Sunday, 15 February 2009

Barack Obama: "I'll make our government open and transparent."





Transcript of the video:

(Please watch this video with reference to the video I posted on Friday February 13th, of John Boehner talking about members of Congress having 12 hours, from midnight, to read through 1100 pages of the "Stimulus Bill," before voting on it.
)

Barack Obama "Public Will Have 5 Days To Look At Every Bill That Lands On My Desk"


Obama said:


"I'll also be instituting an absolute ???? (can't make out the word) so that no registered lobbyist of this ???? (and again!) can curry favour with members of my administration based on how much they can spend on a fancy dinner.

I'll make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people's business.

Just as Louis Brandeis once said, "Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant," and as president I'm gonna make it impossible for Congressmen or lobbyists to slip pork barrel projects (*) or corporate welfare into laws when no one's looking because when I'm president, meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public: no more secrecy. That's a committment I make to you as president.

No more secrecy.

And when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it so that you know what your government's doing.

When there are meetings between lobbyists and a government agency, we'll put as many as po...as many of those meetings as possible online for every American to watch.

When there's a tax bill being debated in Congress, you will know the names of the corporations that would benefit and how much money they would get and we will put every corporate tax break and every pork barrel project online for every American to see and you can decide whther your representative's actually representing you."

The Stimulus Bill broke 7 Obama promises.

1. Make government open and transparent.

2. Make it "impossible" for Congressmen to slip in pork barrel projects.

3. Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public. (Even Congressional Republicans shut out.)

4. No more secrecy.

5. Public will have 5 days to look at a bill.

6. You’ll know what’s in it.

7. We will put every pork barrel project online.



(*) Pork barrel projects:
Typically, "pork" involves funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects, certain national defense spending projects, and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples.

Thursday, 12 February 2009

Fitna by Geert Wilders

I have read and heard people saying that Wilders has taken sentences out of context from the Qur'An. I have checked what are thought to be accurate translations by well-respected Islamic scholars and the wording of the texts quoted by Wilders is perfect. However, I am willing to be convinced. So, if someone can show me in what way these are taken out of context, ie., what the original intention was, if different, AND they can show me texts from the Qur'An which are comparable to Jesus teachings from The Sermon on The Mount, eg., "Love your neighbour," and "Love your enemy," then I may reconsider my opinion about the Qur'An being a book of hatred towards Jews and Christians.

Maybe someone could show me a quote from the Qur'An that expresses a similar sentiment to 1st Corinthians 13: "Faith, hope and Love, and the greatest of these is love." Note: this is not just referring to love for your fellow Jews or your fellow Christians. The love here is not qualified. So, is there such a text? Faith, hope and love for ALL of your fellow humans, totally unqualified as believers in Allah, just everyone? Please show me.


Fitna Part 1



Fitna Part 2


Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Glen Beck presents.....

The Obama National Anthem.



Star Parker on Obama's birth certificate.



And here is Mr Obama not saluting the Star Spangled Banner unlike everyone else on the platform.

Thursday, 5 February 2009

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

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

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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)


Tuesday, 3 February 2009

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)


amaral large 2.jpgThe 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

Monday, 2 February 2009

SOS Madeleine McCann: Metodo 3 under investigation in a case of embezzlement and money laundering.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

2/02/09

Francisco Marco_Metodo3_30042008A.jpg

Metodo 3, the Catalan detective agency hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to look for their daughter Madeleine, is today cited in a large scale investigation launched by the Spanish authorities involving six ministers of the Generalitat of Catalonia.(*)

According to a memo from the prosecutor's office, in recent years, the Catalan government, has allegedly commissioned and paid for a significant number of reports that seem to have no purpose or interest, quoting by way of an example, "the socio-economic enquiry on hazelnut farming," commissioned to the Metodo 3 detective agency for the modest sum of 30,000 Euros.

According to the prosecutor's office in charge of the investigation, we will be looking at a case of embezzlement and money laundering.

The Spanish authorities' investigation follows accusations by the "clean hands," collective and targets a case of embezzlement and money laundering, as confirmed by the prosecutor's office.

Metodo 3: after Maddie, the search for hazelnuts.

noisettes.jpg

It was the Agriculture adviser, the socialist, Joaquim Llena, who commissioned from Francisco Marco - director of Metodo 3 - a "socio-economic enquiry into hazelnut farming," costing 30,000 Euros.

