Douglas Caddy

Phone-hacking scandal: reporter linked to the 'for Neville' email arrested

News of the World journalist believed to be the man who transcribed key email sent to private investigator Glen Mulcaire

By James Robinson

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 2 September 2011 20.58 BST

A 30-year-old man who has been arrested by police investigating the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World is believed to be Ross Hall, a former journalist at the paper who now works for a financial PR firm.

Hall, who worked under the name Ross Hindley until September 2006, is believed to be the man who transcribed the "for Neville" email that was sent to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. It has become a pivotal piece of evidence in the phone-hacking affair.

That email contained a transcript of messages left on a mobile phone belonging to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association. The "Neville" referred to in the email is believed to be Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's chief reporter.

There is a dispute among senior executives at News International, which owned the paper until it was closed in July, over who knew about the "Neville" email.

The paper's former editor Colin Myler and its lawyer Tom Crone insist they told News International chairman James Murdoch about the existence of the email in 2008, before the company decided to settle a legal action which Taylor had brought against the paper. But Murdoch denies that he knew about the email.

Taylor received an out-of-court settlement of £700,000, and agreed not to discuss the case.

Hall is the nephew of Phil Hall, who edited the News of the World from 1995 to 2000 and is now a PR consultant.

The Metropolitan police said a 30-year-old man was arrested by appointment on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages and perverting the course of justice at a north London police station on Friday. He was later released on bail until January next year.

As much as I respect your dissenting views on the subject, I am more impressed with the comments of Michio Kaku on the video that I attached.

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/77826/OUTSIDE_THREAT_IMMINENT/

I have just finished reading Coevolution by Alec Newald (2011 edition) published by Nexus Magazine in Australia. Award winning science reporter Linda Mouton Howe recently interviewed Newald for four days while attending a conference in New Zealand. She found him utterly sincere and came to believe what he told her. She urged listeners on a coasttocoastam radio show last week to purchase and read the book.

The book’s subtitle is “The extraordinary but true story of one man’s visit to an alien civilization.”

Neward says he visited the alien civilization for 10 days in 1989 after being abducted when driving his vehicle in his native New Zealand. While there with his permission he underwent a test to see if he was naturally resistant to a particular virus, which it turned out he was.

On pages 235-236 of his book Newald writes, “You may ask how such a thing as a new race could be brought about without our resisting it. Quite simply, build a new race that has a resistance to a certain lethal virus and then let that lethal virus free amongst the general population [of Earth.]"

The planet on which the alien civilization is located is dying. Earth has been selected as the new home for the alien civilization, which in the ancient past had a close relationship with Earth. Newald believes an invasion will take place in the near future.

One is forced to wonder whether Elenin’s approach to Earth this month, which will be the same distance as from Earth to Venus, is somehow related to the story told by Newald in his book.

Richard C. Hoagland, who is cited with approval by Newald in his book, recently wrote that if the model he has devised is accurate, Elenin will have some “surprises” for Earth on September 11 and/or September 26 before departing in October. Hoagland believes Elenin is not a comet but an artificial craft, perhaps constructed by Those Who Came Before.

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/77826/OUTSIDE_THREAT_IMMINENT/

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68

Murdoch family divided as News Corporation crisis comes to a head

Row over handling of phone-hacking scandal has led to rift, with James Murdoch no longer seen by all as heir to Rupert's empire

By Dan Sabbagh

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 2 September 2011 20.20 BST

James Murdoch had been seen as the undisputed heir to his father's media empire, until the phone-hacking scandal erupted. But as the younger Murdoch faces the prospect of his evidence to parliament being called into question by former colleagues on Tuesday, there are growing doubts coming from inside his family about his suitability for the top position at News Corporation.

The immediate cause of the rift stems from what insiders call "a big family row" at the height of the crisis in July, the week after the News of the World closed. Members of the Murdoch clan descended on the company's Wapping headquarters in London to work out their battle plan, but within days Elisabeth Murdoch, James's sister, had walked out, because in the words of one observer who asked not to be named, "she had had enough of it all".

Elisabeth was not in London to advise or support Rupert or James when they appeared before MPs the following week. This was in marked contrast to her other brother Lachlan, who quit the family company in 2005. He arrived midweek and spent most of his time in Britain assisting his father, who at 80 spent most of that period "tired and exhausted" with only occasional bursts of the sharpness that made him the world's most powerful media mogul.

While outsiders see News Corp as tight-knit, monolithic organisation, those close to family members describe a company, at least in London, riven by internal rows and disputes over how to handle the hacking crisis.

Now those close to the family worry that the only options are "fratricide or patricide", with critics of James saying that he mishandled power with a series of crude corporate moves such as switching from Labour to the Conservatives in 2009 in the middle of the Labour party conference.

The role and importance of Rebekah Brooks, News International's former chief executive, and editor of the NoW at the time of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking incident, was also a source of tension. She was particularly close to Rupert, and James also chose to support her, even publicly endorsing Brooks in an interview given on the day when the NoW closed and a little over a week before Brooks resigned after a period in which she experienced something that insiders describe as "some sort of meltdown".

Meanwhile, although Elisabeth has emphatically denied saying, in a private conversation at a New York book launch in July, that Brooks and her brother had "xxxxed the company", it was a sentiment that various allies say she nevertheless shared.

The disenchantment of Elisabeth, who is married to public relations chief Matthew Freud, does not amount to her own bid for power at the family business. Although her father bought her Shine TV company earlier this year, yielding her £129m, friends say she is neither inclined nor equipped to run a business of News Corp's size: last month she pulled out of planned trip to speak at the Edinburgh international television festival because she did not want to publicly discuss the phone-hacking controversy, where anything less than a ringing endorsement of her father and brother would have been interpreted as flying the flag of rebellion. Last month, she also said she would not be joining News Corp's board.

It was James who had emerged as the obvious successor from the moment Rupert parachuted him in to run BSkyB in 2003. With Rupert's age telling, James was asked to relocate from London to the company's headquarters in New York this year, in what was widely seen as the last move before taking over at the top.

However, that ascent is no longer guaranteed. On Tuesday, Colin Myler, the former NoW editor and Tom Crone, the Sun and NoW's former chief lawyer, will give evidence to the culture, media and sport select committee, at which attention will fall on a critical 15-minute meeting the two men had with James Murdoch in 2008.

