Oh, and had I told you? Julia Farrugia, editor of Saviour Balzan's Illum, is Il-Botom's daughter – Karmenu Vella's driver and the man implicated in court testimony as having shot at PN clubs with a submachine gun

Published: February 7, 2011 at 11:10am

My daddy was Karmenu Vella's driver and they say he used a submachine gun to shoot at Nationalist Party clubs in December 1986, but I don't believe them and that's why I went to work for Super One until Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio gave me a job at the Labour Party's unofficial English-language newspaper.

One of the key journalists in Saviour Balzan’s and Roger de Giiorgio’s stable at Malta Today and Illum is the daughter of the man who was Karmenu Vella’s driver when he was a minister in the hideous 1980s.

That’s right: Julia Farrugia is none other than the daughter of Karmenu Farrugia, known as Il-Botom, the man implicated in court testimony by Gianni ‘Il-Pupa’ Psaila as having used a sub-machine gun to shoot at Nationalist Party clubs when they knew their bloody ship was sinking before the 1987 election.

Julia Farrugia is good-looking, unlike the man on her birth certificate, but God help anyone who makes the mistake of calling her Pupa.

What a shame that Psaila made a timely departure from this earth and the story ended up buried with him.

For the benefit of those who grew up in this more enlightened age under Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi (may God bless him and give him strength because he really needs it), a minister’s driver was not the man who got into a car and drove him around. The minister’s driver was the minister’s confidante, loyal guard and gatekeeper.Minister’s drivers were among those throwing stones at us when we protested peacefully against the excesses of their bosses.

If I had any doubt at all that Malta Today and the Labour Party are sharing resources, that last bit of doubt was dispelled by the fact that yesterday, both the Labour Party’s official newspaper KullHadd and Malta Today carried the exact same top story: that I am central to an organised campaign to target Karmenu Vella, orchestrated by the prime minister’s office and using resources from the Nationalist Party archives. The stories were virtually word for word identical.

Perhaps Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio might wish to issue a statement to clear up this misconception, by explaining that their people and those at the Labour Party have a mysterious telepathic connection, or that it’s just the most INCREDIBLE coincidence.

When Saviour Balzan carries the next installment of his campaign to whitewash Karmenu Vella’s past by telling us how goodlooking and moderate he is, or what a successful job he made of his 22 months in tourism under Sant (gosh, that’s a long time), and ignoring the rest, perhaps he should declare his newspaper’s interest:that Illum’s editor, Julia Farrugia, was born to Karmenu Vella’s allegedly submachine-gun-toting driver and loyal servant.

Jaqq. Jaqq. And jaqq again.




52 Comments Comment

  1. Kukkudrill says:

    http://www.kullhadd.com/201102052568/Ahbarijiet/kampanja-moqzieza-ta-daphne-caruana-galizia-fl-interess-tal-pn.html

    Who do they think they’re fooling. Perhaps they imagine that nobody who reads Malta Today also reads KullHadd.

    • KB says:

      Tal-biza.

      “Dawn il-filmati qed jinhadmu b’apparat modern bhal dak li ghandu NET Television, minn grupp ta’ nies maghrufa bhala Area 51. L-istess filmati qed jinhadmu b’mod inqas vulgari, imma bl-istess rizorsi u filmati u jitpoggew anke fuq is-sit tal-You Tube tal-Partit Nazzjonalista. L-agir ta’ dan il-grupp huwa responsabbli direttament ghalih Lawrence Gonzi.”

  2. maryanne says:

    Il-‘ktieb’ l-aħmar ta’ Reno

    Julia Farrugia tintervista lil Reno Calleja

    http://www.illum.com.mt/2007/12/09/interview.html

    [Daphne – Ma, x’biki. Il-tifla tad-driver ta’ Karmenu Vella tintervista l-Colonna tal-Partit ghall-gazzetta ta’ Saviour Balzan u Roger de Giorgio.]

