M: Murdoch Lawyer #2 Strikes Back

You read it here first.

NOTW legal manager Tom Crone and editor Myler assert that James Murdoch's testimony before parliament on the payout to soccer exec Taylor -- viewed in this space as where the rubber meets the road on James' criminal liability -- was "mistaken".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/james-murdoch-select-committee-evidence

When the Guardian pointed out in the wake of his parliamentary testimony that Murdoch's son had sought to blame them for concealment, one friend of the two men said: "To contradict James will be as good as coming out and calling him a liar."

Myler and Crone, the News of the World's then editor and News International's top newspaper lawyer, both of whom have lost their jobs in the wake of the phone-hacking affair, subsequently spent the day debating what to do.

If their statement of Thursday nightis correct, Rupert's son will have proved to have misled parliament. He will also have destroyed the Murdoch family's last line of defence against the scandal – that they knew nothing, and had been betrayed by those underlings they trusted.

Myler and Crone are, in effect, accusing James Murdoch of being part of the cover-up, one in which the company's executives vainly twisted and turned to conceal the truth about phone hacking and blame it on a single "rogue reporter".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/tom-crone-colin-myler-analysis

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/wapping-at-war-as-former-allies-turn-on-james-murdoch-2318540.html

M: The Sun, a Second Murdoch Title, Implicated in Phone Hacking Scandal

Nixson

Sun features editor Matt Nixson, a former NOTW editor and Coulson crony, has had his computer seized and has been frog-marched out of the Sun's building by its managing editor. He was formerly features editor and news editor at NOTW, under Andy Coulson.

David Rose, assistant news editor of the Times, says the Sun journalist sacked tonight is features editor Matt Nixson.


He said on Twitter: "Matt Nixson features editor of the Sun has been sacked over allegations of serious misconduct while he was working for the News of the World."

Rose later added: "He was marched out of the building by the Sun's Managing Editor. Previously deputy features editor at #notw."

8.33pm: A former News of the World executive has been sacked from the Sun, according to Sky News.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/phone-hacking-scandal-live-coverage

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Phone-Hacking-The-Sun-Sack-Former-News-Of-The-World-Executive-After-Allegations-Over-Time-At-NOTW/Article/201107316035166?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_16035166_Phone-Hacking%3A_The_Sun_Sack_Former_News_Of_The_World_Executive_After_Allegations_Over_Time_At_NOTW


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/world/europe/22murdoch.html?ref=global-home

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8653738/Sun-dragged-into-hacking-scandal-after-senior-journalist-sacked.html

M: Labour Party Edges Rather Unpersuasively Toward Accusing Cameron of Dirty Tricks

It sounds like they're floating a trial balloon in hopes that a witness will step forward with the smoking gun evidence, or that the public will demand the PM fess up.

Nick Raynsford, the Labour MP who was local government minister, said: “I have been approached by an absolutely impeccable source, who has a lifetime of work in the public sector and was a senior official.
“He has told me that last summer he suspected his phone was hacked, his dustbin searched and covert surveillance took place on him.
“At the time, he was the subject of negative media briefing which he suspects was orchestrated by Andy Coulson at No 10. He complained to Sir Gus O’Donnell who advised him on the issue and put him in contact with the police.
“He now wishes this information to be put in the public domain.
“David Cameron must disclose as a matter of urgency whether he was warned of this incident, which suggests that potential criminality may have taken place at the heart of government.”

...Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell has dismissed concerns that a senior civil servant's phone was hacked while Andy Coulson was in Downing Street as a "genuine misunderstanding", PA reports.

He said the individual had been subjected to "disgraceful, probably illegal, actions during the period about a year ago in which Andy Coulson was in charge of Government communications".

But O'Donnell said that although the civil servant had raised concerns about media harrassment and possible phone tampering, the matter was "thoroughly investigated" and no evidence of wrongdoing was found.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8651268/Phone-hacking-Andy-Coulson-behind-hacking-of-senior-officials-phone-says-Labour-MP.html

M: NOTW Detective Whose 11,000 Pages of Notes Can Sink the Ship Has Payment of Legal Fees Terminated

Murdoch has been paying Mulcaire's legal fees on a key suit and has now terminated this policy. Mulcaire can now spill the totes beans.

Mulcaire was first ordered to answer questions in November last year. Lawyers acting for Nicola Phillips, a PR consultant who used to work for Max Clifford, secured a court order that he must disclose the identity of the person who instructed him to intercept her voicemail and that he must specifically say whether the then news editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, had asked him to investigate Ms Phillips or other people connected with Max Clifford. A similar order was then made in the case brought by Steve Coogan.

