Hollywood: Where the U.S. Frowns on Spying (La Jornada, Mexico)
"Leaders allied with the great superpower and millions of their
citizens have also been victimized by the mass surveillance of communications by
our neighbor and trading partner. In contrast, Anthony
Pellicano, the most well known private detective in Hollywood,
has been sentenced to ten years in prison. He was found guilty of 76 offenses, including
wiretapping, extortion, fraud, and blackmail. ... So good going Edward Snowden for
working in Moscow under Russian government protection."
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded that the United States shed light on the alleged
illegal wiretapping carried out by its spy agencies.
Other
leaders allied with the great superpower and millions of their citizens have
also been victimized by the mass surveillance of communications by our neighbour and trading partner. It is an issue brought to
our attention thanks to leaks from Edward Snowden, a former employee of the
National Security Agency.
However,
after her protestations, Mrs. Merkel made clear that preserving collaborative
ties with the Obama government in the battle against terrorism and other matters
are of no less importance, as did presidents in Europe and Latin America who
had also been spied on.
In
contrast to all this, Anthony
Pellicano, the most well known private detective
in Hollywood, has been sentenced to ten years in prison. He was found guilty of
76 offenses, including wiretapping, extortion, fraud, and blackmail. A character
worthy of inclusion in The Godfather
or The Sopranos, he used as a
password the word omerta - a Sicilian Mafia term commonly used to refer
to their code of silence.
The
detective tapped the phones of Keith Carradine, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, and Sylvester Stallone, just as he tapped the
phones of important names in the movie industry like Paramount Pictures CEO
Brad Grey. He
also bugged phones at the behest of Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and Elizabeth
Taylor.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Pellicano, 64, practised
his illegal profession for two decades until the Federal Bureau of
Investigation began investigating him. The agency concluded that he had
collaborated with a former police officer and a telephone company employee to
monitor and record what he shouldn’t have. He worked on the fringes of the law
to obtain information that his clients could use to defend themselves in
divorce cases, business disputes, and even rape and murder trials.
But
he isn’t the only one convicted in what the media called the “private eye to
the stars' trial.” American filmmaker John McTiernan,
director of Die Hard saga episodes one
and three with Bruce Willis, and of Predator
with Arnold Schwarzenegger (1987), must serve a year in prison after pleading guilty
to making a false statement to the FBI.
After
stating the opposite in several appearances before the authorities, McTiernan finally confessed to having hired Pellicano to spy on Chuck Roben,
producer of The Dark Knight Rises.
So
good going Edward Snowden for working in Moscow under Russian government protection,
since your own government won’t forgive you for having revealed how and to what
extent Washington spies on its friends and millions of others.
