Tycoon expresses regret for News Corporation’s involvement in scandal but insists he was kept in dark Rupert Murdoch defiantly insisted on Tuesday he was not responsible for what he called “sickening and horrible invasions” of privacy committed by his company, claiming he had been betrayed by disgraceful unidentified colleagues, and had known nothing of the cover-up of phone hacking. During a three-hour grilling at the culture select committee, disrupted by a protester throwing a plate of shaving foam, the once all-powerful News Corp chairman and chief executive told MPs: “I am not responsible.” In a halting performance, at times pausing, mumbling and mishearing, Murdoch said those culpable were “the people I hired and trusted, and perhaps then people who they hired and trusted”. But he denied the accusation he had been “willfully blind” about the scandal. Flanked by his son James, the chairman of News International, Murdoch said he and his company had been betrayed in a disgraceful way, but argued he was still the best person to clean up the company, adding in a rehearsed soundbite that his day in front of the committee represented “the most humble day of my life “. In a Westminster hearing screened worldwide, he repeatedly tried to avoid identifying the specific culprits in his company, often blaming earlier legal counsel for inadequate advice or leaving his son to explain his behaviour. But in separate testimony to the home affairs select committee, Lord Macdonald, the former head of the DPP, now on contract with News International, revealed it had taken him three to five minutes to examine documents kept by the company’s solicitors showing widespread criminality at the company. Macdonald said in his view the criminality revealed was “completely unequivocal”, adding when he reported his findings to the News International board recently there was surprise and shock. He said: “I cannot imagine anyone looking at the file would not say there was criminality,” including payments to police. The file was kept at the solicitors Harbottle & Lewis, and the police investigation is now centring on which executives tried to conceal its contents. In May 2007 Harbottle & Lewis sent a two-paragraph letter to News International executives claiming their examination of the documents showed there was no evidence any senior executives knew of illegal activities by the reporter Clive Goodman, or of any other illegal activities. The physical assault on Murdoch came near the end of the evidence session, prompting gasps as his wife Wendi Deng leaped up to hit the assailant, Jonathan May-Bowles, a participant in UK Uncut events. May-Bowles was detained by police as James Murdoch angrily asked officers why they had not protected his father. The Commons Speaker John Bercow called for an inquiry. The culture and home affairs select committee between them took more than eight hours of evidence about the phone-hacking scandal. Under the cover of the drama of the hearings, the Conservatives revealed that Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, had given “informal unpaid advice” to Andy Coulson when he was director of communications at the Conservative party. In a statement the party said: “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.” Wallis was arrested last week on suspicion of phone hacking, and the furore surrounding his hiring by the Metropolitan police between October 2008 and September 2009 has led to the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and the Met’s assistant commissioner John Yates, who both gave evidence on Tuesday. Separately emails were released by Downing Street showing David Cameron’s chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, had on 20 September 2010 turned down the opportunity of a briefing by the Metropolitan police on the phone hacking. Labour claimed it showed an extraordinary dereliction of his duty to find out the scale of the wrong-doing, and the potential involvement of Coulson, the former No 10 director of communications. Cameron will be pressed on the issue when he makes a statement to MPs on how he is handling the crisis. He has been summoned to a 1922 backbench committee meeting to justify his response, including his decision to hire Coulson. The bulk of the cross-examination of the Murdochs was largely designed to locate how high the apparent cover-up of systematic law breaking went. James Murdoch was forced to admit, after much wriggling, that his company was still paying the legal costs of Glenn Mulcaire, one of the private detectives on the payroll of News of the World found guilty of hacking phones. James Murdoch said he was shocked and surprised to learn the payments were continuing, and denied it had been done to buy silence. Pressed by the Labour MP Paul Farrelly, Rupert Murdoch said he would stop the payments if he was contractually free to do so. James Murdoch denied the large out-of-court settlements to the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, (£700,000) and publicist Max Clifford (£1m including legal costs), authorised by him in 2008, had not been pitched so high to buy their silence. He insisted the settlement level was based on legal advice, or in the case of Clifford due to the ending of a wider contract. James Murdoch also revealed he had authorised the settlements but had not told his father until 2009 after the case became public, saying the payments were too small to be reported to a higher board. He refused a request from MP Tom Watson to release Taylor from his confidentiality agreement. Both James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International who gave evidence later to the committee, said they had acted as soon as evidence emerged in civil cases at the end of 2010 that phone hacking had not been confined to Mulcaire and Goodman. James Murdoch apologised for the scandal and told MPs: “These actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to.” The