Conspiracies: The Facts * the Theories * the Evidence (21 page)

became clear that everyday folk, including murder victims and

their families, had also been targeted, irritation turned to horror.

Notwithstanding the fact that many of the outraged were the same

readers who had for years gleeful y lapped up the ill-gotten gains of the hackings, there was still a sense that a line had been crossed.

The defence that had long held off further investigation of News

International – that the hacking had been carried out by a tiny

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minority of journalists, already sacrificed to prosecution some

years back – crumbled when it transpired that many more people

than claimed must have been aware of the underhand methods

by which numerous stories were sourced. When ex-
News of the

World
editor Andy Coulson, followed by News International’s chief executive Rebekah Brooks and other high-profile staff were

arrested and bailed under the police inquiry that followed, an

unhealthy and insidious underbel y of British public life began

to surface. This was complicated with accusations that the police themselves had sold stories to the paper in the past.

Rupert Murdoch, with his son and business partner, James,

was soon called to appear in front of a parliamentary committee,

where, despite a protestor’s foam pie, remorse was expressed

but responsibility deferred. Murdoch shut down the
News of the
World
, presumably hoping that the matter might be forgotten, but the furore continued, with other News International newpapers

being drawn into the mire.

The subsequent Leveson Inquiry, a government-commissioned

public inquiry into the ‘culture, practices and ethics of the press’, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, which expanded its remit to

investigate the journalistic habits of the entire media, interviewed not only the Murdochs, Coulson and Brooks again, but other

editors, reporters and victims, some of them ‘showbiz’ stars. While undeniably fascinating, this circus was allowed to eclipse far more serious elements, which the public was duly distracted from in a

manner that some thought suspicious.

The role of Andy Coulson, for one, was noticeably sidelined

by the tales of celebrity angst, yet his part in the proceedings

had clearly lifted a lid on something the establishment seemed

keen to move on from. The fuss over the controversial 2010

appointment of Coulson as incoming Prime Minister David

Cameron’s communications director in the face of the brewing

accusations (resulting in Coulson’s resignation just months later) had been high profile, but it was the exposure of the close relations 125

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between News International and the government, like Tony Blair’s

before it, that real y mattered. Yet this did not, in truth, receive the overwhelmingly persistent coverage it deserved.

The revelations that did briefly make the news made it clear that Blair in particular had many long-standing social ties with Rupert Murdoch (becoming godfather to one of his daughters in 2010,

something kept very quiet at the time), suggesting that the mogul must have been surreptitiously influencing British governance for over a decade.7 As for Cameron, in his first year of office alone, a remarkable 100 meetings or so had taken place between top News

International executives and the prime minister or high-level

cabinet ministers such as George Osborne (a regular Bilderberg

attender –
see
pp. 231–2). Cameron himself already had a close social relationship with Charlie and Rebekah Brooks (2012’s

‘Horsegate’ disclosures later revealed cosy riding weekends on a

horse loaned to the Brookses by the police) and ensured that one

of the first important meetings he had in the days following his

accession to power was with the person that clearly mattered the

most – Rupert Murdoch.8 Accusations that a secret deal was made

to grease the path for News Corporation’s attempts to gain full

ownership of the BSkyB television network (a bid which col apsed

amidst the scandals) were denied, perhaps predictably, but the

affair left an indelible taint which strongly suggested unhealthy government partiality.

What was unquestionably established by something that had

begun as a simple phone-hacking investigation was that Britain,

and almost certainly other countries where the News Corporation

empire is strong (the USA, especial y, where Murdoch’s Fox

News network is renowned for its right-wing rhetoric), had been

suffering from rule by proxy for far too long, with the needs of

voters coming second to the demands of the real beneficiaries.

As the façade final y broke, even MPs and high-ranking police

officials came forward to complain of implicit threats from the

Murdoch press over the years, uncovering the culture of bul ying

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and intimidation that had gripped the nation for maybe decades.

A collective sigh of relief could be felt to ripple through the

population at the fall of this unholy regime. Although people

knew that nepotism and lobbying was probably a fixture of every

government, to have it so starkly revealed was something new.

Some victims had long railed against this situation, but had felt powerless, fearing reprisal exposures of their personal lives if they tried to call attention to it.

There is one truthseeker version of events which says that the

revelations around the Murdoch empire were a deliberate move,

designed especial y to further a serious restriction on the freedom of the press, and thus free speech; but many others believe that

simple hubris and an unstoppable avalanche of corruption’s over-

stacked cover-ups had final y resulted in the laying open of this subtle but unmistakable conspiracy.

Despite this hiccup, it remains that the media will always

need the ear of governments, and the governments will always

foster the support of the media, regardless of Cameron’s sudden

epiphany, which saw him and his colleagues rapidly distancing

themselves from Murdoch’s team, with new sniffs of disapproval

in their direction. The danger of the revised situation is that the seemingly irresistible secret meetings between media executives

and authorities may have been driven further underground,

rather than becoming more overt. Similarly, the unexpected

disclosure of the unhealthily intimate relationship between then

British defence secretary Liam Fox and arms lobbyist Adam

Werrity in 2011 – strongly suspected of influencing government

defence contracts without any official remit – appeared merely to reveal how business is usual y done rather than it being a one-off anomaly. Again, the revelation was necessary, but was likely to breed more secrecy rather than openness.

