GARY HAGLAND on the McCann Team's preparations to look for Madeleine in Morocco, and how the King of Morocco gave permission for Metodo 3 to enter his country

Here is a short extract from Gary Hagland’s manuscript. It deals with the preparations of the McCann Team for their search for Madeleine in Morocco. The events described by Hagland occurred in late September 2007. I add a note below of events occurring around this time:

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QUOTE Gary Hagland

It was with the support of Helping to Find Madeleine in mind that I first began to research and analyse Morocco as a realistic target destination for Madeleine. This was against a backdrop not just of limited investigative resource but fading resource.

The September 2007 sighting of a white, fair-haired small girl seen being carried papoose-style on the back of a Moroccan peasant woman near the town of Zinat, whose snatched photograph by Clara Torres, a tourist form Albacete, Spain, was splashed across British newspapers with the strap-line: ‘Could this be the face of Madeleine McCann?’, focused attention that fair-skinned, blonde offspring are not unusual in this region, and that Madeleine could more easily be assimilated and absorbed, than not. It also triggered Brian Kennedy flying to the area in the belief the sighting was Madeleine.

It wasn’t Madeleine; the child, Bouchra Ben Aisa, was a relative of the woman who was carrying her. The sense that Madeleine was there remained with me, however. This was reinforced by a report from another Spanish woman who was convinced that she saw Madeleine in the town of Zaio in northern Morocco at the end of May. The woman said that she saw a girl she believed was Madeleine being led by a Moroccan woman in Muslim dress. Allegedly, a gust of wind blew the child’s hat off, exposing her blonde hair underneath. Then there were two sightings of a blonde girl matching Madeleine’s description in Marrakesh on May 9th.

The Kingdom of Morocco, with Rabat being its capital, is located in North Africa. With the large main cities of Fes, Sale, Agadir, Marrakesh, Tangier, Meknes, Oujda and Tetouan, it has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Spain to the north, Algeria to the east, and Mauritania to the south.

The King of Morocco holds not inconsiderable powers, although executive power is exercised by the government, while legislative power is vested in both the government and two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and Assembly of Councillors. The 442,000 square miles of country are divided into grids that encompass villages. The mayors of these often small villages are known as moquadem; they are they eyes and ears of the King. Nothing gets by their attention.

Supporting the moquadem is the village Association charged with making decisions in the village. These associations are composet exclusively of men; in Muslim Morocco, men are undeniably in control of government and women are confined to affairs of the home, ideal for bringing-up young children.

Getting Metodo 3 on the ground operationally in Morocco was going to be difficult. It was clear the moquadem structure could not be clandestinely circumvented or subverted without running a very real risk of interdiction and punitive reprisal. This meant Morocco had to be worth the effort and the risk.

I called a friend who used to work the Moroccan desk for MI6. We met for lunch in the bowels of the Institute of Directors for lunch. It was to be a revelatory meeting.

PART SNIPPED

I briefed Brian Kennedy and Metodo 3 and Brian set about his contacts in an effort to pave the way to seek permission from the King of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, to enter the Kingdom to look for her. The King’s consort, Princess Salma, was already sympathetic to Madeleine’s plight. Eventually, with the help of the British Embassy in Rabat, a deal was struck.

On a strict understanding that the King’s approval was unofficial and immediately deniable; on the proviso that nothing would be done to the detriment of the sovereign standing and good reputation of the Kingdom, and on the unequivocal basis that any arrest or interdiction be undertaken in collaboration with the office of Director General of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire - the Moroccan Secret Service - and that we were escorted at all times by a representative of the Royal Guard, we were in.

Secretly, with Brian Kennedy’s jet to be located at Rabat on standby, on the first confirmation of a sighting of Madeleine she would be quickly removed straight to the jet, diplomacy and bureaucracy taking a back-seat.

