OPEN LETTER TO SENATORS: OBAMA MUST STEP DOWN ON JANUARY 8, 2009

When the Senate meets on January 8, 2009 to talk about the results of the Electoral College vote, Mr. Obama must step down, as he does NOT meet the criteria for being POTUS, via the Constitution and Court cases throughout the years that say only a natural born citizen can be POTUS. Even Mr. Obama agrees with this because his vote was one of the unanimous votes for Senate Resolution 511, which he co-authored. Read for yourself and you will agree.

SENATE RESOLUTION 511

Whereas the Constitution of the USA states the qualifications of the President, a person must be a ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ of the United States;

Whereas the term ‘‘natural born Citizen’’, as that term appears in Article II, Section 1,is not defined in the Constitution of the United States;

Whereas there is no evidence of the intention of the Framers or any Congress to limit the constitutional rights of children born to Americans serving in the military nor to prevent those children from serving as their country’s President;

Whereas such limitations would be inconsistent with the purpose and intent of the ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ clause of the Constitution of the United States, as evidenced by the First Congress’s own statute defining the term ‘‘natural born Citizen’’;

Whereas the well-being of all citizens of the United States is preserved and enhanced by the men and women who are assigned to serve our country outside of our national borders;

Whereas previous presidential candidates were born outside of the United States of America and were understood to be eligible to be President; and Whereas John Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens on an American military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved,

That John Sidney McCain, III, is a ‘‘natural born Citizen’’ under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States. "Born to American citizens.”

The Senate Resolution that was adopted unanimously, with Mr. Obama’s approval, declares that natural born means “born to American citizens.” The plural use of citizens implies that the mother and father are both American citizens.

This, therefore, disqualifies Mr. Obama. His father was NOT an American. He was born in Kenya, while it was under British rule. Mr. Obama states on his own website that he has dual citizenship.

FighttheSmears.com states:

“When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Senior’s children.”

Additional Information about this issue can be found on our website. See below.

Dr. Douglas W. Schell

Chair, www.restoretheconstitutionalrepublic.org

Retired Professor of Business

336-983-7655

Barack Obama's eligibility for the office of POTUS: petition to uphold the Constitution

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/OurConstitution/

Wording of the petition:

"THIS IS A NON-PARTISAN PETITION

OATH OF OFFICE for Congressmen, Senators and the President of the United States as set forth in the US Constitution

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Dear Congressional Representative:

I am writing to ask you to defend our country and uphold the Constitution as per your solemn oath of office. I believe we are facing a Constitutional crisis with the unanswered questions surrounding Barack Obama’s eligibility to be President in accordance to Article 2 of the Constitution.

Mr. Obama has refused, to date, to release any and all information that would prove his eligibility. Due to the many concerns surrounding this issue, you cannot allow this to pass without challenge. I am asking that you, as my representative, join in a Congressional or Senate investigation, formal or otherwise, and file a joint written objection with the Federal Registry which is required to be signed from a member from both houses to challenge Barack Obama’s certification as the next President of the United States. His candidacy should be rejected unless he provides unimpeachable proof that he is in fact eligible to take office. This MUST be done before the Congress reconvenes for the formal count on January 8, 2009.

You might be thinking that Mr. Obama's eligibility has already been confirmed. I assure you it has not. Regardless of whether it was real, altered or forged, that computer printout supplied by Mr. Obama is simply NOT the “Birth Certificate” that could be used to prove U.S. birth. The document that Mr. Obama has provided to the public is a ‘certification of live birth, typically available for children born overseas of at least one Hawaiian citizen. The vault (long Version) birth certificate, per Hawaiian Statute 883.176 allows the birth in another State or another country to be registered in Hawaii. Box 7C of the vault Certificate of Live Birth contains a question, whether the birth was in Hawaii or another State or Country. This is the document needed for verification.

This has been a huge controversy and has generated twenty plus lawsuits and the tally is only growing. Some of these cases have reached the Supreme Court. No case has been lost on the merits – any dismissals have been exclusively based on legal technicalities designed to avoid the evidence and even the discussion. Other lawsuits before the Supreme Court point out that natural born status preclude children born with dual citizenship like Obama from being president regardless of where born. This cannot be simply overlooked. This won’t go away, but will be a crisis that grows with every illegal signature. Due to these concerns, I have attached additional documentation concerning this matter and a video has been produced on these issues, which can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

It is imperative that our representatives ensure that our Constitution be upheld and abided by. This should not be an option to you, but a requirement of your office. If our own government officials will not uphold it and be allowed to turn their backs to it, then it should be expected that its ‘people’ will no longer be bound by it either.

If we begin to allow ourselves to select what suits us, when it suits us, we have then made the Constitution meaningless. It would no longer carry authority and there is no longer a unity among the states or its’ people. We should be ruled by Law, not by the whims of man, party loyalty, or how much money a person has.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed petitions demonstrating their outrage over this. Millions have viewed the web sites and joined the discussions. Despite a media blackout, polls now show a majority of Americans are aware of this ongoing controversy and want the matter faithfully resolved in keeping with the constitution. WE are expecting that our representatives will take action and stand up for our rights on this matter. It is your Constitutional right to make this objection. It takes one senator and one representative – each from any state; I am hoping that at least one of those persons is you. We hold you, and the position for which you have been elected, in the highest regard and have every hope that you will uphold the oath you took.


