I don’t know myself. I thought Malta’s FIR gets into the equation following the clip Al Jazeera broadcast, with an AWAC requesting information about a Gaddafi jet and the Maltese ATC promptly supplying it.

To the rabbits kicking and screaming at the timesofmalta.com comments section, it should have rung the alarm bells: we’re already cooperating with NATO. But it went by unnoticed, of course.

Baxxter, another de Marco quote was “Il-politika tal-perswazjoni.” (And I not guaranteeing whether this one was plagiarised from Bismark or not).

Therefore, lil Gaddafi irridu nipperswaduh jitlaq.

[Daphne – In fact, that’s exactly what de Marco would have said.]

Macduff, I do not want to be stupid, and I am not sure if your question may be tricky. But why would the FIR come into it? The FIR is an obligation we have with the ICAO to provide flight information to civil aircraft passing in our FIR. So, I mean, it is an obligation under the civil aviation convention, which deals with civil flights. This is not a military obligation.

Jiena student ta’ De Marco, u m’ghandix illuzjonijiet – grazzi!

Thank you.

Seems the Prime Minister is torn between his own convictions and Malta’s commitments as an EU member state on one side and a powerful business lobby and an electorate of scared rabbits on the other. We’ll have to wait and see.

Read this for an answer: baxxterswar.wordpress.com

Stop it, Baxxter – I’ll have a cardiac arrest if you go on like this.

Imma de Marco ikbar minn Bismarck, skond l-istudenti tieghu.

They can avoid it, but it will be a hell of a longer trip, with half a dozen air-to-air refuelling stops, making it more expensive, more complicated, and less effective.

Jien ma nafx fejn sejra Malta. Dal-ahhar gimaghtejn kienu l-prototipku tal-behaviour ta’ Gonzi: l-ewwel dinjità u statesmanship, imbaghad wara l-meetings ma’ tuzzana bazuzli (iva, kelma Laburista, imma f’dal-kaz approprjata) li jghidulu, nassumi, kemm se jintiflu impjiegi “fejn naqilghu hobzna”, jibda l-backtracking. U nibdew bil-bullshit fuq l-interess nazzjonali, u fuq azzjoni umanitarja mhux militari. Finalment, Malta kienet, ghadha, u tibqa’ bejta ta’ merkanti.

A real Muppet Show that was: Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch.