BRIT Exclusive: Murdoch Tabloid Subverted Murder Inquiry to Protect Murdoch-Employed Suspects

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Thursday November 12, 2015 · 9:48 PM PST

2015/11/12 · 21:48

Peter Jukes (a.k.a. Brit) has struck gold again — his exclusive Byline interview of former News of the World Editor Greg Miskiw has blown the Daniel Morgan murder case wide open. Miskiw’s account suggests that the Murdoch tabloid was intimately involved in the subversion of the investigation. And they had motive - the prime suspects were themselves on the Murdoch payroll. Here is Jukes reporting for Independent Australia:

Back in June 2002, when the fourth investigation into the murder of private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was announced, the News of the World began following, photographing, hacking, and obtaining personal information on the chief investigating officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, and his wife Jacqui Hames.

…

The subversion of the Morgan murder inquiry began two days before Cook's appearance on BBC's Crimewatch when Sid Fillery, a former police officer and a suspect in the conspiracy, phoned Alex Marunchak, an executive editor of News of the World, with information about the new murder inquiry team.

…

Miskiw says he knew Marunchak

"had a close relationship with a private detective agency Southern Investigations who performed his dark arts".

He says he met Rees and Fillery "several times" but "always at the behest of Alex and always in his company."

Miskiw continues:

I knew Rees had been a suspect in the murder of his former partner at Southern, Daniel Morgan, who was found in a pub car park with an axe in his head in 1987.

It was suggested he was killed because he was about to expose corruption in The Met. police south of the river.

independentaustralia.net/...

Marunchak, who at the time of the murder was the News of the World Crime Editor, claimed he had never even heard of Daniel Morgan before he was killed. However...

This contradicts the evidence of Bryan Madagan – a former employer of both Rees and Morgan – who claims the murdered private detective was in contact with Marunchak trying to sell him the story of police corruption only weeks before he was killed.

Soon after, Marunchak developed a close financial relationship with Rees and Fillery. A former book keeper, Marjorie Williams, claims thousands of pounds per month were channeled from News of the World to Southern Investigations in small cash payments within weeks of the murder.

independentaustralia.net/…

The entire article is a must-read. It’s hard to see how the Murdoch Dark Arts Empire can squirm out of this one. According to the Independent, Jukes is calling for a full investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Thank you, Brit.

And thanks, Greg Miskiw, for shedding some much needed light on this as yet unsolved crime.

Murdochgate: Five Buggers Sentenced UPDATED: More charges on way?

Lib Dem FoP

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Friday July 04, 2014 · 8:23 AM PDT

2014/07/04 · 08:23

Last week's acquittal of Rebekah Brooks was spun by the Murdoch press as vindicating the News of the World (NoW). The Sun, its sister weekday paper which started a Sunday edition to replace the disgraced rag, claimed the verdicts were a "Great Day for the Red Tops". That was a reference to both Brooks' hair and the down market tabloid size newspapers in the UK - most of the "broadsheets" now print in that format. The boast was an attempt to cover up the one trial conviction, of former editor and Cameron spin doctor Andy Coulson and the fact that five others had already entered guilty pleas before trial.

Today Coulson and the others were sentenced. He received the heaviest sentence as the others' had their early pleas taken into account. The sentences for the crime of conspiracy to intercept communications are:

Coulson, 46, of Canterbury - 18 months
Former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, 52, of Esher, Surrey - six months

Former news editor Greg Miskiw, 64, of Leeds - six months

Former reporter James Weatherup, 58, of Brentwood, Essex - four-month suspended sentence

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, 43, of Sutton, Surrey - six-month suspended sentence

Mulcaire - who faced four counts - and Weatherup also received 200 hours of community service.

Mulcaire had previously served a six month prison sentence after a conviction for phone hacking in 2007. Earlier this week at the sentencing hearing, it was revealed he has been made bankrupt for failing to pay tax on his earnings from the NoW.

The scandal continues as Mulcaire and his employers may face further charges after he used his hacking techniques to obtain the details of the new identities of four convicted offenders who had been placed in a witness protection scheme. The NoW had printed the details of a notorious killer of a toddler (who was himself under age at the time). Details were exposed in the BBC program Panorama last week. In that a former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner (not an elected post) and now Liberal Democrat peer, Lord [Brian] Paddick told them:

"The witness protection scheme is a very expensive operation to give people who've been convicted of very serious offences and people who are very vulnerable witnesses... a completely new identity, so they can have a completely fresh start.
"For that information to get into the hands of journalists is potentially putting people's lives at risk.

It is illegal to reveal the details of those in the scheme and there is a whiff of "something rotten in the state of Denmark" that the senior offices in the Met at the time failed to refer either Mulcaire or the newspaper to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Murdochgate just keeps on giving.

UPDATE:
It looks like my last paragraph was prescient!

The Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to charge more News of the World staff in relation to phone hacking, it has been confirmed.
Police files on eight suspects, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have been handed to the CPS for charging advice. The files emerged from a spin-off investigation from Scotland Yard's Operation Weeting, the inquiry that led to the conviction of Andy Coulson and four others at the Old Bailey last month.

