Madeleine McCann: The A-Team, Ruining Lives And Spinning The Single Thread
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
DAILY STAR: “SECRET A-TEAM IN HUNT FOR MADDIE”
In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground.
Desperate Kate and Gerry McCann have forked out £500,000 on an “A-Team” of former top spooks to find missing daughter Madeleine.
Can the plan come together?
The couple now have “a global operation” of dozens of retired FBI, CIA and even MI5 agents dedicated to solving the mystery of her disappearance. The top secret team has been given six months to solve the riddle.
Pah! The A Team can do it in 40 minutes WITH ad breaks…
Says the McCanns’ spokesman – and still the McCanns’ spokesman – Clarence Mitchell:
“They have been on board for a few months and are on a six-month contract. For security reasons we can’t go into detail of the experts involved but it would not be wrong to say some are former military and police personnel with a degree of expertise.”
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… The A-Team.
THE GUARDIAN: “Diary: Esther Addley”
Our sympathies today are split, however, for we must also spare a small pang of pity for the security guard in Brussels who on Tuesday told the Sun about his sighting of a young girl who absolutely, definitely, without question was Madeleine McCann. “I saw her face and recognised that it was her,” said the man. “I would bet everything I own that it was her.”
It was our Maddie?
And sure enough, Belgian police later confirmed - dear reader, you are ahead of me - that it wasn’t. We can find nothing, as yet, on eBay, but Kate and Gerry McCann will be heartened that the man is without doubt now living under a cardboard box with only his own gnawed fists and his shame for sustenance.
The McCann case ruins lives..?
SPIKED: “‘Our Maddie’ makes a media comeback - The silly-season resurrection of the McCann tragedy shows that this was always a cynical, elite-scripted drama.”
Not that the absence of anything beyond hypothesis has inhibited the frontpage speculation. Indeed, the absence of hard evidence at the heart of the Maddie phenomenon has been its lifeblood. With nothing known beyond the barest of facts, anything, no matter how macabre, can be guessed at. And what better than a mail-order paedophile ring based, of course, in Belgium? In lieu of evidence, good old-fashioned prejudice will do. Indeed, over the past year, two pictures showing obviously Muslim women carrying or walking with a blonde-haired girl have been splashed under the headline: ‘IS THIS MADDIE?’ Well, Arab women with a European-looking child – it’s got to be dodgy.
Madeleine McCann: spinning news from a single thread
Posted: 14th, August 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (527) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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August 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
The Grand old Duke of Clarence
He had a thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And marched them down again.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Morning Jo,
If I remember rightly, we have a hot line to American Spooks so should be able to steal a march on our fellow sleuths when it comes to knowing how the investigation is going.
___________
Good morning, Carmen, don’t you think by now I would have already made a phone call or two finding out what I could about the “line up” ? By the way, gang, just because the description ‘retired’ is used don’t think for a minute that means necessarily retired in their late 50’s or 60’s. I doubt very highly this is an ‘over the hill gang’ working! Happy sleuthing you brilliant European thinkers!
August 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Have a great family holiday Carmen.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I [and I think a few others] have said months ago that even when the secrecy got lifted, we wouldn’t know all that’s in the files. Salomon disagreed, yet I kept on thinking it would be unlikely they’d publish it all. How about the privacy rules for instance? Or how about if they’d examined the bank accounts of some people? Wouldn’t it be disgusting if they’d publish that? [Yeh, I know we'd love to know about the McC's accounts, and we'd find it repulsive if they'd published e.g. mr Murat's].
At the moment the tabloids “feed” us with the extract they’ve got from the PJ/Court.
We cannot be sure what is or is not on the DVD. Nor can we be sure if the lawyers got acces to more information as is stored on the DVD.
As mrs Fenn’s put it so well : “it’s all rubbish”!
===> off to work Bye
August 14th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Marie Nicholas Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
“”What is still lacking ?”"”
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I rest my case, M’lud.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Lone Pigeon
It’s a choice Lone - you give up the fancy title and get a real life……..strangely you might think you will suffer without the income - but I had never realised how much of the income went on the upkeep of being able to do the job!
But yes, we do make the most of it - we’re going to drive down to Sicily, so it will be ‘bye-bye campers’ for a while, and not ‘hello campers’………
And I totally wish you a fantastic trip too and whenever you need a humble servant family from the Uk give me a shout hee hee
August 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I think it is a question of what we call something new.
We all agree that it is good to know things for facts that we knew from hearsay.
But the contradictions, the lack of answers to some relevant points, the doubts are still there. To me, it looks like an unfinished investigation, though probably precise about the false leads, from what I understand. A clear synthesis with the main discoveries, what is known for sure, what is not known, and where the main contradictions and doubts lie, would have helped.
Yet, this is only an impression, since I haven’t read the files. What gives me the impression is all the spinning that goes on, and the incapacity of the journalists so far, to give us a clear picture of what made the investigation come to a standstill. What is still lacking?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Fresh from the oven…….read on and I am off NOW and a big hug to my favorite serious Anorakians truth seekers and to our M&A to bear with us being our very own “body guards”
xxxxx
http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/
August 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I have no idea, I’m just an ‘umble blogger today - we’re busy loading the camper van for a long trip south.
