Senior source inside hacker collective seeks to embarrass Metropolitan police and judges with ‘explosive’ revelations Figures at the top of hackers’ collective Anonymous are threatening to attack the Metropolitan police’s computer systems and those controlled by the UK judicial system, warning that Tuesday will be “the biggest day in Anonymous’s history”. The collective is understood to be seeking to express anger over News International’s phone hacking and at the threatened extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A Twitter feed purporting to belong to Sabu, a senior figure within the group and the founder of the spin-off group LulzSec, which hacked a site linked to the CIA and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, promised two releases of information would be launched within a day. “Everyone brace,” he tweeted . “This will be literally explosive.” A follow-up message read: “ATTN Intelligence community: Your contractors have failed you. Tomorrow is the beginning.” The account, @anonymouSabu, has not been verified as belonging to Sabu – but it has over 7,700 followers and has been referenced by the “official” Anonymous @anon_central account on Twitter. Sources close to the collective were unusually close-lipped about the targets of tomorrow’s hack, but talk within chat channels has suggested several top-level members of Anonymous are eager to launch attacks based around Julian Assange’s appeal hearing against extradition, which begins on Tuesday. Others are also believed to have proposed targeting the Met in retaliation for alleged payments to police officers by News of the World reporters, and the general response to the phone hacking scandal. Other speculation centres around material claimed to have been obtained last week from contractors relating to security and secrecy of “former world leaders”, or plans to target a senior leaders’ retreat at Bohemian Grove, California. As is typical in the chaotic and occasionally paranoid Anonymous community, other sources close to the collective are warning some prominent members are probably engaging in “disinformation campaigns” ahead of any action. Communication problems around the planned releases were compounded as the main chat channel used by Anonymous was offline for much of Monday, leaving even those close to senior members of the collective unable to verify rumours ahead of the release. Rumours on Friday suggested that one Anonymous member had broken into the News International servers and taken copies of some internal emails which were being offered for sale or even ransom. However this could not be confirmed, and the Guardian has not seen any evidence that the claimed email stash is legitimate, although News International’s site is understood to have been “probed” by members of Anonymous at the end of last week. Last Wednesday, two days after the Dowler revelations, a listing of emails of NoW staff appeared on Pastebin , a favourite site for posting the results – or beginnings – of attacks against all sorts of sites by Anonymous and other hacker groups. One source told the Guardian that News International’s server had been probed for up to 30 minutes at a time last week by hackers using “proxy chaining” – a method of logging in via a number of remote computers – to disguise their identity. “Everyone thinks Interpol will get involved at some point,” the source said. The hackers’ anger at the company was ignited by the revelation last week that a private detective acting for NoW had listened into voicemails on the phone of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler, which may have interfered with the police investigation to find her. Anonymous has previously attacked PayPal and Visa over their refusal, following orders from the US government, to process donations for WikiLeaks. It has also carried out online attacks against the Church of Scientology over what is seen as suppression of information. Hacking Anonymous Police Phone hacking Julian Assange WikiLeaks James Ball Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Italian bailout fears grow but finance minister promises austerity measures in attempt to ‘send the markets a strong signal’ Italy was firmly in the eye of the eurozone debt storm on Monday as it became the target of potentially self-fulfilling fears that it will be unable to pay off its huge public debts . In an attempt to stem selling surges in the bond and equity markets, Italy’s finance minister Giulio Tremonti, promised to “send the markets a strong signal”. He said a package of measures to reduce the budget deficit would be “armour-plated” and approved by parliament within a week: “Something that has never happened in the history of Italy.” The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she had discussed the situation on Sunday with Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. She told a press conference in Berlin that Italy had to agree “on a budget that meets the need for frugality and consolidation”, adding: “I have full confidence the Italian government will pass exactly this kind of budget.” Concern over the effectiveness of the package was central to the sell-off of Italian shares and bonds that began on Friday. But neither Tremonti’s nor Merkel’s words managed to stem the panic. The yield on benchmark 10-year government bonds soared to 5.565% – the highest since May 2001 – which sharply increases the state’s borrowing costs. At one point, the spread between the Italian benchmark bond and its German equivalent reached a record 290 percentage points. The concern over bonds infected the stock market where Italian banks, leading holders of their country’s debt, were particularly badly hit. Intesa SanPaolo’s shares lost more than 6% as the FTSE MIB index of Milan bourse blue chips slid 3.3% by early afternoon. One of the concerns driving markets was that the return on Italy’s bonds could reach a level that was unsustainable for its treasury. The rise in yields, the effective interest rate Italy must pay to borrow, comes at a particularly awkward moment: Bloomberg estimated last week that between now and the end of 2012, the government will have to re-finance 26% of its public debt. The state’s accumulated borrowing has risen to almost 120% of GDP – the second highest level in the EU after Greece. As part of a programme for its reduction, Tremonti last week unveiled a four-year, €40bn plus package of deficit-cutting measures . But, with Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition partners in the Northern League clamouring for tax cuts to buy back the government’s lost popularity, all but €6bn of the adjustments was postponed until the next legislature. Fears that the package could be watered down – or that Tremonti may not be around to see them through – contributed to a growing sense of unease among investors. Berlusconi has long been impatient of the straitjacket put on him by his finance minister, and at the end of last week his exasperation with Tremonti spilled into the open in an interview in