However, News International then paid Mulcaire's legal fees to appeal against the rulings, apparently contradicting its public stance that it wanted the truth to be told about the affair.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/20/glenn-mulcaire-legal-fees-terminated

Whether or not this helps Mulcaire in copping pleas to the many civil suits he face from individual victims of phone hacking, I cannot figure out.

M: Three Lawyers for Hack Victims Accuse Murdoch of Putting Them Under NOTW Surveillance

This is obstruction of justice, pure and simple.

I've just spoken to Mark Lewis, the lawyer for Milly Dowler's family, who has tonight told the police that he believes he was put under surveillance by News International because of his work representing phone hacking victims.

He reported his concerns to the police after Newsnight informed him today that they had heard from a reliable source that the lawyer's phone had been hacked around December last year, and he had also been followed by a private detective.

"I've now reported this to the police and made a formal complaint," said Lewis.

"It feels like walking into a John Grisham novel. Clients leave messages on my phone. It's not about trying to get a story now it's about getting information that could affect court cases."

He said that earlier this year the lawyers representing alleged victims of phone hacking had shared their suspicions that they were themselves being targeted by the News of the World.

"Things seemed to be happening to our phones and our computers," said Lewis, of Taylor Hampton Solicitors in London.

He added that an alleged victim of phone hacking whom he represents had also been the victim of "blagging" - where someone phones up people and organisations pretending to be someone else.

"One of my clients thinks she was being blagged and those phone calls are now the subject of a police inquiry," said Lewis.

11.27pm: Three solicitors representing phone hacking victims were themselves targets of the News of the World, according to Newsnight. They included Mark Lewis, the lawyer for the family of Milly Dowler and Gordon Taylor, the former head of the Professional Footballers' Association. The programme reported that the solicitors were not put under surveillance for the purpose of writing stories about them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/phone-hacking-scandal-live-coverage

M: Murdoch Himself Pursues Vindictive News Stories

Murdoch denies he knows anything. But the smoking gun in Michael Wolff's biography is that Rupert Murdoch himself gets on the story personally when he wants revenge. His defense that his company employs 53,000 people and he can't possibly know what vindictive reporters are doing on his behalf is pure bullshit:

When Wolff shows him at his desk, eagerly pursuing a news story, it’s not one in the broader public interest. Rather, Murdoch has heard a rumor that a Hillary Clinton aide he greatly dislikes may be a partner in an online pornography venture, and has set himself — and a New York Post reporter — to trying to confirm it at all costs; it’s a personal vendetta disguised as ‘news’.

http://frogenyozurt.com/2011/07/the-man-who-owns-the-news-inside-the-secret-world-of-rupert-murdoch-by-michael-wolff/

M: Busted Reporter Central to Coverup Worked As a Scotland Yard, MI5 Informer While Employed at NOTW

Police informant #281, News of the World senior writer, Neville Thurlbeck, keystone of the James Murdoch criminal liability story


This is so bent I'm just gabbling.

Neville Thurlbeck, NOTW's senior reporter, is the name on one of the smoking gun emails that the law firm, Harbottle and Lewis, sat on for four years. James Murdoch claimed in testimony Tuesday not to have known about hacking allegations against Thurlbeck when he settled another case out of court and declared the hacking scandal had been limited to one rogue reporter.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/22/for-neville-email-empire

Today NOTW's lawyer, Tom Crone, followed Harbottle and Lewis' example, in disputing Murdoch's testimony before Parliament. Crone said he and NOTW editor Myler did tell James about the Neville email. This is an explosive revelation which implicates James -- who stands by his testimony -- in a coverup his former lawyers don't appear to be inclined to take the fall for.

Meanwhile, Thurlbeck's working as an official Scotland Yard and MI5 informant while he was working as a reporter, in exchange for tidbits from the National Police Computer, pretty much boggles the mind. Any organization which would permit anything like it is moving into the arena of insane. In case you didn't know, it's a big no-no to share your notes with anybody -- much less, the cops, the FBI and the CIA. Holy effin' shit.

...worked closely with Scotland Yard as official police source No 281. He was an unpaid employee of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, a liaison body between Scotland Yard's Special Branch and MI5.

Sources close to Thurlbeck [I bet this is Thurlbeck himself, threatening to tell all] said that "people right at the top of News International were aware of his role".

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23971221-hacking-suspect-worked-as-police-informer.do