  3. Paul Borg says:

    a comment posted from a genius ” tron tal-gherf ” on the times of malta regarding muscat’s speech:

    g. cassar(19 hours, 4 minutes ago)
    Keep it up Joseph. Opponents will always find what to say:-

    Remember that when Jesus spoke the truth and performed Miracles some said
    Is He not from Nazareth, and isn’t He the Son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary.

    Not less will be said about you.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Does that mean Joseph Muscat should have died on the cross at the age of 33?

    • maryanne says:

      He has turned into a messiah from a saviour.

    • Patrik says:

      Lets not forget that it took the Catholic Church two decades to “forgive” Ringo Starr for saying that The Beatles are bigger than Jesus. At least Ringo’s reply only needed a single finger.

      • Malcolm Bonnici says:

        I believe it was John Lennon and not Ringo Starr and what he said was not that The Beatles are bigger than Jesus but that The Beatles have become more popular than Jesus.

    • Bus Driver says:

      “Remember [Joseph Muscat] that when Jesus spoke the truth and performed Miracles some said Is He not from Nazareth, and isn’t He the Son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary. Not less will be said about you.”

      Joseph Muscat not being from Nazareth, nor being the son of THE Joseph and Mary – is being increasingly projected as being quite so.

      That none may be so misguided:

      Joseph M is the one with gelled short and curlies sitting on an ever-growing bald patch on his head and progressively acquiring a cuddly snowman shape. The Real Thing on the other hand features long hair and a commanding tall stature.

  4. H.P. Baxxter says:

    P.S. Please keep up your “kampanja moqzieza”, Daphne. You’re this country’s only hope.

  5. Etil says:

    What is of concern to me is that while we should never forget – and I am of the generation that remembers quite vividly those horrible years of the 70/80s – is that these events most probably are of no interest to the younger generation.

    They cannot fathom what we went through as now they are having it so good.

    I do not know the statistics of how many young people will be eligible to vote in the next elections and what effect that would have on the voting. The PN must find a way of convincing people of the benefits of having a PN government so Malta will continue to move forward.

    Sometimes I think that continually demonising the PL may have a reverse affect and I really would like to see someone come up with concrete ideas.

    [Daphne – Describing the cold, clear facts is not demonisation. Demonisation is what the Labour Party and its cohorts do to me. They have no facts to get me on, so they’re continually harping on the message: ‘This is a wicked and ugly woman, so hate her.’]

    So what is the solution – can the Maltese intelligentia come out of their hibernation and call a spade a space or are they too cowardly to do so?

    They seem to be taking it easy thinking that anyway there is Daphne Caruana Galizia exposing the hypocrisy of the PL, so they do not need to get involved and let her do the work instead.

    I get a feeling that currently there is inertia because whatever the PL says the standard of living of the Maltese has certainly improved over the years and maybe that is why some tend to take things for granted.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Yeah, the same thing happened in China. The standard of living has gone up, everyone can buy the latest gadgets, and there is plenty of entertainment on the telly.

      So no one really bothers about democracy or freedom, and people no longer give a shit about Tienanmen. Including the students and intellectuals.

      Malta is a sort of China in miniature. God, did I really say that? I think I just gave Reno Calleja an orgasm.

    • willywonka says:

      I think that it really boils down to fatigue and disaffection. You can hardly blame them. The PN has been in government for an inordinately long period of time.

    • pm says:

      Daphne, so as not to prove that you are a wicked and ugly woman, put up that black and white photo you uploaded some days ago.

  6. Etil says:

    Yes, I suppose you are right and ‘demonising’ is not the correct word. What the PL are doing in your regard is plain pure hatred for exposing them for what they really are. Hating people, and intolerance to whoever does not agree with them, just comes naturally to them because utimately that is what they were taught to do.

  7. Maria says:

    @H.P Baxxter

    Daphne is just unique. I really admire her guts. Keep up the good work, dear Daphne.

    • red nose says:

      I think that Daphne keeping up the good work is not enough. I think that all who can read should read he blog, which is 100 per cent truthful and accurate.