trio came under pressure over a letter in May 2007 prepared by Harbottle & Lewis on the instruction of Jon Chapman, the former director of legal affairs, and Daniel Cloak, the head of human resources, suggesting phone hacking had not been widespread. The files on which the Harbottle & Lewis letter is based were re-examined in April by senior News International executives including Will Lewis and Lord Macdonald. In tense opening exchanges Murdoch revealed he had mounted no investigation when Brooks told parliament seven years ago that the News of the World had paid police officers for information. He said: “I didn’t know of it.” He also admitted he had never heard of the fact that his senior reporter at the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck, had been found by a judge to be guilty of blackmail. Watson interrupted to prevent Rupert Murdoch’s son answering the questions saying “Your father is responsible for corporate governance, and serious wrongdoing has been brought about in the company. It is revealing in itself what he does not know and what executives chose not to tell him.” Rupert Murdoch denied he was ignorant of his company, banging the table and saying News of the World “is less than 1 %” of News Corp. . He was asked about his connections to the Conservative party and revealed it had been on the advice of the prime minister’s staff that he had gone through the back door to have a cup of tea with David Cameron after the election to receive Cameron’s personal thanks for supporting his party in the election. “I was asked if I would please come through the back door,” Murdoch told the committee. Rupert Murdoch denied that the closure of the News of the World was motivated by financial considerations, saying he shut it because of the criminal allegations. In one flash of anger he complained his competitors had “caught us with dirty hands and created hysteria”. Aware that he must prevent the scandal spreading across the Atlantic, he insisted he had seen no evidence that victims of the 9/11 terror attack and their relatives were targeted by any of his papers. Rupert Murdoch Phone hacking News International News Corporation News of the World National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Media business Newspapers Police David Cameron House of Commons Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tycoon expresses regret for News Corporation’s involvement in scandal but insists he was kept in dark Rupert Murdoch defiantly insisted on Tuesday he was not responsible for what he called “sickening and horrible invasions” of privacy committed by his company, claiming he had been betrayed by disgraceful unidentified colleagues, and had known nothing of the cover-up of phone hacking. During a three-hour grilling at the culture select committee, disrupted by a protester throwing a plate of shaving foam, the once all-powerful News Corp chairman and chief executive told MPs: “I am not responsible.” In a halting performance, at times pausing, mumbling and mishearing, Murdoch said those culpable were “the people I hired and trusted, and perhaps then people who they hired and trusted”. But he denied the accusation he had been “willfully blind” about the scandal. Flanked by his son James, the chairman of News International, Murdoch said he and his company had been betrayed in a disgraceful way, but argued he was still the best person to clean up the company, adding in a rehearsed soundbite that his day in front of the committee represented “the most humble day of my life “. In a Westminster hearing screened worldwide, he repeatedly tried to avoid identifying the specific culprits in his company, often blaming earlier legal counsel for inadequate advice or leaving his son to explain his behaviour. But in separate testimony to the home affairs select committee, Lord Macdonald, the former head of the DPP, now on contract with News International, revealed it had taken him three to five minutes to examine documents kept by the company’s solicitors showing widespread criminality at the company. Macdonald said in his view the criminality revealed was “completely unequivocal”, adding when he reported his findings to the News International board recently there was surprise and shock. He said: “I cannot imagine anyone looking at the file would not say there was criminality,” including payments to police. The file was kept at the solicitors Harbottle & Lewis, and the police investigation is now centring on which executives tried to conceal its contents. In May 2007 Harbottle & Lewis sent a two-paragraph letter to News International executives claiming their examination of the documents showed there was no evidence any senior executives knew of illegal activities by the reporter Clive Goodman, or of any other illegal activities. The physical assault on Murdoch came near the end of the evidence session, prompting gasps as his wife Wendi Deng leaped up to hit the assailant, Jonathan May-Bowles, a participant in UK Uncut events. May-Bowles was detained by police as James Murdoch angrily asked officers why they had not protected his father. The Commons Speaker John Bercow called for an inquiry. The culture and home affairs select committee between them took more than eight hours of evidence about the phone-hacking scandal. Under the cover of the drama of the hearings, the Conservatives revealed that Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, had given “informal unpaid advice” to Andy Coulson when he was director of communications at the Conservative party. In a statement the party said: “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.” Wallis was arrested last week on suspicion of phone hacking, and the furore surrounding his hiring by the Metropolitan police between October 2008 and September 2009 has led to the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and the Met’s assistant