A French Chief Police Officer Gives Goncalo Amaral His Support

SOS Madeleine McCann 8/05/09

In Paris for the launch of the French version of his book, "Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira," former PJ coordinator Gonçalo Amaral, yesterday received the unexpected support of Georges Moréas, Commissioner of the French Judiciary Police.

After having read Amaral's book, which in France is titled, "Maddie: l'enquête interdite," commissioner Moréas, founder of the Central Office for Fighting Serious Crime (OCRB) stressed the difficulty for the PJ's work facing the pressure in the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Gonçalo Amaral, who returns to Lisbon today, has defended the reopening of the case, insisting that the investigation into Maddie's disappearance must carry on even if, "now it is necessary to look for a body."

In a statement to the Daily newspaper, "Le Parisien," Amaral has accused the parents of, "having no desire," to see the case reopened: "they have no desire for the truth to come out. However, I am convinced that there are still leads to explore. Unfortunately, it's a body we have to look for."

Duarte Levy

Madeleine McCann - Oprah Show or the McCann Show

Duarte Levy WordPress 28/04/09

Oprah did everything to make the public cry. The tears were counted and now the television show is expected to bring in a new wave of Maddie sightings. Meanwhile, the FBI confirms that it only cooperated with the Portuguese and British authorities and that the “McCanns should have been suspects from first moment on”. Finally, the alarm wave in the Algarve because of the McCann case paedophiles is useless.

Português - Français - Español

During the recording of the show with the largest audience on North American television, the “Oprah Winfrey Show”, last Friday, a tearful Kate McCann stated once more that she believes her daughter is alive and somewhere in the world, after having been abducted from the room where she slept in the tourist resort in Praia da Luz, in Portugal.

After a long moment of preparation in the backstage, Kate McCann even cried in front of Oprah, the star host, again, lamenting that she didn’t recognise her daughter in the images that were presented on a giant screen, and where a Maddie was shown very different from what has become normal to see in the media since the child disappeared on the 3rd of May 2007: the child now appears dressed in blue, looking more tender and sad, as if she had endured long captivity.
The child’s new images, with the look that she would have at the age of six, were created by experts at the National Centre for Missing children and were presented to Kate and Gerry McCann before the show’s recording, during the visit that they made to that institution as soon as they arrived in the United States.

The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which Gerry McCann had already visited in July 2007, is a private non-profit organisation that does not depend from the North American authorities, as an FBI spokesman told 24 horas.

Sitting next to the North American television’s star host, and in front of a mainly feminine audience, which had been previously prepared for a show “with lots of emotion”, as Oprah described it, Kate McCann explained what the family’s life has been like since Maddie disappeared, emphasizing the twins’ suffering over their sister’s absence.

Despite Gerry’s presence, Oprah directed the show’s spotlights on Kate, following the line that had been previously traced backstage, where the production team tirelessly underlined the “emotional environment” that had been created in the room, and where the public, which had been previously selected, was already converted to the British couple.

The real star of the show that will be broadcasted in 144 countries at the beginning of May, Kate told Oprah that she felt Maddie was still alive and that although she didn’t recognise her in the new images, she would be able to recognise her on the street if she crossed her, which didn’t fail to produce some emotional sighs from the public.

The “Oprah Show”, which will also be broadcasted in our country, has still kept part of its mystery, as not even journalists were allowed to watch the entire recording. The final programme will also include images that were recorded in the Rothley house, where Maddie’s room can be seen, tided as if the child could return tomorrow, and Kate playing with twins Sean and Amelie.

Very special relevance is equally given to the documentary that Channel 4 will broadcast on the seventh of May, in which the McCanns will once more launch the idea that an abductor took Maddie from the bed where she slept in apartment 5A, that was occupied by the couple during the vacation that they spent in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve. The new “suspect”, who has nevertheless been identified in the investigation files, is allegedly a Mediterranean looking male, someone who looks Portuguese, and he was seen staring at the apartment where Maddie disappeared from.

The public surrendered to Kate and even counted how often Maddie’s mother cried

As the production stressed, the programme had all the ingredients to please the public that is normally targeted by the “Oprah Show”, and the audience that was at Harpo Studios on West Washington, near central Chicago, ended up becoming emotional over the two women’s tears. “Oprah and Kate were very emotional. The girl’s mother cried at least twice, and even I cried”, 24horas was told by a 47-year-old American, a mother and an unconditional fan of the show: “It’s very hard to get tickets for the show but when I heard it was the McCanns, I spent several hours on the phone to get them.”

Harpo Studios, the only in the world owned by an Afro-American woman, are almost exclusively used to record the Oprah Show, where the public, after requesting their tickets a month earlier, is chosen, searched and checked by a security team at the entrance.

Oprah will prompt new Maddie sightings wave

The publication of images of how Maddie might look today, as well as the presence of her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, on the Oprah show on North American television, may prompt a new wave of sightings all over the world. The alert was given in England today, by an officer with the British police, citing the example of what happens every time someone close to the family or the couple’s spokesman himself, Clarence Mitchell, make the media publish news about a possible abduction and the child’s exit to a foreign country.

“With the publication of the recent images, sightings in the country and abroad have started again”, the officer says, pointing at the news that an English couple saw the child in Malta, as an example: Brian and Glenice White, a retired couple, stated to English police that they saw Madeleine on the 14th of March on a square in La Valletta, the capital of Malta. The couple described a blonde child that played in the company of a “very dark” couple who left when they felt they were being watched.

In Portugal, despite the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remaining in a drawer, the PJ is also worried about the impact that the presence of Kate and Gerry McCann on the Oprah Winfrey show will have, as several inspectors from the CID in Portimão confirmed to 24horas.

“The McCanns should have been suspects from the first moment on”

24horas asked Richard Kolko and Ross Rice, from the FBI in Washington and Chicago respectively, as well as other experts at that North American organisation, to comment on several aspects of the Maddie case and the presence of Kate and Gerry McCann on the Oprah Show.

“Kate and Gerry McCann, as well as their seven English friends, should have been treated as suspects from the first moment on, and only seen as victims when all doubts about them were cleared.” This was the conclusion from an FBI abduction expert, who was contacted by 24horas.
While in England Kate and Gerry McCann were still boarding their plane to the United States, FBI members, at the request of 24horas, analysed the inquiry’s documents from the process, and stressed, among other elements, what they called the “obvious lack of cooperation” from the couple.

For that expert, who is used to dealing with abduction cases, it is difficult to understand that the head investigator was removed and the case remains archived, because “the more time goes by, the harder it will be to find the truth.”

The fact that the “crime scene” could have been contaminated in an innocent manner intrigued the expert, who further stressed that “one of the clues that should be reviewed is precisely that one, to determine how, and by whom, the apartment was contaminated”, adding as an example that “from the moment that there is blood, and presuming there are no other victims”, it’s important to determine what product contaminated the samples.

When questioned about a possible abduction for paedophile purposes, the expert confirmed what the PJ had already said: “Madeleine doesn’t match the profile of a victim that a paedophile would target.”

