool of conscripts and informal tax base will shrink. Yet UN experts believe that while hardliners within al-Shabaab reject dialogue and compromise, other elements appear to be pragmatic and ready for political engagement. In a report in March, a UN monitoring group on Somalia (pdf) described al-Shabaab as an umbrella for jihadists, clan militias, business interests and foreign fighters. Founded by former members of al-Iltihad al-Islami, a militant group active between 1991 and 1997, al-Shabaab came to public notice when it desecrated a former Italian cemetery in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in 2005 and established a base there. It became the militant wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which briefly established a modicum of stability until driven out by Ethiopian forces in 2007. Since then, al-Shabaab has been waging a campaign against the weak transitional federal government, which relies on a small African Union force, Amisom, rather than its own forces, which are racked by infighting, to keep it in power. It is within this volatile mix that aid agencies have to operate to deal with a famine that has now spread to five areas of Somalia , with al-Shabaab representing the most severe challenge. The group consists of a core force of fewer than 2,500 Somalis and several hundred foreign fighters, backed by a large number of local clan militias that are not readily available for operations outside their home areas, and irregular fighters who are paid for specific operations. Its key figures are Ahmed Abdi aw Mohamud “Godane”, also known as Mukhtar Abdirahman abu Zubeyr, the group’s supreme leader, Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee’aad “al-Afghani”, the regional governor of Kismayo, and Ali Mohamud Raghe also known as Ali Dheere, the group’s spokesman. Despite its small number, al-Shabaab’s forces are nimble and can be concentrated across long distances at short notice. In August last year, it launched its “Ramadan” offensive involving 2,500 to 5,000 fighters with the goal of capturing the presidential compound in Mogadishu. The offensive included a suicide attack on the Muna hotel, killing more than 30 people. Al-Shabaab forces were eventually repulsed with the help of 2,000 Ugandan troops, and UN experts believe that the group faltered because of its over-reliance on child soldiers, who could not stand up to sustained attacks from professional armed forces. Despite the military deadlock before the famine, and signs of divisions within al-Shabaab, the group is in rude financial health, amassing between $70m and $100m a year through duties and fees levied at airports and seaports, taxes on goods and services, and taxes in kind on domestic produce, according to the UN report. The UN monitoring group says al-Shabaab’s tax system is far more sophisticated and comprehensive than that of any other Somali authority. The group’s most important source of revenue comes from its control of the port of Kismayo, which with the ports of Marka and Baraawe generates between $35m and $50m a year. Al-Shabaab also receives financial support from Eritrea, which considers the transitional federal government a stooge of Ethiopia, its implacable foe. A worrying development for Somali’s neighbours is al-Shabaab’s growing influence in the region. In July last year, it mounted co-ordinated suicide bombings in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, killing 79 people, a move seen as retaliation for the presence of Ugandan troops in Somalia. The UN monitoring group also describes networks in Kenya linked to al-Shabaab that recruit and raise money for the insurgency. At first these networks were to be found among the ethnic Somali community, but these have broadened since 2009 to include other Kenyans. Famine Malnutrition Somalia Africa Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
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After weeks of political crises, Obama jokes at Chicago fundraiser before intimate party and weekend trip to Camp David Barack Obama hasn’t had much to cheer him up in the run-up to his 50th birthday – although he must wish his US poll ratings, currently 43% approval , outscored his years. But the president – who in recent weeks was battered by the debt standoff that ended with a deal no one liked – seems determined to enjoy the milestone. On Wednesday, he took aides to have burgers at an eatery on Capitol Hill before leaving Washington briefly for a campaign fundraiser in his adopted home town of Chicago. Supporters paid up to $38,500 to join him to hear him joke he would soon have a reminder from a national organisation that helps the over-50s have “independence, choice and control” in ways that “are affordable to them and society as a whole”. “By the time I wake up, I’ll have an email from AARP asking me to call President Obama and tell him to protect Medicare,” said Obama on the eve of his half-century. Happy birthday was inevitably sung, by a group from North Carolina, and there was music from Jennifer Hudson, Herbie Hancock and the band OK Go ,a rock band originally from the windy city but now based in Los Angeles. Its presence presumably was not meant as a message for the president, rather encouragement to reignite in his re-election campaign the spirit that so memorably took him to the White House. He may, however, take hear from their new EP, All is Not Lost. At a small dinner for high-dollar donors later, Obama revealed he already knew of one very important present waiting for him in back in Washington on Thursday. His oldest daughter, Malia, was coming home from camp to celebrate his birthday. The festivities back in the capital were to include a toast from senior staff in the White House’s blue room, followed by a party with family and friends. An administration official said the Obamas would be footing that bill. The president then plans a weekend trip to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. Barack Obama Obama administration United States US politics James Meikle guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …UK officials were allowed to interrogate tortured prisoners, document shows
August 4, 2011 No Comment