For our Constitutional Republic,

We sign this petition

=================================================
Article 2, Section I
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
=================================================

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/OurConstitution/

Links to lots of sites with information relevant to this petition can be found on the petition site.

The McCanns' Christmas video is "more like a Christmas campaign for toys."

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

Watch the new Maddie video

Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the DIC - the PJ's Department of Criminal Investigation, head of the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance, today accused the parents of the little British girl of "feeding the idea that the child is still alive."

"They should admit, once and for all, that the little one is dead," states Gonçalo Amaral in statements to the Portuguese daily newspaper, Correio da Manha. According to the former inspector, the video released by the McCanns, "is more like a Christmas campaign for toys and not the search for a child," deploring that "videos about the child's disappearance and those about the reason for that disappearance were not released, because that would help, and very much so, the investigation."

The call by the former inspector, requesting the disclosure of a series of videos and images as yet unknown to the public, is not likely to succeed, because still, in spite of several appeals in that direction, neither the McCanns nor the Portuguese Public Minister (MP) is showing the least willingness to to reopen the investigation.

Some videos and images from the Tapas 9's holiday have never been released, because the group has always claimed to the police that they didn't exist. For the Portuguese authorities' part, the MP still retains an important set of documents under the secrecy of justice, even if a source close to the Prosecutor's office admits that, "certain journalists have shown publicly that they have a copy of it," stressing for their attention, "that it is important that the use of these documents is done in such a way so as not to harm a possible reopening of the investigation."

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

22/12/08

Madeleine McCann's pyjamas.

(Click to enlarge images)

On at least one forum today, there is renewed discussion about the pyjamas Madeleine's parents said she was wearing on the evening she disappeared from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. So, I thought I would briefly revisit the photos of those pyjamas, the sketch of the abductor, which Jane Tanner verified as a likeness and Jane Tanner's statements (or maybe just a couple of them!) about what she saw.

First of all, could the pyjamas pictured on the right, look like those in the image on the left when the child wearing them was being carried, not just in the way shown, but any way? Those pyjamas being held up by Kate and Gerry would surely not reach a child's ankles. They are baggy and look like they'd reach just over the knees, or at their longest, be mid-calf length when a child was standing up, but lying down or being carried, they'd probably slip up over the knees.

Now, let's look at some statements from Jane Tanner:

Times Online May 28th 2007

"I passed a man who was carrying blonde girl in pink pyjamas"

"The vital witness, a close friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, was on her way to join Madeleine’s parents for dinner at the tapas bar when she saw a man with a blonde girl wrapped in a blanket. She was wearing “distinguishable” pink pyjamas, the woman has told police."

"The woman saw the man close to the open window of the bedroom where Madeleine, then 3, had been sleeping with her two-year-old twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie."

"The woman saw the man at 9.30pm as she arrived late for dinner with Mr and Mrs McCann and other friends at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, where they were staying. She did not realise the significance until Madeleine’s mother went to check on her children 30 minutes later, discovered her daughter was missing and came back in an hysterical state. Madeleine had been wearing pink and white pyjamas."

"The man is white, 35 to 40 years old, of medium build and 5ft 10in. He has short hair and was wearing a dark jacket, light beige trousers and dark shoes."

The Sun October 26th 2007

"A TINY figure wearing pyjamas lies still and quiet in a man’s arms – in an image thought to show the abduction of Madeleine McCann.

Parents Gerry and Kate hope the chilling picture – drawn from an eyewitness account and released last night – will bring them closer to the truth about their daughter.

Swarthy, aged around 35 with black hair curling round his collar, the slim, 5ft 6in suspect was spotted hurrying away from the McCanns’ holiday apartment by Kate and Gerry’s friend Jane Tanner."

"But she did get a good look at his hair and clothing – a maroon shirt, camel coloured trousers and black or brown shoes."

Times Online October 26th 2007

Amazingly, on the same day as the Sun's article, where the abductor's height was given as 5'6", the Times presents this description:

"The man is approximately 35 to 40 years old, of medium build and about 5ft 10in. He has dark collar-length hair and is wearing a dark jacket, light beige trousers and dark shoes. He was allegedly seen by Jane Tanner, one of the McCann family friends, at 9.15pm on May 3. About 45 minutes later Madeleine was reported missing from her bed in Praia da Luz."

It's now 9.15pm when Jane Tanner sees the man carrying a child.

The Mirror 17/11/07

"McCann witness speaks out."

"Jane Tanner, 38, said that as she passed a man carrying a child in their holiday resort: "Never in a million years did I think it could have been Madeleine.

"I just saw a person walk along the top of the road with what could have been a child in his arms."

But marketing executive Jane is now certain that she saw poor Madeleine being carried off in Praia da Luz, Portugal."

This reads, in part, like Jane Tanner's earliest description: "..with what could have been a child in his arms." So, she wasn't even sure initially that it was a child, but she definitely saw "what could have been a child," was wearing Madeleine's pyjamas?

"I'm talking now because I'm being called a liar and a fantasist. I know what I saw.

"I think it's important that people know what I saw because I believe Madeleine was abducted."

"At around 9.15 Jane was walking back to her apartment when she saw a man striding across the road in front of her. In his arms there appeared to be a child, barefooted, wearing pink pyjamas."

From Jane Tanner's interview with the Leicestershire police in april 2008:

"According to Jane Tanner, the man had long hair, quite dark and shiny. He was wearing dark clothes, "not big, but quite baggy."

