Douglas Caddy

Phone hacking: David Beckham's father among those suing News International Ted Beckham joins host of public figures making claims over alleged actions by News of the World and Glenn Mulcaire By Jason Deans guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 March 2012 13.24 EDT David Beckham's father is among the individuals suing News International over alleged phone hacking by the News of the World. Ted Beckham has joined a string of public figures suing News Group Newspaper, the News International subsidiary that published the News of the World, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who used to work for the paper. He has issued a claim form in his full name of David Edward Alan Beckham at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. News International has settled 55 out of 60 initial civil claims for invasion of privacy from phone-hacking victims including Charlotte Church, Jude Law, Sienna Miller, former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell and the son of the serial killer Harold Shipman. However, the publisher could face up to 200 more civil actions, with figures including Cherie Blair, the wife of the former Labour prime minister, singer James Blunt, Ukip leader Nigel Farage, and Alex Best, the wife of the ex-Manchester United footballer George Best, having already filed. Others who have filed claims include Colin Stagg, the man wrongly accused of murdering Rachel Nickell, TV personalities Jamie Theakston and Jeff Brazier, former boxer Chris Eubank and footballers Peter Crouch, Kieron Dyer and Jermaine Jenas. The publisher has also received almost 50 inquiries regarding the compensation scheme it set up last year for victims of phone-hacking.

Poster's note: I had no advance notice of Jack's intention. The odds against him having even minimal impact in the presidential race are astronomical but I found his speech in the video to be thought-provoking despite the poor sound quality. After the recent media frenzy over the White House intern who was JFK's young mistress, Jack's progeny claims in the orignal Vanity Fair article cannot be ruled out. -------------------- http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/03/jack-worthington-kennedy-for-president

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/nsa-denies-wired/

http://theintelhub.com/2012/03/15/secret-occult-economy-coming-out-of-the-shadows/ http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232515.html

John Pilger and Robert Fisk are a rarity among journalists in that they always tell it exactly as it is. The world needs more like them.

Not trying to be antagonistic but if those recordings ever materialize I'll eat my own underwear. I have kept an open mind on this but I find myself in agreement with this (above) statement, re the tapes. Do you believe Peoples was murdered and do you believe Wallace was involved? Are you aware of another researcher named Stephen P. (withoulding last name for now) who was also writing about all of this, prior to his untimely death and the disappearance of his files. I spoke with Billie Sol about this after being told he had bought the rights to this man's story and work. Estes told me indeed he had and it was going to be made into a movie, he spoke of a woman in Dallas with whom he wss working. Can you shed any further light on this? Thank you, Dawn Clint Peoples died in an automobile accident in 1992. I do not know whether this was a result of murder or not. Malcolm Wallace also died of an automobile accident but this occurred in 1971. So obviously Wallace could not have been involved in Peoples' death. What they shared in common was that both men knew too much about LBJ. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpeoples.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwallaceM.htm I am aware that there was a researcher on the relationship of LBJ and Billie Sol Estes who died the day he completed his work. I know nothing more about this except the barest of a few details. I know of no woman in Dallas with whom he might have been working on the project. Thank you Doug. I had forgotten the date of Peoples' death. Then lots of important people die in car crashes. Jay (Harrison) (who really liked you, by the way) never believe Mac Wallace died in 1971. I no longer remember what basis he had for that. If only I could call him...So many days I think that of my dear departed friend. I wish someone would write a really GOOD book pulling together all the diverse aspects of the TX part of the plot. Barr's was so error -filled that -save for the fingerprint work- it is ....not a great book. I have not read Nelson's but have been told by enough people that it suffers as much. I hope Ed Tatro gets his book out soon. Joan Mellen hs one coming, as well, that I look forward to. There is a reason it all went down in TX. Dawn Jay Harrison was the best researcher on LBJ and his bulging files on this subject were invaluable.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9152722/Leveson-inquiry-News-of-the-World-hired-special-forces-to-track-police.html