Myler and Crone have already said that they told James of the existence of a critical email that indicated that phone hacking at the NoW was more widespread than a single rogue reporter, which prompted James to reach a £700,000 settlement with Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers' Association who had sued over phone hacking. James told parliament in July that he was never shown or told about the crucial email.

James Murdoch has cancelled a planned trip to Asia so he can monitor Myler and Crone giving evidence. He will not be the only Murdoch watching closely.

Gordon Brown issues Sunday Times hacking challenge

The Independent

By James Cusick

Friday, 2 September 2011

Gordon Brown has stepped up his campaign against Rupert Murdoch’s News International media group, sending tape recordings to the Metropolitan Police earlier today which he says challenge the Sunday Times’s assurances that it broke no laws when investigating his personal financial affairs.

In a letter to Sue Akers – the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner who is heading the investigation into illegal phone hacking by the News of the World – the former Prime Minister states that the tapes detail conversations between named journalists on the Sunday Times and a private investigator, Barry Beardall.

Mr Brown claims in his letter that the tapes reveal discussions on how Mr Beardall’s investigations for the Sunday Times were progressing, and on plans for “reverse engineering” a telephone number to obtain an address.

The tape is alleged to contain Mr Beardall impersonating Mr Brown – a technique that was used when a conman contacted a Bradford call centre and tried to “blag” information from the Abbey National building society on Mr Brown’s financial affairs.

Abbey National's senior lawyer was afterwards moved to write to The Sunday Times editor John Witherow: “On the basis of 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.”

The Abbey National described the blagging attempt, which failed, as “a well-orchestrated scheme of deception”.

Despite the Sunday Times’s assurances that its employees broke no laws and operated within media codes on subterfuge, Mr Brown tells Ms Akers that this position is no longer tenable given the detail and names the tapes contain.

Mr Brown launched a ferocious attack on Mr Murdoch’s newspapers in the House of Commons two months ago, claiming that “News International descended from the gutter to the sewer. The tragedy is that they let the rats out of the sewer.”

The original Sunday Times investigation into Mr Brown’s affairs when he was still Chancellor centred on allegations that he acquired a flat at a price cheaper than the normal valuation, and that he had secured the deal through a company of which Geoffrey Robinson, a former Labour minister and friend, had been a director.

The Sunday Times insisted in July this year that it had reasonable grounds to investigate, that its story gave all sides a fair hearing and that its employees had worked within the law. The Independent is awaiting further comment from the media group.

Mr Brown states that in the tapes Mr Beardall is also heard to discuss the tactics used in trying to sway a Labour politician into changing the party’s policy on urban development.

The former PM tells Ms Akers he believes that three senior Sunday Times journalists, who are named, were aware of the techniques Mr Beardall was using.

MI5 former chief decries 'war on terror'

Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller uses BBC lecture to criticise 'unhelpful' term, attack Iraq invasion and suggest al-Qaida talks

By Richard Norton-Taylor

The Guardian,

Friday 2 September 2011

Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, delivered a withering attack on the invasion of Iraq, decried the term "war on terror", and held out the prospect of talks with al-Qaida.

Recording her first BBC Reith lecture on the theme, Securing Freedom, she made clear she believed the UK and US governments had not sufficiently understood the resentment that had been building up among Arab people, which was only compounded by the war against Iraq.

Before an audience which included Theresa May, the home secretary, she also said the 9/11 attacks were "a crime, not an act of war". "So I never felt it helpful to refer to a war on terror".

Young Arabs, she said, had no opportunity to choose their own rulers. "For them an external enemy was a unifying way to address some of their frustrations."They were also united by the plight of Palestinians, a view that the west was exploiting their oil and supporting dictators. "It was wrong to say all terrorists belonged to al-Qaida," added Manningham-Buller.

Pursuing a theme which some in the audience may have been astounded to hear from a former boss of MI5, she said terrorist campaigns – she mentioned Northern Ireland as an example – could not be solved militarily. She described the invasion of Iraq as a "distraction in the pursuit of al-Qaida". She added: "Saddam Hussein was a ruthless dictator but neither he nor his regime had anything to do with 9/11." The invasion, she said, "provided an arena for jihad", spurring on UK citizens to resort to terror.

September 11 was a "monstrous crime" but it needed a considered response, an appreciation of the causes and roots of terrorism, she said later in answers to questions. She said she hoped there were those – she implied in western governments – who were considering having "talks with al-Qaida".

Some way must be found of approaching them, she suggested, though she said she did not know how, at the moment, that could be done.

Manningham-Buller, who retired in 2007, attacked the invasion of Iraq in an interview with the Guardian in 2009. However, she has never before expressed such antipathy towards the prevailing policies and rhetoric of the government which she had to endure when she was in office. The lecture is to be broadcast on Radio 4 on 6 September, and entitled Terror

Rupert Murdoch's daily paper angers Australian government

The Australian publishes erroneous report about country's PM that could lead to a withdrawal of state ads

By Lisa O'Carroll

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 September 2011 13.02 BST

The Australian government has reportedly put itself on a war footing with Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper division after it published, and then retracted, an erroneous report about the country's prime minister.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the government has had discussions about "going to war" with the News Corporation subsidiary News Ltd and is even considering withdrawing state advertising.

There are also increased prospects to a wider review of media ownership amid concerns that Murdoch, who owns 70% of the country's papers, has too much power.

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, reportedly called the government discussions after News Ltd's daily paper the Australian published an erroneous report linking her to a former boyfriend and the alleged embezzlement of union funds.

Gillard described the report as "in breach of all known standards of journalism". She was so infuriated by the false allegations that she took the unusual step of threatening legal action against the paper.

The Australian acknowledged that it had not contacted the prime minister for a comment on the story, which was subsequently removed from the paper's website. The paper also printed an apology.

"The Australian acknowledges these assertions are untrue. The Australian also acknowledges no attempt was made by anyone employed by, or associated with, the Australian to contact the prime minister in relation to this matter.

"The Australian unreservedly apologises to the prime minister and to its readers for the publication of these claims," it said.

However, the head of News Ltd, John Hartigan, said Gillard's comments were "disappointing" and "pedantic".