"Dark colours, but then again it was, I think that it was quite dark, so dark, kind of a dark sort of jacket, but on the other hand, lighter trousers in a horrible colour, again this is, kind of a dark yellowish-brown, horrible, but not, not a good colour for trousers, but on the other hand, I wonder if it was the light that made them appear, made them appear more of a sort of mustard. It wasn't a mustard because it was too light, but it was just like one, as I said they weren't attractive. They weren't the kind of clothes I would expect of someone on holiday at Mark Warner. They were, I can't think of the material. I tried to describe it before, but as some sort of cottony material, but baggy," Tanner states."

During this statement in April 2008, Jane Tanner also seems not too sure about where Gerry McCann and Jez Wilkins were standing, but she is sure that she passed by quite close to them:

"I went back up the road and I can't remember exactly, I know this, I know, I think that Gerry thinks he was in a different place from where I think he was standing, but I was quite sure, as I walked back up the road, they were standing, one of them was on the road and the other was just on the edge of the pavement, but I thought that it was at the side of the road where I was walking, but I know that Gerry thinks they were on the other side. But I think they were closer, because as I passed, I nearly went to greet them in some way and I thought at that moment Oh "they're chatting chatting chatting" and I thought, you know, I didn't, I didn't know if they had seen me or not, but I actually went to greet them and I think if they had been so far away I don't know if I would somehow have almost gone to say hello to them," states Jane Tanner admitting that she and Gerry don't agree about where they found themselves."

However, neither Gerry nor Jez actually saw Jane Tanner, however closely she says she passed them.

Ms Tanner does not seem to be a very reliable witness, but the difference between the actual pyjamas shown by Kate and Gerry McCann and those drawn by the forensic artist to Jane Tanner's description, and verified by her as a good likeness, seems to be one of the most significant details of her witness statements. Surely this is a very basic and therefore key detail. Those pyjamas would probably not have been seen by someone with Jane Tanner's view of the person crossing the top of the road, because they would have ridden up over the knees. A very simple detail, based on the design of those pyjamas, but very significant in my opinion.

The McCanns have released a new video of Maddie

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

This Saturday, Kate and Gerry MCann started off the release of a new series of video images of their daughter Madeleine, recorded in the couple's house, in December 2006, five months before her disappearance in the south of Portugal.

The video shows Madeleine sitting on the steps of the stairs of the Rothley house, flanked by the twins Sean and Amélie, whom she is encouraging to copy her actions.
The couple do not appear in the video, but it includes an appeal from them calling for Madeleine to be returned to them: "Christmas is a time for children. Please help bring our daughter back." The video ends with the message "This will be our second Christmas without our daughter. Please help us make sure we don't have a third."

The release of this new video, which the McCanns had promised for Christmas, started off tonight in Australia. Clarence Mitchell, former director of the Media Monitoring Unit and spokesperson for the family, stated that the couple "do not wish to say anything further. They feel that the video will speak for itself."

The video can be seen on the SOS Madeleine McCann web site, as well as on various news channels on TV and on their web sites. It seems rather odd that the McCanns are only now releasing this video, which is the first time the public will have heard Madeleine speaking. It also gives a much better impression of the real child who disappeared from her family's holiday apartment than any photos the McCanns chose to release as posters of their child.

So, what does the video say to Madeleine, whom her parents are telling us is still out there? Does it say, this Christmas, we are thinking of you and hope you are safe and well? No, it says, Kate and Gerry McCann are having a hard time, please help us.

This is the poster the McCanns are asking people to download and take with them if they are going abroad this Christmas.

The central image looks like it was taken quite some time before the Praia da Luz holiday and it doesn't appear to show a child with blonde hair. Rather, it shows a child with mid-brown hair. I really don't see the point of producing another poster with very old images of Madeleine, who would now be aged five years and seven months and look quite different from any of those photos, simply from the natural process of growth and development, never mind the efforts of any abductor to alter her appearance.

I guess I am being very cynical here, but that poster would surely not help to find a child who could be around two years older than shown in the central image. What is the real intention here, I ask myself. And the answer I come up with is related directly to the rather prominent Paypal button on the McCanns' Christmas page of their web site.

http://www.findmadeleine.com/2008/

Updated - The McCann case: analysis of telephone calls reveals a lead that wasn't investigated.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

16/12/08

Justine McGuiness and the Vascão river.

Justine McGuiness, spokesperson for the McCanns who accompanied them in fleeing to England immediately after they were made arguidos, left various documents in the apartment that served as the couple's headquarters, including photographs, establishing a possible connection between Madeleine's disappearance and the banks of the river Vascão, near the Spanish border. Today, 19 months after Madeleine's disappearance, the trail left by Justine McGuiness resurfaces.

It is September 9th 2007, the day that Kate and Gerry take flight to England, four months after Madeleine McCann's disappearance that the PJ get their hands on a series of documents left in the Vista Mar villa, until then occupied by the couple, where photographs and even a sketch are found, indicating the detailed location of a place on the border between Alentejo and the Algarve, 20 km from Almodovar, crossed by the Vascão river. The PJ inspectors went into the house immediately after the McCanns left for the airport, thus taking advantage of the fact that the journalists were accompanying the couple.

The documents left there by the McCanns' spokesperson, Justine McGuiness, were found under a sofa. In addition to the identification of a clearly defined geographic area, were numerous inscriptions which the PJ have never succeeded in interpreting. According to sources close to the investigation, nothing was done in this direction and the PJ employees who allegedly regarded the documents as being the work of an esoteric group, did not even take the trouble to visit the place indicated, considering the lead as being of no value to the case.