News of the World 'jeopardised Ipswich murder inquiry' Leveson inquiry told paper hired former special forces soldiers to follow police surveillance team hunting for serial killer By Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 March 2012 09.47 EDT The News of the World "jeopardised" the hunt for the Ipswich serial killer in 2006 after it hired former special forces soldiers to follow a police surveillance team tracking suspects, the Leveson inquiry has heard. Dave Harrison, a retired officer with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), was part of a surveillance team set up to keep tabs on suspects in the high-profile murder hunt. Harrison told the Leveson inquiry on Monday that he was personally followed by the Sunday tabloid's team, which appeared to have professional knowledge of surveillance techniques. "I believe that by its actions, News of the World jeopardised the murder inquiry," he said. "If our surveillance had been weakened by having to try and avoid other surveillance teams looking for us, if we had lost the subject, he may have gone and committed further murders because we were dealing with something else." In December 2006, Suffolk police asked Soca to provide surveillance officers to follow suspects in the then-unsolved murders of five women working as prostitutes in Ipswich, the hearing was told. Harrison said he and his colleagues were told at a briefing that the News of the World had employed its own surveillance team to identify who they were, where they were based and who the suspects were. Asked how the paper learned that Soca officers were being sent to Ipswich, he said: "My opinion is it would have come from someone close to the investigation team, either the Suffolk inquiry or Soca." He said that, on at least two occasions, a vehicle parked up on a roundabout on the outskirts of the town attempted to follow the Soca surveillance team. "We identified them because they were sat in the position that we would sit in if we were doing the same job," he added. "We were told that they were probably ex-special forces soldiers who would have a good knowledge of surveillance techniques." In his written witness statement submitted to the Leveson inquiry, Harrison said the paper jeopardised the inquiry in two ways. "Firstly, many murderers revisit the scene of the crime. If that act is evidenced by a covert surveillance team, its value to the prosecution is extremely important. In this case, if the suspect had decided to revisit the scene, to dispose of additional evidence, or to move a body that had not yet been found and he realised he was being followed, he may have cancelled or postponed his trip. "He would not care whether he was being followed by a 'legitimate' surveillance team or one employed by a newspaper. The evidence would be lost and the prosecution case weakened." Harrison said the paper could also have compromised the police efforts to find the killer because it would have had to deal with a "private surveillance team getting in the way". The Sunday Mirror used counter-surveillance techniques while driving one suspect in the Ipswich murders to a hotel for an interview, Harrison also told the press standards inquiry on Monday. He said that during another briefing, he was advised that the Sunday Mirror surveillance team had picked up the first suspect for an interview. "The surveillance team I was part of was not on duty at the time that the first suspect was interviewed by the Sunday Mirror. Colleagues on the surveillance team that was on duty advised us that they had watched him being picked up and driven round by a team that carried out anti-surveillance manoeuvres before dripping him off at an hotel to be interviewed," Harrison said in his written witness statement. Steve Wright was handed a life sentence in February 2008 after being convicted of killing all five women.

This New York Times' book review by Jonathan Tepperman, Managing Editor of the influential Foreign Affairs magazine, that was published today seems to be out of touch with reality, especially in light of the article from Wired reproduced above: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/books/review/david-c-ungers-the-emergency-state.html?ref=books

Not trying to be antagonistic but if those recordings ever materialize I'll eat my own underwear. I have kept an open mind on this but I find myself in agreement with this (above) statement, re the tapes. Do you believe Peoples was murdered and do you believe Wallace was involved? Are you aware of another researcher named Stephen P. (withoulding last name for now) who was also writing about all of this, prior to his untimely death and the disappearance of his files. I spoke with Billie Sol about this after being told he had bought the rights to this man's story and work. Estes told me indeed he had and it was going to be made into a movie, he spoke of a woman in Dallas with whom he wss working. Can you shed any further light on this? Thank you, Dawn Clint Peoples died in an automobile accident in 1992. I do not know whether this was a result of murder or not. Malcolm Wallace also died of an automobile accident but this occurred in 1971. So obviously Wallace could not have been involved in Peoples' death. What they shared in common was that both men knew too much about LBJ. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpeoples.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwallaceM.htm I am aware that there was a researcher on the relationship of LBJ and Billie Sol Estes who died the day he completed his work. I know nothing more about this except the barest of a few details. I know of no woman in Dallas with whom he might have been working on the project.

