Matters that came up at Austin Gatt’s press conference
1. One of the pseudo-emails published and promoted by Malta Today gives the date-line in Maltese: for 2004. Datelines in Maltese were technically impossible before 2006. Also, if this were a genuine automatically-generated Maltese dateline (impossible in 2004), the G in Gunju would have had a dot on top. This one does not.
2. Ever since the cabinet, together with the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Police, approved the granted of a state’s evidence pardon to George Farrugia, the Labour press have waged a campaign against it and sought to undermine it. It is as though the Labour Party is angry that their much-championed whistleblower has been permitted to whistleblow. It is as though the whole thing has backfired for them, that they don’t want George Farrugia to speak, and that their aim was not to get to the bottom of any corruption but to target Austin Gatt for electoral and other reasons.
3. Super One reporter Anthony David Gatt said before asking his questions that he was not there to represent the Labour Party, “imma bhala gurnalist”. Yes, right. And who pays him at the end of every month? The Labour Party. Who does he work for? The Labour Party’s propaganda machine. A real journalist has no place working for and collecting a pay cheque from a political party, Anthony David.
4. Exactly what was Alex ‘Tander’ Saliba doing there? Representing Forum Zghazagh Laburisti?
5. Saviour Balzan said that the emails were genuine because he printed them out from a hard drive given to him by third parties who have nothing to do with politics. Yes, right, how naive we are today. I can put anything on a hard drive and give it to Saviour Balzan, even a bunch of forged or tampered-with emails. And I wouldn’t be so stupid as to give them to him myself. I’d send somebody else, who he can’t link to me. Now, there’s an idea.
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I am bit confused. Saviour Balzan said he printed the emails from a hard drive.
Why did Maltatoday publish a ‘photo’ of the printed email complete with what looks like a punched hole on http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Email-reveals-George-Farrugia-told-Total-rep-he-had-met-Austin-Gatt-20130213 ?
Was what Saviour printed in email format, or was it in a digital image format? Let’s suppose someone found a printed email filed in a folder (hence the punch hole) took a photo or scanned it and put it on a hard drive.
If it was in an email format, can Saviour re print it to PDF and upload a good quality version of it where the header of the email is aligned with the rest of the email and the Ġ of Ġunju has the dot?
In http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/elections2013/Saviour-Balzan-email-source-totally-unconnected-to-political-parties-20130216 he was quoted as saying “With regards the ‘dot’ on G of Ġimgħa is clearly visible”. Maybe he meant Ġ of Ġunju or was he misquoted by his own media?
Maltatoday and the Independent did some experiments with their settings this morning.
It doesn’t do anything to the existence of two different versions of the same email.
If it’s a hard disk it certainly doesn’t explain the punch hole. If anything it indicates a source which built up a dossier, neatly filed for the ‘mument propizju’.
We’ve had Saviour ranting on his blogs for years to that.
Perhaps Maltatoday can tell us whether their computers are set to Maltese.
Interesting how Matthew Vella was absorbed in a whispering session with the Independent’s reporter on Thursday.
Who said spin, speculation and conjecture are theirs?
What difference will it make if he takes a photo of a print-out or exports a PDF which will still be printed in a newspaper?
Based on appearance alone, none of the two methods will help us ascertain the veracity of the email. He could easily get a graphic designer to replicate the email (properly, unlike The Times) in Word, export to PDF, and print it in the newspaper. And that proves what exactly?
What you need is an IT forensic analyst to go over the digital version of the email.
Going over the digital version of the email is the whole point of filing a police report.
We don’t know if Malta Today had the electronic version of the email.
Iz-zejt beda tiela f’wicc l-ilma.
On Maltatoday’s online edition:
“It’s Austin Gatt who’s in deep shit here… the minister has to answer for what happened during his time as energy minister,” Bartolo said.
Did Evarist Bartolo really say ‘deep shit’?
Yes he did! But do you know who was squirming at that press conference? As Eddie used to say “Is-sewwa jirbah zgur”
Why exactly did Saviour have to come in to explain about the sources of his emails?
I do not understand this behaviour.
