SOURCES FOR THE GOOSE AND GANDER

It would be a lot easier to decipher the missing Madeleine saga if we understood the sources behind the stories that regularly appear in our newspapers.  Anything by Tracey Kandhola we can assume comes directly from Kate and Gerry, they have been close for many years and it’s unlikely Tracey is still meeting a hooded stranger in an underground car park. Tracey broke the news of the parents meeting with officers from Scotland Yard and floated the idea of two new leads.  Leads SY are keeping to themselves for fear of sending the suspects underground, but helpfully publicized by Tracey in several downmarket tabloids.  This story was confirmed by a ‘source’ from Whitehall, which is as vague you can get, but it implies someone political.

 

Then we have a ‘source’ from Portugal who says the Portuguese police are going back to the theory that Madeleine woke and wandered off.  Source from Portugal is even more vague than the source from Whitehall. Given their very strict Judicial Secrecy laws and the media fiascoes of the early years, how likely is it that the PJ are leaking? Could it come from the PR agency in Lisbon, hired by the McCanns to protect their reputations?  What does a PR agency do, other than manufacture stories for the press?  Just asking.

 

Finally, we have Gerry and Kate blasting the press (via a source) for insulting them with this latest theory (woke and wandered) and Clarence stepping in to state how ludicrous the idea is.  Hmm.  Simply looking at the sequence of events and taking them at face value, it would appear that the McCanns somehow managed to manufacture a very public argument with, err, themselves.

 

Now it may well be that I am confused, I often am, and reading the tabloids online is near impossible with all the ads and pop ups, but having waded (quite literally) through them, I'm pretty sure I have the gist. Actually, sitting back and looking at the overall picture, the entire narrative for this ongoing saga, at least the MSM version, seems to derive from 'sources'.  Even Clarence, their professional spokesman, is often described as a 'source close to the family'.

 

It was actually sources close to the family who planted all the initial abduction stories in the media.  So successful were they, that on the 4th May 2007, we all awoke to the news that the McCanns' apartment had been broken into and their 3 year old daughter abducted.  So successful were they that night, they immediately set up a media monitoring team, not only to create a narrative, but also to seek and destroy their critics.

 

That's the thing with success.  Once you achieve it, you spend the rest of your life trying to recreate it.  Team McCann learned very early on how easy it is to manipulate the masses.  It must have been very vexing for them that Goncalo Amaral and hordes online stood in the way of their grandiose plans for the future.  The mainstream media they could gag, but social media has always been beyond their reach.  When they brought out 'the big guns' to silence those they call trolls, it resulted in tragedy.  There was no public outrage on their behalf, no call to target and imprison online trolls, in fact the public were repulsed.  They had overstepped the line.

 

Despite their decade long battle against Freedom of Speech, they have failed.  They may have gone some way in stopping the MSM from going after individuals and corporations, thus contributing to the rapid decline in newspaper sales, but they cannot stop the rise of bloggers and commentators on social media who tell them the truth.  Controlling the masses is not as easy as it was in 2007.

 

But lets get back to 'sources'.  In the aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance, the sources had names and faces.  Family and friends of Madeleine's parents, who were obviously way too distraught to speak to the media themselves.  It was these sources who claimed there was a break in, there wasn't, and who claimed that the police 'were doing nothing'.  Some might say they were setting the police up for all that was to follow. 

 

Some might also say the McCanns played fast and loose with Portugal's Judicial Secrecy laws.  They certainly used them in their many interviews to avoid answering awkward questions.  Who can forget Gerry's famous tantrum when asked about blood found in the apartment?  'He's a bit hot' Kate said, cool as a cucumber.  They tried the old 'judicial secrecy' again, when Sandra Felgueres asked about the dogs, 'yes I know about Judicial Secrecy, but we don't have it now', she told the flustered Gerry.  Gerry and Kate seem to have their own judicial secrecy, shared by two.

 

Gerry and Kate are very aware that anything they say on camera could be used against them.  Aware, but their love of the limelight helps them to overcome that, they feel the more the public sees them, the more they will like them.  It's kind of addictive.  Now it seems, it has finally sunk in, and any interview they do give, seems forced and uncomfortable. Crimewatch saw a distinctive turn in public perception of this case.  Sceptics rushed to social media and with minimum effort could see the huge flaws in the parents' abduction claim. 

 

Over the past 11+ years there have hundreds of sightings, and hundreds of stories suggesting Madeleine is alive, especially in the early years when the Search for Madeleine crusade was it's height.  Most if not all, stopped when Scotland Yard got involved.  The idea of England's finest trekking off to Morocco or the Amazon, was always ludicrous, and I'm sure any that came in were filed under 'W' for wild goose chases. 