FBI threaten to step in on Met's investigation into Rupert Murdoch's empire in case Scotland Yard 'drops the ball' U.S. Bureau already has access to all the evidence handed over by News Corp to Scotland Yard Daily Mail By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 07:15 EST, 18 March 2012 | UPDATED: 11:04 EST, 18 March 2012 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116633/Phone-hacking-FBI-threaten-step-investigation-Rupert-Murdochs-empire.html The FBI has vowed to step in if the Met Police 'drop the ball' in its investigation into illegal activity within the Murdoch empire, it has been revealed. The U.S. Bureau already has access to all the evidence handed over by News Corporation to Scotland Yard and the company apparently has a legal team of 'big guns' ready to handle inquiries from detectives. The original Met phone hacking investigation, launched in December 2005, resulted in the News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire being jailed for intercepting voicemail messages. The original Met phone hacking investigation, launched in December 2005, failed to identify hundreds of victims. But no action was taken against any other reporters and the inquiry failed to identify hundreds of victims. One source close to the U.S. investigation told the Independent on Sunday: 'The FBI made it perfectly clear that if the British police drop the ball on this they will pick it up and run with it.' As well as evidence from News Corp, the FBI is also gathering evidence from the Leveson Inquiry and other parliamentary select committees. It is thought that the Murdoch empire fears a U.S. investigation due to the potential for longer jail terms and more severe financial penalties, the newspaper said. It is thought that the Murdoch empire, headed by Rupert Murdoch, pictured, fears a U.S. investigation This is believed to be why it has increased its efforts to help police over the past few months - including handing over thousands of potentially incriminating emails. The FBI has reportedly found no evidence of phone hacking within News Corp in the U.S., Murdoch's holding company based in New York. Earlier this week Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie were arrested in dawn raids by police investigating allegations of a cover-up in the phone hacking inquiry. The former News International chief executive and her husband were held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They were among six people detained by detectives from Operation Weeting, the inquiry into illegal hacking of voicemail messages. Mrs Brooks, the former editor of The Sun and the News of the World, has been on bail since last summer when she was arrested on suspicion of phone-hacking and corruption. The number of people arrested in Operation Weeting, which has been running since last January when police reopened investigations, stands at 21 That arrest in July was ‘by appointment’ but yesterday the couple were woken by a sharp, unexpected, knock on the front door of their Cotswolds mansion. The number of people arrested in Operation Weeting, which has been running since last January when police reopened investigations, stands at 21. Two other linked investigations – Operation Elveden into corrupt payments to police and Operation Tuleta into computer hacking – have resulted in 26 arrests. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116633/Phone-hacking-FBI-threaten-step-investigation-Rupert-Murdochs-empire.html#ixzz1pV0CNzuE

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/16/pat-nixon-at-100/

Revealed: Murdoch's secret meeting with Mrs Thatcher before he bought The Times Letters overturn official history and show that tycoon briefed PM at Chequers before he was allowed to expand his empire The Independent By Andy McSmith Saturday, 17 March 2012 Rupert Murdoch has been on better terms with more prime ministers than anyone else alive. He had so much to offer by way of influence and contacts the world over – at least until the hacking scandal flooded his empire – and if a politician wanted to meet him in private he did not let his love of news get the better of discretion. On 12 February 1981, Mr Murdoch was allowed to double the number of national newspapers he owned, by adding The Times and The Sunday Times to The Sun and the News of the World. It was normal practice for any bid for a national newspaper to be held up while the Monopolies Commission investigated, but in this case Margaret Thatcher's government overrode objections from Labour and waved it through. Mrs Thatcher reaped the political rewards for the remainder of her time in office. It could have been embarrassing for the Prime Minister if there had been any suggestion she had privately colluded with Mr Murdoch to ease his bid – but that was specifically denied in The History of the Times: the Murdoch Years, written by a Times journalist, Graham Stewart, and published in 2005 by Mr Murdoch's company, HarperCollins. There was it was asserted: "In 1981, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch scarcely knew one another and had no communication whatsoever during the period in which The Times bid and referral was up for discussion." Documents being released on Monday by the Margaret Thatcher Archive demonstrate that they did indeed meet. In fact, Mr Murdoch secretly met Mrs Thatcher for lunch at Chequers, on Sunday, 4 January 1981, with the specific purpose of briefing her about The Times bids, at a time when other potential buyers were showing an interest and Times journalists were hoping to organise a staff buyout. Mrs Thatcher's advisers were acutely aware that the meeting had to be secret. A formal record was kept, and submitted to Mrs Thatcher the next day with a note from her press secretary, Bernard Ingham, vouching that "in line with your wishes, the attached has not gone outside No 10." The record notes that "the main purpose of Mr Murdoch's visit was to brief the Prime Minister on his bid for Times Newspapers." Mr Murdoch told her that it was "a firm bid" for all the titles, not just the potentially profitable Sunday Times. In a hint of the dispute that tore apart the East End of London five years later, when Mr Murdoch sacked 5,000 print and ancillary staff to facilitate the move to Wapping, he also told the Prime Minister that he was gambling on his ability "to crack a particularly tough nut" in the form of the highly organised print unions. Mr Murdoch also speculated on who his rival bidders might be. They included the tycoon Robert Maxwell, who later bought the Daily Mirror, and Sir James Goldsmith, father of the current Tory MP Zac Goldsmith. The note records that Mrs Thatcher "thanked Mr Murdoch for keeping her posted" but "did no more than wish him well in his bid." Mr Murdoch wrote to her on 15 January, to inform her that "The Times business is proceeding well", adding: "See you in New York on 28 February." By then, the deal had been clinched. Mrs Thatcher needed the media mogul's support because she was so desperately unpopular. Her subsequent success has obscured the extent to which her government was peering over the abyss in 1981. Chris Collins, editor of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website, describes the documents, which will be accessible at margaretthatcher.org as "the personal archive of a person under great stress." They include the findings of a private poll by the Conservative Party which – for good reasons – they kept under wraps. Support for the Conservatives was below 20 per cent, with 68 per cent of those polled saying that they disapproved of what Mrs Thatcher was doing, while only 27 per cent approved. This was creating huge strains within the government and the party. The newly released documents reveal the existence of a "Group of 25", who wrote a collective letter to the Chief Whip threatening to vote against any economic measures that might increase unemployment. One of its leaders was Stephen Dorrell, then the youngest Tory MP and now chairman of the Commons Health committee. Mrs Thatcher relied heavily on the Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Howe, but even, they could not get on personally. That was noted by her advisor, Alan Walters, whose private diary is among the documents just released. On 6 January 1981, he recorded: "Saw MT at 10.00. All affable and unflappable. What should she do about Geoffrey. Who else could she promote. No one." The papers reinforce that impression that Margaret Thatcher kept her cool despite the immense pressure she was under, fortified no doubt by letters from admiring members of the public, such as one elderly survivor from the Titanic, living in St Ives, who hoped that Mrs Thatcher would be a survivor too. The files also contain her handwritten note to a young girl who had written to Mrs Thatcher in distress about her parents' divorce. "My own children had a happy time," the Prime Minister claimed, "and I should like you to have the same. Perhaps you would let me know if you ever come to London and I could arrange for someone to take you to see Parliament." There is also the text of a long interview she gave to a French journalist during which she reflected on what makes people happy. "Sometimes I think things come too easily to people now and when that happens they get dissatisfied from having had far more than we had, which gave us great satisfaction," she mused. "A small treat, a small thing, a small gift, a small surprise, something like a half day out or going to tea, a small unexpected gift gave us enormous pleasure and these days they have so much money and it doesn't bring them pleasure." No British politician did more than Mrs Thatcher to help the rich get richer, and yet all along she privately believes that money does not make anyone happy – except Rupert Murdoch, presumably. Swiped: All the President's doodled men When leaders of the world's seven richest nations met in Ottawa in July 1981, President Ronald Reagan was new to the job, and nervous. Margaret Thatcher, sitting alongside him, noticed how he doodled to calm himself. When the summit ended, the President left his doodles on his desk, so she picked them up as a memento and squirrelled them away in the flat above Downing Street after writing a note on them to remind herself where she got them. They are published here for the first time. Lady's not for laughing (not at herself, at least) Lovers of satire were flocking 30 years ago to watch a stage play entitled Anyone for Denis, which took the mickey out of Margaret Thatcher and her husband. This did not affect the Prime Minister personally until the embarrassing day when she was invited to a special showing, the proceeds from which were to go to charity. Mrs Thatcher did not want to go, but was warned that a refusal would be interpreted as proof that she had no sense of humour, so she reluctantly agreed. How she felt about it can be seen from a newly released letter, dated 29 May 1981, from Michael Dobbs, then a political adviser. The word "no" can be seen written in Mrs Thatcher's handwriting five times across the letter. She was particularly determined not to accept a suggestion that she and Angela Thorne, who played her on stage, should be photographed in identical outfits. Later she learnt that she was not the only person who had been dreading the evening. When it was over, she received a handwritten letter from Angela Thorne. "Meeting you before the show made me feel so much more relaxed, especially as you had indicated that we would be going through it 'together'. It must have been two hours of agony for you," she wrote. Mrs Thatcher replied saying: "I thought we both got through rather well! And attending the performance got far more publicity than the other things I do."