The complex web of corporate media ownership and the links

with the arms industry, banking and governments is explored a

little further in chapter 8, but enough underhand influence has been 127

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cited here to demonstrate why doubt in authority will unavoidably creep in when such a tangled mass of undeclared interests and

interference is revealed by the lifting of just the smallest stone.

The Sean Hoare Mystery

Another element which hurriedly and mysteriously absented itself

from all the mainstream coverage of the phone-hacking scandal

concerned the former
News of the World
journalist
Sean Hoare in July 2011, found dead at his home just before he was due to give

official testimony against his former boss, Andy Coulson. Hoare

had been a typical News International hack for years, digging for spicy if sometimes factual y incorrect stories of celebrity gossip, but his increasing predilection for drugs and alcohol (which Hoare blamed on encouragement from his own employers) led to his

sacking in 2005. Bitter at his treatment, Hoare had become very

vocal in his insistence, as expressed to
New York Times
Magazine
in 2010, that he and other journalists at News International had been bullied into the culture of amoral snooping by the likes of Coulson, who, he said, had directly ordered him to hack mobile phones.

Hoare’s drinking had undoubtedly worsened amidst all the

media attention around his claims, but in his last few weeks he

specifical y warned friends of his fears that someone was out to

kill him with a view to silencing his disclosures, and that he was receiving intimidation and threats. Bizarre it was, then, that when Hoare’s body was discovered at his house on 18 July 2011, police

described his death as ‘unexplained’, but not suspicious. This

troubled some observers. If his passing remained unexplained,

how could suspicious circumstances be ruled out?

Predictably, Hoare’s demise was widely promoted as the

reckoning of his own unfortunate addictions, with all the

predictions of his own assassination brushed aside as the random

mutterings of intoxicated paranoia. The results of the notably

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evasive police investigation into the cause of death remained

unannounced for months, during which talk of either Hoare or

his untimely end had quickly fallen – or been taken – away from

the spotlight. When the verdict was final y (and quietly) delivered, unspecified ‘natural causes’, probably due to liver damage, were

cited, with no further elaboration.

Needless to say, the hasty dropping of Hoare’s claims as the

central focus of inquiry, and the uncertain circumstances of his

passing, left many people convinced that something suspicious

was at work. But without the huge public fuss accorded to similar casualties such as Dr David Kel y, the wheels turned and the

world soon moved on, the story removed from most people’s

consciousness.

The sceptics dutiful y scoffed at the conspiracy view of Hoare’s

death, highlighting the police investigation and the wide media

acceptance of his alcoholism as all the evidence needed to support the natural causes verdict. Yet, given that the police themselves were being accused of corruption – with Hoare having stated that

police had actual y passed on not only stories but also mobile

phone tracking technology to News International staff – and

that much of the media itself stood to lose credibility and risk

prosecution in the wake of his and others’ testimonies, these

could hardly be seen as reliable criteria. Inevitably, conspiracy theorists have accused either Murdoch’s empire, corrupt police,

government intelligence, or all three, of having ordered Hoare’s

death. With toxicology and forensic reports available only from

or through the very agencies under suspicion, truthseekers can

perhaps be forgiven for remaining cynical.

Conspiracy Theorists at Heart

Herein lies a central issue. Authorities do lie. Deceptions do take place. Proven or very likely conspiracies are littered throughout 129

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history, as we have discovered. Somewhere deep inside, for all

that it allows itself to be distracted, the public conscience knows this and now maintains a low-level but inherent distrust in official information. Especial y when high-profile public figures are

suddenly removed from this earthly realm at key moments or

in questionable ways, pol s show that we are nearly al , at heart, conspiracy theorists.

The Sean Hoare story was scrambled and moved on from just

rapidly enough that it didn’t sink into the collective mind enough to become a classic assassination legend, yet most people seemed

at best dubious about it for the short time the event remained in view. Other individuals, however, with much greater publicity,

have famously gone down in questionable circumstances, leaving

the vast majority of observers suspecting probable conspiracy, as the next chapter explores.

In Summary . . .

Political Conspiracies: Arguments Against

Events such as Watergate or the MPs’ expenses crisis may be political
scandals on a level of nothing more than small-minded individuals
lying or conducting espionage to preserve personal influence

rather than wider agendas being at work – Historic achievements
as significant as the Moon landings are simply too huge to have
been faked, and those who believe the hoax theories are simply
the political y disil usioned who have fal en into foolish paranoia

– The Iraqi weapons of mass destruction stories, even if known to
be uncertain at the time, were necessary possibilities which had
to be acted on and in any case enabled the happy downfall of a
tyrant – WikiLeaks revealed little more than minor squabbles and
routine military necessities – Links between governments and News
Corporation may be acceptable normal practice in a world where
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good relations between authorities and the media are essential,
and the death of a crucial witness to the Murdoch revelations was
nothing but a coincidence.