 

So who has in interest in planting 'McCann' stories in the press?  Clarence Mitchell, obviously, in fact all the PR people the McCanns employ, both here and in Portugal.  On the opposite side.  The PJ - highly unlikely see above.  Goncalo Amaral, also highly unlikely, he seems to have moved on and has never played silly media games, so why would he now?  Woke and wandered would also make him look grossly incompetent, he was in charge of the original investigation.  Maybe it was someone well intentioned (towards the McCanns) who wanted to throw the baying press hounds a morsel of prime rib to see how it goes down.  An explanation for why the police are not looking for an abductor or a live child and reinforcing that they [the police] are not looking at the parents. 

 

At the moment I am pondering the enormity of running what must by now be a library of 'sources' and, since the Team McCann use the word frequently, trolls , who patrol social media looking for punch ups.  How do they ensure they all stick to the script?  How many are there?  I imagine there were hundreds in the early days, now, no more than handful, but even that kind of filing system would turn my head into spaghetti. And what if there are opposing forces within those sources and trolls? What if they don't agree among themselves?

 

Wherever it came from, woke and wandered is not an end of investigation theory.  It is something that is ruled out at the beginning, and it was.  Someone I think, is still trying to control the narrative, for what end, who knows. 

 

TWO NEW LEADS - SERIOUSLY TRACEY?

Seriously Tracey?  (Kandhola for the Mail) Do you honestly expect your readers to believe that 7 and a half years into their investigation, Operation Grange have two new leads and need more Home Office funding to follow them up?  What was the previous funding for? And how did they know that in the next 6 monthly cycle two new leads would suddenly show up?

 

The case of Missing Madeleine McCann has been investigated by the police forces of two countries and countless private investigators, in the full view of the entire world, yet only now they have not just one good lead, but two.  Overkill there Tracey, one [new lead] was pushing it, two is just taking the pee.  

 

I really don’t see the McCanns having high tea and a convivial discussion with Scotland Yard detectives as implied by the ever imaginative Tracey. No mention of reassurances from the police that they have been completely exonerated (that which they desire above all else) and no mention of where the two leads are, err leading, ie. to a murder or to a live child. One would imagine that is something the parents would want to know. Their reaction to the ‘police visit’ is a renewed message of Hope’ and a belated thank you to all those who stand by them, via an unknown friend who runs their social media.  Apologies for the Trump analogy, but it's a bit like Trump claiming the midterms were a great success.  Make no mistake, if the detectives had actually said there was hope of finding Madeleine alive, the McCann media machine would have had it on the front pages of the tabloids, before the officers finished their crumpets. 

 

The police of course are saying nothing about the two new leads in case it sends the suspects deeper underground. Regardless that they have already had 11+ years of unfettered digging, and are probably close to the centre of the earth.  Fair dues I suppose, the only two places not to receive Gerry and Kate appeals were the centre of the earth and outer space.  It seems six years in a coma man had two bedfellows.

 

But while we are on imaginary scenarios, imagine being at the centre of a police investigation for 7+ years.  No matter how innocent you were, you would go crazy knowing that detectives were going over your life with a fine-tooth comb.  Every lie you ever told, every secret you thought you had, none are safe.  And even living under this incredible stress for all these years, the parents still have no proof of innocence, no official declaration that states they have been cleared. 

 

When the original investigation into Madeleine's disappearance was shelved by the Portuguese Judiciary, their report stated that the parents of Madeleine lost their opportunity to prove their innocence.  This was all part of the report that along with 'never cleared' never made into the British mainstream media.  

 

Some might say, their lost their opportunity to prove their innocence at the time of the original investigation, but bizarrely have continued with the same strategy since.  That is, neither they, nor Operation Grange have issued any statements that categorically rule them out.  Arguably, OP have further implicated the parents by releasing that photofit (of Gerry) in that long ago Crimewatch.  Suggesting Madeleine may have died in the apartment and digging up the surrounding areas also pointed to the parents.  Why would an abductor/burglar hang around to bury his victim after the alarm had been raised? 

 

In the spirit of keeping it simple stupid, if the police have visited Gerry and Kate it is to tell them they have enough evidence to convict.  Perhaps they offered them a dignified way out, a confession that would spare them a trial.  But these two are finishers, Gerry's battlecry 'there's no evidence', but at this point, it is doubtful Gerry knows what evidence the police have. 

