Monday, September 06, 2010
Police may reopen hacking case
This morning's Independent suggests that all the pressure around the News of the World mobile phone hacking case may have led to a u-turn by the Metropolitan Police.
They say that Assistant Commissioner John Yates has asked the New York Times to provide any new material it had relating to the matter, including an interview with former reporter Sean Hoare, who has claimed that Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson knew about News of the World staff eavesdropping on private messages when he was editor of the paper.
Meanwhile former Liberal Democrat MP, Lembit Őpik has stepped into the row by questioning Mr. Coulson's competence and calling for him to stand down:
Mr Őpik, who believes that he too was a victim of phone tapping by Mr Coulson's former paper, the News of the World, said the Government communications director's professed ignorance of what his employees were doing is damning in itself. "To take Coulson at his word, it's breathtaking to discover that the man in charge of a newspaper did not know what was going on," he said.
"The News of the World says it has a policy of zero tolerance of wrongdoing, but that means nothing with people like Coulson in charge because they don't know what they're tolerating. If Coulson wasn't able to discover what was going on in his office when he was an editor, why should anyone believe that he is displaying any greater competence in Downing Street?
"If the Government wants to avoid the compromising stories its predecessor got mired in, they have a right to expect Coulson to stand down until his name is cleared."
Lembit believes that much of the information obtained on him and his relationship with a Cheeky Girl could only have been obtained by breaking into his voice mail and has consulted lawyers with a view to getting paperwork off the Metropolitan Police so as to resolve the matter once and for all.
They say that Assistant Commissioner John Yates has asked the New York Times to provide any new material it had relating to the matter, including an interview with former reporter Sean Hoare, who has claimed that Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson knew about News of the World staff eavesdropping on private messages when he was editor of the paper.
Meanwhile former Liberal Democrat MP, Lembit Őpik has stepped into the row by questioning Mr. Coulson's competence and calling for him to stand down:
Mr Őpik, who believes that he too was a victim of phone tapping by Mr Coulson's former paper, the News of the World, said the Government communications director's professed ignorance of what his employees were doing is damning in itself. "To take Coulson at his word, it's breathtaking to discover that the man in charge of a newspaper did not know what was going on," he said.
"The News of the World says it has a policy of zero tolerance of wrongdoing, but that means nothing with people like Coulson in charge because they don't know what they're tolerating. If Coulson wasn't able to discover what was going on in his office when he was an editor, why should anyone believe that he is displaying any greater competence in Downing Street?
"If the Government wants to avoid the compromising stories its predecessor got mired in, they have a right to expect Coulson to stand down until his name is cleared."
Lembit believes that much of the information obtained on him and his relationship with a Cheeky Girl could only have been obtained by breaking into his voice mail and has consulted lawyers with a view to getting paperwork off the Metropolitan Police so as to resolve the matter once and for all.
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It seems that only a favoured few were informed by the Met that their names were on the phone hack list. George Galloway was one of them. The Indy reported that he is prepared to go all the way through the courts to expose the NotW's activities.
"They say that Assistant Commissioner John Yates has asked the New York Times to provide any new material it had relating to the matter ..."
Good luck with that.
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Good luck with that.
# posted by 
: 3:19 PM
: 3:19 PM<< Home