He said the false assertions were made in an opinion piece and "comment is rarely, if ever, sought in relation to opinion pieces" and this was "a widely understood and accepted practice in journalism".

According to the Australian Financial Review, several cabinet ministers believe the column was part of "an orchestrated campaign" across Murdoch titles.

They have reportedly been emboldened by events in the UK where politicians have re-examined their relationship with Murdoch's newspapers in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and revelations about frequent behind-the-scenes meetings between News International executives and government ministers.

Australia's Green party has already said it will lay down a motion on 13 September to establish an inquiry into the media and there is speculation that Gillard may now give her support

Phone hacking: 34-year-old man arrested

Suspect questioned over phone hacking at the News of the World and attempting to pervert the course of justice

By James Robinson and agencies

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 2 September 2011 14.37 BST

A 34-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice and phone hacking at the News of the World.

The suspect was being questioned over the two allegations on Friday after attending a north London police station by appointment.

Friday's arrest comes days after the axed Sunday tabloid's former managing editor Stuart Kuttner made a scheduled appearance at a police station to answer police bail. Kuttner was bailed for a second time until September.

No details about the man's identity were released by Scotland Yard, which is investigating allegations of widespread hacking at the title, which was closed in July.

Rupert Murdoch receives $12.5m bonus

News Corp chief's total pay package soars 47% to $33m, while his son James lands $6m bonus to hit total of almost $18m

By Josh Halliday

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 2 September 2011 15.32

The News Corporation chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, received a $12.5m (£7.7m) cash bonus for the last financial year, while his total remuneration rose 47% year on year to $33m, according to the company's annual statement to shareholders.

His son James Murdoch – who is chairman and chief executive of News Corporation in Europe and Asia – also benefited handsomely, with a $6m cash bonus taking his total remuneration to almost $18m – a 74% rise on his 2010 take-home pay.

The bonuses were for the year to the end of June, during which News Corporation became mired in the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed the News of the World. The affair only escalated into a full-blown corporate crisis, with the closure of the News of the World and several executive resignations, in July, shortly after the end of News Corp's 2010/11 financial year.

Chase Carey, News Corp's chief operating officer and Murdoch's right-hand man, took home $30m in the year to 30 June, including a $10m bonus.

Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News, received a slight increase in total compensation in 2011, up to $15.5m from $13.9m in 2010. Ailes received a $1.5m cash bonus.

The Murdochs' remuneration was revealed in their report to shareholders ahead of the News Corp annual general meeting on 21 October.

News Corp also announced on Friday that two of its longest-serving directors are to leave. Ken Crowley, a trusted lieutenant for more than 50 years, will leave the News Corp board of directors he joined in 1979 when Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive, established the global holding company for his media businesses.

Thomas Perkins, a partner of private investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and member of the News Corp board since 1996, will also step down after the media group's AGM next month.

Jim Breyer, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and one of the first investors in Facebook, will join the News Corp board in October.

Where Pay for Chiefs Outstrips U.S. Taxes

The New York Times

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSK

August 31, 2011

At least 25 top United States companies paid more to their chief executives in 2010 than they did to the federal government in taxes, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The companies — which include household names like eBay, Boeing, General Electric and Verizon — averaged $1.9 billion each in profits, according to the study by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal-leaning research group. But a variety of shelters, loopholes and tax reduction strategies allowed the companies to average more than $400 million each in tax benefits — which can be taken as a refund or used as write-off against earnings in future years.

The chief executives of those companies were paid an average of more than $16 million a year, the study found, a figure substantially higher than the $10.8 million average for all companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.

The financial data in the report was taken from the companies’ regulatory filings, which can differ from what is actually filed on a corporate tax return. Even in a year when a company claims an overall tax benefit, it may pay some cash taxes while accumulating credits that can be redeemed in future years. For instance, General Electric reported a federal tax benefit of more than $3 billion in 2010, but company officials said they still expected to pay a small amount of cash taxes.

The authors of the study, which examined the regulatory filings of the 100 companies with the best-paid chief executives, said that their findings suggested that current United States policy was rewarding tax avoidance rather than innovation.

“We have no evidence that C.E.O.’s are fashioning, with their executive leadership, more effective and efficient enterprises,” the study concluded. “On the other hand, ample evidence suggests that C.E.O.’s and their corporations are expending considerably more energy on avoiding taxes than perhaps ever before — at a time when the federal government desperately needs more revenue to maintain basic services for the American people.”

The study comes at a time when business leaders have been lobbying for a cut in corporate taxes and Congress and the Obama administration are considering an overhaul of the tax code to reduce the federal budget deficit.

Many business leaders say that the top corporate statutory rate of 35 percent, which is higher than any country except Japan, is hobbling the economy and making it difficult for domestic companies to compete with overseas rivals. A coalition led by high-technology companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers have been pushing for a “repatriation holiday,” which would let them bring as much as $1 trillion in foreign profits back to the United States at substantially reduced rates.

But the Obama administration has said it will consider lowering the corporate rate only if Congress agrees to eliminate enough loopholes and tax subsidies to pay for any drop in revenue. Many policy experts estimate that the United States could lower its corporate rate to the high 20s if it eliminated the maze of tax breaks that favor specific industries and investors.

The report found, however, that many of the nation’s largest and highly profitable companies paid far less than the statutory rate.

Verizon, which earned $11.9 billion in pretax United States profits, received a federal tax refund of $705 million. The company’s chief executive, Ivan Seidenberg, meanwhile, received $18.1 million in compensation. The online retailer eBay reported pretax profits of $848 million and received a $113 million federal refund. John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, collected a compensation package worth $12.4 million, the study said.

Verizon officials disputed the report. Robert Varretoni, a company spokesman , said that the $18 million in compensation for Mr. Seidenberg was a target, which will only be paid in full if the company stock rises when his bonus is fully vested in three years. Mr. Varretoni also said it was misleading of the report to cite Verizon’s tax benefit without noting that the company also incurred billions of dollars in deferred taxes which “will be paid over time.”

“The fact is, Verizon fully complies with all tax laws and pays its fair share of taxes,” Mr. Varretoni said.

Chaz Bickers, a Boeing spokesman, said that the company’s taxes have declined in recent years because it has made huge investments in United States manufacturing.