Exclusive: Secret policy instructed intelligence officers to weigh importance of information sought against pain inflicted A top-secret document revealing how MI6 and MI5 officers were allowed to extract information from prisoners being illegally tortured overseas has been seen by the Guardian. The interrogation policy – details of which are believed to be too sensitive to be publicly released at the government inquiry into the UK’s role in torture and rendition – instructed senior intelligence officers to weigh the importance of the information being sought against the amount of pain they expected a prisoner to suffer. It was operated by the British government for almost a decade. A copy of the secret policy showed senior intelligence officers and ministers feared the British public could be at greater risk of a terrorist attack if Islamists became aware of its existence. One section states: “If the possibility exists that information will be or has been obtained through the mistreatment of detainees, the negative consequences may include any potential adverse effects on national security if the fact of the agency seeking or accepting information in those circumstances were to be publicly revealed. “For instance, it is possible that in some circumstances such a revelation could result in further radicalisation, leading to an increase in the threat from terrorism.” The policy adds that such a disclosure “could result in damage to the reputation of the agencies”, and that this could undermine their effectiveness. The fact that the interrogation policy document and other similar papers may not be made public during the inquiry into British complicity in torture and rendition has led to human rights groups and lawyers refusing to give evidence or attend any meetings with the inquiry team because it does not have “credibility or transparency”. The decision by 10 groups – including Liberty, Reprieve and Amnesty International – follows the publication of the inquiry’s protocols, which show the final decision on whether material uncovered by the inquiry, led by Sir Peter Gibson, can be made public will rest with the cabinet secretary. The inquiry will begin after a police investigation into torture allegations has been completed. Some have criticised the appointment of Gibson , a retired judge, to head the inquiry because he previously served as the intelligence services commissioner, overseeing government ministers’ use of a controversial power that permits them to “disapply” UK criminal and civil law in order to offer a degree of protection to British intelligence officers committing crimes overseas. The government denies there is a conflict of interest. The protocols also stated that former detainees and their lawyers will not be able to question intelligence officials and that all evidence from current or former members of the security and intelligence agencies, below the level of head, will be heard in private. The document seen by the Guardian shows how the secret interrogation policy operated until it was rewritten on the orders of the coalition government last July. It also: • Acknowledged that MI5 and MI6 officers could be in breach of both UK and international law by asking for information from prisoners held by overseas agencies known to use torture. • Explained the need to obtain political cover for any potentially criminal act by consulting ministers beforehand. The secret interrogation policy was first passed to MI5 and MI6 officers in Afghanistan in January 2002 to enable them to continue questioning prisoners whom they knew were being mistreated by members of the US military. It was amended slightly later that year before being rewritten and expanded in 2004 after it became apparent that a significant number of British Muslims, radicalised by the invasion of Iraq, were planning attacks against the UK. The policy was amended again in July 2006 during an investigation of a suspected plot to bring down airliners over the Atlantic. Entitled “Agency policy on liaison with overseas security and intelligence services in relation to detainees who may be subject to mistreatment”, it was given to intelligence officers handing over questions to be put to detainees. Separate policy documents were issued for related matters, including intelligence officers conducting face-to-face interrogations. The document set out the international and domestic law on torture, and explained that MI5 and MI6 do not “participate in, encourage or condone” either torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. Intelligence officers were instructed not to carry out any action “which it is known” would result in torture. However, they could proceed when they foresaw “a real possibility their actions will result in an individual’s mistreatment” as long as they first sought assurances from the overseas agency. Even when such assurances were judged to be worthless, officers could be given permission to proceed despite the real possibility that they would committing a crime and that a prisoner or prisoners would be tortured. “When, not withstanding any caveats or prior assurances, there is still considered to be a real possibility of mistreatment and therefore there is considered to be a risk that the agencies’ actions could be judged to be unlawful, the actions may not be taken without authority at a senior level. In some cases, ministers may need to be consulted,” the document said. In deciding whether to give permission, senior MI5 and MI6 management “will balance the risk of mistreatment and the risk that the officer’s actions could be judged to be unlawful against the need for the proposed action”. At this point, “the operational imperative for the proposed action, such as if the action involves passing or obtaining life-saving intelligence” would be weighed against “the level of mistreatment anticipated and how likely those consequences are”. Ministers may be consulted over “particularly difficult cases”, with the process of consulting being “designed to ensure that appropriate visibility and consideration of the risk of unlawful actions takes place”. All such operations must remain completely secret or they could put UK interests and British lives at risk. Disclosure of the contents of the document appears to help explain the high degree of sensitivity shown by ministers and former ministers after the Guardian became aware of its existence two years ago. Tony Blair evaded a series of questions over the role he played in authorising changes to the instructions in 2004 , while the former home secretary David Blunkett maintained it was potentially libellous even to ask him questions about the matter. As foreign secretary, David Miliband told MPs the secret policy could never be made public as “nothing we publish must give succour to our enemies”. Blair, Blunkett and the former foreign secretary Jack Straw also declined to say whether or not they