FBI only cooperated with Portuguese and British authorities

When asked to comment on the recent images of the child that were divulged in England and in Portugal, the North American experts underlined that until today, there has been no cooperation with the couple whatsoever. The FBI only cooperated normally with the Portuguese and British authorities, recalling, for example, the comparison analyses that were made between Madeleine’s DNA and a child’s cadaver in Texas.

Both agents further confirmed that until now no FBI expert took part in the creation of the images of Madeleine that the couple publicised in England.

Paedophilia: Alarm in the Algarve is useless

According to a source at the Public Ministry, in the “Maddie” case, and contrary to what has been publicised, the list that arrived in our country, concerning foreign citizens who were identified as paedophiles or as allegedly matching the typical profile of a paedophile, remains in the hands of the Portuguese authorities but was not handed over to the journalists in the DVD that the Court of Portimão delivered after the process was archived.

The DVD that was delivered to journalists by the Court of Portimão does equally not divulge the identity or details of any Portuguese sex offender, the data having been removed from the process to preserve their anonymity, although they all are part of the PJ’s archives, without exception.

The list includes the names of British citizens that live in Portugal, or might have passed through the Algarve, and are referenced as having committed or having been accused of crimes of a sexual or paedophile nature. Another list, which is considered to be more “delicate”, includes individuals that have never committed any crime but who, according to the English authorities, match the typical profile of a possible paedophile.

It was actually the risk of this last list being divulged that prompted the English authorities to hire law firm “Advogados Morais Leitão, Galvão Telles, Soares da Silva & Associados”, which requested the Court of Portimão to maintain the judicial secrecy over the contents of the English documents, alleging that the major concern of the British authorities was “the physical integrity of condemned sexual offenders or alleged sexual offenders”.

The president of the “Association of Chief Police Officers” (ACPO) himself, Ken Jones, recognised to joint prosecutor Melchior Gomes that “a major part of this material is made of information that has not been proved, concerning named and identifiable individuals”, Ken Jones writes, adding that its publication would impact “their physical safety”. The British officer was equally worried about possible lawsuits against the authors of said list, as the criteria that are used for “selection” are not very clear and often based on anonymous complaints that are never investigated or proved.

Duarte Levy

28/04/09

Madeleine McCann: the "new suspect," is identified in the case files.

The Sun reported yesterday, April 22nd, that as the McCanns headed out for the USA and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, there was a new mystery suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.

"The new suspect was seen in the days before she vanished on a family holiday in Portugal.

Witnesses saw him loitering alone on a road near the flat where Maddie’s family were staying in Praia da Luz.

He will feature in the TV reconstruction of her abduction to be screened by Channel 4 on May 7.

Gerry and Kate have spent months combing the Portuguese police files on the case and believe the man could be vital to finding Maddie — who vanished just days before her fourth birthday.

He is said to be of Mediterranean appearance and in his late 20s or early 30s.

He is NOT believed to be the same man that Jane Tanner, one of the so-called Tapas 7, saw carrying a child on the night of Maddie’s disappearance.

A TV source said: “Information about this man was buried away in the files.

It seems virtually no effort was made to find him by police.

Witnesses said he was staring in the direction of the apartment.”

So, not thought to be the same man that Jane Tanner saw. Well, that might be seen to answer a question raised by the Goncalo Amaral documentary, aired on Portuguese TV. Amaral's film showed how virtually impossible it would have been for an abductor to have taken Madeleine out of the apartment through the window. And now, we have a possible accomplice? Bit too much of a coincidence, I think, in terms of the timing here.

No effort was made to find the man?

SOS Madeleine McCann 23/04/09

The alleged "new suspect," in Madeleine McCann's disappearance, revealed yesterday by the English Newspaper "The Sun," quoting a source linked to the production of the documentary that Channel 4 is going to show on May 7th, was identified by the PJ during the investigation.

According to the English newspaper, the man, of Mediterranean appearance, was allegedly behaving suspiciously and was seen, alone, staring at the apartment occupied by the McCanns.

He would have been around 20 to 30 years old.

The man wasn't the same one that Jane Tanner described to the police, as 24 Horas had already stated. The documentary produced under Gerry McCann's direction will set the scene for an abduction committed by a "Mediterranean," possibly a Portuguese person.

The lawyers and investigators hired by the McCanns had already discovered the alleged "new lead," in the case files which are no longer subject to the secrecy of justice and in which, amongst others, the identities of a few residents, who were investigated at that time, are not included.

In the copy of the case files consulted by the team working for Kate and Gerry McCann, many pages are missing, as for the majority of journalists.

Duarte Levy

SOS Madeleine McCann 23/04/09

Madeleine McCann: Posters torn and lives destroyed

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

29/03/09

The author of this text is not a journalist, but with her sincere and objective words, she has captured much better than most journalists, the spirit of the folk of the Algarve and the Portuguese people in general.
More than a cry of revolt against Madeleine's parents' new campaign, the words their author brings to us here, are for all of us a true lesson, which only a mother's heart and reason can express.

Astro's text (Courtesy of Joana Morais)

"Torn posters and shredded lives"

Earlier today, 'Correio da Manhã' reported on the alleged removal of posters belonging to the most recent campaign that the McCanns have launched in the greater Luz/Lagos area; posters that apparently were torn off by less than cooperative residents of Praia da Luz. A few hours later, the ‘Evening Standard’ was reporting this situation as acts of vandalism, and discussions about the subject on message boards have been lively and intense.

I personally find the subject sad, yet interesting at the same time, but it really would take a very long post to fully paint the picture of what Luz has been going through, since that fateful evening of the 3rd of May 2007.

The fact that there are people who actually trace ANY sort of connection/comparison between the locals' worry about their only source of income - tourism - and respect or consideration for Madeleine, is offensive, to say the least. Are these people supposed to sacrifice the survival of their entire families, in the name of some sort of curse that befell the village, on the 3rd of May 2007? Are these people expected to lay down their lives, because it would look indecorous to try to preserve one’s salary?

These people have done EVERYTHING that they could do, without anyone even asking them to do it; they took time off work, they gave their best efforts, their money, their hearts and souls to help find Madeleine. Anyone who thinks otherwise has either been fed a lot of misinformation by certain media, or is simply cruel beyond comprehension. People walked their feet until they were sore, searching a radius of 15 kms around the village. Those who couldn't physically help, offered food and drink to those who could, and to the policemen and fire fighters who were on location, day and night. Policemen slept in cars, when they slept at all; some were offered a few hours of sleep on a sofa in the locals' homes. The people in Luz cried, prayed and worried themselves sick over a little girl that they didn’t even know, as if it was their own daughter, niece or granddaughter.

Meanwhile, all over the country, people despaired. During those first days, there was criticism of the parents, it would be false to deny it, but the general sentiment was 'we have to find the little girl before anything else'. Finding Madeleine was the only thing that was on everyone's mind, not only in Luz, but all over the Algarve - all over Portugal, really, as many of the early 'sightings' across the country attest.