JFK rejected General Curtis LeMay's advice during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that likely would have led to World War III. It is interesting to note that General LeMay was the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968.

From “Struggling with destiny: Barbara Tuchman’s legacy as an historian,” by Robert Zaretsky, TLS: Times Literary Supplement, February 24, 2012: “[A] vantage point from which to consider Tuchman’s work takes in its influence on a man whose job it was to respond to present pressures: President Kennedy. Much has been made of the influence ‘The Guns of August’ had on Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis – and for good reason. Kennedy himself made a point of referring repeatedly to the lessons of Tuchman’s book (which had been published just a months before that fateful October). In the midst of the crisis, he told his brother Bobby: “I am not going to follow a course which will allow anyone to write a book about this time [and call it] ‘The Missiles of October’.” “Given the passions of the moment, this was a nearly superhuman task. Would someone who had not read the book, or who had not studied history (as Kennedy had at Harvard), have been able to resist the advice of military men like Curtis LeMay, who wanted to evaporate the island with nuclear bombs? In such a nuanced reading of the ways in which Tuchman’s book may have inflected Kennedy’s response, Ronald Carpenter (in ‘Rhetoric in Martial Deliberations and Decision Making’, 2004) has suggested that this is not a foolish question. He explores how Tuchman’s masterly use of rhetorical tools, as well as her unwavering focus on ‘miscalculations’ made by statesmen and generals on all sides, may have shaped Kennedy’s appreciation of the crisis. There are to be sure, intriguing parallels between Tuchman’s discussion of the naval blockade successfully implemented by the risk-adverse British Admiralty and Kennedy’s equally successful decision to impose a ‘quarantine’ on Cuba. Is it possible that, in the pages of Tuchman’s narrative, Kennedy found a prescription for action? “It is tempting to say he did. Kennedy told his brother Bobby, ‘I wish we could send a copy of that book to every Navy officer on every ship right now, but they probably wouldn’t read it.’ At the very least, Kennedy’s remark hints at the possibility that a certain kind of historical narrative – faithful to fact and expert to exposition – can serve as a guide to the perplexed. Mostly faithful and always expert, Tuchman told a story about August 1914 that not only made sense of the story unfolding in October 1962, but also changed the ending. When the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg was asked how the war happened, he replied, ‘Oh, if only I knew.’ A half century later, at least one of the Tuchman’s readers refused this staggering claim of ignorance.”

