Paulo Reis: Remember, remember: “Who's Afraid of the McCann?

Remember, remember: “Who's Afraid of the McCann?



I “lost” a good number of posts, both news and opinion, that I published in the first years I followed the Maddie case. Those posts were on a blog that I “rented” to Blogspot but the website was deleted, because I forgot to make the annual payment on the scheduled date. After some “technical” work and many hours online, I managed to retrieve a reasonable number of those posts. “Who's Afraid of the McCann?” is one of those posts. I can't remember exactly when I published it, but at the time Clarence Mitchell was already working for the McCann and it should have been posted after September 2007, because I mention a curious episode with Grant Hodgson, from the “Daily Mirror”, and that episode was at the end of that month.

Grant Hodgson is the journalist that fabricated the story about Gonçalo Amaral having boozy three-hours lunches, drinking wine (Mr. Amaral never drinks wine, must be the only Portuguese that doesn't like it, only drinks beer...), working only four hours a day. In this story he published on 30 September 2007, in the “Sunday Mirror”, he refers that he followed Mr. Amaral for one week, every day and wrote that he saw him spending two and a half-four on a lunch at the restaurant Carvi, paying a impossible bill of 84 Euros. Of course, what is the problem of “boosting” the lunch time of Mr. Amaral, putting more 30 minutes? Just a case of a little bit of journalistic “creativity” - even if many people calls that making fake news. His fabricated story was repeated - whitout quoting him as the "pionner" - in hundreds, may be thousands of stories published in other British newspapers.

Many of the links may not work, as a large number of stories about Madeleine McCann, published by British newspapers are no more available for public access.

“Who's Afraid of the McCann?”

Clarence Mitchell, a former spin-doctor from British Government, is a liar. Nothing new, because this is an essential characteristic for somebody who has this kind of job. The most recent lie was published today. Mr. Clarence Mitchell told the Mirror Kate and Gerry have consistently said they are willing to co-operate with Portuguese authorities and will continue to do so, regardless of who is in charge of the hunt for Madeleine."

The “debutant” - as Richard Branson called him - Portuguese lawyer Pinto de Abreu said exactly the opposite. So, one of them is a liar. I believe Mr. Pinto de Abreu told the truth, when he revealed that Kate McCann refused to answer several times, when questioned by Police. I don't believe Mr. Clarence Mitchell, because his job has been and still is not to tell the truth, but to try to create the idea that truth is what better serves the interest of his bosses, whoever they are.

But the most interesting statement of Mr. Clarence Mitchell, the once powerful head of Media Monitoring Unit, was on GMTV: What (the McCann) want now is whoever takes over to refocus the inquiry onto finding Madeleine.

Meaning, what the McCann want is that Portuguese Police forgets the evidence collected by a British Police special team, working with the two most valuable and efficient sniffer dogs of all police forces in UK, Keela and Eddie at Praia da Luz.

What the McCann want, according to Clarence Mitchell, is that Portuguese Police start to pretend that it is a strong possibility that Madeleine McCann is alive a theory that goes against the results of the analysis of the samples collected by the British Police special team at Praia da Luz - analysis done at Forensic Science Service, in Birmingham.

But Clarence Mitchell is doing his job. That's what is paid for, by the several British millionaires that are the financial supporters of the McCann. What I don't understand is why the answer for the challenges and threats coming from the McCann has been the silence, coming from the Portuguese Prime-Minister, Mr. José Sócrates, from the Chairman of the Supreme Magistrates Council, Judge Noronha do Nascimento, from the head of the Public Prosecutor's Service, Mr. Pinto Monteiro and from the director of Policia Judiciária, Mr. Alípio Ribeiro.

Are they afraid of the McCann? Are they afraid of who is behind the McCann? I can't believe they are. I can't accept they are. But I can't understand why they have been so silent, month after month of an amazing campaign of slur, slander, calumny, defamation and insult to all the institutions those persons represent: our Nation, our Judicial system, our Courts, our Public Prosecutor's Office and our Police.

I never heard a word of Mr. Alípio Ribeiro defending one of his men, Criminal Coordinator Gonçalo Amaral. He never had the courage to come forward and say that he trusted the man who was in the spotlight, the nº1 target of British tabloid's journalists, people that behave like a pack of hyenas and have to lick each other for mutual reconnaissance, in order to avoid episodes of cannibalism.

When you are in command and you don't take care of your men, you risk to lose the battle. Because your men don't trust you. If you want to lead, you have to be the first to move forward and face the enemy. If you do that, your men will fight and die for you. But even if you stay in the comfort and cosiness of your command post, at the top of your ivory tower, while your men are struggling in the trenches, you can be sure they will do their job. They have a mission and a duty, and that's more important than the man that, by accident, happens to be their commander. A man that never had his shoes in the mud, never smelled a rotten body, never heard the noise of bullets passing by.



But when those men finish their job, they will come for you. They will ask you where you have been, when they needed you. Why you left them alone. They will demand answers. Hope you have a good one. You will need it. You and all the others that have been in such a comfortable silence, until now, as if you have nothing to do with what is going on at Praia da Luz.



Mr Grant Hodgson, from the Mirror,  is a man that considers himself a journalist, an obvious mistake. He calls me with regularity, like many other British journalists and I wouldn't mention their names, as most of them are good professionals. And we just talk, between journalists, about the last gossips, information, recent news and so on.

Some of them ask me for help in clarifying aspects of the Portuguese legal system, others want more details about news that were published in the Portuguese Press. A few of them proposed me money in exchange for information and other usual unethical procedures, quite common among British tabloid journalists. Brendan de Beer, who works for a English language publication in Algarve, once called me asking who where my sources in the Police.

Last time Mr. Hodgson called me, he asked my opinion about the picture of Madeleine, in Morocco. I reminded him of the many sightings in Malta and I told him that everybody should be careful with those sightings. I gave him an example: the chairman of the Polícia Judiciária Inspectors Union told, during a TV program, on September 11, that PJ had to investigate and send teams to 252 different places where alleged sightings of Madeleine have been reported, only in Portugal, between May 3 and September 11.

And what did this "journalist" wrote, next day? He wrote this piece of fake, misleading and manipulated information: "The 'Sunday Mirror' has discovered that 252 possible tip-offs about the four-year-old have been reported to Amaral, any one of which might just lead to her being traced. But the vast majority have not even been checked.”

[The story is no more available, in the “Sunday Mirror” website, but a copy can be found here] .... see below

Publicada por Pauo Reis em 18:23:00

https://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16088-winnower-blog-he-has-3-hour-boozy-lunches-works-only-four-hours-a-day-and-has-openly-accused-kate-gerry-of-killing-their-daughter#400373