Why the Commissioner of Police must go

I have said it before and I will say it again: the Office of the Prime Minister under former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi had influence on what and when the police acted in 'some' particular cases.

I reported - way back in December in sister newspaper Illum - that the police were being egged on by the Office of the Prime Minister to arraign John Dalli, handcuff him, and more importantly - remand him in custody and pack him off to Kordin. 

That 'spectacle' in the eyes of Lawrence Gonzi's yes-men would have benefited the Gonzi image of fighting corruption. 

Gonzi should have fought corruption when a senior official man in Austin Gatt's ministry was faced with Assistant Commissioner Godfrey Scicluna - then head of security service - and presented with the George Farrugia documents. That was in 2011. Only a select part of those documents were passed on to Tonio Fenech's ministry.

If everyone had acted in good faith, then there is no doubt in my mind that MaltaToday would not have needed to publish the story in January of this year - which revolved around the corrupt businessman who was eventually granted a Presidential pardon to reveal more about those he wilfully corrupted.

The diabolical decision to push for John Dalli's arraignment was also one way of deviating public attention from the Franco Debono vote of no confidence in December.

To stir public opinion, all the king's men were geared up to shoot off their usual venom against John Dalli. First and foremost there's Lou Bondi - who rushed off to Brussels as a TVM journalist to pose a few questions (as usual, all his questions were loaded and aimed at underpinning that here was a dead man).

Confirmation that John Dalli was truly innocent was fortified last Thursday when Green MEP Jose Bove recorded a Swedish Match official, Johann Gabriellson, as having said that he was told by the Malta police and OLAF not to say that the meeting reported between Gayle Kimberley and John Dalli was not true.

Bove is heard saying: "This is incredible."

And it is truly incredible that Bove - who fought Dalli in the GMO period - should have turned around to defend him.

I guess that's what differentiates men and women, from witches and ass-lickers.

It is truly incredible that after this assertion, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not call John Rizzo to ask him for his immediate resignation.

TVM, under Natalino Fenech, continued to state this week that Dalli may be arraigned, Fenech in his last days at TVM should have questioned what the status was with Commissioner John Rizzo. But then, Fenech does not believe that this is news.

In the interrogations with Dalli, it was John Rizzo who took the leading role and put all the pressure he could think of to prove that John Dalli was guilty, when we all know that he was not. More so, it was he who argued that there was enough evidence to prosecute John Dalli.  

John Rizzo has no room for manoeuvre and should do the decent thing and go.

I would also hope that Dr Emmanuel Mallia, as Minister responsible for the police, will set up a serious investigation into the story that we published in December of last year, where we said that the Office of the Prime Minister put pressure on the police.

I sent a set of questions to Emmanuel Mallia on Friday but at the time of writing, he hadn't replied. Mallia should stop thinking like a lawyer and act like a politician.

Rizzo's position is untenable.

The Attorney General Peter Grech should also perhaps look at the original indictment against Silvio Zammit. It is based on Gayle Kimberley's testimony which talks of the two meeting. Perhaps he should consider revisiting the whole case and perhaps Gayle Kimberly can be called in - but not by John Rizzo. I would hope so - if it is not perjury, then surely it must be something else. I am to understand that Grech does not take orders from Castille, nor from the police.

Now, it appears to me that John Dalli - who has filed several cases in Brussels - is in a happier mood.

That, of course, does not quite please the Queen of Bile. I'm not even sure if anything can make her happy. 

Not so happy, too, are Giovanni Kessler and José Manuel Barroso. I will leave Barroso out of it for now, but the President is surely also in the proverbial shit.

But I have the impression that Kessler is nothing more than an Inspector Closeau - clumsy and foolish, and if I may say so, not at all impressive.

Now I do not fancy Italians, but when they have a touch of Germanic blood in them they look and sound even more unexceptional.

I'm sure that when he looked up John Dalli on the internet for some background information, he was referred to some unsavoury sites... and more pertinently: to the site of the Queen of Bile, that sordid creature who still thinks that she can defend the indefensible. Her commentaries about John Dalli and anyone remotely related to him came from the gutter - as is to be expected. Please understand that they all stem from her infinite infatuation for the Cardinal.

It is staggering that she has police protection at her door, when it is us who should have protection for all the incitement and hate that pours out of the sorceress' mouth. 

Back to Giovanni Kessler. The Italian Inspector Clouseau did not know the whole Nationalist establishment was geared to hate Dalli and neither was he aware that many of the allegations were false.

He did not know that Rita Schembri was pushed and blessed by Richard Cachia Caruana on the Supervisory board of OLAF and as director of the internal audit in the PM's office. Neither did he know that Cachia Caruana was at serious loggerheads with John Dalli, and that a request made by Richard Cachia Caruana on the 11 July, 2012 to John Dalli to shoot down Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was refused by Dalli.

Neither did he know that Dalli was kicked upstairs to Brussels not to threaten the 'Gonzi' base.

Kessler, who comes from the North of Italy, also seemed to be oblivious to the phenomenon of the telephone conversation. I do not know Silvio Zammit, but Kessler obviously thought that every time Zammit phoned Dalli it was about some tobacco related matters. Perhaps he should have noted other phone calls. 

Little did he know that people in politics - and especially in Malta -simply love to gossip about politics back home. And Dalli was certainly curious to always get news about Gonzi's wonderful inroads in making a mess of things.

That Zammit was a canvasser for former Sliema heavyweights Michael Refalo, Michael Frendo and then John Dalli in the last election, and was considered to be the best canvasser in deep blue Sliema was, of course, unknown to Kessler, who couldn't possibly even imagine what canvassing is all about in Malta.

Kessler, however, faces a more serious problem. The problem is that OLAF is quoted as telling Gabriellson not to tell the truth. And that OLAF wire-tapped people when it was not authorised to do such a thing.

If there was ever a f*** up, then this is it.

What goes around comes around.