
Bomb kills journalist who exposed Malta's ties to tax havens - djug
https://apnews.com/eec3f8b5b9274e7e8e7545136b809c94/Bomb-kills-reporter-who-covered-Malta%27s-%27Panama-Papers%27-link?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP
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flexie
Very disturbing. EU needs a "federal" police force to investigate such things.
Regardless of what the prime minister says, and we should assume his
innocence, we cannot assume that his government will investigate it when he's
an obvious suspect.

To make matters worse, Malta is a tiny island state where "everybody knows
everybody". I was there just a few months ago and you can comfortably walk
around the (stunningly beautiful) capital in a few hours and see the entire
nation in a matter of days.

While Malta supposedly has a great deal of corruption, it's not considered
more corrupt than so many other member states in Southern and Eastern Europe,
and quite frankly, it would be nice also in Western and Northern Europe to
have a supranational investigative body in stead of or in addition to
parliamentary hearings, commissions etc. that often require parliament
majority which rests with the government parties anyways.

~~~
cat199
Yes, a supranational organization which draws its executive leadership from
unelected politicians certainly needs to create an armed force with broad-
stroke investigative powers in order to _prevent_ corruption. That sounds like
a fantastic idea!

Exactly part of the EU meisterplan - 1st economic union, then, oh wait, that
doesn't actually work without sacrificing national sovereignty.. guess we need
to have a federal european government afte rall, and all the better if noone
is elected.

Heil das Heiliges Römisches Reich!

~~~
flexie
What's with the funny German? Are you saying you are an EU sceptic or are you
mainly a germanophobe?

You know that different dialects of German were just some of the many
languages spoken in the Holy Roman Empire, and not the official ones, right?

I agree that democracy in EU is far from perfect but no EU institution is
beyond democratic control. All answer to democratly elected politicians.

~~~
cat199
Not a germanophobe; but that the trajectory of a single autocratic western
empire (what would result from this police force in my view) is not a new
idea, and infact the EU is to some extent simply an economic-focused
philosophical follower-on of the holy roman empire, which in turn was the
philosophical follower-on of the actual western roman empire.. The fact that
the german central bank dominates the economic discussion does make for a bit
of fun double entendre however.. which is not to say that this is either good
nor bad - i'm of mixed feelings as concerns our view of historical systems..
it's just rediculous that it pretends to be some sort of 'free market
democracy'

> All answer to democratly elected politicians.

In much the same way that when acting in cabinet, the 'prince electors' were
still subject to their local populace.. it is a second tier.

------
covercash
This was an assassination, yet not a single article about this contain that
word.

~~~
icebraining
Is there really a significant difference between "assassination" and
"slaying"?

~~~
elgenie
There's a very big difference.

Assassination = murder of a prominent person for political reasons, often
carried out by a third party (an assassin).

Slaying = a killing. That's it. Besides not having any political motive, a
slaying isn't even necessarily murder; killing someone in war, in self-defense
or on accident is still a slaying.

~~~
mamon
I always thought that slaying refers to non-human victims, as in "slaying the
dragon"

~~~
elgenie
"Slaying" is mostly archaic outside of literary contexts at this point, but it
does refer to both humans and animals. It's still used pretty often in North
American crime journalism.

Some AP stories from the past two weeks found with a quick Google using
"slaying" to refer to the killing of humans:

* [https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-10-12/3-people-...](https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-10-12/3-people-fatally-shot-in-southern-ohio-8-year-old-missing)

* [https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/philly-man-arreste...](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/philly-man-arrested-in-community-activists-slaying/)

* [https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles...](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles/2017-09-27/judge-to-question-man-on-slain-wifes-estate-worth-642)

------
rl3
> _The leak exposed the identities of rich and powerful people around the
> world who allegedly had offshore holdings in Panama._

In other words, some foreign intelligence agency could have very well
assassinated her. Good luck getting to the bottom of that.

I'm kind of at a loss why there isn't some organization that offers protection
to investigative journalists. They're basically fish in a barrel otherwise.
Surely there's enough altruistic rich people out there to fund something like
that.

Of course, when you're talking intelligence agencies, there's not much that
can stop them if they're determined. Protection on that level has to be more
in the form of mutual understanding.

~~~
pjc50
> Surely there's enough altruistic rich people out there to fund something
> like that.

Evidently not. And they would be hugely outnumbered by rich people who buy
newspapers and journalists to pursue far more harmful agendas.

~~~
rl3
I guess security could be crowdfunded too. Kind of like a life and death
version of Patreon.

It might be a tough sell though.

------
hd4
What's the point of assassinating anyone after the documents (Panama Papers)
have already been leaked? Surely the cat's long out of the bag. Just ask Nawaz
Sharif (ex-PM of Pakistan).

~~~
erikb
This is the dark side of capitalism. It won't go away. You discover 1000
people, they maybe even lose everything. 2 years later there will be another
1000 people.

~~~
hd4
Ah, but this is the light side of information. We keep uncovering these 1000
people, and the next 1000, until they realise there is nowhere to hide and
their activities will become public knowledge. This is what they're scared of,
after all. That they lose the ability to operate normally in public.

~~~
erikb
Yes each of them is worried about losing here. But the system is the system.
That is what "next" means. You discover a few, but it doesn't change the
system.

~~~
marcosdumay
The system won't change if the guilty stay in charge.

Here is how you change a system: 1 - you replace the people in charge; 2 - if
the new people don't change it, you go back to item 1.

