No, Kurt Farrugia was NOT duped by the Police Commissioner
Kurt Farrugia (seen here with Miriam Dalli of Malta Today and with Joseph Muscat’s driver) knew those were not warning shots when he released the government’s statement, because this website and Malta Right Now were already running eyewitness accounts describing how a man from GM14 shot twice directly at another man’s car
This is where it is important for anybody whose job it is to monitor the shooting-and-consequences story to get their ducks in a row.
The chronology here is of the essence.
This website and Malta Right Now both ran the correct version of events based on real-time eyewitness accounts BEFORE the government released a statement to the press which spoke about warning shots.
In fact, when Times of Malta published the government’s statement verbatim immediately it was released, I put up a post at once saying that the statement was false and that Times of Malta had been given false information as should be apparent from the eyewitness accounts which this website and Malta Right Now were already running when the statement came out.
Those eyewitness accounts spoke of a man standing next to a car with GM14 plates in Triq Wied Il-Kappara who drew a gun on another man standing next to another car, while this other man tried to reason with him and told him to put the gun away. The other man then got into the car while the gun-toting man was momentarily distracted, and the man with the gun shot directly at his car, twice. They heard two shots.
I repeat: this information was up on this website and on Malta Right Now BEFORE Kurt Farrugia released his statement.
Of course, if you have never worked in politics, organisations or the media, you might buy the falsehood that the government’s top communications man had no idea what this website and Malta Right Now were reporting in real time because he was one of the few people in Malta who hadn’t got wind of it and because he didn’t bother to check.
Rubbish.
He would have known exactly what we were reporting and thought “Sod them, I’ll go with the warning shots and people will believe us because we’re the government and they won’t believe Daphne and the PN media with their stupid unnamed eyewitness accounts.”
Then disaster struck in the form of press cameras arriving before they’d had time to whip the bullet-hit car away on their low-loader. I was following everything in real time and for a few minutes there was this surreal scenario in which Times of Malta ran the government’s ‘warning shots’ press statement accompanied by video footage focussing narrowly on the bullet-holes in the back of Smith’s car.
Thanks to that valuable Times of Malta footage, the whole thing blew up in the government’s face.
The next morning, Kurt Farrugia was sitting next to the Police Minister at his press conference. By that time, there can be no doubt at all that he knew Smith’s car had bullet-holes in it and that they weren’t warning shots. If he had truly been duped, he would naturally have been completely irate and would certainly not have sat in solidarity next to the minister who had duped him. Even an apparatchik has some shreds of dignity.
Kurt Farrugia was in on it, and don’t doubt it for a second. The only alternative is that he has the IQ of a baked spud and doesn’t do the most important thing he’s paid to do: keep on top of what’s being reported in the media that is of direct relevance to the government he serves. And he is the sort of man who will support another man who has dragged him through the mud and made an ass of him.
What is the government trying to say now: that the thousands of readers who read the eyewitness accounts on this website and Malta Right Now BEFORE the government statement was released knew what was happening and Kurt Farrugia did not, which is why he thought they were warning shots and released the false information he did?
It’s not even funny.
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The PM appointed those three retired judges to confirm what he and the rest of Malta already know.
But having the result of the inquiry will make his job much easier. He can call some press conference and boast about what a “hard decision” he had to make etc, while having passed the buck for that decision down the line.
What our PM (and those who support him blindly) has not realised yet is that making hard choices comes with the job and it is his duty to make those decisions.
What people do not realise is that he is not only Joseph Muscat, he is the Prime Minister, responsible for ALL his ministries and for the country as a whole.
This is not a game and his job as PM is much, much larger than leader of the Labour Party.
The question here is why would Kurt Farrugia prefer to risk a statement contradicting what eyewitnesses saw.
Must be worth it.
At the risk of making a nuisance of myself may I be allowed to concur fully with Jozef.
Why did so many people put their neck so dangerously on the line to cover-up for a police constable who lost his nerve?
Why?
‘L-aqwa li ghandi jop mal-Gvern’; that kind of mentality.
Because they thought they could get away with it, as they probably have done on other occasions.
As Kurt Farrugia is accountable directly to the prime minister it goes without saying that the prime minister wasn’t duped either.
However, I am not sure Kurt and Joseph know exactly why he was shot. I’ll give them that.
But not Mallia and the Police Commissioner – those two knew exactly who ‘L-Iskocciz’ was and they were certainly not duped into believing it was a simple car crash.
