The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™ :: Books on the Madeleine McCann case :: Anthony Summers & Robbyn Swan's book: 'Looking for Madeleine'
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The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
I will append to this article on Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan some notes about what we may reasonably expect from their forthcoming book.
But first I will set out the evidence that these are widely-published, respected authors, almost revered for their research on some of the most famous celebrities and 'hot topics' of the last three decades: 9/11, the assassination of President Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, the Charles Manson murders, and many more.
Possibly their best-known book to date is “The Eleventh Day; The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden”. Though well-received, it did not satisfy those many critics who believe there was a much deeper conspiracy behind the events leading to 9/11. That led some to suggest that Summers and Swan have been far too close to the political establishment and therefore unable to bring full objectivity to their books.
First, the Wikipedia entry about Anthony Summers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Summers
Then, below are two reviews of possibly their best-known book to date:
A disclaimer for the record. I was interviewed by Robbyn Swan and have maintained a continuous dialogue with her since, including a meeting recently in Washington D.C. I was a reader for a final version of the Summers/Swan book prior to a late revision to account for the death of bin Laden.
The Eleventh Day, by “New York Times” best selling authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, is a game changer. Published by Ballantine Books, Random House Publishing Group, the book, according to the publishers, “is the first panoramic, authoritative account of 9/11.”
The Eleventh Day is the new definitive timeline for 9/11, a superb and detailed extension of the work of the 9/11 Commission and the Congressional Joint Inquiry. Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan’s work is peerless in the depth, breadth, and accuracy of their research and reporting. Together, this experienced team has cleared the air of suspect research and speculation, an invaluable service to future researchers and historians.
The game change comes on page 118. Citing investigative writer David Corn, the author’s conclude a detailed examination of conspiracy theories with this summary:
The legacy of the spurious doubts, though, has been that far too little attention has been given to the very real omissions and distortions in the official reporting. The conspiracy theorizing in which the skeptics indulged, David Corn has rightly said, “distracts people from the actual malfeasance, mistakes and misdeeds of the U.S. government and the intelligence community.” There were certainly mistakes, and there may have been wrong doing.
The Authors’ Road Map
“The Attack,” Part I. is a succinct retelling of a by now familiar story as first told by the Commission in Staff Statement 17 and then in its final report. Those familiar with the past work of, first, Summers and then Summers and Swan, as a team, will recognize a familiar pattern of detail after detail woven together in a compelling story that leaves no room for doubt as to the thoroughness of the underlying research.
The authors then pause their story for two chapters to undertake a necessary chore at the beginning of Part II, “Distrust and Deceit.” Their impeccable writing style is nowhere more evident than in the bridge to Part II. Concluding Part I, they wrote: “An American apocalyse, a catastrophe with consequences–in blood spilled and global political upheaval–that continues to this day.”
Part II begins: “One consequence, a national and international phenomenon, is that countless citizens do not believe the story of September 11 as we have just told it.” Here, Summers and Swan take direct aim at the conspiracy theorists. The necessary chore was to sweep the decks clean of the detritus from years of innuendo, speculation, and, in some cases, outright intellectual dishonesty. Again in their words, “9/11 is mired in “conspiracy theory” like no previous event in American history…”
In rapier-sharp strokes they skewer the conspiracy theories with authority, leaving no stones unturned. They borrowed a useful construct from David Rostcheck, a software consultant with a physics degree. Rostcheck described a bifurcated America, “America 1 and America 2,” the first shaped by “broadcast media,” the latter by the “Internet domain.” One gets the distinct impression from the authors that the two Americas are like ships passing in the night, each unaware of the other.
Citing their demonstrably thorough research after more than four years of work Summers and Swan conclude:
Wonder one may, but the authors have seen not a jot of evidence that anything like a false flag scenario was used on 9/11. Nor…have we encountered a shred of real information indicating that the Bush administration was complicit in 9/11. Subjected to any serious probing, the suspicions raised by Professor Griffin and his fellow “truthers” simply vanish on the wind.
That housecleaning, a high-powered vacuuming, set the stage for their own thesis, the game change described earlier. They spend the remainder of part II concluding the story of the day of 9/11 but with a specific predicate, a Team 8 (my team) memo to the front office questioning the accuracy of FAA and NORAD statements. They also draw extensively on the published work of the Team 8 leader, John Farmer, the author of Ground Truth.
The author’s conclude Part II with a direct quote from Farmer. ”‘”History,” Farmer wrote later in his book, “should record that, whether through unprecedented administrative incompetence or orchestrated mendacity, the American people were misled about the nation’s response to the 9/11 attacks.”"
In Part III, “America Responds,” the authors focus on “The Arabs,” faulting the Commission Report and Commission Staff supplemental documents for failure to speak to a found document, a ”Spiritual Manual.” ”The omission in extraordinary, unconscionable, for the telltale pages were important evidence.” The authors consider the “Manual” or “Handbook” the key piece of evidence, concluding that, “the “Spiritual Manual” must surely close off all doubt as to whether Atta and his comrades committed the hijacking.”
I cannot speak to the omission from the Commission Report. I do recall from my work on both staffs that the document was known and considered. It was not as central, then, as the author’s have it now. They use it as a springboard to discuss the equivocation of bin Laden, himself, about whether or not he was ultimately responsible.
“The truth,” beginning chapter 15, “that officialdom gave us, that young men loyal to al Qaeda and bin Laden were responsible…is not the full story. The 9/11 Commission varnished the story for public consumption…”
Here, the author’s strip away the facade of “skeptics’ ramblings.” They, again, cite David Corn, “Without conspiracy theories…there is much to wonder about September 11…” Summers and Swan then patiently build the case that there was a support network in the United States for the hijackers and, ultimately that network extended to Saudi Arabia, to include members of the royal family. ”The Saudi factor is one of the wild cards….The possibility of Saudi involvement, a vital issue, will be a major focus in the closing chapters of this book.”
First, though, the authors take us through the hunt for bin Laden and a resultant “sea change” when by March 2002 the focus turned from that hunt to “a war plan for Iraq.” And that led to a discussion of “The Plotters” in part IV.
The authors begin Part IV by recounting in precise detail a story told by others, the life of bin Laden and his father before him. In that recounting they established a relationship between bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, a lecturer and prayer leader at King Abdul Aiz University in Jeddah. Azzam was a Palestinian who was “on his way to becoming the “Emir of Jihad.” According to the authors, bin Laden met with Azzam in Los Angeles in 1979 during a visit not firmly established until 2009.
The year 1979 was critical. It “marked the start of a new century in the Islamic calendar, a time said to herald change.” And change there was. Religious zealots seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, a revolt that was crushed. A month later Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan which began a secret war to “push back communism.” According to the authors, the conflict was “orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of three nations: America, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.” And that was when “the nightmare started,” quoting a friend of bin Laden.
Thereafter in their narrative, the authors establish a relationship between bin Laden and the GID (Saudi intelligence service), and a trilateral relationship among the CIA, the GID, and the ISI (Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence), intertwined with the activities of the jihadist, Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden’s mentor.
Azzam, assassinated along with his sons in a murder with no known assailant or motive, had already passed the “vanguard” of leadership to bin Laden. According to the authors, “Azzam had said jihad needed a “vanguard” that would give a dreamed-of future Islamic society a “strong foundation.”" That foundation was “al-qaeda al-sulbah” and its military base “al-qa’ida al’askariyya.” Al-qaeda was neither a foundation or a base. The authors credit bin Laden as telling a journalist that “al Qaeda was an organization to record the names of the mujahideen and all their contact details: a database.”
After a detailing of the future cast of 9/11 characters–bin Laden, Mohammed Atef, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et. al.–the authors move to the principle grievance, one “at least as large as Palestine,” the Saudi response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Oil was the issue and it brought the United States to the defense of Saudi Arabia and the introduction of “a foreign and overwhelmingly Christian army” to the “sacred land of the prophet.” It was a “cultural thunderbolt” for bin Laden.
In the end it was not the United States that left Saudi Arabia, it was bin Laden. His departure for Sudan left him “free to pursue jihad. That, in the context of fighting for Islam, would be very much in line with Saudi foreign policy.” The authors pose the question of “just who did launch bin Laden on his career as international terroist?” Citing the Commission Report the answer is “he had gotten out of Saudi Arabia “with the help from a dissident member of the royal family.”"
And that began the Sudan exodus, a “place and a time for training—and hatching plots.” Among the budding jihadists, according to the authors was an individual who said he was an “emissary from bin Laden,” Ramzi Yousef, who led the first attempt to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993. Yousef was also responsible for a plot against the Pope and a plot against American airlines, bojinka.
The authors linked Yousef to his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who credits the Manila-based plot to down airliners as giving him the “idea of using planes as missiles.” Mohammed is then linked with Ramsi Binalshibh and the authors relate a meeting between the two and an Arab television journalist, Yosri Fouda. The important point made is that story told to Fouda “largely matches the version subsequent extracted from Mohammed by the CIA under interrogation. The authors consider Fouda’s interview as “breakthrough” and take the Commission to task for “unaccountably” failing to interview him. Important to the interview was the presence of a mystery man, Sheikh Abu Abdullah, a name used to refer to Osama bin Laden.
Concerning the plot and the plotters, the authors conclude that had al Qaeda been a company KSM would have been the CEO and bin Laden the Chairman. But the plotters were not the perpetrators, a different story which the authors tell in Part V.
In Part V, “Perpetrators,” the authors build the case that bin Laden was, in the words of Michael Scheuer, the chief of the uniquely chartered “Alec Station,” “a truly, dangerous, dangerous, man.” After the Embassy bombing in Africa the bin Laden threat was raised to the highest level, “Tier Zero.” And it was soon thereafter that CIA Director George Tenet said “we are at war.”
Thereafter, the authors lead us through the development of the planes operation and the recruitment and formation of the individuals who would carry it out, the perpetrators.
While it is a familiar story, Summers and Swan uniquely tell it with the advantage of four years of research across multiple countries and languages, leaving few, if any leads not followed. They interviewed two of the most knowledgeable investigators, Eleanor Hill, the staff Director of the Joint Inquiry and her primary investigator for the San Diego story, Michael Jacobson, who was also a member of the Commission staff. They portray, as have others before them, a dysfunctional national level effort, one that transcended administrations. Nevertheless, the attack did occur on President Bush’s watch and the new administration proceeded by fits and starts (and stops) as spelled out in detail by the authors.
The authors summed things up nicely near the end of Chapter 27. Quoting Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff of Newsweek: “The question is…not so much what the President knew and when he knew it. The question is whether the administration was really paying attention.”
As the tempo of hijacker activity picked up in late August and early September, the administration was just then getting started with a “long-delayed, very first meeting [of Principals] to discuss the bin Laden problem.” Under consideration was a draft National Security Presidential Directive agreed upon well before by the Deputies. There was considerable discussion about use of the Predator, who had the mission and, more importantly, who was going to pay for it. There was no substantive resolution. In the end, the Directive was approved, “it would be ready for the president’s signature—soon.”
In a short Part VI, “Twenty-Four Hours,” the authors take us through the final hours before the attack, detailing a series of facts that, retrospectively in the aggregate, are far more ominous than they were in real time.
Among the events were: the Moussaoui probe running “into the ground;” a last ditch attempt by Senator Feinstein to get the Vice President’s attention; the assassination of Ahmed Shad Massoud, which triggered a personal call to President Bush from President Putin; the leisurely search for Hazmi and Mihdhar; and, most seriously, late intercept of two critical messages by NSA that went untranslated.” The gist was, “Tomorrow is zero hour,” and “The match begins tomorrow.”
The authors tied things together in a concluding Part VII, “Unanswered Questions.” Recall that they earlier said that, “The Saudi factor is one of the wild cards….The possibility of Saudi involvement, a vital issue, will be a major focus in the closing chapters of this book.” They did weave that theme in their subsequent narrative and returned to it in Part VII.
First, however, their summation of earlier chapters is worth a verbatim quote.
The story of September 11, 2001 — that of the victims and of the terrorists — is told. The identify of the perpetrators is not in doubt. As told in these pages, the essential elements are as described in the conclusions of the two official inquiries.
