|
Karl Schembri
Two very senior army officers occupying highly sensitive positions for more than a decade have been suddenly removed from their responsibilities and told they would receive no further appointments in the AFM after the secret services classified their files as “not security cleared”.
The two officers were police inspectors in the eighties under Police Commissioner Lawrence Pullicino and are believed to have reports filed against them by the disgraced police chief following personal clashes with him, though they were never dismissed from the corps or subjected to disciplinary procedures. Pullicino was on the other hand convicted for being an accomplice in the murder of Nardu Debono inside the police depot.
The top secret security screening started being implemented on AFM officers recently and the reasons for disqualifying anyone are bound to remain unknown, even though the two officers concerned have made a career within the army. Their respective lawyers are claiming the government is embarking on a political clean-up given their known Labour leanings.
One of the officers, Lieutenant Colonel Mario Schembri – considered the next in line for the post of army commander – was the AFM’s Public Relations Officer until a few months ago. He was informed verbally by Brigadier Carmel Vassallo on 27 October that he had failed a security screening that he had requested for all officers from the rank of Major upwards.
Another officer, Maj. Pierre Vassallo, was staff officer on logistics since 2001, in charge of all the army contracts – an appointment usually given to Lieutenant Colonels – but was refused promotion to Lt. Col. repeatedly despite being more qualified than others who were promoted.
The Prime Minister’s press secretary, Josephine Vassallo, confirmed that the two officers had failed the secret security screening but would not explain the reasons why, adding that the test carried out by the secret services was an EU requirement.
“It is important to point out that participation in certain EU meetings by top AFM officials requires that participating officers would have earned the relevant level of security clearance,” Vassallo said. “As a result of this requirement, it is now AFM policy that all eligible officers being considered for promotion to the top ranks within the AFM are to be security cleared by the Security Services.
“In view of this policy, security clearance at secret level was requested for all officers holding the rank of Lt. Col. as well as for those officers in the rank of Major being considered for promotion to the rank of Lt. Col. The two officers you referred to failed to meet the established criteria to earn security clearance at secret level.”
Vassallo said security clearance meant “a thorough clean bill of conduct, including in all past years of service, wherever this was performed, be it in the AFM, the Police or any other organisation.”
She said all AFM staff from the rank of major upwards must have all their files and data screened and whoever fails cannot rise beyond his current position, but denied that Lt. Col. Schembri could no longer hold appointments in the AFM.
“It is not true that Lt. Col. Schembri can no longer hold appointments. As a matter of fact he has been assigned the responsibility for Historical Property and Objects of AFM” – an effective demotion considering his former important post as the army’s spokesman.
But Lt Col. Schembri last Monday filed an official letter at the civil courts against the Prime Minister and the AFM Commander, Brig. Carmel Vassallo, demanding the reasons behind his security clearance failure and warning that he would be seeking legal redress if the grounds for his career freeze remained secret.
His lawyer, Anglu Farrugia, said that Lt. Col. Schembri had only received a verbal note from Brig. Vassallo informing him that he failed the screening and that consequently he could no longer hold his appointment.
“It’s incredible how after all these years in the AFM occupying such important appointments, my client is screened now and fails for mysterious reasons which he is not even allowed to know,” Farrugia said. “I know unofficially that there are some reports linked to when he was police inspector in the early eighties. If that’s what they’re using against him, particularly if they were filed by Lawrence Pullicino, whom everyone knows what he did, then I would really have a lot of questions to ask them.”
Major Vassallo has not yet initiated legal proceedings but his lawyer, Josè Herrera – who has written to the Prime Minister, the AFM Commander and Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela – also linked his client’s security failure to suspected reports against him dating back to the eighties.
“The information I have is that they’re picking on them on reports filed against them when they were in the police corps,” Herrera said. “All of a sudden they latch onto this mysterious report or whatever, when they’ve been in the AFM for so long. If there is anything that makes them a security threat then whoever engaged them and promoted them should be dismissed outright. But my client was actually recommended for a promotion to Lt. Col. by Brigadier Rupert Montanaro in 2002.”
Even more mysteriously, Maj. Vassallo was informed in writing two years ago that his file had gone missing from AFM headquarters and all attempts to trace it resulted in the negative – a statement now contradicted by the Brigadier’s admission that his file was negatively reviewed by the secret services.
“In the meantime my client was never removed from his appointment and he kept on carrying out his tasks to the satisfaction of all as staff officer on logistics,” Herrera said, although in the latest promotions exercise he was skipped once again.
“On 30 October Maj. Vassallo was again superseded by other majors for the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and when he asked why this same injustice was repeated again they told him that he was not security cleared by the national security authority. So far we do not know what the reasons are and why he has now not been security cleared. He was also removed from logistics due to this clearance. My client has been never been given an explanation as to the reason why he was never promoted in all these years. It was only now that this security issue was raised. Again my client was never given details about it and was not given the opportunity to contest it.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
|
