Hacks are hackers

TABLOID SHEET the News of the World is still in hot water over claims that its hacks hacked celebrity phones.

The House of Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Committee has issued a report on the antics of the News of the Screws saying its hacking of voicemails had taken place "on a near-industrial scale".

According to the Associated Press it said that the company was suffering from a "collective amnesia" of the incident even after the rag's royal editor, Clive Goodman, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 after phone messages of aides to Prince William were hacked.

At the time the editor, Andy Coulson, quit over the affair. It is worth noting that he now has the role of communications chief for the Conservative Party.

The committee's 167-page report said, "It is likely that the number of victims of illegal phone hacking will never be known, not least because of the silence of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire and the 'collective amnesia' at the newspaper group."

The News of the Screws denied that it had "done something", which was something that the politicians did not buy.

The committee claimed it was "inconceivable" that no one else at the paper was aware of Goodman's activities.

The committee said it was concerned at the readiness of all of those involved, News International, the police and the Press Complaints Commission to leave Mr Goodman as the sole scapegoat without carrying out a full investigation.

The committee found "no evidence" that Coulson knew phone hacking was taking place, and it added he had been right to quit.

The News of the Screws hit out at the committee saying that rather than working in the public interest, certain members of the committee appear to have pursued a partisan political agenda.

It noted that the politicians had failed to come up with any new evidence so that was the end of it. µ