Rupert Murdoch's criminal enterprise

from the Independent UK:



....(snip)....

The "Blue Book", a ledger of work carried out by Steve Whittamore for News International titles, including the NoW and The Sunday Times, details a series of transactions including obtaining ex-directory phone numbers, telephone accounts, criminal records checks and withheld mobile numbers. It reveals the itemised details of checks on public figures, including Peter Mandelson, ordered and paid for – at up to £750 a time – by reporters working for the redtop. Staff from a number of other national newspapers made similar requests, and their details are contained in further dossiers held by the Information Commissioner, the privacy watchdog.

Among the journalists requesting information from Mr Whittamore, who was later convicted of offences committed under the Data Protection Act, was the former NoW editor Rebekah Wade, now Rebekah Brooks.

The contents of the dossier were collated by the Information Commissioner following a raid on Mr Whittamore's Hampshire office in 2003, but the watchdog has previously refused to disclose its contents, to protect the identities of the people named within it.

The disclosure of the extent to which the NoW and its sister titles used the services of private investigators to obtain personal information by questionable means will add to the controversy threatening to engulf News International (NI), whose bosses have consistently denied any wrongdoing over the affair.

The wide-ranging extent of the phone hacking and other activities could damage NI's share price in the long run – and reduce the fortune of its boss, Rupert Murdoch.

One senior MP last night complained that the list revealed "a widespread and casual law-breaking" among people associated with NI. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/read-all-about-it-the-secret-dossier-of-lawbreaking-that-spells-trouble-for-murdochand-cameron-2077170.html

:kick: