Famous audio and videotape scams in world

LAHORE: Imran Khan and one of his trusted lieutenants Dr. Arif Alvi are not the only known Pakistani figures caught on tape because just hours before the February 18, 2008 general elections, a New York-based organisation “Human Rights Watch” had released a highly controversial audio recording of the then Attorney-General of Pakistan Justice (R) Malik Mohammed Qayyum in which he had talked about plans to rig the polls, writes Sabir Shah.
The Pakistani media had then widely published and aired the Urdu and Punjabi transcript of the Human Rights Watch recording, besides carrying its English language translation.Here follows the English language translation of the audio tape, which was released on the website of the Human Rights Watch:
“Leave Nawaz Sharif (pause)... I think Nawaz Sharif will not take part in the election (pause)... If he does take part, he will be in trouble. If Benazir takes part she too will be in trouble (pause)... They will massively rig to get their own people to win. If you can get a ticket from these guys, take it (pause)... If Nawaz Sharif does not return himself, then he (Nawaz) has some advantage.”
The Human Rights Watch had claimed that the conversation was recorded by a journalist who was interviewing Malik Qayyum on November 21, 2007, when the former judge had taken a call from an unidentified person.
This incident had reportedly taken place just five weeks before the assassination of late Premier Benazir Bhutto and a day after the Election Commission of Pakistan had announced the schedule for the 2008 polls.
However, Malik Qayyum had termed the recording fake and a conspiracy against him and the then President General Musharraf.Talking to “The News” in February 2008, Malik Qayyum had asserted that the Human Rights Watch had not taken his version, adding that since the international human rights organization did not know about the identification of the person he was talking to—-it had automatically raised questions about the authenticity of the recording.
The Human Rights Watch had stated on its website that in February 2001, “The Sunday Times” had published a report based on transcripts of 32 audio tapes, which had revealed that Justice Qayyum had convicted Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari for political
reasons.
The transcripts of the recordings reproduced by the afore-cited British newspaper showed that Qayyum had asked the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s anti-corruption chief, Saifur Rehman, for advice on the sentence.
Qayyum was quoted as saying in the tapped conversation: “Now you tell me how much punishment do you want me to give her?”In recent years, a few objectionable and controversial videotapes of actress Lollywood Meera and other showbiz personalities have also surfaced on the Internet.
Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows that many of the famous audio and videotape scams around the world have actually been well-planned sting operations or clandestine recordings conducted by both spy agencies and media outlets.
Internationally speaking, presidents, politicians, royal family members, sports figures and other celebrities have been caught on audio or video saying or doing something they would rather have erased from public memory.
A few of these recordings have gotten people into real trouble, as they have caused everything from simple embarrassment to impeachment to jail time for the unlucky parties.Here follows a list of some of the most incriminating secret recordings in recent history:-The granddaddy of all audio recording scandals had involved the 37th President of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon.
President Nixon had secretly tapped meetings and phone conversations that took place in the White House and other locations starting in 1971. On February 16, 1971, the tapping system was installed in two rooms in the White House and three months later, microphones were added to President Nixon’s private office.
He had allegedly tapped around 3,700 hours of conversations, even without the knowledge of the other people involved in the meetings. He had also targeted his political opponents.In June 1972, several burglars were caught breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC. The intruders were attempting to plant bugs.
Celebrated “Washington Post” journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had covered the Watergate break-in story with the help of multiple sources, including the one dubbed “Deep Throat,” who in 2005 was revealed to be a former high-ranking FBI official, Mark Felt.
Although a couple of investigative US bodies had requested the Nixon’s recordings, the President had denied, citing executive privilege. Nixon eventually gave them edited transcripts, but continued to refuse to hand over the actual tapes and to deny any wrongdoing.
Nixon’s lawyers had to disclose that 18 and a half minutes were missing from one of the tapes, probably erased — at least in part — by Nixon’s loyal secretary Rose Mary Woods. However, only a few White House employees had ever been aware that this system existed.
In July 1974, the Justice William Rehnquist-led US Supreme Court had voted unanimously (8-0) to order Nixon to hand over the tapes.