I think most of you are aware that I live in Portimão, some 30 kms away from Luz. I remember the helicopters flying over our house, on their way to Luz or returning from a day of searches. I remember the posters that were put up on every shop window, every bus stop, every train station, hospital waiting room, supermarket entrance… Thankfully, we never had to endure what Luz suffered, with the invasion of journalists from all over the world, in search for yet another ‘human angle’ story, for that special scope. We didn’t have to endure their raucous parties night after night, either – but that’s another story entirely.

But even 30 kms away from Luz, the worry was palpable, omnipresent, inescapable. Madeleine was the subject of every conversation, everywhere, at all times. This may seem somewhat surreal now, with the benefit of time distancing us from those times, even a bit exaggerated. But in May 2007, it seemed there was nothing that we weren’t prepared to do, even if that implied behaving in an exaggerated manner.

It was precisely this enormous nationwide effort, this extraordinarily intense commitment of people all over the country - an effort that had never been made for 'our' (fortunately few) missing children... – that made what followed that much harder to swallow.

It’s easy to blame the shift in people’s perspective about the case, on the leaks from the PJ, that were only too happily published by the Portuguese media. It’s easy to blame the McCanns’ fall from grace on Mr Amaral and his team (a team that included British policemen and British experts), or on human nature, because the ‘populace’ was envious of the McCanns’ money, fame, good looks.

But look again, please.

You will see a very different picture.

You will see the supposedly devastated, desperate parents, jogging, playing tennis, entertaining guests, posing for photographs, jetting all over Europe. You will see them smiling at the locals when the cameras were rolling – and not even saying ‘good morning’ when the employee from the Batista supermarket delivered their shopping at their apartment. You will see the British media, under the command of the McCanns’ spokespeople, ridiculing, insulting and humiliating the very same people who cried their eyes out for Madeleine.

And when the going got tough, instead of answering the police’s questions, they left Luz without a word. They turned their backs on those who had treated them like family, who had offered everything that they had, and then more.

Some will say that nobody asked the locals to do what they did. Others will say that the McCanns owed these people nothing, that they had to think about their missing daughter, about their remaining children. The McCanns had to protect their family.

Fair enough. God knows I’d protect my family with my life, if necessary; anyone can relate to such arguments.

But there cannot be two different standards just because it suits us.

The people of Luz are protecting their families as well. They have to earn a living, they have no fund to pay their mortgage when times are tough. They have no wealthy supporters, no famous sponsors. All that they have is their arms and legs to do their work, day in and day out, and that work just happens to be, for the vast majority at least, the tourist trade.

Even if for a moment, they put aside the insult, the arrogance, the humiliation that they suffered, they’d still be left with a very basic choice: a campaign of highly dubious success – or the need to restore the shattered image of their village as a safe, family friendly holiday destination.

Finally, just a thought about the proclaimed purpose of this campaign: the McCanns announce that they want to enlist the help of the people of Luz, to jog their memories, to collect any information they may have about the little girl, and the night that she disappeared – in the belief that a member of the population of Luz could have deliberately held information back from the police.

I think in English this is called 'adding to the insult'.

I’m sorry if this offends anyone, I definitely don’t condone the shredding of posters in this case; but if I ever come across one, I’ll quietly, calmly remove it and place it in the paper recycling bin. I don’t need posters to remind me of a little missing girl that didn’t deserve the destiny that befell her.

And neither do the people of Luz."

Translated in Portuguese here, in Spanish here. Reproduced here, here, and here"

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/

The McCanns launch a new campaign in the Algarve for the second anniversary of Maddie's disappearance.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

A little over a month from the second anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, arguing that they neglected contact with the local people, Kate and Gerry McCann have now announced the launch of a new campaign that targets the residents of Lagos and Burgau, the areas closest to the tourist complex of Praia da Luz, from where their daughter allegedly disappeared.

According to information from their spokesman, Kate and Gerry now believe that their daughter Maddie is still alive and that they have neglected contacts with the local people, who will now receive in their letter boxes, a leaflet asking for help, while posters will be put up in the region.

According to the information now made available by the couple, in the days following Maddie's disappearance, "the collaboration of the Portuguese residents of Praia da Luz and surrounding areas was never properly requested," because their attention was only focused on international appeals.

The announcement of this campaign has surprised the residents of the Algarve region, who regard the McCanns' initiative with suspicion.

For months, until Gonçalo Amaral's exit, the PJ explored all lines of enquiry, both in Portugal - in the Algarve in particular - and abroad, but each time the Portuguese and British investigators were obliged to turn their attention to those surrounding Maddie and the nine British people who were there in Praia da Luz at the time of her disappearance.

In addition to the official investigation, the couple had private Spanish detectives and British henchmen in the Algarve, but all the information obtained turned out to be false or of no relevance to the case, which ended up accentuating suspicions about them.

"Experience shows that important answers are to be found in the immediate vicinity. Someone in the area must almost certainly have essential information that would help bring Madeleine back to her family," the McCanns say, suggesting that, in spite of the two years which have elapsed, someone could still have received information that leads to the mystery being solved, the reason for which they are asking that information be given to them anonymously by telephone, by text message, by email of by post.

Duarte Levy (Faro)

24/03/09

Comment: Dear God in Heaven! Are these people really as stooopid as they appear to be? Two years after their child was allegedly abducted from the holiday resort, they come up with this novel idea! Duh! Why not ask the local people? They flew to Rome. Nope! She wasn't with the Pope. They trotted off round Europe and then to Morocco. Nope! Not in any of those places. And now they have made this stunning discovery! Wow! Experience shows that important answers are to be found in the immediate vicinity. Jeez! If they had just asked the police why they always do door-to-door enquiries, or why many of the local people of Praia da Luz stayed off work for a week to search!

And while those local people were searching the surrounding area, both through the night of Maddie's disappearance and for a whole week afterward, what was Kate McCann doing? Well, she wasn't searching! I would have been running around like a wild thing, calling my child's name, banging on doors asking people if they had seen her, only giving up when I was on the point of collapse, but not Kate McCann.



Maddie was nearly four years old when she disappeared and at that time, the McCanns used photos of Maddie, which were at least a few months old. They are still using the same photos in the supposed search for a child who would be nearly six years old in May. If Maddie were still alive, she would look dramatically different from the child shown in those photos. So, like the people of the Algarve, I think the rest of us should regard this initiative with suspicion.

Joana Morais has a video on her blog (Source: SIC, Jornal da Noite, 24.03.2009) which includes interviews with local people in the Algarve.

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/

Brief summary of video report:

The first part mentions facts that are now widely known by the public – the campaign’s purpose, scope, the means involved.

It is mentioned that the subject is distressing for those who live in the village, and the few persons who agreed to speak to the reporter, stated that they find the initiative strange.

First interviewed person: “I think it’s not going to advance anything. While they were here, they weren’t that worried. The family, they were welcomed here like family. Meanwhile, they ran away, I don’t know why."

Second interviewed person: “There was nothing that I, my husband, everyone here in Praia da Luz didn’t do, looking, searching, to see if we could find the little girl. So I think if anyone knew anything, me, if I knew anything, I would try to give the information right away."