And why is it unethical to reveal sources? Especially if they are taking part in criminal activities?
Austin Gatt looked scandalised that Saviour Balzan was even suggesting that he was asking him about his sources.
I can’t understand this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEs2q4Xo_IA
This is Kevin Drake’s soliloquy at Affari Taghna at the dome of Friday 15/2.
Kevin’s crecendo at 1:34 is followed by Fearless Leader’s face expressions, rather slimy, spelling out “ara gibthom ikantaw l-allelujah fejn irrid jien”. The facial expressions of a schemer through and through.
Have my doubts for how long will the lamb remain a lamb beyond 10th March 2013.
Caveat emptor, my friends!
Kevin Drake was the best testimonial that Joseph ever had because he comes for free.
Given his medical condition (to which he himself publicly admitted) Joseph doesn’t have to worry about what post to give him, once elected.
4. Because Ramona was in the bath.
Alex (Tander) Saliba was probably there to see what real men are made of. I very much doubt that Austin Gatt has a woolly snowman and a stuffed Mickey Mouse in his bedroom.
“Exactly what was Alex ‘Tander’ Saliba doing there?”
Maybe he was replacing Ramona Attard while she took a shower?
Firstly, I must say that Austin Gatt was very convincing in his explanation of how he was not directly involved in the oil commision scandal. However, these frame-up claims are clearly based on false premises. I believe that he’s wrong in pursuing these claims, lest he raises doubts on his other statements.
1) If, as you said, Saviour Balzan received a hard drive full of emails, then viewed them on a computer, the dates would show up depending on the regional settings of this computer. In emails, these dates are stored as a numeric values since a certain date, and then converted to a readable format as the email is opened.
Additionally, I think Austin Gatt is mistaking Operating System regional settings for OS language. In 2006, Microsoft released a Maltese language pack for Windows. This was a translation of all menus and text to Maltese. However, this should not be confused with Regional Settings, which dictate how a date is shown, and which was available in Maltese before. As a current example, the iPhone has support for Maltese regional settings, but does not have a complete Maltese translation. These regional settings do not affect any auto-correction, as Austin Gatt implied.
2) The dot on Ġ is clearly visible. (http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/elections2013/Replicated-email-that-Gatt-will-report-to-police-for-inconsistent-formatting-20130214). The only place where the dot might be dubious is at http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Email-reveals-George-Farrugia-told-Total-rep-he-had-met-Austin-Gatt-20130213 which was the first photo published. However, the reason for that is that the latter has a smaller resolution (440×238 vs. 1000×541). Resizing the larger image to the other resolution using a photo editor confirms that they are the exact same image, and that the dot is present in both.
You’re assuming that the published images were delivered to Malta Today in email format.
The bit about the date could have been shot down right away if Saviour said that the Malta Today IT system is set to print dates in Maltese. He didn’t.
Why would you bother printing out something and taking a photo of it if you received it in electronic format? It is far easier, and more accurate, to transfer it electronically straight onto the page, even if that means an intervening step like taking a screen shot.
An original email, transferred electronically, would appear perfectly flat. Malta Today’s doesn’t.
The same can be said of the photo in the Times. Why print out a reproduced email, take a photo of it, download the photo, and then process it when you can do all of that on the same laptop in seconds? The photos (there were two versions) they published are, well, photos of a print out.
Totally understand your correct reasoning, Daphne.
However, the clueless majority only watch Super One. Add the greedy switchers, all with their own agenda, and we have a monstrous fuck up for five years.
So sad. The present government builds success on success, and the unwashed says, not good enough, bring in the knaves.
Recent events have shown that wherever you scratch the Labour Party, you are going to find sleaze.
The thick wax mask labelled josephmuscat is quickly melting away in the heat of the election campaign and the remaining 20 days could prove to be too long for the PL’s comfort.
Tridt tkun il- veru iblah biex tivvota lil MLP. The entire PN MPs should take a stand on prime TV to support without hesitation Austin Gatt and then let them file a kwerela against all the PN.
This Labour stupidity could now be an opportunity to turn the tide convincingly for PN.