The authors define two areas in which the 9/11 Commission “fudged or dodged” the issue: “the full truth about U.S. and Western intelligence before the attacks; and whether the terrorist operation…had the support of other nation-states or of powerful individuals within those nation-states.” Here, “Western intelligence” refers primarily to Germany.
And it is on those points that the authors establish themselves as the pre-eminent 9/11 investigators. Agree with them, or not, they are meticulous in their sourcing, fearless in their analysis, and precise in their prose.
I remain personally skeptical of the story that “U. S. intelligence officials had had a face-to-face meeting with Osama bin Laden [in Dubai] in early July 2001.” First, there is no accounting for the movement of a bin Laden entourage to and from Dubai other than that he “traveled secretly from Pakistan to Dubai…” Second, to my knowledge, the staffs of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Joint Inquiry staff knew nothing about this event, even though the Inquiry had a team devoted to CIA with office space at CIA Headquarters.
Dubai aside, the authors speak briefly to Iran and Iraq as potential nation-state sponsors and then focus on their real candidate, Saudi Arabia. Summers and Swan conclude Chapter 32 with this statement as a partial summation of their investigation: “In 2001, sympathy for al Qaeda and bin Laden was widespread across the spectrum of Saudi society. It extended, even, to approval of the strikes on America.” That is an unequivocal statement with no caveats.
The authors continued the Saudi thesis as they discuss the aftermath of the attacks. There was a “struggle” by both the Saudis and the Bush administration to “keep the fabled U.S.-Saudi “friendship” from falling apart.” Oil flowed, to the tune of nine million barrels over two weeks. The President met with Prince Bandar. Saudi nationals hastened to depart the county midstream of the FBI’s investigative work. The Bush administration sought “rapprochement” not confrontation. And, in 2002, Crown Prince Abdullah was the President’s guest in Texas.
There were five key Saudi individuals: Fahad al-Thumairy, an accredited diplomat; the San Diego resident Omar al-Bayoumi; on the money front, Osama Basnan; a Saudi religious official, Saleh al-Hussayen; and the American-born imam, Anwar Aulaqi.
The authors conclude: “Taken together the roles and activities [of the five]…heightened suspicion that the perpetrators of 9/11 had support and sponsorship from backers never clearly identified.”
Summers and Swan consulted extensively with Senator Bob Graham, a co-chair of the Joint Inquiry. In Graham’s opinion, “9/11 could not have occurred but for the existence of an infrastructure of support within the United States. By ‘the Saudis,’ I mean the Saudi government….[and that] included the royal family.”
Central to the author’s thesis, apart from input from Senator Graham, is the 28-page redaction in the Joint Inquiry report. I read the pages in the final draft report and my vague recall is that they had to do, in part, with the San Diego events. I’m with Eleanor Hill on this one. ”Know what,” she told the authors, “I can’t tell you [this far removed] what’s in those pages.”
Summers and Swan report a bipartisan finding. Both co-chairs of the Joint Inquiry, Senators Graham and Shelby, considered the pages withheld for reasons other than national security. Graham was explicit, according to the authors. ”In Graham’s view, Bush’s role in suppressing important information…should have led to his impeachment and removal from office.” The pages remain unreleased to this day, despite a President Obama expression of willingness to Kristin Breitweiser to “get the suppressed material released.”
Bluntly, Summers and Swan concluded that “The 9/11 Commission Report blurred the truth about the Saudi role…[but also reported that Iraq] had nothing to do with 9/11.” And because of Iraq, “the real evidence that linked other nations to Osama bin Laden and 9/11 faded from the public consciousness.”
After covering “Saudi Arabia’s murky role,” Summers and Swan turn their final attention to a nation “deserv[ing] equally close scrutiny,” Pakistan. Not long into that narrative they tied everything together in the words of former U.S. special envoy Peter Tomsen. According to the authors, “Tomsen told the 9/11 Commission that the Taliban “actually were the junior partners in an unholy alliance” —ISI, al Qaeda, and the Taliban. As it grew in influence the ISI liaised closely with Saudi intelligence…”
Things in perspective
The authors, consistent with the state of other current research and writing about 9/11, do not place the event in the context of what else was happening in the world. Terrorism, to include al Qaeda, was just one of multiple issues on the nation’s and the President’s plate. They do provide a metric that allows some insight into the larger context. On page 309, they wrote: “Every day, too, the President received a CIA briefing knows as the PDB—the President’s Daily Brief. Between the inauguration and September 10, bin Laden was mentioned in forty PDBs.”
There were, therefore, some 234 PDBs. In perspective, bin Laden was mentioned in one of every six or so PDB, approximately once a week. Further, each PDB contained multiple articles. Assuming a low figure of six articles per PDB, there were about 1400 articles, about three in one hundred mentioned bin Laden. That small percentage is consistent with an analysis of the SEIB (Senior Executive Intelligence Brief) I did while a member of the Joint Inquiry. The SEIB is a PDB-like document for a slightly larger audience, but one without law enforcement information. I found that terrorism articles, whether or not they mentioned bin Laden, were a small percentage of the total SEIB articles.
So what was going on? There were the continuing international situations, generally briefed daily, including the Middle East, Iran and Iraq separately, Central Europe and so forth. There was the matter of a resurgent Russia that, according to the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence briefings for the same period (which I also reviewed), was flexing a military muscle not seen for ten years or not seen since the fall of the former Soviet Union. That flexing was a front burner issue on 9-11, the Russians had scheduled an air-launched cruise missile live-fire launch for the day and for which a NOTAM had been issued. However, above all other issues the one that garnered the plurality of SEIB articles (and, by extension, PDB articles) was an emerging China. Of specific importance, on April 1, 2001, the Chinese forced down an U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, a serious international event.
International events aside, there was also the domestic issue of transition. While the authors wrote about bits and pieces of the transition from Clinton to Bush, they did not address the larger issue of transition time, in general. Each inauguration year, spring and well beyond, brings with it a struggle between a new administration to get its team in place and the Senate to confirm the key members of that team. 2001 was no different, with an additional constraint. Because of the contested election the whole nomination and confirmation process was delayed. There is no evidence that bin Laden’s insistence that the date of the attack be moved up had to do with the transition, but it would have been helpful if the authors had addressed the subject in a larger context.
In military terms, bin Laden was operating within the decision cycle of his enemy, a fundamental advantage, one that virtually assures success. When Mihdhar reentered the United States on Independence Day, July 4, 2001, the perpetrators swung into action. Six days later the administration met to discuss things. My recall is that one outcome was a request to put things in perspective for the President. The answer to that request became the August 6 PDB, in my recollection. Thereafter, the administration’s leisurely pace stands in stark contrast to the accelerated pace of the preparation for the attack. It is that contrast and comparison, discussed implicitly in The Eleventh Day, that warrants separate treatment.
Depth of research
In my estimation, no one knows more about the day of 9/11 than Robbyn Swan and no one knows more about the body of information, pre-event, event, and post-event necessary to competently discuss 9/11 than Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan.
Here are just a few examples of the thoroughness of their meticulous work.
Obtained, prior to publication, a copy of Kevin Fenton’s contemporary book, Disconnecting the Dots
Filed multiple FOIA actions, to include a critical request for a mandatory declassification review. That action surfaced a Commission staff iteration of the Air Threat Conference transcript
Developed a close and continuing relationship with NARA staff to facilitate exploitation of Commission files
Sought out Erik Larson, the single public person most knowledgeable about the contents of the 9/11 Commission files as uploaded to the History Commons Scribd account, and obtained a searchable DVD that greatly facilitated exploitation of the Commission files
Sought and obtained responsive foreign language documents and interviewed comprable sources, if at all possible
Called on a vast number of sources cultivated over the decades of previous work
In March 2010, printed out every document in the archives of my website and added to that compilation over time
Chaos considered
As is the universal case, the authors use the word chaos, or quote others who do, without definition. Chaos is a word whose meaning is simply understood without explanation. My purpose here is to document for future reference their mention of the word.
On page 50, in the context of a discussion of the fate of UA 93, the authors wrote: “FAR BELOW, ALL WAS CHAOS [capitalized by the authors]. At the very moment that the attendant in 93′s cockpit had fallen ominously silent…Flight 77 had slammed into the Pentagon. On his first day of duty in the post, FAA national operations manager, Ben Sliney and his senior colleagues had no way of knowing what new calamity might be imminent.”
On page 125 they cite a Commission analyst. ”The challenge in relating the history of one of the most chaotic days in our history…is to avoid replicating that chaos in writing about it.”
On page 128, in the context of the false report of AA 11 still airborne, the authors wrote, “The information was a red herring. In the chaos of the moment, however, no one knew for certain that is was Flight 11…”
On page 268 they cite the writer Peggy Noonan. ”If someone does the terrible big thing to New York or Washington, there will be a lot of chaos….The psychic blow—and that is what it will be to the people who absorb it, a blow, an insult that reorders and changes—will shift our perspective and priorities, dramatically, and for longer than a while….”
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Here's the second book review; I found this on the 911myths site:
The Eleventh Day
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by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
"Scratch the surface of a middle-aged 9/11 Truther", wrote Jonathan Kay in his recent "Among the Truthers", "and you are almost guaranteed to find a JFK conspiracist". And at first glance it's easy to see his point. In my experience most truthers believe there was far more to the assassination than a lone gunman, and veteran JFK researcher Jim Fetzer gained considerable publicity for the cause when he questioned 9/11 on TV back in 2006.
When I first heard that author and fellow JFK researcher Anthony Summers had written a book on 9/11, then, I suspected it would follow the usual recipe. Take some ideas from Nafeez Ahmed, add a sprinkling of Griffin, stir in a few convenient entries from The Terror Timeline, garnish with impressive footnotes, and you're done: another identikit truther-friendly book.
But how very, very, very wrong I was.
First, The Eleventh Day is not just a list of the usual truther talking points. It focuses far more on a detailed sequence of events taken from original source documents, and interviews, many of them new. Controlled demolition, "no plane at the Pentagon" and similar issues are hived off to a couple of chapters, a mere 28 pages out of 600.
And second, while this plainly limits what the authors can cover, they nonetheless leave no doubt regarding their views. Words like "preposterous", "fatuous" and "callous" appear in response to particular truther claims, before they tell us that 'subject to any serious probing, the suspicions raised by Professor Griffin and his fellow "truthers" simply vanish on the wind'.
This isn't an empty opinion, either. The authors interviewed and contacted many people throughout the project (including Daniel Hopsicker, History Commons' Erik Larson and Kevin Fenton, and John Judge), and say they have "read as much" [of the Commission documentation released by NARA] "as is feasible", only to report that it "provides no support for the naysayers".
The Eleventh Day doesn't give the 9/11 Commission a free pass, though. Rather, the authors say:
The legacy of the spurious doubts... has been that far too little attention has been given to the very real omissions and distortions in the official story. The conspiracy theorizing in which the skeptics indulged, David Corn has rightly said, "distracts people from the actual malfeasance, mistakes and misdeeds of the U.S. government and the intelligence community."
There were certainly mistakes, and there may have been wrongdoing.
What were those mistakes, and where was the wrongdoing? That's discussed in-depth in the latter part of the book.
Unanswered Questions
Summers and Swan believe there are two areas where the "9/11 Commission fudged or dodged the issue: the full truth about U.S. and Western intelligence before the attacks; and whether the terrorist operation ten years ago had the support of other nation-states or of powerful individuals within those nation-states".
As they discuss these issues so some familiar stories appear, with perhaps a different twist. Did US officials really meet with bin Laden in a Dubai hospital in July 2001? Probably so, they say, though also quoting a former head of the Security Intelligence department of France's DGSE as saying "we did not consider it as something abnormal or outrageous. When someone is threatening you, you try to negotiate. Our own service does it all the time. It is the sort of thing we are prepared to do."
There are also thoughts on what the intelligence services may or may not have known about the hijackers, pre-9/11, and why exactly it was that the CIA didn't share information on Mihdhar and Hazmi with the FBI, a move which may have stopped the attacks (the authors wonder if they were monitoring the pair, perhaps hoping to recruit them as informants.)