The McCanns' spokesperson, who was with them throughout the time when they were constituted arguidos under Portuguese law, ended up being dismissed on her arrival in England, this in spite of the fact that she might prove to be one of the most embarrassing witnesses for the couple and the English authorities. The fact is that Justine McGuiness has never been questioned by the PJ and thus it is that the exact significance of the documents and photographs has never been explained.

In statements recorded recently in London, sources close to the former Liberal Party candidate and specialist in public relations, confirmed that Justine McGuiness was even allegedly the target of various pressures, notably in the legal field, meaning, for her, that she should keep quiet about everything she saw and heard during the time she worked for Kate and Gerry McCann.

What is certain is that the former spokesperson and her employers, the McCanns, were already at odds, particularly with Kate, on the day they left Portugal together and their "divorce" on arrival in England did not surprise anyone. Justine had always directed very harsh criticism towards Madeleine's mother, sometimes in the presence of journalists. And the poor relations between the two women were not limited to financial matters, on which Justine always demanded settlement for her work and for numerous extra hours spent with the couple, but also in meetings and dinners with journalists and representatives of the British authorities.

Today, all this might have been forgotten if it were not for the results of an investigation into records of the McCanns' telephone calls and of all the people who were in contact with them, an investigation led by journalists, in collaboration with former operatives of the information services.

Swansea again.

In the course of the enquiry into calls received and made by mobile phones belonging to the McCanns. during the time they spent in Portugal, the investigators were to find a report by inspector Paulo Dias of the PJ where he confirms that on May 2nd 2007, Kate received a call from Swansea (UK) at around 11.21am that she would later justify to the PJ as being a mistake. A sufficiently important "mistake" for Madeleine's mother to keep the log of that call on her mobile phone, in spite of having deleted the details of other communications.

Yet more interesting, the investigators - some of them British - used to dealing with cases labeled sensitive, were to find the recording of a telephone call made after lunch on the same day, between a mobile phone in Praia da Luz and the same Swansea number which had contacted Kate McCann. The mobile from which the call was made belonged neither to either of the McCanns nor to the group of friends who accompanied them and to date the PJ, in spite of various requests to the English authorities, have never managed to identify the owner of that mobile nor obtained anything from the English, whoever they asked, about those calls.

Now, in correlating the results obtained from mobile phone operators in Portugal and Spain with reports from the PJ, especially the excellent work of Paulo Dias, investigators and journalists have found a new element worthy of interest: the mobile used in Praia da Luz to call the Swansea number which had contacted Kate on May 2nd, was used to make and receive calls in the area indicated in the documents and photographs that the McCanns' spokesperson left under the sofa, on the day of the flight to England.

According to the now known records, the mobile was used near the Vascão river on various occasions, notably between May 12th and 15th 2007, but also in June and July of the same year, telephone calls always made to England or Praia da Luz, except one, made to the British Embassy in Lisbon.

Did Obama or Rahm Emanuel discuss the Senate seat with Blagojevich?

I guess the world knows by now that Governor Blagojevich of Illinois is under investigation for allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

From the Chicago Tribune, December 13th:

"Obama said Thursday he had never spoken to Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy and was "confident that no representatives" of his had engaged in any dealmaking over the seat with the governor or his team. He also pledged Thursday that in the "next few days" he would explain what contacts his staff may have had with the governor's office about the Senate vacancy.

Emanuel, who has long been close to both Blagojevich and Obama, has refused to respond to questions about any involvement he may have had with the Blagojevich camp over the Senate pick. A spokeswoman for Emanuel also declined to comment Friday."

However,

"One source confirmed that communications between Emanuel and the Blagojevich administration were captured on court-approved wiretaps."

Chicago Tribune 13/12/08

So, there are apparently tapes from wiretaps confirming that Emanuel discussed the Senate seat with Blagojevich. What of Obama? Well, I have come across two cached web pages today, which are said to have disappeared, but which someone took a screenshot of and which I reproduce here. One is an article from the KHQA (Tri-States news web site.) about a planned meeting between Obama and Blagojevich to discuss the issue. This is dated November 5th 2008. The third paragraph reads, "He's meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich in Chicago this afternoon to discuss it."

The next screenshot is an article which states that the proposed meeting took place.

I have had to make the second screenshot extra-large so that it can be read! It is dated November 8th and states that, "Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the US Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled. Obama met with Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this week to discuss it."

So, did he or didn't he? Did Barack Obama, in spite of denials, meet with Governor Rod Blagojevich to discuss the Senate seat? And why have these pages been 'disappeared' from the KHQA web site and even the cached pages have now gone?

There could be some very interesting developments here.

Maryland State Police: Spying on pacifists, environmentalists and nuns.

LA Times

By Bob Drogin
December 7, 2008

Reporting from Takoma Park, Md. -- To friends in the protest movement, Lucy was an eager 20-something who attended their events and sent encouraging e-mails to support their causes.

Only one thing seemed strange.

"At one demonstration, I remember her showing up with a laptop computer and typing away," said Mike Stark, who helped lead the anti-death-penalty march in Baltimore that day. "We all thought that was odd."

Not really. The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and meetings of nonviolent groups.

Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by "Lucy" and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database -- and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.

Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings."

"There wasn't a scintilla of illegal activity" going on, said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit and in July obtained the first surveillance files. State police have released other heavily redacted documents.

