The New York Times - Hacked: The Tabloid Scandal That Rocked Britain

LONDON Long before they were wed, in the murky days of deceit and divorce, Prince Charles and his mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles were no strangers to telephone taps that transformed risqu, private murmurs into oh-so-public newspaper headlines.

Now, the specter may have returned to haunt the royal household again not just, this time, in telephone intercepts of the princes entourage, but across a wider range of celebrities and politicians whose telephones may have been bugged by a tabloid.

The British police announced late Tuesday that three men had been arrested on suspicion of intercepting telephone calls, reportedly on cellphones, after complaints by staff members at Clarence House, Charles official residence in central London.

The News of the World, a mass-circulation tabloid with a penchant for disclosures, often about the royals, acknowledged that Clive Goodman, its reporter covering the royal family, was one of those under arrest.

The news bumped the war in Lebanon off the top of some television news bulletins. Not only did it have everything a tabloid might want titillation, celebrity and royal embarrassment to start with it also had the tabloid itself.

By late Tuesday, few details of what had been intercepted and who had said what to whom had emerged.

Police launched an investigation after concerns were reported to the Mets Royalty Protection Department by members of the royal household at Clarence House, Londons Metropolitan Police, the Met, said in a statement. The investigation has been going on for about seven months.

The inquiry is focused on alleged repeated security breaches within telephone networks over a significant period of time and the potential impact this may have on protective security around a number of individuals, the statement said.

Apart from the prince, the heir to the throne, and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, since she and Charles were married in April 2005, those most likely to have had their phone calls intercepted could well have included the royal princes, William and Harry the sons of Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Somewhat coyly, the statement said the police had concluded that public figures beyond the royal household may have had their calls intercepted, kindling speculation that politicians and other members of the royal household might have been caught up in the eavesdropping web.

The investigation initially focused on complaints from three people within the royal household, the police statement said, without naming them.

As a result of their inquiries police now believe that public figures beyond the royal household have had their telephones intercepted which may have potential security implications, the statement said.

Police continue to work with the telephone companies concerned and continue to have their full support in attempting to identify any other person whose telephone may have been intercepted, it said.

The news stirred memories of 1993 before Charles and Diana were divorced in 1996 and her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when the so-called Camillagate tapes recorded sexually explicit remarks by the prince in a late-night conversation with Camilla. Famously, the conversation included Prince Charles expressing a wish to be a tampon. One year earlier, Diana was recorded talking to a man, subsequently identified by newspapers as a long-time friend, James Gilbey, who said he loved her and called her Squidgy.

That became known as the Squidgygate affair.

In both cases, though, the recordings were apparently made by people using radio scanners.

This time, the Press Association news agency reported, quoting unidentified sources, the allegations did not relate to the tapping of live telephone calls, but another method of telephone interception or alleged hacking of phones.

Some people took that to mean that cellphone messaging systems had been compromised.