Mr. Bickers said that the company also paid hundreds of millions in cash taxes and incurred an additional $1 billion in deferred taxes that it will pay at some date in the future.

“We pay our taxes and we have added 5,000 more U.S. manufacturing jobs that were incentivized by tax benefits,” he said.While the accounting strategies used to lower taxes varied from company to company, the report found that 18 of the 25 corporations had offshore subsidiaries, which can be used to shelter income.

To discourage companies from gaming the tax system, the report called for tighter rules on offshore tax havens and new restrictions on write-offs for executive compensation.

“Instead of sharing responsibility for addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges,” said Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the institute who co-wrote the study, “corporations are rewarding C.E.O.’s for aggressive tax avoidance.”

Former NOTW managing editor is re-arrested

He is one of a dozen former Murdoch executives under police investigation for suspected involvement in phone-hacking

The Independent

By Andy McSmith

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Stuart Kuttner, the former managing editor of the News of the World, faced more questions from police investigating the phone-hacking scandal last night. Mr Kuttner, 71, who retired in 2009, was arrested earlier this month "on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications". Yesterday, he was called in for more questioning and re-bailed until September.

Mr Kuttner is one of a dozen former executives of Rupert Murdoch's News International under police investigation for suspected involvement in phone hacking. Others include the former Downing Street director of communications Andy Coulson.

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee wants Mr Kuttner to say whether he would like to reconsider evidence he gave in an earlier session of the committee, in light of a letter sent to him and two other executives by the paper's former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, who received a jail sentence in January 2007 for phone hacking.

Mr Goodman alleged that others were involved in a practice "widely discussed" in the newsroom, while the company claimed Mr Goodman acted alone. Though Mr Coulson resigned as editor of the Sunday paper in January 2007, he denied knowing that any of its journalists had been breaking the law.

Yesterday, the Electoral Commission threw out a suggestion that Mr Coulson was implicated in secret funding of the Conservative Party. MP Tom Watson had asked the commission to look into the severance package Mr Coulson received from News International, which was still being paid after he started work for the Conservatives.

Mr Watson suggested it could be interpreted as covert funding of the Tories. But a commission spokeswoman said: "There is no evidence to suggest that there has been a breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act. We won't be opening a case review into the allegation."

How has history judged the pronouncements of Goldwater during his presidential candidacy in 1964?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr8nHC2K5wE&feature=player_embedded

Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, are to be questioned about the phone hacking scandal under oath in the High Court

Telegraph

By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor

11:56PM BST 29 Aug 2011

Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, are to be questioned about the phone hacking scandal under oath in the High Court.

Lord Justice Leveson, the man who prosecuted Rose West, will hold his inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice.

David Cameron and other senior politicians are also likely to be questioned over their links to News International, the parent company of the News of the World.

The proceedings will be held in the same court as the official inquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Lord Justice Leveson is thought to be keen for the proceedings to be broadcast live to ensure they are seen to be transparent.

The prospect of courtroom evidence will increase the impression that the Leveson inquiry is an unofficial “trial” of key players in the phone hacking scandal.

Over the summer, a handful of officials from the Cabinet Office and Treasury Solicitor’s Office have been planning how the inquiry will be run.

The team will set up a full-time office in the Royal Courts of Justice before the formal start of proceedings in October. The focus of the inquiry is “the culture, practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter’s relationship with the public, police and politicians”.

It was ordered by Mr Cameron in the wake of the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World and held out the possibility of tougher press regulation in future.

Lord Justice Leveson has powers firstly to invite witnesses to give evidence, and then to compel them under the Inquiries Act 2005.

Sources close to the inquiry said Lord Justice Leveson would not be constrained in who he asked to testify, adding that

the judge “will go where the evidence takes him”.

Dozens of letters have been sent to potential witnesses asking if they will help the inquiry. The deadline for submissions to the inquiry is tomorrow.

The Murdochs, as well as Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, both former editors of the News of the World, are likely to be called.

Mr Cameron, who subsequently hired Mr Coulson to work for the Conservative Party and then in 10 Downing Street, could also be asked to give evidence. A source close to Downing Street said the Prime Minister would be happy to give evidence if asked.

The inquiry will begin with a series of seminars at the end of next month, attended by senior journalists and other interested parties. They will examine topics including the law, ethics of journalism and the “practice and pressures of investigative journalism”.

They will also look at how press regulation will protect the integrity, freedom and independence of the press, while ensuring the highest standards.

The hacking inquiry might not be complete by next summer after Mr Cameron expanded it to include broadcasters and bloggers.

Opening the inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson said he would “strive” to complete his inquiry after 12 months but said this would not happen “at all cost”.

The inquiry team, which includes George Jones, the former political editor of The Daily Telegraph, and Shami

Chakrabarti, the director of the civil liberties group Liberty, would have to “exercise very considerable discipline and, where appropriate, restraint” to deliver the report on time

Labour seeks law change to stop News Corp renewing BSkyB bid

Fears that Rupert Murdoch could reopen bid prompts 'public interest test' motion by shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis

By Polly Curtis

guardian.co.uk,

Sunday 28 August 2011 20.22 BST

Labour is trying to secure cross-party support for an emergency change in the law to prevent News Corporation from renewing its bid to take full ownership of BSkyB.

In a move designed to capitalise on the embarrassment the phone-hacking scandal has heaped on the government, Labour said there was still a possibility that Rupert Murdoch could reopen his bid and the law should be changed to allow ministers to block it. Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture secretary, will introduce a negative motion when parliament returns next week, which – if approved by all parties – could go ahead without a vote.

He has written to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the Lib Dem culture spokesman, Don Foster, with his proposals. The aim would be to introduce a new public interest test applicable to media barons to rule people out based on their conduct.

Under Labour's proposed amendments to Section 58 of the Enterprise Act 2002, ministers would be given the necessary powers to ask regulators to apply a wide-ranging public interest test. Ministers would be also be able to intervene at any stage in the process if new information came to light.

Lewis said: "These measures are necessary to ensure that while we wait for the outcome of the Leveson inquiry, no changes in media ownership can occur which are not in the public interest.

"It is essential we learn lessons from the BSkyB fiasco so that media integrity is the top priority when considering future ownership and merger changes.

