Can there be any doubt left?
Published:
October 17, 2012 at 6:27pm
When EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso asked him to resign, John Dalli said he would like 24 hours to consult his lawyers and his family before taking a decision.
Barroso told him certainly not, and said: “You have three quarters of an hour, because at five o’clock I will issue a press release. You have either to resign or I shall dismiss you by five o’clock.”
TAL-MISTHIJA.
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Do we now expect the Commissioner Emeritus to open a blokk to attack Barroso and his evil clikk?
Emeritus, what a pompous word! Who made this word up?
He will go on BLA AGENDA, with Norman this Saturday, and he will explain to the POPLU MALTI that this is yet another KUMPLOTT against Johnny.
That’s what you get from a holy roly.
Is the direct speech official? If indeed it is and it is true … I’d surely agree. Tat-thammir il-wicc!
[Daphne – Yes.]
Of course those are his exact words. As you see, she quotes official sources.
I’m speechless!
Blimey. I realise I’ve just chalked up a second kill. First Gaddafi is stripped of his Gieh ir-Repubblika then John Dalli resigns.
Get a hold of Cassola on TVHemm talking about Dalli. Very interesting.
Barroso doesnt dilly-dalli does he.
Well, at long last Mr. Dalli has been “released” from his prison sentence and now only time will tell if he (and others) won’t have to serve an unpaid prison sentence in the near future.
Dalli is being defended by Maltatoday. He is innocent until proven guilty. Who is going to prove him guilty? There is no proof. Maybe we will learn more from independent corners.
Is this what was really said or what you’d have liked to have been said?
this proves that Dalli is innocent!
Barroso wanted him out for his own reasons!
who do you think he is…an angel?!
HE’S AN EX-COMMUNIST TO START WITH!
Grow up
What saddens me is that some people want him to stay on. Don’t they realise that the EU are letting him off with him only breaking the rules? Would the haters rather he goes on to break the law and maybe gets prison time? Some sick minds around here.
Olaf Chief insists that John Dalli knew and he did nothing. Dalli is really in a fix.
Yes there is no doubt there is no clear evidence that the Commissioner did something wrong as OLAF itself stated.
[Daphne – If there were no ‘clear evidence’ (as opposed to what, David, murky evidence?) then they wouldn’t have given him a couple of hours to clear his desk.]
Il-Partit Nazzjonalista ghandu jiehu din l-opportunita biex ikompli jitnaddaff min nies zleali.
Who paid the lobbyist to send the unsolicited email to Zammit so that John Dalli could be incriminated and obviously put out of any political race in Malta????
[Daphne – Listen to me VERY carefully, because I’m tired of repeating the same few facts. SILVIO ZAMMIT IS JOHN DALLI’S HENCHMAN. IF ANYBODY PAID HIM TO SEND THAT EMAIL, IT WAS JOHN DALLI HIMSELF. That Silvio Zammit is Dalli’s henchman is not an allegation, but a cast-iron fact. The investigating former magistrate made it clear at the press briefing that it was clear, beyond doubt, that Dalli knew exactly what was going on.]
The dismissal is based on circumstantial evidence , and based on the fact that a person was asked by a lobbyist to organise a meeting with a commissioner whose decision would mean millions of lost income to the tabacco industry. The timing is all wrong, it happened After all decisions have been taken , and simply to keep putting back this more tough regulation.
Should we ask OLAF whose interests they are representing when with their action , the new tighter anti smoking regulation , has been again delayed, meaning extended profit making opportunity to the cigarette companies?????
Vera x’misthija – at the OLAF press conference questions were asked by The Telegraph, Reuters and even FT. Much global interest in this ‘Maltese entrepreneur’.
Dalli, what a twat. And yet so typical of a Maltese person.
I m sorry to say this but it’s true, and if you have any proof that I am wrong then please do let me know.
We float through our lives unaware of the consequences of our actions, get away with just about anything because our friends will protect us, and then when we get caught we act like we have a name to clear and start waving around all the so-called good we’ve done in our career to provoke pity and reduce our punishment, or get away with things altogether. Like a bunch of babies afraid of the grown up world.
Go to http://tvm.com.mt/live/ and listen to what Matthew Vella from Maltatoday says at around 12:45:50
Interviewer:
“Din l-email huma tawwielek?”
Matthew Vella:
“L-email giet minn kwartieri vicin l-ufficju ta John Dalli”
Interviewer:
“L-email giet mil-ufficju ta John Dalli?”
Matthew Vella:
“Ehe”
Dear Daphne, Do you know that you are talking about an ex-Nationalist-GonziPN MP, Minister and European Commissioner representing the GonziPN Government? Who’s next now?
Malta is burning under GonziPN, if you know what I mean.
No amount of green soap can clean up this mess.