Investigators, the files show, targeted groups that advocated against abortion, global warming, nuclear arms, military recruiting in high schools and biodefense research, among other issues.

"It was unconscionable conduct," said Democratic state Sen. Brian Frosh, who is backing legislation to ban similar spying in Maryland unless the police superintendent can document a "reasonable, articulable suspicion" of criminal activity.

The case is the latest to emerge since the Sept. 11 attacks spurred a sharp increase in state and federal surveillance of Americans. Critics say such investigations violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, and serve to inhibit lawful dissent.

In the largest known effort, the Pentagon monitored at least 186 lawful protests and meetings -- including church services and silent vigils -- in California and other states.

The military also compiled more than 2,800 reports on Americans in a database of supposed terrorist threats. That program, known as TALON, was ordered closed in 2007 after it was exposed in news reports.

The Maryland operation also has ended, but critics still question why police spent hundreds of hours spying on Quakers and other peace groups in a state that reported more than 36,000 violent crimes last year.

Stephen Sachs, a former state attorney general, investigated the scandal for Gov. Martin O'Malley -- a Democrat elected in 2006. He concluded that state police had violated federal regulations and "significantly overreached."

According to Sachs' 93-page report and other documents, state police launched the operation in March 2005 out of concern that the planned execution of a convicted murderer might lead to violent protests.

They sent Lucy to join local activists at Takoma Park's Electrik Maid, a funky community center popular with punk rockers and slam poets. Ten people attended the gathering, including a local representative from Amnesty International.

"The meeting was primarily concerned with getting people to put up fliers and getting information out to local businesses and churches about the upcoming events," the undercover officer reported later. "No other pertinent intelligence information was obtained."

That proved true for all 29 meetings, rallies and protests that Lucy ultimately attended. Most drew only a handful of people, and none involved illegal or disruptive actions.

Using the aliases Lucy Shoup and Lucy McDonald, she befriended activists. "I want to get involved in different causes," she wrote in an e-mail, citing her interest in "anti-death penalty, antiwar and pro-animal actions!!!"

Max Obuszewski, a Baltimore pacifist who leads antiwar protests, said Lucy asked about civil disobedience, but didn't instigate any. "She never volunteered to do anything, not even hand out leaflets," he said. "She was not an agent provocateur."

Updated 12/12/08 - SOS Madeleine McCann 6/12/08 - the Tapas 7 interviews in the UK - Volume 1

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

All seven Britons were interviewed in early 2008, before the Portuguese investigation was put on hold for lack of impartial and brave justice.

In the interests of the public, remembering that justice is always the conquest of civilisation over violence, of appeasement over endless revenge, of stability over chaos, the conversations (yes, it was more like conversations than real interviews) were recorded on video and the transcriptions will be available for download, only in English, at the end of each article. The videos will be opportunely disclosed.

Jane Tanner: selective memory, contradictions and other things....

After 11 months of the investigation, in spite of all that could have been said or done about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Jane Tanner, one of the Tapas 9, admitted to officer Ferguson of the Leicestershire police that she was mistaken about the arrangement in which the group were seated at the table. An apparently minor detail, but which is now more revealing: "Russell said he was sitting between Rachael and Diane. So, I think, I had Diane there, Russell was there. And I think Dave, I think that Dave could have been there and Fiona there."

Jane Tanner's interview, in April 2008, was recorded on video, to which I have had access and which will be disclosed at the right time in a documentary about Maddie's disappearance.

According to the new seating plan, Jane was sitting "in an anti-clockwise direction," next to Kate, followed by Matthew, Fiona, David Payne, Gerry McCann, Dianne, Russell and finally Rachael.

According to Jane Tanner, in her interview with the British police, Kate McCann was more anxious than usual during dinner on May 3rd 2007, the night of Madeleine's disappearance: "There is something I haven't mentioned (...) she had said that Madeleine had said something strange about where were you last night when I woke up.
And as I said, I can't remember at what point in the meal she said that (...) I think she said "when Sean and me woke up," I can't remember if it wasn't when two of them woke up."

"I wondered, if there wasn't another reason, you know, why the checks were more frequent," Jane Tanner then stressed, indicating that Kate was wondering if Maddie might wake up.

Questioned about the length of time that Gerry was absent from the dinner table, Jane explains: "that would have been at least five minutes, if not more, because, I wonder, because he had left before I actually left there were conversations about whether he had stopped on the way. So, I mean, if, I think it must have been something like five or ten minutes, five or ten minutes after he had left. I can't say for sure though."

"(...) I went back up the road and I can't remember exactly, I know this, I know, I think that Gerry thinks he was in a different place from where I think he was standing, but I was quite sure, as I walked back up the road, they were standing, one of them was on the road and the other was just on the edge of the pavement, but I thought that it was at the side of the road where I was walking, but I know that Gerry thinks they were on the other side. But I think they were closer, because as I passed, I nearly went to greet them in some way and I thought at that moment Oh "they're chatting chatting chatting" and I thought, you know, I didn't, I didn't know if they had seen me or not, but I actually went to greet them and I think if they had been so far away I don't know if I would somehow have almost gone to say hello to them," states Jane Tanner admitting that she and Gerry don't agree about where they found themselves.

