Reporting on Malta and Gaddafi: it gets worse

Published: March 10, 2011 at 3:13am

The Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) reported last Sunday that the Islamic Jihad had accused Muammar Gaddafi that day of collaborating with the Mossad in 1995 to murder Dr. Fathi Shikaki in Malta.

Dr Shikaki was an Islamic Jihad leader. He was gunned down by a hitman on a motorbike outside the Diplomat Hotel on Sliema’s Tower Road, as I recall. He was in disguise – wearing a wig which tumbled off as he fell to the ground dead – but the hitman knew it was him all the same.

Arab news source Quds Press was quoted in the story as reporting the remarks of an Islamic Jihad official who said that Shikaki’s visit to Malta was top-secret and one of the only people who knew about it was Gaddafi.

Yes, and now we must ask who the others were.




29 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Joe Mifsud, naturally.

  2. “Yes, and now we must ask who the others were”

    We’re talking bout the Mossad here, not the neighbourhood watch, for Pete’s sake.

    [Daphne – Reuben, it is important to ask questions even if you don’t get answers. The act of asking has a function. It might even lead to results. Vide Joe Sammut and his refusal to say whether he is the keeper of the Saadi and Mutassim Gaddafi’s funds. It turns out he is. Our concern should be whether anyone linked to the Malta government or security services tipped off Gaddafi, if this allegation has any basis, about the murdered man’s presence in Malta and where he was staying. As the loyalties and business interests of senior politicians – on both sides – become clearer in this crisis, we have good reason to worry about a tip-off.]

    • willywonka says:

      Nobody in the Malta Security Services could have tipped off anyone about Shaqi’s visit here. That would have been impossible.

      And, trust me when I tell you, that I know what I’m talking about.

  3. Antoine Vella says:

    Why is the Islamic Jihad mentioning this incident only now? Palestinian organisations – both Hamas and Fatah – have been noticeably silent about the Libyan revolution. I haven’t read of any condemnation of Gaddafi’s actions.

  4. A Grech says:

    Perhaps ex-ġurnalist and now-avukat Joe Mifsud can fill us in. He seems to know a lot about the case.

    • La Redoute says:

      That’s all bluff. He even speaks as if he knows all about the Lockerbie case. He might know a fair bit. He might even know a lot. But he doesn’t know everything.

      • Joseph A Borg says:

        I am increasingly becoming convinced that we will never know everything about anything and I’m comfortable with that. What is important is that we keep our core values of liberal democracy high, even when faced with great perceived threats to the state and its citizens. We have nothing to fear but fear itself and the state knows how to manipulate fear since forever.

        9/11 has made it possible for the GOP to introduce a tight imperialist lid on the liberal constitution of the US. In contrast, during the worst of the Bader Meinhof times, Germany refused to cower and become a far right state. Maybe they learned their lessons from the burning of the Reichstag and what it lead to.

        Sorry for the overwrought reply to what amounts to a snide remark. I’m not afraid of the ordinary people in North Africa. They only want peace and a future for their children. I’m afraid of entrenched interests and their past enablers in the west who are losing their fiefdoms and might be willing to turn the Med into a furnace.

        There are indications that some terrorist acts against copt churches and a hotel in Egypt were instigated by the El Adli and Gamal Mubarak…

        http://reason.com/blog/2011/03/08/egyptian-state-security-archiv

    • willywonka says:

      Joe Mifsud knows zilch about the Fathi Shqaqi case.

  5. Etil says:

    With the present situation unfolding in Libya I think that the least we talk and write about certain matters past and future, the better.

    All of a sudden Malta is filled with intelligent and sensitive people who are all voicing their personal opinions as to what government should and should not do.

    It may be a good idea that we leave matters for our government to deal with as it deems proper – the more one talks and writes the more complicated the situation appears.

    We are getting to a stage where people are starting to have doubts about whom to believe although in some instances matters are indeed clear. Hopefully I will not be taken to be a person who is completely uninterested in what is going on or saying that one should not voice one’s opinion, but there comes a time when discretion takes first place.

  6. Brandon Kester says:

    This is an extract from a March 9th FT article. Mr Mohammed El-Huni is a member of the rebel-managed Benghazi banking committee:

    “Mr Huni said they believed Col Gaddafi’s sons had kept most of their assets offshore, including in Turkey, Dubai, Bahrain, Europe, South Africa and Malta.