which he accused him of intellectual arrogance. At the same time, Tremonti has been caught up in a scandal that prejudices his chances of survival: he has admitted that an adviser, who faces arrest on corruption charges, paid the rent on the €8,500 a month flat he used in Rome. European debt crisis European banks Italy Financial crisis Europe Europe Silvio Berlusconi Global recession John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Italian bailout fears grow but finance minister promises austerity measures in attempt to ‘send the markets a strong signal’ Italy was firmly in the eye of the eurozone debt storm on Monday as it became the target of potentially self-fulfilling fears that it will be unable to pay off its huge public debts . In an attempt to stem selling surges in the bond and equity markets, Italy’s finance minister Giulio Tremonti, promised to “send the markets a strong signal”. He said a package of measures to reduce the budget deficit would be “armour-plated” and approved by parliament within a week: “Something that has never happened in the history of Italy.” The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she had discussed the situation on Sunday with Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. She told a press conference in Berlin that Italy had to agree “on a budget that meets the need for frugality and consolidation”, adding: “I have full confidence the Italian government will pass exactly this kind of budget.” Concern over the effectiveness of the package was central to the sell-off of Italian shares and bonds that began on Friday. But neither Tremonti’s nor Merkel’s words managed to stem the panic. The yield on benchmark 10-year government bonds soared to 5.565% – the highest since May 2001 – which sharply increases the state’s borrowing costs. At one point, the spread between the Italian benchmark bond and its German equivalent reached a record 290 percentage points. The concern over bonds infected the stock market where Italian banks, leading holders of their country’s debt, were particularly badly hit. Intesa SanPaolo’s shares lost more than 6% as the FTSE MIB index of Milan bourse blue chips slid 3.3% by early afternoon. One of the concerns driving markets was that the return on Italy’s bonds could reach a level that was unsustainable for its treasury. The rise in yields, the effective interest rate Italy must pay to borrow, comes at a particularly awkward moment: Bloomberg estimated last week that between now and the end of 2012, the government will have to re-finance 26% of its public debt. The state’s accumulated borrowing has risen to almost 120% of GDP – the second highest level in the EU after Greece. As part of a programme for its reduction, Tremonti last week unveiled a four-year, €40bn plus package of deficit-cutting measures . But, with Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition partners in the Northern League clamouring for tax cuts to buy back the government’s lost popularity, all but €6bn of the adjustments was postponed until the next legislature. Fears that the package could be watered down – or that Tremonti may not be around to see them through – contributed to a growing sense of unease among investors. Berlusconi has long been impatient of the straitjacket put on him by his finance minister, and at the end of last week his exasperation with Tremonti spilled into the open in an interview in which he accused him of intellectual arrogance. At the same time, Tremonti has been caught up in a scandal that prejudices his chances of survival: he has admitted that an adviser, who faces arrest on corruption charges, paid the rent on the €8,500 a month flat he used in Rome. European debt crisis European banks Italy Financial crisis Europe Europe Silvio Berlusconi Global recession John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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David Cameron launched a desperate bid to kill Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of BSkyB last night – finally signalling a decisive break with the media mogul. Downing Street revealed the Prime Minister wants to prevent the tycoon buying out the television company until criminal proceedings have concluded into the News of the World hacking scandal. That could delay the
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Newspapers obtained details from the former prime minister’s bank account and legal file and his family’s medical records Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account, his legal file as well as his family’s medical records. There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him. That investigator also targeted another Labour MP who was the subject of hostile inquiries by the News of the World, but it has not confirmed whether News International was specifically involved in trawling police computers for information on Brown. Separately, Brown’s tax paperwork was taken from his accountant’s office apparently by hacking into the firm’s computer. This was passed to another newspaper. Brown was targeted during a period of more than 10 years, both as chancellor of the exchequer and as prime minister. Some of the activity clearly was illegal. Other incidents breached his privacy but not the law. An investigation by the Guardian has found that: • Scotland Yard has discovered references to both Brown and his wife, Sarah, in paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who specialised in phone hacking for the News of the World; • Abbey National bank found suggestion that a “blagger” acting for the Sunday Times on six occasions posed as Brown and gained details from his account; • Brown’s London lawyers, Allen & Overy, were tricked into handing over details from his file by a conman working for the Sunday Times; • Details from his infant son’s medical records were obtained by the Sun, who published a story about the child’s serious illness. Brown joins a long list of Labour politicians who are known to have been targeted by private investigators working for News International, including the former prime minister Tony Blair and his media adviser Alastair Campbell, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his political adviser Joan Hammell, Peter Mandelson as trade secretary, Jack Straw and David Blunkett as home secretaries, Tessa Jowell as media secretary and her special adviser Bill Bush, and Chris Bryant as minister for Europe. The sheer scale of the data assault on Brown is unusual, with evidence of attempts to obtain his legal, financial, tax, medical and police records as well as to listen to his voicemail. All of these incidents are linked to media organisations. In many cases, there is evidence of a link to News International. Scotland Yard recently wrote separately to Brown and to his wife to tell them that their details had been found in evidence collected by Operation Weeting, the special inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World. It is believed that this refers to handwritten notes kept by Mulcaire, which