  8. TROY says:

    Julia you must get to the BOTTOM of this.

  9. Kukkudrill says:

    Jafu jaghzluhom tas-Super One ukoll. Looks like there aren’t many apples falling far from the tree in that hornets’ nest.

    So cameraman Byon Jo Zammit is the son of a Labour Party pom-pom girl who starred in a porn film produced by Labour propaganda secretary Stephen Ciantar and filmed at the Macina Labour HQ (she couldn’t spell Bjorn, either).

    And one of their star ‘anchors’, before she was tempted away by Saviour Balzan, turns out to be the daughter of Karmenu Vella’s driver, Karmenu Farrugia,known as Il-Botom or il-Bottom, the very man implicated in court testimony as having used a submachine gun to shoot at PN clubs in 1986.

    Kif ma jisthux? Then they have the nerve to enter a high-visibility job in the political media, instead of burying themselves somewhere.

    And we’re supposed to read articles about pollitics and politicians, written by it-tifla tal-Bottom, and take them seriously.

    Halluna, tridux.

  10. P Shaw says:

    No wonder Julia Farrugia hates both Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi. Her spite towards them is quite transparent in her writings. I hate to think that her irritation towards Fenech Adami might stem from the fact that he was never gunned down like Raymond Caruana and that the golden years of Labour described by her father’s boss came to an end.

    • red nose says:

      I do not think that Julia is old enough to reslly and truthfully remember the atrocities – I think she goes on what is told to her

      • Hot Mama says:

        Then she has no right to call herself a journalist for this profession calls for meticulous research and incisive reporting.

  11. Hot Mama says:

    Imma kif ma jisthux. Rock Royalty, hey!

    What baffles me, though, is that in the name of ‘national reconciliation’ the PN chooses not to remind or inform the newbie electors about the disgusting very recent past of the Labour Party.

    I was a little gladdened this weekend to read that the Prime Minister will not allow the PL to rewrite history.

  12. mario lanza says:

    May I outlive Julia and Saviour Balzan to bury them.

  13. gel says:

    So Saviour keeps telling us that Karmenu Vella is good looking, does he? Now please don’t tell me that after two marriages and, finally, a child, he has discovered that he is bisexual. Well, what can we say? Birds of a feather flock together.

  14. Joseph Cauchi says:

    Isn’t she also a member of the Istitut tal-Gurnalisti Maltin?

    [Daphne – It-tifla tal-Botom, tippriedka dwar il-liberta tal-istampa u l-vjolenza fuq il-gurnalisti. Ahjar nidhaq, jahasra.]

  15. john xuereb says:

    Daphne,

    Int musmar f’sorm il-PL. Qed tolqothom fil-laham il-haj. Jekk joghgbok tieqafx. Il-verita twegga.

  16. Rover says:

    You would think that anyone with such a stench of violent history in her family would shut up and keep a low profile.

    Not so this self-appointed freedom fighter who was still in her nappies when il-Botom was spraying bullets on Nationalist Party clubs.

    I suppose Karmenu Vella knew nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing, smelled nothing, was told nothing and was completely ignorant of the facts.

  17. Maria says:

    Daphne, if you are depicted as a “wicked and ugly woman”, then some of the Labour Party people would do well to have a look at themselves in the mirror.

  18. Silverbug says:

    I never figured out why Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio are so anti PN, particularly the latter.

    [Daphne – Saviour was a John Dalli man and worked hard to try to make him PN leader, on the understanding that he would become the ‘new RCC’ to John Dalli the prime minister. When Dalli lost to Lawrence Gonzi, neither Saviour nor his ‘ziemel’ ever forgave the PN or Gonzi. As for Roger de Giorgio, his anti-PN sentiments began in early 1997 when he was asked to leave the party’s employment after the catastrophic electoral defeat of 1996. For a while when he was managing director at the newspaper where I work, the situation stayed sort of balanced. But after that, they worsened progressively, reaching a sort of nadir some years ago when he could be seen and heard at social gatherings ranting against the Nationalist Party and fighting with anyone who dared suggest that perhaps he was taking things too far. Then he put a lot of his money into Malta Today and took it from there.]

