"That is what we do -- we go out and destroy other people's lives." ----Greg Miskiw, NOTW

[seafan]

Miskiw is the source of the delightful quote that decorates the front cover of Peter Burden’s book, News of the world? Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings. It reads: "That is what we do - we go out and destroy other people’s lives".

According to Burden, it is based on a comment he once made to a colleague, Charles Begley, who was not so keen on the paper's story-getting tactics.

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Charles Begley, an ex-News of the World reporter, has spoken out about the bullying culture. He said he felt close to breaking-point when, three hours after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York's twin towers, he was ordered to appear at the paper's daily conference dressed in a Harry Potter outfit he had been given to help the tabloid capitalize on the craze for the books about the boy wizard.

"At that time, we were working on the assumption that up to 50,000 people had been killed," he said then, according to tapes published in 2002 by the Daily Telegraph of a conversation between him and assistant news editor Greg Miskiw. "I was required to parade myself around morning conference dressed as Harry Potter."

It was during this conversation that Miskiw made a comment that was to become notorious in Britain: "That is what we do -- we go out and destroy other people's lives."

Contacted for this story, Begley said he did not wish to comment further on his experiences but stood by statements he made at the time.

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Greg Miskiw and Alex Marunchak.

I think these are two names that will prove to be crucial to this whole Murdoch Media Empire implosion. And one of them, Greg Miskiw, is thought to be in Florida.


Miskiw has quite a colorful history.

The First Post can reveal that Miskiw's daredevil spirit can be traced back to one of his earlier jobs, as a news reporter on the long since defunct London Evening News.

It was the 1970s when the Solidarity union movement, led by Lech Walesa, was taking hold in Communist Poland.

The News, realising that it had a reporter of Polish origin who still had some command of the language, put in motion a hush-hush operation to get themselves a scoop: Miskiw would enter Poland in a mail bag, by rail from Vienna, and cover the rise of Solidarity for the News.

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Greg Miskiw is reportedly a very close friend with Alex Marunchak.

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At the News of The World, it was believed (Marunchak) and Greg Miskiw, as well as running the newsdesk, had an import/export business, with vodka amongst their lines. New reporters would be asked to buy a bottle of vodka on arrival in the newsroom. Alex and Greg were said to hold conversations in Ukrainian when discussing some stories. Other bloggers say that Miskiw and Marunchak's prized possession at the newsdesk was a photo of Silvio Berlusconi's private parts, which they were hoping could be used one day..... Link

Hhmmmmm. Former Rep. Anthony Wiener.....




By the way, at this moment, Rebekah Brooks is currently being questioned about whether she knew Glenn Mulcaire. She says she 'never heard his name until 2006, when he was arrested'.

One of (Rebekah Brooks') first acts on taking over as editor of the News of the World in 2000 was to bring back Greg Miskiw from New York, where he had just arrived as US correspondent, to appoint him as her assistant editor in charge of news. It was Miskiw who then hired a full-time private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, who proceeded to steal confidential data and hack voicemail in order to provide stories for the paper. ...Link

Rebekah Brooks appointed Mr Miskiw as the News of the World's assistant editor in charge of news, and it was he who employed Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the heart of the phone-hacking scandal. ....Link

Private investigators Glenn Mulcaire and Steve Whittamore, and former senior journalists at News of the World, Greg Miskiw and Alex Marunchak, are four names we'll be hearing much more about.

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After examining documents taken from Mulcaire's home, police are anxious to question Mr Miskiw, who is living in Florida. His also featured in documents obtained by police following a raid on the Hampshire home of private detective Steve Whittamore, who was used by a large number of journalists to obtain information about public figures. Whittamore was later convicted under the Data Protection Act in 2005 at Blackfriars Crown Court of obtaining and disclosing information after passing information obtained from the police national database to customers.

Whittamore's network was investigated and broken up by the Information Commissioner, who discovered he was accessing sensitive information from the Police National Computer, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, British Telecom and a number of mobile phone companies. The investigation, called Operation Motorman, showed 23 journalists from the News of the World hired Whittamore more than 200 times. The names include Rebekah Brooks, who allegedly commissioned access to confidential data from a mobile phone company.

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Hhmmmm. Hacking the Drivers' License Bureau. Accessing telecoms' databases.

Mr Marunchak is said to be a friend of a private investigator called Jonathan Rees who was employed by the NOTW to help provide reporters with illegally obtained confidential information. Rees was later jailed for falsely planting cocaine in an innocent woman's car but was re-employed by the NOTW's editor Andy Coulson after he served his sentence.

Detectives also suspected Rees of bribing corrupt officers to supply information to the media. A surveillance operation was carried out on Rees including a bug being placed in his office. It was later revealed that among the hours of taped conversations were many between Mr Marunchak and Rees discussing transactions involving thousands of pounds for work carried out for the newspaper.