were aware that the instructions had led to a number of people being tortured. The head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said that, in the post 9/11 world, his officers would be derelict in their duty if they did not work with intelligence agencies in countries with poor human rights records, while his opposite number at MI6, Sir John Sawers, spoke of the “real, constant, operational dilemmas” involved in such relationships. Others, however, are questioning whether – in the words of Ken Macdonald , a former director of public prosecutions, “Tony Blair’s government was guilty of developing something close to a criminal policy”. The Intelligence and Security Committee, the group of parliamentarians appointed by the prime minister to assist with the oversight of the UK’s intelligence agencies, is known to have examined the document while sitting in secret, but it is unclear what – if any – suggestions or complaints it made. Paul Murphy, the Labour MP and former minister who chaired the committee in 2006, declined to answer questions about the matter. A number of men, mostly British Muslims, have complained that they were questioned by MI5 and MI6 officers after being tortured by overseas intelligence officials in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Some are known to have been detained at the suggestion of British intelligence officers. Others say they were tortured in places such as Egypt, Dubai, Morocco and Syria, while being interrogated on the basis of information that could only have been supplied by the UK. A number were subsequently convicted of serious terrorism offences or subjected to control orders. Others returned to the UK and, after treatment, resumed their lives. One is a businessman in Yorkshire , another a software designer living in Berkshire , and a third is a doctor practising on the south coast of England . Some have brought civil proceedings against the British government, and a number have received compensation in out-of-court settlements, but others remain too scared to take legal action. Scotland Yard has examined the possibility that one officer from MI5 and a second from MI6 committed criminal offences while extracting information from detainees overseas, and detectives are now conducting what is described as a “wider investigation into other potential criminal conduct”. A new set of instructions was drafted after last year’s election, published on the orders of David Cameron , on the grounds that the coalition was “determined to resolve the problems of the past” and wished to give “greater clarity about what is and what is not acceptable in the future”. Human rights groups pointed to what they said were serious loopholes that could permit MI5 and MI6 officers to remain involved in the torture of prisoners overseas. Last week, the high court heard a challenge to the legality of the new instructions, brought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Judgment is expected later in the year. Foreign policy Terrorism policy MI5 MI6 Jack Straw Tony Blair David Blunkett David Cameron David Miliband Liberal-Conservative coalition Torture Human rights UK security and terrorism Pakistan Guantánamo Bay Afghanistan Bangladesh Ian Cobain guardian.co.uk
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Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman says former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan needs to answer the phone-hacking allegations by Heather Mills Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said on Thursday that former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan “has got to answer” questions about phone hacking at the paper during the period he was editor. Harman told Sky News: “Morgan … said he heard a ‘heart-breaking’ phone message, which clearly gives rise to the assumption that he’d heard a tape-recorded message.” Morgan wrote in the Mail on Sunday five years ago that he had once been played a message left by Sir Paul McCartney on the mobile phone of his then-girlfriend Heather Mills, in which the former Beatle sounded “lonely, miserable and desperate”. Harman said: “It is not good enough for him to say – or for someone to say on his behalf – ‘I always complied with the law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct’. He’s got to answer now we’ve got these allegations from Heather Mills.” Mills claimed on Wednesday that a senior journalist at one of the Mirror Group titles told her in 2001 they had hacked into her mobile phone messages. She told the BBC the unidentified journalist read out parts of a message left by her then-boyfriend Sir Paul McCartney to her and, when challenged, admitted it had been obtained by listening to her phone messages. The reporter in question is not thought to have worked for the Daily Mirror, which was edited by Morgan from 1995 to 2004. Its parent company, Trinity Mirror, also owns two other national titles, the Sunday Mirror and the People. In a 2006 Mail on Sunday article, Morgan seems to be referring to a similar phone message to the one Mills claimed had been hacked by the senior Mirror Group journalist. Mills said the message read out to her had been left by McCartney while she was in India, following a row the couple had back in London. According to Mills, the journalist rang her and “started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine”. She said she challenged the journalist, saying: “You’ve obviously hacked my phone and if you do anything with this story … I’ll go to the police.” Mills said he responded: “OK, OK, yeah, we did hear it on your voice messages, I won’t run it.” Trinity Mirror said: “Trinity Mirror’s position is clear: all our journalists work within the criminal law and the PCC code of conduct.” Morgan issued a statement through CNN, for whom he records a chat show, Tonight with Piers Morgan, late on Wednesday reiterating he had no knowledge of phone hacking at the Mirror. He added: “Heather Mills has made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had with a senior executive from a Trinity Mirror newspaper in 2001. The BBC has confirmed to me that this executive was not employed by the Daily Mirror. “I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills. “What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media. This is well documented, and was stated in their divorce case.” Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Piers Morgan Harriet Harman Paul McCartney Trinity Mirror James Robinson guardian.co.uk
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