FBI to investigate News Corporation over 9/11 hacking allegations
The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that News of the World journalists tried to hack into the phones of victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York.
The investigation, first revealed by Associated Press, will be handled by the FBI’s New York office. It follows allegations published by the Mirror newspaper that journalists employed by the News of the World approached a private detective in New York and asked him to hack into the private phone data of 9/11 victims.
According to the Mirror, the private detective refused to do the job.
Peter King, the Republican chairman of the homeland security committee in the House of Representatives, on Wednesday wrote to the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, and asked him to open an investigation into the 9/11 allegations.
Jim McCaffrey, a New York firefighter who lost his brother-in-law Orio Palmer, also a firefighter, on 9/11, welcomed the FBI inquiry. “If these claims are found to be true I think it’s a terrible revelation and very, very upsetting to 9/11 family members,” he said.
Even if the information could be verified, there might be a problem with moving forward with an investigation because the events were so long ago. Several legal experts, including a former top lawyer for the FBI, told the Guardian that prosecution under federal wiretapping laws is subject to a five-year statute of limitations.
The FBI’s New York office did not immediately comment. There was no immediate response to a phone message left for News Corp.
The story in The Guardian HERE
* Steve Bell: See the full Bell archive in The Guardian, HERE
Watch Harto defend News culture, HERE
PM open to review of Australian media
15 Jul, 2011 07:09 AM
Calls for an inquiry into media behaviour are growing in Australia as the impact of the News of the World phone hacking scandal travels beyond Britain.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is ”shocked and disgusted” by the scandal, which began when the British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch was outed for hacking the phones of celebrities and then escalated amid revelations that the paper’s journalists invaded the voicemail accounts of a teenage murder victim.
Ms Gillard said she would be happy to sit down with other politicians to discuss the possibility of a parliamentary review into the media, as suggested by Australian Greens leader Bob Brown. Senator Brown said the scandal provided an opportune moment to consider whether the news media needed a monitor with statutory powers.
”It’s very clear that here in Australia there’s sufficient concern about the potential unrolling of similar events,” he said.
Senator Brown suggested the Australian Communication and Media Authority could potentially take on a regulatory role.
In the US, key Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller called for ”the appropriate agencies” to probe whether alleged hacking by members of Murdoch’s media empire extended to US citizens.
Read the rest of the story HERE
Stay all over this astonishing story on The Guardian HERE