A comment on BBC radio news indicated that these possible charges related to the NoW Features department, a separate office from the newsroom where those sentenced today worked.

Murdochgate: FBI Examining 80,000 Emails from NewsCorp NYC's Servers

ericlewis0

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Thursday June 26, 2014 · 9:45 AM PDT

2014/06/26 · 09:45

From a piece in The Daily Beast, co-written by Peter Jukes, a.k.a. Brit, and titled, 'Rupert Murdoch's Trouble Has Only Just Begun':

It can now be reported that the FBI has copies of at least 80,000 emails taken from the servers at News Corp in New York. These messages, including those sent up the chain of command by Brooks, were not part of the mass deletion that was ordered in London when it became clear that police officers were soon going to be searching for evidence of a vast criminal conspiracy.
A court in London found this week that Murdoch’s top-selling newspaper, the now shuttered News of the World, was systematically and illegally accessing the private phone messages of thousands of people, from royalty to murder victims. This is only the beginning.

On top of the FBI’s interest in the case in New York, Murdoch is set for questioning by the British police; Scotland Yard is investigating corporate charges against the company; and 12 further criminal trials against former staff at the Sun and the News of the World are scheduled to take place later this year. And after that, Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, says he is waiting to formally launch a congressional investigation into the company.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/... Read More

Murdochgate: Tony Blair Advised Rebekah Brooks & Rupert Murdoch re Hacking Scandal

ericlewis0

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Wednesday February 19, 2014 · 1:11 PM PST

2014/02/19 · 13:11

What the?? From The New York Times:

Mr. Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, offered to act as an “unofficial adviser” to Mr. Murdoch and to Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Mr. Murdoch’s British newspaper empire, who is one of eight defendants in the case and is expected to give evidence for the first time on Thursday.
In a one-hour phone conversation less than a week before Ms. Brooks was first arrested in July 2011, Mr. Blair told her to “keep strong” and take sleeping pills, according to an email in which she relayed the conversation to Mr. Murdoch’s son James. The email was read out by the prosecution in court on Wednesday.

The email from Ms. Brooks to James Murdoch, dated July 11, 2011, said Mr. Blair “is available for you, K.R.M.” — shorthand for Mr. Murdoch senior — “and me as an unofficial adviser, but needs to be between us.”

“It will pass,” Mr. Blair told her, according to the email, advising her to commission an independent inquiry, “Hutton-style.” The 2004 Hutton report cleared the Blair government of wrongdoing over its handling of intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He even suggested the name of an outside lawyer, Ken Macdonald, “a great and good type,” the email read. On July 15 of that year, Ms. Brooks resigned from News International, the umbrella company covering the Murdoch newspapers in Britain, and on July 17, she was arrested.

http://www.nytimes.com/... Read More

Piers Morgan Questioned by Police

ceebs for Murdochgate Investigators

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Friday February 14, 2014 · 6:42 AM PST

2014/02/14 · 06:42

Things have been very quiet on the phone hacking diary front for the last couple of months. The trials are in progress, and people on the UK side of the water are very wary of discussing things that could possibly wreck the trials however this morning news broke that although vaguely connected isseperate enough to be both reportable and discussable

Piers Morgan was questioned by Scotland Yard's hacking squad | Media | theguardian.com

Piers Morgan, theCNN presenter who used to edit theDaily Mirror, has been interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone-hacking.

In a statement to The Guardian through his spokesperson, Morgan said: "In early November I was asked to attend an interview by officers fromOperation Weeting when I was next in the UK.

"This was further to a full witness statement I had already freely provided. I attended that interview as requested on 6 December 2013."

Scotland Yard have confirmed that a 48-year-old journalist was interviewed on that date at a south London police station by officers from Operation Golding. That is the strand of Operation Weeting that is investigating allegations of phone interception at Mirror GroupNewspapers.

ericlewis0 for Murdochgate Investigators

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Tuesday November 26, 2013 · 9:01 AM PST

2013/11/26 · 09:01

Can an entire diary be based on a single tweet? When it's from Brit, who's live-tweeting the Hackgate trial, the answer is yes:

BREAKING: Crone email to Coulson says Brooks knew over 100 victims of phone hacking in 2006

Crone was News International's top lawyer. Read More

Murdochgate: Our Own Brit Blazes a New Trial

AnnetteK

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Wednesday November 06, 2013 · 3:51 PM PST

2013/11/06 · 15:51

as well as a New Trail.

Is this a new innovation in Journalism?

As most people here already know, our very own Kossack, Brit, has been giving us a brilliant perspective on the Rupert Murdoch scandal known in these parts as "Murdochgate".

Although his pieces are now written up at The Daily Beast he still drops in on our Murdoch diaries to give us delicious little snippets and insights.

Over the Kos bellybutton to find out what he's been up to this week...................

ericlewis0 for Murdochgate Investigators

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Thursday October 31, 2013 · 10:06 AM PDT

2013/10/31 · 10:06

From Reuters:

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, two former editors of Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid, were having an affair at the time their reporters are accused of hacking into phones, a court heard on Thursday.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis said the closeness of their relationship showed that both knew as much as each other how staff at the tabloid were operating. Both have denied conspiring to hack into phones or making illegal payments to public officials.