    We are afraid of Malta, it has good relations with the Gaddafi regime, we call it another province of Libya, rather than an independent state,” he said.

    He alleged that Malta was used as an offshore centre when Libya was under sanctions in the 1980s and 1990s.”

    This is the link:
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c007e5e-4a80-11e0-82ab-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1GBaW8e8Q

  7. ciccio2011 says:

    Everybody is hating us now. They might associate us with the worst atrocities of Gaddafi while he is sinking.
    Let us push for the no-fly zone over Libya before more of those Gaddafi private jets land in Malta.

    • La Redoute says:

      ‘Everybody is hating us now’ is the least of our worries. If people did the decent thing to begin with, there would be nothing to fret about. Too many people think a crooked deal is better than none. Today it’s Gaddafi. And tomorrow…who knows?

  8. Hibernating Away From Malta says:

    There are theories that it was the work of the work of the Israeli Secret service. Could it be that they are trying to divert attention and blame it on a now very unpopular person to make it sound credible? Yet, if Gaddafi was involved for some reason, I wouldn’t be surprised either.

    • Joseph A Borg says:

      After all he wouldn’t come here for secret negotiations with Israel to snub Gaddafi wouldn’t he? If he got assassinated in Gaddafi’s neighbourhood then it was the opposition.

      The Israeli PR machine is working overtime…

  9. Anthony Farrugia says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12699183

    10 March 2011 Last updated at 10:46 GMT

    France recognises Libyan rebels

    Alons les Bleus !

  10. Anthony Farrugia says:

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110310/local/granting-libyan-pilots-asylum-would-send-strong-message

    We are shitting our pants lest we send the wrong message by granting asylum to the Libyan pilots of the Mirage jets.

    Now that the brown stuff is hitting the fan, we are painfully confirming that when Mintoff got rid of the barrani (foreigner) in 1971, he sold us lock, stock and flaming barrel to that despot Gaddafi with the clapping and approval of PL/MLP voters.

    These people have a lot to answer for.

  11. Anthony Farrugia says:

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110310/local/european-parliament-calls-for-no-fly-zone-over-libya

    Excerpt from above:

    “During the debate, MEPs had no kind words for Gaddafi, speaking of a criminal regime, terrorising its own people.

    Socialist leader Martin Schulz said “Gaddafi is a criminal. He is a murderer, who should be put in an international court. This man will not escape his punishment.”

    In the debate all political groups, except the leftist GUE/NGL, supported no-fly zones, although they differed on the need for UN authorisation.”

    Will MLP/PL endorse Martin Schulz’s condemnation ?

  12. il-Ginger says:

    Here is an interesting account from the Green Book of Gaddafi.
    http://i.imgur.com/oNc8M.jpg

  13. pippo says:

    Nista forsi ser nghid cuccata imma xorta ser nghida. Jien ta l-idea biex il-gvern jaghmel bhall ma ghamlet Franza u jirrikonoxxi ir-ribelli bhala il-gvern legitimu tal-Libya.

    Issa huwa il-waqt li nigbru giehna u nigu ni*****u mill-business li ghandu John Dalli, il-Corinthia u xi erba sangesugi ohra bhal Pixtu, li gew u qabdu u marru ghamlu il-business ma’ dan it-tyrann.

    Ma nistawx nibqaw nidru koroh ma l-oppozizjoni fil-Libya ghax dan wara kollox irrid jew ma jridtx irrid jinzel min hemm.

    Ma nafx forsi opinjoni hazina tieghi imma dan hu il-waqt biex nigbru giehna mal-kommunita internazzjonali.

    • A. Charles says:

      Come what may, even if Gaddafi is back in power and the opposition is obliterated, this obnoxious dictator has become a pariah again and therefore, the Maltese business people and the government have to rethink their position.

  14. pippo says:

    Il-gvern Malti immissu jhares issa lejn l-isem ta’ Malta u mhux lejn dawk il-qabda mejtin bil-guh li ghamlu l-investiment gol-Libya. Dawn kienu jafu illi qishom qed jibnu dar fuq vulkan attiv.

  15. TROY says:

    We should ask kev the ex police inspector now residing in Brussels. He seems to know all about conspiracy theories.

  16. Bob says:

    The Jerusalem Post is as unbiased as the l-Orizzont; it is not even good to wrap fish and chips in.

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