Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1175000
10 OPINION maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 OCTOBER 2019 TRADITIONALLY, the defi- nition of a 'fool' is someone who consistently makes the same mistake, over and over again. And if there is any truth to that… well, it would make right royal dunces of us all, wouldn't it? How many times, over the last two years alone, we have all been successfully duped by one unverified allegation after another: all masquerad- ing as 'news stories', and all instantly embraced as Gospel Truth? And yet, no matter how often the same old ploy is used… it just keeps working, time and time again. Last Sunday, for instance, The Sunday Times carried a frontpage story claiming that "a major businessman is among three potential key suspects behind the assas- sination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, according to two sources close to the investigation." The same article claimed that "investigators are also focusing on at least two other men who could have been involved in the commission- ing of the murder. One is believed to be con- nected with the gambling scene, the other suspected to be linked to the smuggling underworld"; and that "the murder was commissioned in early 2017 and was initially postponed, before the final go-ahead to kill the journal- ist was given in August that year." I suppose you can already guess what happened next. Instead of reacting with just a little bit of extra caution – which is kind of warranted, given how often 'news stories' have turned out to be a tonne of unadulterated bullshit instead – this latest unveri- fied media report acted as a starter-pistol for the usual 'mad scramble to join the dots'. So Jason Azzopardi and David Casa ('in all their un- matched wisdom', no doubt) felt they had to tweet their own reaction before the ink even dried on the paper. And what do you know? Immediately (and exclusively) they seized on only the 'early 2017' detail: pointing out that Daphne had first mentioned the company '17 Black' on February 2017… thus pole- vaulting to the conclusion that there must be a con- nection between Daphne's murder, and the alleged kick- backs paid to 17 Black (which was also the target company of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri's secret offshore companies, etc.) A couple of small problems with that hypothesis, how- ever. For starters, Daphne Caruana Galizia blogged about an awful lot of other stuff apart from 17 Black in early 2017. Most of her blogs entries for January and February that year were actually about Chris Cardona and his (yet again alleged) visit to a Ger- man brothel the preceding month. This complicates matters somewhat, as – for a while, at least – Chris Cardona himself was also presumed to be a suspect: there were even press reports suggesting that he had met with one of the three men later charged with Daphne's murder, in a Siggiewi bar, on the eve of her assassination. Ah, but guess what? That story - which incidentally was first broken by the (now presumably defunct) 'Daphne Project' – turned out to be a dud. First it emerged that Cardona was only seen at the same bar on the same night… and not, as reported, having a conversation with a key suspect in Daphne's future murder. Later, the source of this claim would confess to the police that he had made it all up, specifically to damage Cardona's reputation further. (Note: to date, I haven't seen any retraction or apology in any of the international papers that reported the Daphne Project's fake story as fact. I wonder why…). Naturally, this didn't stop the Council of Europe's intrepid rapporteur Peter Omtzigt from including it among the conclusions of his damning CoE resolution earlier this year. The report described "the failure of the police to inter- rogate economy minister Chris Cardona, despite claims that he had had contacts with the suspects" as one of its 'serious concerns". Excuse me for asking, but… shouldn't the Council of Eu- rope be more concerned with the real facts of the case… instead of just eagerly swal- lowing every morsel of fake news it ever reads, hook line and sinker? But more on Peter Omtzigt later. Back to last Sunday's article now, which also claims that: "Investigators have so far found no evidence linking politicians or persons holding political office to the murder, though a potential connec- tion has not been ruled out." (Funny, isn't it, how Casa and Azzopardi would just happen to overlook that particular detail, of all the available op- tions…?) Then there's this: "the vic- tim and the potential suspect were never engaged in any legal battles or public wran- gles"… which automatically excludes not only Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and everyone else connected with Panamagate (who were all up to their eyeballs in 'legal battles' with Daphne); but – incredibly - pretty much anyone else Daphne Caruana Galizia had ever crossed swords with in public at all. Now: if this story is indeed factual – for that's something else: there is no reliable rea- son to suppose it is – this, to me, is by far its biggest 'rev- elation': i.e., that the prime suspect