Ex-Murdoch scribe claims editor "told me to bribe police" Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:26am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - A former reporter on the News of the World newspaper, the defunct News Corp British paper at the heart of phone-hacking and corruption allegations, said he lost his job as crime correspondent because he refused to bribe police officers. Jeff Edwards, who worked for the paper from 1981 until 1985, said in a statement to the inquiry into press ethics on Wednesday he had been told by the news editor to offer bribes because he was failing to produce enough stories. "I explained to him the job was difficult and his response was something to the effect that 'we have plenty of money available, let your contacts in the police know that we will reward them for good information'," Edwards said. He said he refused to do and a few weeks later, the issue was raised again when the news editor angrily told him he should be paying officers. Edwards, who went on to be the Daily Mail's crime correspondent for 17 years, said he was upset and that their job was to expose hypocrisy and corruption and "yet here we were with him instructing me to bribe police officers". "I think this was probably the final nail in my coffin because I remember him becoming angry and saying words to the effect that 'If you will not do my bidding I will find someone who will,'" he said. The following week Edwards said he was replaced as crime correspondent. London police are currently investigating allegations that journalists made illegal payments to public officials in return for information and have made numerous arrests, including a number of people working for Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper arm News International. That probe is running alongside the investigation into the illegal hacking of voicemail messages of mobile phones also centered on News International. Any proven bribery by journalists on Murdoch's papers could lead to U.S. authorities taking action against News Corp under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resulting in possible fines of millions of dollars and criminal charges against individuals.

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Neville Thurlbeck, former News of the World chief reporter, arrested Operation Weeting officers re-arrest former NoW chief reporter, this time on suspicion of intimidation of a witness B y Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 March 2012 13.32 EDT Neville Thurlbeck, the former chief reporter of the News of the World, has been arrested on suspicion of intimidation of a witness. He was arrested by appointment at a central London police station at 4pm on Wednesday by officers working on the Operation Weeting investigation into phone hacking. "A 51-year-old man was arrested by appointment at a central London police station at approximately 16:00 hrs today by officers from Operation Weeting, the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] inquiry into the phone-hacking of voicemails," said Scotland Yard in a statement. "He was arrested on suspicion of intimidation of a witness (contrary to Section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994) and encouraging or assisting an offence (contrary to Section 46 of the Serious Crime Act 2007)." Last week, Thurlbeck posted the home address of an executive on Rupert Murdoch's management standards committee lived on in a blog post. The address in his post included the street name but not the house number, it is understood, and was later removed. Thurlbeck said in a later blog that he "accepted … that printing the name of his street was distressing to his family and took this down immediately as I have absolutely no wish to do this". It is the second time Thurlbeck has been arrested as part of Operation Weeting. In a statement the Metropolitan police said: "This is Operation Weeting arrest 'A'. He was previously arrested on 5 April 2011 (then aged 50) on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications (contrary to Section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977) and unlawful interception of voicemail messages (contrary to Section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000)". The arrest comes a day after Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and her husband Charlie Brooks were arrested and bailed on "suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice" in relation to the same police investigation. Four others were arrested including the director of security at News International and two other non-editorial staff believed to have worked on contract for the Murdoch publishing group.