According to a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, "only the name of the agency linked to such an investigation, drove the investigators to wonder about the real purpose envisioned by the adviser's commission."

According to a source close to the investigation, the report presented by Metodo 3 about the Tarragona region, the region in Spain that produces most hazelnuts, was allegedly copied word for word from the internet, information elsewhere confirmed by "El Confidencial," which states that Metodo 3 allegedly copied word for word a report previously published by the region's official newspaper on its internet site.

In Spain, Metodo 3 has already been linked to other scandals linked to the world of politics and finance and, recently, has been investigated for its work in the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance where one of Francisco Marco's close associates, António Jimenez, has been accused of having taken several British journalists to meet witnesses, who were paid in advance to say that they had seen the little British girl in Morocco. Metodo 3's associate, head of the Maddie investigation was, thereafter, arrested in a case of trafficking and theft of cocaine.

According to sources linked to the legitimate Metodo 3, several detectives in its service have called into question Francisco Marco's competence in the Madeleine McCann investigation, accusing him of having destroyed the agency's credibility, notably after having set up a disastrous communication strategy.

According to the prosecutor's office, the embezzlement and money laundering could involve huge amounts of public money.

Duarte Levy & A. Finkelstein

2/02/09

(* The Generalitat de Catalunya ("Government of Catalonia") is the institution under which the Spanish Autonomous Community of Catalonia is politically organised. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat and the Executive Council or Government of Catalonia.)

Sunday, 1 February 2009

SOS Madeleine McCann: McCann - Charm Offensive.

SOS Madeleine McCann 1/02/09

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"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.


madre mccann con pupazzo.jpg

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.

Thursday, 29 January 2009

What can you buy for £20? A school uniform, a pair of shoes and a school bag to send a child to school in a very poor part of India.


Just £20 a year will provide a school uniform, a pair of shoes and a school bag for a child in one of the poorest communities in India. Please consider sponsoring just one child into life-changing educational opportunity. Thank you.

This is the school:

MS Foundation

We were founded as a charity from 15th August 2007 to provide education and
training for poor people in the slum area Yellammabanda at Kukatpally, Hyderabad AP.

We are a community of people dispossessed from our lands and homes - many families of migrant labourers. We made a survey and it was clear that people at Yellammabanda need education to lift themselves from their poverty. First we have started the school up to grade 10 and we have 150 students, but would like to take more.

Many families are living in terrible conditions and have come here to find work. The family would like to send them to school but instead the children are sent out as labourers and servants.

You can help to lift one of these families from poverty and provide a child with education. Please click on the link below to learn more.

http://msfoundationschool.org/sponsors.html

Sponsors will be given the details of their sponsored child, plus a photograph every year. They can email the child occasionally through the school email address (but not directly). They will thus have an opportunity to watch their ward grow into maturity and have the pleasure of knowing that they have contributed to the education of a future parent.

If you would like to sponsor
a child, please email sponsors@holloways.org


Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Marcos Aragão Correia: the return

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

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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.

1205425334_0.jpgIn 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


Thursday, 22 January 2009

Christina Hinderer is now back home.


Christina Hinderer - endangered runaway

Christina, who disappeared from her home in Texas last year, was found on January 9th and I am pleased to report that she is now back home in Texas.

Christina disappeared on October 7th last year and was located in Long Island, New York, thanks to the hard work of her mother in publicising Christina's disappearance via the internet and hiring her own detective.

My very best wishes to Christina and her family while Christina settles back into the family home and for the family to work together towards peace and understanding.

God bless you Christina's mum, who never gave up looking for your daughter.

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

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/

Monday, 19 January 2009

Metodo 3 seeks to restore its image after Madeleine McCann

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

From Duarte Levy (Huelva)

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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


Sunday, 18 January 2009

Estelle, Maddie, Antoine and the others


Georges Moréas Police Etcetera 18/01/09

The information in the press about a new lead in the investigation into the disappearance of little Estelle Mouzin, even before the facts are verified, interests a great many people. Some have reacted violently on the sites of the journalists who have related the information. Thus in Libération, we can read: "That article risks being Estelle's death sentence - Well done the telly and the newspapers! Whether this girl is Estelle or not you are signing her death warrant in publishing that photo - What a lack of professionalism! It's shameful."

Or again in Le Monde: "If she is still alive, this information is scandelous...I'm stunned by the irresponsibility of AFP for producing the news item about it."