I would just like to know the answer to one question – how did that (rather innocuous) email get into John Dalli’s hands and where are the rest of the emails in the thread/s?
I think by now it should be fairly obvious to everyone who was hacking John Dalli’s computer a few months ago.
Daphne, as you had explained in your blog, hackers could only be traced if something irregular was going on. A case in point, don’t you think?
I am sure Barroso is not that stupid to compell a commissioner to resign without having solid evidence.
On the other hand if John Dalli was clean he should have contested Barraso’s instructions and not comply with them.
Barroso talbu biex jirrizenja jew Dalli rrizenja minn rajh?
[Daphne – Dalli was instructed to resign. When he protested that he wanted 24 hours, he was told: Leave now or be dismissed.]
The way Dalli was treated by the President is shocking.
It does not say much about Dalli’s standing with him.
It seems to me that this tobacco business was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
It could also be the tip of the iceberg.
Who knows ?
In one of the interviews John Dalli was reported by Maltatoday as having said the following:
“Dalli also said he was informed that he was a person of interest in the OLAF investigation as early as 11 July, 2012, in connect with “an investigation related to the attempts to invoice the company Swedish Match and the European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC) through an intermediary, in paying a bribe to obtain the lifting of the EU ban on snus and to have met with interested parties, lobbyists and economic operators to discuss subjects related to the snus case in a possible infraction of the rules governing the impartiality of the Members of the Commission.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/VIDEO-John-Dalli-Barroso-told-me-to-resign-20121017
So when some weeks ago he said that someone was hacking his emails, he already knew he was being investigated by OLAF. So if what he said was true, then couldn’t it have come to his mind that it could have been connected to the investigation?
So why did he accuse persons in the Nationalist Party of hacking his mail?
This reminds me of what J.R.R. Tolkien said in The Silmarillion:
“But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.”
Daphne, I know you don’t like Dalli but don’t you think that the information that is being published is a bit fishy.
[Daphne – Claude, the fact that he is a bit fishy is the reason I don’t like him. He’s actually more than a bit fishy.]
The first report said that the Maltese business man approached a company and then an e-mail showed that it was the other way round.
[Daphne – It did nothing of the sort. The leaked email could only have come from Silvio Zammit, which means that he would OBVIOUSLY have left out his original email to the company. Look at the subject line, which says RE. That means it is a response to an earlier email.]
Then I noticed that the complaint came from a certain Swedish Match which is a tobacco company – why would the company complain if it was trying to influence?
[Daphne – I don’t follow your drift. Elsewhere people don’t think as they do in Malta: ahjar ma tghid xejn ghax ma tafx xi tkun trid minnu.]
Or are there two companies involved with different interests?
I have a feeling that there is much more to this story than meets the eye.
[Daphne – You are quite right. The Attorney-General should have a rather thick file by now.]
The only ones to benefit from all this are the tobacco companies and there is no doubt in my mind that these companies, who on a daily basis produce a product which kills thousands – and say so also on the packaging – will have no qualms in destroying one person to continue producing and selling.
I’m not one to believe in conspiracy theories but I have a feeling that Dalli was just easy prey for the tobacco industry.
[Daphne – Dalli is not easy prey. He has got away with it for more than 20 years, boasting blatantly on his John Dalli & Associates websites that his network of contacts can open doors for your business. So what if it was a tobacco company that did for him in the end? It was never going to be a Maltese company, as we have seen for so long.]
after i wrote this post i saw the following: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/player/streaming.cfm?sid=213423&type=ebsvod
I think it helps to understand better.
a) it seems the company first asked to meet the commissioner and then at one point in time got asked for a very large sum of money and they refused which then led them to report the case.
b) the commissioner was not influenced but the OLAF feel that he knew about the goings on and that in itself should have prompted him to report the case. Although the evidence is circumstantial they seem to feel it was enough for them to ask the President of the commission to see if the code of conduct was broken by Dalli. The fact that barroso has asked dalli to resign would indicate that he feels the code of conduct was indeed broken given the evidence.
Obviously it would be interesting to know what the evidence is made up of but the affable head of the Olaf remained tight lipped. If you follow to the end and you understand italian you will see that the italian journalist asks if there could be the possibility of a trap from the tobacco producers but it seems that Olaf had considered this and the investigation they have done and the evidence collected seems to show that this was not the case.
The only thing that remains a question for me is could this be then some form of payback from the tobacco industry for the commissioner who legislated against them?
I believe that something fishy was going on.
The difference is that in Brussels they mean business.
Nothing wrong is tolerated. I believe in European standards. Now it is up to Mr. Dalli to clear his name and that of Malta.
Actually, the onus of proof lies with the accuser. I am still waiting to read the full official report. What is taking so long?
