Former News of the World head Rebekah Brooks was arrested by police on Sunday ahead of a scheduled meeting to answer questions about her role in the massive phone hacking scandal. The arrest was unexpected, and Brooks was released on bail about 12 hours later. Apparently it’s rare for someone to get arrested by appointment on a weekend, and Brooks’ spokesperson claims it was a surprise. Some members of Parliament are questioning whether the arrest will conveniently keep Brooks from having to testify during a scheduled meeting with of The House of Commons on Tuesday.
The head MP, or chief of the British police, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned amid revelations that he hired the former deputy editor of the News of the World, Neil Wallis, as a secret media advisor. Further damning to Stephenson was his acceptance of five weeks’ free stay at a high end health resort that Wallis worked for. In his resignation statement, Stephenson denied any wrongdoing and emphasized that Wallace has not been connected with the wiretapping scandal in any way.
Stephenson also suggested that Prime Minister David Cameron has some explaining to do given allegations that his former communications director, Andy Coulson, paid tens of thousands of pounds in kickbacks to British police from 2003-2007 when he was editor of News of The World. Cameron also reportedly had a close relationship with editor Rebekah Brooks and regularly met with her during social functions. It looks like this scandal goes straight to the top in England and that even the Prime Minister is closely connected to it.
Jude Law is suing News of the World and sister publication The Sun for allegedly tapping his phone in 2005 and 2006. He claims they gained illegal access to his phone when he was in the United States, which would make it a crime under federal wiretap law. Stories published in the two papers at the time contained very specific information of Law’s whereabouts down to details about the room service he ordered and how much spent on hotel accommodations. This is not the only allegation of hacking in the US by the company. The FBI is currently investigating whether phones from 9/11 victims were compromised by News Corp, News of the World’s parent company.
David Beckham may also sue and is currently having his lawyers look into police evidence to see if he was one of the hacking victims. You know that he’s going to try and be incredibly discreet about it because they probably have details of his various affairs.
News Corp has been arrogant and reckless to say the least. It’s not surprising that it took so long for the extent of their wrongdoing to come to light or that they went so far with it. Their current editor was hanging out with the Prime Minister and one former editor was employed by him while another worked for the chief of police.
Jude Law is shown out with his buddies outside the Groucho Club in London on 7/15/11. Credit: WENN.com
This is the best scandal ever. It has everything.
Man, Scotland Yard must be s***ting bricks about the allegations of hacking the 9/11 victims’ phone accounts. The British cops have been dragging their feet on this investigation because so much corruption would be revealed within police HQ – but hacking of American terrorism victims means that the British cops can’t play dumb anymore. Americans/FBI are gonna be pisssssed!
Hope Rupert is made to squirm. Oh, and yeah, I read that the arrest of Rebekah Brooks somehow means she can’t be forced to testify in front of the House of Commons, or something? I’m very confused about how the British justice system works – could it be the cops are still trying to cover their butts and slow the investigation?
I am loving this story too. Anything that makes a dent in Murdoch’s media empire holds my interest 🙂
Oh Ruppy. How far will your stars fall? Hahaha!
@Kat, I think they Police are very much trying to loophole around being throw to the dogs in Parliament.
However, I also feel like she and the other quitters are getting paid LARGE sums of money to keep quiet and avoid perjury for the Old Man’s sake.
It is interesting that Fox and Murdoch’s other media are not really covering this much if at all. I agree that the underlings are going to fall on their swords to protect the big man, but it might catch up to him. The PM of England is also nervous. A shame on Scotland Yard, as they had such a great reputation, but this mess is huge. If it moves to to the US shores, watch out Murdoch, ITS GOING TO BE A BITCH. Law should have moved faster like Pitt/Jolie-I hope they got their money already.
Didn’t they learn anything from Watergate? The crime may look minor, in comparison to the cover-up, which is what causes the real pain. I guess I just don’t get why such a trashy rag like NOTW was so popular. But England does love its tabloid press, which may change after this, which I hope also changes how the US tabloid press behaves.
Isn’t it funny, the Daily Mail is keeping quiet about this scandal for some reason *sarcasm*
This is the best scandal ever. It has everything.
Couldn’t agree more, No Sensei! Thanks to CB for covering it!
@ You don’t say: Scotland yard did not have a great reputation. They have been known and proven to be absolutely filthy with the very worst in corruption. They were purged in the seventies and again in the nineties but it would appear that it continues even now.
The reach of this scandal is fascinating!
Rebecca Brooks should have fallen on her sword on day one, and then maybe 200 people could have kept their jobs, but the rumour in media circles is that she and Rupert Murdoch have been playing hide the sausage, which is why she thought her job was safe.