Third interviewed person: "They asked a lot of questions. There were many Portuguese persons speaking about the issue. The rest, I don’t know. There’s nothing more that I can say."

In a closing comment, the reporter mentions that almost two years ago, the entire village population was involved, with the police, in intensive searches, and that it could be precisely the reason why this appeal from the McCanns is causing such discomfort among the residents.

By Astro

The second person quoted above said that she would try to give information right away, which seems logical. The police did extensive local enquiries, they searched hundreds of properties and interviewed hundreds of people. So, why this new campaign? Strange!

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The McCanns spent only 13% of the Madeleine fund in searching for their daughter.

3/02/09: http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

The "Madeleine," Fund received nearly 3 million Euros from private donors, but the accounts do not explain where all the money has gone and do not even mention payments on the McCanns' mortgage or mobile phones.

See the original Madeleine Fund accounts (in English) on the SOS Madeleine McCann web site.

The fund, "Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited," created by Kate and Gerry McCann, nine days after Madeleine's disappearance from the apartment in Praia da Luz, received, up to March 2008, nearly three million Euros in donations, but only 13.3% of the money has been squandered, the couple say, in the investigations to find their daughter.

The Madeleine Fund accounts from May 2007 to March 2008 were only disclosed after TVI touched on a few aspects of the use to which the McCanns put the money, in the programme "As Tardes da Julia."

According to the document, to which we have had access, the fund created to finance the search for Madeleine received, up to March 2008, a total of 2,819,403 Euros, of which scarcely 1,222,699 Euros (43.37%) has been spent, most of it for running expenses. The fund now shows a balance of 1,596,733 Euros (56.63%)

Curiously, the McCanns squandered 122,856 Euros (4.36%) on posters and ads, but the document does not specify where exactly these publicity materials were distributed, which leaves a few commentators puzzled, because the various poster and "outdoors," ads distribution campaigns announced by the British media for Portugal and Spain never happened, even in Morocco, the country where the investigators hired by the couple claimed that Maddie was to be found. The only posters distributed were those that Kate and Gerry took during their visit and which they gave to the children who were gathered for the occasion.

Another curious fact is that in the fund accounts there is no mention either of the amounts the couple used to make two payments on the mortgage taken out on the purchase of their house, paid with donated money, as was confirmed to the press by Clarence Mitchell, former head of Tony Blair's government's Media Monitoring Unit and spokesman for the McCanns.

The accounts state that the couple spent 224,529 Euros (7.96%) on public relations and media monitoring, expenses that do not include - if we take account of their own statements - Clarence Mitchell's salary, but which reveal a constant concern with what is going to be said in the media, not forgetting the internet where the couple's lawyers have threatened some of those who do not believe in the theory of Maddie's abduction.

Since May 2007, the internet has been a constant concern for the McCanns, which could possibly explain the amount wasted on the creation and maintenance of the internet pages for the fund and the online shop, where you can buy t-shirts, bracelets and other items related to the little girl: according to the outgoings now made public, the site cost 55,606 Euros (1.97%) in eleven months of activity.

The Madeleine Fund is not a charity, but it is rich, very rich.

While Madeleine's body is not found, the Madeleine fund, "Leaving No Stone Unturned Limited," has its future assured - as long as its legal purpose is to continue to look for Maddie - and financial health that many companies envy, particularly in times of crisis: after 11 months of work, the fund shows a current balance of 1,596,733 Euros, being 56.63% of receipts.

Contrary to what was thought initially, the fund created by the McCanns on May 12th 2007 - scarcely 9 days after Madeleine had disappeared - is not a charity which, according to a former spokesperson for the couple, is explained by the fact that the couple do not wish to be bound by the strict conditions of management imposed by the commission that oversees this type of business, the "Charity Commission," where they would be obliged to scrupulously respect the objectives of the fund and to fully disclose outgoings and receipts.

Being a private fund, the Madeleine Fund is regulated by the same department as small and medium-sized businesses (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - BERR) and as such, after the first year of activity, it is only obliged to submit a summary of accounts.

Duarte Levy (London)

If the elections were today, Amaral would be elected president.

SOS Madeleine McCann 3/02/09

The Maddie case led to Amaral's being dropped as a candidate.

If the Portuguese local elections were today, "Gonçalo Amaral would win with 53% of the vote," defeating the current socialist Mayor of the town of Olhão (Algarve). This is what the leader of the Algarve region's Social-Democrats, Mendes Bota, says, quoting a poll commissioned by his party. (PSD)

The former coordinator of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC) for the Portimão PJ had been approached by the local party leaders to become their candidate for the post of Mayor of Olhão, a town where the socialists have not lost since the carnation revolution in 1974.

In spite of the excellent results for Gonçalo Amaral in the poll by the Institute for Market Research and Public Opinion, commissioned by the Algarve PSD, the Social-Democrat Party's National Policy Committee ruled out the candidate without giving, "any reason for rejecting the nominated candidate, as the party's regional leader confirmed.

According to the poll commissioned by the Algarve PSD, conducted between January 22nd and 23rd, the former coordinator of the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance would have overtaken the current Mayor, Francisco Amaral (PS), in the polls, obtaining a "comfortable victory" for the PSD which they would never otherwise obtain.

It was Manuela Ferreira Leite, the PSD's national president who was the foremost opponent of Gonçalo Amaral's candidacy, rejecting the "promiscuity between politics and the law," a justification that convinced neither the activists nor the regional officers, who stated that they were "saddened," by the decision.

According to the National PSD's decision, Gonçalo Amaral will not be the party's candidate, and any possibility to support him from a list of independents would also have been ruled out.

British influence ruled out Gonçalo Amaral.

""It was Mendes Bota himself who said that Dr Amaral was an excellent candidate and that, for the first time, the PSD would win the elections," a Social-Democrat activist in Olhão stated after the announcement that the ex-coordinator of the PJ would not be the PSD candidate for Mayor of the town, adding, "it's an unbelievable decision. I want to know why. It's the least they can do."

In spite of the justification put forward by the party's national leader, there are those who suggest other explanations, notably the right of the British to vote in the local elections: "they (the English) have the right to vote in the locals, and they were not going to vote for the PSD anywhere if Gonçalo Amaral was our candidate in Olhão," an activist stated.

Gerry McCann's recent meeting, during his visit to Portugal, with a member of the PSD's national committee and the party's national leader's frequent visits to London, is not going to calm things down, even raising questions in the media.

According to a local party official, it is effectively "external factors," which dictated the dropping of the candidacy for Amaral, "who has an enviable cv," but the orders from Lisbon are quite specific: Gonçalo Amaralwill not be the PSD's candidate in any town in the country.

Duarte Levy

SOS Madeleine McCann: McCann - Charm Offensive.

SOS Madeleine McCann 1/02/09

"New year, New Life."

