Topic: News Corp (FOX, Rupert Murdoch, Myspace) Allegedly Hacked 9/11 Victims’ Phones (Read 827 times)

The Dowler phone-hacking case, which broke two weeks ago, has engulfed the Murdoch media operation in Britain, and prompted him to abandon an attempt to take over the BSkyB satellite TV operation. He also shut down the 168-year-old News of the World.

In the Dowler case, a private investigator hacked the voice mail of the missing 13-year-old Milly. The investigator went so far as to delete messages when her voice mail got full in order to receive more calls.

That, in turn, gave the Dowlers false hope that the girl, who was murdered, was still alive and using her phone. It also complicated the police investigation.

The FBI is probing whether employees of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWSA) tried to hack into the phones of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“We’re aware of certain allegations pertaining to a possible hacking by News Corp. personnel and we’re looking into those charges,” Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office, said yesterday in a phone interview.

U.S. Representative Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked FBI Director Robert Mueller in a July 13 letter to investigate whether employees of News Corp.’s News of the World tried to access voice mails belonging to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks through bribery and illegal wiretapping.

King’s request to Mueller was one of several by elected officials and media watchdog groups to investigate News Corp. King, who represents part of New York’s Long Island, said in the letter that his district lost 150 people in the attacks.

At least six U.S. lawmakers yesterday asked government agencies, including the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate possible violations of the law.

Reports that News of the World employees illegally gained access to the voice mail of murder and terrorism victims and paid police for stories have already resulted in several investigations into News Corp. The New York-based company closed the 168-year-old News of the World on July 10.