Leveson Inquiry: 'very serious allegations' about former Scotland Yard commissioners due to be heard Serious allegations about the former Metropolitan Police commissioners Lord Blair and Sir Paul Stephenson have been made in a witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry, it emerged today. The Telegraph By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter 2:26PM GMT 14 Mar 2012 Peter Tickner, Scotland Yard’s former director of internal audit, had been due to air the claims when he is called to give evidence tomorrow, but his appearance may now be postponed following objections from the Met’s legal team. Today he was accused of trying to use the Inquiry to “settle old scores”. Neil Garnham QC, representing the Metropolitan Police, who has seen Mr Tickner’s as yet unpublished statement, said: “The allegations being made against people like Lord Blair, Sir Paul Stephenson and others are very serious. "They come, to use the popular expression, from leftfield. They have not been prefaced or anticipated before." He added: "Given the nature of these allegations, they are certain to receive significant publicity... The allegations being made are unproven and unsupported by independent evidence. "They have, we would say, the flavour of attempts to use the inquiry as a vehicle to settle old scores, and those criticised have had no chance to deal with the issues when they gave evidence. "These previous witnesses face being traduced in the press without any possibility of effective redress or rebuttal." In 2009 Mr Tickner compiled a report on the use of corporate American Express cards by 3,500 Met officers, which referred 300 officers to the force’s Directorate of Professional Standards. It emerged that one officer had spent £40,000 on his Amex card in one year, without authorisation, while other officers bought suits, women’s clothing and fishing rods. Mr Tickner later alleged that Andy Hayman, the former assistant commissioner who quit his job after an investigation was launched into his expenses, had bought a £50 bottle of champagne which he drank with a News of the World reporter. Mr Garnham also raised concerns about allegations against senior officers made in a statement to the inquiry by Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, who led the Met's investigation into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence. Lord Justice Leveson said he would consider postponing Mr Tickner's evidence and suggested that the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC) - Scotland Yard's new governing body - could investigate his claims further. He said: "It may be that the authority or its successor body ought to be considering that which its former employee (Mr Tickner) has said, to find out whether there is material which I ought to know about that would either utterly undermine that which he's said, in which case I may take a view about whether it should be called, or alternatively a different line is taken, in which case I have to make all sorts of arrangements to make sure that I have been fair to everybody concerned."

Leveson Inquiry: Dick Fedorcio let NOTW reporter write story on Met computer Dick Fedorcio, the most senior press officer at the Metropolitan Police Service, let Lucy Panton, the crime editor at the News of the World, use a police computer to write a news story. By Matthew Holehouse 2:10PM GMT 13 Mar 2012 The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9140926/Leveson-Inquiry-Dick-Fedorcio-let-NOTW-reporter-write-story-on-Met-computer.html Mr Fedorcio, the Director of Public Affairs at the force, told the Leveson Inquiry he let Ms Panton use a stand-alone terminal in his office to write up a story about Ali Dizaei, the disgraced Met Commander, because she was under pressure from her editors. Ms Panton has since been arrested by detectives from Operation Elveden on suspicion of offences involving making payments to police officers for information. Mr Fedorcio is on extended leave from the force while the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigates the awarding of a contract to Neil Wallis, the former executive editor of the News of the World. Mr Fedorcio said he would meet with News of the World journalists every Friday evening under Colin Myler's editorship to learn what stories they were planning and get ready to make arrests if they had exposed criminality through a "sting" operation. In written evidence to the inquiry, he said: "At one of these end of the week meetings with Lucy Panton, in my office, at which I was seeking to gain an understanding of whether there were any issues or stories of which the MPS should be aware, I recall that she had arrived with a story about the reception into prison of ex-Commander Ali Dizaei (in particular concerning his alleged refusal to hand over his suit to the prison staff). "She was being chased by telephone and/or text by her office to file this story, which they were expecting from her. To help her, and as she was under pressure, I offered to let her type the story, which she did from notes that she arrived with, in an e-mail on the standalone computer in my office. She accepted and wrote the story and sent it. I was present in the office throughout this time, and therefore got advance sight of a story about an MPS officer." He added the computer was not connected to the MPS computer systemm, and was used for personal emails and access to social media sites that are blocked by the force's firewall. Mr Fedorcio revealed he negotiated the loan of a retired police horse to Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and chief executive of News International. She telephoned him in September 2007 to say she would like to give one a home. Fedorcio arranged for Inspector Hiscock of the Mounted Branch to show Mrs Brooks - then Rebekah Wade - around the police stables at Imber Court. The arrangement was discussed by Mrs Brooks, Mr Fedorcio and the then Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, when they met for lunch the following day. "I felt this could possibly lead to some positive coverage about the care of retired police horses," Mr Fedorcio said. "I had no more dealings with this until I received a call from Inspector Hiscock somertime later to say that he had identified a suitable horse, had visited and checked the facilities being offered by Rebekah Wade and the arrangement was going ahead. I had no further dealings in relation to this issue." Mr Fedorcio also revealed in 2003 he received a hamper from Andy Coulson, then the editor of the News of the World, as "a thank you for the DPA’s efforts in dealing with the paper’s demands, often at short notice on Saturday afternoons." Its contents were shared amongst staff.