The most amusing thing is that when the NOTW was hacking guys like Jude Law and Sienna Miller, the reaction of the British public was a near-unanimous “meh”; it’s only when it was revealed that the phones of a young murder victim (Milly Dowling) and other victims of crime and their families were targetted that the uprising began. Mediocre actors & media-ho “fashionistas” are clearly fair game then!
(Obviously it’s not legal or ethical & even famewhores have a right to privacy, blah, blah, blah…)
Why don’t you report on the hacking of the phones from Brangelina and Jennifer Aniston from 2004?
unfortunately her resignation and arrest means she won’t be able to say too much to the parliamentary committee tomorrow – how convenient!
top Met police officer now also resigned – they are dropping like flies, just David Cameron to go please!!
Ah, Rupert, it sounds like your time is drawing nigh. Personally, I can’t wait. Deplorable behaviour all around!
@ KatScorp – It wasn’t just victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks – there are also allegations of hacking of victims of a July 2005 (with apologies that I’m not sure of the day) in England, I believe. Shameful.
@ CB – Thank you for covering this scandal. I’ve been keeping up with it on time.com.
Please keep tracking this! It is too important for our world society to let these criminal continue to operate.
I have to agree this is the most interesting thing to happen to gossip in years.
Jude Law and David Beckham got their asses dragged through the streets for years.
Neither could fart and it not be documented on the front pages. And the whole nanny shagging thing that each had the luck to live through.
NOTW really had it out for them.
I always suspected it was why David and Victoria finally made the move to the US. Was to be able to have a phone call that did not end up in the friggin tabloids.
Ohhhh and remember when Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise even got tagged by this stuff in the late 1990’s. When they were in London filming that god-awful movie…
This scandal is going to go back a good 12-14 years… at least.
And the all mighty FOX Cable News network is not going to come out of this unscathed. They have been just as sketchy with their own reporting for years.
Like @ # 11 already mentioned, another high ranked police commissioner has just resigned. Apparently this guy didn’t have the same evidence as The Guardian, the paper that made everything public, when he had to decide whether to re-open the investigation against NI/NotW in 2009. I wonder how much he was paid for his efforts by ol’ Rupe back then.
I wonder how much Rebekah was paid to keep quiet, even under oath, because I’m pretty sure she won’t incriminate neither Rupert nor James. I am also sure her arrest was a political maneuver by the Prime Minister so she won’t reveal anything to the members of parliament tomorrow.
I wonder how much longer people will go on pretending that Faux News is indeed fair and balanced, if it fails to report objectively about this.
Thanks Rupert Murdoch, for making Britain look more corrupt than Mexico. I’m glad Jude Law is throwing down to sue, because he will have details about his personal life revealed as a result of suing. But this must continue until it is KNOWN to what extent Murdoch’s “methods of wiretapping in order to gain leverage on sources” has been used in America. He owns the Wall Street Journal, for God’s sake.
News Corp. is in free fall now.
(From the AP) “Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, meanwhile, said Monday it was giving “full consideration” to a request from a lawmaker that it open an investigation into Murdoch’s News Corp. activities in Britain.”
Please let that happen in the US, too.
For those interested this from NYT today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/business/media/for-news-corporation-troubles-that-money-cant-dispel.html?_r=2&hp
It talks about a US division of News Corp “News America Marketing, its obscure but profitable in-store and newspaper insert marketing business, the News Corporation has paid out about $655 million to make embarrassing charges of corporate espionage and anticompetitive behavior go away”
Computer and telephone hacking were among some of its practices. And the guy in charge during all of it?… “Mr. Carlucci, as it happens, became the publisher of The New York Post in 2005 and continues to serve as head of News America”
I suspect that NOTW and Scotland Yard have had a cushy agreement for QUITE some time…disgusting!
I know David Cameron was a prat for hiring Andy Coulson but let’s not forget that this whole hacking scandal all happened under the Labour party they are all just as friendly with News International as David, hell Gordon Brown the dull prat even went to Rebeckah’s wedding, he was clearly ok with going to the wedding of the “criminals”, so before everyone starts calling for David to go the Labour lot John Prescott especially should look in the mirror. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!
Oh this is not good….
news.yahoo.com/police-phone-hacking-whistleblower-found-dead-181711003.html
“LONDON (AP) — Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead.
Police said Hoare’s death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain’s Press Association news agency.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course now I want to know why it does not look suspicious.
The one person in this whole mess… dropping dead … who was the whistleblower… makes it all look incredibly suspicious. Or at least to me.
@Hautie, that was my initial reaction too. I don’t buy it for a second that his death was accidental or natural. I really hope the police are just saying that to help their investigation, and not because they’ve been bought off-which unfortunately, doesn’t seem all that far-fetched in this mess.
*waving @ Bellaluna *
I didn’t know about the 2005 victims’ phones, so thankyou 🙂
I’m reading up right now about families of the 9/11 victims putting pressure on the FBI. Oh, I hope ol’ Rupert’s bollocks are in a vice! 😉
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