(* Le Figaro)

As for Estelle's father, he was astonished that journalists were aware before the investigative measures were implemented. Adding, however: "This confirms the ongoing investigation and the ideas held by the new Versailles PJ director, during the annual conference of the Estelle Association on January 10th in Guermantes." In fact, commissioner Philippe Bugeaud, at that time, referred to the thousands of statements still in the process of being checked and also "millions and millions of telephone checks" (In the days that followed the child's disappearance, all communication exchanges in the area were looked at - Something never done before).

Remember, Estelle was abducted on January 9th 2003 (Read here) on her way home from school in Guermantes, in Seine-et-Marne. I don't think an investigation has ever put so many resources into operation. Alas, without success until now.

On May 3rd 2007, in the south of Portugal, it was a little English girl aged 4 years, Madeleine McCann, called Maddie, who disappeared from her bedroom while her parents were at a restaurant. In the months that followed, the investigators assembled a stack of suspicions against the parents, in a tense atmosphere between Great Britain and Portugal. So much so that the police officer heading the investigation finally slammed the door. (Read here) The parents were let off the hook and the case archived. Now, it is private detectives who are continuing the investigation and a reward of 2.5 million pounds is offered to, "anyone who gives information that contributes to finding Madeleine alive and returning her safely to Rothley in the Leicestershire area."

On September 11th 2008, little Antoine, aged 6 and a half years, disappeared from the family home in Issoire, in Puy-de-Dôme, while his mother and her partner were at a restaurant a few hundred metres away. Both have a previous record and the investigators are focusing their investigation on them. (Read here) Sébastien, the mother's partner, is in prison on a criminal charge and the mother, Alexandrine, aged 23, is the object of permanent surveillance. At time of writing, she is on extended remand for driving without a licence. She denies this. Following this arrest, Le Figaro outdid itself with an article whose very title makes my hair stand on end: "Antoine's disappearance: the noose tightens around the mother."

This young mother is, undoubtedly, a drop-out, which doesn't make this child-killing or an outlet for the press.

She may be guilty, but if there is the least proof against her, she will spend a long time in prison.

Thousands of people disappear every year, men, women, children. Most of them are found, but for one or two children, there is no news. You can imagine the parents' anguish.

Three missing children:

- Estelle: five years later, the investigators are still active.

- Maddie: private investigators and money, lots of money.

- Antoine...

(* )Le Figaro 17/01/09)

The Parisien reveals that investigators have discovered the photograph of a teenager resembling the young girl, who disappeared in Guermantes in 2003, on an Estonian pornography site. Police officers are going to Estonia.

If Estelle Mouzin, that little ten year-old girl who disappeared six years ago from her village of Guermantes, is still alive, is she being held in Estonia? French police officers are to go to that Baltic state very soon, reveals the Parisien. Alerted by an internet user, investigators discovered on a pornographic site, hosted in the United States, but created in Estonia, the photograph of a naked teeenager who resembles Estelle in a way that is troubling. "The internet user who contacted us saw this face and immediately made the connection with the young Estelle Mouzin," someone close to the case revealed to the daily newspaper.


The first work on the photo from the site surprised the police officers. On a computer, they superimposed images of Estelle on the photo of the teenager and observed that the facial proportions seemed to correspond to those of the young schoolgirl, who disappeared on January 9th 2003 on the way between her school and her home. The Central Directorate of the PJ, (DCPJ) placed the paedophile site under surveillance. Sophie Combes, the investigating judge in charge of the case, sent two international rogatory letters. The police are going to interrogate the site's creators to try to find out more about the identities of the teenagers presented.





Cipriano case - Joana is dead

17/01/09

Joana is dead (*)

"There is only one truth in that statement, Joana is dead, the rest is no more than a tissue of lies."



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Four years ago, a child was killed at the hands of her mother and her uncle. her crime was to surprise them having sex. She was called Joana and, in addition to the fact of being negelcted by her mother, she was the victim of sexual abuse.

Yesterday, from the Odemira prison, her mother, legally declared responsible for her death, signed a statement in which she confirmed such death, attributing sole responsibility to her brother.


There is only one truth in that statement: Joana is dead. The rest is no more than a tissue of lies from someone who was declared a psychopath and who, from the first moment, lied to the police.

Unlike other murdered children, those responsible have been brought to justice and sentenced for the heinous crime.

For Joana's mother, it is not enough to ask for forgiveness, she must stop lying and tell the truth. That will be the moment of true redemption and Joana's soul will rest in peace.