~~~
erikb
Who replaces the people in charge? Who takes care of the people in charge not
getting corrupt themselves? Who takes care that the most logical action for a
leader is not a corrupt one?

It's simply not possible. And look through history. We already went through
many systems and in all faced this same issue. The people in charge where
replaced multiple times already, because the previous generation died. And
it's not always the blood related children who pick up the crown either.

~~~
marcosdumay
> Who replaces the people in charge?

People somehow pressure them out. It is always messy and specific, so, it's
pointless to ask for generalities.

> Who takes care of the people in charge not getting corrupt themselves?

Nobody. You follow the steps.

> Who takes care that the most logical action for a leader is not a corrupt
> one?

I don't understand this question.

Anyway, if you take a look at history, you will see that the only thing that
ever solved a rotten top are those steps I outlined. Waiting for the old
people to die off is a way of doing it, but quite slow and unbiased; it works
much better with societal pressures biasing it towards keeping the more honest
people.

~~~
erikb
> People somehow pressure them out. It is always messy and specific, so, it's
> pointless to ask for generalities.

lol. then give an example. If my argumentation is true this should basically
never happen.

------
gejjaxxita
Maltese person here who has been following this journalist for a long time.
The international reporting of this omits a lot of important information. It
is far from certain that her assassination had a political motive. While I
admired her for uncovering cases of corruption, she also had a very nasty
streak, resorting to things like publishing revenge porn [1][2] and mocking
women for the way the dressed [3]. A revenge motive completely unconnected to
politics cannot be excluded.

I don't deny that the circumstances of the assassination are suspicious, and I
also think a political motive is possible, but people are jumping to
conclusions without waiting for evidence.

[1]([https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/08/oh-look-whos-
here-m...](https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/08/oh-look-whos-here-mr-
starkers-appointment-to-the-chair-of-the-pharmacy-council-is-announced-in-the-
government-gazette-today/))

[2]([https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/09/bottom-of-the-
barre...](https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/09/bottom-of-the-barrel-the-
labour-mayor-of-hal-qormi/))

[3]([https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2016/09/hot-new-style-
wroug...](https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2016/09/hot-new-style-wrought-iron-
patterns/))

NOTE: I cross-posted my comment from the other thread on this subject
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15485005](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15485005)).

------
lumberjack
This sounds to me like a plausible motive:

[https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170906/local/nd...](https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170906/local/ndrangheta-
ran-a-2-billion-money-laundering-operation-through-malta.657333)

[https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/07/the-gaming-
activiti...](https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2015/07/the-gaming-activities-
are-legal-but-they-are-used-for-laundering/)

Background: One of Malta's biggest industries is online "gaming". It's
basically virtual poker and other virtual gambling games. It's a huge money
maker and has attracted lots of foreign EU nationals to work in the small
nation's IT sector.

------
aaron695
Thoughts on Daphne Caruana Galizia from the Malta sub reddit before the
assassination -

[https://www.reddit.com/r/malta/comments/4tltyf/i_think_ive_l...](https://www.reddit.com/r/malta/comments/4tltyf/i_think_ive_lost_respect_for_daphne_caruana/)

Also see throwaway_malta's comments -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15485624](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15485624)

A lot of comments here seem to be implying she is a highly respected journo
who broke the Panama Papers. She did some good comments on them and other
interesting stuff but was also a TMZ as someone puts it.

~~~
gejjaxxita
This. As a Maltese person who has been following her for a very long time it
is frustrating to see the way in which she is being mischaracterised in the
international media. She was well known in Malta for making false allegations,
character assassinations, mocking people from what she considered to be a low
social status, publishing revenge porn to humiliate people and so on.

------
tryingagainbro
_Caruana Galizia’s death resulted from a “barbaric attack” that also amounted
to an assault on freedom of expression, Muscat said._

Memo to all: if you cost someone reputation, $ hundreds of millions, jail time
etc., freedom of expression means jack. If they can kill you without being
traced to them, they will kill you and your daughter in the crib. In US due to
FBI etc., they try to "kill" you differently via lawsuits, blackballing...

If you saw El Chapo e few years ago at a California mall, would take to
twitter to announce "OMG, just saw El Chapo...look at his picture"? I
wouldn't. He could have lunch with me and I wouldn't recognize him

------
chatwinra
Does anyone know or have any good ideas about how to donate money to her
cause? (her website doesn't have any donate links on it).

I often find with stories like this, that are horrifying, that the least I can
do to show my support is donate money to the cause in the hope that it can
help those brave enough to pursue it.

~~~
pudo
Her son works for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ), and is sure to continue her work. You can donate to them here:
[https://www.icij.org/donate/](https://www.icij.org/donate/)

~~~
chatwinra
good idea, thanks!

------
Bromskloss
The title makes it sound like other nations had criticised the Malta for
having these ties, when it actually was about an individual doing something
_against_ the law of Malta (I presume).

~~~
ddebernardy
It's more complicated than that. Among other topics, she was investigating
ties between the mafia and Malta's gambling industry (the island's most
important after tourism), and the links between those and the island's
politicians.

------
Numberwang
Another one?

~~~
icebraining
No, it's the same. I think the only new information is that the FBI has agreed
to help with the investigation.

------
westmeal
Unfortunately this is what happens when you say the truth.

------
Bromskloss
In addition to the president doing this against a critic, you could also do
this as a third party if you wanted to incriminate the president!