[Daphne – You will never read it. It was made clear at the press conference that reports on any such investigation go straight to the Attorney-General of the member state in question, not even to the government. This is, in effect, a criminal investigation. Releasing the report is the equivalent of the police investigators in a criminal inquiry releasing all the evidence to the press before the trial.]
I am not anybody’s fan but I am aware that power can be abused at any level and people may be mislead easily or arrive to a hasty wrong conclusion – especially if there is pressure to produce or high political stakes (remember the WMD-in-Iraq story anyone?).
Mr Kesseler’s charm does not constitute proof.
Wow, unbelievable. Maltese civil servants working in Brussels must be so embarassed.
There’s only one rightful place for J Dalli BA. Right next to his brother (and not the priest).
I wasn’t much impressed by Olaf’s Kessler (first video): http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/LIVE-Midday-press-briefing-in-Brussels-Dalli-resignation-covered-20121017
He could have at least DESCRIBED the “number of unambiguous pieces of circumstantial evidence” that led OLAF to conclude that Dalli was aware of the ‘dealings’ between the “Maltese entrepreneur” and the Swedish lobbyists (and more, he did not stop them).
What sort of circumstantial evidence? He could have told us without giving away any details.
I would guess these “pieces of circumstantial evidence” emerge from the fact that Silvio Zammit & Co. are Dalli’s business buddies – and that, essentially, is all that OLAF have been able to prove.
Anything further than that is solid proof, yet the report states they have no such proof. OLAF are assuming Dalli knew about the money requests (one assumes no money was transacted). How? Perhaps all Dalli knew was that his contact Zammit had been in contact with the Swedish lobbyists he eventually recommended – “Johnny xtaqni inkellimhom… ha naraw biex gejjin, issa dawn…”
As Mr Kessler himself stated, John Dalli was not in a position to tamper with the Directive’s proceedings. Yet they actually investigated that possibility in depth and on Mr Kessler’s own account they found that everything was in order.
This fact, and the fact that commissioners are just spokespersons and haven’t even the power to change one single comma in a legislative document, or indeed veer the process one way or another, is enough to substantiate the possibility that Dalli himself was not on the take.
Not just that. He would be mad to allow such dealings to continue knowing full well that he’s not in a position to deliver.
Whatever the lobbyists wanted, Dalli did not deliver – COULD not deliver – which he’s always known.
Lobbyists would rather have a word with the Commission’s ‘working group’ technocrats who prepare the legislative drafts, or COREPER bigwigs, if they have problems with particular governments; or even MEPs if trouble looms in the hemicycle. But commissioners? Commissioners are glorified civil servants.They can only help politically – by saying this and that – publicly, mostly, since the inner recesses of the Commission are hardly accessible to them. Traffic is ‘one way’ through that corridor.
This only proves these lobbyists haven’t left a stone unturned. Then they let off steam with the Commission by telling him how eager Dalli’s friends were for money. ‘Squeeky clean’ Barroso then turns Dalli to OLAF and gets a star for best behaviour. The rest is already history.
Meanwhile, anti-tobacco groups expressed sadness at Dalli’s departure. They said this shows how powerful the tobacco industry is. So I guess John Dalli hasn’t even been delivering on the speech side. No wonder the Swedes don’t like him.
I think we reached a point that the more we ask Olaf’s Kessler more questions, the more we feel embarrassed. So it is better to cut this short.
Are you having a bad day?
Dalli has said absolutely nothing about Snus and Swedish Match. He blamed ‘big tobacco’ and their evil click plans for cigarette packets which hero Dalli was going to overturn.
Here’s a conspiracy theory for you to chew on.
Dalli doesn’t resign. The tobacco directive goes ahead with one small change – Snus can be sold across the EU. Nicotine addicts can’t light up in public places, cigarette packets scare the hell out of them, so they turn to Snus, and Swedish Match’s market explodes. The Maltese ‘entrepreneur’ buys himself a rolex and flashy car, and Dalli continues to dress badly and grouch about being a prisoner in Brussels.
Nice going, Kev. It’s not like you to miss a juicy story.
How’s this for a plausible conspiracy theory, La Redoute: the tobacco industry colludes with Barroso to entrap Dalli: http://www.orizzont.com.mt/FullArticle.php?ID1='Ahbarijiet'&ID2=97136
“This was all a systematic plan to entrap me,” says Dalli.
Dalli’s past is catching up with him. The Snus ensnarement was acted upon with that past in mind.
The fact that Dalli was not in a position to tamper with the proceedings does not mean that he could not claim otherwise with his ‘clients’.
In fact, it’s feasible that Dalli would have thought it’d make a good excuse (with the general public) should any allegations surface. Do you seriously believe that anyone willing to illegally sell information (or tamper with reports) would not do so because the info sold is not really important (or the report tampering cannot really be done)?
