Link: HP Scandal: The Boss Who Spied on Her Board - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com.
HP has now admitted to spying on its own directors' personal phone records in order to root out a leaker. It did so by using private investigators who engaged in "pretexting"—calling up phone companies and impersonating directors seeking their own records. HP late last week additionally admitted to spying on the phone records of nine journalists, including at The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, some of which date to 2005. HP's Dunn stands accused of orchestrating the investigation. Perkins quit in a rage over the surveillance and wants Dunn out as chairman; HP is painting him as an angry traitor with a vendetta against Dunn. Lying, spying, name-calling, finger-pointing—all of it is a tragicomedy that Shakespeare might've penned had he gotten an M.B.A.
Update: Interesting to see that Larry Sonsini, Esq., of Wilson Sonsini, approved the practice of pretexting (according to the article). The article is well-written. I like its reference to the murder of St. Thomas Becket.
It remains unclear exactly what Dunn knew and when she knew it. The California attorney general will want to know if Dunn intentionally avoided knowing about the details, like a head of state who wants "plausible deniability" while ordering an assassination plot. (An ancient model, cited by old CIA hands, is Henry II. When he wanted to get rid of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he simply muttered in front of his knights, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?")
I find it surprising that some consider Becket, a martyr, to be one of the "worst" Britons in history.
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