It’s been almost a year since the creation of the Belgian parliamentary commission aiming to investigate the circumstances that led to the adoption of the extended settlement law. Normally, its workings should have been concluded by now. Instead, it lost two experts, it was marred in scandals concerning press leaks, and it failed to come… Continue reading
Open source investigations
The experts of the Kazakhgate commission in the Belgian parliament delivered their preliminary report. Their findings and observations differ significantly from what the politicians told us so far. In short, the experts’ conclusion is this: there never was any Kazakhgate. What the experts say The preliminary report written by the experts working for the Kazakhgate… Continue reading
The so-called Kazakhgate inquiry commission in the Belgian Parliament is about to conclude its workings. The parties forming the majority apparently wish to make the commission stop until 21 July at the very latest. What have we found so far? According to Dirk Van der Maelen, the commission’s president, what we found is very different… Continue reading
In the so-called Kazakhgate commission, Dirk Van der Maelen, the Flemish socialist (SP.A) president of the commission, and Georges Gilkinet, its Green (Ecolo) vice-president, are doing everything they can to turn the inquiry into a mockery, because of their own political agendas. At the same time, the big questions remain unanswered. Repeated hearings on… Continue reading
On 18 July 2016, thousands of people gathered in Buenos Aires to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA). Holding up pictures of the 85 people who died in Argentina’s deadliest terror attack ever, they were calling for those responsible, including former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar… Continue reading
Belgian politician Dirk Van der Maelen (SP.A) is behind an attack on OSI. Over the last few weeks, OSI has been revealing the gross conflict of interest of the president of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission and his effort to keep the real authors of the settlement law – the diamond lobby – safe. Two days… Continue reading
When on 22 March this year the Kazakhgate commission in the Belgian Parliament questioned the former CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), Freddy Hanard, it was very shy. No powerful questions were asked. It was as if the members of the commission were afraid to reveal too much of the truth, namely that… Continue reading
Despite early efforts, the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission can no longer ignore the obvious: According to its president, Dirk Van der Maelen, the Commission concluded that the settlement law was drafted by the diamond lobby for the benefit of the diamond dealers involved in fraud investigations. However this conclusion was not based on the testimonies of… Continue reading
In a recent interview in the Belgian magazine HUMO, the president of the so-called Kazakhgate commission, Dirk Van der Maelen (sp.a), said that “the text we voted on March 2, 2011, was not from Carina Van Cauter. It was a copy of the bill of Servais Verherstraeten (CD&V). We have now discovered during the inquiry… Continue reading
