radioheadrule83
Banned
JOURNALISM'S WATERGATE?
A hunger for salacious gossip, corruption, bribery, cover-up, subverting democracy to ideological ends... maybe even murder? This is the story that might have everything!
Although the Leveson Inquiry is no longer taking evidence, stories concerning the hacking scandal in the UK are continuing to foment. Two new arrests have been made in the UK as part of Operation Tuleta -- Jonathan Rees of Southern Investigations, and Alex Marunchak - formerly of News International / News of the World.
Op. Tuleta is a part of the investigation into privacy breaches and computer/smart-phone hacking in the UK. 16 arrests have been made so far..
These latest arrests are probably the most significant since Rebekah Brookes and Andy Coulson - who, uncomfortably for the Prime Minister - are set for trial in September 2013 - a year or so before the General Election.
So who are Southern Investigations and why are Mr Rees and Mr Marunchak significant?
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL BY ANY MEANS
Marunchak and Southern Investigations have a pre-existing relationship, and may have recently been implicated in criminal activity by the Hard-Disk seizure of one of SI's top employees (and former policeman) - Sid Fillery.
On the 18th Sept, in an open letter to Rupert Murdoch, Tom Watson wrote about the finding:
Although the document only ties Mr Marunchak and Southern Investigations to one "request for a 'sortie'", it is possible that this finding may lead the police to look into other suspicious disturbances and trespasses.
This would include intrusions into the homes of serving ministers, many of them in the Cabinet during the previous Labour government, including the Home Secretary of the time, and two Scottish first ministers. The former Secretary of State for Defence, Liam Fox, and Oliver Letwin - have also apparently been victim to "strange burglaries". Such incidents have occurred at the homes of other 'news-worthy' individuals and celebrities. If the cork where to pop and someone were to provide compelling evidence on any one of these, some newspapers - and not just Rupert Murdoch's - might start getting serious headaches.
One scandalous possibility, given the current news-narrative in the UK, is that Sheila Coleman - head of the Hillsborough "Justice for the 96" campaign - has reported a similar disturbance at her home, and is clearly the kind of person News International and The Sun would have a motive to investigate.
Even more intriguing is the possibility that a probe into Southern Investigations might unearth scandals that go deeper and darker than that; scandals that might further implicate ex-policemen, and unearth even more journalistic conspiracy, criminality and cover-up.
Marunchak and Rees have, up until their arrest, denied any criminal activity related to supplying the News of the World with information.
VITAL READING MATERIAL
Brown Moses, blogger, tweeter and Something Awful poster has been collating the most comprehensive reading material I can find on all of this, he cites all of his posts with links to newspaper stories, and this is ABSOLUTE REQUIRED reading if you are at all interested in catching up on HackGate-2: HackGate for Beginners / Brown Moses' thread on Something Awful: regular discussion and updates
SOUTHERN INVESTIGATIONS AND MURDER
In 1987, a man named Daniel Morgan and Jonathan Rees set-up Southern Investigations together. Three years later, Morgan was found murdered and Rees was amongst the chief suspects. A former SI accountant was pointing the finger squarely at Rees, and was stating that Rees wanted Morgan dead, and that there was an intention to bring Sid Fillery, a serving policeman, into the company. It has been alleged that Morgan was threatening to expose police corruption and sell his story to the papers, including via an approach to Alex Marunchak at the News of the World -- the other man arrested today.
Investigations into the Morgan murder, and the collapse of trial proceedings
In the actual year that Daniel was murdered, Rees and Fillery, along with four others, including two policemen - were all arrested in connection with the murder, but later released without charge. Subsequent investigations were carried out into the men (and Southern Investigations) in 1988, 1989, 1999, 2002 and 2006. In the 1999 investigation - Rees was recorded conspiring to place cocaine on a woman to discredit her during a custody battle, and jailed for 7 years. Following the penultimate investigation, all suspects made it to court, but due to the prosecution being handled badly - the trial collapsed.
Further reading: http://hackinginquiry.org/comment/the-triple-betrayal-of-jacqui-hames/
Surely with these arrests and accusations as a further blight on their character, questions about Daniel's murder and possible cover-up will once again arise.
REES CONNECTIONS WITH NEWS OF THE WORLD:
MARUNCHAK, ANDY COULSON, AND THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
Despite this sinister cloud of potential wrong-doing hanging over Rees, Andy Coulson - then editor at News International's News of the World - hired Rees -- who then, through the murky 'private detective' practices already established at his company, provided the newspaper with illegally obtained information and gossip about the famous and the powerful. He was reportedly being paid £150,000 for this service.