When you hear the recording, it becomes evident that all the parties concerned were mostly interested in how things happened and how they were going to sell it to the public.
There is a lack of every kind of emotion except for a hurried panic to hide anything that might harm them.
We don’t for an instance doubt the involvement in the lies and cover up of:
Joseph Muscat
Manuel Mallia
The Police Commissioner
Kurt Farrugia
Ramona Attard
id-Devil, his son and his daughter
Sheehan
And for that they must all go.
Now, what was the argument really about that they went through so much trouble to hide and cover up?
Let’s not forget Kasco.
It’s obvious that the minister’s driver had an old score with the ‘Skocciz’
The problem I have is with the word being used – vetted.
Why does Manuel Mallia need to have his information ‘vetted’ by the Acting Police Commissioner.
To me it is criminal lawyer doublespeak and a way of shirking responsibilty.
Sheehan is as big a liar as his boss Mallia.
There is no way Smith could have tried to force him into the wall during overtaking.
First, we already know that it was Sheehan who was doing the chasing and secondly, there is no way one can overtake in Triq Wied il-Kappara. It’s always parked both sides.
I also cannot come to the terms with the super human speed with which Mr Sheehan tore down to the parked minister’s car from his mother’s apartment upon hearing the crash to catch up with Mr Smith.
A hit-and-run specifically excludes hanging around after the “hit” to see if somebody will turn up. So that excuse was DOA, and I simply cannot understand how it got repeated ad nauseum.
Secondly, the Maltese are not exactly a critically minded people. If Kurt Farrugia was told by the police commissioner, no less, that “warning shots” were fired and then saw a bullet-riddled car, I wouldn’t be surprised that he would have assumed that, for the police, the shoot-out fell under the definition for “warning shots”.
In fact, probably, short of finding somebody dead, pretty much anything could have been sold to him as a warning shot.
I also can’t fathom in what universe can “ma sparajtx fuqu” be consistent with “tajtu giex tiri”.
I have worked with many people of his age, background, “education” and so on, and believe me they do have the IQ of a baked spud – bar the cheesy topping.
So, now it seems that we are going to have the fourth Police Commissioner in 20 months of Labour government.
The Malliagate saga summons up everything that was happening these past 20 weeks.
It seems that having a huge parliamentary majority is not directly proportional to good governance. In fact for Labour it is proving to be exactly the other way round.
The transcripts published today seem to be a feeble attempt at protecting Kurt Farrugia.
‘Cause, you know, it was the Commissioner who told him they were warning shots. Poor thing.
They know the can’t stand the pressure in the long run, so they’re trying to decide who stays and who goes.
We are missing the hidden hand behind Kurt Farrugia, who would have instructed him to proceed on this course of action.
[Daphne – The hand behind Kurt Farrugia is not hidden but written into the Constitution: the Prime Minister.]
“TAH” zewg tiri.
As far as I know you don’t fire warning shots at anyone.
Warning shots are fired in the air.
Interestingly the Police Minister and his A/Commissioner were together on that fateful evening.
So, unfortunately, there were no phone calls between the two.
Consequently, we might never find out what was said between them concerning L-Iskocciz.
That would have been so very interesting and relevant.
The dinner at Police HQ might very well prove to be the only face-saver for this mendacious government.
Was the dinner an event long scheduled in the diary of events?
A regular event?
And who were the other guests? Were there any VIPs?
Who else was at that dinner? Where was Kurt Farrugia when those calls were made? Who was present with Kurt Farrugia?
And I hasten to add without a trace of a crash really.
The only damage being the mirror on minister’s car which seems to have been deliberately broken after the Skocciz ran off in his car. Well Sheehan thought breaking the mirror was the least he could do just as a valid inexpensive excuse and cover up.
I have been trying to figure out how a mirror manages to literally smash to pieces yet remain securely mounted in the open position.
If you look at the video footage, there is also damage to GM14’s door on the driver’s side. However one can’t say whether this was due to the original accident or something that happened as a result of the car chase.
What is strange is that the driver says that he was parked near the Golden Harvest. One should look at whether the damage to the mirror is consistent with these claims.
Can you tell me how a CHASING car can be damaged ON THE DRIVER’S Side by a CHASED car?
Why didn’t the Police Commissioner question the version of events provided by the man who was charged with attempted murder? Why did the OPM simply accept this version of events without questioning it? Who’s in charge here?