In Portugal, as the start of each new calendar year is marked, the Portuguese, the eternal sardine munchers - as they were described by a few xenophobic British commentators - have the habit of using, along with best wishes, a typical expression: "New year, new life," which in French can be translated as "nouvelle anneé, nouvelle vie (*)" An expression the McCanns probably learned from their Portuguese lawyers, not forgetting their Social Democrat friends.

Meanwhile, the recent visit to Portugal by Madeleine McCann's father is the epitome of an new kind of charm offensive which has allowed the couple to open "hostilities": after being in agreement with their seven British friends not to participate in the reconstruction of the events and actions of the night of May 3rd, the couple have allegedly found the willingness to cooperate with the Portuguese authorities, stating that they are convinced that there are still things that could be done in the investigation into their daughter's disappearance.

Reassuring the Portuguese media that there would be no legal action against them, while in London he was succeeding, once again, in making a British daily back down - forcing another "contribution," to the Madeleine fund - Gerry McCann announced, in preparation for Kate's next visit, that it was the first of many visits.

Arriving at Faro airport on January 13th, Gerry McCann stayed on Portuguese territory for twenty-two hours in order to meet, according to his spokesman, the couple's lawyer and the British Ambassador to Lisbon.

A "surprise" visit, announced in advance by several British and Portuguese media, who say that the year 2009, in terms of communication and image, would bring a few surprises.

Action - Reaction.

Amongst the new resolutions adopted by the McCanns, always very aware of what is being said on the internet (blogs and forums) and in the media, we find the motto "action - reaction", evidenced in the recent "disclosure" of accounts for the fund created after the disappearance of Madeleine's body.

After the use of money from the Madeleine fund to pay Kate and Gerry McCann's expenses, without any direct connection to the hunt for Maddie, was touched upon by a Portuguese television channel (TVI), number one in the ratings, the couple's advisers reacted immediately, producing a summary of the accounts which explain nothing about the real use of the money. Some might even say that this reaction was designed to "pull the rug from under" foreign journalists, because, in the United Kingdom few still have the opportunity to doubt or to question the couple's good intentions, as can be deduced from the few articles published about the accounts.

In the United Kingdom, in spite of the restrictions imposed by the editors-in-chief and the huge sums paid without any kind of legal proceedings, some still happen to be writing about the McCanns.

According to a British tabloid, after 21 months "of agony" Kate McCann is allegedly "obsessed with the search for her daughter," spending three hours a day reading documents in the hope that they could answer the question: "where has our Madeleine gone?"

The very title of the article sets the tone: "Inside the mind of Kate McCann". The journalist doesn't explain how he managed such a feat (getting into such a "tortured" mind), but it is certain that the PJ would be interested to learn the technique which might lead them to find out the answers to the questions that Kate McCann refused to answer, notably this one: what did Kate McCann do on the afternoon and evening of May 3rd 2007.

According to this article - an integral part of the McCanns' new marketing campaign in the British press - Kate spends a significant amount of her time reading the thousands of pages of the 17 volumes of the investigation into her daughter's disappearance, the same documents which a few days ago, her husband and the couple's spokesman, said were still in the process of being translated, but "where there was no evidence."

Again, according to this tabloid, after Madeleine's disappearance, Kate McCann left her job as a general practitioner and while "the twins Sean and Amélie enjoy playing with their friends at nursery," she devotes her time to "digging up clues that would lead her to her daughter."

The article recounts a few more details of that surprising "visit", without, however, providing answers to the investigators' questions....we wonder what that journalist has been doing "inside the mind of kate McCann." It is probably for lack of response that the tabloid changed the title of the article.

Three months away from the second anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, the McCanns' new public charm campaign has well and truly started and other similar articles are to be expected from the British press.

Duarte Levy.

Marcos Aragão Correia: the return

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

Léonor Cipriano's lawyer, Marcos Aragão Correia, has seen the suspension imposed by the Bar Association lifted, but he must still face a disciplinary process for his actions in the Madeleine McCann case, but also in the context of the trial of the five PJ inspectors.

True to himself, the layer who also calls himself a medium, now accuses the presiding judge of the court in Faro, Henrique Pavão, of having a "dangerous liaison," with Me António Cabrita, Gonçalo Amaral's defence lawyer.

Marcos Aragão Correia's accusations were made after his expulsion from the courtroom, following his suspension by the Conduct Committee of the Madère Bar Association. A complaint against the judge was lodged with the Senior Committee of Magistrates.

Marcos and the Maddie case.

On May 6th 2007, (3 days after Madeleine's disappearance) Marcos Aragão Correia stated that so-called sources in the underworld told him that Madeleine MCann had been raped and killed and that her body had been thrown into a "dark lake." Under pressure to identify his alleged sources, he ended up changing his version of the story and said he was a spiritualist, medium: after having participated in a spiritualists' meeting on the night of May 5th, the lawyer claims that he had a vision of a four year-old child "abducted, raped, killed and the her body thrown into a lake or a dam."

In October 2007, he claimed that he had sent a recorded letter from the island of Madiera to Rothley, addressed to the McCanns, apparently containing details, clues and crucial evidence in the case. He also claims that he informed the PJ in Funchal (Madiera)

In the same month, he announced that the famous letter never reached the hands of the McCanns, in spite of the fact that someone allegedly signed for its receipt.

In November 2007, he decided to take legal action against the Portuguese postal system, the CTT, accusing them of not having correctly delivered the letter to the McCanns. According to the lawyer, an officer of the postal services allegedly wrongfully signed the receipt for the letter, but his legal action was considered unfounded and he was sentenced to pay court costs, being a sum of 100 Euros.

In statements to the press, Marcos claims that he only wrote to the McCanns giving them the information, in the absence of a response on the part of the PJ to to information he claimed to have furnished in Madiera.

In December 2007, the liaison between the lawyer and the private detectives becomes obvious. It is then that he is going to become more insistent about his version regarding the presence of Maddie's body in the waters of the Arade Dam where he is going to pay British divers to probe the depths.

Presented in the British media as a Good Samaritan, the lawyer stated that he paid the 1250 Euros daily expenses for the divers from the Dive Time Society of Lagos, with money from Metodo 3.

If the Good Samaritan doesn't have a sense of the ridiculous, he has, however, the concept of the value of the media and he finds ways to alert the British and Portuguese media so that they are present at key moments in the searches: first of all he brings from the water, an ordinary piece of rope which he is going to use to put across the image of a child tied up. After this are black plastic bags containing animal bones, but of which he is going to put across the message that it could be the bones of a child's hand. Finally, after the intervention of the PJ, he will admit that it was really the bones of cats.

He goes as far as stating that he is 99% certain that Madeleine's body will be found in the dam.

In spite of the intervention of the Portuguese authorities confirming that they really did come from a litter of kittens, the meagre findings of Marcos Aragão Correia - at least this is what he stated to the press - will be sent to Barcelona where Metodo 3 had specialists ready to carry out examinations. The results were never disclosed because, as it became obvious, there was nothing to say, confirming once again that the lawyer's only objective was to feed doubt about the official investigation.

Today, Marcos Aragão continues his work. He has become lawyer for Léonor Cipriano, even if his main objective remains the former coordinator of the investigation into the death and disappearance of Madeleine McCann: Goncalo Amaral.