Attention is also paid to the possible Saudi role in the attacks (and the 28 pages from the Joint Inquiry Report which appear to be on this issue), and there's also some discussion of the bin Laden/ ISI connection (which is right up-to-date with a page or two on bin Laden's death).
I'm summarising considerably here; this is a lengthy and detailed book and I don't have the time to do it justice. For more information, try Miles Kara's review, the Vanity Fair adaption or Leonard Lopate interview.
Or, if you simply want to know whether you should buy it, my answer is yes, with a single reservation.
If you're simply looking for a resource which will provide new material to address truther claims, then this probably isn't the book for you. As I mentioned earlier, "9/11 truth" makes only a brief appearance in The Eleventh Day. The authors clearly decided there were more important topics to fill their pages than endless discussions about whether the hijackers really were on the manifests, and similar issues: and they were right.
If you're looking for something more detailed, though, a well-documented account of the run-up to the attacks, the perpetrators, the day itself, and what came later, as well as a lengthy piece on "unanswered questions", then you'll find this a very interesting read. It deserves its place alongside 9/11 books by Peter Lance, Lawrence Wright, John Farmer and so on, and has more than enough new material to justify its inclusion in your library.
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Here is a link to the (long) Vanity Fair article about their book, written in fact by Summers & Swan themsleves:
Adapted from The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers and Robynn Swan to be published this month by Ballantine Books; © 2011 by the authors.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/08/9-11-2011-201108?currentPage=1
Now here's the publisher's blurb about 'Looking for Madeleine':
The 2007 disappearance of a three-year-old Madeleine McCann from her bed in Portugal proved an instant, worldwide sensation. There's been nothing like it since America's Lindbergh kidnapping eighty years ago.
Award-winning authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan have produced the first independent, objective account of the case. They have examined the released Portuguese files, conducted in-depth interviews and original research to answer the questions: What can we really know about this most emotive of cases? What can we learn from it?
The Portuguese police probe ran into a dead end. Parents Gerry and Kate McCann, however, have never given up the search for Madeleine. They blitzed the media, hired private detectives, kept the case in the public eye. Speculation that the McCanns played a role in their daughter's fate, the authors demonstrate, is unfounded.
Scotland Yard's 'investigative review', ordered by the Prime Minister and begun in 2011, identified some 200 potential leads. The Yard's suspects have included a mystery paedophile who preyed on other British children. The Detective Chief Inspector heading the probe has said the little girl may still be alive.
The McCann family's private tragedy has touched millions around the world and aroused sometimes dark controversy. Looking for Madeleine is the most definitive account possible.
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And finally my notes about what we have a right to expect from 'Looking for Madeleine':
Looking at the publisher’s description of the book, these SIX claims for it stand out:
· 1. it’s the first independent, objective account of the case
· 2. they have examined the released Portuguese files,
· 3. they have conducted in-depth interviews
· 4. they have conducted original research
· 5. they demonstrate that speculation that the McCanns played a role in their daughter's fate is unfounded, and
· 6. their book is ‘the most definitive account possible’.
If numbers (1) and (6) are to be proved true, it follows that they must have considered, and decisively rejected, the basis on which there has indeed been speculation that the McCanns played a role in Madeleine’s disappearance. That means, I suggest, that to live up to its billing and the authors’ reputation, Summers & Swan will have to answer:
a) the alleged changes of story by the McCanns and their friends
b) the obvious contradictions - I refer to just one set of them: the 20 or so contradictions in the alleged visit of Dr David Payne to Apartment G5A
c) the report of Martin Grime
d) the contents of Dr Amaral’s book ‘The Truth About A Lie’
e) the report of Inspector Tavares de Almeida, and
f) much else.
Looking at number (3) above, what ‘in-depth’ interviews must they have conducted?
I would suggest that, as a minimum, they would have had to conduct challenging interviews with all of the following:
· The McCanns
· The Tapas 7
· Key Portuguese witnesses: nannies, Ocean club staff etc.
· Cheshire businessman Brian Kennedy and all those staff he employed on the search for Madeleine:
(i) Gary Hagland, money-laundering expert
(ii) Francisco Marco
(iii) Antonio Gimenez Raso
(iv) Julian Peribanez
(v) Marcos Aragao Correia (Arade Dam and prosecution of Goncalo Amaral)
(vi) Kevin Halligen
(vii) Henri Exton
(viii) Tim Craig-Harvey
(ix) Dave Edgar
(x) Arthur Cowley.
It will be interesting to see how many of these names feature in the book.
Also, if number (6) is to be fulfilled, the authors will presumably have had a briefing from Scotland Yard – unless they tell their readers: “This is a highly confidential enquiry, so we are unable to tell you anything about what they have and have not established.
A much more detailed breakdown of the accounts of 'Madeleine's Fund' would not come amiss, either.
As set out above, I concede that by their previous published works, Summers & Swan have an established reputation to live up to.
But unless they cover all angles to justify their conclusion that the McCanns played no role in Madeleine’s disappearance, their hubristic claim to have written ‘the most definitive account possible’ stands in grave danger of being trumped by someone else who may well pen a more definitive account than theirs.
And if that should happen - or, still worse, if their strong conviction that 'the McCanns played no role in Madeleine’s disappearance' was ever proved to be unjustified - people might well start to query the conclusions of some of their other books.
But first I will set out the evidence that these are widely-published, respected authors, almost revered for their research on some of the most famous celebrities and 'hot topics' of the last three decades: 9/11, the assassination of President Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, the Charles Manson murders, and many more.
Possibly their best-known book to date is “The Eleventh Day; The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden”. Though well-received, it did not satisfy those many critics who believe there was a much deeper conspiracy behind the events leading to 9/11. That led some to suggest that Summers and Swan have been far too close to the political establishment and therefore unable to bring full objectivity to their books.
First, the Wikipedia entry about Anthony Summers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Summers
Then, below are two reviews of possibly their best-known book to date:
A disclaimer for the record. I was interviewed by Robbyn Swan and have maintained a continuous dialogue with her since, including a meeting recently in Washington D.C. I was a reader for a final version of the Summers/Swan book prior to a late revision to account for the death of bin Laden.
The Eleventh Day, by “New York Times” best selling authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, is a game changer. Published by Ballantine Books, Random House Publishing Group, the book, according to the publishers, “is the first panoramic, authoritative account of 9/11.”
The Eleventh Day is the new definitive timeline for 9/11, a superb and detailed extension of the work of the 9/11 Commission and the Congressional Joint Inquiry. Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan’s work is peerless in the depth, breadth, and accuracy of their research and reporting. Together, this experienced team has cleared the air of suspect research and speculation, an invaluable service to future researchers and historians.
The game change comes on page 118. Citing investigative writer David Corn, the author’s conclude a detailed examination of conspiracy theories with this summary:
The legacy of the spurious doubts, though, has been that far too little attention has been given to the very real omissions and distortions in the official reporting. The conspiracy theorizing in which the skeptics indulged, David Corn has rightly said, “distracts people from the actual malfeasance, mistakes and misdeeds of the U.S. government and the intelligence community.” There were certainly mistakes, and there may have been wrong doing.
The Authors’ Road Map
“The Attack,” Part I. is a succinct retelling of a by now familiar story as first told by the Commission in Staff Statement 17 and then in its final report. Those familiar with the past work of, first, Summers and then Summers and Swan, as a team, will recognize a familiar pattern of detail after detail woven together in a compelling story that leaves no room for doubt as to the thoroughness of the underlying research.
The authors then pause their story for two chapters to undertake a necessary chore at the beginning of Part II, “Distrust and Deceit.” Their impeccable writing style is nowhere more evident than in the bridge to Part II. Concluding Part I, they wrote: “An American apocalyse, a catastrophe with consequences–in blood spilled and global political upheaval–that continues to this day.”
Part II begins: “One consequence, a national and international phenomenon, is that countless citizens do not believe the story of September 11 as we have just told it.” Here, Summers and Swan take direct aim at the conspiracy theorists. The necessary chore was to sweep the decks clean of the detritus from years of innuendo, speculation, and, in some cases, outright intellectual dishonesty. Again in their words, “9/11 is mired in “conspiracy theory” like no previous event in American history…”
In rapier-sharp strokes they skewer the conspiracy theories with authority, leaving no stones unturned. They borrowed a useful construct from David Rostcheck, a software consultant with a physics degree. Rostcheck described a bifurcated America, “America 1 and America 2,” the first shaped by “broadcast media,” the latter by the “Internet domain.” One gets the distinct impression from the authors that the two Americas are like ships passing in the night, each unaware of the other.
Citing their demonstrably thorough research after more than four years of work Summers and Swan conclude:
Wonder one may, but the authors have seen not a jot of evidence that anything like a false flag scenario was used on 9/11. Nor…have we encountered a shred of real information indicating that the Bush administration was complicit in 9/11. Subjected to any serious probing, the suspicions raised by Professor Griffin and his fellow “truthers” simply vanish on the wind.
That housecleaning, a high-powered vacuuming, set the stage for their own thesis, the game change described earlier. They spend the remainder of part II concluding the story of the day of 9/11 but with a specific predicate, a Team 8 (my team) memo to the front office questioning the accuracy of FAA and NORAD statements. They also draw extensively on the published work of the Team 8 leader, John Farmer, the author of Ground Truth.
The author’s conclude Part II with a direct quote from Farmer. ”‘”History,” Farmer wrote later in his book, “should record that, whether through unprecedented administrative incompetence or orchestrated mendacity, the American people were misled about the nation’s response to the 9/11 attacks.”"
In Part III, “America Responds,” the authors focus on “The Arabs,” faulting the Commission Report and Commission Staff supplemental documents for failure to speak to a found document, a ”Spiritual Manual.” ”The omission in extraordinary, unconscionable, for the telltale pages were important evidence.” The authors consider the “Manual” or “Handbook” the key piece of evidence, concluding that, “the “Spiritual Manual” must surely close off all doubt as to whether Atta and his comrades committed the hijacking.”
I cannot speak to the omission from the Commission Report. I do recall from my work on both staffs that the document was known and considered. It was not as central, then, as the author’s have it now. They use it as a springboard to discuss the equivocation of bin Laden, himself, about whether or not he was ultimately responsible.
“The truth,” beginning chapter 15, “that officialdom gave us, that young men loyal to al Qaeda and bin Laden were responsible…is not the full story. The 9/11 Commission varnished the story for public consumption…”
Here, the author’s strip away the facade of “skeptics’ ramblings.” They, again, cite David Corn, “Without conspiracy theories…there is much to wonder about September 11…” Summers and Swan then patiently build the case that there was a support network in the United States for the hijackers and, ultimately that network extended to Saudi Arabia, to include members of the royal family. ”The Saudi factor is one of the wild cards….The possibility of Saudi involvement, a vital issue, will be a major focus in the closing chapters of this book.”
First, though, the authors take us through the hunt for bin Laden and a resultant “sea change” when by March 2002 the focus turned from that hunt to “a war plan for Iraq.” And that led to a discussion of “The Plotters” in part IV.
The authors begin Part IV by recounting in precise detail a story told by others, the life of bin Laden and his father before him. In that recounting they established a relationship between bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, a lecturer and prayer leader at King Abdul Aiz University in Jeddah. Azzam was a Palestinian who was “on his way to becoming the “Emir of Jihad.” According to the authors, bin Laden met with Azzam in Los Angeles in 1979 during a visit not firmly established until 2009.
The year 1979 was critical. It “marked the start of a new century in the Islamic calendar, a time said to herald change.” And change there was. Religious zealots seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, a revolt that was crushed. A month later Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan which began a secret war to “push back communism.” According to the authors, the conflict was “orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of three nations: America, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.” And that was when “the nightmare started,” quoting a friend of bin Laden.
Thereafter in their narrative, the authors establish a relationship between bin Laden and the GID (Saudi intelligence service), and a trilateral relationship among the CIA, the GID, and the ISI (Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence), intertwined with the activities of the jihadist, Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden’s mentor.