L-Iskocciz was arrested and his car was taken away but Sheehan was left to walk about freely in the tunnel and his car was left in his possession.
This is all true, but you’re missing the point.
What you’re saying is that Kurt Farrugia should have stood up to his boss and demanded that they should investigate what Running Commentary and maltarightnow.com are saying and not blurt out lies.
That’s a tall order.
His job is to do what he’s told, and that’s what he did. And he can wriggle out of any questioning because he was only expected to believe what he was officially told and not what bloggers and Opposition media were saying.
[Daphne – That is SO wrong, Kevin. Kurt Farrugia is not a civil servant. He is a political appointee. His job is to protect his boss at all times and ensure his boss’s survival. He has absolutely no other purpose. This does not include lying because lies have a nasty tendency to explode. Everybody who has ever filled that role and failed to understand that they have no other purpose beyond making sure their boss survives has brought his boss down with him.
At the point Farrugia realised that this site and Malta Right Now were carrying what were plainly reliable eyewitness accounts – as distinct from opinions – which conflicted with what the Police Commissioner, Mallia and his driver were telling him, he should have told his boss: “Look, this one is going to blow up in our faces. Somebody is lying here and it’s not the eyewitnesses because why would they do that. You need to call in Mallia and Zammit right this minute.”]
A couple of days ago I wrote about you going off on a ‘partisan tangent’. Perhaps ‘partisan’ wasn’t the right word. It is rather a ‘pet-hate tangent’. And Kurt Farrugia is one of them and we all know why.
Even poor Lee Roy Balzan Engerer got the short end, first, for being HIS cousin, and then for his choice of lawyer. That’s two no-nos in Daphne’s book. Tough luck, Lee Roy.
So, the point is, it’s hardly about Kurt the mouthpiece, is it. What Kurt knew and what Kurt should have done is hardly relevant to the heart of the matter. Because in summation he is a nobody. A witness, but perhaps more importantly, one of Daphne’s pet-hates.
[Daphne – You are quite, quite wrong there, Kevin. In the current scenario, Kurt Farrugia and I respect the formality of each other’s roles. I ring or text him when I need a reply to something, and he responds promptly. If he can’t, he says that he will respond at X time, and does so. He does not play the game of refusing to take my calls to spite me, nor do I avoid ringing him because he is my ‘pet hate’. I have no pet hates. All I have is a heat-seeking-missile’s ability to detect where the story lies, and that is largely instinctive, so no merit to me. And yes, just as you say, Kurt Farrugia is a nobody in this equation – which is my point precisely. The man we should all be looking at is the prime minister. You are an ex policeman, so you understand hierarchy and reporting orders. Most Maltese people don’t. They see everybody as a mass of equals. These things have to be explained to them. Kurt Farrugia in this equation is equal to the prime minister, as they see it. You, on the other hand, would understand it in terms of a police commissioner trying to save himself by blaming a constable.]
So that’s it then. Kurt Farrugia should have stood up to his boss. But we know that is not the role his master gave him. So the master is at fault not his yes-man.
As to your relationship with Kurt, it’s nice to know he responds promptly to your demands. His boss is a closet fan, I hear.
[Daphne – With the emphasis on closet. We are in agreement: the master is to blame and not the servant. The servant who is not permitted to do his job has little choice but to quit or stay and be ruined.]
Lee Roy Balzan did not get stick from this blog. The argument was about who Cyrus is going to blame for his cousin’s arraignment.
You do remember that he blamed the PN for the investigations about his father.
Well he didn’t get the defence he deserved, that’s for sure. Why? Because he’s tainted by association.
Talk about bias and prejudice!
Otherwise, his is an interesting side issue, reflecting the pendulum swing from cover-up to covering up the cover-up with a backspin that ended up in a smash – in ping-pong terms, that is.
I bet Franco Debono is going to have a field day with this one. You can bet on that pony.
There is another point.
Why did the government issue a press release after 11.14pm (which was drafted in an email sent at 10.47pm) based only on what Sheehan himself was telling the Police Commissioner?
Long before 10.47pm, the Police Commissioner had his men on site. So why did Kurt Farrugia rely only on what the Police Commissioner told him on the phone? If Kurt Farrugia thought this was sufficient, then he is totally incompetent.
