The Tribune

MINISTER of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell yesterday blasted a local tabloid for allegations over spending.

Mr Mitchell went on the attack in a press statement last night, charging that the “down rag is not worth putting dog excrement on”.

While he does not name the publication in his statement, Mr Mitchell’s comments follow an article in The Punch which accuses Mr Mitchell of fiscal misconduct.

The statement read: “It has come to my attention that a certain worthless rag paper in this country, well known as a purveyor of lies, untruths and malicious falsehoods has carried a story about expenditure by me in the capacity of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“The claims in its headlines about my fiscal conduct as Minister are outrageous lies from the pits of hell and the publisher should be ashamed of himself, but he has no shame.

It continued: “As a matter of fact, in all of the diatribe, not once did the writer indicate the source of the expenses to be the public treasury because the writer knows full well the dire legal consequences of saying so.”

“The people at that newspaper are purveyors of filth. They are nasty miscreants who couldn’t recognise the truth if it ‘punched’, pardon the pun, them squarely in the face because the truth is such a stranger to them.”