Oliver WhiteOkay, I know I said I wouldn’t say anything more about the Mosley story until some new real news came along, but this evening Max Mosley broke his silence over the expose published in the News Of The World last Sunday. The president of the FIA has written a letter to every member of the FIA, the FIA Senate, the World Mobility Council and the World Council for Motor Sport. The contents of the letter are as follows…
From information provided to me by an impeccable high-level source close to the UK police and security services, I understand that over the last 2 weeks or so, a covert investigation of my private life and background has been undertaken by a group specialising in such things, for reasons and clients as yet unknown. I have had similar but less well-sourced information from France
Regrettably you are now familiar with the results of this covert investigation and I am very sorry if this has embarrassed you or the club. Not content with publicising highly personal and private activities, which are, to say the least, embarrassing, a British tabloid newspaper published the story with the claim that there was some sort of Nazi connotation to the matter. This is entirely false.
It is against the law in most countries to publish details of a person’s private life without good reason. The publications by The News of the World are a wholly unwarranted invasion of my privacy and I intend to issue legal proceedings against the Newspaper in the UK and other jurisdictions.
I have received a very large number of messages of sympathy and support from those within the FIA and the motor sport and motoring communities generally, suggesting that my private life is not relevant to my work and that I should continue in my role. I am grateful and with your support I intend to follow this advice. I shall now devote some time to those responsible for putting this into the public domain but above all I need to repair the damage to my immediate family who are the innocent and unsuspecting victims of this deliberate and calculated personal attack. You can, however be certain that I will not allow any of this to impede my commitment to the work of the FIA.”
Yours sincerely,
Max Mosley
FIA President
The first paragraph, as far as I can read it, basically says that people have been investigating him, but the clients and the reasons for the investigation are unknown to Mosley at this time. This strikes me as a little odd, simply because I understood this to be something the News Of The World did, for themselves, so-to-speak. It’s perfectly possible, and very likely, I’m misunderstanding something here. Maybe I’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion and the video footage, photos and details fell on the tabloids lap from someone else?
The second paragraph is wisely worded. Max does not directly admit to anything and makes very sure to refute the allegation that Nazism role-playing was involved in the activities. However, the wording comes across as someone being highly embarrassed by the whole affair. Which is fair enough by anyone’s account.
Paragraph three outlines what many have suspected; Max intends to start legal proceedings against the News Of The World for the “wholly unwarranted invasion of [his] privacy”. Thus, this saga is unlikely to disappear quickly. Legal proceedings take time, although given the current level of reporting of the story, maybe it won’t reach the media too often.
Finally, the letter finishes up with Max stating he intends to remain as president of the FIA, thanking those who have supported him, but not mentioning those who may feel differently. And according to some news websites, a fair amount of the Formula One paddock are included in this latter group.
“I need to repair the damage to my immediate family who are the innocent and unsuspecting victims of this deliberate and calculated personal attack.”
Has it not occurred to Max that his behaviour is the reason for his family being victims? Had he behaved with more consideration for them, any “investigation” would have found nothing.
Yeah, I read that and actually said out loud, “well duh!”
I’m sure it isn’t a pleasant time for Jean Mosley and her family, but at the end of the day Max has only person to blame for all of this. And while the News Of The World may have invaded his privacy and splashed it all over the news stands, any upset that may have been caused to his family is the doing of Max alone.
As you say Clive, had Max been more considerate in the first place…
It’s typical “shoot the messenger” stuff – he blames the newspapers because ultimately it was their revelations that upset his wife, even though had he not visited prostitutes then the papers would have had nothing to print!
Privately I’m sure he accepts that himself.
As for the police and security services, why would they be aware of a covert operation into Max’s private life? Is he up there with the royal family on a list of people the police have to keep an eye on? If it turns out to be a really sinister plot against him then this will get even weirder than it already is.
Or is this a ploy to divert attention away from the real story?
I don’t know what to make of this story thus far.
On one hand, and from reading the above letter, it sounds like Max is admitting that he did have sex with some prostitutes but is denying the Nazi element and therefore, trying to remove racism from the allegations.
On the other hand, I can’t help think that Max has seriously upset quite a few people during his time as President of the FIA and that there could be people willing to spend time and money in order to embarrass him.
Only time will tell I suppose…
[…] as Oliver points out he has made no mention of the people (and there are significant numbers) who think he should either […]
I’m quite sure that Rupert Murdoch, if it was the newspapers doing, gave the go-ahead. Max is, after all, suing one of Murdoch’s other papers.