Azzam, assassinated along with his sons in a murder with no known assailant or motive, had already passed the “vanguard” of leadership to bin Laden. According to the authors, “Azzam had said jihad needed a “vanguard” that would give a dreamed-of future Islamic society a “strong foundation.”" That foundation was “al-qaeda al-sulbah” and its military base “al-qa’ida al’askariyya.” Al-qaeda was neither a foundation or a base. The authors credit bin Laden as telling a journalist that “al Qaeda was an organization to record the names of the mujahideen and all their contact details: a database.”
After a detailing of the future cast of 9/11 characters–bin Laden, Mohammed Atef, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et. al.–the authors move to the principle grievance, one “at least as large as Palestine,” the Saudi response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Oil was the issue and it brought the United States to the defense of Saudi Arabia and the introduction of “a foreign and overwhelmingly Christian army” to the “sacred land of the prophet.” It was a “cultural thunderbolt” for bin Laden.
In the end it was not the United States that left Saudi Arabia, it was bin Laden. His departure for Sudan left him “free to pursue jihad. That, in the context of fighting for Islam, would be very much in line with Saudi foreign policy.” The authors pose the question of “just who did launch bin Laden on his career as international terroist?” Citing the Commission Report the answer is “he had gotten out of Saudi Arabia “with the help from a dissident member of the royal family.”"
And that began the Sudan exodus, a “place and a time for training—and hatching plots.” Among the budding jihadists, according to the authors was an individual who said he was an “emissary from bin Laden,” Ramzi Yousef, who led the first attempt to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993. Yousef was also responsible for a plot against the Pope and a plot against American airlines, bojinka.
The authors linked Yousef to his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who credits the Manila-based plot to down airliners as giving him the “idea of using planes as missiles.” Mohammed is then linked with Ramsi Binalshibh and the authors relate a meeting between the two and an Arab television journalist, Yosri Fouda. The important point made is that story told to Fouda “largely matches the version subsequent extracted from Mohammed by the CIA under interrogation. The authors consider Fouda’s interview as “breakthrough” and take the Commission to task for “unaccountably” failing to interview him. Important to the interview was the presence of a mystery man, Sheikh Abu Abdullah, a name used to refer to Osama bin Laden.
Concerning the plot and the plotters, the authors conclude that had al Qaeda been a company KSM would have been the CEO and bin Laden the Chairman. But the plotters were not the perpetrators, a different story which the authors tell in Part V.
In Part V, “Perpetrators,” the authors build the case that bin Laden was, in the words of Michael Scheuer, the chief of the uniquely chartered “Alec Station,” “a truly, dangerous, dangerous, man.” After the Embassy bombing in Africa the bin Laden threat was raised to the highest level, “Tier Zero.” And it was soon thereafter that CIA Director George Tenet said “we are at war.”
Thereafter, the authors lead us through the development of the planes operation and the recruitment and formation of the individuals who would carry it out, the perpetrators.
While it is a familiar story, Summers and Swan uniquely tell it with the advantage of four years of research across multiple countries and languages, leaving few, if any leads not followed. They interviewed two of the most knowledgeable investigators, Eleanor Hill, the staff Director of the Joint Inquiry and her primary investigator for the San Diego story, Michael Jacobson, who was also a member of the Commission staff. They portray, as have others before them, a dysfunctional national level effort, one that transcended administrations. Nevertheless, the attack did occur on President Bush’s watch and the new administration proceeded by fits and starts (and stops) as spelled out in detail by the authors.
The authors summed things up nicely near the end of Chapter 27. Quoting Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff of Newsweek: “The question is…not so much what the President knew and when he knew it. The question is whether the administration was really paying attention.”
As the tempo of hijacker activity picked up in late August and early September, the administration was just then getting started with a “long-delayed, very first meeting [of Principals] to discuss the bin Laden problem.” Under consideration was a draft National Security Presidential Directive agreed upon well before by the Deputies. There was considerable discussion about use of the Predator, who had the mission and, more importantly, who was going to pay for it. There was no substantive resolution. In the end, the Directive was approved, “it would be ready for the president’s signature—soon.”
In a short Part VI, “Twenty-Four Hours,” the authors take us through the final hours before the attack, detailing a series of facts that, retrospectively in the aggregate, are far more ominous than they were in real time.
Among the events were: the Moussaoui probe running “into the ground;” a last ditch attempt by Senator Feinstein to get the Vice President’s attention; the assassination of Ahmed Shad Massoud, which triggered a personal call to President Bush from President Putin; the leisurely search for Hazmi and Mihdhar; and, most seriously, late intercept of two critical messages by NSA that went untranslated.” The gist was, “Tomorrow is zero hour,” and “The match begins tomorrow.”
The authors tied things together in a concluding Part VII, “Unanswered Questions.” Recall that they earlier said that, “The Saudi factor is one of the wild cards….The possibility of Saudi involvement, a vital issue, will be a major focus in the closing chapters of this book.” They did weave that theme in their subsequent narrative and returned to it in Part VII.
First, however, their summation of earlier chapters is worth a verbatim quote.
The story of September 11, 2001 — that of the victims and of the terrorists — is told. The identify of the perpetrators is not in doubt. As told in these pages, the essential elements are as described in the conclusions of the two official inquiries.
The authors define two areas in which the 9/11 Commission “fudged or dodged” the issue: “the full truth about U.S. and Western intelligence before the attacks; and whether the terrorist operation…had the support of other nation-states or of powerful individuals within those nation-states.” Here, “Western intelligence” refers primarily to Germany.
And it is on those points that the authors establish themselves as the pre-eminent 9/11 investigators. Agree with them, or not, they are meticulous in their sourcing, fearless in their analysis, and precise in their prose.
I remain personally skeptical of the story that “U. S. intelligence officials had had a face-to-face meeting with Osama bin Laden [in Dubai] in early July 2001.” First, there is no accounting for the movement of a bin Laden entourage to and from Dubai other than that he “traveled secretly from Pakistan to Dubai…” Second, to my knowledge, the staffs of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Joint Inquiry staff knew nothing about this event, even though the Inquiry had a team devoted to CIA with office space at CIA Headquarters.
Dubai aside, the authors speak briefly to Iran and Iraq as potential nation-state sponsors and then focus on their real candidate, Saudi Arabia. Summers and Swan conclude Chapter 32 with this statement as a partial summation of their investigation: “In 2001, sympathy for al Qaeda and bin Laden was widespread across the spectrum of Saudi society. It extended, even, to approval of the strikes on America.” That is an unequivocal statement with no caveats.
The authors continued the Saudi thesis as they discuss the aftermath of the attacks. There was a “struggle” by both the Saudis and the Bush administration to “keep the fabled U.S.-Saudi “friendship” from falling apart.” Oil flowed, to the tune of nine million barrels over two weeks. The President met with Prince Bandar. Saudi nationals hastened to depart the county midstream of the FBI’s investigative work. The Bush administration sought “rapprochement” not confrontation. And, in 2002, Crown Prince Abdullah was the President’s guest in Texas.
There were five key Saudi individuals: Fahad al-Thumairy, an accredited diplomat; the San Diego resident Omar al-Bayoumi; on the money front, Osama Basnan; a Saudi religious official, Saleh al-Hussayen; and the American-born imam, Anwar Aulaqi.
The authors conclude: “Taken together the roles and activities [of the five]…heightened suspicion that the perpetrators of 9/11 had support and sponsorship from backers never clearly identified.”
Summers and Swan consulted extensively with Senator Bob Graham, a co-chair of the Joint Inquiry. In Graham’s opinion, “9/11 could not have occurred but for the existence of an infrastructure of support within the United States. By ‘the Saudis,’ I mean the Saudi government….[and that] included the royal family.”
Central to the author’s thesis, apart from input from Senator Graham, is the 28-page redaction in the Joint Inquiry report. I read the pages in the final draft report and my vague recall is that they had to do, in part, with the San Diego events. I’m with Eleanor Hill on this one. ”Know what,” she told the authors, “I can’t tell you [this far removed] what’s in those pages.”
Summers and Swan report a bipartisan finding. Both co-chairs of the Joint Inquiry, Senators Graham and Shelby, considered the pages withheld for reasons other than national security. Graham was explicit, according to the authors. ”In Graham’s view, Bush’s role in suppressing important information…should have led to his impeachment and removal from office.” The pages remain unreleased to this day, despite a President Obama expression of willingness to Kristin Breitweiser to “get the suppressed material released.”
Bluntly, Summers and Swan concluded that “The 9/11 Commission Report blurred the truth about the Saudi role…[but also reported that Iraq] had nothing to do with 9/11.” And because of Iraq, “the real evidence that linked other nations to Osama bin Laden and 9/11 faded from the public consciousness.”
After covering “Saudi Arabia’s murky role,” Summers and Swan turn their final attention to a nation “deserv[ing] equally close scrutiny,” Pakistan. Not long into that narrative they tied everything together in the words of former U.S. special envoy Peter Tomsen. According to the authors, “Tomsen told the 9/11 Commission that the Taliban “actually were the junior partners in an unholy alliance” —ISI, al Qaeda, and the Taliban. As it grew in influence the ISI liaised closely with Saudi intelligence…”
Things in perspective
The authors, consistent with the state of other current research and writing about 9/11, do not place the event in the context of what else was happening in the world. Terrorism, to include al Qaeda, was just one of multiple issues on the nation’s and the President’s plate. They do provide a metric that allows some insight into the larger context. On page 309, they wrote: “Every day, too, the President received a CIA briefing knows as the PDB—the President’s Daily Brief. Between the inauguration and September 10, bin Laden was mentioned in forty PDBs.”
There were, therefore, some 234 PDBs. In perspective, bin Laden was mentioned in one of every six or so PDB, approximately once a week. Further, each PDB contained multiple articles. Assuming a low figure of six articles per PDB, there were about 1400 articles, about three in one hundred mentioned bin Laden. That small percentage is consistent with an analysis of the SEIB (Senior Executive Intelligence Brief) I did while a member of the Joint Inquiry. The SEIB is a PDB-like document for a slightly larger audience, but one without law enforcement information. I found that terrorism articles, whether or not they mentioned bin Laden, were a small percentage of the total SEIB articles.
So what was going on? There were the continuing international situations, generally briefed daily, including the Middle East, Iran and Iraq separately, Central Europe and so forth. There was the matter of a resurgent Russia that, according to the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence briefings for the same period (which I also reviewed), was flexing a military muscle not seen for ten years or not seen since the fall of the former Soviet Union. That flexing was a front burner issue on 9-11, the Russians had scheduled an air-launched cruise missile live-fire launch for the day and for which a NOTAM had been issued. However, above all other issues the one that garnered the plurality of SEIB articles (and, by extension, PDB articles) was an emerging China. Of specific importance, on April 1, 2001, the Chinese forced down an U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, a serious international event.
International events aside, there was also the domestic issue of transition. While the authors wrote about bits and pieces of the transition from Clinton to Bush, they did not address the larger issue of transition time, in general. Each inauguration year, spring and well beyond, brings with it a struggle between a new administration to get its team in place and the Senate to confirm the key members of that team. 2001 was no different, with an additional constraint. Because of the contested election the whole nomination and confirmation process was delayed. There is no evidence that bin Laden’s insistence that the date of the attack be moved up had to do with the transition, but it would have been helpful if the authors had addressed the subject in a larger context.
In military terms, bin Laden was operating within the decision cycle of his enemy, a fundamental advantage, one that virtually assures success. When Mihdhar reentered the United States on Independence Day, July 4, 2001, the perpetrators swung into action. Six days later the administration met to discuss things. My recall is that one outcome was a request to put things in perspective for the President. The answer to that request became the August 6 PDB, in my recollection. Thereafter, the administration’s leisurely pace stands in stark contrast to the accelerated pace of the preparation for the attack. It is that contrast and comparison, discussed implicitly in The Eleventh Day, that warrants separate treatment.
Depth of research
In my estimation, no one knows more about the day of 9/11 than Robbyn Swan and no one knows more about the body of information, pre-event, event, and post-event necessary to competently discuss 9/11 than Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan.
Here are just a few examples of the thoroughness of their meticulous work.
