A protester splattered Rupert Murdoch with white foam on Tuesday, interrupting a dramatic hearing in which the media baron told British lawmakers he was not responsible for a phone hacking scandal that has rocked his global empire. (July 19)
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Washington claims men were intelligence agents while Kashmiri lobby group allegedly ‘channelled funding’ Relations between Washington and Islamabad deteriorated further when the US justice department charged two men alleged to have been in the pay of the Pakistan intelligence service. One was involved with the Kashmiri American Council, through which it is alleged that Pakistan channelled millions of dollars to influence members of the US Congress. The US said there are also Kashmiri centres in London and Brussels that the FBI alleged are run by elements of the Pakistani government. FBI special agent Sarah Webb Linden, in an affidavit unsealed on Tuesday, named the one in London as the Justice Foundation/Kashmir Centre run by Nazir Ahmad Shawl. The FBI arrested the executive director of the Kashmiri American Council, Ghulam-Nabi Fai, aged 62, at his home in Fairfax, Virginia, later. The other, Zaheer Ahmad, 63, is believed to be in Pakistan. Both are US citizens and face a prison sentence of five years if convicted. Relations between the US and Pakistani intelligence have been increasingly strained this year after the arrest of a CIA operative, Raymond Davis, in Pakistan and the revelation that Osama bin Laden had been in hiding near Islamabad. A senior US senator, Dianne Feinstein, chair of the intelligence committee, this week described the relationship as in crisis. The US has also engaged in covert funding in Pakistan to achieve its goals. Last week the Guardian revealed how the CIA funded an extensive fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was living, in order to obtain DNA samples from inside his house. Fai’s arrest may come to be seen as a tit-for-tat reprisal for the victimisation of several Pakistanis who participated in that vaccination programme. The arrests come as the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is on a visit to India. The two men are accused of having conspired to act as agents of a foreign government without that interest being declared and falsifying, concealing and covering up the fact. Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for national security, said the two were accused of breaking the law that required the US and the American public to know the underlying source of information and identity of those attempting to influence US policy and laws. The US attorney for Virginia, Neil MacBride, added: “Mr Fai is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose – to hide Pakistan’s involvement behind his efforts to influence the US government’s position on Kashmir.” The affidavit alleges that the centre was run by elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI). Kashmiri activists reacted with dismay and shock to news of Fai’s arrest, describing him as an eloquent advocate for the Kashmiri cause. Several said they believed he had become a victim of deteriorating relations between Washington and Islamabad in the wake of the US raid that killed Bin Laden on 2 May. “I think his arrest is just about settling scores with Pakistan,” said Tariq Naqash, a journalist in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-held Kashmir. “It implies that relations are deteriorating.” Farooq Rehmani, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Freedom League, said Fai came from Srinagar in Indian-controlled Kashmir but had been living in the US for at least 30 years. “I know him personally. He comes from Kashmir and he has been campaigning for our cause,” he said. According to the affidavit, a confidential witness told investigators the money was transferred to Fai through Ahmad, an American living in Pakistan. The FBI interviewed Fai in March 2007 when he allegedly stated he had never met anyone who identified themselves as being with the ISI. The affidavit alleged that four Pakistani government handlers have directed Fai’s US activities and that Fai has been in touch with them more than 4,000 times since June 2008. United States Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) FBI US Congress Ewen MacAskill Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Lord Macdonald tells committee it took him ‘three to five minutes’ to decide NoW emails had to be passed to police “Blindingly obvious” evidence of corrupt payments to police officers was found by the former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, when he inspected News of the World emails, the home affairs select committee was told. Explaining how he had been called in by solicitors acting for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation board, Lord Macdonald said that when he inspected the messages it took him between “three to five minutes” to decide that the material had to be passed to police. “The material I saw was so blindingly obvious that trying to argue that it should not be given to the police would have been a hard task. It was evidence of serious criminal offences.” He first showed it to the News Corp board in June this year. “There was no dissent,” he recalled. “They were stunned. They were shocked. I said it was my unequivocal advice that it should be handed to the police. They accepted that.” That board meeting, the former DPP said, was chaired by Rupert Murdoch. Lord Macdonald shortly afterwards gave the material to Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick at the Metropolitan police. The nine or 10 emails passed over led to the launch of Operation Elveden, the police investigation into corrupt payments to officers for information. Lord Macdonald, who had been in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service when the phone-hacking prosecution of the NoW’s royal correspondent took place, said he had only been alerted to the case due to the convention that the DPP is always notified of crimes involving the royal family. Members of the committee were highly critical of the CPS’s narrow definition of what constituted phone hacking, claiming