That’s what happens when you think the army is a toy for Labour’s little friends to play with
Police and Army Minister Manuel Mallia, a fat and greedy criminal lawyer who doesn’t know a thing about the military, has in just a few months destroyed the army structure and organisation built up so painstakingly with years of professional training and discipline.
He has transferred senior officers to the Detention Services, hounding others into early retirement and forcing the brigadier out, though it is not his place to do so.
Junior officers, favourites of Labour politicians, were then given multiple promotions to take over their roles, most prominently Jeffrey Curmi, a family friend of Joseph Muscat and a very junior officer who was given four promotions in as many weeks right up to the rank of brigadier.
Without any proper training or qualifications, he is now commander of the Armed Forces of Malta, and here is one consequence of that, as reported by Times of Malta today.
Seized tanker slips out of Maltese waters
A ship whose crew were slapped with an arrest warrant slipped out of Maltese waters unchallenged because no patrol boats were available to intercept it.
The incident happened on Wednesday evening when the army’s maritime section was busy monitoring EU membership anniversary celebrations in Grand Harbour that included letting off fireworks from barges.
Shipping industry sources said the oil tanker, MT Atlantik turned off all radio communication when Transport Malta ordered it to drop anchor after the court issued a warrant of seizure. The arrest was ordered because of a dispute over the ownership of the vessel.
The maritime authorities asked the army to intercept the 60,000-tonne ship. However, sources said the army could not intervene because its boats were in Grand Harbour.
The tanker ‘disappeared’ from tracking screens and sailed away. It was yesterday located in Turkish waters.
Isn’t this absolutely, utterly insane? Malta’s army is now in the hands of people who don’t have the basic common sense to work out what the tanker’s masters so clearly did (because it was so obvious): that with all army patrol boats occupied at Grand Harbour, the tanker would be able to speed out of Malta.
Did Brigadier Curmi forget about the tanker the army was supposed to be watching?
Did he even know about the tanker?
Did he think the tanker’s masters would just sit there obediently while his patrol boats were busy with the fireworks in Grand Harbour?
Or worse, was there corruption involved?
What a clodhopping joke.
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Skappalu lil Jeffrey.
Sejjer ghalih bil-bozza tal-plastik.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140504/local/seized-tanker-slips-out-of-maltese-waters.517488
The departure of the vessel appears to have been well timed.
How convenient.
Who represented the vessel in Malta?
You mean where did the ship go….It’s in Ukraine’s Nikolaev. Fancy that.
http://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MT-ATLANTIK-MIRACLE-IMO-9477490-MMSI-249343000
Note how Malta doesn’t even register on the AIS. 11 days off the radar.
May 03, 2014, 11:03 UTC NIKOLAEV Ukraine
Apr 29, 2014, 13:02 UTC TUZLA Turkey
Apr 18, 2014, 14:01 UTC BRINDISI Italy
Apr 15, 2014, 14:03 UTC BRINDISI Italy
Apr 12, 2014, 11:01 UTC VENEZIA Italy
Supposedly on its way to Bilbao.
Gosh, that’s transparent.
No. I really mean in addition to all the valuable information you put down, which firm represents this vessel in Malta?
I’m sensing silence on the issue.
And now let’s wait for a massive court case against the Government for negligence. Manuel Mallia might wish to pay from the money he has stacked under the mattress at home.
Being the person accountable for this incident, will he be ‘chopped’ ?
The words ha ha come to mind.
I split my sides with laughter reading the AFM’s refusal to answer when questioned about the matter.
What the f—?
Refrained from answering for security reasons, they said.
Yeah, admitting we have no security at all.
What an incompetent lot.
Did they really say that?
DON’T PANIC.
KEEP CALM
AND
LOOK THE OTHER WAY
Oh dear.
ARMED FARCES OF MALTA.
It is not the personnel who are a farce, Troy. Il-huta minn rasha tinten.
It would be interesting to hear Ann Fenech on the subject.
They were four hours late to rescue 150 drowning people and they showed how incompetent they are with this episode.
Are we sure this was not all a mise-en-scène so that the ship owners could take their precious ship back?
Was someone paid to look the other way, or order all patrol boats to be in “Pearl Harbour” as someone pointed out?
A formal magisterial inquiry would be appropriate. Justice has to be seen to be done.
Maybe some palms were greased. Why should past events not lead us in that direction?
Some hope! Keep on dreaming.
The days when we had a real army are gone. Viva l-Labour.