David Cameron could be questioned on oath over links to Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, Downing St admits David Cameron could be questioned on oath at the Leveson judicial inquiry about this friendship with Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, Downing Street has admitted. The Telegraph By Christopher Hope and Matthew Holehouse 5:35PM GMT 13 Mar 2012 Mrs Brooks and her husband were among six people who were arrested this morning on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by police officers investigating allegations of phone hacking. The former editor of the News of the World and her husband Charlie, the racehorse trainer and Telegraph columnist, were arrested at their home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, sources said. Mrs Brooks, a former editor of The Sun, had been on bail after being questioned by detectives last summer on suspicion of phone hacking and corruption. News of the arrests broke after Mr Cameron had left the UK for an official visit to America. It could prove to be politically embarrassing for the Prime Minister who 10 days told a press conference that Mr Brooks had been a “good” friend “for over 30 years”. Labour called for the Leveson inquiry to include Mr Cameron’s links with close friends with the Brookses. Asked today at the afternoon press briefing about whether he would co-operate with the inquiry the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We have been very clear about what the remit of the Leveson inquiry is, it is doing a thorough job and the Prime Minister has long said that if politicians including himself are required to come forward as witnesses, then of course we will coop with that inquiry.” If Mr Cameron gave evidence, he would be asked to swear he was telling the truth. Asked if he would he happy to answer questions about his friendship with the Brookses, the spokesman added: “I am not going to try to predict what the questions might be. He said he would cooperate with the inquiry.” Harriet Harman MP, Labour’s Deputy Leader who faces Mr Cameron’s stand-in Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at Prime Minister’s Question on Wednesday, tonight wrote to Lord Leveson urging him to ensure Mr Cameron's links to the Brookses were investigated. She said: “It is important that the police are continuing to pursue the investigation into phone hacking. Rebekah and Charlie Brooks are, on the Prime Minister’s own account, close friends of his. “The Leveson Inquiry – when looking into the relations between the press and politicians – will need to investigate the full extent of the relations between the Prime Minister and senior News International executives at the time when hacking was rife and at the time his Government was considering News Corp’s bid for BSkyB.” Mr Cameron’s friendship with the Brookses has been scrutinised since he was forced to admit he had ridden a horse loaned to Mr Brooks’ wife, the ex-tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks, by the Metropolitan police. He told at a press conference on March 2: “Let me shed some light on it. I have known Charlie Brooks, the husband of Rebekah Brooks for over 30 years, and he is a good friend. Before the election I did go riding with him. “He has a number of different horses and yes one of them was this former police horse Raisa, which I did ride.” Crucially, Mr Cameron did not admit riding with Mrs Brooks, as had been alleged by former News of the World features editor Paul McMullan. Mark Hanna, head of security at News International, was named by Sky News as one of those held. Police from Operation Weeting arrested six people at addresses in London, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire. The five men, aged between 38 and 49, and one woman, aged 43, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The co-ordinated arrests were made between 5am and 7am by officers from Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police's investigation into the illegal interception of voicemails. They were being interviewed at police stations in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and central, east and south west London. Officers are searching the properties where the arrests were made. One man, 48, was arrested at a business address in east London. The 43-year old woman and the 49-year old man were arrested at their home addresses in Oxfordshire and are being interviewed at separate police stations. It takes the total number of arrests under Operation Weeting to 23. The investigation was launched in January 2011 after the Metropolitan Police received new information from News International, the publishers of the News of the World, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times. It is being led by deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers and has 91 officers working on it. She has told the inquiry into press standards that there was a "culture of illegal payments" at the Sun newspaper. Ms Akers, who is in charge of three linked inquiries into phone hacking, illicit payments and computer hacking, told Lord Justice Leveson the payments appeared to have been authorised at a "senior level". Attorney General Dominic Grieve is looking into concerns the policewoman could have prejudiced any potential trials. Mrs Brooks, who resigned last year as News International chief executive amid the furore over phone-hacking allegations, "fostered" Raisa the horse after it retired from active service in 2008. She paid food and vet bills until Raisa was rehoused with a police officer in 2010, months before fresh investigations began into illegal activities at the News of the World. Mrs Brooks is the only suspect being questioned who had already been arrested under Weeting, a source said.

Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch says Sun investigation is almost over Sun journalists sent email claiming management and standards committee's investigation is 'substantially complete' By Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 March 2012 14.37 EDT Rupert Murdoch told Sun journalists that the investigation by News Corporation's management and standards committee into alleged corrupt payments and other acts of illegality at the tabloid has almost concluded, in an email sent to reporters and seen by the Guardian. Writing to the newsroom, the media tycoon said he had been told "by the MSC that its work on the Sun is substantially complete" – and, reinforcing repeated claims made by the MSC, added that any company emails handed over to the police "has at all times been strictly confined to evidence of possible illegal acts". Murdoch's note was aimed at shoring up a demoralised newsroom, which has endured the arrest of 11 journalists on suspicion of making corrupt payments to public officials, including police, prison officers and military personnel. He also responded to press reports last week that two Sun reporters who had been arrested may have contemplated suicide. "We have all been shocked and saddened by recent reports concerning the health and welfare of a number of our colleagues," Murdoch wrote, noting as the newspaper was enduring "difficult and stressful times" that nobody could "simply wish it all away". Indicating that he was personally involved in the welfare of the two staff, which has divided the company between the Sun newsroom and company's MSC, Murdoch wrote that he was "doing everything I can to see that our colleagues are looked after and that they get the very best care and help". Rupert Murdoch returned to New York to attend the funeral in Long Island of Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times war reporter killed last month on assignment in Syria on Monday. But he promised to return London at the end of this week, as News International faces continuing pressure over phone hacking and corrupt payments allegations, as exemplified by the arrest of former chief executive Rebekah Brooks this morning. The MSC investigation into past wrongdoing has been going over some 300m emails, trawling through them to find evidence of any likely corrupt payments and sharing any such information with a police team based in a different room on site. The probe is also covering the Times and the Sunday Times as well as the Sun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JHeAQ4rn9Q&feature=share

There was 'no appetite' for hacking review, says Sir Denis O'Connor The Independent By Sam Marsden, Thomas Pascoe Monday, 12 March 2012 Former home secretary Alan Johnson had "no appetite" for inspectors to review Scotland Yard's original police phone-hacking investigation, the Leveson Inquiry heard today. Sir Denis O'Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said he advised Home Office officials there should be an independent review after a July 2009 Guardian story alleged the illegal interception of voicemails was far more widespread than previously believed. He told the press standards inquiry that the idea of getting Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) involved was discussed with ministers and the then-home secretary, but it "never really got off the ground". Scotland Yard's original phone-hacking investigation resulted in the jailing of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on royal aides' phones. But the Met was widely criticised for failing to reopen the probe after the Guardian published an article on July 9 2009 alleging there were more journalists and many more victims involved in the case. Sir Denis said he had a discussion about the report with a Home Office civil servant on the day it appeared in print. He told the inquiry: "I said, looking at this, that I thought the revelations merited some form of independent review. "I thought that the allegations that were there, if true in any degree, would raise substantial public confidence issues, and I would not be surprised if the HMIC were asked to assist in some way to facilitate such an approach... "I think there was a second - again in the margins of other business - conversation with another, more senior official. "But my understanding was that, as with a number of other options, discussions ensued with ministers and the home secretary at the time, and there was no appetite for the HMIC being involved. "So it never really got off the ground, sadly." Former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner John Yates faced criticism over his decision not to reopen the hacking investigation in the light of the Guardian article. Mr Yates earlier told the inquiry that he was "good friends" with former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis. Met Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick today said the Guardian report "certainly wasn't a trivial matter" and suggested that Mr Yates should have alerted then-commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson to his close relationship with Mr Wallis before he examined the paper's allegations. She told the inquiry: "If you do think you have any conflict, then you have to discuss it with the boss, and so that's what I think I would have done... "I don't know how much Sir Paul knew about the relationship, but I think at a minimum a conflict like that should be discussed." The senior policewoman added: "I was completely and totally unaware of that relationship at that time. "It was not discussed with me at the time. Indeed I had actually never heard of Mr Wallis until early 2011." Ms Dick also told the inquiry that Boris Johnson's deputy Kit Malthouse three times questioned the resources devoted to Scotland Yard's new phone-hacking investigation. She reminded Mr Malthouse that it was for her to make the decision, not him, because British police are operationally independent. Sir Paul told the inquiry last week that the deputy London Mayor complained about the level of resources allocated to the investigation because of a "political and media-driven 'level of hysteria"'. Ms Dick said Mr Malthouse, chairman of Scotland Yard's former governing body the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), voiced his concerns after police launched a new phone-hacking probe in January 2011. She told the inquiry: "On a couple of occasions Mr Malthouse, I thought jokingly, said to me, 'I hope you're not putting too much resources into this, Cressida'. "On the third occasion when he said it again, I said, 'well, that's my decision and not yours, and that's why I'm operationally independent'. "We then went on to have a perfectly reasonable sort of conversation about where the public interest lay." Ms Dick said she wanted to "put down a marker" for Mr Malthouse so that he and the police investigation were not compromised if it was ever suggested that officers had bowed to political pressure. A spokeswoman for Mr Malthouse said: "The job of the chair of the MPA and now, the deputy mayor for policing, is to question and probe the resource allocation decisions of senior police officials in order to secure an efficient and effective police force for London. "It was entirely proper, as Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick noted, for Kit Malthouse to probe the reasoning behind the allocation of resources into the phone hacking inquiry. "Mr Malthouse has questioned the allocation of resources by the Metropolitan Police Service in any number of areas, including knife crime, rape, murder and gangs. His job is to hold the Met Police to account. "The Mayor has made it clear that the phone hacking investigation has to be pursued relentlessly and thoroughly."