The Rupert Murdoch empire

-- I'll say it again, the mainstream media is currently the most-vulnerable body part of TPTB. And David Cameron is in deep trouble. Mass popular support for a fearless investigation, expressing outrage at the blatant criminality involved works to the advantage of all seeking freedom from tyranny because Rupert Murdoch is one of the powers that be. Take down one God on Olympus and they all become aware of their vulnerability. -- MCR

Rebekah Brooks and husband arrested in new twist in phone-hacking inquiry

Pair released after facing day of questioning by detectives on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice

the Guardian,

Tuesday 13 March 2012 21.43 GMT

Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's long-time confidante and a personal friend of David Cameron, was arrested at dawn on Tuesday alongside her husband, the racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, as Scotland Yard's investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World struck out in a new direction.

Rebekah Brooks, who was chief executive of News International until July last year, was one of six people seized between 5am and 7am on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. It was the largest single batch of arrests in Operation Weeting so far. Previously only three of the 22 people arrested in the News of the World phone-hacking investigations had been held on a similar basis.

Charlie Brooks, an Old Etonian contemporary of the prime minister, had been looking forward to attending the Cheltenham racing festival . Writing in a column published in the Daily Telegraph, he said that "the happiest moment of my year" was about three hours before the first race "queuing behind Alan Brazil for my, but not his, first pint of Guinness of the meeting".

Instead the couple spent at least 12 hours being questioned by detectives in different police stations, in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, regarding an offence that carries a theoretical maximum prison term of life imprisonment. In practice, however, nobody found guilty has received a jail term of greater than 10 years for it in the last century. The two were released on bail until a date in April. Three others were also released on bail until a date in April.

Police said that a 43-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man had been arrested at their home farm in Oxfordshire, which is a few miles away from Cameron's constituency home. Two weeks ago, the prime minister admitted that he rode on a former police horse, Raisa, which had been stabled with Charlie Brooks – his friend of "30 years standing" – sometime before the 2010 general election.

Rebekah Brooks was the high flying journalist who was appointed as editor of the News of the World by Murdoch in 2000 aged 32, then was promoted to become editor of the Sun in 2003, before finally becoming chief executive of News International in 2009 just as it was being reported by the Guardian that phone hacking was widespread at the Sunday tabloid.

Her gifts for networking at the highest levels meant that she was close to Tony and Cherie Blair, before deftly switching tack to become close to Cameron as the Sun switched its support to the Conservatives. But she was forced to resign in July of last year after it emerged that News of the World had targeted the mobile phone of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002, triggering a wave of revulsion that led to the closure of the Sunday title. That week she was also arrested by appointment at a London police station on suspicion of conspiring to hack into mobile phone voicemails and also on suspicion of corruption of public officials.

News International has faced repeated allegations that it concealed the true extent of phone hacking after the 2007 jailing of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and Glenn Muclaire, the £100,000 a year private investigator used by the title. In January of this year, a group of public figures, including actor Jude Law, forced the company to concede what the presiding judge Mr Justice Vos was an "admission of sorts" in that unnamed "senior employees and directors" of News of the World publisher News Group Newspapers had "sought to conceal" wrongdoing by putting out false public statements and "destroying evidence" including emails and computers.

Another of the six arrested was Mark Hanna, the director of group security at News International, the publisher of the Sun, the Times and the now closed News of the World. A second, unnamed "non-editorial" employee of News International, was also held by police from the Met Police's Operating Weeting team; the identities of the other two individuals held was not confirmed.

Police said that the arrests followed "consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service," and not from information passed to supplied by News Corporation's management and standards committee (MSC). The legal advice received was given by Alison Levitt QC, who is the principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer. Levitt and her team are overseeing the CPS's involvement with the Met's various hacking and bribery investigations.

The Met said that the other four individuals held were a 39-year-old man, who was arrested at his home address in Hampshire, a 46-year-old man arrested at his home address in west London, a 38-year old man arrested at his home address in Hertfordshire and a 48-year-old man arrested at a business address in east London. All six of those held were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977.

Separately it also emerged that Rupert Murdoch has told Sun journalists that the investigation by News Corporation's management and standards committee into alleged corrupt payments and other acts of illegality at the tabloid has almost concluded. In an email sent to reporters and seen by the Guardian, the media tycoon said he had been told "by the MSC that its work on the Sun is substantially complete" – and, reinforcing repeated claims made by the MSC, added that any company emails handed over to the police "has at all times been strictly confined to evidence of possible illegal acts".

Murdoch's note was aimed at shoring up a demoralised Sun newsroom, which has endured the arrest of 11 journalists on suspicion of making corrupt payments to public officials, including police, prison officers and military personnel. He also responded to press reports last week that two Sun reporters who had been arrested may have contemplated suicide.

"We have all been shocked and saddened by recent reports concerning the health and welfare of a number of our colleagues," Murdoch wrote, noting as the newspaper was enduring "difficult and stressful times" that nobody could "simply wish it all away". Indicating that he was personally involved in the welfare of the two staff, which has divided the company between the Sun newsroom and company's MSC, Murdoch wrote that he was "doing everything I can to see that our colleagues are looked after and that they get the very best care and help". But there was no comment from Murdoch, away in New York, on the arrest of Brooks, who he once described as his "number one priority" at the height of the hacking crisis last July. News International did not comment yesterday, nor was their any comment from a spokesperson for Rebekah Brooks