One should look at the ownership of the tanker. Is it owned by someone in Azerbaijan, or in North Korea, perhaps?
What is even more worrying is that, had there been a distress call from out at sea, the AFM had no other manned boats available on the water (not all the patrol boats would have been in Grand Harbour).
And more worrying still is what sort of illegal activities would have been uninterruptedly under way elsewhere on Malta’s coastline while AFM was busying itself with guarding the fireworks barge.
No need for a magisterial inquiry. An internal inquiry will do. And it will find that the Armed Forces are not to blame because there was sabotage by Simon Busuttil.
How’s that again? Our military were guarding the harbour against the perils of a fireworks display. Meantime a ship they’re supposed to be guarding slips out undetected.
X’waqa ghan-nejk. If laughter is the best medicine we’ve solved the out-of-stock problem.
This is reminiscent of the North Korean ship slipping out of Libyan waters a few months ago without security forces doing anything about it.
It is widely acknowledged that this happened because Libya has virtually no army to speak of.
This is what Malta has been reduced to: a European Union member state abutting one of the most volatile regions in the world with no security forces to call its own.
What a joke.
This sends out the wrong message to human and goods traffickers. ‘In Maltese waters, you can operate with impunity.’ It also puts into question Malta’s capability of safeguarding the EU’s all-important free market.
And for what it’s worth, the Libyan Prime Minister was sacked for letting the ship escape and allowing Libya to be humiliated.
Whose head is going to roll in Malta?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140312/world/Libyan-Parliament-sacks-PM-over-escaped-tanker.510319
The AFM under new management is showing is true mettle when the country’s security and preventing ships from escaping from justice are concerned.
Those four promotions in quick succession were very well deserved. and are paying off.
Somebody counts petards, someone else counts the cash.
What the heck – if the boss hires his car to himself, then it is OK to make a few bucks on the side.
Can any of our supposed journalists ask whether the patrol boats were used as front seat places for the fireworks show for some VIPs?
Obviously the plaintiff in whose interests the vessel was seized is not the government or any person close to the Muscat/Mallia klikka.
The PL government is not there to protect the interests of the general public; it is there so that they and their friends can gorge and gorge.
As the saying goes, “Il-ħuta minn rasha tinten”. Now probably the Malta government will be sued by whoever asked for the warrant for the arrest of the vessel to be issued in the first place, and we will all have to pay the price for Manuel Mallia’s and Brigadier Curmi’s mess-up.
So let’s just say I, a Maltese citizen (by birth, as this must be specified now) was sailing down from Gozo on my yacht at the time. Suddenly I run into trouble and start taking in water. No problem. A quick SOS to the authorities and help should soon be at hand.
Would the answer have been “Err… Sorry ta hi. Can you stop sinking for now ghax the AFM are supervising the fireworks”.
I pay taxes for security and protection. What an utter failure from a bunch of clowns.
An arrested vessel has been allowed to “escape” from our territorial waters because the Maltese Armed Forces were caught with their “pants” down.
Brigadier Curmi should be made to assume responsibility and resign immediately. Malta’s credibility as a major maritime stakeholder is now at stake.
Whoever runs our Armed Forces must have been watching too much of Captain Pugwash Mallia video clips….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3nM2Ul4rLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV76LlbAWEA
Are the boats of our Armed Forces not supposed to patrol our territorial waters for any intruders doing monkey business.
Ara veru, fuq dil-blata gvern tal-Lejber jista’ jirrombla fuq kulhadd.
Ara kieku bicca xoghol bhal din grat taht in-Nazzjonalisti xi plejtu kienu jqajjmu. Bizzejjed tiftakar xi kjass ghamlu fuq kopja t’arlogg tal-lira, ahseb w ara fuq kaz serju bhal dan.
Tghid Manuel Mallia mhux se jassumi r-responsabilita’ politika u jibghat ir-rizenja min-Ministru tas-Sigurta’ Nazzjonali?
Vera spiccajna indahhku lil kulhadd bina.
Issa min se jkun responsabbli u jirrizenja jekk tinfetah kawza kontra l-gvern Malti? Hadd, ovvja.
ARMED FAECES OF MALTA
Both the Minister and the Brigadier should resign immediately.
If this does not happen then it’s up to the Opposition to table a motion of no confidence in the Minister and the Brigadier.
MT Atlantik is registered in Malta. That makes Valletta its home port.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/details/ships/249343000/vessel:ATLANTIK_MIRACLE