were seized by police in August 2006 and never previously investigated. Brown last year asked Scotland Yard if there was evidence that he had been targeted by the private investigator and was told there was none. Journalists who have worked at News International say they believe that Brown’s personal bank account was accessed on several occasions when he was chancellor of the exchequer. An internal inquiry by Abbey National’s fraud department found that during January 2000, somebody acting on behalf of the Sunday Times contacted their Bradford call centre six times, posing as Brown, and succeeded in extracting details from his account. Abbey National’s senior lawyer sent a summary of their findings to the editor of the Sunday Times, John Witherow, concluding: “On the basis of these facts and inquiries, I am drawn to the conclusion that someone from the Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception.” Abbey National were not able to identify the bogus caller who tricked their staff. It is a matter of public record that a Sunday Times reporter frequently used the services of a former actor, John Ford, who specialised in “blagging” confidential data from banks, phone companies and the Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue & Customs). Also in January 2000, one of the paper’s reporters used a conman named Barry Beardall, who was subsequently jailed for fraud, to trick staff at Brown’s solicitors, Allen & Overy, into handing over details from his personal file. A tape made by Beardall at the time reveals that he claimed to be an accountant from the “Dealson group of companies” and that they were interested in buying Brown’s flat. Beardall also practised trickery in an attempt to provide Sunday Times stories about Blair, the then prime minister, and Labour’s candidate for the mayor of London, Frank Dobson. Confidential health records for Brown’s family have reached the media on two different occasions. In October 2006, the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks, contacted the Browns to tell them that they had obtained details from the medical file of their four-month-old son, Fraser, which revealed that the boy was suffering from cystic fibrosis. This appears to have been a clear breach of the Data Protection Act, which would allow such a disclosure only if it was in the public interest. Friends of the Browns say the call caused them immense distress, since they were only coming to terms with the diagnosis, which had not been confirmed. The Sun published the story. Five years earlier, when their first child, Jennifer, was born on 28 December 2001, a small group of specialist doctors and nurses was aware that she had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was dying. By some means which has not been discovered, this highly sensitive information was obtained by news organisations, who published it over the weekend before Jennifer died, on Monday 6 January 2002. In 2003, Devon and Cornwall police discovered that one of their junior officers was providing information from the police national computer to a network of private investigators. The Guardian has established that one of these investigators, Glen Lawson of Abbey Investigations in Newcastle upon Tyne, used this contact to commission a search of police records for information about Brown on 16 November 2000. Lawson also commissioned searches related to two other Labour MPs – Nick Brown and Martin Salter. Lawson made these searches on behalf of journalists, a previously unreported court hearing was told. Transcripts obtained by the Guardian show that the search on Martin Salter was made at a time when the News of the World, then edited by Brooks, was attacking him for refusing to support the paper’s notorious “Sarah’s law” campaign to name paedophiles. Lawson currently refuses to name the journalists who commissioned him. An attempt to prosecute this network was blocked by a West Country judge, Paul Darlow, who shocked police by ruling that it would be a misuse of public money to pursue the case. However, Devon and Cornwall police contacted the office of the then chancellor to warn him that he had been a victim, as they also did with his two Labour colleagues. Brown’s tax paperwork was obtained from the offices of his accountants, Auerbach Hope, in late 1998. The first sign that the records had been taken came when a journalist from the now defunct Sunday Business called the accountants to say that they had been passed a copy of the records, including a schedule of Brown’s income for the most recent year. The journalist acknowledged that the paperwork showed no sign of any kind of wrongdoing on Brown’s part but wanted to do a story about the fact that it had been stolen. Police came and found no sign of any break-in. The originals of the documents were still in Brown’s file, which ruled out the possibility that they had been taken from the firm’s dustbins. Auerbach Hope discounted theft by an insider on the grounds that they would have stolen paperwork which showed wrongdoing and thus had greater media value. They concluded that the most likely explanation was that somebody had hacked into their computer systems, specifically targeting Gordon Brown. Senior Labour figures also strongly suspect that a news organisation broke the law to obtain the emails that led to the resignation in April 2009 of Brown’s close aide Damian McBride. The emails, which disclosed a scheme to smear Tory MPs, had been exchanged between McBride and a Labour party activist, Derek Draper. The Labour figures believe that the emails were hacked from Draper’s computer and that their contents were then sent to the political blogger Guido Fawkes, whose stories were then followed by Fleet Street. Phone hacking Gordon Brown The Sun Sunday Times News International Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Nick Davies David Leigh guardian.co.uk
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• Assad supporters storm French and US embassies in Syria • Egypt’s interim government fails to quell public anger • US envoy tells Yemen’s President Saleh to stand down 3.24pm: Pro-regime supporters smashed windows at the US Embassy, scrawled graffiti on the walls and raised a Syrian flag , witnesses told AP reports. French Embassy security guards fired in the air to hold back supporters of Assad’s regime who were also protesting the French ambassador’s visit to Hama. One witness said three protesters were injured when guards beat them with clubs. The witness asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. There was no immediate word on casualties at the American Embassy demonstration. Hiam al-Hassan, a witness, said about 300 people had gathered outside the French Embassy while hundreds others were at the American diplomatic compound. “Syrians demonstrated peacefully in front of the French embassy but they were faced with bullets,” said al-Hassan. The US state department is to have stern words with Syrian diplomats, according to Reuters: “We are calling in the Syrian charge (d’affaires) to complain,” said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We feel they failed (in their responsibility to protect U.S. diplomats). We are going to condemn their slow response.” 