"Ultimately, there is a strong case for removing politicians from media ownership and merger decisions. But, in the meantime, we must act to address the legal ambiguities which allowed Jeremy Hunt to disregard growing public concern and damaged public trust in the credibility of the decision making process."

In his letter to Hunt, Lewis argued that ministers should be removed from the approval process in the long term, but that while the existing legislation was in place emergency moves were urgently needed to close the loophole that could allow Murdoch to simply bid again for control of BSkyB. The negative motion will be laid in both houses of parliament when they return on 5 September

Poster's note: Be sure to watch the reporter's video interview of Robert Morrow included in this article.

--------------------------------

Peddling Perry rumors on a national stage

Ken Herman, Commentary

Austin (TX) American-Statesman

Updated: 9:40 a.m. Monday, Aug. 29, 2011

Published: 7:26 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/peddling-perry-rumors-on-a-national-stage-1800515.html

Ray Sullivan called me last week. Sullivan, a longtime Rick Perry aide and now communications director for Perry's presidential campaign, has a problem. Sullivan's wife, Leslie, is a fundraiser for Mitt Romney. But that's not the problem Sullivan called me about.

Sullivan called about Robert Morrow. Morrow is a problem for Perry. And any problem for Perry is a problem for Sullivan. Morrow, from his Austin home, has become a key purveyor of nasty, unsubstantiated allegations about Perry's personal life. You may be aware of Morrow's recent full-page Austin Chronicle ad trolling for bad stuff about Perry.

"Here is what we are learning about Rick Perry," Morrow wrote in a recent late-night email listing unsubstantiated stuff about Perry and concluding with "I think it is just a matter of time before a credible source" comes forward to substantiate the rumors.

Maybe. Maybe not. We've been down this road more than once with rumors about Perry. Lots of journalistic sweat and dollars have been spent on them. Reporting on such things is tricky. At this newspaper, we're not much interested in public officials' personal lives unless those personal lives affect public duties or offer evidence of rank hypocrisy. We are interested in discerning the truth, but unless it meets that criteria, we might choose not to write about it.

My American-Statesman colleague Mike Ward, one of the best diggers in our business, recently wound up at what he called a "nasty little townhouse" in North Austin to meet someone sources indicated might know something of potential note about Perry. Ward knocked on the door and identified himself. As Ward told me, "I kind of look like a cop." He kind of sounds like one, too. The conversation did not last too long.

"This guy basically said, ‘We don't want nothing, and you need to get the hell out of here.' He had a knife he was cleaning his fingernails with and he said, ‘I think you get it.' And I said, ‘I get it,' " said Ward, father of two cute kids.

Lots of opposition research sweat and dollars also have been spent chasing Perry rumors. To date, nada. But we're in a presidential campaign now. Things are different in a presidential campaign. And that's why Morrow is a problem for Perry.

"Morrow's (allegations) are more false rumors, with a different story line. The fact is that decades of intense media scrutiny, political opposition research and more than $100 million in attack ads have proven nothing other than Perry's solid and stable family, financial and political life," Sullivan told me in an email. "Unfortunately, the current political environment and exponentially larger number of media/information outlets allow crackpot conspiracy theorists like Mr. Morrow to run amok in cyberspace and in some cases traditional media outlets."

Indeed, Morrow's Chronicle ad drew some national media attention. "Dangit: So Far No Dirt on Perry" was the headline on a U.S. News blog item about the ad.

And Morrow has discussed his allegations on talk radio shows, a forum that — along with the internet — perpetuates such nonsense as the nonscandal about President Barack Obama's birth certificate and whether the Clintons were involved in the death of Vincent Foster.

"The challenge for the campaign is how to deal with it," Sullivan told me. "Response might further the storyline and push it into the mainstream media. Ignoring it may allow it to gain currency in certain uninformed circles."

So I went to meet Morrow. Right now you are conjuring up an image of a guy living by himself in an apartment housing voluminous materials he believes are proof positive about every great political conspiracy theory of the past half-century.

Erase that image. Substitute this one: A guy living by himself in an upscale, 4,000-square-foot home in Davenport Ranch housing voluminous materials he believes are proof positive about every great political conspiracy theory of the past half-century.

"So when I was researching Bill and Hillary Clinton, I went to Amazon.com, and I literally bought every book ever written on the Clintons," he said as he opened the doors on a cabinet in an upstairs room. "So when I say these things about these politicians, I'm not just, you know, pulling it out of my (place where books generally are not found). I back it up."

We're talking about 200 to 300 books, by Morrow's estimate.

"Come on over here, I'll show up my JFK collection," he said as we headed to another room. "Here's my library on the JFK assassination, also known as the 1963 coup d'état. In my opinion, Lyndon Johnson and his Texas oilmen used their CIA-military connections to murder John Kennedy for many reasons, both personal and political. This is an 8-foot tall bookcase, 4 feet wide, with some of the best JFK books out there."

And on another wall in that room, "That's another 8-foot-by-4-foot bookshelf with a lot of political books and information. Got a lot of books on the Bushes. Here's ‘Family of Secrets' by Russ Baker, where he pretty much implies that George Herbert Walker Bush was involved in the JFK assassination, which I think is very likely because Bush was high-ranking Texas CIA in 1963, and he was supported by the exact same people that Lyndon Johnson was, the Texas oilmen, military contractors, CIA people."

Morrow, 47, is a large man; 6-foot-4 and apparently working out.

His dining room has a framed photo of him in the gold basketball uniform he wore in high school in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where his family has done well in a real estate business started by his late dad in 1961.

Morrow is a Princeton University graduate and has an MBA from the University of Texas. He now has no job but is involved in investments and day trading and political research.

His home is valued by the Travis Central Appraisal District at $712,000.

"I'm a truth seeker and a truth teller. Even if it's the ugly truth," he said of his political research. He acknowledges he's yet to produce evidence or witnesses to back his Perry allegations. But, while other purveyors of tips about Perry want to remain in the background, Morrow is quite comfortable as a center of attention, a fact evidenced by the reporters' business cards on his kitchen counter. He speaks in precise, quotable sound bites that he can repeat word for word, over and over again. He's a "libertarian operating within the Republican Party" and backs Ron Paul for president, says so on the sign on his pickup truck. He's also a three-time delegate to Texas GOP state conventions.