    • KUGIN IEHOR. says:

      Sorry hej, imma il-pjacieri u l-eccezzjonijiet lil pulizija taghmel lejn in-nightclub tieghu Gianpula baqa igawdihom Roger de Giiorgio, u c-cuc ta’ gvern jibqa jaghtihomlu. Kieku qatt jghid grazzi minflok ikasbar il-PN.

      Forsi la jitla l-Labour fil-gvern ihalluh idoqq il-muzika Gianpula sas-7 ta’ filghodu.

  19. Antoine Vella says:

    So Julia Farrugia is figlia d’arte.

  20. red nose says:

    John Xuereb – xogholna hu li kemm jista’ jkun inhajru nies jaqraw il-kitba ta’ Daphne – l-ebda gazzetta jew gurnal ma ghandhom il “guts” bhal ma ghandha hi. Jekk u meta il-PN ikun fil gven (Jalla), ahna n-nies ghandna inkunu grati HAFNA HAFNA u HAFNA lejn Daphne.

  21. Bus Driver says:

    So the Great Leader, following a breathtaking litany of party name changes from Malta Labour Party to Partit Laburista, through Muviment Gdid ghal Generazzjoni Gdida, and now ‘partit li ser ihalli pajjiz ahjar ghal-uliedna’ – no mean achievement in two years, and with a new party emblem to boot – by appointing Karmenu Vella ta ‘Dellu Tqil as guiding light towards electoral victory, has painted the party into a corner.

    Karmenu Vella’s association with the dark MLP past undermines voter trust and yet again illustrates Joseph Muscat’s immaturity in political affairs.

    It is now amply evident that not only has Joseph Muscat completely failed to regenerate the Labour Party, but that the MLP old guard have him firmly by the balls.

    • ciccio2011 says:

      If Joseph is held in the grip of the same people who prohibited Mintoff from calling another election in 1981 and who kept the country in an abyss for the ensuing 5 years, then, politically, Joseph has no balls.

  22. TROY says:

    The Doll fell to the Bottom of the shaft. Or was it pushed?

  23. Riya says:

    Karmenu Farrugia, maghruf bhala l-Botom, missier Julia Farrugia, kien xufier tal-Perit Karmenu Vella.

    Ganni Psaila, maghruf bhala l-Pupa, kien attivist kriminali Laburist, u kien anke involut fil-kas tat-tieg taz-Zejtun meta Laburisti sparaw fuq Eddie Fenech Adami, li kien diga prim ministru.

    Dak inhar kienu wegghu gravi tal-anqas 13 il-pulizija u kien hemm minnhom li ma setghux jibqghu fil-korp minhabba l-griehi serji li garbu mill-ammont kbir ta’ bullets u comb li gie sparat fuqhom.

    Il-Pupa kien spjega ezatt x’gara Hal Tarxien meta sparaw ghall- kazin Nazzjonalista waqt car-cade,

    Hu qal li kienu gew sparati tiri b’machine gun minn wara l-haxix tas-cente strip, minn xi nies li nizlu minn karrozza BMW blue skur ta’ wiehed mill-ministri, u kien ta’ anke in-numru taghha.

    Il-Pupa kien anke mar id-dar tal-Botom biex jinformah x’kien qed jaghmel.

    Il-Botom meta kien xufier ta’ Karmenu Vella kien ikun spiss fil-kumpanija ta Nicholas Ellul, maghruf bhala ic-Caqwes, illum mejjet, li kien gie akkuzat fil-qorti bil-qtil ta’ Raymond Caruana.

    Dawn it-tnejn kienu jkunu spiss flimkien fil-karrozza tal-Ministru Karmenu Vella. Irrizulta’ wkoll li l-arma li qatlet lill-Raymond Caruana kienet l-istess wahda li minnha gew sparati it-tiri gewwa Hal Tarxien.

