Wednesday, 28th October 2009 - 20:12CET
Maltese diplomat 'was not a mole'
A Foreign Ministry report has concluded that a Maltese diplomat who served in Tripoli in 1971 was not a mole for the British government.
The report, into the activities of Ives De Barro, was compiled by Cecilia Attard Pirotta, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The investigation was carried out after local press reports last April, based on documents made public by the British government, alleged that Mr De Barro had given information to the British government in the first months of the Mintoff government. Malta and the UK were at the time in dispute over compensation for British bases in Malta and the Maltese government had been seeking financial assistance from Libya as it threatened to close the bases in Malta.
In a memorandum to Foreign Minister Tonio Borg, tabled in Parliament today, Ms Attard Pirotta said that: “indeed, from all the information gathered, there was not much to report on any deals – secret or otherwise – between the Maltese and Libyan governments, revealed to a country, the UK, with which Malta was in dispute at the time”.
She quoted a September 1971 communication from 10 Downing Street that lamented that “the (British) Prime Minister has noticed from the telegrams that it has not so far been possible to obtain much information from Tripoli about Mr Mintoff’s discussions with Libyan ministers”.
In his defence, Mr De Barro told the Foreign Ministry that the local press reports amounted to “character assassination” and contained “an element of spin and sensationalism together with repetition of the cherry-picking”. He did not deny the substance of the information recorded in the file.
Ms Attard Pirotta said that “from the records released by the Public Records Office in the UK, it does not transpire that Mr De Barro had regular or systematic meetings with British Embassy staff in Tripoli.”
She concluded that “his depiction... as a mole or spy, is not correct”.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the government had accepted the conclusions and the recommendations made by Ms Attard Pirotta.
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Comments
Does one need to have regular meetings with the British in order for him/her to be acting as their mole?
It appears that meetings were infrequent because not so much information was apparently available, as lamented by the British PM. Nonetheless this does not disprove that the British PM WAS in effect expecting information from Tripoli! If this is so then the British must have had or believed to have had a mole!
transparency should be the order of the day in Malta otherwise these supposedly expert reports will create more doubts than they solve.
What character assassination? You must have missed ths part. "He did not deny the substance of the information recorded in the file."
@ Antoine Vella In you opinion who should appologise to Mr De Barro the British government?
@ Mark Spiteri- Who is Mr De Barro to take to court, The Bristish government? If he took the local press they would present the document made public by the British government - then the court would have to decide who was saying the truth - British government or Ms Cecilia Attard Pirotta.
and who is the one who thinks that being a mole for the Britishi s a privilege? One needs grow up and maybe one day understand that every country, British or not, just seeks its own interests first and foremost and hardly one to bestow any privileges on supposed moles.
i have no conflict of interst re the report's author, and live in the Uk myself
This matter should have been investigated by the police or a magisterial inquiry where people would be required to testify under oath.
Who accused him in the first place of being a spy or mole ?
Mr DeBarro should take legal actions against those who tried to tarnish his name.
and who are you conclude that maybe she is not...
Ms Attard Pirotta is a high level government official who currently heads the foreign ministry.. a person of known professional integrity and ultimately responsible for the ministry in which the accused formed part of in the past..
Who do you want to check if he is a mole or not...
James Bond jew?