And he does not like to be associated with conspiracy theories.

"I don't really call it conspiracy theories. I'm a researcher and go where the truth takes me," he said.

Morrow knows the Perry people are not sure what to do about him. "They were waiting for me. But that's like saying they're waiting to get kicked in the nuts with the truth," he said.

The Perry dossier on Morrow, shared with reporters, says he is "an intelligent, articulate guy (Princeton degree, MBA from UT-Austin), but he has an obsessive personality ... and he has focused his obsessions on one off-the-wall political conspiracy theory after another, usually focused on alleged sexual transgressions and murder."

The Perry campaign, in unflattering terms, is working to discredit Morrow and discourage journalists from dealing with him.

"His current obsession is Texas Gov. Rick Perry," the campaign notes.

I got to Morrow's home just after his hourlong stint on a New Orleans radio show titled "Ringside Politics With A Punch" on which host Jeff Crouere let Morrow, in a return appearance, spout his graphic and detailed and unsubstantiated allegations about Perry. Brian in Metairie called to complain to Morrow about "the lives you could be destroying just on hearsay."

"The people who have told me these things are very credible," Morrow replied.

Mo in New Orleans, who claimed experience as a private detective, told Morrow the whole thing sounded like "a smear campaign." It should be noted that Mo in New Orleans said his problem with Perry has to do with "his Muslim connections."

Like most radio talk shows, this one comes back from commercials with catchy music and a catchy catchphrase. "Ringside Politics With a Punch," we were told after one break, "is like a box of chocolates. You never know when you'll get a nut." And then Morrow was back on the air.

Is Morrow a nut? He's different, I'll say that. And we'll see if his scandalous allegations about Perry ever will be backed with evidence or witnesses. But there is no doubt that he has intelligence, drive, money, time and a knack for gaining attention.

That's why Sullivan called me.

kherman@statesman.com; 445-3907

Find this article at:

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/peddling-perry-rumors-on-a-national-stage-1800515.html

Andy Coulson row prompts inquiry into role of political advisers

Further embarrassment for David Cameron as MPs prepare to investigate the appointment and influence of government 'spads'

By Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 26 August 2011 20.40 BST

David Cameron is facing another potentially embarrassing inquiry in the wake of the row over his employment of Andy Coulson, as a parliamentary committee prepares to investigate the appointment and influence of special advisers.

Bernard Jenkin, Tory chair of the public administration select committee, said the inquiry would consider the vetting procedures for new special advisers and how to avoid conflicts of interests, after this week's revelations that Coulson, a former editor of News of the World, was paid by News International while employed by the Conservative party.

Jenkin said he was keen to investigate whether advisers to ministers should be subjected to pre-appointment interviews with parliamentary committees, which are usually preserved for the most high-profile government appointments. Such interviews would be held in parliament and allow MPs to vet a minister's preferred candidate for a so-called "spad" job and question them in public.

Jenkin said that in light of the increasing influence of special advisers, they should be subject to more scrutiny. "Special advisers have historically been a confidant and personal friend and ministers have been held accountable for their actions," he said. "But it's quite clear that they are increasingly constitutionally important and the question is about whether they should more openly be held accountable.

"Andy Coulson is by no means the first special adviser who has had to resign and there were plenty of examples under the last Labour government of people who should never have been appointed special advisers," he said.

If the committee agrees to go ahead with the inquiry when parliament returns in September, it would be free to look at some of the most controversial aspects of the hiring of the former journalist by Cameron and George Osborne, including the vetting procedures he underwent before entering Downing Street.

It could also examine how to ensure that special advisers are not receiving payments from potentially conflicting sources.

The parliamentary standards commissioner confirmed this week that he is considering a complaint about Coulson's apparent failure to register payments and benefits he received from News International while holding a parliamentary pass – allowing him access to most of the parliamentary estate – sponsored by David Cameron from 2007. Archived registers of parliamentary pass holders, on which they are required to declare any income, benefits or gifts they receive from organisations that could be seen "in any way" to conflict with their work in government, reveal that throughout the time Coulson had a pass, he made no declarations about his continuing income from News International.

Tom Watson, the Labour MP and member of the media select committee who has campaigned against phone hacking at the News of the World, wrote to the standards commissioner to complain about the apparent omissions. The Conservative party was left on the defensive by the revelations because it had previously issued a "categorical" denial to the Guardian that Coulson had received income from NI during his employment, apparently after receiving assurances from Coulson.

Before the election Cameron pledged to reduce the number of special advisers after controversy over Labour's reliance on them. Brown employed 78 before last year's election and Cameron cut that number by 10. But in the past year it has crept back up to 74.

William Hague's adviser Christopher Meyer resigned last year after Hague was forced to deny rumours of an "inappropriate" relationship. It followed unease in Downing Street at his judgment in appointing a 25-year-old with little apparent expertise in foreign affairs. In 2009 Damian McBride, a special adviser to Gordon Brown, was forced to resign after it emerged he had plotted to set up a website to smear Tory politicians, communicating the plans using his Downing Street email address.

Cameron's pledge to crackdown on "spads" triggered problems with the Liberal Democrats in government claiming that they had too few advisers to properly perform their functions, and accusations that the Tories had employed loyalists on short-term contracts to the civil service, which allow them to fast-track chosen people into posts without a round of interviews. Jenkin said an inquiry would also be free to investigate the blurring of lines between civil servants and special advisers.

The home affairs committee and culture, media and sport committees are conducting inquiries into wider questions raised by the hacking scandal and the prime minister has commissioned Lord Justice Leveson to undertake a major independent inquiry.

Glenn Mulcaire names News of the World staff behind phone hacking

Private investigator passes names on to Steve Coogan's lawyers, in accordance with court order

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 26 August 2011 20.03 BST

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has revealed the names of the News of the World staff who instructed him to carry out phone hacking, his solicitor has confirmed.

The information was passed in a letter to Steve Coogan's lawyers in accordance with a court order.

Mulcaire had applied for permission to appeal against the order, which was made in February, but this was denied and he was compelled to pass over the details by Friday.

His solicitor, Sarah Webb, from Payne Hicks Beach, said she could not reveal who the NoW employees were because of "confidentiality issues".

