Murdoch tumult casts a cloud
over London's Iraq war inquiry
How will the Murdoch upheaval in Britain affect the Chilcot inquiry into government claims about the need to wage war against Iraq?

Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair was known by some as Rupert Murdoch's "poodle" because of Blair's relationship with the media tycoon. Gordon Brown, who succeeded Blair as a Labor premier, appointed -- under pressure -- the inquiry and, as Blair's chancellor of the exchequer, supported the war. He has lambasted the Murdoch press, which turned against Labor and supported David Cameron, the current Tory premier -- calling it a criminal enterprise.

The British public is learning that the Murdoch press regularly blackmailed police and politicians with threats of getting the tabloid sleaze treatment and politically rewarded those who were viewed as helpful to the Murdochs. The Murdoch press was jingoistic to the extreme on both sides of the Atlantic in lobbying for a war against Iraq, and accepted the weapons of mass destruction claims uncritically as well as continually implying that Saddam Hussein had been linked to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The "criminal-media nexus" identified by Brown has strong implications in the political sexing up of issues to feed to jingoistic news outlets.

A Wikileaks cable disclosed that Britain's Defense Ministry had acted on a U.S. request to assure that the inquiry, headed by Sir John Chilcot, protected U.S. interests.

An inquiry committee deputy secretary said that the committee believed it was beyond its scope to "reinvestigate the causes of 9/11" or to check whether "U.S. authorities" had done a good job in those investigations. However, the committee ignored the potential that British authorities had been slack in investigating the causes of 9/11 and hence had helped create the atmosphere (in league with the Murdoch press) for drumming up a war. 

Here is the note:

Dear Mr [Paul] Conant

Thank you for your email and the material to which you directed us.  I am afraid that the Inquiry Committee does not accept that it is within the Inquiry's terms of reference to reinvestigate the causes of 9/11 nor that it is within its scope to express a view on whether the US authorities have properly investigated those events.

Yours sincerely,

Clare Salters
Deputy Secretary, Iraq Inquiry

Meanwhile, Murdoch's defiance of a request to testify before a parliamentary committee sent out new political shockwaves, with some asserting that the tycoon was so accustomed to having his way with politicians that he assumed he could airily ignore members of the House of Commons.

Others thought that his decision to appear before a judicial inqury, but not the Commons committee, smacked of an attempt to avoid a tabloid-style frenzy of negative coverage at a Commons appearance.

His U.S. citizenship has been given as a reason for being able to avoid compulsory testimony. However, whether this is sufficient grounds has yet to be fully determined. Certainly, the U.S. Congress would never brook such a stance.

His aide, Rebekah Brooks, who is British, has agreed to appear before Parliament but indicated she would avail herself of the equivalent of the U.S. Fifth Amendment right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination.

His son, James, in another example of Murdoch hubris, declared that he couldn't testify in Parliament when it required but would have to await his pleasure -- presumably with the hope that the media heat would have died down. James also holds U.S. citizenship.

In the United States, CNN reports that pressure mounted for a federal investigation into Murdoch's media empire Thursday as a key member of a House oversight committee called for Congress to look into allegations that one of Murdoch's U.S.-based companies possibly broke anti-bribery and other laws.

Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, told CNN that "Congress has important oversight responsibilities" in responding to the charges and "getting to the bottom of this evolving scandal."

Murdoch's News Corp. -- the parent company of Fox News -- may have engaged in "political espionage or personal espionage," Braley said.

Another lawmaker, Rep. Peter T. King, the Republican who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, called on the FBI to look into possible Murdoch company wrongdoing in the wake of a report that the company tried to hack 9/11 victim cell phones.

Democratic senators John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, Barbara Boxer of California and Robert Menendez and Frank R. Lautenberg, both of New Jersey, called for federal investigations into Murdoch practices.

The U.S. government must ensure that victims in the United States have not been subjected to illegal and unconscionable actions by these newspapers seeking to exploit information about their personal tragedies for profit,” Menendez wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Menendez, who represents a state that took many 9/11 casualties, observed that Scotland Yard's detective work might be shared with the FBI.

Several of the senators urged that the Securities and Exchange Commission also look into possible corporate misconduct.

In general, Republicans have been silent. Republican strategist Roger Ailes runs Murdoch's Fox News which, like his other U.S. media holdings, is perceived as favorable to GOP political aims.