Johnny Dalli forgot he wasn't on Super One with Bundy
Front page tal-gazzetta tat-tifla tal-Botom: now Dalli is going to think the international press are after him too.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) wired the following story today.
MALTESE EU COMMISSIONER DEFENDS PRO-KADHAFI SPEECH
BRUSSELS, Mar 05, 2011 (AFP) – Maltese European Commissioner John Dalli on Saturday defended remarks backing Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi that broke ranks with EU diplomatic leaders who want the veteran colonel out.
Dalli, who has enjoyed close commercial ties with Tripoli for a quarter of a century, told a Maltese business forum on Friday that he “didn’t think (he) had the right, or anyone else, to make a statement on whether (Kadhafi) should step down.”
“I think Kadhafi should make his own decisions. He has the assessment of the people, as he has said on TV,” Dalli added. “I think Kadhafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation.”
The 62-year-old commissioner also backed Kadhafi’s suggestion that outside forces had manipulated media coverage of protests over the past fortnight, leading to the present situation of near-civil war.
“Sometimes doubt creeps into one’s head when seeing people speaking perfect English and hoisted up by a group of people made to look like a crowd. I wonder if they might be shots ‘created’ for journalists,” Dalli was quoted as saying by Maltese media.
Dalli’s boss, EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, this week said it was time for Kadhafi “to go and give the country back to the people of Libya,” with the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also demanding that Kadhafi “stand aside.”
Spokesman Frederic Vincent told AFP he had been in contact with Dalli on Saturday, and argued that “personal commentaries” on a country he knows well, “that’s no secret,” should not be confused with his core beliefs.
“He said a solution that respects human rights had to be found,” Vincent insisted.
“That is totally in line with the democratic values that guide the commission.
“And in making some additional personal commentaries — to a Maltese business audience, close neighbours remember — he was only doing what millions of people around the world are doing.”
Of protest images being staged to suit an anti-Kadhafi agenda, Vincent stressed: “I have spoken to the commissioner, and he was talking about images on both sides, pro-regime demonstrations as well.”
Consultancy firm John Dalli & Associates was set up in 2004, with offices in Tripoli. Online autobiographical notes say it focuses on “introducing and facilitating the establishment of Western companies in the north African economies, especially Libya.”
Dalli, who owns a home in Tripoli, worked for a Libyan-Maltese Joint Commission from 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004 — periods when Libya was under UN sanctions.
For political reasons, the consultancy business is now run by his family.
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http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidANA20110305T122408ZASZ82
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/malta-libya-unrest.8we
..and Joe Sammut becomes a hit on Twitter!
libyafidammi libya fidammi by bintlibya
Joe Sammut, Certified Public accountant, Malta Mob: +35699490820 Fronts the accounts of #Gaddafi in Malta.You know what to do. #Libya
2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
Who was it who once said, ‘When you’re in a deep hole, stop digging’?
Ask John Bundy…. his hobby is looking up quotes during the weekend.
Dalli is quoted to have said: “I think Kadhafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation.”
Where exactly did Gaddafi do that?
Let me see, was it when:
– He called the Libyan people “rats and cockroaches”?
– He called the young Libyans as drug abusers and drunk?
– When he sent his jet fighters to attack the rebels?
– His regime killed about a 1,000 persons in a week of protests?
The media should stop using the terms “rebels”, “Gaddafi opponents”, “Opposition”, etc, and instead adopt the justified simple but deservingly powerful title of “Libyan people”. Defining these courageous people with terms such as above only gives Gaddafi a more legitimate title and hold.
No. It was when he made his own decision, according to John Dalli, and sent in his tanks to Zawiya.
Perhaps, ciccio2011, had you been paying attention to what is really happening and not watching soap operas on BBC News & Cohort, you would have spared yourself the embarrassment of being grouped with the unknowing.
You cannot know what Gaddafi really said because you’ve only followed the edited versions.