Schillings, which is representing Coogan, has agreed not to reveal the names yet, to give Payne Hicks Beach a chance to apply for a court order stopping their release.

Mulcaire was ordered to reveal who instructed him to access Coogan's voicemails, as well as those of celebrities including Max Clifford and Elle Macpherson.

He was jailed for six months in 2007 for intercepting messages left on royal aides' phones.

A spokeswoman for News International said the firm had no comment.

C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight

The New York Times

By SCOTT SHANE

August 26, 2011

WASHINGTON — In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda.

The agent, Ali H. Soufan, argues in the book that the C.I.A. missed a chance to derail the 2001 plot by withholding from the F.B.I. information about two future 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego, according to several people who have read the manuscript. And he gives a detailed, firsthand account of the C.I.A.’s move toward brutal treatment in its interrogations, saying the harsh methods used on the agency’s first important captive, Abu Zubaydah, were unnecessary and counterproductive.

Neither critique of the C.I.A. is new. In fact, some of the information that the agency argues is classified, according to two people who have seen the correspondence between the F.B.I. and C.I.A., has previously been disclosed in open Congressional hearings, the report of the national commission on 9/11 and even the 2007 memoir of George J. Tenet, the former C.I.A. director.

Mr. Soufan, an Arabic-speaking counterterrorism agent who played a central role in most major terrorism investigations between 1997 and 2005, has told colleagues he believes the cuts are intended not to protect national security but to prevent him from recounting episodes that in his view reflect badly on the C.I.A.

Some of the scores of cuts demanded by the C.I.A. from Mr. Soufan’s book, “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al Qaeda,” seem hard to explain on security grounds.

Among them, according to the people who have seen the correspondence, is a phrase from Mr. Soufan’s 2009 testimony at a Senate hearing, freely available both as video and transcript on the Web. Also chopped are references to the word “station” to describe the C.I.A.’s overseas offices, common parlance for decades.

The agency removed the pronouns “I” and “me” from a chapter in which Mr. Soufan describes his widely reported role in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, an important terrorist facilitator and training camp boss. And agency officials took out references to the fact that a passport photo of one of the 9/11 hijackers who later lived in San Diego, Khalid al-Midhar, had been sent to the C.I.A. in January 2000 — an episode described both in the 9/11 commission report and Mr. Tenet’s book.

In a letter sent Aug. 19 to the F.B.I.’s general counsel, Valerie E. Caproni, a lawyer for Mr. Soufan, David N. Kelley, wrote that “credible sources have told Mr. Soufan that the agency has made a decision that this book should not be published because it will prove embarrassing to the agency.”

In a statement, Mr. Soufan called the C.I.A’s redactions to his book “ridiculous” but said he thought he would prevail in getting them restored for a later edition.

He said he believed that counterterrorism officers have an obligation to face squarely “where we made mistakes and let the American people down.” He added: “It saddens me that some are refusing to address past mistakes.”

A spokeswoman for the C.I.A., Jennifer Youngblood, said, “The suggestion that the Central Intelligence Agency has requested redactions on this publication because it doesn’t like the content is ridiculous. The C.I.A.’s pre-publication review process looks solely at the issue of whether information is classified.”

She noted that under the law, “Just because something is in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s been officially released or declassified by the U.S. government.”

A spokesman for the F.B.I., Michael P. Kortan, declined to comment.

The book, written with the assistance of Daniel Freedman, a colleague at Mr. Soufan’s New York security company, is scheduled to go on sale Sept. 12. Facing a deadline this week, the publisher, W. W. Norton and Company, decided to proceed with a first printing incorporating all the C.I.A.’s cuts.

If Mr. Soufan ultimately prevails in negotiations or a legal fight to get the excised material restored, Norton will print the unredacted version, said Drake McFeely, Norton’s president. “The C.I.A.’s redactions seem outrageous to me,” Mr. McFeely said. But he noted that they are concentrated in certain chapters and said “the book’s argument comes across clearly despite them.”

The regular appearance of memoirs by Bush administration officials has continued a debate over the facts surrounding the failure to prevent 9/11 and the tactics against terrorism that followed. In former Vice President Dick Cheney’s memoir, set for publication next week, he writes of the harsh interrogations that “the techniques worked.”

A book scheduled for publication next May by José A. Rodriguez Jr., a former senior C.I.A. official, is expected to give a far more laudatory account of the agency’s harsh interrogations than that of Mr. Soufan, as is evident from its tentative title: “Hard Measures: How Aggressive C.I.A. Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives.”

Government employees who hold security clearances are required to have their books vetted for classified information before publication. But because decisions on what should be classified can be highly subjective, the prepublication review process often becomes a battle. Several former spies have gone to court to fight redactions to their books, and the Defense Department spent nearly $50,000 last year to buy and destroy the entire first printing of an intelligence officer’s book, which it said contained secrets.

The C.I.A. interrogation program sharply divided the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., whose director, Robert S. Mueller III, ordered agents to stop participating in the program after Mr. Soufan and other agents objected to the use of physical coercion. But some C.I.A. officers, too, opposed the brutal methods, including waterboarding, and it was their complaint to the C.I.A.’s inspector general that eventually led to the suspension of the program.

“The Black Banners” traces the origins and growth of Al Qaeda and describes the role of Mr. Soufan, 40, a Lebanese-American, in the investigations of the East African embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the American destroyer Cole in 2000, 9/11 and the continuing campaign against terrorism.

Starting in May, F.B.I. officials reviewed Mr. Soufan’s 600-page manuscript, asking the author for evidence that dozens of names and facts were not classified. Mr. Soufan and Mr. Freedman agreed to change wording or substitute aliases for some names, and on July 12 the bureau told Mr. Soufan its review was complete.

In the meantime, however, the bureau had given the book to the C.I.A. Its reviewers responded this month with 78-page and 103-page faxes listing their cuts.

More than 120 police investigate Murdoch empire's operations

The Independent

By James Cusick and Cahal Milmo

Friday, 26 August 2011

The number of police officers in the UK investigating claims of illegal newsgathering by Rupert Murdoch's media empire has surged past 120.

Strathclyde Police has dedicated more than 50 officers to Operation Rubicon, its investigation into allegations of perjury involving former News of the World editor Andy Coulson and wider claims of phone hacking aimed at public figures in Scotland.

