It was Joseph Muscat who gave the game away
In World War II Britain there was a famous poster which said: CARELESS TALK COSTS LIVES.
Joseph Muscat might wish to buy a print and hang it on his office wall, for it was his careless talk at parties and social gatherings that alerted the Nationalist Party, in the penultimate stage of the general election campaign last year, to the fact that Labour had ‘something’ on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and planned to strike a death-blow with it.
Funny how I’d forgotten all about that – that he was the one who blabbed and alerted the enemy – until somebody reminded me about it today. I imagine the excitement of being back home after a couple of weeks in Fun City must have crowded this salient point from my mind.
The fact that Muscat was so much in on it that he couldn’t resist bragging and dropping hints at parties makes his Sunday speculation that the Nationalist Party leaked the stuff to Labour (to do what, exactly, commit suicide?) not just absurd but downright deceitful.
If the man knew what was going on then, so much so that he went around talking loosely, then he remembers exactly what happened now. And he is pretending not to. He can’t have forgotten, as I did, because he was involved.
This report is from The Sunday Times of 15 June last year:
“Indirect hints given by Joseph Muscat during the election campaign enabled the Nationalist Party to deduce that the MLP was about to launch an attack on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, PN general secretary Joe Saliba tells The Sunday Times in an interview published today.
Dr Muscat never actually mentioned Dr Pullicino Orlando, but comments he made at different activities were enough for the PN to send Dr Pullicino Orlando to Dr Sant’s activities as the attack was about to be launched.
In an interview with Herman Grech, Mr Saliba explains that his own actions and comments during the Mistra controversy were not contradictory to what the Prime Minister said. His role as party general secretary was for the PN to win as many votes as possible. In contrast the Prime Minister’s priority was the country, not the party, he says.
Mr Saliba, who is to step down in the coming weeks after nine years at the post, says the PN has as much chance of winning the next general election as the MLP. It would be wrong for his successor to let Labour take a walk over, or take matters for granted, he says. The full text of the interview can be seen in The Sunday Times. Extracts in Maltese can be seen on video above.”
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Well, he’s nuts….completely nuts, childish, irresponsible, and deceitful. Over time he’s proving that he’s worse than Alfred Sant, if that can ever be possible. Give him three more years and he will let his party down in a bigger way than his predecessor did.
Hi Daphne,
Just for the record. Joe was lying here. He didn’t only ‘guess’ that I was going to be attacked. He knew exactly what I was going to be attacked about. Hence he sent me chasing after Sant prepared to rebut any allegation he might make about the Mistra ‘scandal’. Hence he got me to write that famous article which appeared in the Times on 1/3/08 entitled ‘Street Corner Gossip’ which anticipated Sant’s attack and neutralised it somewhat.
One asks: why did Joe lie about how they were forewarned?
Have a great day and regards,
Jeffrey
How did you conclude that Joe lied to you?
This guy’s antics remind me of when I was little and used to parade around the home with my late dad’s police helmet and pretend I am a police woman. Unfortunately my wish did not come true. He is just a silly little boy playing at being grown up and thinking he is already leading the country, but in this case it’s very dangerous because he has a real chance of becoming prime minister.
I think that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando should hang one of his posters in his own office. What’s the difference between Joe Saliba alerting him about ‘something’ that Dr. Sant planned to attack him on or actually spelling it out? He must have known what Dr. Sant could attack him on. Or, did he have some other dirty linen he did not want to expose to the public?
The more Pullicino Orlando tries to come out of the mess at the expense of others, such as Joe Saliba, the less credible he sounds. His last rant is a classic example of ‘careless talk’.