In May 2010, with no apparent knowledge of Andy Coulson's wilful ignorance or suspect moral compass, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, appointed Coulson as his Director of Communications. If Coulson was prepared to accept Rees' methods as News of the World editor, you have to wonder what he would have been prepared to accept or do for David Cameron's government had this whole affair not been unearthed.
As for Alex Marunchak - he is reported to have a close relationship with Jonathan Rees, and allegedly once had a business registered to the exact same address as him. Tom Watson cites The Guardian newspaper as reporting that Southern Investigations once paid Mr Marunchak's debts too. This joint arrest only emboldens the connection that many had already suggested existed.
RAMIFICATIONS FOR THIS SAGA IN THE UK AND BEYOND?
If arrests in Operations Tuleta, Weeting and Elveden yield prosecutions it raises a number of questions:
If people in positions power at News International's UK subsidiaries (like Rebekah Brookes and Andy Coulson) saw fit to consort with potential criminals and obtain source material for their stories illegally - are their colleagues and competitors abroad capable of similar?
What does it say about our politicians that our Prime Minister also frequently consorted and had close relationships with people of such poor judgement as Brookes and Coulson?
Is it more probable - than possible - that there has been a deliberate attempt to defame or even bribe UK politicians with illegally obtained material? Due to the timeframe that a lot of these hacking incidents occurred in, a lot of those politicians have been - by and large - on the Labour side of the political spectrum in the UK. As Brown Moses states in one of his blog entries: "If another nation state had targeted the democratic functioning of the UK in the same way - rather than News Corporation - there would be calls for a United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions, and their diplomats would be deported." -- what sanction do we have against monolithic companies like News International for such behaviour?
Why have Scotland Yard and other police enforcement failed to begin cleansing us of this problem until now? Who knew what and when?
If this criminality and aggressive, predatory attempt to shape the cultural and political discourse has been possible in the UK (where the press is reasonably well regulated), what vulnerabilities do other countries - such as the United States - have to such practices?
LINKS:
Brown Moses' blog
---
HackGate for Beginners
Brown Moses: "Alex Marunchak - Presumed Innocent"
Derek Haslam Confirms To Ian Hurst Southern Investigations Targeted MPs, Ministers, And The Home Secretary
---
Brown Moses' thread on Something Awful: regular discussion and updates
@iTraceUK on Twitter
@Brown_Moses on Twitter
@tom_watson on Twitter
Tom Watson's website / blog
Justice4Daniel
A hunger for salacious gossip, corruption, bribery, cover-up, subverting democracy to ideological ends... maybe even murder? This is the story that might have everything!
Although the Leveson Inquiry is no longer taking evidence, stories concerning the hacking scandal in the UK are continuing to foment. Two new arrests have been made in the UK as part of Operation Tuleta -- Jonathan Rees of Southern Investigations, and Alex Marunchak - formerly of News International / News of the World.
Op. Tuleta is a part of the investigation into privacy breaches and computer/smart-phone hacking in the UK. 16 arrests have been made so far..
These latest arrests are probably the most significant since Rebekah Brookes and Andy Coulson - who, uncomfortably for the Prime Minister - are set for trial in September 2013 - a year or so before the General Election.
So who are Southern Investigations and why are Mr Rees and Mr Marunchak significant?
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL BY ANY MEANS
Marunchak and Southern Investigations have a pre-existing relationship, and may have recently been implicated in criminal activity by the Hard-Disk seizure of one of SI's top employees (and former policeman) - Sid Fillery.
On the 18th Sept, in an open letter to Rupert Murdoch, Tom Watson wrote about the finding:
Although the document only ties Mr Marunchak and Southern Investigations to one "request for a 'sortie'", it is possible that this finding may lead the police to look into other suspicious disturbances and trespasses.
This would include intrusions into the homes of serving ministers, many of them in the Cabinet during the previous Labour government, including the Home Secretary of the time, and two Scottish first ministers. The former Secretary of State for Defence, Liam Fox, and Oliver Letwin - have also apparently been victim to "strange burglaries". Such incidents have occurred at the homes of other 'news-worthy' individuals and celebrities. If the cork where to pop and someone were to provide compelling evidence on any one of these, some newspapers - and not just Rupert Murdoch's - might start getting serious headaches.
One scandalous possibility, given the current news-narrative in the UK, is that Sheila Coleman - head of the Hillsborough "Justice for the 96" campaign - has reported a similar disturbance at her home, and is clearly the kind of person News International and The Sun would have a motive to investigate.
Even more intriguing is the possibility that a probe into Southern Investigations might unearth scandals that go deeper and darker than that; scandals that might further implicate ex-policemen, and unearth even more journalistic conspiracy, criminality and cover-up.