Up to 60 officers are already involved in the Metropolitan Police's Operation Weeting. Scotland Yard also has over a dozen officers working on Operation Elveden, the investigation into allegations of corrupt payments to police officers, and Operation Tuleta, a separate investigation into claims of computer hacking by private detectives hired by News International.

But the decision by senior officers in Scotland to massively boost their investigation into the phone-hacking scandal is a further blow to Mr Murdoch's News International, suggesting that police believe they may have large numbers of potential victims to approach and need to devote considerable resources to the examination of evidence given by NOTW executives during the perjury trial of disgraced politician Tommy Sheridan.

From a small number of officers a few months ago, Operation Rubicon, led by Detective Superintendent John McSporran, now involves more than 50 and has been passed by Scotland the dossier of evidence seized from private detective Glenn Mulcaire.

The surge in manpower potentially reflects the political pressure now being put on the police investigating the NOTW's alleged illegal activities.

Last week, Stephen House, Chief Constable of Strathclyde, confirmed in an email to staff that he had applied to become the Met Commissioner, Britain's most senior police officer.

Six months into the main Met investigation, which began earlier this year, only 170 victims had been contacted by police out of the thousands of names contained in material seized in 2006 from the home in south London of Mr Mulcaire. Rubicon's inquiries are focused on a dossier containing 1,027 names, given to the police by the solicitor Aamer Anwar, who represented Mr Sheridan, the former Scottish Socialist Party leader who was jailed for perjury in a case involving the NOTW's Scottish edition. Mr Anwar said: "This inquiry [Operation Rubicon] has been given massive resources and is looking at allegations of phone hacking, perjury and breaches of data protection. It is an inquiry that will take months if not longer. And the question to be answered is when and who will face prosecution for these crimes committed in Scotland."

Sheridan's accusations also involve another investigator, Steve Whittamore, regularly used by the NOTW.

NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

Aug 25 07:08 PM US/Eastern

By EILEEN SULLIVAN

Associated Press

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9PBDBJO0&show_article=1

WASHINGTON (AP) - New York's police commissioner confirmed Thursday that a CIA officer is working out of police headquarters there, after an Associated Press investigation revealed an unusual partnership with the CIA that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying. But he and the CIA said the spy agency's role at the department is an advisory one.

Speaking to reporters in New York, commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that the CIA trains NYPD officers on "trade craft issues," meaning espionage techniques, and advises police about events happening overseas. Kelly also said he was unaware of any other U.S. police department with a similar relationship with the CIA.

"They are involved in providing us with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas and providing it to us for, you know, just for our purposes," Kelly said.

CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said the agency does not spy inside the United States and also described the relationship with the NYPD as collaborative.

"Our cooperation, in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is exactly what the American people deserve and have come to expect following 9/11," she said.

A months-long investigation by the AP, published Wednesday, revealed that the NYPD has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.

Many of the operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The NYPD denied that it trolls ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. The mayor on Thursday defended the police department's efforts.

"In the end the NYPD's first job is prevention, and I think they've done a very good job of that," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said when asked about the police practices. "The law is pretty clear about what's the requirement, and I think they've followed the law."

Also Thursday, New York City Councilman Brad Lander said the city council should conduct an oversight hearing on the NYPD's programs, but Lander is not in a leadership position to enforce that such hearings take place.

"We must be sure that the NYPD's intelligence gathering does not violate civil liberties, target and profile our city's diverse ethnic and religious communities," Lander said.

City Councilman Peter Vallone, chairman of the panel that oversees the police department, said the council already had scheduled two NYPD oversight hearings during which these issues could be raised.

The disclosures about the NYPD's activities provoked exasperation in the city's Muslim neighborhoods, where government officials have sought to build relationships in Muslim communities and pledged to ensure that Muslims aren't targeted for discrimination.

"The NYPD's credibility is bankrupt in our communities," Fahd Ahmed, legal and policy director of the Desis Rising Up & Moving group, said in a statement Thursday. "We need accountability, transparency and an overhaul of tactics and policies."

Government outreach programs have operated in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Washington—all cities with large Muslim communities—even as law enforcement around the country has stepped up investigative efforts to stave off attacks.

But the inherent tensions caused by this duality of missions is perhaps most visible in New York. It is the only U.S. city that al-Qaida has successfully attacked twice and continues to be the target of terror plots. New York also is home to the country's most aggressive local police department investigating counterterrorism.

"It seems to many of the leadership here, there are two kinds of authorities they are playing—one is in the forefront which is very cooperative," said Zaheer Uddin of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York. "And there is another authority, which is playing against Islam and Muslims, going against the First Amendment and the security of this country."

Uddin asked, "Are we partners, or are we a suspicious community?"

On Wednesday, the Justice Department said it will review a request by a Muslim advocacy group to investigate.

"These revelations send the message to American Muslims that they are being viewed as a suspect community and that their constitutional rights may be violated with impunity," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which asked for the investigation. "The Justice Department must initiate an immediate investigation of the civil rights implications of this spy program and the legality of its links to the CIA."

The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, an umbrella organization of New York Muslim groups, on Thursday also called for an investigation.

In the decade since the September 2001 attacks, government officials in New York also have met with Muslim leaders and exchanged cellphone numbers. They've attended religious services, dinners and teas, and spoken at community meetings. The FBI recently hosted an event for 500 young Muslims in Brooklyn to build trust and get to know federal law enforcement, with a bomb-sniffing dog, scuba boat and helicopter on display.

"I go and visit mosques on a regular basis," Kelly previously told the AP, adding that he also holds question-and-answer sessions and planned to attend several dinners with members of the Muslim community during the holy month of Ramadan this year.

The police department in 2006 hired Sidique Wai, an African immigrant and member of the New York Muslim community, to coordinate the NYPD's citywide community outreach program. He said the interaction and outreach between the community and police is unprecedented.

"The majority of the faith-based—particularly the Muslim leaders throughout the city—are absolutely appreciative of the unprecedented relationship with the police department," Wai said. "I'm not aware of a deliberate effort on the part of NYPD to profile people."

___

Associated Press writer Samantha Gross in New York City contributed to this report.