that it was at odds with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Mark Reckless, the Conservative MP for Rochester, said that the original police investigation was hindered by the advice from the CPS that phone hacking was only an offence if messages had been intercepted before they were listened to by the intended recipient. However, Reckless said, a clause in the RIPA makes it an offence to hack in to messages even if they have already been heard. Keir Starmer, the current DPP, said that the police had been told that “the RIPA legislation was untested”. Listening to messages before they had been heard by the intended recipient was illegal, the police were told, but the question of whether intercepting them afterwards constituted a crime was “untested”, he said. Mark Lewis, the solicitor who has followed the scandal since its start, said he was the first person to lose his job over the affair when the firm in which he was a partner said it no longer wished him to pursue other victims’ claims. Lewis also told MPs that he had been threatened by lawyers acting for John Yates, the former assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police, because of comments he had made about phone
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A protester has rushed Rupert Murdoch as the media baron gave testimony to British lawmakers, causing a scuffle and suspending the hearing. A man was handcuffed with white foam covering his face and shirt. (July 19)
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Court of appeal quashes convictions of 20 eco protesters citing non-disclosure of taped evidence by undercover Mark Kennedy The convictions of 20 environmental protesters for attempting to shut down a power station were quashed on Tuesdayafter three court of appeal judges ruled that crucial evidence recorded by police spy Mark Kennedy had been withheld. The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said that the convictions were “unsafe because of significant non-disclosure” of secret surveillance tapes recorded by Kennedy. He said: “We have reached the clear conclusion that all these appeals against conviction will be allowed.” The campaigners left the high court in London vindicated in their belief that their original convictions had been a miscarriage of justice. However, police and prosecutors are left facing questions over their conduct in securing the unsafe convictions. Seven inquiries have so far been launched into the prosecution of the campaigners and the infiltration of Kennedy into the ranks of the protest movement. Two inquiries, one of which is led by a retired court of appeal judge, are scrutinising whether police or the Crown Prosecution Service were responsible for suppressing the vital evidence which cleared the names of the 20 protesters. The failure to disclose the Kennedy tapes also led in January to the abandonment of the trial of six other campaigners arrested over the same plot. In all, none of the 114 protesters arrested in a controversial police operation two years ago have been convicted. From the beginning, the £300,000 operation was criticised as it stemmed from the largest number of pre-emptive arrests of political activists in the UK. It later emerged that the activists had been infiltrated by Kennedy, who had spent seven years undercover in the environmental movement, using the name Mark Stone, sparking claims that his deployment was a waste of public funds. Acting on intelligence from Kennedy, police burst into a primary school during the night in April 2009 and arrested the activists hours before the planned break-in at Ratcliffe-on Soar power station. Using his fake identity, the spy helped organise the planned protest. Kennedy was later exposed by environmental campaigners and, growing sympathetic to their cause, revealed that he had covertly recorded the meetings of the activists. He said these tapes would help exonerate them. On Tuesday, Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, told the court of appeal: “It is clear that there was a non-disclosure of material which would have been supportive of the defence case advanced at trial.” He identified the tapes and a statement made by Kennedy as the evidence, adding that the Crown Prosecution Service “accepts that the conviction is unsafe”. He said he would give an explanation for the ruling this morning. On the steps of the high court afterwards, Mike Schwarz, the lawyer for the activists, said they would make a fuller statement after hearing the judges’ reasons. He said the quashing was a “small success in the context of a bigger picture” of the policing of protest. The 20 activists had been found guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass in December after a three-week trial at Nottingham crown court. Judge Jonathan Teare gave the activists a range of sentences ranging from 18 months’ conditional discharge to 90 hours’ unpaid work. Teare told them that they had “acted with the highest possible motives” and were “all decent men and women with a genuine concern for others and in particular for the survival of planet Earth in something resembling its present form”. During their trial, the 20 activists had admitted that they were going to break into the power station, but argued that they had a “lawful excuse” to do so as they were acting to prevent the greater crimes of death and serious injury caused by climate change. They said they would have stopped the emission of 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Some police officers are furious that the campaigners have now walked free even after they admitted that they were going to occupy the power station. At December’s trial, the prosecution had said the campaigners were motivated by a desire to get publicity for their cause. During Tuesday’s court of appeal hearing, Matthew Ryder, the campaigners’ QC, called on the three judges to carry out a detailed investigation of how and why Kennedy’s evidence was suppressed. He said the campaigners were still “in the dark” and had “legitimate concerns” to find out what had happened. But Lord Judge questioned why it was necessary for the judges to do that, when there were already seven inquiries. He asked for a full list of the inquiries and their remits. Following allegations in the Guardian, Sir Christopher Rose, a former court of appeal judge, was appointed to examine claims that prosecutors suppressed Kennedy’s evidence. His appointment by Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, followed three internal inquiries into the claims by his agency. The investigation into the alleged suppression of the tapes by Nottinghamshire police is being conducted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Mark Kennedy Protest Coal Police Carbon emissions Court of appeal Energy Rob Evans Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Media mogul Rupert Murdoch targeted by pie-thrower in Parliamentary hearing