in Daphne's murder is someone completely un- known to the rest of us, with whom she herself had never 'publicly wrangled'. It suggests we may all have been barking up the wrong tree these past two years…. and that is not exactly a very comforting thought for the Maltese media, now is it? But let's not get too lost in speculation. In what seems to be a frequently recurring pattern, people like Casa, Azzopardi et al simply pick and choose whichever detail best suits their own precon- ceived notions… and to hell with anything that can't be made to fit. So they not only contradict the article's claim that that there is no evidence linking Daphne's murder to lo- cal politics… but they also spectacularly overlook all the other tantalising pos- sibilities it separately raises: such as the far more plausi- ble Malta-Libya-Sicily fuel smuggling connection (one of the suspects is 'linked to the smuggling underworld', remember?) This is doubly anomalous, because the Times had also reported (in October 2017) that: "sources close to the investigation into last week's fatal car bombing said yester- day the journalist/blogger had been looking into the involve- ment of Maltese parties in a fuel-smuggling operation that included Libyan traf- fickers and Sicilian organised crime…'.) But in any case: before even getting this far, there is also the teenie-weenie detail that last Sunday's frontpage Times article is, in reality, just a re- hash of another Times article from around a year ago… and which has since been dis- puted by (of all entities) the 'Daphne Project'. On November 18 2017, the Times had reported that "Malta's top criminal inves- tigators say they have identi- fied a group of 'more than two' Maltese nationals who they believe masterminded the killing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia…" Sounds familiar already, huh? There is, however, a small difference. Within a day of publication, Reuters journal- ist Stephen Grey (also mem- ber of the Daphne Project) tweeted that "an authoritative source tells me this report that masterminds who or- dered killing Maltese journal- ist Daphne Caruana Galizia have been identified is NOT TRUE." Almost a full year later, it remains impossible to ascer- tain whether this November 2017 Times story was, in fact, true or false. So – million-dollar ques- tion coming up, folks - what makes people like Casa, Azzo- prardi and now Peter Omtzigt (See? Told you I'd come back to him) so utterly convinced that this latest Sunday Times article is beyond all earthly suspicion or reproof… when similar details, from a similar story published in the same newspaper, were dismissed as 'NOT TRUE" just eleven months ago? Omtzigt even went as far as to describe the latest unveri- fied claims as 'revelations' in a tweet. Leaving aside that this article doesn't even 'reveal' very much that hasn't been common knowledge for at least a year (and which, for the umpteenth time, remains only unconfirmed hearsay)… well, I suppose this shouldn't really surprise us, coming from a man who has already included at least one entirely false allegation within the text of a Council of Europe resolution (and, incredibly, got to keep his job). Honestly, you'd think people like Peter Omtzigt would have learnt their lesson by now. Sorry, but this is Malta: a country where literally eve- ryone feels perfectly justified in lying through their teeth… so long as their lie can help to further 'their' side's political cause. In fact, you'd have to be a walking, talking embodiment of childlike naivety, to just (selectively) believe anything you ever read or hear like that… especially when it comes to stories that are re- plete with explosive political implications. But again, this is hardly surprising… because people like Peter Omtzigt behave precisely as if they already know 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth' behind this murder… even though they know noth- ing else of any substance, either about Daphne Caruana Galizia herself, or the country in which she was murdered. But while I am more or less resigned to this sort of thing when it comes from Maltese politicians like David Casa and Jason Azzopardi – who have a clear vested interest in destabilising the Labour government, in any way they possibly can – I do find it a whole lot harder to digest coming from a rapporteur for the Council of Europe, who is supposed to be 'monitoring' the criminal investigation. In that position, Peter Omtzigt has an obligation to at least try and bring the true facts of Daphne Caruana Gal- izia's murder to light…. in- stead of muddying the waters of the entire investigation, by picking and choosing which unverified media allegation to endorse in a tweet; and which to simply ignore (presumably, on the basis that it doesn't fit in with his own, ill-informed and preconceived opinions.) And this, I fear, is what will ultimately turn the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia into Malta's umpteenth 'unsolved crime'. There are just too many forces, too hard at work, to unwittingly see to it that it remains a mystery forever. Raphael Vassallo Getting all excited about unconfirmed press reports again, are we?