MLP just scares me to death.
Evarist was foaming at the mouth.
‘Trid’ tkun il-veru iblah biex tivvota lil MLP’
As it was in the past sixty odd years, is now…. and, unfortunately, ever shall be! I know. Have been here that long.
“1. One of the pseudo-emails published and promoted by Malta Today gives the date-line in Maltese: for 2004. Datelines in Maltese were technically impossible before 2006.”
Erm, so what?
If I have an email dated 2004 in my inbox and I access it and print it now, in 2013, the date-line will show in whatever setting I have now, at the time of printing.
[Daphne – Yawn. Stick to the obvious: Saviour had them on a hard-drive, which means that what he has are not the digitally saved actual emails, but scanned or photographed print-outs which somebody else could have made with the result you describe. Because if you print an old email that’s been saved on a hard-drive, it comes out intact, with the same dateline in the same language.]
There’s something which doesn’t quite fit in all this. I tried to put my finger on it, on my cold logical keyboard, so I thought a trip down to ole’ Paceville would clear my brains.
And it did.
Labour’s “revelations” are serious. Very serious. They implicate people right up to the very top. But a political party, during an electoral campaign, will never lash out so violently unless it’s in dire straits.
Now all the polls we’ve seen show that Labour will win by a sizeable margin. So does Labour know something that we don’t?
I mean this is like Napoleon committing his Old Guard at Waterloo. They would never have broken this story if they were certain of electoral victory.
As it goes, it’s a high-risk, high-yield strategy. There are now two legal offensives launched by the opposing camps. There’s no way that the proceedings will even start, let alone end, by 9th March.
So we’re left with mere supposition and the power of the press. But if one of the parties has its case dented, and first domino falls, it could turn into a rout.
Perhaps Labour’s poll results aren’t as good as everyone seems to think they are.
It’s JPO and his Mistra disco all over again. However Austin Gatt will not play the victim and attract sympathy as JPO did.
I think Austin Gatt is being framed up but will people see that?
It’s funny how elections are won on current issues or situations, irrelevant of the parties’ electoral programmes or track record.
There’s victory and a whopper victory. He wants to outdo his master Alfred Sant’s victory in 1996.
Ir-ragel jara kbir, Baxxter.
The only polls I’ve seen are the MaltaToday ones. Frankly, Malta Today doesn’t strike me as a particularly disinterested party.
With regards to Saviour Balzan’s journalistic ethics, experience has shown that he stops at very little when it comes to selling copy. I wouldn’t trust him as far as I can throw an overweight bullfrog lejburist.
I thought you were too old for Paceville.
U minn fejn tridni nghabbi? Minn fuq maltasingles.com?
I’m with you Baxxter. Heard yesterday that a prominent Laburist was worrying about the figures.
It would be nice if that were so, Baxxter.
What is more likely though, is that knowing that the party in government will be likely to close in during the last stages of the campaign and knowing from experience what that may entail, Labour are simply trying to maintain the distance for as long as possible.
In a few words they are throwing whatever comes their way as insurance.
That is my humble opinion.
Been out for a bit my friend. (Sky diving, found some white dust (really good shit) in the St. Paul’s Bay Labour club)
Agree that things could get a bit closer than projected.
One more Labour fuck up should do it.
Balzan is stupid; or thinks everyone is stupid.
If the e-mails where on a hard drive in an Outlook *.pst file he couldn’t access them without the original password to owner’s original outlook.
If they were in *.doc or *.pdf format they could have easily been forged as already shown.
That he is stupid everybody knows, but now it is becoming obvious that he is also dumb.
Windows has supported the Maltese language since August 2004. And if an archived e-mail was recalled and printed from Outllook with the regional setting set to Maltese, then the date would be seen in a Maltese format. You can try it for yourself. Having said that, I have no clue as ro the authenticity of the e-mails in question.
[Daphne – Not if they are saved to a hard drive and printed from that, obviously. Which means that Malta Today don’t have the saved emails, as they claim. They have scanned or photographed copies of print-outs.]