Obtained, prior to publication, a copy of Kevin Fenton’s contemporary book, Disconnecting the Dots
Filed multiple FOIA actions, to include a critical request for a mandatory declassification review. That action surfaced a Commission staff iteration of the Air Threat Conference transcript
Developed a close and continuing relationship with NARA staff to facilitate exploitation of Commission files
Sought out Erik Larson, the single public person most knowledgeable about the contents of the 9/11 Commission files as uploaded to the History Commons Scribd account, and obtained a searchable DVD that greatly facilitated exploitation of the Commission files
Sought and obtained responsive foreign language documents and interviewed comprable sources, if at all possible
Called on a vast number of sources cultivated over the decades of previous work
In March 2010, printed out every document in the archives of my website and added to that compilation over time
Chaos considered
As is the universal case, the authors use the word chaos, or quote others who do, without definition. Chaos is a word whose meaning is simply understood without explanation. My purpose here is to document for future reference their mention of the word.
On page 50, in the context of a discussion of the fate of UA 93, the authors wrote: “FAR BELOW, ALL WAS CHAOS [capitalized by the authors]. At the very moment that the attendant in 93′s cockpit had fallen ominously silent…Flight 77 had slammed into the Pentagon. On his first day of duty in the post, FAA national operations manager, Ben Sliney and his senior colleagues had no way of knowing what new calamity might be imminent.”
On page 125 they cite a Commission analyst. ”The challenge in relating the history of one of the most chaotic days in our history…is to avoid replicating that chaos in writing about it.”
On page 128, in the context of the false report of AA 11 still airborne, the authors wrote, “The information was a red herring. In the chaos of the moment, however, no one knew for certain that is was Flight 11…”
On page 268 they cite the writer Peggy Noonan. ”If someone does the terrible big thing to New York or Washington, there will be a lot of chaos….The psychic blow—and that is what it will be to the people who absorb it, a blow, an insult that reorders and changes—will shift our perspective and priorities, dramatically, and for longer than a while….”
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Here's the second book review; I found this on the 911myths site:
The Eleventh Day
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by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
"Scratch the surface of a middle-aged 9/11 Truther", wrote Jonathan Kay in his recent "Among the Truthers", "and you are almost guaranteed to find a JFK conspiracist". And at first glance it's easy to see his point. In my experience most truthers believe there was far more to the assassination than a lone gunman, and veteran JFK researcher Jim Fetzer gained considerable publicity for the cause when he questioned 9/11 on TV back in 2006.
When I first heard that author and fellow JFK researcher Anthony Summers had written a book on 9/11, then, I suspected it would follow the usual recipe. Take some ideas from Nafeez Ahmed, add a sprinkling of Griffin, stir in a few convenient entries from The Terror Timeline, garnish with impressive footnotes, and you're done: another identikit truther-friendly book.
But how very, very, very wrong I was.
First, The Eleventh Day is not just a list of the usual truther talking points. It focuses far more on a detailed sequence of events taken from original source documents, and interviews, many of them new. Controlled demolition, "no plane at the Pentagon" and similar issues are hived off to a couple of chapters, a mere 28 pages out of 600.
And second, while this plainly limits what the authors can cover, they nonetheless leave no doubt regarding their views. Words like "preposterous", "fatuous" and "callous" appear in response to particular truther claims, before they tell us that 'subject to any serious probing, the suspicions raised by Professor Griffin and his fellow "truthers" simply vanish on the wind'.
This isn't an empty opinion, either. The authors interviewed and contacted many people throughout the project (including Daniel Hopsicker, History Commons' Erik Larson and Kevin Fenton, and John Judge), and say they have "read as much" [of the Commission documentation released by NARA] "as is feasible", only to report that it "provides no support for the naysayers".
The Eleventh Day doesn't give the 9/11 Commission a free pass, though. Rather, the authors say:
The legacy of the spurious doubts... has been that far too little attention has been given to the very real omissions and distortions in the official story. The conspiracy theorizing in which the skeptics indulged, David Corn has rightly said, "distracts people from the actual malfeasance, mistakes and misdeeds of the U.S. government and the intelligence community."
There were certainly mistakes, and there may have been wrongdoing.
What were those mistakes, and where was the wrongdoing? That's discussed in-depth in the latter part of the book.
Unanswered Questions
Summers and Swan believe there are two areas where the "9/11 Commission fudged or dodged the issue: the full truth about U.S. and Western intelligence before the attacks; and whether the terrorist operation ten years ago had the support of other nation-states or of powerful individuals within those nation-states".
As they discuss these issues so some familiar stories appear, with perhaps a different twist. Did US officials really meet with bin Laden in a Dubai hospital in July 2001? Probably so, they say, though also quoting a former head of the Security Intelligence department of France's DGSE as saying "we did not consider it as something abnormal or outrageous. When someone is threatening you, you try to negotiate. Our own service does it all the time. It is the sort of thing we are prepared to do."
There are also thoughts on what the intelligence services may or may not have known about the hijackers, pre-9/11, and why exactly it was that the CIA didn't share information on Mihdhar and Hazmi with the FBI, a move which may have stopped the attacks (the authors wonder if they were monitoring the pair, perhaps hoping to recruit them as informants.)
Attention is also paid to the possible Saudi role in the attacks (and the 28 pages from the Joint Inquiry Report which appear to be on this issue), and there's also some discussion of the bin Laden/ ISI connection (which is right up-to-date with a page or two on bin Laden's death).
I'm summarising considerably here; this is a lengthy and detailed book and I don't have the time to do it justice. For more information, try Miles Kara's review, the Vanity Fair adaption or Leonard Lopate interview.
Or, if you simply want to know whether you should buy it, my answer is yes, with a single reservation.
If you're simply looking for a resource which will provide new material to address truther claims, then this probably isn't the book for you. As I mentioned earlier, "9/11 truth" makes only a brief appearance in The Eleventh Day. The authors clearly decided there were more important topics to fill their pages than endless discussions about whether the hijackers really were on the manifests, and similar issues: and they were right.
If you're looking for something more detailed, though, a well-documented account of the run-up to the attacks, the perpetrators, the day itself, and what came later, as well as a lengthy piece on "unanswered questions", then you'll find this a very interesting read. It deserves its place alongside 9/11 books by Peter Lance, Lawrence Wright, John Farmer and so on, and has more than enough new material to justify its inclusion in your library.
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Here is a link to the (long) Vanity Fair article about their book, written in fact by Summers & Swan themsleves:
Adapted from The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers and Robynn Swan to be published this month by Ballantine Books; © 2011 by the authors.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/08/9-11-2011-201108?currentPage=1
Now here's the publisher's blurb about 'Looking for Madeleine':
The 2007 disappearance of a three-year-old Madeleine McCann from her bed in Portugal proved an instant, worldwide sensation. There's been nothing like it since America's Lindbergh kidnapping eighty years ago.
Award-winning authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan have produced the first independent, objective account of the case. They have examined the released Portuguese files, conducted in-depth interviews and original research to answer the questions: What can we really know about this most emotive of cases? What can we learn from it?
The Portuguese police probe ran into a dead end. Parents Gerry and Kate McCann, however, have never given up the search for Madeleine. They blitzed the media, hired private detectives, kept the case in the public eye. Speculation that the McCanns played a role in their daughter's fate, the authors demonstrate, is unfounded.
Scotland Yard's 'investigative review', ordered by the Prime Minister and begun in 2011, identified some 200 potential leads. The Yard's suspects have included a mystery paedophile who preyed on other British children. The Detective Chief Inspector heading the probe has said the little girl may still be alive.
The McCann family's private tragedy has touched millions around the world and aroused sometimes dark controversy. Looking for Madeleine is the most definitive account possible.
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And finally my notes about what we have a right to expect from 'Looking for Madeleine':
Looking at the publisher’s description of the book, these SIX claims for it stand out:
· 1. it’s the first independent, objective account of the case
· 2. they have examined the released Portuguese files,
· 3. they have conducted in-depth interviews
· 4. they have conducted original research
· 5. they demonstrate that speculation that the McCanns played a role in their daughter's fate is unfounded, and
· 6. their book is ‘the most definitive account possible’.
If numbers (1) and (6) are to be proved true, it follows that they must have considered, and decisively rejected, the basis on which there has indeed been speculation that the McCanns played a role in Madeleine’s disappearance. That means, I suggest, that to live up to its billing and the authors’ reputation, Summers & Swan will have to answer:
a) the alleged changes of story by the McCanns and their friends
b) the obvious contradictions - I refer to just one set of them: the 20 or so contradictions in the alleged visit of Dr David Payne to Apartment G5A
c) the report of Martin Grime
d) the contents of Dr Amaral’s book ‘The Truth About A Lie’
e) the report of Inspector Tavares de Almeida, and
f) much else.
Looking at number (3) above, what ‘in-depth’ interviews must they have conducted?
I would suggest that, as a minimum, they would have had to conduct challenging interviews with all of the following:
· The McCanns
· The Tapas 7
· Key Portuguese witnesses: nannies, Ocean club staff etc.
· Cheshire businessman Brian Kennedy and all those staff he employed on the search for Madeleine:
(i) Gary Hagland, money-laundering expert
(ii) Francisco Marco
(iii) Antonio Gimenez Raso
(iv) Julian Peribanez
(v) Marcos Aragao Correia (Arade Dam and prosecution of Goncalo Amaral)
(vi) Kevin Halligen
(vii) Henri Exton
(viii) Tim Craig-Harvey
(ix) Dave Edgar
(x) Arthur Cowley.
It will be interesting to see how many of these names feature in the book.
Also, if number (6) is to be fulfilled, the authors will presumably have had a briefing from Scotland Yard – unless they tell their readers: “This is a highly confidential enquiry, so we are unable to tell you anything about what they have and have not established.
A much more detailed breakdown of the accounts of 'Madeleine's Fund' would not come amiss, either.
As set out above, I concede that by their previous published works, Summers & Swan have an established reputation to live up to.
But unless they cover all angles to justify their conclusion that the McCanns played no role in Madeleine’s disappearance, their hubristic claim to have written ‘the most definitive account possible’ stands in grave danger of being trumped by someone else who may well pen a more definitive account than theirs.
And if that should happen - or, still worse, if their strong conviction that 'the McCanns played no role in Madeleine’s disappearance' was ever proved to be unjustified - people might well start to query the conclusions of some of their other books.
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
The Mc's must be very "encouraged" that such reputable authors are backing their "abduction" story.
Surely, the evidence lookers are very discouraged by the release of this upcoming "bewk".
Thanks Tony for the new topic/post.
Surely, the evidence lookers are very discouraged by the release of this upcoming "bewk".
Thanks Tony for the new topic/post.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
My comments:
1. The Summers and Swan book cannot possibly do what it claims. Tony has correctly set out what it needs to do, and it seems highly unlikely it will score more than 10% on that list.
2. I have always thought the absence of a serious big book by reputable authors working through established publishers, one of the most remarkable features of this case, which is the most reported on UK crime ever. Why? There surely can't be a shortage of authors wanting to exploit this rich vein of public interest and earn probably several million pounds in sales and syndication. I think they do some initial research and quickly see that to tell the truth will expose them to a well funded libel suit using £1000 an hour lawayers and possible surge of public opprobrium which could affect their literary careers.
However that must leave room for someone to at least go through the motions of at least appearing to write a serious book but without the risks of libel.
3. Bad move to even mention the absurd 9-11 "Truther" account in relation to the unexplained disappearance of MMcC or indeed the assassination of JFK. There is absolutely no doubt what happened on
9-11: a bunch of Jihadists affiliated to Osama bin Laden commandeered a number of passenger jets and flew them into a number of prestige targets. Few historical events and their causation are so well documented as 9-11.
With JFK, there are on the other hand good reasons to consider as serious the possibility there was a conspiracy. We have recorded statements of Mafia personnel that they were trying to assassinate JFK. The House Committee determined that a conspiracy was likely. There appear to have been previous assassination plots. The case is unresolved and probably never will be fully resolved. At the least the Mafia and elements of the CIA had motive, means and opportunity.