Let me just congratulate Commissioner Dalli for his gall and honesty; for telling it as he believes it is, instead of giving us the standard lie that goes down the line of a horde of arse-licking, opportunity seeking career politicians who have long stopped thinking about anything but their careers.
Commissioner Dalli is not a politician; he is a very senior EU official – an EU civil servant, if you will – who rose to the occasion and exposed the lie.
You can say he is influenced by his interests in Libya. I give no damn. And you can say Gaddafi is a dictator, and I say, let us get rid of ALL dictators then, but first, let us deconstruct the lies upon lies upon lies which bedevil even the most erudite among us, because illusions blind all those who succumb to them.
And for those who are still not undertanding, let me just tell you that for the past two weeks, had the BBC and cohort staged their soap opera in occupied Palestine or Al-Maliki’s Iraq, or any other location where protestors are being killed and tortured, whipping up the same frenzy and drumming the same war drums, then we would have had the same media effect worldwide.
But there’s a time for everything and the time now is Gaddafi o’clock, not for the Libyan people’s sake, but for the sake of this ‘revolutionary wave’ that’s being handled by our overlords sitting high above our representatives’ heads – the Camerons, the Obamas and the Gonzis, who are but minions of a higher order, some knowingly, others not.
But let me not confuse you. Carry on watching the emotional level at Xarabank, brought to you by the high intellect of Peppi Azzopardi, where you can rightly sympathise with the victims, and forget the wider picture which, at this rate, you will NEVER come to understand.
Kevvy, while reading this fine piece of conspiracy theory, I momentarily read ‘Commissar Dalli’. You know, the kind of people that you revere and ‘congratulate’?
You know, Kev, it’d be a lot easier to take you seriously if you didn’t just treat all this as some sort of intellectual exercise just because you’re bored out of your tiny mind
Since that is all it is to you, you might want to spend some time in the loo thinking about how Dalli’s business interests may have conditioned the views he expressed. You might even work out that the reason for his offensive remarks about and derogatory attitude towards Libyan people generally is that he mostly mixes with the wrong sort. ‘Arse-licking, opportunity seeking career politicians who have long stopped thinking about anything but their careers’ is an apt description as any of the only EU official you openly admire.
While you’re sitting around deconstructing the lies upon lies upon lies that bedevil your erudition entertaining yourself with delusional ravings about power structures that only you can understand, people are going missing, the dead and the dying are dragged away and dumped out of sight, and the surviving live in dread that their turn will be next.
Since you know most things that ordinary souls do not, you could tell all the missing people’s relatives where they could find the broken remains of their brothers, fathers and sons but that they’ll have to wait until you have resolved your philosophical quandaries first.
He’s probably a holocaust denier as well….a bit of a disappointment this kev, as I knew him well and to be quite intelligent…
I was wrong.
Dalli’s gall and ‘honesty’! Now that John Dalli is dancing to the PL’s music, he’s suddenly the OK guy.
This is utter nonsense. The minute Malta got positive coverage and finally acted properly in 40 years, with regard to Gaddafi, Dalli pops out with this embarrassing speech.
Obviously this provocation is on purpose and quite transparently he intends to embarrass the Gonzi administration.
The destruction of Gonzi seems to be the sole goal and the raison d’etre. He does not have anything to lose at this point – he will never become leader of the PN, he cannot be removed from his current appointment within the EU Commission, while his sense of grandeur is delusional.
Going forward he will obstruct this Government as much as possible. It is in Malta’s interest that the government dissociates itself from Commissioner Dalli as quickly as possible.
I never saw this coming and way back in 2004 thought that he was a viable candidate.
He is much more dangerous than KMB, because the latter is naïve and everybody perceives him to be a joke. But Dalli, like Mintoff, is a wise schemer, and has a much closer and deeper relationship with Gaddafi.
It looks like he fooled Fench Adami as well during all those years who repeatedly gave him responsibilities which included travel to Libya.
