Britain’s long-running hacking saga has finally seen one of its protagonists jailed, the first such penalty since the News of the World‘s royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were imprisoned in 2007 for intercepting voicemails intended for Princes William and Harry and their aides and friends. On Aug. 2 …
U.K.
Weekend Violence Increases Fears Of Libya’s Opposition Splitting Apart
It didn’t take the prescient gifts of Nostradamus to foresee that Thursday’s killing of Abdel Fattah Younes –commander of Libya’s anti-Gaddafi rebel forces–would exacerbate the tensions and divisions already rife within the opposition’s leadership. But it is a little surprising just how swiftly the suspicions of treason and …
Disarray on Gaddafi’s Fate, Top Rebel’s Killing Highlight Struggling Libya War Effort
(Update: The mysterious circumstances of Thursday’s killing of General Abdul Fattah Younes, military chief of staff of the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council, suggest the rebel war effort is teetering in crisis. The Independent reports that Younes had been in rebel custody at the time of his killing, having been arrested …
New Developments On Libya Bring New Confusion About An Outcome
Another day in Europe, more mixed messages on just how Western allies in the NATO-led Libyan air intervention plan to end a campaign that has now officially attained “slog” status. Just hours after comments Tuesday from British officials saying they’d accept embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi remaining free in post-war Libya so long …
The West Slowly Backing Away From the Libyan Military Operation
It’s getting harder and harder to believe there’ll eventually be a resolution to Libya’s civil war that will allow anyone to claim Muammar Gaddafi lost to rebel forces—or was humbled by members of the NATO-led coalition waging air strikes against him. Indeed, it’s becoming increasingly clear as the weeks rush by that …
Sure, ‘Gaddafi Must Go’, But What Else Did U.S. Officials Tell the Libyan Leader’s Envoys?
Washington insists that the U.S. officials who met with representatives of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Tunisia last week were not negotiating; they simply went to deliver one message: “Gaddafi must go.” There’s no reason to doubt that this demand was the center-piece of what the Americans told Gaddafi’s emissaries, since Obama …
Call Scotland Yard: Britain’s Prime Minister Is in Deep Trouble
David Cameron presented himself to British voters as the candidate of change. He certainly hasn’t let them down. The Prime Minister can claim personal responsibility for triggering a series of unexpected and convulsive changes to public life in Britain that have left Britons, in the words of one habitually understated government …
Cover Story: How Murdoch Will Struggle to Preserve His Influence
The tabloid saga gripping Britain — a tangled tale of criminality and corruption, of politicians in thrall to the power of the press and of police in the press’s pay — has elements of farce but even more of tragedy. Take Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was one of 52 people killed by suicide bombers in London six years …
Third Time Lucky? Murdoch Finally Accepts U.K. Chief Exec’s Resignation As FBI Launches News Corp. Investigation
In an affair that intrigues and baffles, perhaps the most puzzling question was this: why on earth was Britain’s highest-ranking redhead after Prince Harry still clinging on to her job at the helm of News International, News Corporation’s London-based subsidiary—and why did Rupert Murdoch seem so determined to keep her there? Those …
Envious Of U.S. Debt Ceiling Conflict, France Considers One Of Its Own
Were Paul Krugman to be inhabited by the not-so-kindred soul of Ronald Reagan, the Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist might be looking towards Europe airing the disapproving lament, “Well, there you go again”. And just who would the culpable “you” up to something iffy again be? French President Nicolas …
Is France Changing Its Tune as the Libya War Drags On?
There’s currently a lot of activity, a good measure of confusion, but no real sign of progress in France towards an eventual resolution to the NATO-led intervention in Libya that Paris was instrumental in launching. And it’s against that backdrop of somewhat chaotic operation slog that the French parliament is being asked Tuesday …
Eight Days in Israel’s Battle Against Pariah Status
Last Saturday, July 2, the Israeli politician Amir Peretz slipped onto a plane in London, and placing both his seat and himself in an upright position, escaped back to Israel just hours ahead of an arrest warrant. His crime: Serving as minister of defense during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when civilians were killed along with the …
Fallout of U.K. Hacking Scandal Reaches 10 Downing Street
It was the kind of tip-off that Andy Coulson would have appreciated in his days at the News of the World. As news broke that the title was to close, a source told the Guardian that the former editor of the tabloid was to be arrested by police investigating allegations of hacking and reports that the News of the World made hefty—and …