___________________
OI!! None of us are ‘umble bloggers - we are getting quite professionals here
Lucky thing …. do you need someone to wash the dishes while you’re on holiday
(Hello there BTW
)
August 14th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Marie N said:
Chenier,
What she claims is that most of what is in the 11 ooo pages, was more or less known. She was speaking of all the leads, which the Mcs seem to treat as new. She says that they knew of the Belgian lead before, the sketches had even been published on the MC’s site, according to her. There is nothing really new in the files, she says. What is in the unpublished files is probably more telling.
I can see her point. About the essential, the files haven’t been yielding anything really interesting, according to me. Unless an accurate and unbiased translation brings us something really new. I am not expecting anything of the kind.
—————–
Marie, there is a yawning gulf between more or less and actually known.
For every point made on forums apparently confirmed there have been at least 10 which are unsubstantiated; if you let off enough arrows some of them will hit the target.
It’s like dodgy psychics working a hall full of credulous and needy people; it doesn’t mean that the psychic is in touch with the dead, just that if they say enough things some of them will be accurate by the operations of chance alone.
Nobody, for example, had suggested the stuff about the McCanns sleeping apart, and yet that is very important. Look at, for example, the O’Donnell article, and contrast it with what we now know.
And I have to say that talking about ‘leads’ is not the way investigators approach a case like this.
The idea is not to examine all the gazillions of possible ‘leads’ since there will always be gazillions of possible ‘leads’, and no investigation would ever be concluded.
The idea is to establish the facts, and then base hypotheses on those facts.
Oddly enough, Anorak seems to have arrived at that idea as well.
One fact that would be useful is to know whether only 11,000 pages have been released, or whether only 11,000 were asked for. That makes rather a big difference.
The only information we have been told would be excluded was the list of paedophiles.
Everything else is conjecture…
August 14th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Matt. Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Julie Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Seems that we are just about on the verge of such an impact over here now.
Am sure the Chancellor’s black eyebrows are about to turn as white as his hair
is…..almost overnight.
That reminds me of a guy who works here. I think he is Polish or soemthign like that and last week he had silver grey hair all over. This week he said hello to me whilst I was having a smoke outside and I totally failed to recognise him cos he’s died it dark brown!!!! I couldn’t believe !
August 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Carmen
Sorry. Have a great time
August 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Brandon
I have no idea, I’m just an ‘umble blogger today - we’re busy loading the camper van for a long trip south.
how the other half live eh
August 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Julie Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Seems that we are just about on the verge of such an impact over here now.
Am sure the Chancellor’s black eyebrows are about to turn as white as his hair
is…..almost overnight.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Matt. Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Sort of like, “Vote for me”.
Then, day after Election, “Yaboo, ya suckers, Am off on the gravytrain”.
______________________
I live in a country that is living proof that the gravytrain eventually crashes …. taking the economy of the country with it!
August 14th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
carmen what was wrong with my post ?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Sort of like, “Vote for me”.
Then, day after Election, “Yaboo, ya suckers, Am off on the gravytrain”.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Hi Brandon
August 14th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Matt
Anorakians are a very special breed that have to be protected at all costs - they are a fledgling new order that will stick two proverbial fingers up to the establishment eventually - time will tell.
I do not mean to the monarchy, that is another matter, but to the establishment, to those people who imagine that because they tread the corridors of Whitehall that they have a God given right to be ‘right’ about everything.
They are people who honestly believe that they rule the world, they have fancy titles and boast of their qualifications, but they only rule with the consent of the people……..I live in the country that invented the guillotine!
I’ve got one of those at work - I use it to cut up my proofs - anyone wanna borrow it ??
August 14th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Let me guess….What will be held back ? …..hmmmmm…..DNA controversy
and the 2 Doc’s 8 page statement.
Should take up around 30 or more pages of the report.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
the picture on this thread says it all to me.
Imo
Kate looks like she is hiding something.
Gerry looks like he’s got away with something
And Clarrie is the biggest give away of all - he looks like ‘i’ve got the power- what you gonna do about it’ look all over him
August 14th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Jo,
Don’t be upset, when you read it in French, you understand her point much better.
The whole article is good. The little bit you translated comes after she points out that the Belgian leads were perfectly known to the MCs, and that to her they seem to be in cahoots with the tabloids pretending they are interesting leads, giving hope to the parents. From there,she goes to say that what is in the files which have been published doesn’t bring much news about the case, but that there is probably much more in the 19 000 pages that the PJ have kept unpublished.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
jo Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Ciao, jo.
Take care.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
We is good sleuths.
Clarence should employ us.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Marie Nicholas
A big hug and off…I am
August 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Hi Mel
August 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Columbo, he say, “What may still be kept secret may be much more revealing
than that which is put into the Journo’s/Lawyer’s, amd lastly, public domains.”
What will the PP and AG keep secret ?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Carmen Says:
August 14th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Jo
No, I agree with you - a lot is being held back and the reason why fascinates me.
SOS have their own DVD and I have been promised a translation as soon as they have finished it
****
An awful lot,Carmen,an awful lot…..and also an awful lot of seemingly contradictions in the PJs files,and the prosecutors …keeping some stuff out of the public scrutinity,why do you think? and this and that…..
The SOS translation should be on its way,if not late afternoon early tomorrow morning.Still,dont hold your breath….
See you tomorrow
Bye now
August 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
If there is nothing new, why did representatives from Leicester go over to Portugal recently to ask that certain material should not be released?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Greetings all