 

Even with the begrudged faux thanks, it is obvious, they parents of Madeleine do not have a good relationship with the police who are looking for her.  I have watched enough 'murders' as I call them, to know that victims families more often than not, grow close friendly relationships the detectives working on their case.  They share a bond and a common goal, they want to nail the fiend who took away their loved one.

 

Kate forgave the abductor too early on, way too early on.  I don't think any mother, no matter how holy and righteous, could ever forgive the monster who killed their child.  But I guess she had to forgive the monster, it was a pious reason not to pursue him to the ends of the earth as most mothers would do.  The detective who searched for her daughter, she did however, pursue to the ends of the earth.  She wanted him to feel misery and fear.  And she pursues him still.  How can anyone not see the disparity between this woman's quick forgiveness of the ultimate evil, and long, slow, festering pursuit of the detective who only ever acted on her daughter's behalf.

 

Sadly, just as I am losing interest in this case it appears to be livening up.  The McCanns get their first house call from the officers of Operation Grange, not to tell them 'your f*cked', but to let them know they have two new leads and assure them of their loyalty and devotion.  OK, I made the last bit up, but Tracey was only two swigs of chardonnay from going there.

 

Even if Operation Grange were looking for an abductor, the real suspects know they will not find one.  And either the police are as dumb as they thought they were, or they are playing cat and mouse with them.  They have rushed this story out via their friend Tracy Kandhola, because there is probably more, and worse, to come.  It would go against everything we know of human nature to expect relations between the McCanns and the police are cordial.  And Gerry and Kate are a prickly pair, reluctant to speak to those they consider inferior, and sadly that includes police officers, as we saw from the way they treated the first police officers to arrive. 

 

They may have a new respect for the British police, particularly as they are the ones who pleaded for a British investigation, but methinks they have no choice.  Since OG began, they haven't dared launch a private investigation of their own, campaign for funds or get new leads on the front pages of newspapers.  All the sightings stopped.  They are in the very uncomfortable position of having to thank the police investigation they despise.  They cannot condemn Operation Grange via friends of the family and sources or Clarence Mitchell.  They must smile through gritted teeth and say how grateful they are.  They are probably spitting feathers. Happily, they have the ever loyal Tracy to run them through the spinner.

 

 

THAT OPEN WINDOW

 

I have to say I was very impressed by a recent Blacksmith blog where he has placed the entries in Kate’s book alongside the entries in Gerry’s blog. Something I have often pondered doing, but never quite got around to, due to it being quite a monumental task.  In a nutshell he has shown us a small sample of all the thousands of lies that can be proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Thanks JB, and thanks for the links, you clearly went to Uni, lol. I somehow wriggled through without ever understanding Harvard Referencing!  But thank you for showing it is OK to revisit old ground, to discuss those huge red herrings that seem to have bypassed all those diehard Gerry and Kate McCann supporters.

 

That open window.  Here’s what I think happened. Just an imagined scenario of course, not an accusation. Ok, that’s pathetic, I’ll go with ‘Some might say’.  Some, those who think like the first two policemen who responded to the call, that an ‘abduction’ scene had been staged. Some might say, the purpose of Gerry’s return to the apartment was to force open the car park window to make it look as though there had been a break in. Unfortunately, he bumped into Jez Wilkins and could not get to the window.  Kate was then left with no option but to open the window herself. Her’s were the only fingerprints found and the window had been opened from the inside not the outside.

 

After Kate raising the alarm, almost the first thing Gerry did was to tamper with check the window.  A strange thing for a doctor to do, especially if he suspected a break in and an abductor. In at least part of his medical training he must have learned about pathology and forensic science. That window, potentially contained the fingerprints and a direct link to whoever took Madeleine.  

 

Bumping into Jez Wilkins was not part of the plan, some might say it threw all their other plans awry.  And by ‘their’, I mean all those who took a collective decision.  Not only did it prevent Gerry from doing his bit, it left Jane Tanner loitering with intent and wearing purple.  

 

I think we all know by now that ‘breaking news’ is the news that sticks.  We are wiser now, but were we in 2007?  The McCanns were.  Not only did they tell the world their daughter was missing, they also told the world how innocent they were. They used the local church for photo ops, and they visited the Vatican. Not only were they displaying their innocence, they were displaying the support they had throughout the world. Well Morocco anyway. Kate’s deluded ‘Rome is preparing itself for our visit’ remains as it is. Deluded. Maybe all the more bizarre and grotesque 11+ years on.  It brings to mind that cringingly embarrassing oscar acceptance speech by Sally Field ‘you love me, you really love me’.  It grieves me to say that about Sally Field, because she should definitely play me should a film of my life ever be made (ok, I fantasize a lot, I also have an Oscar acceptance speech). Not only do I resemble her or she resembles me (especially when playing Sybil) and she can’t hide the crazy behind her eyes, lol.

