Short attention span? An abridged version of my profile of Maltese mystery man Joseph Mifsud is out now: abcnews.go.com/International/…
I want to talk a bit about the reporting process that went on behind this story. The piece would not have been possible with the work of independent journalists, in particular @PeterKGeoghegan but also others such as @jonworth who played keys roles in preserving digital evidence.
Joseph Mifsud's dissertation has been unavailable from Queens University library in Belfast since his name first emerged last year - university records show it's on loan until December 8. But @PeterKGeoghegan was able to get pictures of the first few pages and share them with me. 
The dissertation still had Mifsud’s old address in Sweiqi. With little else to go on except Peter’s tip, I went to Malta, checked in at a hotel in Sliema and walked to Sweiqi. To my surprise, 23 years after the dissertation was filed, I found Joseph’s name still on the buzzer.
That tip - and help from many others on Malta, notably @Mcaruanagalizia & his family, helped me fill out a profile of the man whose disappearance has fed 1000 conspiracy theories. Maltese court records and Slovenian university files also helped add detail: documentcloud.org/public/search/…
I didn’t find Mifsud, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. When I went to the London apartment block listed for Mifsud in Maltese court records, I knocked on every door and even pinned a note to the lobby‘s messageboard. Could find no trace of him.
Feeling like I could go no further, I spoke to his lawyer, Stephan Roh. You can read Roh’s comments in my story or pick up his self-published book for his take on Mifsud:
abebooks.fr/FAKING-RUSSIA-…
abebooks.fr/FAKING-RUSSIA-…
But this gist of it is that Roh argues that his client is an asset of unidentified Western intelligence services - maybe British ones, maybe Italy ones, maybe others too! Oh and that Mifsud has taken orders from unnamed Obama officials.
Whatever you make of those theories (Roh hasn’t sent me any hard evidence to back them) there’s one scenario that Roh is totally unwilling to countenance. Guess which one?
apnews.com/800354d636af47…
apnews.com/800354d636af47…