Marunchak and Rees have, up until their arrest, denied any criminal activity related to supplying the News of the World with information.
VITAL READING MATERIAL
Brown Moses, blogger, tweeter and Something Awful poster has been collating the most comprehensive reading material I can find on all of this, he cites all of his posts with links to newspaper stories, and this is ABSOLUTE REQUIRED reading if you are at all interested in catching up on HackGate-2: HackGate for Beginners / Brown Moses' thread on Something Awful: regular discussion and updates
SOUTHERN INVESTIGATIONS AND MURDER
In 1987, a man named Daniel Morgan and Jonathan Rees set-up Southern Investigations together. Three years later, Morgan was found murdered and Rees was amongst the chief suspects. A former SI accountant was pointing the finger squarely at Rees, and was stating that Rees wanted Morgan dead, and that there was an intention to bring Sid Fillery, a serving policeman, into the company. It has been alleged that Morgan was threatening to expose police corruption and sell his story to the papers, including via an approach to Alex Marunchak at the News of the World -- the other man arrested today.
Investigations into the Morgan murder, and the collapse of trial proceedings
In the actual year that Daniel was murdered, Rees and Fillery, along with four others, including two policemen - were all arrested in connection with the murder, but later released without charge. Subsequent investigations were carried out into the men (and Southern Investigations) in 1988, 1989, 1999, 2002 and 2006. In the 1999 investigation - Rees was recorded conspiring to place cocaine on a woman to discredit her during a custody battle, and jailed for 7 years. Following the penultimate investigation, all suspects made it to court, but due to the prosecution being handled badly - the trial collapsed.
Further reading: http://hackinginquiry.org/comment/the-triple-betrayal-of-jacqui-hames/
Surely with these arrests and accusations as a further blight on their character, questions about Daniel's murder and possible cover-up will once again arise.
REES CONNECTIONS WITH NEWS OF THE WORLD:
MARUNCHAK, ANDY COULSON, AND THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
Despite this sinister cloud of potential wrong-doing hanging over Rees, Andy Coulson - then editor at News International's News of the World - hired Rees -- who then, through the murky 'private detective' practices already established at his company, provided the newspaper with illegally obtained information and gossip about the famous and the powerful. He was reportedly being paid £150,000 for this service.
In May 2010, with no apparent knowledge of Andy Coulson's wilful ignorance or suspect moral compass, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, appointed Coulson as his Director of Communications. If Coulson was prepared to accept Rees' methods as News of the World editor, you have to wonder what he would have been prepared to accept or do for David Cameron's government had this whole affair not been unearthed.
As for Alex Marunchak - he is reported to have a close relationship with Jonathan Rees, and allegedly once had a business registered to the exact same address as him. Tom Watson cites The Guardian newspaper as reporting that Southern Investigations once paid Mr Marunchak's debts too. This joint arrest only emboldens the connection that many had already suggested existed.
RAMIFICATIONS FOR THIS SAGA IN THE UK AND BEYOND?
If arrests in Operations Tuleta, Weeting and Elveden yield prosecutions it raises a number of questions:
If people in positions power at News International's UK subsidiaries (like Rebekah Brookes and Andy Coulson) saw fit to consort with potential criminals and obtain source material for their stories illegally - are their colleagues and competitors abroad capable of similar?
What does it say about our politicians that our Prime Minister also frequently consorted and had close relationships with people of such poor judgement as Brookes and Coulson?
Is it more probable - than possible - that there has been a deliberate attempt to defame or even bribe UK politicians with illegally obtained material? Due to the timeframe that a lot of these hacking incidents occurred in, a lot of those politicians have been - by and large - on the Labour side of the political spectrum in the UK. As Brown Moses states in one of his blog entries: "If another nation state had targeted the democratic functioning of the UK in the same way - rather than News Corporation - there would be calls for a United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions, and their diplomats would be deported." -- what sanction do we have against monolithic companies like News International for such behaviour?
Why have Scotland Yard and other police enforcement failed to begin cleansing us of this problem until now? Who knew what and when?
If this criminality and aggressive, predatory attempt to shape the cultural and political discourse has been possible in the UK (where the press is reasonably well regulated), what vulnerabilities do other countries - such as the United States - have to such practices?
LINKS:
Brown Moses' blog
---
HackGate for Beginners
Brown Moses: "Alex Marunchak - Presumed Innocent"
Derek Haslam Confirms To Ian Hurst Southern Investigations Targeted MPs, Ministers, And The Home Secretary
---
Brown Moses' thread on Something Awful: regular discussion and updates
@iTraceUK on Twitter
@Brown_Moses on Twitter
@tom_watson on Twitter
Tom Watson's website / blog
Justice4Daniel