To Daphne: Yes, they could have as it’s very easy and you do not have to do any scanning or photographing. You can print direct from Outlook to PDF with the date/time header formatted in Maltese as the Windows regional settings will have been localized to Maltese. If you like, I can send you examples as a PDF and I’ll try and backdate then to 2004 in Maltese date format.
If my memory is good I remember him saying that Bundy is to represent the show till election is called. How come he is still there?
Austin qatghalhom l-ghatx bil persut lix-xakalli.
I really see no difference between Dalli / Austins cases but while Dalli was crucified Austin has the whole cabinet behind him defending him.
We all speculated why Lorry Sant had such a hold on Mintoff .
.
Why does Austin have such a hold on his PM and hence his party.
Do we know if the guy being charged with corruption has ever made huge contributions to the PNs propaganda machine.. Austin said he met him 3 or 4 times a year maybe someone should ask him if this is what they discussed since they never discussed oil.
The difference is quite simple. Austin Gatt is not guilty.
Has it been established if George Farrugia was the agent of Total and Trafigura, during the 22 months when Sant was PM.
If this were so, were any meetings held between Farrugia and the PM, Minister and Chairman of Enemalta.
The biggest problem with the One journalists is not that they’re paid by their party but they ask utterly retarded questions.
Austin Gatt had to correct them each time for saying incorrect things.
Also, in the midst of all these serious allegations, the One journalist thought the best thing to ask about was a bank account which Austin Gatt’s father once owned.
Austin wahdu kissrilhom tlett slaten magi
According to today’s The Malta Independent, Austin Gatt’s explanation about the emails doesn’t hold water.
Labour are truly fascinating – if they do nothing they’ll win comfortably. I cannot understand why they keep jeopardizing this with these silly stunts which may easily backfire.
The Malta Independent on Sunday claims the minister is wrong about the date line. But it is they who are wrong. If the email is being claimed to be the original sent email from the system, the date line would NOT change if you change your pc’s language, as the original email would stay the same (it’s not an email you read in Outlook or other program, it’s the one from the mail system).
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-02-17/news/austin-gatts-smoking-gun-email-evidence-a-dud-895778818/
There.
[Daphne – They’re wrong, and here’s why. If you print out an old email from the email system itself, then yes, the new functions come into play and the dateline changes. But if the email is saved onto a portable hard drive and printed from the hard drive, it is outside the ‘new functions’ system and so is printed out intact. This tells us, if anything, that Malta Today do not have the actual emails saved on that hard drive they got, but scans of hard copies/print-outs or worse. It’s never really a good idea to try to outwit me, my dear. I have saved rather a lot of emails in my time.]
Daphne, they’re right. It does not hold water.
Even it what you say is true, it only means that the email could have been saved after 2006 on a machine with Maltese locale settings. Nothing more than that.
Besides the email could have been accessed directly from an Outlook “.pst” file, in which case the date would adapt to the current local settings. And in order to do this you would only need the password if the pst file is in encrypted format.
So this idiot Balzan thinks that whatever he discovers on a hard drive is genuine.
The moron.
Saviour Balzan arrived unexpectedly at the press conference, which indicates that somebody called him as soon as MaltaToday was mentioned.
Suffice is to note that there were at least two persons at that press conference representing directly or indirectly the MLP.
[Daphne – Not really. He could have been watching it live on his laptop or television, and probably was.]
I haven’t really been following this one, but I think your first point has been quite conclusively rebutted:
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-02-17/news/austin-gatts-smoking-gun-email-evidence-a-dud-895778818/
That article assumes, as everyone has so far, that Saviour Balzan had access to an original email. He didn’t.
An orignal email, transferred electronically, would appear perfectly flat. Malta Today’s image doesn’t.
Why would you bother printing out something and taking a photo of it if you received it in electronic format? It is far easier, and more accurate, to transfer it electronically straight onto the page, even if that means an intervening step like taking a screen shot.
The same can be said of the photo in The Times. Why print out a reproduced email, take a photo of it, download the photo, and then process it when you can do all of that on the same laptop in seconds? The photos (there were two versions) they published are, well, photos of a print out.