By Richard A. Serrano, Jim Puzzanghera
and Kim Geiger, Washington Bureau
The agency launches an investigation at the request of U.S. lawmakers alarmed by reports that British reporters may have tried to hack into phones and access records of Sept. 11 victims and their families, in violation of U.S. law.
Reporting from Washington—
The phone hacking scandal that has ignited a political firestorm in Britain jumped the Atlantic on Thursday as the FBI opened an investigation into whether British reporters tried to access cellphone messages and records of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in violation of U.S. law.The preliminary probe further rattled the New York-based global media empire of Rupert Murdoch, who was forced this week to withdraw his $12-billion bid to take over Britain's largest satellite broadcaster, and raises new questions about the future of News Corp.
U.S. officials said the FBI is trying to determine if a full investigation is warranted, and no evidence has yet emerged to confirm that News Corp. employees sought to hack phones in the United States. But the unfolding scandal sent the company's battered stock down another 3% in trading.
The FBI's New York field office launched the investigation after several members of Congress urged an inquiry into British media reports that journalists at News Corp.'s recently closed News of the World tabloid in London had tried to gain access to phones of Sept. 11 victims and the families of those who died, according to federal law enforcement officials.
"We are doing this based on their requests," said one official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is underway. "But after reviewing the letters and their allegations, and after consultation with the U.S. Attorney's office in New York, we are proceeding."
Felony convictions in a U.S. court could imperil the 27 federal licenses that News Corp. uses to operate TV stations across the country. The stations are part of the Fox Broadcasting Co. network.
Overall, News Corp.'s U.S. holdings are larger and more profitable than those in Britain. They include the 20th Century Fox movie studio, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post newspapers, and HarperCollins Publishers.
Facing an angry backlash by lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic, Murdoch told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that corporate executives would create an independent, internal committee to "investigate every charge of improper conduct."
Murdoch defended his company's handling of the widening controversy, saying executives had made only "minor mistakes."
Murdoch said he was "getting annoyed" with press coverage of the scandal, but said, "I'll get over it." He predicted that the financial and political damage to News Corp. was "nothing that will not be recovered."
A News Corp. spokesman said the company had no public comment on the FBI investigation.
Separately in Britain, Murdoch and his son James, after initially refusing a summons, agreed to appear Tuesday before a committee in Parliament that is investigating the alleged phone hacking and police bribery there. Rebekah Brooks, who heads the company's British newspaper division, also agreed to testify. She was editor of the News of the World when some of the hacking allegedly occurred, but has denied any knowledge of it.
News Corp. has faced a deepening crisis in Britain since reports in a rival publication that News of the World reporters hacked into the phone of a teenager kidnapped in 2002 who was later found slain, and may have impeded a police investigation into the girl's disappearance. The pressure intensified Thursday with the arrest of former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis, the 9th person who worked at the tabloid to be detained by police.
In a letter Wednesday to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, had cited reports that News of the World journalists "attempted to obtain phone records of victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th through bribery and unauthorized wiretapping."
King also cited reports that the reporters had solicited a New York police officer "to gain access to the content of private phone records" of the Sept. 11 victims.
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