Gordon Brown, British Ex-Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, has told how News International used known criminals to invade people's privacy.
In an emotional interview on the BBC, the former leader of the Labour Party in Great Britain was shocked and he and his wife incredibly upset at a time when his focus with on the life of his child.
The former prime minister also alleged the newspaper giant had links to the "criminal underworld" and accused them of targeting the Labour Party for it's refusal to support NI's commercial interests. He said that he wanted to set up a judicial inquiry into phone hacking when he was prime minister, but that officials opposed the idea on the grounds that it would be seen as a partisan attack on the employee of his rival, David Cameron, the current Prime Minister, who's election was heavily supported by News International.
"News International were using people who were known criminals, people who had in some cases criminal records and News International as a result were working through links that they had with the criminal underworld. When people find out that the invasion of their liberties, their privates lives and their private griefs and their private thoughts and their innermost feelings become public property as a result, not of a rogue reporter or a chance investigator or someone saying something out of turn when they meet a friend at the street corner, but because criminals were hired to do this particular work, and these were known criminals ... These were criminals ,in some cases with records, in some cases with records of violence, and these links have now got to be explored. I find it quite incredible that a supposed reputable organisation made its money, produced its commercial results, at the expense of ordinary people."
Mr Brown says News International were "distorting the news" for their own reasons.
"News International pursued an incredibly aggressive agenda in the last year. News International were distorting the news in a way that was designed to pursue a particular political cause. This was an abuse of their power for political gain.
"The record will show that some people at News International abused their power. There is absolutely no doubt that News International were trying to influence policy. This is an issue about the abuse of political power as well as the abuse of civil liberties."
News International's statement in response to Gordon Brown's interview.
"We note the allegations made today concerning the reporting of matters relating to Gordon Brown. So that we can investigate these matters further, we ask that all information concerning these allegations is provided to us."
FULL VIDEO INTERVIEW (I'll embed ASAP) HERE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
More, and reactions and other reporting, after the jump...
Jon Stewart on The Daily Show:
Jon Stewart Tackles the News of the World Scandal
Matt Cherette — On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart returned from vacation feeling a little blue about the problems currently facing the United States, like the battle over the budget in Washington. But before Stewart could expound on his point, correspondent John Oliver presented him with a recap of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World scandal--a friendly reminder that the British will always find a way to out-shame us tepid Americans.
http://gawker.com/...
IBN Live reporting:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Evidence of illegal data checks on Gordon Brown buried by 2005 ruling
Judge ruled that proposed trial based on key discoveries by Plymouth police would be a waste of taxpayers' money
An unexpected ruling by a judge six years ago effectively covered up the chance to publicly expose evidence of the illegal targeting of Gordon Brown, which had been unearthed by a startled team of provincial detectives.
Operation Reproof, by Plymouth police, revealed the first of what became many systematic attempts to gain illegal confidential information on the prime minister and his family, but their findings were suppressed.
Files buried in police archives detail the discovery of an extraordinary nationwide network of private investigators, whom a corrupt local police officer was feeding with information filched from the police national computer (PNC).
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