1. The Summers and Swan book cannot possibly do what it claims. Tony has correctly set out what it needs to do, and it seems highly unlikely it will score more than 10% on that list.
2. I have always thought the absence of a serious big book by reputable authors working through established publishers, one of the most remarkable features of this case, which is the most reported on UK crime ever. Why? There surely can't be a shortage of authors wanting to exploit this rich vein of public interest and earn probably several million pounds in sales and syndication. I think they do some initial research and quickly see that to tell the truth will expose them to a well funded libel suit using £1000 an hour lawayers and possible surge of public opprobrium which could affect their literary careers.
However that must leave room for someone to at least go through the motions of at least appearing to write a serious book but without the risks of libel.
3. Bad move to even mention the absurd 9-11 "Truther" account in relation to the unexplained disappearance of MMcC or indeed the assassination of JFK. There is absolutely no doubt what happened on
9-11: a bunch of Jihadists affiliated to Osama bin Laden commandeered a number of passenger jets and flew them into a number of prestige targets. Few historical events and their causation are so well documented as 9-11.
With JFK, there are on the other hand good reasons to consider as serious the possibility there was a conspiracy. We have recorded statements of Mafia personnel that they were trying to assassinate JFK. The House Committee determined that a conspiracy was likely. There appear to have been previous assassination plots. The case is unresolved and probably never will be fully resolved. At the least the Mafia and elements of the CIA had motive, means and opportunity.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Loving Mom wrote:The Mc's must be very "encouraged" that such reputable authors are backing their "abduction" story.
Surely, the evidence lookers are very discouraged by the release of this upcoming "bewk".
Thanks Tony for the new topic/post.
The Police investigation is a river running into the sand.
The failure of the Police investigation will be the context of the book's appearance.
Do the authors have any new leads? Have they shared them with the Police? If not, why not?
I will certainly sneak a look at this book in a bookshop but I won't be buying it.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Tony Bennett wrote:Possibly their best-known book to date is “The Eleventh Day; The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden”. Though well-received, it did not satisfy those many critics who believe there was a much deeper conspiracy behind the events leading to 9/11. That led some to suggest that Summers and Swan have been far too close to the political establishment and therefore unable to bring full objectivity to their books.
I can tell you now, I have followed the 9/11 debate closely for a number of years. I believe there are still many questions unanswered. Summers version of events has been ripped to shreds by people who can see the smoke and mirrors.
I think Summers is an apologist for the establishment.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Summers' books are acknowledged to be 'well-researched'.BlueBag wrote:Tony Bennett wrote:Possibly their best-known book to date is “The Eleventh Day; The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden”. Though well-received, it did not satisfy those many critics who believe there was a much deeper conspiracy behind the events leading to 9/11. That led some to suggest that Summers and Swan have been far too close to the political establishment and therefore unable to bring full objectivity to their books.
I can tell you now, I have followed the 9/11 debate closely for a number of years. I believe there are still many questions unanswered. Summers version of events has been ripped to shreds by people who can see the smoke and mirrors.
I think Summers is an apologist for the establishment.
However, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that, in relation to their book on 9/11 for example, Summers & Swan had active help from the American political establishmemt, maybe facilitating interviews with key personnel - so that it would appear that they had derived material from the best available sources.
Is it possible that Summers & Swan have had 'insider' help from the Met and other security services, which will lend an air of authority to their book on Madeleine, whilst at the same time they have failed to extract from people like Gary Hagland, Antonio Giminez Raso, Kevin Halligen, Henri Exton and Dave Edgar information about what exactly Brian Kennedy briefed them to do?
I wonder if 'Looking for Madeleine' will include, for the benefit of its readers, details of the links of Antonio Giminez Raso to a particularly vicious 27-strong criminal gang based in Barcelona, the contract between the McCann Team and Kevin Halligen & Henri Exton, or the meeting on 10 December 2007 at the Arade Dam between Antonio Giminez Raso of Metodo 3 and strange lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia - both men employed by Brian Kennedy and the McCann Team - to plan the searches for Madeleine's bones at the same dam?
Just asking...
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
I imagine there'll be a chapter discrediting the dogs and citing all 3 (or a similar number) occasions in the history of dog use when a dog has made a mistake, a chapter discrediting Amaral by talking about the Cipriano case, a chapter talking about how much the McCanns loved Madeleine, and a chapter dedicated to all the various - 'suspects' seen over the years. It's simply not possible for it to have anything factual in it if it is pro McCann.
Oh and of course and entire chapter dedicated to how the PJ concluded there was 'no evidence' to suggest the parents involvement, conveniently leaving out what they also said about death in the apartment and faked abduction. The words 'no evidence' will be repeated ad infinitum in an attempt to wear us all down.
Oh and of course and entire chapter dedicated to how the PJ concluded there was 'no evidence' to suggest the parents involvement, conveniently leaving out what they also said about death in the apartment and faked abduction. The words 'no evidence' will be repeated ad infinitum in an attempt to wear us all down.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
[quote="Okeydokey"]There is absolutely no doubt what happened on
9-11: a bunch of Jihadists affiliated to Osama bin Laden commandeered a number of passenger jets and flew them into a number of prestige targets{/quote]
In your mind there may be no doubt but to state it as fact is quite wrong. There are a very large (and growing) number of people that question the validity of the official account for a number of reasons not the least of which are the apparent evaporation of the vast majority of the superstructure of the "plane" that hit the pentagon and the near free fall collapse of building 7, which wasn't hit by anything.
9-11: a bunch of Jihadists affiliated to Osama bin Laden commandeered a number of passenger jets and flew them into a number of prestige targets{/quote]
In your mind there may be no doubt but to state it as fact is quite wrong. There are a very large (and growing) number of people that question the validity of the official account for a number of reasons not the least of which are the apparent evaporation of the vast majority of the superstructure of the "plane" that hit the pentagon and the near free fall collapse of building 7, which wasn't hit by anything.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
I don't know what these 'absurd 'Truther' accounts' are, though I have certainly seen some extreme conspiracy nonsense written about that appalling day in world history.Okeydokey wrote:My comments:
3. Bad move to even mention the absurd 9-11 "Truther" account in relation to the unexplained disappearance of MMcC or indeed the assassination of JFK. There is absolutely no doubt what happened on 9-11: a bunch of Jihadists affiliated to Osama bin Laden commandeered a number of passenger jets and flew them into a number of prestige targets. Few historical events and their causation are so well documented as 9-11.
However, I cannot be sure that this event was as claimed - a sudden, out-of-the-blue event, about which the elite U.S. security services knew nothing beforehand.
So as not to drag this off-topic, I'll not say more - except to repeat my point that there is a body of opinion which suggests that Summers and Swan's overall verdict on 9/11 may not be completely correct, by a long chalk.
I also find 11 September 2014, exactly 13 years to the day after the original 9/11 event, an odd choice of publication date for 'Looking for Madeleine'
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
nglfi wrote:I imagine there'll be a chapter discrediting the dogs and citing all 3 (or a similar number) occasions in the history of dog use when a dog has made a mistake, a chapter discrediting Amaral by talking about the Cipriano case, a chapter talking about how much the McCanns loved Madeleine, and a chapter dedicated to all the various - 'suspects' seen over the years. It's simply not possible for it to have anything factual in it if it is pro McCann.
Oh and of course and entire chapter dedicated to how the PJ concluded there was 'no evidence' to suggest the parents involvement, conveniently leaving out what they also said about death in the apartment and faked abduction. The words 'no evidence' will be repeated ad infinitum in an attempt to wear us all down.
This.
I think so.
Bookmark this post.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Hallo all reading today . There is a place you can go and hear what pilots and tecnicians have to say about 9 11. I think its a good idea as there is lot of information on there. for serious,bit complicated for me ,but some is not . Its called pilots for truth.joyce1938 lookers
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
I agree with "BlueBag".
I think it is possible after reading Tony's in-depth post about Summers & Swan, "The Eleventh Day" - I think they have "taken the shilling".
It serves the purpose by arriving at what is possibly the end of the Review/Investigation by SY and can I think be considered another "force feeding" for the unenlightened masses.
I think it is possible after reading Tony's in-depth post about Summers & Swan, "The Eleventh Day" - I think they have "taken the shilling".
It serves the purpose by arriving at what is possibly the end of the Review/Investigation by SY and can I think be considered another "force feeding" for the unenlightened masses.
____________________
Things aren't always what they seem
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Thanks for the info tony....[though a bit gutted i must say]...
What i find hard to believe is how anyone can come to the conclusion of abduction ....what is there really to back this up...nothing ...apart from k mcc believing this
how can it be that everyone who support the non abduction ...can be wrong ....
I know a lot of the so called anti ...pro`s.....are in it just for the name calling ...and arguments....
but what about the genuine posters like myself an thosands of others ...are in the belief maddie came to some harm in the apartment ....
the thousands of numerous information on the net....also not believing the abduction theory..
how can this all be wrong.....and the mccs be right...
What i find hard to believe is how anyone can come to the conclusion of abduction ....what is there really to back this up...nothing ...apart from k mcc believing this
how can it be that everyone who support the non abduction ...can be wrong ....
I know a lot of the so called anti ...pro`s.....are in it just for the name calling ...and arguments....
but what about the genuine posters like myself an thosands of others ...are in the belief maddie came to some harm in the apartment ....
the thousands of numerous information on the net....also not believing the abduction theory..
how can this all be wrong.....and the mccs be right...
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
If we look back at recent statements by Soctland Yard, whether on the record or in 'off the record' briefings, it's clear (to me at any rate) that the Met and the government are preparing to close Grange by saying: "Madeleine was abducted. We tried so hard but failed to nail the abductor, partly because of the lack of co-operation from the Portuguese".Angelique wrote:I agree with "BlueBag".
I think it is possible after reading Tony's in-depth post about Summers & Swan, "The Eleventh Day" - I think they have "taken the shilling".
It serves the purpose by arriving at what is possibly the end of the Review/Investigation by SY and can I think be considered another "force feeding" for the unenlightened masses.
I predict this will happen at least three months before the General Election - so, by February 2015.
I expect a propaganda blitz about the book in the next few days, maybe with a serialisation in a newspaper, maybe with TV interviews.
The compliant media will no doubt have been briefed about the 'international reputation' of the authors for their 'meticulous research' etc. etc.
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Well Tony, Crimewatch aren't going to be happy! They'll have to re-name their show How They (haven't) caught.
And with all due respect Tony, I hope you are wrong on this.
And with all due respect Tony, I hope you are wrong on this.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Tony wrote: "If we look back at recent statements by Soctland Yard, whether on the record or in 'off the record' briefings, it's clear (to me at any rate) that the Met and the government are preparing to close Grange by saying: "Madeleine was abducted. We tried so hard but failed to nail the abductor, partly because of the lack of co-operation from the Portuguese".
I predict this will happen at least three months before the General Election - so, by February 2015.
I expect a propaganda blitz about the book in the next few days, maybe with a serialisation in a newspaper, maybe with TV interviews.
The compliant media will no doubt have been briefed about the 'international reputation' of the authors for their 'meticulous research' etc. etc."UNQUOTE
--------------------
yes ......and also completely over shadowing the libel trial...if the judgement goes against them etc etc
I predict this will happen at least three months before the General Election - so, by February 2015.
I expect a propaganda blitz about the book in the next few days, maybe with a serialisation in a newspaper, maybe with TV interviews.
The compliant media will no doubt have been briefed about the 'international reputation' of the authors for their 'meticulous research' etc. etc."UNQUOTE
--------------------
yes ......and also completely over shadowing the libel trial...if the judgement goes against them etc etc
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
What will happen if that does happen? Do we all just give up? What more will anyone be able to do?garfy wrote:Tony wrote: "If we look back at recent statements by Soctland Yard, whether on the record or in 'off the record' briefings, it's clear (to me at any rate) that the Met and the government are preparing to close Grange by saying: "Madeleine was abducted. We tried so hard but failed to nail the abductor, partly because of the lack of co-operation from the Portuguese".
I predict this will happen at least three months before the General Election - so, by February 2015.