SOS Madeleine McCann: 24/01/09

Paulo Sargento: "Public opinion has been manipulated in the Maddie case" Updated 23/01/09

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

21/01/09

(Updated: exclusive interview with Duarte Levy. Video available on the SOS Madeleine McCann web site. Images by Joana Morais.)

"It is most natural for people whose child has disappeared, to prefer to have around them the police and people who, technically, are going to help them find her and not to go looking, to give an example, for a priest, and immediately after that, an image consultant. It's a simple question...This preoccupation (of the McCanns) leads us to think of something fundamental: in addition to the possible disappearance, there were other incidental concerns and those have grown in importance (in relation to the possible disappearance)"

DL: In relation to the McCann case, what parallels can be drawn between these two cases? Two little girls who disappeared and parents who claim to be innocent.

PS: Categorically, we have two or three questions...the first is unequivocal. Two little girls disappear, don't reappear, no body is found.

Second question: in both cases, from the outset, they claim, let's say, the theory of kidnap. Such as in the case of Léonor Cipriano, such as in the case of Madeleine McCann. Well...and this kidnap is still claimed by the parents. So, the theory of kidnap has been given out by the parents from the start. There is, nevertheless, a huge difference. It is that in relation to the Léonor Cipriano case, the case of little Joana, the transition from innocence to suspicion is rapid.

Rapidly, in one or two weeks, Léonor Cipriano ceased being an innocent mother for whom the whole world felt sad during the previous two weeks, notably in television programmes, where the mother cried, presented the little girl's portrait and gave out this fact, that theory that the little girl had allegedly been taken by a paedophile or someone like that, but who, thereafter, began to be suspected, investigated and then imprisoned, while in the McCann case, that shift, let's say, of assertion of guilt was generally made much later.

And from a sociological point of view, there is, in criminological terms, a clash of social levels because Léonor Cipriano is a poor woman without, let's say, political protection, nobody, because she is a simple unknown from the Algarve region, who had already, in a way...she had a charge linked in a way, to the courts, because she was on file by the Commission for Minors as being a bad mother, etc etc, and rapidly the system is inverted. In comparison to the McCanns!! Because they are of a higher social class, foreigners with protection, by all accounts, at a higher political level. And this transition took longer. But that also means one thing.

The time has come that the truth cannot be hidden forever, however overdue, things are starting to take shape. But here, the question of social level also makes us rethink all the criteria of justice, in the sense that we can think that there are two kinds of justice, according to the social class the person fits into.

DL: With regards to public opinion in the two cases, to the extent that the reaction of public opinion, notably in Portugal, was different from one case to the other, and nowadays how can we explain, for example, that there were no appearances in Joana's case, but there were very emotional appearances in Madeleine McCann's case?

PS: That question is a very interesting one. That question leads us to think that public opinion is more sensitive, has been more sensitive also in the case, in the fact that it is foreign citizens, who are away from their home country, and we Portuguese, this question we have...this hospitality of being a friendly people, who like to be welcoming, with great social skill, this is....we very much like to help and do what needs to be done.In the first instance, that was one of the questions that helped others to make this case a media event. Because there was interest for other reasons, and these were more secret concerns, which won't be easy to explain, which time will tell, which the investigation will explain. One basic reason is that the people joined in en masse. The people made Madeleine a kind of adopted daughter of Portugal which is an interesting thing. And from that perspective, this helped to create, almost a kind of popular search patrol. A kind of popular search militia which to a certain extent could have helped on the one hand, to confuse the police, and on the other hand to find other leads first. So, that is one of the questions.

With regard to the appearances, I always make the comparison with the Roswell case in the USA. The USA, 40 years after Roswell, has continued with almost daily appearances of UFOs and it is all the films that are made, the great sagas with aliens, by Stephen Spielberg and with the war of the worlds. However, there is something Plato said...a very simple thing about myths. Myths are something that attract a scam, a fabulous story, a lie, but it is astonishing how it also explains reality when reason escapes us.

And here, it is the same thing. As long as these appearances are kept up, this myth, the Maddie myth then, if it was the Middle ages, Maddie would have already been beatified and sanctified. Nowadays, she isn't. Because of this fact, fortunately, it is not a problem in our time. But the myth, the appearance, or rather, Maddie's appearances are similar to appearances of UFOs, maintaining....we know that she is no longer alive, but we maintain this theory in our imagination, we know that it doesn't exist, we have good evidence that extraterrestrial life doesn't exist, at least in the extremes, of the kind like Orson Wells wanted to show in the war, when he simulated the invasion by green Martians.

There might be another possibility, but we always have the mistrust that it perhaps exists. Now another curious myth is that there remains and this is a polarisation of human thought, which persists in fact, to preserve the mistake, which is, the appearances which were more negative, more consequential, which were those in Morocco, those were the ones which, for a long time, were the most credible for a certain mass media. People swore on these appearances when we were of the opposite opinion. If I have had three negative appearances, I must immediately think that it's personal, it's about the people, the population is more susceptible, is more open to suggestion and so, there are going to be more things where they don't exist, but that curiously serves, putting this in quotations marks, "to feed," the press and maintain the theory of kidnap going around with no basis whatsoever. So, if there are appearances, it is because, yes, people put this aside and continue to believe that effectively it is a kidnap.

DL: In cases of kidnap which have been proven, where sometimes the body is not found, we always talk of grieving. The necessity for parents to find the body to grieve. In Madeleine McCann's case, to what extent does public opinion need to grieve in this case?

PS: There is a need, and that, it's a fundamental question even for, let's say, closing the case. As long as we do not know truly what happened, there is still a remnant of mistrust. Grieving helps us to compensate for a loss. That means, if we want a quick definition of grief, it is: how I succeed in filling a gap?

How do I succeed at least, in making up for the often devastating effects, from the emotional point of view that this loss has caused? And as a general rule, there must be markers. It is no coincidence that we have cemeteries. We, purely and simply, could mourn, allowing bodies to decompose naturally as nature intends and nothing more.

But no. We have symbols. Symbols which are going to help us be sure that he is there, that this happened, that it is over, and this symbol allows us a transition from the one who was real, who existed, for a memory that is another kind of reality which is proven. And as long as that doesn't happen, as long as there isn't concrete proof, the ambivalence continues and thus the appearances, because as long as we don't know that she is dead, it is possible that she is alive.

So, and it is those, I say, who have a certain interest in a certain press and in a certain type of movement of information around this case who maintain the appearances, at strategic times and circumstances, as a form of information to avoid the grief. That is to say...if we were to think about another case, the Castelo de Paiva case, where, as we all know, 4/5 years ago, a bus with many people fell...an outing...fell...where many people died where the bodies didn't reappear.

