NOTW "Royal Editor" pleads guilty to mobile phone voicemail interception
The Guardian reports on the Royal voicemail interception scandal.
This case is one of the very rare prosecutions under the Regulation of investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Do any of the UK Mobile Phone Networks still allow your voicemailbox to be accessed, from an arbitrary landline or mobile phone, without forcing you to first change the default Personal Information Number (PIN) ?
Goodman pleads guilty Jemima KissThe Guardian
Wednesday November 29, 2006[...]
Clive Goodman, the royal editor of the News of the World, has pleaded guilty and could face jail for plotting to intercept private phone messages involving the royal family.
Goodman, 48, from Putney, south-west London, was arrested on August 8 after a police investigation into allegations of phone tapping at Clarence House. Members of the Prince of Wales's household claimed there had been security breaches in its telephone network.
In the dock at the Old Bailey with Goodman was former AFC Wimbledon footballer Glenn Mulcaire, 35, also from south-west London, who admitted the same charge.
Mr Mulcaire further admitted five charges of unlawfully intercepting voicemail messages left by a number of people, including publicist Max Clifford and Elle Macpherson.
The charges, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, date to interceptions between February 16 2006 and June 16.
The conspiracy charge, under the Criminal Law Act, relates to conspiring to intercept voicemail messages between November 1 2005 and August 9 2006.:
[...]
Accessing your voicemail from your own phone does not necessarily require a PIN, but, this is, of course, still vulnerable to the reasonably technically difficult process of Subscriber Information Module (SIM) card cloning. and, of course, the secret conference call tapping method used in the Vodafone Greece scandal.
The mention of SImon Hughes MP, as one of the targets of this conspiracy, reminds us that we are still awaiting publication of the last year's annual repor annual report by the previous Interception of Communications Commissioner, the Rt. Hon.Sir Swinton Thomas.
Will this shed any light on the unanswered questions about the "Wilson Doctrine" and the tapping of Members of Parliament's phones ? Does this apply to their mobile phones ? Do this apply to their internet activities, including email ? Does this apply to the House of Lords ? Does this apply to non-Westminster elected Members of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly ? Does i apply to UK Members of the European Parliament ? Does it apply to foreign Members of the European Parliament ? Is a distinction made between MPs' private phones and email accounts etc. and the ones which they use for communicating with their constituents ?
Comments
Veteran political journalist Michael White writes in The Guardian, suggesting that notorious ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett was also the subject of News of the World, mobile phone voicemail interception, especially during the media slanging match over Blunkett's DNA tests and custody court case over his illegitimate child.
He hints that New Labour politicians are naive to pally up to Rupert Murdoch owned tabloid newspapers.
It also appears, again according The Guardian, that David Miliband, now the Minister in charge of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who runs an infamous propaganda blog at public expense.
Posted by: wtwu | December 1, 2006 4:45 AM