3.05pm: The break-ins at the US and French embassies in the Syrian capital Damascus now appear to be over. Reuters reports: Unidentified people tried to break into France’s embassy in Syria on Monday but failed, the French Foreign Ministry said. The incident “is now finished,” spokesman Bernard Valero said in response to a query. He could not immediately give more details. This photograph of the incident at the US embassy (left) appears on a pro-Assad Facebook group. 2.51pm: More on the embassy raids from Reuters: French embassy guards in Damascus fired live ammunition to disperse loyalists to President Bashar al-Assad who tried to break into the compound on Monday and are still surrounding it, diplomats in the Syrian capital said. A similar crowd broke into the U.S. embassy but later left, they added. A US embassy official said the response of the Syrian authorities was “slow and insufficient”. 2.33pm: There is a photograph of pro-regime supporters scaling the US embassy fence in Damascus on the the Arabic website, Day Press News (via @LeShaque ). And over at the French embassy there’s been clashes between the security guards and pro-regime supporters, Reuters reports. President Assad loyalists try to break into French embassy compound in Damascus, confrontation erupts with embassy guards – Diplomats. The French ambassador to Syria accompanied Ford on his “solidarity” trip to Hama. The BBC claims security guards fired into the air at the French embassy . 2.19pm: Reuters news flash: President Bashar al-Assad loyalists break into U.S. embassy compound in Damascus-Diplomats in Syrian capital Yesterday, the US ambassador Robert Ford accused the Syrian authorities of failing to prevent a demonstration outside the embassy at the weekend. How ironic that the Syrian Government lets an anti-U.S. demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere. Ford’s visit to Hama appears to be backfiring. On Friday an official said he left the demonstration “so as not to be a distraction during the weekly demonstrations” . But his motorcade was mobbed by protesters before he had a chance to leave. 1.46pm: Egypt’s interim government is struggling to contain anger at the slow pace of change, as protests continue in Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria and activists call for a million-person march tomorrow, writes Egyptian journalist Sara Elkamel. Headlines in the Egyptian press portray the public’s dissatisfaction with prime minister Essam Sharaf’s recent concessions. Sharaf has promised a cabinet re-shuffle in response to massive protests last Friday. But activists have rejected the offer as a feeble gesture that does not match their demands. Thousands of protesters continue to hold sit-ins, determined to see immediate reforms. According to the daily newspaper al-Ahram, Tahrir sqaure, more protests are expected tomorrow. The demands of groups leading the protests include the public trail of ousted president Mubarak and his family, along with the remnants of his party, and the police involved in the killing of protesters during the uprising. They also want the repeal of anti-strike and anti-demonstration laws, as well as a new state budget that does more to help the poor. Thousands of protesters have remained in Tahrir Square for a fourth consecutive day. And despite army efforts to disperse protests in Suez, demonstrators gathered near the Suez canal, calling for freedom and dignity and the public trail of Mubarak. Meanwhile, in Alexandria a rally blocked the Corniche Road . A tweet from activist R.Saro sums up the mood: “#Egypt is not back to Square one– Its back to #tahrir” . Elkamel is working for the Guardian this week. 1.26pm: Syrian activists claim that while the “dialogue” meeting has been taking place in Damascus, the security forces killed two people in a raid on the country’s third city of Homs. Activists have circulated video of the funeral of Afnan Khalid, who it said was killed in the city on Sunday. At least two people were killed and 20 wounded in the attacks in Homs , activists told AP. In Homs, an activist in the city told The Associated Press clashes occurred after security forces killed on Sunday the son of an anti-regime tribal leader. The unrest lasted until 5 am 9 (local time). Street lights were turned off then troops started entering neighborhoods, shooting with heavy machine guns atop Russian-made armoured personnel carriers, said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. Activists have also uploaded video of a Red Crescent ambulance riddled with bullet holes . They claim the vehicle was shot at in Homs. The Red Crescent has yet to respond to the footage. Sara Elkamel, provides this translation of the commentary on the video. “These are Bashar al-Assad’s reforms…Even the Red Cross ambulances could not escape them…do you see the bullets on the ambulances? Here are Bashar al-Assad’s reforms…” _ 12.06pm: US envoy John Brennan has now travelled to Yemen to continue to push for a transfer of power, AP reports. Yesterday Brennan was in the Saudi capital Riyadh for talks with President Saleh who continues to refuse to stand down, despite months of protests against his regime. Today Brennan is meeting Yemen’s caretaker president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in Sana’a to try to revive a Gulf Co-operation Council broker deal that involves Saleh’s resignation. 12.00pm: Diplomatic relations between France and Syria are tense after a troubled weekend, writes Angelique Chrisafis in Paris. The French foreign office summoned Syria’s ambassador to France on Sunday night to express its outrage over violent protests outside the French embassy in Damascus over the weekend. Demonstrators at the embassy and the French consulate in Aleppo had burned French flags, lobbed stones into the compound and destroyed cars in what France called “unspeakable acts” while the Syrian authorities stood by. The violence came after the French ambassador to Damascus, Eric Chevallier, and his US counterpart, Robert Ford, visited the northern city of Hama in a show of solidarity for protesters on Friday. The Syrian government objected to the ambassadors’ visits, calling them “blatant” interference in Syrian internal affairs. 11.13am: Yemen state TV has carried footage of President Saleh meeting US envoy John Brennan in Saudi Arabia. In the clip Saleh’s hands are covered in surgical gloves , and he still appeared to be ailing from the attack on his compound last month. _ The White House said Brennan urged Saleh to sign a Gulf Co-operation Council deal that would see him stand down in return for immunity from prosecution. Yemeni activist NoonArabia makes the obvious sick joke : With these hands #Saleh is unlikely to sign a #GCC initiative plan. Sorry #US #KSA he’ll just have to leave #Yemen asap! twitpic.com/5ob4pz The Yemen state news agency, Saba, indicated that Saleh again refused to agree to the GCC deal. It said Saleh pointed out that the “peaceful transfer of power in Yemen must be within the framework of democracy and the constitution” . 10.43am: UAE journalist and blogger Sultan al-Qassemi is hopeful of change from the new generation of Saudi leaders, but he says change needs to be gradual. When we mentioned on the blog on Friday that Qassemi would be coming to the Guardian offices, below the line littleriver asked us to challenge him on his assertion that Saudi Arabia is on the “cusp of major change “. I put that and some of littleriver’s other points to Qassemi in an Audioboo interview on Friday . He said: “Before 2020 you will see a shift to the third generation of Saudi leadership. Many of them have studied abroad … the current generation has not gone to university [or] interacted with the outside world.” He said Saudis educated aboard, won’t take to the streets, but will slowly take over the running of the country. “They will slowly recruit people who are like minded and that’s how I see change happening,” he said. Qassemi added that change in Saudi Arabia needed to be slow and manageable. He is more forthright about continuing protests in Egypt, which he describes as “a good sign”. “The [Egyptian] army should be kept on track. The army should not forget that it is the people who will rule Egypt and not them.” _ 10.13am: The Syrian state news agency, Sana, has acknowledged criticism of the regime at the “dialogue” meeting with some opposition figures. In an interesting write-up of the opening day of the talks, it rattles through a number of serious challenges to the government made at the talks. But it does not go into details and has few direct quotes. Here is a flavour of the tone of the report: Participants called for ending the ‘police state’ and working for a democratic civil state which enjoys party and political multilateralism and media freedoms … They urged for an immediate halt to violence and random arrests, lifting the ‘blockade’ on cities and setting up civil committees to organize visits to these cities and review the demands of their residents. 9.31am: Welcome to Middle East Live. There’s lots to catch up on after another busy weekend in the region. Syria remains the key place to watch as opposition activists boycott a second day of “dialogue” with the ruling Ba’ath party amid a continuing crackdown. Meanwhile, in Egypt more protests are planned as the interim government fails to quell growing frustration at the pace of change and lack of accountability for members of the old regime and its security forces. And on a trip to Saudi Arabia, the US envoy John Brennan has told Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down. Here’s a run down in more detail. Syria • Activist and opposition leaders in Syria are boycotting a second day of a “national dialogue” conference on reform with the ruling Ba’ath party. • The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria, which says it has a list of the names of 1,963 people killed in the uprising so far, repeated its opposition to the talks, claiming the exercise was “nothing but a cover-up for violence committed against Syrian citizens”. • Opposition figures who have attended the talks have been allowed to make sweeping criticisms of the regime on state TV , the LA Times reports. It quotes comments made by Tayyeb Tizini, a professor of philosophy at Damascus University, who told a news conference: We should dismantle the security state that dominates the whole society. Now we are suffering the consequences of the police state. The police state will destroy every aspect of society as it keeps tabs on every Syrian citizen. And conference participant and parliament member Mohammed Habash said: A part of what is going on is a result of foreign intervention, but 80% of it is a result of internal congestion that comes as a result of oppression and the practices of the security apparatus. • A campaign has been set up to free the Syrian blogger and activist Anas Maarawi, who was arrested earlier this month in Damascus . • Human Rights Watch has gathered more evidence that the army has ordered to shoot protesters and shoot soldiers who refuse to do so , from those who defected from the military. One soldier, who defected after being deployed to Deraa, said: We received orders to kill protesters. Some military refused the orders and were shot with a handgun. Two were killed in front of me. Defectors also said they were banned from watching television in private to avoid any of them watching TV channels that aired anti-government information. • There are conflicting reports about whether an activist in central Damascus was killed after being shot in Friday’s protests. The Guardian quotes activists saying that 25-year-old Mohamed Dakdak died after being shot in the head , making him the first casualty of the uprising in the centre of the capital. But Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid reported that an Ahmad Dakdak is still alive but in critical condition after twice undergoing surgery . • The US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has condemned a pro-regime protests outside the US embassy after his visit to Friday protests in Hama provoked anger from the regime . Writing on the Damascus’s embassy Facebook page , Ford said: On July 9 a “mnhebak” group threw rocks at our embassy, causing some damage. They resorted to violence, unlike the people in Hama, who have stayed peaceful. Go look at the Ba’ath or police headquarters in Hama – no damage that I saw … And how ironic that the Syrian government lets an anti-US demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere. The people in Hama have been demonstrating peacefully for weeks … And I saw no signs of armed gangs anywhere – not at any of the civilian street barricades we passed. Egypt • Activists in Egypt have vowed to continued protests about the slow pace of change and lack of accountability for police violence. Egypt’s interim leader, Essam Sharaf, promised to to meet demands of the protesters who came out in force on Friday. But his speech failed to convince, as demonstrations broke out in Cairo yesterday and more demonstrations are planned for tomorrow. • The Egyptian army clashed with protesters in Suez on Sunday, the Washington Post reports. • The latest Arabist podcast discusses the increasingly fractured Egyptian opposition and shouting matches between Islamist and secularists in Tahrir Square on Friday. Yemen US counter terrorism chief John Brennan has urged Yemen’s President Saleh to step down and not return to Sana’a , the New York Times reports. In a written statement on Sunday, the White House said Brennan “called on President Saleh to fulfil expeditiously his pledge to sign” an agreement brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council, which would lead to a transition ending his 33 years in office and grant the president immunity. Libya France has urged Libyan rebels to enter negotiations with Gaddafi’s regime , in a sign of Nato’s growing impatience with the conflict. Reuters quoted the French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, as saying: We have asked them to speak to each other. The position of the TNC (rebel Transitional National Council) is very far from other positions. Now, there will be a need to sit around a table. Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Syria Bashar Al-Assad Egypt Yemen Libya Nato Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
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Palace confirms police recently approached couple to warn them they were likely targets of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire Police have warned Buckingham Palace that they have found evidence that the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall may have had their voicemail hacked by the News of the World. The heir to the throne and his wife are among at least 10 members of the royal household who have now been warned they were targeted for hacking, according to police records obtained by the Guardian. Only five had previously been identified. A palace source on Monday confirmed to the Guardian that the prince and the duchess had been approached by police recently to be warned that they had been identified as likely targets of the News of the World’s specialist phone-hacker, Glenn Mulcaire. The revelation comes as the BBC disclosed that the emails which News International handed to Scotland Yard in June include evidence that the paper had paid bribes to a royal protection officer in order to obtain private phone numbers for the royal household. It is believed that personal phone details for Prince Charles and Camilla have been found among the 11,000 pages of handwritten notes that were kept by Mulcaire and which were seized by the original Scotland Yard inquiry in August 2006. The palace source said: “The question that has to be answered is: if somebody had access to this evidence back then, why didn’t they do something about it?” Previous statements by police have identified only five royal victims – Prince William, Prince Harry and three members of staff who were named in the trial of the News of the World’s royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, in January 2007. In response to a Freedom of Information request from the Guardian, Scotland Yard have now revealed that they warned a total of10 royal victims. Eight were warned at the time of the original police inquiry in 2006. Two others were warned only after the Guardian revived the story in July 2009. It is not clear whether the prince and duchess are among the 10 victims to which their records referred. The palace source suggested that they had been warned only recently. The remaining unidentified victims are thought to be members of the royal family, not staff. The prosecution strategy at the time of the trial was to name staff but not family. Paperwork held by the Crown Prosecution Service reveals that police and prosecutors adopted a deliberate strategy to “ringfence” the evidence they presented in court in order to suppress the names of particularly prominent victims, including members of the royal family. Scotland Yard took more than 14 months to provide the information, which was originally requested under the Freedom of Information Act in April 2010. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Prince Charles Camilla Parker Bowles News of the World Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media We’ve had way too few voices calling out this kabuki theater on the debt ceiling for what it is, a manufactured political crisis, when the real crisis is the lack of jobs in the United States. Katrina Vanden Heuvel did just that on Reliable Sources today. KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Yes. So I think in the last weeks, we’ve seen more attention paid for the fact you no longer have a Republican Party Richard Nixon would recognize. This is an extremist Republican Party willing to blow up the global economy by tethering draconian, cruel deficit cuts to the debt ceiling — a debt ceiling, by the way, Republicans seven times voted for to lift under George W. Bush. But I think the largest crisis the media — the media malpractice, Howard, is the fact that you have the idea, the concept that America is bankrupt. It is not bankrupt. What is bankrupt is the inside the Beltway consensus that the real crisis in this country is about deficits and debt. When you look at the front pages in the last days, the last few years, Howard, what is it? It is a jobs crisis. So, when you listen to Bill Daley on “Meet the Press” this morning and he said President Obama came to Washington to do something big, what we need is coverage of what a grand bargain on jobs could be, and the consequences of what we’re seeing inside the beltway for millions of Americans. Naturally no progressive can come on CNN without a conservative being put on as well for “balance”, so we got treated to Tony Blankley giving the usual Republican talking points on their refusal to raise taxes when we’ve got some of the greatest income disparity since the Gilded Age and painting Democrats who don’t like this deal as being unreasonable for not wanting to see our social safety nets cut instead of raising taxes on the rich. Full transcript below the fold. KURTZ: The clock is ticking as President Obama and Hill leaders meet again tonight to try to hammer out a deal to avoid a government default, even as House Speaker John Boehner warning last night that he wants a much smaller deal than the $4 trillion President Obama has been pushing. This high-stakes game of budgetary poker poses an unusual challenge for journalists. Democrats have been saying they’re negotiating in good faith by offering major spending cuts and modest tax increases, while the Republicans are holding the economy hostage by refusing to talk about raising revenue. The Republicans reject this, saying they’re protecting the economy by focusing on out of control spending. So, who’s right? Well, David Brooks, the conservative “New York Times” columnist called out the GOP this week in a way that most mainstream journalists have not. He writes, “If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in exchange for a few hundred billion dollars of revenue increases. The Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.” Joining us now to talk about the coverage of the budget showdown, in New York, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of “The Nation” magazine. And here in Washington, Tony Blankley, executive vice president of Edelman Public Relations and a former press secretary for Newt Gingrich. Katrina Vanden Heuvel, here’s David Brooks saying the republicans are not a normal party. Have most of the media been unwilling to point a picture and say the Republicans are largely responsible for blocking any deal here? KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL, THE NATION: Yes. So I think in the last weeks, we’ve seen