We understand that people from the families of the bodies that did not reappear had the greatest difficulty in closing that chapter of their lives. From a sociological point of view, we are going to have great difficulty in closing this event, the Maddie chapter, as long as we don't know what truly happened, as long as we don't have, let's say, the obvious proof. As long as we succeed in giving a nocravo e na ferradura *, this phenomenon will, for that reason, not end. Never....It is as if we may never again be at peace, never be at peace with Maddie as long as we effectively don't know, black on white: the little girl is dead. That's what happened and it's over. She will always be in limbo between truth and lie. She will always be a kind of phantom who is going to haunt Portugal and England and the relationship between the two nations.

* I don't know what this means! Sorry! It looks idiomatic to me. So, maybe if there is a Portuguese speaker here, we can be offered a translation. Thank you!

DL: But....and concerning the couple? Concerning Kate and Gerry McCann, from the known images, from the couple's attitude, can we conclude that they have already grieved?

PS: No, no, I wouldn't come to that conclusion. I would conclude otherwise. All of us alive, all living human beings, have pacts. Things happen, more or less terrible, according to our value system and to the relative severity around the events and the way in which we live intensely and the way we make pacts. What is common here, to both, in the circumstances of couples, for example, who have lost a child, in one way or another, and here we are not discussing the problem of whether there is or is not responsibility, for the obvious fact that they have lost their child.

It is basically...this is described in psychological research, having break-ups. Marital break-ups happen sometimes after these events occur. And Why? Simply because we mustn't think that two people grieve for a shared situation at the same time. This is a key point in perceiving the phenomenon. As luck would have it, one of them will do it before the other. And the one who does it before the other, at a given moment stops having a fixation; for example, with the death or loss of a child, starts to have a so-called normal life. Starts to smile again, starts to go out again, starts to go out to dinner again, starts to....well, life is for living! Because he has reached a resolution, he has already repaired the devastating emotional effects and the other has not! And here, the conflict begins.

Who will be like, "how can you want to go out to dinner when it's hardly two years since our child died?" So, there, those who work from a clinical point of view, with families, perceive this clearly. But this happened a year and a few months ago, in the Maddie McCann case, and there is no visible crisis between the couple. That doesn't mean that it will always be like that, but there would have to be some kind of sign. The only sign we keep seeing is one of a superficial nature, which tallies with the image, naturally they have image advisers, which is elsewhere a social marker of great harmony, for example: from the way in which Gerry writes in his blog, now at least after having started to write again...it's like: "Kate and I are too busy to do that..." which means, trying to always give the idea of normalcy, of someone who is getting on with this search, united with the same goal. But united in the same goal and at the same time they say that they haven't succeeded, let's say, in finding yet. This is something they also lack for grieving about the situation.

And in these circumstances it seems to me that it is nothing to do with having or not having grieved, but above all there is a pact between the two of them on that question, at least from an emotional point of view from what we can see, because they are very formal, and let's say, present, from the point of view of public debate and social behaviour, pointers that suggest making this type of pact, in a ?????? (prélineaire?) and advised strategy to maintain the fact of this endless search, yet from a contradictory point of view.

Why contradictory? Because they are interested in keeping the case in the spotlight, they have been very silent. We can also recognise the idea "well, we have been silent because we are looking for leads....etc..." But these changes, let's say of opinion, people need to know this too, because this case, Madeleine McCann , has ceased to be one which only interests the couple, this interests the whole world, because we can't offer support and subsequently the willingness. So, I would say that it's not about grieving, they have or have not done it, but I find that that's not the problem we should be addressing, but to what extent a kind of pact, formed by strategic circumstances from a social point of view: how long is this going to last?

As long as they can stand the pressure? What is also very strange is how, I don't know if they have psychiatric or psychological or psycho therapeutic support or not, and people have different levels of resistance to stress, but for those who are not... who were not public figures, who were used to the stress of being permanently before the cameras, they were obviously, from an emotional point of view, very good. Strangely good, I would say.

DL: Going back to the Madeleine McCann case, videos that were made a while back by Paulo Sargento....what is the idea behind these videos? I am talking about, for example, in the video where we see the route taken by a car leaving the Ocean Club.

PS: OK. So, in that video where not just one but three alternative routes are drawn, what we were looking to show at that time was a car allegedly leaving from outside the back bedroom window, let's say, of the apartment where theMcCann couple were staying. The car leaving by the road that goes behind the Ocean Club to the church, or by the road that runs in front of the Ocean Club to the church, taking around 27/28 seconds to travel this route at a speed of 50km/h. This would be the maximum speed permitted in a residential area. So, that was the calculation made. In one of these routes, the car would have two advantages in taking the route. Let's say that there is someone taking the little girl in a car, alive or dead, whatever, to the point from which they can go off on another tack, notably by sea or wherever.

This route takes 26 seconds and if it's along the ring road, let's say, on the right of the Ocean Club where it doesn't pass very close to the door, that route is practically straight. It is a route with no obstacles. There are few people because it is disused land. I don't know if it still is, but at that time there was disused land of around two hectares which was off-limits to the public because of works. So, there weren't a lot of people present and so this would be a route that a car would travel in under 30 seconds to get to the church, and let's imagine that there were was a third person, an accomplice could take the little girl and take her to another place from that point.

Then there is another route that takes, perhaps a second less, but there are more turns, there are usually more people around there. It is above all a question: it goes past the door of the Ocean Club. Let's imagine that it is someone known to the group of 9, who is taking this route with the little girl, he would be noticed by many. Whatever the route, that shows one thing. It shows the possibility that in less than 5 minutes, someone could leave the table at the Ocean Club, having taken the little girl in a car, go as far as the church, come back and in 5 minutes be chatting with his friends. That's a clear demonstration.

DL: So far, we know that there were gaps in the information. We know more or less the amount of time that was available to the couple, to certain of their friends for being away from dinner at Ocean Club and in the first news that appeared, a space of time of 12 minutes was mentioned. 12 minutes then, would be enough time to get a body out of an apartment?

PS: Half that time would be more than enough, comfortably enough.

DL: In relation to the Madeleine McCann case, those Identikit portraits that appeared one after the other, up to what point can credibility be given either to the witnesses who created the Identikit pictures or the Identikit pictures themselves, because there are big differences between them?

PS: Yes, they are different. I find those Identikit portraits a complete deception and there are mistakes at all levels, the first of which is with the photo. The Identikit portrait is a product, let's say, created as a general rule by an artist or a police technician from a witness statement. So, the first question we have to ask ourselves is if the witness statement is credible. In two situations the witness statement was from a lady called Jane Tanner, who belonged to the Tapas group, didn't she? And this lady, as can be checked, in the questionable things she produced for the police, there are modifications. That is more than enough reason for us to be cautious.

When we look at the Identikit picture, then the sketch by the police artist is the result of an attempt to transform the result of a creation, let's say, questionable, from a person who is constantly in the process of modifying her witness statement. To give an example of that, in the first sketch, we have something like having seen a man carrying something in his arms, something that looked like a child wrapped in a blanket. And in the second it was Maddie who was in the arms of that person so that in the Identikit picture we see a drawing of a little girl being carried in the arms, in a very strange way, because no human being carries carries like that...thus, it is simply in very special circumstances unless she was obviously dead but I don't see anybody out in the street with a dead child, showing her to the public.