Nixon abided by the court order, leading to impeachment proceedings against him for obstruction of justice.
(Reference: The July 24, 1974 United States versus Nixon Case)
One of these tapes called the “Smoking-Gun Tape” had contained a conversation from mid-1972 that proved Nixon was involved with the cover-up over Watergate from the beginning, rather than having just learned of it in March 1973, as he had maintained.
Instead of facing the inevitable impeachment, Nixon had announced his resignation on August 8, 1974, making him the first US President to resign. The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty and incarcerated, many of whom were Nixon’s top administration officials.
Vice President Gerald Ford then became President, and a few weeks later granted Nixon a full pardon, despite the fact that no criminal charges were ever lodged against him.
On August 20, 2013, the Nixon Library and the National Archives and Records Administration had released the final 340 hours of the tapes that cover the period from April 9 through July 12, 1973. These tapes also contained discussions on foreign policy, including planning for the 1972 Nixon visits to China and Soviet Union.
(References: CBS News, the New York Times and the Washington Post etc)
However, Nixon was not the first president to record his White House conversations.
Research shows that the tradition began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and continued under Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush senior, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush junior and even Barack Obama.
The late Lady Diana, the divorced wife of Prince Charles, was also caught on an audiotape in 1992, the year the Royal couple had separated. A 20-minute cell phone conversation between Princess Diana and childhood friend James Gilbey had surfaced.
During the call, which was apparently made on New Year’s Eve 1989, James told Diana that he loved her and repeatedly called her “darling.” On the tape, Princess Diana commented that her husband made her life a “torture.”
The call was somehow overheard by two radio operators and recorded. They sold the tape to a newspaper, which published a transcript of the call, and also allowed people to call a phone line to listen to the recording.
Ken Wharfe, former bodyguard of Princess Diana who wrote a book about her after her death, accused the Government Communications Headquarters of recording the conversation and possibly playing it on a loop until it was picked up on radio. He even said that Diana called and listened to the recording herself.
Diana’s bodyguard Wharfe stated that he was told that Queen Elizabeth had ordered an internal inquiry into the initial recording and the leak. An inquiry into the incident was reportedly vetoed by then British Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke.
Prince Charles had his own leaked cell call scandal over intimate conversations between himself and Camilla Parker-Bowles, dubbed Camillagate.
The call was also apparently recorded in 1989, but mysteriously leaked shortly after Diana’s tape. Prince Charles and Camilla have since married.
The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, was also caught taking bribe on audiotape in 2010.
A “News of the World” reporter Mazher Mahmood had posed as a businessman and met Sarah Ferguson.
Mazher had tapped her offering him access to her ex-husband in exchange for 500,000 British Pounds, as well as possible future payments, saying she could open doors for him and the access would pay him back tenfold. The fake businessman gave her a $40,000 cash down payment on tape and said he would wire the rest.
Prince Andrew, who was then a representative for international trade and investment for Britain, apparently knew nothing about the situation. His lack of involvement was reiterated by both his office and his ex-wife after news of the scandal broke. The Duchess made a public apology for her lapse in judgment when the tape came to light.
She and Prince Andrew divorced in 1996 after ten years of marriage and the Duchess since reeling under a debt of $4 million. She only receives around $20,000 a year as part of her divorce settlement.
In India, the 2001 “Tehelka Scandal” had made many murky defence deals public.
It was a sting operation launched by an investigative Indian news magazine “Tehelka.”
The special correspondents of the magazine filmed some 34 corrupt defence officials and politicians of ruling National Democratic Alliance government including Bharatiya Janta Party’s President Bangaru Laxman.
The operation took seven and a half months to complete and damaged the global image of India.
The then Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes and his party president Jaya Jaitly had to resign as a consequence.
Similarly, Mamta Banerjee, an important ally of the coalition had to quit the government.
On April 27, 2012, a special court had convicted the BJP leader Bangaru Laxman of corruption charges and had sentenced him to four year of rigorous imprisonment. Laxman also had to pay Rs1 lakh fine.