 

But let’s get back to that window.  It was crucial to the abduction story, it was proof that someone had broken into that apartment with criminal intent.  The ‘break in’ was integral to the parents’ claim that a stranger/abductor had stolen their child.  After all, nobody would be stupid enough to leave 3 vulnerable toddlers alone in an unlocked holiday apartment, judy as they sure as hell wouldn’t leave their money and passports.

 

Gerry changed his statement. Err, alarm bells, major alarm bells.  He didn’t in fact enter the apartment via the locked front door using a key, he entered the apartment via the sliding doors at the back like, err, everyone else.  (how the feck did he get that essential detail wrong?).  Regardless, he later (10 days) remembered that he entered the apartment via the patio doors, no key was involved, but he ‘sensed’ the presence of an intruder, hiding behind the children’s bedroom door. A suggestion Goncalo Amararl demonstrated as ludicrous in his documentary.

 

Of course, had the abductor been in the apartment when Gerry returned to check on the children and use the bathroom, then that window in the bedroom would have been wide open with the curtains whooshing just as they did for Kate. And of course, the bedroom door would have slammed shut.  It didn’t, it remained open through Gerry and Matthew’s checks on the children, it didn’t slam until Kate arrived.

 

In one of their civil actions, I can’t recall just now which one, various witnesses appeared on behalf of Goncalo Amaral. They confirmed that the open window was not an entry or exit point. That is, they proved beyond doubt that the open window was a red herring.  Kudos to Team McCann on that one, they claimed the ‘red herring’ theory as their own. A cunning plan by the abductor to fool the investigators.  What a shame the McCanns don’t have a real enemy to blame for Madeleine’s abduction, there is so much they could project onto him.

 

They daren’t unleash any of their usual anti police spiel on the British detectives charged with investigating this case. It directly contradicts their British police good, Portuguese police bad message.  Up until 2011 the ‘only’ people searching for Madeleine were her parents.  The Portuguese police had given up searching for Madeleine and/or her abductor. The clear message being, they knew who was responsible but (at that time) did not have enough evidence to prosecute.  

 

Madeleine’s parents believe they are intellectually superior to the police, and yeah, it must be said, they believe they are ‘above’ most people.  You could not get a better illustration of that than looking at who they chose for their holiday companions.

 

They are nouveau riche of the worst variety. For me they bring to mind ‘the working class can kiss my ass, I’ve got the foreman’s job at last’ - an amusing little ditty from the 70’s that has become ageless. It pretty much sums up why tories still win elections in the 21^st century.  

 

I truly believe that Gerry, Kate and their intellectual equals, thought it would be a piece of cake to outwit the bumbling third world police forces of Portugal and to charm their way into the far reaching protection of Mother England. Sounds delusional, but kudos to them, they pulled it off.  And probably would have pulled it off if they hadn’t been so greedy as to return to the public again and again for donations.  The donations they had already received were beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, Certainly, no single family hit by tragedy has received the global response and financial aid that the McCann parents received.

 

Gerry and Kate are definitely of that demographic who believe ‘if we build it, they will come’.  They imagine what they want, then move hell and high water to get it. ‘We are finishers’ Kate said. And I believed her.  I’m a finisher too, thought I, I have climbed mountains, metaphorically, to tick off the boxes in my ‘things to do before I die’ list.  I attained a degree, tick. I had weekly column, tick. I had a play nominated for a Sony award (twice!) tick, I had a book published, tick, I have freedom of speech, tick, tick and a few Irish jigs!

 

Apologies for turning that into a tickbox list, but while I’m at it get drunk with Jack Nicholson in New Orleans and sleep under the stars in the Valley of the Kings remain blank :(  Oops, also coffee in the Seinfeld cafe :)

 

But back to that window. Was it a good idea for Kate to release that ‘red herring’ statement? Did it make them look more guilty or less?  I tend to think genuinely grieving parents wouldn’t give two profanities as to what the public thought about the finer details of the crime scene.  They wouldn’t give two profanities as to what the public thought of them period. Creating a viewer friendly public image is the last thing on the minds of parents and loved ones who are reaching out to the public for help. They don’t need image consultants, they don’t need to stage public events and invite the press. They appear on our TVs reluctantly, they are always close to tears, and we the audience want to reach out and hug them. Whoever advised Gerry and Kate to show no emotions is a moron. If it comes from the McCanns themselves, then it is chilling.