"I thought that they were, when you go up here, I thought they were more, euh, once again I know that this is where me and Gerry disagree, but I thought they were kind of closer to the alleyway. I think kind of (...) I think that one of them was on the road and I think, I thought that it was Jez on the road because he had the pram. And towards, I don't know, I can't remember in which direction he was facing. No, I mean, I think I remember that in my statement I said it, but I can't remember now in which direction he was facing.

"And I thought that Gerry was almost on the edge of the pavement or just, just kind of on the road, but certainly kind of alongside it, kind of closer to that alleyway. I don't think they were near the apartment gate, I thought they were kind of a bit further down, further down the road than that," Jane admits to the police, demonstrating - according to one of the British investigators, a quite strange memory.

"Madame Tanner gave a witness statement before the television cameras, she was interviewed by our Portuguese colleagues...now she is incapable of remembering most of the details - the Leicestershire police, however, got her to read her previous statements -, but curiously, she happens to clarify certain key points that agree with the story recounted by the other members of this group," states an officer from the British police after having viewed the videos of the interviews.

This British police officer, who no longer has contact with this case, is meanwhile one of the direct witnesses of the most important moments in the investigation by the Portuguese authorities. Bitter and deeply disappointed with the behaviour of the British government in this case, the man, from a legal point of view, no longer has the right to speak about Madeleine McCann's disappearance. A ban which he has not respected for reasons "of professionalism and moral conscience" in spite of the heavy consequences to come.

"Oh, it's someone taking their child to bed."

Jane Tanner, one of the key witnesses, whom the McCanns have not left much space for manoeuvre, explains once again the layout of the premises and her movements: according to her witness statement, going out through the door of the Tapas Bar, she walked up the hill, passed by Gerry and Jez who were on her right.


"(...) Right, yeah, So, I went past them, um, going up the hill, and then getting to the top of the road, as I arrived at the top, this person, someone crossed the top of the road with a child. And obviously at that time - I just thought 'oh it's somebody taking his child to bed,' as they say. "

"I think it was starting to get dark (...) there wasn't, apart from Gerry and Jez, there wasn't anyone else. (...) I really saw no one at all. I said, I think, that this made me think that it was even more strange, I think that when I had gone to check on other evenings at that time I probably didn't see anyone at all, it was earlier that you would see people here and there, carrying their children," Jane Tanner said, confirming that it all happened, " roughly, around ten past nine."

"(....) I was kind of jogging along, because obviously I was trying to do the check and get back as quickly as possible too, so I just thought 'Oh I'm just going to do the check as quickly as possible.."
In answer to officer Fergusson, Tanner states that her intention was just to "check on Ella and Evie," because no one else had done it: "Gerry was there, so I thought he had just checked (his children). Matt had checked when he had, um, been (...). And we never checked Dave and Fi because they had their monitor, which they were quite happy with, so they didn't check at all, like that."

"Oh, a poor parent like us..."

"(...) just as I got to the top, someone crossed over. And the thing that really hit me was, um, the bare feet. And the thought that came to mind was, I was saying, that when we were in Leicester (...) we had the habit of walking to David and Fi's house for, um, the children, for dinner with the children, the children would play, we put them into travel cots there and we would sometimes stay a bit late and then carry the children to the house (...) We wrap them in a blanket or something, but their feet always stick out, and you think 'Oh, they're going to get cold feet' because they would always wriggle about. So, one thing I thought was 'Oh, a poor parent like us, you know, that child is obviously being taken home (...)

(...) That was the only reason that I looked at him really, I think. Because at that moment I thought it's somebody picking their child up from the crèche or, you know, just a father carrying his own child..."

Questioned by the officer, Tanner explains that the route followed by the suspect she claims to have seen doesn't match with the idea of someone fetching his child from the crèche: (...) In fact I thought 'Oh, a bit odd,' but not in a million years would I have thought 'It's Madeleine.' (...) And well, yeah, if I had though, yeah, you know, if I had seen that it was Madeleine you would have, you know, I wasn't going to go 'Oh there's Madeleine,' you know, I would have shouted, but. But, yeah, I know that the police think I am an interested witness and whatever, but I don't know what I can do about it.

After a brief moment of emotion - visible only on the video recording - Jane Tanner continues: "No, but the best thing that could happen for me, apart from Madeleine being found, it's somebody coming forward and saying 'It was me,' you know, 'It was me going along there', because, you know, you know, I don't want it to be Madeleine, but you know, there's none, but I am convinced that it was and, you know, people have to, so I don't know what I can do to make them believe it. I'm sorry."

"(...) I really want to assure myself that I am believed, because I haven't lied here. I don't really do that and I just think it's important..."

According to her own witness statement, Jane Tanner noted three details about the man whom she claims to have noticed crossing over the road with the child in his arms, amongst those his feet, because "he wasn't running, but walking at a steady pace."

The man - Jane Tanner explains to the British police officer - was walking along the pavement on the same side where she was.

"(...) I think I'd just prefer to stick to what I said in my original statement, in terms of, because even, I mean, this goes back to the sketch, even when I did the sketch, before that, you know, things were, were unclear. I needed to do that sketch.

According to Jane Tanner, the man had long hair, quite dark and shiny. He was wearing dark clothes, "not big, but quite baggy."

"Dark colours, but then again it was, I think that it was quite dark, so dark, kind of a dark sort of jacket, but on the other hand, lighter trousers in a horrible colour, again this is, kind of a dark yellowish-brown, horrible, but not, not a good colour for trousers, but on the other hand, I wonder if it was the light that made them appear, made them appear more of a sort of mustard. It wasn't a mustard because it was too light, but it was just like one, as I said they weren't attractive. They weren't the kind of clothes I would expect of someone on holiday at Mark Warner. They were, I can't think of the material. I tried to describe it before, but as some sort of cottony material, but baggy," Tanner states.