    Wara li l-Pupa beda jikxef dan kollu kienu qalu li sabuh mejjet go shaft ghax waqa ghal-isfel meta kien qed jisraq. Pero’ kien hawn ghidut li seta ukoll xi hadd tefghu ghal-isfel. Jiena wahda ma nifhimx x’kellu x’jitlef il-Botom billi jitilghu in-Nazzjonalisti, il-job bhala driver mal Ministru Karmenu Vella?

  24. Maria says:

    Good question, Troy!

  25. Riya says:

    Daphne qisa sahhara, u mara kera. Daphne kera?

    Kera l-vjolenza u t-tortura li kienu jittoleraw tal-Labour meta Karmenu Vella, Joe Grima, AST, Lorry Sant, Debono Grech, Johnny Dalli tat-Tunny Net, u ohrajn kienu ministri jew membri parlamentari. Jien ma nafx jekk Daphne kera min hu sabih. Vera kaz ta’ min imaqdar irid jixtri.

  26. Riya says:

    Imbaghad organizzaw frame-up dwar il-qtil ta’ Raymond Caruana.

    Ja qatta kriminali!

    Ridtu tbellawha lill-poplu li lil Raymond qatlu Pietru Pawl Busuttil. Ja qatta ipokriti! Meta kontu fil-poter ghamiltu flus kemm ridtu bil-korruzzjoni, pero’ tridu taghtu rendikont quddiem il-hanin Alla ta’ kif dik l-arma li giet sparata Hal-Tarxien, u qatlet bnieden onest u nnocenti bhal Raymond Caruana spiccat fir-razzett ta’ Pietru Pawl Busuttil.

    U jekk tridu xi darba tkunu kredibli ghandkhom tikxfu dak li tafu dwar dawn l-attrocitajiet u hnizrijiet serji li wettaqtu meta kontu fil-gvern. Mela l-poplu hsibtuh iblah? Ma jahfrilkom qatt. Fuq dan imissu jitkellem Joseph Muscat. Mela jrid skuza min ghand uil-PN? Imma bniedem disonest, immatur, u njorant daqsu politikament ghad Alla jrid johloq. Ja giddibin.

    • TROY says:

      Mhux talli ghamlulhu ‘frame up’ izda meta kien l-isptar ppruvaw joqtluh, ja viljakki.

      Dawn kienu z-zminijiet li ftahar bihom Karmenu Vella tal-Love Boat.

    • red nose says:

      Nahseb li l-ex kummissarju u ex-habsi Pullicino, jista jitfa ftit dawl fuq l-affari ta’ Pietru Pawl Busuttil.

  27. TROY says:

    Iz-zejt jitla f’wicc l-ilma, u kif jghidu l-Inglizi, ma jibqax fil-BOTTOM.

  28. Mark Anthony Portelli says:

    = Raymond Caruana?

  29. David Gatt says:

    Ms. Dapne Caruana, nfakkrek ftit li fl-‘enlightened age’ li qed isemmi Ganni l-Pupa kien spicca attivist nazzjonalist bhalek u kien qed jipprova jahbi l-verita (bhalek) pero hadd ma belahha (bhal ma ebda bniedem f’sensieh ma jibla l-gideb tieghek).

    [Daphne – Ghaziz David, jien miniex attivista Nazzjonalista. Ma nahdimx ghall-Partit Nazzjonalista. Dawk li jahsbu li l-Partit Laburista huwa salt imbarrazz imgiddem mhux necessarjament jahdmu ghall-ghedewwa tieghu.]

    U veru ghandna PM ‘enlightened’ e… irid ihallina l-uniku pajiz fid-dinja (apparti l-Filippini) minghajr Divorzju.

    [Daphne – Jekk temmen li Joseph Muscat se jtik d-divorzju, l-vera ma tafx xejn dwar il-politika, u inqas u inqas dwar in-nies.]

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