July 19, 2011 No Comment
Media mogul and News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch was reportedly attacked by a pie-thrower during hearings before members of the British Parliament Tuesday. According to live reports, a man threw a “white substance” at Murdoch during the hearings before the … Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : VentureBeat Discovery Date : 19/07/2011 16:16 Number of articles : 3
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Conservative party sources say advice had nothing to do with phone-hacking inquiry Hacking suspect Neil Wallis may have provided “informal advice” to David Cameron’s communications chief Andy Coulson before the general election, the Conservative party has said. Sources in the party said the advice had “nothing to do with the phone-hacking inquiry”. A spokesman insisted Wallis was never employed by the Conservative party. The spokesman said: “There have been some questions about whether the Conservative party employed Neil Wallis. “We have double-checked our records and are able to confirm that neither Neil Wallis nor his company has ever been contracted by the Conservative party, nor has the Conservative party made payments to either of them. “It has been drawn to our attention that he may have provided Andy Coulson with some informal advice on a voluntary basis before the election. We are currently finding out the exact nature of any advice. “We can confirm that apart from Andy Coulson, neither David Cameron nor any senior member of the campaign team were aware of this until this week.” The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, and his assistant commissioner John Yates, who both appeared before the home affairs select committee on Tuesday, resigned after being linked to Wallis, who was deputy to Coulson during his time in charge at the News of the World. It was also alleged that Wallis arranged a stay at the luxury health resort Champneys for Stephenson and his wife as he recovered from surgery. But Scotland Yard has insisted the accommodation and food was provided by Champneys’ managing director, Stephen Purdew, a family friend of the commissioner. Wallis denies any involvement in the stay. The shadow culture secretary, Ivan Lewis, said: “This revelation raises further serious concerns about David Cameron’s judgment in appointing Andy Coulson. “He must now come clean about Neil Wallis’s role and activities in supporting Andy Coulson, both in his capacity as director of communications for the Tory party, and then the prime minister.” Phone hacking Andy Coulson David Cameron News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Conservatives guardian.co.uk
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Michael Gove announces new PFI school-building programme, acknowledging ‘deep disappointment’ at cancellation of Labour’s Building Schools for the Future Up to 300 schools will be rebuilt under private finance schemes with an “upfront cost” of around £2bn, Michael Gove has announced in the Commons. The first of the restored schools is due to open in September 2014, the education secretary said in a statement acknowledging the “deep disappointment” caused by his cancellation of Labour’s school-building programme . Gove said the government will cover the contractual liabilities of six councils after it scrapped Building Schools for the Future. It will offer to pay the costs they have run up with private contractors, which run into millions of pounds. Luton council has said the late cancellation of the scheme left it with liabilities of £3.6m, while Waltham Forest said it stands to lose £275m. But the cancelled programmes will not be reinstated. Instead, between 100 and 300 schools in the worst condition nationally will be rebuilt under a new PFI scheme. The new school building scheme will be “rigorously policed” to ensure it does not incur the excessive costs of previous PFI projects, Gove said. Gove told the Commons that BSF, which triggered the worst political crisis of his first year in office, did not prioritise the greatest need or procure buildings as cheaply as possible. From now on, schools should be built to a standard design to save costs, he said. Gove announced a further £500m to fund more school places in areas where population growth has put classrooms under pressure. The preferred option will be a free school or academy. A baby boom has triggered record shortages of primary school places for this autumn and the number of pupils in state primary schools is projected to increase about 14% from 3.96m last year to 4.5m by 2018. The rise will be steepest in London. The PFI scheme goes partway to meeting a shortfall in capital funding which includes an estimated £8.5bn school repair bill. Gove said that £1.4bn had been made available this year to deal with maintenance. PFI, which involves private contractors paying upfront for schools and hospitals then leasing them back for up to 30 years, has become increasingly expensive since the financial crisis. The government has been warned against PFI by its own spending watchdog , the national audit office. Schools currently being built under PFI will be expected to improve energy efficiency, let out floor space, and reduce decorating costs in order to shave budgets, the Treasury announced separately on Tuesday. The government has also launched a consultation on a new “national funding formula” to even out disparities between the operational cash distributed to schools in different areas. Gove said: “At present, similar schools in different areas can receive very different amounts of funding for their pupils. “This is not fair on headteachers, on teachers or on pupils.” This reform could see individual school budgets set from Whitehall, effectively bypassing local authorities, although Gove said there would be “appropriate room for local discretion”. Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham questioned whether the government saw any future for local authorities in education. An “all-academy world” in which schools were directly funded by central government would look very different to the existing system, he said. Ty Goddard, director of the British Council for School Environments, an association of councils, schools and private contractors, said: “Today’s announcement recognises the profound need for investment in our school buildings. A decent school environment matters. “Key to the new capital funding programme’s success will be a common sense approach to allocation, which takes into account the needs of schools which apply. “We must guard against some of the problems that were a hallmark of early PFI-funded schools.” The National Association of Head Teachers welcomed the consultation on a national funding formula. Russell Hobby, the NAHT’s general secretary, said: “For too long, schools have suffered with inconsistent and unclear funding. Inexplicable differences across local authority boundaries have led to similar schools receiving more than £1,000 per pupil difference in levels of funding. “This is completely untenable. “The consultation shows that thinking around school funding is heading in a sensible direction but we realise that there is still a long way to go. Issues such as support for small schools, meeting the cost of pupils with special educational needs and funding across the whole of the school sector are complex.” School building programme Schools School funding Primary schools Private finance initiative Michael Gove Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media While answering questions before Parliament Tuesday, a man appeared to try to throw a pie in the face of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch’s wife, Wendi, was seen throwing a punch at the man.
Continue reading …MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer: Pie Attack on Murdoch ‘Encapsulates What the British People are Feeling’
July 19, 2011 No Comment
MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer on Tuesday insisted that a pie throwing attack on Rupert Murdoch, which occurred live on air, ” encapsulates what the British people are feeling right now about Rupert Murdoch .” As the cable network aired live coverage of Murdoch's testimony to the British Parliament about the phone hacking scandal, a man appeared in the left corner of the screen and attempted to attack the media mogul. [See video below. MP3 audio here .] Brewer described the event as the “attention getter of the day.” She highlighted members of Parliament “looking on in horror and then oddly added, “And I think, in some ways, this encapsulates what the British people are feeling right now about Rupert Murdoch and those involved in this phone hacking scandal.” Considering that no one knew at the time what the man's intentions were and what contents made up the pie, it's odd to link such an extremist to the legitimate anger Britons feel over the hacking. Thanks to MRC intern Alex Fitzsimmons for the video. A transcript of the exchange, which occurred at 12:06pm EDT on MSNBC News Live, follows: 07/19/11 CONTESSA BREWER: Yeah, we're just being told a white substance. And that picture of the protester after he'd been taken into police custody. And the protester himself has it covering his face and his shoulders and neck. There he is behind the glass and we can see him his arms now cuffed behind his back in custody of police. It does seem like we've been told that Rupert Murdoch did get some of that white substance on him. And then, as you mention here, Wendy Deng jumped up to defend her husband. We saw kind of an arm swat there many the video. I mean, the thing is we've been watching this testimony for the last few hours here. It's been compelling testimony in and of itself, Thomas. And then this has been the attention getter of the day. When you're standing here and you're listening to it and all of a sudden you hear the whole crowd, the MPs, the members of Parliament who have been involved in the questioning erupting audibly and looking with horror. And you can see that reaction from James Murdoch, you know, “What's going on here?” That was the attention getter. And I think, in some ways, this encapsulates what the British people are feeling right now about Rupert Murdoch and those involved in this phone hacking scandal. Richard Wolffe is an MSNBC contributor and has been following this as well. The testimony today though polite, though the questions and answers have been mostly civil. They have been tough. RICHARD WOLFE: They have been tough. And this whole experience never mind actually what the Brits would call that is a custard pie confusingly with shaving cream. But, anyway, absent that, this is all a new experience for the British public and for the members of Parliament. These committees that you're seeing may be familiar over here, they're a relatively new phenomenon. They came up in 1979. They weren't given any teeth. And it's really since the expenses scandal in London involving some of the people around that table that these committees have taken on these new powers. So, the whole thing, you know, Rupert Murdoch said early on this was the most humble day of his life. And the whole experience is humbling for the people. At one end the Murdochs, never mind again this outrageous attack on him, but it's also interesting seeing these MPs, these members of Parliament trying to figure out what is the right approach here. Cross examining, trying to get at the story. There's legal disputes. And of course you have the Murdochs trying to say we knew nothing. We were running a big company, we knew nothing.
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