The Legislature Raids

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BC Mary comment:  This isn't precisely about BC Rail ... it is about the all-important news media: how it works, how it fails, and especially what happens when it fails. That, to my mind, makes it relevant to what happened to us in the BC Rail affair. 

Rarely do we see this kind of media investigation ... and there are things to be learned: startling similarities as well as surprising differences ... for one example, the Brits are going after  "persons of interest" while the police in BC at the time of the Legislature raids assured us that no elected official was under investigation (we now know that 2 weeks earlier, the BC Minister of Finance was under police  surveillance, as he dined in a public restaurant with two executives from one of the bidding railroads). And so on ... for 6 years ... and then a trial abruptly high-jacked before it could have provided some credible facts.

I couldn't help but smile, this week, when the British police scolded the British prime minister for hiring the so-called "American super-cop" to parachute into London and explain how to manage criminal gangs. Like, wasn't that a desperate ploy on the part of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to change the subject? 

The British cops did right thing. Their honest outrage was immediately understood (remember RCMP Staff Sgt John Ward telling us some inconvenient truths, the day after police raided the BC Legislature? Ward suffered for that, wrongfully I believe). 

The forthright statement from British police seemed to snatch the fig-leaf away from a major figure in the whole News of the World meltdown. After all, the British prime minister had given Rupert Murdoch back-door access to his home! 

If only somebody in B. C. with gonads had invited Gordon Campbell to appear before a parliamentary committee and explain a few things about BC Rail under oath. But no, for BC and for BC Rail the news media put on a relentless look-away ... and now, there are so many parallels with Stephen Harper sending Gordon Campbell to London ...


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Former News of the World journalist arrested

The Independent (U.K.)
Thursday, 18 August 2011

Another former News of the World journalist was being questioned today by detectives investigating phone hacking.

The 38-year-old - reported to be ex-US editor James Desborough - was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications after arriving by appointment at a south London police station, Scotland Yard said.


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He becomes the 13th arrest of the fresh investigations into criminal activities at the Sunday tabloid.

Desborough, who joined the News of the World in 2005, moved to America in 2009 having won a British Press Award for a series of showbiz scoops.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the suspect remains in custody over allegations of intercepting voicemails.

The arrest comes a day after allegations of misconduct against former Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson were dismissed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Scotland Yard's fresh investigation into phone hacking was launched in January.

A series of high-profile figures have been arrested, including former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson.

The scandal has already caused the closure of the News of the World after 168 years and the resignation of Sir Paul and assistant commissioner John Yates.

Desborough, whose exclusives include TV host Fern Britton getting a gastric band fitted, was named as a suspect in a leak to the Guardian newspaper.

PA


Source:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-notw-journalist-arrested-2339893.html