If Jane Tanner admits a few inconsistencies in the description of the man she swears having seen on the night of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, admitting notably that she "wasn't totally in agreement" with several details of the latest identikit image, such as the length of hair.

"(...) I tried to do it, though, from my original description which we noted (...) we tried to write down all our thoughts and I tried to do it as much as I could from that..."

The individual's height is also challenged by Jane Tanner because, according to her, there was allegedly an error in translation, which did not seem to surprise the Leicestershire police officer, but which was strongly contested by several Portuguese and British police officers who participated in the investigation: all the translations were done or checked later by properly accredited professional translators, which does not leave the least doubt about the quality of their work.

"(...) But I think that was confused in the translation because I don't know what it was in metres and they, kind of, converted that into metres from my statement (...) But I think that it was kind of in the region of five feet nine, five feet ten.."

Questioned about the build of the man she allegedly saw, Tanner explains that it was "Medium, but just rather a normal build. As I said, I think the clothes were quite baggy, so I think they made him look bigger than he probably was, though. And also, he was, his shoulders were poking out, you know, kind of. So, I think, umm, yeah, roughly medium, a roughly medium build.

To be continued.

(Jane Tanner's statements in English can be downloaded from the SOS Madeleine McCann web site, in pdf format. To date - 12/12/08 - there are five downloads available.)

The Abduction Alert plan allowed a newborn to be recovered.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

It is thanks to the launching, on Tuesday evening, of the Abduction alert plan that a newborn, abducted the day before from a maternity unit in Orthez, was found today by the French gendarmerie at the home of the woman who had taken him from his cot while the mother was having a shower.

The little boy, born two days before, was found this morning 'in good health' at the home of the woman who had abducted him, in Billère, Pau. She was arrested and placed under the provision of the law which, according to the words of Erick Maurel, Prosecutor of the Republic, "will be capable of understanding a moment of confusion, a moment of personal difficulty and what will be strongly appreciated is that the child is returned to the mother."

According to a source from the gendarmerie, it was the brother of the 48 year-old woman, a long-distance driver from the Jura region, who called the Jura gendarmes, who forwarded the call to their colleagues in Pau, after having received a telephone call from his sister telling him that she had given birth, which seemed eminently suspicious to him.

The woman matched the description given by witnesses and transmitted by the Abduction Alert system: "A woman in her forties, overweight, tall, wearing a black coat." The arrest "took place in a reasonable manner, there were no problems" and little Diango returned to his mother's arms after routine medical examinations.

Rachida Dati, who recently defended the creation of an Abduction Alert system in all European countries, as the European authorities have been proposing for several years, wished to congratulate the Pau Prosecutor of the Republic who took the initiative to launch the Abduction Alert plan, a plan which "has just proved once again it's effectiveness."

Enfants Kidnappés

According to the account from the gendarmes, the little boy was found thanks to the telephone call from a man indicating that his sister had told him she had just given birth while, to his knowledge, she was not pregnant.

"Having seen the abduction alert, this gentleman made the connection and called the circulated telephone number to report that course of events in case it was linked to this case." Bertrand Ponty, commander of the Aquitaine Gendarmerie told Reuters. In late morning, the investigators went to this woman's home, in Billère in the Pau region (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) where they found the baby who was taken into their care. The woman, who was alone in the apartment, was remanded in custody, he stated.

One hundred and fifty gendarmes were involved in the search.

Two day-old baby abducted on Tuesday in Orthez has been found

According to a Belgian daily newspaper's online edition, little Diango, who was abducted on Tuesday from a maternity unit in Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) has been found safe and well. He was apparently recovered by police checking vehicles and the woman who abducted him has been arrested.

"Le bébé de deux jours enlevé tôt mardi dans une maternité d'Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) a été retrouvé "en bonne santé" et la femme qui l'avait enlevé a été interpellée, a-t-on appris mercredi de source policière."

Le Soir

The woman who abducted the child has been arrested, thanks to witnesses who gave a description and the woman's brother, who called the police after seeing the alert. He had received a call from his sister saying that she had given birth, which seemed immediately suspicious to him, since she had not appeared to be pregnant, and her brother matched her to the description given by the witnesses.

Another success for the French Abduction Alert system.

Congratulations to the gendarmes who found little Diango and all those French people who took part in the alert and the search.

Alerte enlèvement - Abduction alert - 2 day-old baby taken from maternity unit in Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)

Enfants Kidnappés

9/12/08

Un bébé de deux jours enlevé dans une maternité des Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Un bébé de 2 jours a disparu mardi de la maternité d'Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) et le plan "Alerte enlèvement" a été déclenché peu après, selon le procureur de la République de Pau.

La mère du bébé, un petit garçon prénommé Diango, a constaté vers 16H30 sa disparition dans sa chambre en sortant de la salle de bains où elle était occupée à prendre sa douche. "La personne en a profité à ce moment-là", a souligné le commandant Ponty, chargé de la communication de la gendarmerie d'Aquitaine.

La maman, âgée de 31 ans, est originaire de Biarritz. Le nourrisson était vêtu d'une grenouillère orange et verte.