Police later discovered that NOTW reporters were carrying out surveillance on the senior officer investigating a murder. Concerned that this might be an effort to pervert the course of justice, senior officers confronted Rebekah Brooks at Scotland Yard about Mr Marunchak's relationship with Rees. It is understood that Ms Brooks defended Mr Marunchak strongly and later said the surveillance was carried out because the officer was suspected of having an affair.

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Rebekah Brooks is one abominable liar.

Greg Miskiw:

Former assistant editor (news)
Ran news operation before being replaced by Edmondson in 2005. Implicated through the name "Greg" in documents taken from Mulcaire. After leaving the tabloid Miskiw ran a news agency in Manchester, worked for the National Enquirer in New York and The Globe in Florida. Last month ex-girlfriend Terenia Taras was held on hacking charges and bailed.

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Boca Raton, Florida-based American Media Inc (AMI) publishes six of the US largest circulation weeklies, including the National Enquirer and Star..... AMI subsequently acquired competitor Globe Communications Corp. and the publishing assets of Globe International Inc for US$105 million, followed by health & fitness publisher Weider. The Globe deal included Globe Marketing Services, the Globe, National Examiner, Sun, Mini Mags and Lifestyle Specials, Cracked and The Detective series.

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Just to insert this update from last year about this infamous Florida building:

Feds formally close book on 2001 anthrax attack that killed Boca Raton photo editor

February 19, 2010|By Eliot Kleinberg, The Palm Beach Post

Federal justice officials have made it official: A government insider sent American Media photo editor Bob Stevens an innocent looking letter laced with lethal anthrax, then went on to terrorize a nation still reeling from the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

And he did it by himself.

"As disclosed previously, the Amerithrax investigation found that the late Dr. Bruce Ivins acted alone in planning and executing these attacks," the U.S. Justice Department said in a 92-page summary and 2,700 pages of documents, all released on Friday.

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According to Oliver Crofton, a cybersecurity specialist who works to protect high-profile clients from such invasive tactics, cellphones are constantly pinging off relay towers as they search for a network, enabling an individual’s location to be located within yards by checking the strength of the signal at three different towers. But the former Scotland Yard official who discussed the matter said that any officer who agreed to use the technique to assist a newspaper would be crossing a red line.

“That would be a massive breach,” he said.

A former show business reporter for The News of the World, Sean Hoare, who was fired in 2005, said that when he worked there, pinging cost the paper nearly $500 on each occasion. He first found out how the practice worked, he said, when he was scrambling to find someone and was told that one of the news desk editors, Greg Miskiw, could help. Mr. Miskiw asked for the person’s cellphone number, and returned later with information showing the person’s precise location in Scotland, Mr. Hoare said. Mr. Miskiw, who faces questioning by police on a separate matter, did not return calls for comment.

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News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower Sean Hoare found dead, Monday 18 July 2011 18.04 BST

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Miskiw was subsequently questioned by police about allegations that he used other contacts to purchase information from the police national computer and to pay cash bribes direct to employees of mobile phone companies. Miskiw was not charged with any offence.
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Document 9

This document is a signed contract sent to Mulcaire by Greg Miskiw, former News of the World assistant editor (news), on 4 February 2005. In it, he offers Mulcaire a £7,000 bonus if he can obtain information to help construct a story about Gordon Taylor. Mulcaire goes on repeatedly to hack into the phones of Taylor and those connected to him.

The contract is on the headed notepaper of the News of the World in Manchester, where Greg Miskiw was based at the time.

In the second line of the contract, Miskiw has used a false name for Glenn Mulcaire. This suggests he was aware of the need for exceptional secrecy.

In the third line, the Guardian has redacted a phrase describing the angle the News of the World was pursuing. It was never substantiated.

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All of this brings to mind the epidemic of data breaches and telecom spy operations over the past decade here in the US.


Here were just a few.



Mukasey: "...the single largest, most complex ID theft ever charged in this country.", August 5, 2008

Data Compromised For 26,000 at USDA, June 23, 2006

U.S. charges 11 in theft of TJX customer data (40+ million debit/credit card numbers), August 5, 2008

Armitage - ChoicePoint/Sell of Seisint to LexisNexis/Matrix - Cheney link, February 26, 2006

Hank Asher, head of Seisint & DBT (Choice Point sub.)

More on ChoicePoint:, July 15, 2006

Chertoff: There will be repercussions for states choosing not to comply with Real ID Act., August 16, 2007

Florida Students and Faculty learn of security lapse placing them at risk for identity theft, September 22, 2010

Giuliani firm took shady commissions from FL data mining company (Seisint) , December 17, 2007 (Jeb Bush connection)

Personal data stolen in Nev. DMV break-in , March 12, 2005



What's worth pondering is that much of how these breaches were covered in the US was as "identity theft", with no attention given to the possibility of another reason for the data thefts, as we are now seeing in the massive explosion of hacking crimes by Rupert Murdoch's worldwide media empire, and that is to control political enemies with the savagery of raw media power and to push a right-wing ideology across the world.

And no number of arrogant apologies to the world by Rupert Murdoch will hide that.

[notadmblnd]

1. Just imagine how many American politicians are being blackmailed via

NOTW's methods.