Brown was targeted!

Including the idea that the former head of the paper was Cameron's communication assisstant, it makes a case for voting fraud. Extremly manipulative.

Tabloid scandal: Queen, Brown reportedly targeted

LONDON (AP) — The scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media empire exploded in several directions Monday, with fresh reports of phone hacking attacks against some of the nation's most powerful figures, including royals and former prime minister Gordon Brown.

Adding to the intrigue, Scotland Yard released an unusual statement accusing unidentified individuals of trying to sabotage its sprawling investigation. The police — themselves accused of accepting bribes from Murdoch's journalists — said somebody was deliberately planting distracting information in the press.

No one, it seems, had been safe from the prying eyes of corrupt journalists.

Multiple Murdoch papers spied on British PM, royals

Former prime minister Gordon Brown had his phone hacked and bank account breached by several British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's media empire, reports said Monday.

Paperwork seized from News of the World phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire by Scotland Yard had references to both Brown and his wife Sarah, according to an investigation by The Guardian.

The investigation found an agent acting on behalf of Murdoch's Sunday Times posed as Brown to obtain his account records from Abbey National bank.

Another conman working for Sunday Times allegedly tricked Brown's London lawyers, Allen & Overy, into handing over details about their client.

Brown and his wife also suspect that a third Murdoch paper, The Sun, obtained their son's medical records. In 2006, the paper revealed that the boy had cystic fibrosis.

It is the first time that hacking allegations have extended beyond the News of the World tabloid, which Murdoch closed down Sunday amid widespread phone hacking allegations.

Could Murdoch deputy Hinton take the fall?

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Les Hinton was adamant. Asked in 2007 by a British parliamentary committee whether the News of the World had "carried out a full, rigorous internal inquiry" into the use of illegal phone hacking by the newspaper and was "absolutely convinced" it was limited to a single reporter, Hinton did not hesitate.

"Yes, we have," the then-executive chairman of News of the World's owner News International told the select committee, "and I believe he was the only person, but that investigation, under the new editor, continues."

Four years on, Hinton may have serious reason to regret those words. In the middle of a voicemail hacking scandal that has killed the 168-year-old mass-circulation paper and threatens further damage to Rupert Murdoch's media empire, much of the public anger so far has focused on Rebekah Brooks, editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003 when some of the most high-profile hacking occurred, and her successor Andy Coulson, under whom it continued.