The fact is that there was enough time between 9.01pm – when Sheehan contacted the Control Room of the Police HQ – and 11.14pm – when the government issued a press release – for the government to check the facts.
The claim – made by Kurt Farrugia and Manuel Mallia in that infamous press conference the day after the incident – that the information was being published as received directly from the scene of the crime in real time without verification is baseless, because the government had enough time to verify the facts.
The government wants us to believe that it is not lying, but that it is totally incompetent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q70yj_VCCmg#t=11
Correction:
Third paragraph:
Long before 10.47pm, the Police Commissioner had his men on site. So why did Kurt Farrugia rely only on what Sheehan was telling the Police Commissioner on the phone? If Kurt Farrugia thought this was sufficient, then he is totally incompetent.
The information Medialink released has the minister asking in the background where the shots hit the car.
This happened at about 21:30.
A few minutes later the superintendent at the site also made it clear to the Police Commissioner that the shots had hit the car.
There is no doubt that by the time the ‘damning’ DOI press release was prepared and released (around 23:00), all those involved knew what had really happened.
This is strictly police business and the government should not have got involved to release any statement except one that announced the minister’s resignation.
The government is insane to have leaked this phone conversation in the belief that it helps its case. It does the exact opposite. It is proof that the government is interfering in police work to pervert the course of justice, aided and abetted by the Police Commissioner himself.
They are so corrupt that they do not even understand that what they are doing here is a very serious crime. The Police Commissioner himself is perverting the course of justice and should be placed under immediate arrest. That is what we have come to.
Always keep in mind that the phone transcript is between the police commissioner and the driver.
We do not know what Kurt was saying during his conversation with the police commissioner.
Kurt might have actually used the words “warning shots” before the police commissioner.
If Sheenan, his brother, his mother and Carmela Mallia were all inside the house, I imagine talking or watching television, would they have heard the sound of the mirror being broken?
Somewhere in the recordings Sheenan says he heard a load noise outside. Does the breaking of the mirror make a noise that would be heard inside a house where there must have been some noise too?
I imagine that at that time of the evening the windows would have been closed. I’m just curious.
On the audio file, while Sheehan is on hold, you can hear the Police Commissioner telling Kurt Farrugia that many journalists had already rung for information, so it is obvious that he was checking out what the press was saying.
Would Kurt Farrugia not have checked the websites, in that case?
If he didn’t, he should be fired for incompetence.
Somebody should analyse the audio file to find out exactly what the Police Commissioner is saying to Farrugia in the background.
If the Police Commissioner had Sheehan and Kurt Farrugia on the line. Who did Kurt Farrugia have on the line apart from the Police Commissioner?
Another point that seems to have been missed: the Police Commissioner was on the phone with the minister’s driver, who happens to be one of his constables, and with the prime minister’s communications man at the same time.
Which cap was Sheehan wearing – that of police constable and subordinate to the Police Commissioner, or that of minister’s driver and subordinate to the minister?
And who did the Police Commissioner think he was speaking to – a colleague on the same team, his cousin’s driver, one of his subordinates in the corps (for whose behaviour he is accountable) or a criminal suspect?
The three-way conversation should never have taken place.
The Police Commissioner should have spoken to Sheehan strictly only as one of his constables who had become involved in a suspected crime: “I’m placing you under arrest.”
Yet the Police Commissioner spoke to him as an equal and Constable Sheehan did too. Not once do we hear him say ‘Sir’, which is the standard obligatory form of address in every sentence that a subordinate says to the Commissioner.
The prime minister’s communications man should not have called the Police Commissioner during what should have been an investigation. It was completely out of order.
The Police Commissioner should not have taken that call from the prime minister’s communications man, but only from the prime minister himself, and Kurt Farrugia, if he had any understanding of the separation of powers, would have rung off once he understood that he was intruding on a conversation between the police commissioner and a criminal suspect.
The prime minister’s communications man wasn’t trying to establish the facts. He and the prime minister were trying to find a storyline that fits Muscat’s agenda (mhux jien; tort ta’ l-ohrajn), just as they did in their time at Super One and Maltastar. They know no better. This country is in serious trouble.
From all this information that is coming out Sheehan was surely at odds with the Scotsman.
The incident sparked the battle of revenge. Now the whole government is in deep trouble that has also brought the country nearly to a standstill.
[Daphne – Stephen Smith is not a Scotsman. L-Iskocciz is their name for him.]