 

Again I digress, forgive me.  Imagine you (a generic you) wanted to create a scene from which a child was abducted, how would stage the room so it coincided with your story? If I held a poll I think we would all raise out hands for ‘open a window’. A stranger couldn’t just walk in an unlocked door could they? That is preposterous. The co-signatories to the collective decision also saw this as a complete distraction for the intellectually inferior Portuguese Judiciary. An open window and the word of six (British) doctors, case closed.

 

Unhappily for Gerry and the collective co-signatories, the police officers of the original investigation failed to give these God Complex doctors, the respect they believed they deserved. Literally no-one was taken in by the open window.  But it served it’s purpose on the first night.  That is, it enabled Team McCann and all their accomplices to spread the word that the apartment had been broken into.  The first news that hits the stands is the one that sticks.  Bizarrely, Team McCann knew that.  

 

Unfortunately for Gerry and Kate their past media exposure has not stood the test of time.  Perhaps, in a rare moment of clarity, that is something, Kate foresaw in the future when she declared her book ‘an account’ of the truth.  Some solace perhaps for her children, but still not the truth without the word ‘account’ in front of it. It’s halfway to an apology, the rest will follow later.

 

But back to the subject. That window does indeed deserve a blog of it’s own.  It cannot be used as evidence of a break in, because Kate, by her own admission, says it may have been a red herring.  Clearly that window had left Kate et all extremely vulnerable, enough for Kate to break her silence on the matter.

 

The open window was all the McCanns had to support a stranger abduction - that is, until Jane Tanner came forward with her sighting of a man carrying a child at the significant time.  Open window, JT sighting, parents in the clear, case closed.  Kate’s claim that the open window fooled them just as much as it fooled the watching world, didn’t work. Actually, on a scale of what didn’t work for Team McCann, it is right alongside Gerry’s interview with Paxman and pretence that he was invited to a media conference in Edinburgh. ‘Why are you here Gerry?’. Hmmm.  Who knows.

 

Had Gerry been a few moments earlier, or had Jez Wilkins not appeared, the state of the window may have been more convincing as the point of entry.  Instead opening the window was a spontaneous act by Kate who needed more than a missing child to cry abduction.  The McCanns have stated over and over that little Madeleine would not have been capable of opening that window.  Nor indeed, the patio doors and the two garden gates.  And of course, they accept without question that the abductor was courteous enough to close the patio doors and curtains, and the gates at the top and bottom of the staircase.  How thoughtful of him, particularly as he had a child in his arms at the time.  It is easy to see why the McCanns and their friends have been so reluctant to return to Portugal for a reconstruction.  

 

The staging, such as it was, was clumsy and ill thought out - the timeline written on a torn out page from Madeleine’s colouring book, shows how desperate they were. They were not armed with A4 writing pads, subject dividers and colour coordinated folders and post it notes.  They were right slap bang in the middle of a major disaster. All their careers and futures were at stake.  Unfortunately, their preconceived ideas that the Portuguese police were in some way backward soon hit them full frontal, and none have had the guts to return since.  For the record Operation Grange, filming the reconstruction in Spain (wtf?) with actors, screams you do not have the co-operation of the people you are assisting, ie. The parents of the missing child, and of course, those who were part of the holiday group.

 

That open window has of course, been lost in the sands of time. No-one, not even Kate and Gerry believe the intruder came in via the window.  Kate would of course never admit to opening the window herself, but has gone so far as to say, it may have been opened by the abductor as a red herring. Whilst I don’t wish to project any super powers onto this horrendous fiend, he does seem to have the ability to enter and exit buildings without leaving any trace whatsoever. And the two babies who shared the room with Madeleine carried on sleeping soundly.  Madeleine too slept on, even as she was lifted from her nice warm bed, and passed through a window, or carried off by a stranger.  The voice of her daddy close by, yet she did not scream or call out to him.  

 

Blacksmith has opened, or at least led us to the doors of perception.  The foundation lie was the first one we were fully aware of, but how many were there before?  What if, as we, or most of us, believe, it is all a lie, a great big hoax? Does the UK accept that it has been duped, or does it add a few more layers to the web of lies?

 

As a kid learning board games, we had a saying, ‘cheats never prosper’, I can’t say that turned out to be true, especially with Monopoly, but in the real world, karma is never far away.