I expect a propaganda blitz about the book in the next few days, maybe with a serialisation in a newspaper, maybe with TV interviews.
The compliant media will no doubt have been briefed about the 'international reputation' of the authors for their 'meticulous research' etc. etc."UNQUOTE
--------------------
yes ......and also completely over shadowing the libel trial...if the judgement goes against them etc etc
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
TB wrote:
"But unless they cover all angles to justify their conclusion that the McCanns played no role in Madeleine’s disappearance, their hubristic claim to have written ‘the most definitive account possible’ stands in grave danger of being trumped by someone else who may well pen a more definitive account than theirs."
--------------------------------------------------
That's what i was going to say.
--------------------------------------------------------
Loving Mom wrote:
The Mc's must be very "encouraged" that such reputable authors are backing their "abduction" story. Surely, the evidence lookers are very discouraged by the release of this upcoming "bewk".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
How can they 'back' the 'abduction' story, without supplying, beyond contestation, absolute, irrefutable PROOF, that an 'abduction' even, ever, took place?
Simply being TOLD that an 'abduction' took place, by the very last person to have 'seen' the 'abducted' child, the child's own father, sound asleep, ALIVE in her bed, is NOT 'proof' of an 'abduction', as well the authors know.
As TB stated, and with Hobs 'analysis' forthcoming, the authors use of the word 'possible' suggest there are 'other' possibilities.
Indeed, the 'missing' child's own father, GM, has publicly asked,"Where... where, you know... where is... where... where is... where is... where is the child? We're looking for that evidence. Where is the child? What OTHER (possible?) explanation can explain how she's not here"
So, IF the 'missing' child's own father is asking "what OTHER explanations (possibilities?) (can there be) to explain how she's (madeleine) is not here" how can the authors possibly 'give' ......."THE most DEFINITIVE account possible"?
The authors were NOT THERE, when the child went 'missing' were they?
Even the father, of the 'missing' child, CANNOT, give a DEFINITIVE 'account' of what happened, to his 'missing' child!
So how can the authors give THE most 'definitive' account POSSIBLE?
So, HEARSAY at worst, supposition, on the authors behalf, at best.
KM gave 'AN' account of what she 'thinks' happened to her daughter, exhibit KH1, but not THE 'account' of what happened to her 'missing' daughter.
Will the authors have addressed in their book the following:
a) Is it POSSIBLE the parents, or persons they knew, of the 'missing' child could have actually had involvement related to the child's 'disappearance'?
b) if it is not POSSIBLE, the parents, or persons they know, could have had involvement in the child's 'disappearance' will the authors reveal. explain definitively, WHY it would be IMPOSSIBLE that the parents, or persons they know, had definitively, NO INVOLVEMENT to do with the child's 'disappearance'?
eta: I thought that Donut McIntyre had already given the world "the most definitive account, possible" about Madeleine's 'disappearance'
Will the new authors 'THE most defintive account, possible' about a child's 'disappearance' be MORE 'definitive' than Donut's 'account' of the 'disappearance' of a 3 years old child?
"But unless they cover all angles to justify their conclusion that the McCanns played no role in Madeleine’s disappearance, their hubristic claim to have written ‘the most definitive account possible’ stands in grave danger of being trumped by someone else who may well pen a more definitive account than theirs."
--------------------------------------------------
That's what i was going to say.
--------------------------------------------------------
Loving Mom wrote:
The Mc's must be very "encouraged" that such reputable authors are backing their "abduction" story. Surely, the evidence lookers are very discouraged by the release of this upcoming "bewk".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
How can they 'back' the 'abduction' story, without supplying, beyond contestation, absolute, irrefutable PROOF, that an 'abduction' even, ever, took place?
Simply being TOLD that an 'abduction' took place, by the very last person to have 'seen' the 'abducted' child, the child's own father, sound asleep, ALIVE in her bed, is NOT 'proof' of an 'abduction', as well the authors know.
As TB stated, and with Hobs 'analysis' forthcoming, the authors use of the word 'possible' suggest there are 'other' possibilities.
Indeed, the 'missing' child's own father, GM, has publicly asked,"Where... where, you know... where is... where... where is... where is... where is the child? We're looking for that evidence. Where is the child? What OTHER (possible?) explanation can explain how she's not here"
So, IF the 'missing' child's own father is asking "what OTHER explanations (possibilities?) (can there be) to explain how she's (madeleine) is not here" how can the authors possibly 'give' ......."THE most DEFINITIVE account possible"?
The authors were NOT THERE, when the child went 'missing' were they?
Even the father, of the 'missing' child, CANNOT, give a DEFINITIVE 'account' of what happened, to his 'missing' child!
So how can the authors give THE most 'definitive' account POSSIBLE?
So, HEARSAY at worst, supposition, on the authors behalf, at best.
KM gave 'AN' account of what she 'thinks' happened to her daughter, exhibit KH1, but not THE 'account' of what happened to her 'missing' daughter.
Will the authors have addressed in their book the following:
a) Is it POSSIBLE the parents, or persons they knew, of the 'missing' child could have actually had involvement related to the child's 'disappearance'?
b) if it is not POSSIBLE, the parents, or persons they know, could have had involvement in the child's 'disappearance' will the authors reveal. explain definitively, WHY it would be IMPOSSIBLE that the parents, or persons they know, had definitively, NO INVOLVEMENT to do with the child's 'disappearance'?
eta: I thought that Donut McIntyre had already given the world "the most definitive account, possible" about Madeleine's 'disappearance'
Will the new authors 'THE most defintive account, possible' about a child's 'disappearance' be MORE 'definitive' than Donut's 'account' of the 'disappearance' of a 3 years old child?
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Oh no, help, jeanmonroe, we need a picker upper, or, I need a picker upper, please!
But, if that happens, it's people who know there's no evidence of abduction, only kms word, and I think a lot of people realises she lies, she told us so in her book.
IMO only.
You got there before I'd even asked! Ta.
But, if that happens, it's people who know there's no evidence of abduction, only kms word, and I think a lot of people realises she lies, she told us so in her book.
IMO only.
You got there before I'd even asked! Ta.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Summers & Swan 9/11 views shows me that they have just agreed with the Official story which was pumped out by Fox TV etc for the sheeple. Most professional architects and engineers know the truth that aluminium planes and steel/concrete buildings don't behave like that. There was not one video of the planes live. They were all done on computers and the keying was ruined by the news helicopter drifting showing the plastic nosecone appearing on the opposite side of the tower followed by a hasty fade to black to try and cover it up. The helicopter cameraman told some whoppers about changing a times two lense as well...that never happened. That was a pathetic attempt to cover up a FTB. The aircraft samples used even had bulges ubderneath which airliners don't have...some military aircraft do have the ventral addons. No aircaft bits fell down on impact and no remains were found except for an engine on a pavement which was far too small to have come from an airliner...not unlike the small bits on the Pentagon lawn.
Where was 100+ floors of rubble...hardly anything left...see Dr. Judy Wood. Also, John Lear, who is qualified on many, many, aircraft , says no planes could do 500mph @ ground level and couldn't have been flown like that and agrees there were no planes. It is extremely obvious that an airliner couldn't fit in the small hole made in the Pentagon attack. Dare I mention all the fighter jets that were sent in every direction but the right one?
WTC 1& 2 were losing money and also needed all the asbestos removing...an enormous job.
Building 7 was an extra bonus eliminating FBI, CIA and Enron files, being a Command and Control building which was hurridly abandoned by the Mayor before it was "Pulled" on instructions from Larry Silverstein, who got $7B from insurance on the twin towers. That must be the quickest demolition set up ever performed...47 stories rigged in an afternoon...mmm.The BBC had their crystal ball and came on the news saying WTC7 had come down but as viewers saw, it was still standing. A bit premature with the news there , sport. All this poorly executed plan so they could go to war with Iraq.
Writing a book by going along with a string of official quotes, interviews and documents is not doing independent research.
With a track record like this, I think that a Summers & Swan book on the McCanns will be a pro view with no new information just for the sheeple who haven't time or the inclination to think about what really happened.
I believe Kate's bewk was a best-seller, dear oh dear, so I think S&Swan book will no doubt be a best seller also.
I think, like TB , that this case will be wrapped up in the new year well before the General Election, as this coupled with all the phone-tapping and other corruption will want to be forgotten about and lots of new promises proposed.
Where was 100+ floors of rubble...hardly anything left...see Dr. Judy Wood. Also, John Lear, who is qualified on many, many, aircraft , says no planes could do 500mph @ ground level and couldn't have been flown like that and agrees there were no planes. It is extremely obvious that an airliner couldn't fit in the small hole made in the Pentagon attack. Dare I mention all the fighter jets that were sent in every direction but the right one?
WTC 1& 2 were losing money and also needed all the asbestos removing...an enormous job.
Building 7 was an extra bonus eliminating FBI, CIA and Enron files, being a Command and Control building which was hurridly abandoned by the Mayor before it was "Pulled" on instructions from Larry Silverstein, who got $7B from insurance on the twin towers. That must be the quickest demolition set up ever performed...47 stories rigged in an afternoon...mmm.The BBC had their crystal ball and came on the news saying WTC7 had come down but as viewers saw, it was still standing. A bit premature with the news there , sport. All this poorly executed plan so they could go to war with Iraq.
Writing a book by going along with a string of official quotes, interviews and documents is not doing independent research.
With a track record like this, I think that a Summers & Swan book on the McCanns will be a pro view with no new information just for the sheeple who haven't time or the inclination to think about what really happened.
I believe Kate's bewk was a best-seller, dear oh dear, so I think S&Swan book will no doubt be a best seller also.
I think, like TB , that this case will be wrapped up in the new year well before the General Election, as this coupled with all the phone-tapping and other corruption will want to be forgotten about and lots of new promises proposed.
whatsupdoc- Posts : 601
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
I can't wait for the book to be delivered.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether the curtains were wide open or tight shut, and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether Gerry went in through the front door or the patio door, and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether the twins were sedated, or were not sedated, or "Must have been sedated" and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether you could see Madeleine's bed, or you could not see Madeleine's bed, and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether Payne visited for 30 minutes or 30 seconds, or not at all, and am desperate to know which it was.
I am confident that at last ALL these minor issues and little problems and tiny contradictions will be sorted out, once and for all time.
And that after the author's extensive interviews with all the people concerned they will be able to give first hand accounts of all the evidence St. Katherine said she had, but was not allowed to give.
and that at last we shall know about which side of the road JT and GM and everyone else actually was.
Can't wait.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether the curtains were wide open or tight shut, and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether Gerry went in through the front door or the patio door, and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether the twins were sedated, or were not sedated, or "Must have been sedated" and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether you could see Madeleine's bed, or you could not see Madeleine's bed, and am desperate to know which it was.
I have obviously been wrong to worry about whether Payne visited for 30 minutes or 30 seconds, or not at all, and am desperate to know which it was.
I am confident that at last ALL these minor issues and little problems and tiny contradictions will be sorted out, once and for all time.
And that after the author's extensive interviews with all the people concerned they will be able to give first hand accounts of all the evidence St. Katherine said she had, but was not allowed to give.
and that at last we shall know about which side of the road JT and GM and everyone else actually was.
Can't wait.
Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
snipped from whatsupdoc's post
"I believe Kate's bewk was a best-seller, dear oh dear, so I think S&Swan book will no doubt be a best seller also. "
Why do you believe Kate's bewk was a best-seller? I've not seen anything to prove that and importantly I haven't seen anything in the Fund (Limited Company) accounts to prove/detail that all royalties have been paid into the Find Madeleine Fund.
If Kate's bewk, (that would be the bewk with the big sticker on the front comforting everyone who bought it by knowing their purchase was helping in the search for Madeleine) was a triumph then there would surely be something in the financial reports of the Limited Company to show income from the bewk (or am I being silly).
Does anyone have info on the success of Kate's bewk?
could someone post a photo of the sticker on Kate's bewk? PeterMac..help.
