Triple damages from Blackmail Inc.?
Legal sharks eye racketeering laws
as they circle bloodied News Corp.
As victims of the Murdoch media empire's predatory tactics hone their court filings, the U.S. rackets act -- which has criminal and civil components -- looms large on the horizon.

Because News International, which held the British News of the World tabloid responsible for much of the hacking, is in turn held by News Corp., a U.S. corporation, there is the possibility that hacker victims in Britain can sue in U.S. courts for triple damages, as provided by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act, which was designed to break up organized criminal enterprises. The civil component has been used on numerous occasions against corporations which had no known ties to gangland.

It is clear that the Murdoch formula for power was to use any means, however unscrupulous, to "get something on" politicians, competing companies or anyone else deemed a target and to either publicly defame them with details of their personal lives or to pass around surreptitously obtained dirt to clients of corporate rivals. (See story below.)

Murdoch's media were happy to provide bully boys to harass and defame 9/11 critics for simply attempting to convey that governments have been lying about this matter. The collusion is indicative of extensive corruption on the U.S. side of the Atlantic.

A strong case can be made that a pattern of criminal activities is made evident by the various corrupt practices settlements made by the Murdoch operations. Aggrieved parties on both sides of the Atlantic and possibly from other parts of the globe may be eligible to sue in U.S. federal court, charging racketeering activities by the Murdochians.

However, free press advocates are concerned about the possibility of the RICO act being used against News Corp. If government officials, on either side of the Atlantic, see it as their duty to police the brutish press, it won't be long before such laws are used to police -- in fact, censor by intimidation -- the honest media.

It would appear that a line must be walked. However, merely because a gang of blackmailers carry press credentials is no excuse for winking at major criminal conduct. On the other hand, officials are always saying that exposure of official secrets is criminal and that the press should be brought to heel.

Mainstream media expose anthrax case hole
http://www.propublica.org/article/justice-department-retracts-court-filings-that-undercut-fbis-anthrax-case 

PBS, Mclatchy and ProPublica run stories implying an inadequate investigation.

Scientists can't confirm FBI anthrax theory
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13098&page=1 
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13098&page=125