Yet, this is deception.

What astonishes me is that an experienced artist, for example a forensic police officer, can make such a basic mistake as that and about the details, the proportions, of a three year-old child. The proportion she confers on the person carrying her, is badly reproduced in the sense that the legs are purely and simply too long in comparison with anthropometric guidelines, which I repeat, a forensic artist has an obligation to know and to work in that way. This is the reason that it's totally misleading.

But there is another very interesting question. It is that this picture is definitely produced with pyjamas, which were only presented in public, the image of those pyjamas...after Jane Tanner had produced the first story. In the second, she modified them. So, a first Identikit portrait agreeing with the witness statement. Then this is according to the technical skills which a forensic artist must have in her training and clearly she cannot make basic errors like that. And then an Identikit picture nearly always claims to identify what is most identifiable about human beings and we know that we are more identifiable. Babies look at a special part of our bodies, our face, the triangle of eyes, nose, mouth and every person having seen another person, instinctively where does she look? It's the face.

And if someone saw somebody and he suspects this somebody of taking that little girl, it is somewhat astonishing how he notices the classic shoes, the beige trousers, the browncoat , the beige shirt, the qualities of the colours so difficult to see at night and also is also attentive to details and retains them for a long time and he has no idea about the face.
Well, that's not an Identikit portrait.

In finishing and most important from my point of view, and what effectively reflects the willingness to maintain the theory of kidnap at all costs, through gross errors like those which I have just been talking about and I say again; good, but look. It's a portrait created by a forensic artist with FBI training. But what do we have here? The clear imposition of an authoritative argument in favour of the authority of the argument. If the argument is good it doesn't matter whether it's made by the FBI or made by whoever else, or all the institutions known to be competent, who have 100% competent people. So, this is an absolutely extraordinary error and it is on that basis that we are trying to show that video, purely and simply to say that this Identikit portrait is a deception and further, the third to appear, a sketch of a bearded person and, as has very often been said jokingly, very like the ex-Beatle, the shy George Harrison. It was produced not by the witness Jane Tanner as we are led to believe, but by an English citizen, British, who was not in Praia da Luz at the time when the little girl disappeared, but it was around a month after she saw a man with those characteristics and it was based on those characteristics after a few discussions, she had said that it was someone who looked Mediterranean, who reproduced this third Identikit portrait.

Which means....it's too much of a coincidence that the guy stays there, after having kidnapped, nearly a month and that this lady should see the same guy. Now, this was good for a detective agency working for theMcCanns, finding in Altura in the Algarve, near Vila Real de Sao Antonio, a guy who also had a beard, with quite long hair, who by chance, also had a brown shirt and who was there in Altura, which is half-way, for example, between Praia da Luz and Huelva where had also been, at the same time, as if that wasn't enough, a little girl had been abducted at the time, when it was discovered she had been abducted and murdered by a paedophile.

Only at that time, that wasn't known and probably this set up a guy, which is clearly demonstrated, by facial comparison using anthropometric reconstruction, let's say, the facial proportions, which have nothing to do with the Identikit portrait, and who, in addition is a citizen who has mental health problems.

That was useful for maintaining, for a while, an Identikit portrait which was itself a misleading portrait and constructed, I would hazard and I would say, artificially, because purely and simply the arch of the eyebrows and the lower part of the face don't coincide in proportion and we are in the process of creating an ambiguous type of human being, because the upper part is typically masculine as far as the eyebrow characteristics while over accentuating the features....his cranial prominences were more distinct and he looked nasty. When we would like to, for example.....even in the cinema when we want to cast an actor to play a criminal, we are not going to cast an actor with delicate features. A more rough and ready type is cast. That Neanderthal eyebrow prominence creates fear, doesn't it?

This upper part is like that, but this lower part is more like the citizen, for example more Anglo-Saxon, while the upper part looks like a North African. But, whether what we have here is a hybrid kind of person, what we need to know is if this is another incompetence by the artist or if it is something more dangerous than that, a forgery to create an ancestral criminal stereotype.

DL: One last question, perhaps, concerning the campaign that was created around the case. From a psychological point of view to what extent can we consider the use of Cuddle Cat, the walks by the sea, their going to church, to what extent can we explain that in terms of manipulating the public?

PS: I believe that.... the actions themselves are evidence of manipulating public opinion because normally when a child disappears, with the loss of a child, we should look at the more common human behaviour, which doesn't mean that being more common, there aren't other people who behave differently without their becoming suspects or whatever and being accused. But the most natural is that people whose child has disappeared, a loved one, whoever it may be, prefer to be surrounded by the police and people who help them technically to find and don't as, for example, on the first night, a priest was sought and soon afterward an image consultant.





(To be continued as I carry on translating this lengthy piece!)





Entrevue exclusive par Duarte Levy. Image par Joana Morais. 2008/2009 ©Tous droits réservés.

Video of Paulo Sargento's interview is available on the SOS Madeleine McCann web site.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

Metodo 3 seeks to restore its image after Madeleine McCann

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

From Duarte Levy (Huelva)

Detectives are seeking to claim credit for dismantling an image-exchange paedophile network.

Metodo 3, the Catalan agency which worked for the McCanns during the months following Madeleine's disappearance, is now seeking to restore its image, tarnished by the lack of results in that case, but also by the recent allusions made by the couple's spokesperson.

Francisco Marco, director of Metodo 3 has convinced the Spanish daily, El Mundo, that its detectives helped the Spanish police to arrest members of an image-exchange paedophile network on the internet, information denied by a source from the National Police.

"The operation did not originate with that agency. The network in question was already under surveillance by our services for some time, but we were waiting for the right time to catch the most individuals and thus to bring an end to their activities," states a spokesperson for the National Spanish Police, contacted by SMM, stresing that "the intervention of that agency only precipitated matters. It was a risk to wait knowing that private detectives and particularly those ones, had information and were risking putting our investigators work in jeopardy."

According to the daily newspaper, known for its relations with the Barcelona agency, information gathered by the Metodo 3 detectives in the course of their investigation into Maddie's disappearance, allegedly helped the Barcelona Computer Crimes Squad to catch up to 23 internet users, 13 of whom were arrested in the course of the operation "Lolita P-mix" launched by the Spanish authorities.

Francisco Marco explained to the daily that the agency had created a call centre for world-wide exposure of Madeleine McCann's disappearance and that it was following an email received, saying that the little British girl figured in a paedophile video, that they happened to locate a series of images exchanged on the networks "Peer 2 Peer", "Gnuteklla" and "Donkey 2000". Maddie did not figure on any photo or video but Metodo 3 was obliged to pass on the information to the Computer Crimes Squad in Barcelona, a legal obligation that not even the detectives can escape.

Since the creation of the Computer Crimes Squad in 1995, many thousands of people have been arrested in Spain, or abroad, for crimes linked to paedophilia, in particular the exchange of photos or videos on the internet. The Squad now maintain excellent collaboration with other foreign police forces, which has allowed them to contribute directly to the dismantling of many large networks.

19/01/09