"I believe Kate's bewk was a best-seller, dear oh dear, so I think S&Swan book will no doubt be a best seller also. "
Why do you believe Kate's bewk was a best-seller? I've not seen anything to prove that and importantly I haven't seen anything in the Fund (Limited Company) accounts to prove/detail that all royalties have been paid into the Find Madeleine Fund.
If Kate's bewk, (that would be the bewk with the big sticker on the front comforting everyone who bought it by knowing their purchase was helping in the search for Madeleine) was a triumph then there would surely be something in the financial reports of the Limited Company to show income from the bewk (or am I being silly).
Does anyone have info on the success of Kate's bewk?
could someone post a photo of the sticker on Kate's bewk? PeterMac..help.
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Let me try and answer that question as follows:inspirespirit wrote:garfy wrote:Tony wrote: "If we look back at recent statements by Soctland Yard, whether on the record or in 'off the record' briefings, it's clear (to me at any rate) that the Met and the government are preparing to close Grange by saying: "Madeleine was abducted. We tried so hard but failed to nail the abductor, partly because of the lack of co-operation from the Portuguese".
I predict this will happen at least three months before the General Election - so, by February 2015.
I expect a propaganda blitz about the book in the next few days, maybe with a serialisation in a newspaper, maybe with TV interviews.
The compliant media will no doubt have been briefed about the 'international reputation' of the authors for their 'meticulous research' etc. etc."
UNQUOTE
--------------------
Yes...and also completely overshadowing the libel trial...if the judgement goes against them etc. etc.
What will happen if that does happen? Do we all just give up? What more will anyone be able to do?
* HILLSBOROUGH - The police lied, lied and lied again and again about what really happened that day. In addition the current Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders (CPS lawyer who went out to Portugal 18 months ago) refused a second inquest. The families NEVER GAVE UP and eventually got an Independent Panel, which eventually found out the comprehensive police lies. They will now get a second inquest.
* DANIEL MORGAN - The police lied, lied and lied again and again about the corruption and cover-ups (throughout SIX long reviews of the case) which shielded the police officers who conspired to murder Daniel when he was on the verge of exposing them. He was murdered in 1987. His brother Alistair Morgan NEVER GAVE UP and has now secured an Independent Panel, as happened in the Hillsborough case, which just might get even nearer the truth.
* ROTHERHAM - The police, Social Services and others lied and lied again and again about the serial rapes and abuse of over 1,400 children. Some of the victims NEVER GAVE UP and now the evil cover-up of these crimes - by people paid good money to investigate crimes against children - has been exposed.
Many other examples of folk who had NEVER GIVEN UP could be given.
Up to now, a great deal of trust has been placed in the Madeleine McCann investigations by the Portuguese Police, Leicestershire Poice and Scotland Yard.
Trust has even been placed in the McCanns' own private investigations. In the recent Channel 5 programme on Kevin Halligen (March this year) it was claimed that Kevin Halligen and Henri Exton had uncovered vital evidence that official police forces had failed to uncover. That followed the BBC CrimeWatch McCann Special saying the same thing - placing the two e-fits knocked up by Henri Exton at the very heart of their
IF Grange is closed down and IF anyone then feels that an injustice has been done, or the police have lied or been corrupt or incompetent, THEN IMO it would need a group of people to come together who would NEVER GIVE UP in their quest for truth and justice in this case.
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
I believe the paperback version and also the hardback version were in the best-seller lists for some time.aquila wrote:Does anyone have info on the success of Kate's bewk?
One day at Stevenage Railway Station in late 2012 I saw a book-strand with the 'Top 20 Paperbacks' displayed.
'madeleine' was at No. 7 that week
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
LOL, Peter.
I think the PJ have all the answers to the obvious lies which the McCanns told everyone. We can see which way the wind blows or not.
Having weighed up S7&S previous work , I am not the slightest bit interested in their views.
Over the last 7 years we have had to consider what evidence we could glean and judge which of the testimonies of the McCanns and Tapas 7 may be true and fit in with what we could see. I think most of that was just confusion or noise and I am much more inclined to believe the PJ conclusions as, I believe, most of us are. So books from various authors and reports from the UK police etc are not what I am likely to put much faith in.
I think the PJ have all the answers to the obvious lies which the McCanns told everyone. We can see which way the wind blows or not.
Having weighed up S7&S previous work , I am not the slightest bit interested in their views.
Over the last 7 years we have had to consider what evidence we could glean and judge which of the testimonies of the McCanns and Tapas 7 may be true and fit in with what we could see. I think most of that was just confusion or noise and I am much more inclined to believe the PJ conclusions as, I believe, most of us are. So books from various authors and reports from the UK police etc are not what I am likely to put much faith in.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
UR4 (reporter): What evidence do you have that there was an abduction? Can I ask this question because you say that Amaral doesn't have...
KM's er, 'EVIDENCE' of 'abduction'
KM: "Because I know. I was there, I found my daughter gone. I know more than you do. I know what I saw"
So you actually 'SAW' the 'abduction' then, Kate, which had 'taken place' FORTY FIVE minutes 'earlier' than when you checked, as 'witnessed' by your friend J Tanner, with your husband and his tennis buddy chatting in the same street at exactly the same time, Madeleine was being 'carried off' by J Tanner?
Hmmmm.........thought not!
"Madeleine was being 'carried off' by JT"................
Panorama Nov 2007:
Interviewer: "Describe how you saw Madeleine being carried"
JT: "er, I was carrying..."
KM's er, 'EVIDENCE' of 'abduction'
KM: "Because I know. I was there, I found my daughter gone. I know more than you do. I know what I saw"
So you actually 'SAW' the 'abduction' then, Kate, which had 'taken place' FORTY FIVE minutes 'earlier' than when you checked, as 'witnessed' by your friend J Tanner, with your husband and his tennis buddy chatting in the same street at exactly the same time, Madeleine was being 'carried off' by J Tanner?
Hmmmm.........thought not!
"Madeleine was being 'carried off' by JT"................
Panorama Nov 2007:
Interviewer: "Describe how you saw Madeleine being carried"
JT: "er, I was carrying..."
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Thanks for OP Tony.
I haven't read every reply. I most certainly would not buy this book as from the OP I take it we have not been told who has been interviewed.
I would like to know how these authors can come to any conclusion about what happened as it doesn't really matter who they interviewed (IMO) - the words of the Tapas 9 interviews are the only ones that count. Nobody in 7 years, based on those words, has been able to fathom what happened to Maddie on the night she went missing, so unless the Tapas 9 accounts have changed and evidence produced, I see no point in my going out and buying or reading this book. If those accounts have changed they will have to have been done officailly I believe - i.e. through the police for them to hold any weight.
I haven't read every reply. I most certainly would not buy this book as from the OP I take it we have not been told who has been interviewed.
I would like to know how these authors can come to any conclusion about what happened as it doesn't really matter who they interviewed (IMO) - the words of the Tapas 9 interviews are the only ones that count. Nobody in 7 years, based on those words, has been able to fathom what happened to Maddie on the night she went missing, so unless the Tapas 9 accounts have changed and evidence produced, I see no point in my going out and buying or reading this book. If those accounts have changed they will have to have been done officailly I believe - i.e. through the police for them to hold any weight.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
TB wrote:
"IF Grange is closed down and IF anyone then feels that an injustice has been done, or the police have lied or been corrupt or incompetent, THEN IMO it would need a group of people to come together who would NEVER GIVE UP in their quest for truth and justice in this case."
-----------------------------------------------------
And LEADING that 'group' of people, to right an injustice, would SURELY be the McCanns and their ENTIRE family, the Healy's, the rest of the T9, C Mitchell, L Kelly, and any number of McCann 'supportive' billion/millionaires, etc',.
Have i got THAT right?
There'd be an outcry IF Grange was 'closed' down, not least of all, from the McCann's and Healy 'families' THEMSELVES, i would have thought.....
Oh, hang on, I seem to remember that Kate McCann said:in her bewk, exhibit KH1,"we were glad the investigation (into our daughter's 'disappearance') was CLOSED'
and
Kate McCann saying, on record, "whether the case (of her 'disappeared' daughter) is re-opened, OR NOT, it dosen't matter"
So, sadly, perhaps the mother of the 'disappeared' child will NOT be at the fore front of a group of people fighting a perceived injustice, against a child, they do not, and never have, known.
"IF Grange is closed down and IF anyone then feels that an injustice has been done, or the police have lied or been corrupt or incompetent, THEN IMO it would need a group of people to come together who would NEVER GIVE UP in their quest for truth and justice in this case."
-----------------------------------------------------
And LEADING that 'group' of people, to right an injustice, would SURELY be the McCanns and their ENTIRE family, the Healy's, the rest of the T9, C Mitchell, L Kelly, and any number of McCann 'supportive' billion/millionaires, etc',.
Have i got THAT right?
There'd be an outcry IF Grange was 'closed' down, not least of all, from the McCann's and Healy 'families' THEMSELVES, i would have thought.....
Oh, hang on, I seem to remember that Kate McCann said:in her bewk, exhibit KH1,"we were glad the investigation (into our daughter's 'disappearance') was CLOSED'
and
Kate McCann saying, on record, "whether the case (of her 'disappeared' daughter) is re-opened, OR NOT, it dosen't matter"
So, sadly, perhaps the mother of the 'disappeared' child will NOT be at the fore front of a group of people fighting a perceived injustice, against a child, they do not, and never have, known.
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
inspirespirit wrote:What will happen if that does happen? Do we all just give up? What more will anyone be able to do?garfy wrote:Tony wrote: "If we look back at recent statements by Soctland Yard, whether on the record or in 'off the record' briefings, it's clear (to me at any rate) that the Met and the government are preparing to close Grange by saying: "Madeleine was abducted. We tried so hard but failed to nail the abductor, partly because of the lack of co-operation from the Portuguese".
I predict this will happen at least three months before the General Election - so, by February 2015.
I expect a propaganda blitz about the book in the next few days, maybe with a serialisation in a newspaper, maybe with TV interviews.
The compliant media will no doubt have been briefed about the 'international reputation' of the authors for their 'meticulous research' etc. etc."UNQUOTE
--------------------
yes ......and also completely over shadowing the libel trial...if the judgement goes against them etc etc
well i reckon..the mcc lovers will be elated thy have another book to boast about ...........were as us foot soldiers will have to plod on.....continually loosing the battle ...but one day will win the war for justice for maddie
garfy- Posts : 191
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Re: The difficult task facing ANTHONY SUMMERS & ROBBYN SWAN as they publish 'Looking for Madeleine', billed as 'the most definitive account possible' of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Sorry to be so blunt but how on earth anyone can write a book
about an ongoing case like this where no body has yet been found or evidence to support an abduction is absurd.
I shall not be feeding this never ending gravy train but am selfishly hoping someone on here does as I'm intrigued as well as to where all the new evidence has come from.
Clearly an author wouldn't be allowed to put into circulation anything libellous (and I hope you are well into penning your own book TB in case you get the chance to publish it one day) so the next best thing for the greedy is to go with the official line and publish that instead.
I also find it absurd that one cannot be published yet another can just because it must clearly sings to the MC's tune.
These people are truly rotten to the core. If they have the most difinitive conclusion to an unsolved to date case then they are clearly in the wrong job and should be working for SY and put MBMs parents and the rest of the world out of their misery instead of chasing £££.
IMO of course, whilst truly disgusted that yet more people are going to benefit financially on the back of this little girl.
about an ongoing case like this where no body has yet been found or evidence to support an abduction is absurd.
I shall not be feeding this never ending gravy train but am selfishly hoping someone on here does as I'm intrigued as well as to where all the new evidence has come from.
Clearly an author wouldn't be allowed to put into circulation anything libellous (and I hope you are well into penning your own book TB in case you get the chance to publish it one day) so the next best thing for the greedy is to go with the official line and publish that instead.
I also find it absurd that one cannot be published yet another can just because it must clearly sings to the MC's tune.
These people are truly rotten to the core. If they have the most difinitive conclusion to an unsolved to date case then they are clearly in the wrong job and should be working for SY and put MBMs parents and the rest of the world out of their misery instead of chasing £££.
IMO of course, whilst truly disgusted that yet more people are going to benefit financially on the back of this little girl.
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