commissioner John Yates, who both gave evidence on Tuesday. Separately emails were released by Downing Street showing David Cameron’s chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, had on 20 September 2010 turned down the opportunity of a briefing by the Metropolitan police on the phone hacking. Labour claimed it showed an extraordinary dereliction of his duty to find out the scale of the wrong-doing, and the potential involvement of Coulson, the former No 10 director of communications. Cameron will be pressed on the issue when he makes a statement to MPs on how he is handling the crisis. He has been summoned to a 1922 backbench committee meeting to justify his response, including his decision to hire Coulson. The bulk of the cross-examination of the Murdochs was largely designed to locate how high the apparent cover-up of systematic law breaking went. James Murdoch was forced to admit, after much wriggling, that his company was still paying the legal costs of Glenn Mulcaire, one of the private detectives on the payroll of News of the World found guilty of hacking phones. James Murdoch said he was shocked and surprised to learn the payments were continuing, and denied it had been done to buy silence. Pressed by the Labour MP Paul Farrelly, Rupert Murdoch said he would stop the payments if he was contractually free to do so. James Murdoch denied the large out-of-court settlements to the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, (£700,000) and publicist Max Clifford (£1m including legal costs), authorised by him in 2008, had not been pitched so high to buy their silence. He insisted the settlement level was based on legal advice, or in the case of Clifford due to the ending of a wider contract. James Murdoch also revealed he had authorised the settlements but had not told his father until 2009 after the case became public, saying the payments were too small to be reported to a higher board. He refused a request from MP Tom Watson to release Taylor from his confidentiality agreement. Both James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International who gave evidence later to the committee, said they had acted as soon as evidence emerged in civil cases at the end of 2010 that phone hacking had not been confined to Mulcaire and Goodman. James Murdoch apologised for the scandal and told MPs: “These actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to.” The trio came under pressure over a letter in May 2007 prepared by Harbottle & Lewis on the instruction of Jon Chapman, the former director of legal affairs, and Daniel Cloak, the head of human resources, suggesting phone hacking had not been widespread. The files on which the Harbottle & Lewis letter is based were re-examined in April by senior News International executives including Will Lewis and Lord Macdonald. In tense opening exchanges Murdoch revealed he had mounted no investigation when Brooks told parliament seven years ago that the News of the World had paid police officers for information. He said: “I didn’t know of it.” He also admitted he had never heard of the fact that his senior reporter at the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck, had been found by a judge to be guilty of blackmail. Watson interrupted to prevent Rupert Murdoch’s son answering the questions saying “Your father is responsible for corporate governance, and serious wrongdoing has been brought about in the company. It is revealing in itself what he does not know and what executives chose not to tell him.” Rupert Murdoch denied he was ignorant of his company, banging the table and saying News of the World “is less than 1 %” of News Corp. . He was asked about his connections to the Conservative party and revealed it had been on the advice of the prime minister’s staff that he had gone through the back door to have a cup of tea with David Cameron after the election to receive Cameron’s personal thanks for supporting his party in the election. “I was asked if I would please come through the back door,” Murdoch told the committee. Rupert Murdoch denied that the closure of the News of the World was motivated by financial considerations, saying he shut it because of the criminal allegations. In one flash of anger he complained his competitors had “caught us with dirty hands and created hysteria”. Aware that he must prevent the scandal spreading across the Atlantic, he insisted he had seen no evidence that victims of the 9/11 terror attack and their relatives were targeted by any of his papers. Rupert Murdoch Phone hacking News International News Corporation News of the World National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Media business Newspapers Police David Cameron House of Commons Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tycoon expresses regret for News Corporation’s involvement in scandal but insists he was kept in dark Rupert Murdoch defiantly insisted on Tuesday he was not responsible for what he called “sickening and horrible invasions” of privacy committed by his company, claiming he had been betrayed by disgraceful unidentified colleagues, and had known nothing of the cover-up of phone hacking. During a three-hour grilling at the culture select committee, disrupted by a protester throwing a plate of shaving foam, the once all-powerful News Corp chairman and chief executive told MPs: “I am not responsible.” In a halting performance, at times pausing, mumbling and mishearing, Murdoch said those culpable were “the people I hired and trusted, and perhaps then people who they hired and trusted”. But he denied the accusation he had been “willfully blind” about the scandal. Flanked by his son James, the chairman of News International, Murdoch said he and his company had been betrayed in a disgraceful way, but argued he was still the best person to clean up the company, adding in a rehearsed soundbite that his day in front of the committee represented “the most humble day of my life “. In a Westminster hearing screened worldwide, he repeatedly tried to avoid identifying the specific culprits in his company, often blaming earlier legal counsel for inadequate advice or leaving his son to explain his behaviour. But in separate testimony to the home affairs select committee, Lord Macdonald, the former head of the DPP, now on contract with News International, revealed it had taken him three to five minutes to examine documents kept by the company’s solicitors showing widespread criminality at the company. Macdonald said in his view the criminality revealed was “completely unequivocal”, adding when he reported his findings to the News International board recently there was surprise and shock. He said: “I cannot imagine anyone looking at the file would not say there was criminality,” including payments to police. The file was kept at the solicitors Harbottle & Lewis, and the police investigation is now centring on which executives tried to conceal its contents. In May 2007 Harbottle & Lewis sent a two-paragraph letter to News International executives claiming their examination of the documents showed there was no evidence any senior executives knew of illegal activities by the reporter Clive Goodman, or of any other illegal activities. The physical assault on Murdoch came near the end of the evidence session, prompting gasps as his wife Wendi Deng leaped up to hit the assailant, Jonathan May-Bowles, a participant in UK Uncut events. May-Bowles was detained by police as James Murdoch angrily asked officers why they had not protected his father. The Commons Speaker John Bercow called for an inquiry. The culture and home affairs select committee between them took more than eight hours of evidence about the phone-hacking scandal. Under the cover of the drama of the hearings, the Conservatives revealed that Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, had given “informal unpaid advice” to Andy Coulson when he was director of communications at the Conservative party. In a statement the party said: “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.” Wallis was arrested last week on suspicion of phone hacking, and the furore surrounding his hiring by the Metropolitan police between October 2008 and September 2009 has led to the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and the Met’s assistant commissioner John Yates, who both gave evidence on Tuesday. Separately emails were released by Downing Street showing David Cameron’s chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, had on 20 September 2010 turned down the opportunity of a briefing by the Metropolitan police on the phone hacking. Labour claimed it showed an extraordinary dereliction of his duty to find out the scale of the wrong-doing, and the potential involvement of Coulson, the former No 10 director of communications. Cameron will be pressed on the issue when he makes a statement to MPs on how he is handling the crisis. He has been summoned to a 1922 backbench committee meeting to justify his response, including his decision to hire Coulson. The bulk of the cross-examination of the Murdochs was largely designed to locate how high the apparent cover-up of systematic law breaking went. James Murdoch was forced to admit, after much wriggling, that his company was still paying the legal costs of Glenn Mulcaire, one of the private detectives on the payroll of News of the World found guilty of hacking phones. James Murdoch said he was shocked and surprised to learn the payments were continuing, and denied it had been done to buy silence. Pressed by the Labour MP Paul Farrelly, Rupert Murdoch said he would stop the payments if he was contractually free to do so. James Murdoch denied the large out-of-court settlements to the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, (£700,000) and publicist Max Clifford (£1m including legal costs), authorised by him in 2008, had not been pitched so high to buy their silence. He insisted the settlement level was based on legal advice, or in the case of Clifford due to the ending of a wider contract. James Murdoch also revealed he had authorised the settlements but had not told his father until 2009 after the case became public, saying the payments were too small to be reported to a higher board. He refused a request from MP Tom Watson to release Taylor from his confidentiality agreement. Both James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International who gave evidence later to the committee, said they had acted as soon as evidence emerged in civil cases at the end of 2010 that phone hacking had not been confined to Mulcaire and Goodman. James Murdoch apologised for the scandal and told MPs: “These actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to.” The trio came under pressure over a letter in May 2007 prepared by Harbottle & Lewis on the instruction of Jon Chapman, the former director of legal affairs, and Daniel Cloak, the head of human resources, suggesting phone hacking had not been widespread. The files on which the Harbottle & Lewis letter is based were re-examined in April by senior News International executives including Will Lewis and Lord Macdonald. In tense opening exchanges Murdoch revealed he had mounted no investigation when Brooks told parliament seven years ago that the News of the World had paid police officers for information. He said: “I didn’t know of it.” He also admitted he had never heard of the fact that his senior reporter at the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck, had been found by a judge to be guilty of blackmail. Watson interrupted to prevent Rupert Murdoch’s son answering the questions saying “Your father is responsible for corporate governance, and serious wrongdoing has been brought about in the company. It is revealing in itself what he does not know and what executives chose not to tell him.” Rupert