Gaddafi was clever and forward looking enough to buy his way into Maltese politics. With hindsight, we can be so grateful that Gaddafi’s candidate did not win the PN leadership contest in 2004.
John, isthi jekk taf u wisq nahseb li l-istorja ghad trid tinkiteb .
Frederic Vincent is not a spokesman for the European Commission. He’s a spokesman for John Dalli, EU Commissioner.
It’s a fine distinction, but it puts the story in a completely different light. This is not the EU Commission speaking in John Dalli’s defence. It is John Dalli’s spokesman trying desperately to defend the indefensible.
Commissioner Dalli should resign his post immediately and spare the Maltese further humiliation.
He’s unfit for the post and unfit to represent our nation.
John Dalli has lost his marbles and should leave NOW.
Libya State TV showing huge pro-Gaddafi crowd in Green Square celebrating the re-capture of Misrata, Zawiya and Brega by the government.
BBC reports that rumours are rife that Gaddafi forces are heading towards Benghazi and that Tobruk has been re-taken.
This could be the beginning of the end for the uprising.
The truth about Saif Gaddafi’s doctorate is now out:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gaddafi-sons-lse-thesis-written-by-libyan-academic-2233667.html
Any bets on whether our little Joey built on this?
I hope John Dalli has a Plan A, B and C like Saif.
Oh yes, he does. In a way, it’s like Saif’s too. Plan A is to stay as EU commissioner, Plan B is to stay EU commissioner, Plan C is to stay as EU commissioner.
And imagine Saviour Balzan’s videoblogs if John Dalli were removed…
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/labour-history-book-omits-mep-who-gave-up-his-seat-for-muscat
Joseph squeezes you like a lemon and then throws you away.
Ask Jason tal-Fjuri .
Re-writing history anyone?
There are 645,120 ways to spell Moaamar al-Qhazzaaffe but there is only one way to spell brutal dictator.
http://www.spelldictator.com/
“Born July 3rd 1957 at Mosta, Malta, in the same street where our Office stands. Educated both in Malta and in the UK, Joe brings with him a wealth of professional and hands-on experience both local and international. A very interesting aspect of our professional attitude is that clients can always contact or meet Joe, anytime and anywhere. He is available 24/7 and is available for travel, out calls and in calls. His personal cell no is +00356 9949 0820. ”
Sounds like a bio for a lady of the night.
Jien nahseb, Gann, inti qed tipprova teqred lilek innifsek ghax hlief imsiemer fuq it-tebut mintiex issammar.
Mhux ahjar toqghod kwiet tpappijha b`dik il-habs li tak Gonzi go Brussels u imbaghad x’hin tispicca mis-sentenza ta’ habs tmur il-Libja u tkompli taghmel li qed jaghmlu it-tfal tieghek jekk issalvaw wara li jaqa Gaddafi.
Cannot understandwhy a “mature” politician does not understand when to keep a low profile and to have a “very clean” CV
Dalli’s remarks were picked up by the EU Observer.
“Mr Dalli’s official spokesman told the EU Observer that anything he might have told the Maltese press was not necessarily his official view as an EU Commissioner”.
The two faces of Dalli have been exposed. Now which side of his face are we to believe?
From Malta Today:
NATIONAL Sunday, March 06, 2011
Joseph Muscat, ‘I do not trust government’
By Miriam Dalli
My reaction:
“Mother, should I run for President?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Is it just a waste of time?”
– R. Waters (1979)
Am I ever slow, at times.
I have just figured out the reason Dalli seems to cling like super glue to Gaddafi.
He figures that as soon as he finishes the sentence he is serving, he will be kicked out of Brussels with no prospect of ever occupying any other position within the EU.
He will have no option but to return to Malta where no prospects exist for him other than retirement.
But knowing him, he will not be ready to retire so he is counting on the long shot of Gaddafi surviving the mess he got himself into and that he will be willing to share his tent with him. One never knows, eh?