more attention paid for the fact you no longer have a Republican Party Richard Nixon would recognize. This is an extremist Republican Party willing to blow up the global economy by tethering draconian, cruel deficit cuts to the debt ceiling — a debt ceiling, by the way, Republicans seven times voted for to lift under George W. Bush. But I think the largest crisis the media — the media malpractice, Howard, is the fact that you have the idea, the concept that America is bankrupt. It is not bankrupt. What is bankrupt is the inside the Beltway consensus that the real crisis in this country is about deficits and debt. When you look at the front pages in the last days, the last few years, Howard, what is it? It is a jobs crisis. So, when you listen to Bill Daley on “Meet the Press” this morning and he said President Obama came to Washington to do something big, what we need is coverage of what a grand bargain on jobs could be, and the consequences of what we’re seeing inside the beltway for millions of Americans. KURTZ: I would agree that 14 million unemployed often get lost in this debate. Tony Blankley, I’m not taking sides here. The Republicans have — they’re standing on principles. But journalists could easily write that by saying we’ll negotiate anything, except tax increases, which is, of course, have the debate, Republicans are blocking progress toward a deal. TONY BLANKLEY, COLUMNIST FOR TOWNHALL.COM: Look, I’m in favor actually of objective journalism. KURTZ: OK. BLANKLEY: When I was Newt’s press secretary, I would seek out the journalists who knew the substance and were trying as hard as they could to report objectively. There’s not as many of those reporters and those news organizations around now as there used to be. If you have the choice between a transcription service, where the media just reports what each side says, and cheerleading, which I think is sometimes we ultimately we get, I’ll take transcription over cheerleading, but I prefer journalism over transcription. Let me give you just one example, and he’s a good friend of mine. Major Garrett of today’s “National Journal.” He’s one of the best reporters, he’s got a story on this budget, where he leads in the first two paragraphs characterizing Boehner’s position to Watergate, because he’s standing firm on no taxes. You have to get down to the 13th paragraph of a 15-paragraph story, before he says the Democrats are just as much to blame for refusing to deal with entitlements as the Republicans are for taxes. So, is that — Major is one of the best reporters in the business. Is that objective journalism? KURTZ: But on that point, Katrina, Democrats have their own sacred cows. Medicare is one of them. It’s a great issue for the Democratic Party. But President Obama has put nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts on the table, saying the Republicans now should give something on revenue. But, again, I don’t see the press — I think the press is so worried about appearing to take sides that they don’t want to say, well, the Democrats took another step here and the Republicans, and, look, Boehner is under a lot of pressure from his Republican Caucus, are still digging in. VANDEN HEUVEL: But let me reframe it if I might. There’s too much covering this debate in terms of political gamesmanship, brinkmanship. What we need is not the grid of negotiation but the sensible policy, context and history. Senator Moynihan once said people have a right to their own opinions but not to their own facts. I think we need more reporting on stories, for example, like what “The New York Times” did in March of this year showing that G.E. profited $14 billion in 2010 and paid zero — nada — in federal taxes. These are the stories that should provide the context for understanding that there should be no moral, political, or policy equivalents between raising taxes on the very richest in corporations and taking away lifelines for millions of Americans who have already borne the brunt of these cuts. I come back to the fact that sourcing, Howard, sourcing journalistic issue. Where are the stories? We need more stories about the consequences of what is going on inside the beltway around this country. KURTZ: I understand that you want to broaden the media’s economic debate, but there is, of course, the August 2nd deadline, after which the United States government will be in default. VANDEN HEUVEL: It relates to that. KURTZ: Let me — let me bring Tony back in, because this whole argument about tax increases is an interesting challenge for the press. Obama says close what he calls tax loopholes — corporate jets, the oil industry, hedge fund managers, you know, great populist targets. Republicans — and that’s a modest amount of money, let’s face it — Republicans say that’s a tax hike. We don’t want to raise taxes. Shouldn’t journalists say most people wouldn’t think of ending ethanol subsidies as a tax hike? It’s the closing of a tax preference that a lot of people think can’t be justified. BLANKLEY: Well, it’s not a question really of what most people think, but what an objective journalist who’s informed judges to be the reality. And so, one man’s tax break is another man’s interest deduction, which is not a tax break but necessary to support — KURTZ: That’s a tax preference that lot of people love because they have housing (ph). But still costs the treasury money. (CROSSTALK) BLANKLEY: Yes. Well, the phrase “costs the treasury money” suggest it was the treasury’s money in the first place. KURTZ: Foregone. All right. BLANKLEY: But, look, I’m in favor of the journalism reporting in detail what each party is proposing and the history of those proposals. For instance, obviously, from the Republican point of view, in 1982, I was with Reagan and the White House. We had the (INAUDIBLE) taxing deal where Reagan was promised $3 of spending cuts for $1 of tax increase. The history was that he didn’t get all of the spending cuts. He got all the taxes. So, when you analyze what’s the likelihood of proposed spending cuts coming online, I’d like to see journalism report on the history of promised spending cuts and how many of them actually came out. That would be a useful — KURTZ: Sometimes they have. Do you think the coverage, Tony, has been fair or biased? BLANKLEY: Oh, I think it’s been in a broad zone of fairness right now, because it’s largely been transcription. It’s largely been they say — the Republicans say this about themselves, the — KURTZ: Right, which doesn’t help viewers that much. And, Katrina, I asked Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, well, what are you willing to give up since the Democrats have put an awful lot in the trillions of dollars of spending cuts on table, which they’re not necessarily in favor of? And he said, well, look, we don’t want to raise the debt ceiling. We’re raising the debt ceiling, that’s our sacrifice in exchange for spending cuts. Do you think the press has accepted that frame of the issue? VANDEN HEUVEL: Yes. I think, well, first of all, Howard, you know