The News Of The World’s scandal is still making headlines with Scotland Yard making its 12th arrest in the highly publicized phone hacking transgressions that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Police arrested Greg Miskiw, 61 today, a former senior editor at the tabloid, on suspicion of unlawful interception of communications and conspiring to intercept communications — he has also been referred to as the go-to guy for the hacking. Misikiw who has been living in Florida states he gave himself up voluntarily.
TPM reports:
Miskiw’s name appeared on a contract with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was identified by a pseudonym, the New York Times reported. Mulcaire and former NOTW reporter Clive Goodman were convicted and sent to prison in 2007 on charges related to the phone hackings.
Miskiw was also accused by former reporter Sean Hoare of being the go-to man for the hacking. Hoare alleged to the Times that the tabloid would pay $500 a pop for “pinging,” the process of illicitly tracking cell phones, which only law enforcement officials can do legally with case-by-case authorization. Hoare said he was told to go to Miskiw to track someone for a story, and after Hoare provided him with the person’s cell phone number, Miskiw came back with a location.
Charges in the scandal stem from allegations that reporters for News Of The World hacked into the cell phones of murder victims, terrorism victims, members of the royal family and celebrities. Also suspected are how far reaching this misconduct goes – some speculate that 9/11 victims’ families were also hacked.
Some of the other arrests since January of employees caught in the scandal include, former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who went on to head communications for British Prime Minister David Cameron before resigning when the story broke; 71 year old News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner was also arrested on suspicion of corruption.
Will the employees in question be thoroughly investigated? I’m not so certain if you consider Murdoch’s buddies who happen to be the investigators. New York reports that, Viet Dinh, a former member of the Bush administration and co-author of the Patriot Act also happens to be “best friends” with the U.S. Attorney that’s supposed to be investigating News Corp.
Daily Intel reports:
The Times reports that Dinh “is ultimately responsible for the independent internal investigation going on into the phone hacking scandal at News Corporation’s British subsidiary, News International.” But, Massimo Calabresi explains at Time, Dinh’s buddy Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is in charge of looking into Murdoch and Company’s potential misconduct in America.
The irony in the co-author of the Patriot Act to be best friends with the investigator in the biggest phone hacking scandal since Watergate is outrageous.
In addition, there’s Scotland Yard to be concerned about –Mr Fedorcio, Scotland Yard’s Director of Communications has been given extended leave while an investigation is underway over his relationship with a former NOTW employee, who is also under investigation.
An author of the Patriot Act who is a former member of the Bush administration has ties to Murdoch, Scotland Yard’s Director of Communications is possibly complicit in the scandal, ties to David Cameron, Britain’s PM and a media empire is still at the elderly mogul’s disposal. In my opinion, Murdoch will come out squeaky clean while his employees bite the bullet.
We can easily wager that none of this will be brought up on Glenn Beck’s chalkboard — yet this entire mess stinks like hell.
Many thanks to Daily Intel.
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