The Indian government had then booked Tehelka under many sections and used Inland Revenue, Enforcement Directorate and Intelligence Bureau but could not find anything against the media outlet. However, the journalists who carried out the investigation were imprisoned.
The $40 billion Indian 2G spectrum scam had also involved audiotapes.
The conversation of famous NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt with a corporate lobbyist Nira Radia was tapped by the country’s Income Tax Department.
The audiotapes were billed as containing evidence that senior journalists had helped install a politician (A. Raja) in the telecom ministry.
Raja was arrested by the Indian CBI in February 2011 for overseeing the flawed sale of mobile-phone spectrum that had deprived the country of billions of dollars.
He was sent to jail for 15 months.
In its November 18, 2010 edition, an eminent Indian magazine “Outlook” had stated: “The transcripts suggest that journalists Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt also lobbied for Raja (telecom minister) with the Congress party.”
The Central Bureau of Investigation announced that they had 5,851 recordings of phone conversations by Radia, some of which outline Radia’s attempts to broker deals in relation to the 2G spectrum sale.
In November 2010, journalist Barkha Dutt had apologised on television over the issue saying it was “an error of judgment” on her part, but said that she had not indulged in any wrongdoing.
In the United States, a presidential candidate Mitt Romney had delivered a speech on May 17, 2012 at a fundraiser. On the tape, Romney had said things that he wasn’t saying to the public during his election campaign. The speech was secretly tapped by a bartender at the event and later released on certain websites in form of short clips.
This tape had caused uproar, putting Romney on the defensive.
There is no evidence, analysis or research if the speech had led directly to Romney’s defeat at the hands of President Obama in 2012, but it could not have helped.
In October 2008, the American FBI had sought permission to wiretap the phones of the then Illinois State Governor Rod Blagojevich, after the spy agency had received a tip that the Governor was attempting to solicit campaign contributions or other personal benefits in exchange for official favours.
The information was spot on and Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008, subsequently leading to his impeachment.
The profanity-laden recordings had revealed the Governor’s efforts to take campaign contributions or other bribes in exchange for appointment to the US Senatorial seat vacated by President Barack Obama upon his election to the Presidency.
In 2011, he was convicted of 18 counts of felony corruption, including wire fraud, soliciting bribes and attempted extortion, and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison, $21,800 in fines and two years of supervised release.
A three-time Washington DC Mayor, Marion Barry, was caught on a videotape using cocaine. In 1990, the FBI and the Washington DC Police had launched a sting operation.
Mayor Barry’s former girlfriend Hazel Diane had lured him to a room at the Vista Hotel where two FBI agents had posed as the woman’s friends. The FBI had tapped the encounter via hidden video cameras and audio recorders.
On the videotape, Mayor Barry was seen smoking cocaine when FBI agents had burst into the room to arrest him.
Barry was convicted of only one of 14 charges, including misdemeanour and cocaine possession. He was sentenced to six months in prison.
Finally, we have all heard of the infamous “News of the World” phone-hacking scandal of 2006-07, when Clive Goodman, the newspaper’s Royal Editor and a private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were convicted and jailed for intercepting voicemail messages left for British royal aides.
The “News of the World” was one of the oldest in the UK and had sold some 2.8 million copies every week before its unceremonious closure.
More than 4,000 people were identified by the British police as possible victims of this phone hacking scam.
The alleged targets included politicians, celebrities, actors, sports people, relatives of dead UK soldiers and people who were caught up in the 7/7 London bombings.
The “Guardian” had reported that the “News of the World” had made confidential settlements totaling £1 million to three people who said their phones had been hacked. By September 2010, a string of well-known people had moved courts to have their claims looked at again amid mounting suspicions that phone hacking had been more widely used.
The turning point came in January 2011 when the Metropolitan Police had launched an operation into a fresh phone-hacking scandal.
The critical political moment in the affair came when “The Guardian” had reported that the newspaper had hacked the mobile phone belonging to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The newspaper’s owner Rupert Murdoch had to apologise and close it down in the wake of the Milly Dowler revelations
In July 2011, Rupert Murdoch gave evidence to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, whereby denying that he knew the full extent of the allegations until evidence in civil cases was requested in late 2010.