Des témoins auraient vu une femme "de type européen, âgée de quarante à cinquante ans" vêtue d'un manteau noir, emmener le bébé, a indiqué à l'AFP le procureur Erick Maurel.

"Les recherches se font tous azimuts", a précisé le procureur. "La maman est en état de choc", a-t-il ajouté, évoquant une famille sans histoires. L'alerte a été donnée vers 17H30 à la gendarmerie d'Orthez qui a été chargée de l'enquête, selon le parquet.

Le plan Alerte enlèvement, un dispositif d'alerte massive et immédiate pour rechercher un enfant enlevé, a été déclenché peu après 20H00.

Adopté en France en février 2006, ce plan consiste à lancer à la radio, à la télévision et sur les panneaux des gares et autoroutes, une alerte massive pour mobiliser la population à la recherche d'un enfant enlevé et de son ravisseur présumé.

Le message d'alerte précise que la suspecte est une femme "de grande taille et corpulente de type européen, cheveux courts foncés, vêtue d'un manteau noir". "Si vous localisez l'enfant ou la suspecte, n'intervenez pas vous-même mais appelez la gendarmerie au numéro 0800 36 32 68 ou 0800ENFANT", ajoute le message.

Dès l'alerte donnée par la mère, la gendarmerie a mis en place un dispositif de recherche dans l'enceinte de l'hôpital, à proximité de l'établissement et à la gare d'Orthez. Simultanément, des patrouilles avec contrôles d'identité ont été organisées à toutes les sorties de la ville.

Un plan Epervier a également été mis en place sur le département des Pyrénées-Atlantiques, puis étendu aux départements voisins ainsi qu'aux postes frontières, selon la gendarmerie.

Une quarantaine d'enquêteurs s'occupent de l'audition des témoins et une centaine de gendarmes ont été déployés sur le terrain.

Enfants Kidnappés 9/12/08

Posted in French from EK for the moment. English translation later.

Enfants Kidnappés - Jane Tanner: an imitation of an interview.

Enfants Kidnappés

The Jane Tanner rogatory interview is also being published, in French, on the Enfants Kidnappés web site. This is the introduction to the first part:

Taped interview.

The events took place at the beginning of April 2008. Each member of the group known as the "Tapas 7" was interviewed by the British authorities. The request was made, as I am sure you remember, by the Portuguese authorities.

The purpose of their new interviews was to update the inconsistencies and above all to see the changes from each member in comparison with their previous statements. This is important, because from the PJ's point of view one or several members of the group were lying in their statements. We are in the middle of an investigation concerning the disappearance or abduction or killing (murder or not) of a little innocent four year-old girl: Madeleine.

To this end, it is totally inconceivable to allow witnesses, who could at any time become suspects, to read, even only to skim through, their previous statements. It was like this, however, that their mock interviews took place, to the detriment of the most fundamental code of ethics, trampling underfoot the search for the truth. Poor Madeleine.

(The first part of Jane Tanner's statement, up to the point where the fire alarm went off, is available here: Enfants Kidnappés)

The case of Grégory Villemin, disappeared October 16th 1984

From the blog of Georges Moréas.

http://moreas.blog.lemonde.fr/

3/12/08

On October 16th 1984, Grégory Villemin, aged four and a half, disappeared from his parents' house in Lépanges-sur-Vologne, in the Vosges. In the evening, his body was found in the waters of the Vologne, in Docelles, six kilometres from his home. His legs and arms were bound by a rope and he had drowned. No trace of violence on the little body

On the evidence, he had been thrown into the river alive - as a cat would be drowned. Suspicion fell on the family. The next day, the child's father, Jean-Marie Villemin, received an anonymous letter: "(...) Your money could not give you back your son. This is my revenge, poor con...."

Two weeks later, the Epinal judge, Jean-Michel Lambert, issued a warrant against Bernard Laroche, a cousin of the Villemins, who was the object of a denunciation by his own cousin, aged 15. What a family! In February 1985, the judge freed him, and one month later the Villemin father shot him with a shotgun. But the rumours took off. They accused Christine Villemin, little Grégory's mother. In highbrow ramblings, Marguerite Duras hammers home the point. Convinced of her guilt, she wrote in Libération that that it was a "sublime, inevitably sublime," crime.

For a long time, the PJ were kept out of this case. Would their investigators have done better than the gendarmes? Commissioner Jacques Corrazi, who later took over the case, was probably convinced of it. He might have managed to curb the delirium of a low-ranking judge whose peers said it was a "mental tightrope." Christine Villemin was subsequently placed under investigation for the murder of her son. On February 3rd 1993, the Dijon criminal court concluded that there was no case against her, and the case was dismissed. Little Grégory's killer has never been found.

Unless...

Twenty-four years later, can forensic science succeed where the gendarmes, the police and the courts have failed? In deciding to re-open the investigation, the Dijon Court of Appeal must consider that the sealed items, which have apparently been carefully preserved (clothing, bonds, poison-pen letters...) could now bring valuable evidence, notably thanks to DNA traces.

This is, I believe, a first in France. Which renews our interest in the genetics file. *

Note: is this what M. Moréas is referring to above? Le FNAEG (fichier national automatisé des empreintes génétiques)

Le + et le du fichier

Dr Ron Polarik on Barack Obama's birth certificate.

This is an analysis of the birth certificate said to prove that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is therefore a natural born citizen of the United States. Barack Obama has been asked by quite a few citizens to produce his full certificate.

Mr Obama, you promised transparency. So, show us your birth certificate!