On another note, the fact that delaying the directive would please a particular tobacco lobby does not prove that Dalli was set up by them. Whilst a set up is a possible scenario, it’s also possible (actually, probable) that the lobby is simply milking an opportunity provided by Dalli’s actions.
In short, at worst Dalli is a corrupt public servant, and at best he was promoted beyond his ability – as he evidently failed to build a decent working relation with his fellow commissioners and furthermore was too obtuse/selfish to avoid ambiguous contacts (which is the least he could do, considering the responsibility and rewards of his position).
Yes, if you consider a commissioner accepting to have his own canvasser involved in lobbying as something normal.
Dalli donnu espert tal-kuntatti…tiftakruh lil tas-Sargas… ghadda l-kuntatti lil Muscat…
http://youtu.be/XaDXbp9G62U
No doubt at all – one may mention the fact that Dalli and Silvio went to Libya together to open an animal-themed restaurant right in the middle of Moutassem Ghaddafi’s zoo, and that Slivio was Dalli’s main canvasser last elections.
Silvio does not have the brains to be a Brussels lobbyist’s maid. In this case he was Dalli’s ‘gallopin’, sent to do a job that went awry.
The Swedish company probably calculated its options and found that it had a better chance of getting what it wants if it burns the hand behind the ‘galloppin’ than to try and influence the hand itself. And so it acted.
What a circus.
Correction: “SILVIO xtaqni inkellimhom… ha naraw biex gejjin, issa, dawn…”
Hmm.
What do you make of the timing?
July 11th 2012 Dalli is informed that he is being investigated.
July 12th he accuses the evil clique of hacking his emails.
Mr.Dalli should regard hinself quite lucky considering that he was released from his Brussels prison without needing a Presidential pardon.
Nelson Mandela helsuh minn Robben Island, miskin.
Johnny Cash is a nickname that one does not acquire very easily.
What a difference to Malta. Here they keep clinging to power…after the Delimara power station,after the Arriva buses fiasco ( after again taking the opinions of the experts who were paid thousands ) after the secret rise the ministers gave themselves…should we go on…
Dalli’s dalliances with greed and envy have even reached Canada. Just received a phone call from a buddy over there.
He asked a question that was difficult to answer.
‘What the hell are you doing in such a country? ‘ Sometimes I wonder.
Dalli has stained us internationally.
Hi profile, low morals. Such a shame.
I’ve been telling you, Purdie. This is no place for ubers like yourself.
Harry, now’s the time for the sordid stories to hit the headlines. Time to pour out that 18-year old scotch for your businessman buddies and press the record button.
Corruption’s all over the place.
From Franco Debono’s blog (COFFEE DOWN):
CORRUPTION
Oct 17, 2012 @ 16:14:48
Dr Debono .IN MALTA WE NEED OLAF as the corruption is the order of the day .
What interest those the government have NOT to introduce the wiesel blower ?
Wiesel blower? I don’t know whether to feel happy or outraged for the pool wiesel.
Give the poor guy a break. With a little guidance, he’ll be blowing the right thing on the right guy to his heart’s content.
I know who’s his dentist, and i know who’s his lawyer.
Poor John.
The dearth of information on Dalli’s sudden forced resignation is a matter of legitimate concern.
Without having the benefit of knowing the details which transpired, my overall attitude towards politicians as a general rule of thumb is, that many of them are corrupt, assume office mainly as a means to enrich their pockets. This rule applies top down from the highest echleon of government to the night janitor, regardless of which nation they represent, from the USA to Malta.
If Barroso’s unequivocal quote is correct than he must know more than it has been released to the press so far.
Star comment on Maltatoday.com.mt:
POSTED BY: malta l-ewwel — 17/10/2012 16:47:36 fi zmien MINTOFF kont tiftaher li int Malti.Illum tisthi tghid li int Malti
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/VIDEO-John-Dalli-Barroso-told-me-to-resign-20121017
I hate to admit it, but I seem to have been wrong, all the way, in giving my support to John Dalli.
If the allegations are, in fact correct, I think our country is being put to ridicule.
This reminds me when the news about our ex-Chief Justice was printed, in the front page of The Kuala Lumpur Times.
[Daphne – Hi Silvio. Welcome back.]
What a dishonourable end to a career that could have been a benefit to the country.
What goes around comes around, John-Boy.
JOHNNY CASH IS IN THE TOP FIVE
A pure example of a burning ambition. In my opinion, Dalli was always eaten up be a great hunger – since the time he was picked up by Eddie Fenech Adami. Pity that he let “ambition” run away with him unable to control this emotion.
The only doubt is to what was in it for Johnny to push the gmo agenda so fervently.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120313/local/Dalli-disappointed-as-his-GMO-proposal-is-rejected.410883
Rich lobbyists, those.
Will he still receive his commissioner’s pension?