Murdoch denied he was ignorant of his company, banging the table and saying News of the World “is less than 1 %” of News Corp. . He was asked about his connections to the Conservative party and revealed it had been on the advice of the prime minister’s staff that he had gone through the back door to have a cup of tea with David Cameron after the election to receive Cameron’s personal thanks for supporting his party in the election. “I was asked if I would please come through the back door,” Murdoch told the committee. Rupert Murdoch denied that the closure of the News of the World was motivated by financial considerations, saying he shut it because of the criminal allegations. In one flash of anger he complained his competitors had “caught us with dirty hands and created hysteria”. Aware that he must prevent the scandal spreading across the Atlantic, he insisted he had seen no evidence that victims of the 9/11 terror attack and their relatives were targeted by any of his papers. Rupert Murdoch Phone hacking News International News Corporation News of the World National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Media business Newspapers Police David Cameron House of Commons Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Most brides pose for pictures between their wedding ceremony and reception … but not like this. A Michigan woman’s day of wedded bliss was interrupted by a brief stint in the county jail, after police got a tip that the bride would be traveling back to the state for her wedding;…
Continue reading …Deep in the hills of the Ozarks, between Springfield and Branson, Mo., a 72,000-square-foot house is being built—and locals aren’t quite sure why. Some suggest it may be a military bunker, while others propose it’s a nuclear shelter for “important people”; still others wonder whether it’s a getaway…
Continue reading …A little drama toward the end of the Rupert Murdoch hearing today: A protester lunged forward with something like a plate of shaving cream and tried to smear the News Corp chief. Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, jumped up to defend her 80-year-old husband from the attack, notes the Wall Street…
Continue reading …If you’re looking for job security, look no further than the federal government, where you’re more likely to leave feet-first than be fired or laid off. According to a new USA Today analysis, the government fired just 0.55% of its workforce in the past budget-year, or 11,668 of…
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Suspected members of collective allegedly behind attacks on Fox News and Visa websites arrested Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a series of raids on homes across America and made at least 14 arrests of people suspected of being linked to the secretive hacking activist group Anonymous. Arrests and raids took place in Florida, California, and New Jersey and were aimed at targets suspected to be members of the hacking collective which has hit the headlines in recent months for a series of high-profile attacks. Computers and other equipment were also seized at several addresses in New York as local agents there executed search warrants in New York city and Long Island, but made no arrests. “These search warrants are being executed in connection with an ongoing FBI investigation,” a New York FBI spokesman said. More arrests may follow in days to come, legal sources said. The American action follows other raids aimed at members of Anonymous that have taken place in others parts of the world, including Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. More than 30 people thought to be linked to the group were arrested. Anonymous hit the mainstream media headlines in December when it rallied to the support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Asange. It has an agenda of sympathy for freedom of information and attacked the websites of companies like Visa, MasterCard and PayPal in protest at those firms severing ties to WikiLeaks and making it difficult for Assange to raise money from supporters. Since then hacking has become a hot topic in the US and there have been other cyber-attacks by Anonymous members or supporters on targets such as the CIA and Fox News and the Arizona Department of Corrections. The latter was targeted out of anger at Arizona’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants. Often, after successful attacks, people claiming to be part of the group will post messages on the social messaging service Twitter boasting of the attacks or providing proof that they hit their targets. Hacking comes in various forms, but a common method used by Anonymous has been a “distributed denial of service” attack where members create a computer network that bombards a website with requests for information and eventually overwhelms it with traffic. Such an attack is illegal. Another hacking collective, called LulzSec, has also been the target of law enforcement ire in America. Last month, FBI agents raided an address in Iowa and questioned a woman about possible links to the group. LulzSec hit the headlines on Monday when it hacked the website of the Sun newspaper. It later claimed to have obtained password information for the email accounts of senior News International executives including former chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who is at the centre of the phone-hacking storm surrounding the company. United States FBI CIA New York Hacking WikiLeaks LulzSec Fox News Fox Julian Assange Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Atlantis’ wheels will hit Earth early Thursday, closing out NASA’s epic 30-year space shuttle program for good. But when the dust clears, the space agency has no clear replacement program on the horizon to lead America’s return to space, notes the LA Times . Rather, the trailblazing agency is shuffling its…
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