this better than I do — there’s no more one press in this country. There are two, three, four different medias. And Eric Cantor can’t. I mean, here’s a guy who has said, if you don’t play my game, I’m going to walk away. I mean, that is not politics. And though I think President Obama has too often led with compromise, there’s no question that if you look at the compromise that the Democratic Party has made rightly or wrongly in my view over these last six months, a year, there is a sense of shared sacrifice. I come back. I agree with Tony Blankley, by the way. Maybe our journalism can accommodate history or context, but we need to look back at the last 30 years and see how the tax burden on the very much rich is today at the lowest point in decades. That should play a rule in the conversations, Howard, about the debt ceiling, about deficit reduction. And, finally, the discredited supply-side economics that has infiltrated the media, call it bias or whatever, that is leading the way our coverage is framed. The idea that spending cuts lead to recovery or prosperity — no. KURTZ: OK. Well, there’s a great debate about that. Let me close with this, Tony Blankley. Each side has its talking points. You talk about transcription journalism. You don’t seem that uncomfortable with it, but I think it’s almost a surrender to just say one side says this, one side says that. Where is, you know — BLANKLEY: I completely agree. I think there’s a rich, recent political economic history to be reported on by the media and they’re not doing enough of it. I agree. I wouldn’t be — as a conservative Republican, I’d be very comfortable with a deep historic analysis and reporting by journalism regarding the history of tax cuts, budgets, revenue raises, whether you raise the rates, do you increase revenue. There’s a lot of good stuff there. KURTZ: Well, we still have an opportunity with the debate just really heating up and the deadline facing us. Let the record show, I got Tony Blankley and Katrina Vanden Heuvel to agree on at least one point here this morning. VANDEN HEUVEL: History. KURTZ: Thanks very much for joining us.
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Balado, Kinross Jarvis Cocker once famously made headlines by wiggling his bum in front of Michael Jackson at the Brit awards, and on Sunday night he courted tabloid infamy again by pretending to wipe his posterior with the last edition of News of the World at T in the Park. “That’s all this is good for,” he sneered during Pulp’s triumphant set. So trusted is its promise of a party of epic proportions, the UK’s second biggest music festival has become a rite of passage for young Scots and a ritual for older ones that sells out long before the lineup is announced. A threatened deluge for the most part held off – at least until the final day – and sunshine occasionally split the clouds. This was a vintage year for T in the Park. The lineup boasted such an embarrassment of headliners that Beyoncé had to play second fiddle to Coldplay on Saturday night. Queen B – at her second and final UK festival appearance this summer – offered a more compact, hour-long version of her glorious Glastonbury set, and arguably bettered it. From the high-impact opener of Crazy in Love to a breathless Destiny’s Child medley, she was a class apart. Her undeniable star quality rubbed off on a sea of girls perched on friends’ shoulders during Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), their left hands twisting in the air as the sun eased over the hills behind them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were lulls in a bill diluted by the necessity to try and offer something for everyone. Friendly Fires’ full-throttle indie raving felt like natural festival fare; less so lightweight turns from popsters Ke$ha and the Saturdays. As ever there were a smattering of heritage acts who brought some reliable fun. The party-starting mood of Tom Jones on Friday was captured by the simultaneously hilarious and mortifying sight of a chubby bloke doing a striptease in the mud to You Can Leave Your Hat On. Debbie Harry did an admirable job of stoking the atmosphere as the heavens opened during Blondie’s Sunday afternoon greatest-hits set. After Pulp’s memorable return to the stage in Scotland, it was left to Foo Fighters at the last to battle the worsening elements, and win, before the festival rounded off with a fireworks and lone-bagpiper finale. Rating: 4/5 T in the Park Pop and rock Pulp Jarvis Cocker Beyoncé Tom Jones Blondie Foo Fighters News of the World guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Balado, Kinross Jarvis Cocker once famously made headlines by wiggling his bum in front of Michael Jackson at the Brit awards, and on Sunday night he courted tabloid infamy again by pretending to wipe his posterior with the last edition of News of the World at T in the Park. “That’s all this is good for,” he sneered during Pulp’s triumphant set. So trusted is its promise of a party of epic proportions, the UK’s second biggest music festival has become a rite of passage for young Scots and a ritual for older ones that sells out long before the lineup is announced. A threatened deluge for the most part held off – at least until the final day – and sunshine occasionally split the clouds. This was a vintage year for T in the Park. The lineup boasted such an embarrassment of headliners that Beyoncé had to play second fiddle to Coldplay on Saturday night. Queen B – at her second and final UK festival appearance this summer – offered a more compact, hour-long version of her glorious Glastonbury set, and arguably bettered it. From the high-impact opener of Crazy in Love to a breathless Destiny’s Child medley, she was a class apart. Her undeniable star quality rubbed off on a sea of girls perched on friends’ shoulders during Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), their left hands twisting in the air as the sun eased over the hills behind them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were lulls in a bill diluted by the necessity to try and offer something for everyone. Friendly Fires’ full-throttle indie raving felt like natural festival fare; less so lightweight turns from popsters Ke$ha and the Saturdays. As ever there were a smattering of heritage acts who brought some reliable fun. The party-starting mood of Tom Jones on Friday was captured by the simultaneously hilarious and mortifying sight of a chubby bloke doing a striptease in the mud to You Can Leave Your Hat On. Debbie Harry did an admirable job of stoking the atmosphere as the heavens opened during Blondie’s Sunday afternoon greatest-hits set. After Pulp’s memorable return to the stage in Scotland, it was left to Foo Fighters at the last to battle the worsening elements, and win, before the festival rounded off with a fireworks and lone-bagpiper finale. Rating: 4/5 T in the Park Pop and rock Pulp Jarvis Cocker Beyoncé Tom Jones Blondie Foo Fighters News of the World guardian.co.uk
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