...

The relationship had been discovered after police found a word document containing a 2004 letter on a computer stored at Brooks's home.

"You are my best friend ... I tell you everything, I confide in you ... I love you, I care about you," the letter from Brooks to Coulson said, according to Edis who read it out to the jury of nine women and three men.

http://www.reuters.com/... Read More

Murdochgate: 3 Successive Ex-News of the World Senior Editors + Mulcaire ALL Plead Guilty UPDATED x3

ericlewis0 for Murdochgate Investigators

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Wednesday October 30, 2013 · 11:12 AM PDT

2013/10/30 · 11:12

From The Guardian:

Three former News of the World employees have pleaded guilty to phone hacking charges, an Old Bailey jury was told this afternoon, as part of the opening of the trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, Brooks's husband and four other former employees of the now closed Sunday newspaper.
The crown prosecutor revealed that the individuals had already pleaded guilty at an earlier stage in proceedings, as he outlined to the court that News of the World was at the centre of three criminal conspiracies dating back to the year 2000, involving the two former editors.

Andrew Edis QC said that those pleading guilty were former News of the World news editors Neville Thurlbeck, Greg Miskiw and James Weatherup. The court also heard that the private investigator contracted by the newspaper to undertake the alleged hacking, Glenn Mulcaire, had pleaded guilty.

http://www.theguardian.com/... Read More

Murdoch: The Brooks/Coulson trial commences

ceebs for Murdochgate Investigators

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Wednesday October 30, 2013 · 7:49 AM PDT

2013/10/30 · 07:49

In the last few minutes the Prosecution has commenced its case in the News of the World phone hacking case. Eight members of News Internationals staff are up in court 12, although one will only be present some of the time due to ongoing health issues

Phone hacking trial: Prosecution opens case against Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson - Telegraph

Two former editors of The News of the World went on trial today, more than two years after the phone-hacking scandal led to the paper's closure.

Andrew Edis QC, for the Crown, began outlining the case against Rebekah Brooks, who became chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, and Andy Coulson, who was later David Cameron's communications chief.

He told jurors at the Old Bailey: "You know something of what this is all about because everybody does.

"This is the phone hacking trial, but it is not only the phone hacking trial, as you already know…

LieparDestin

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Sunday October 20, 2013 · 9:22 AM PDT

2013/10/20 · 09:22

While this should come as no surprise it is good that this story is getting some media attention and helping focus more attention on the corporate PR/Sockpuppet campaign to discredit liberals or to spread a false reality in the blogosphere as history has shown by groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America;"

“I think we need to highlight people like Glenn Greenwald. Glenn was critical in the Amazon to OVH [data center] transition and helped WikiLeaks provide access to information during the transition. It is this level of support we need to attack. These are established professionals that have a liberal bent, but ultimately most of them if pushed will choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals. Without the support of people like Glenn WikiLeaks would fold.”

ericlewis0 for Murdochgate Investigators

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Wednesday September 18, 2013 · 10:09 AM PDT

2013/09/18 · 10:09

h/t to AnnetteK for finding this. From The Telegraph:

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the influential Senate Commerce Committee, visited News Corp’s London headquarters earlier this year in preparation for a potential Senate investigation.
The Senator met with News Corp’s most senior lawyers, Lord Grabiner and John Turnbull, to discuss allegations that staff at News Corp’s British newspaper arm, News UK, routinely intercepted voicemails and paid officials for information. It is thought that the Senator may have dispatched representatives to meet News Corp staff on at least two further occasions.

The Senate committee is unwilling to launch a full-scale investigation into the alleged wrongdoing until after a series of criminal trials of former News Corp staff, due to get under way next month. However, Senator Rockefeller is understood to be keen to amass as much evidence as possible ahead of the trials, so that the Committee is in a position to launch a potential investigation once the criminal proceedings have finished.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/... Read More

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BRIT Exclusive: Murdoch Tabloid Subverted Murder Inquiry to Protect Murdoch-Employed Suspects

Murdochgate: Five Buggers Sentenced UPDATED: More charges on way?

Murdochgate: FBI Examining 80,000 Emails from NewsCorp NYC's Servers

Murdochgate: Tony Blair Advised Rebekah Brooks & Rupert Murdoch re Hacking Scandal

Piers Morgan Questioned by Police

Murdochgate: Brooks Knew of Over 100 Hacking Victims in 2006 UPDATED x1 Crone Re-arrested?

Murdochgate: Our Own Brit Blazes a New Trial

Murdochgate: Brooks & Coulson Affair + Mulcaire Invoice Marked 'Milly Dowler Messages' UPDATED x4

Murdochgate: 3 Successive Ex-News of the World Senior Editors + Mulcaire ALL Plead Guilty UPDATED x3

Murdoch: The Brooks/Coulson trial commences

Murdoch & Fox News Engaged In Sockpuppet PR Campaign To Counter Bloggers

Murdochgate: Sen. Rockefeller Went to UK to Collect News Corp Bribery/Hacking Evidence + Brit Update