Joana suffered in life and at the moment of her violent death. It has not been possible to avoid such sacrifices, but we have contributed to justice being done.

It is because of this case and others that we are proud to have been police officers, to be able to look at the sky and say: by the grace of God...I was a police officer.

Gonçalo Amaral

(*) Opinion piece by Gonçalo Amaral, published in the Portuguese daily, Correio da Manha

Note: Léonor Cipriano has had several versions about the disappearance and death of her daughter since September 2004. More recently, she said she did not know what had happened to her daughter Joana. Further, she has even stated that she believed that Joana was still alive.

These statements were made in the Faro courtroom, before judges, the jury and the public at the trial of the five PJ inspectors.

This is only an umpteenth version...Now, a few versions later, Joana's mother reveals that Joana was killed by her uncle, João Cipriano.

SOS Madeleine McCann

Saturday, 17 January 2009

The Cipriano case: Joana was battered to death by her uncle.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

17/01/09

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The new witness statement has been written by Marcos Aragão.

Yesterday, the lawyer, Marcos Aragão Correia revealed to the press, outside the trial of the five PJ inspectors, a document signed by Léonor Cipriano, in which Joana's mother accuses her brother, João Cipriano, of being the sole perpetrator of the little girl's murder.

In this eight page document, written by hand by the lawyer, Léonor Cipriano explains that her brother convinced her to sell Joana, but that "the people didn't have the money promised (an amount Léonor has not revealed) and João did not hand over the girl.

(To read the complete document click here for the photos or the PDF).

This umpteenth version is, according to Marcos Aragão, "the true story," Léonor's witness statement recounting exactly what allegedly happened to her daughter Joana, who disappeared in September 2004.

"When Joana left the house, the intention was to hand her over to the people and simulate a kidnapping," the lawyer states, explaining that her uncle, João Cipriano, had taken along the little girl's clothes in a large bag.

According to Marcos Aragão, Joana allegedly heard the whole discussion between João and the buyers, threatening her uncle, "that she was going to tell everything," after which, "he allegedly started battering her, finishing up killing her."

According to this new witness statement, written by Marcos Aragão, Léonor was not present at the time of Joana's death but João Cipriano allegedly confessed his crime to her: when he came home, he tried to hide the murder, but, at Léonor's insistence, who allegedly detected traces of blood on her brother's trousers, João ended up admitting having killed Joana and having hidden the body in a place close to the house before burying it the next day.

Umpteenth version targets Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator.

It was outside the trial of the five PJ inspectors that Marcos Aragão Correia - the same lawyer who stated that he had a vision that Maddie's body was in the deep waters of the Arade Dam - chose to present the document to the press, stressing that Léonor, "decided to leave this out and say that she knew nothing," because of, "her brother's threats," but that the confession of her participation in Joana's murder was allegedly made, "under torture," when she was interviewed by the PJ inspectors.

The new version of the events surrounding Joana's death will, meanwhile, be used by Léonor's lawyer to point the finger at former inspector, Gonçalo Amaral, officer for the disappearance and death of Joana in 2004 and of Madeleine McCann in 2007.

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In the document which the lawyer wrote and Léonor signed, the former inspector is accused of knowing the truth: "If Mr Amaral knows it, then why did he ask people to beat me up? Why?"

In statements to the Portuguese press, the former coordinator of the PJ's DIC in Portimao, contented himself with saying that Léonor Cipriano was already considered to be a psychopath (see the video by the psychologist Paulo Sargento) and that she was lying, stressing that Joana's mother, as well as her brother João were tried and convicted for Joana's murder, all "the rest was lies being put about."

Gonçalo Amaral's lawyer, António Cabrita, goes further and after having considered that the document presented by Marcos Aragão had no relevance to the ongoing trial against the five inspectors, stated that he did not believe it was Léonor's work, but rather the work of someone else: "an obvious manipulation of the prisoner for other purposes," notably the sullying of Gonçalo Amaral's image.

Review of Léonor's conviction must await the end of Amaral's trial.

The request for review of Léonor and João Cipriano's convictions will await the final result of the trial of the five PJ inspectors, accused of having committed acts of torture during an interrogation, the day after Léonor's confession in the presence of her lawyer at the time.

In November 2005, the two siblings were sentenced, respectively, to 20 years and four months in prison and 19 years and two months. In May 2008, the Supreme Court of Justice reduced the sentences to 16 years and eight months in prison.