Brian Kennedy and I selected the Metodo 3 agent to be on the ground, undoubtedly their best. Quiet, unassuming, with a poor grasp of English, nonetheless he was good at undercover work and discrete surveillance. Synchronised with the infiltration, Helping to Find Maledeine had agreed to produce a poster of Madeleine in Arabic to be delivered and distributed by the moquadems at the King’s direction.

Military-grade maps of Morocco, new satellite communications, medical equipment, gold sovereigns, and field kit, were all assembled for Paddy [= Patrick Kennedy] and me who were to join Metodo 3’s agent on the ground for a month. The single Royal Guard representative, Mohammed, had been introduced to us via the British Embassy in Rabat by ’phone; he spoke excellent English and came across as being both confident and knowledgeable. As we planned our route, based on the more ‘quality’ of sightings of Madeleine in Morocco, Mohammed briefed us as to the more dangerous of areas we would traverse and the protocol we were to adopt when in these higher-risk locations. At least he would be armed.

We received [information from a person purporting to be] a Moroccan English teacher who said s[he] knew that Madeleine was being held by a family of fisher folk by the shore of the Massa Lagoon, about an hour’s drive south of Agadir…the message described how the fisher-family was being paid to hold and look after Madeleine until she had physically aged and matured…During this time Madeleine was being dressed in traditional Moroccan child’s attire, was being taught Arabic, and had her hair cut and dyed…

Popular with tourists and ornithologists alike, birds visiting the Lagoon include flamingos, spoonbill, avocets, ducks, black and spotted sandgouse, godwit, turnstone, dunlin, snipe, black-headed bush shrike, little crake, white stork, black-winged stilt, marsh harrier and osprey. As far as cover for Metodo 3 was concerned, armed with binoculars, this ornithologists’ paradise was an excellent plume of cover.

While Paddy went to see his doctor to get the necessary inoculations for the trip, I busied myself co-ordinating the ground operation with the ladies of Helping to Find Maledeine who were going to pre-empt our arrival with a poster distribution.

Brian Kennedy walked in to Knutsford late in the afternoon…

REST SNIPPED


Other events around this time

Sat Sep 8 McCanns made arguidos

Mon Sep 10 McCanns return to England

Weds Sep 12  Dr Kate McCann says Edward Smethurst first contacted them

Fri Sep 14 Kennedy and Smethurst attend meeting with McCanns and several lawyers in London

Sat Sep 15 Gerry McCann blog entry:

“To that end I would like to announce that the Fund will finance a broad range of initiatives in advertising to remind everyone that Madeleine is still missing. These adverts will focus on Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe and will consist of billboards and other media. This financing of advertisements will complement previous efforts by the Fund and many motivated individuals – family, friends and people touched by our cause”.

"I hope that the general public will continue to support us in this.

"It is so important that we remember: ‘don't you forget about me’- our lovely wee Madeleine.”

John McCann issues a statement along similar lines

Sun Sep 16 Matt Baggott, Leicestershire Police Chief Constable, writes to the media ‘urging restraint’

Mon 17 Sep Clarence Mitchell officially resigns as Director of Tony Blair’s Media Monitoring Unit and begins to work full-time for the McCanns

Thurs Sep 20 McCanns say they meet five lawyers in London

Fri Sep 21 Kate & Gerry McCann publicly offer to take lie detector tests

Sun Sep 23 Press report announcing that Brian Kennedy will help to pay for legal expenses. There is absolutely no mention of him setting up an investigation HQ in Knutsford.

The press reports say:

“An Edinburgh-born tycoon has emerged as the mystery backer of the family of Madeleine McCann. Brian Kennedy, who is estimated to be worth £250m, broke his silence to explain why he is supporting the couple. His money is helping Gerry and Kate McCann have access to some of Britain's leading lawyers as well as the backing of a full-time media liaison officer.

He said: ‘I felt compelled to offer, along with other like-minded businessmen, financial support and the full logistical support of the Latium team. The support is principally our in-house lawyer, Ed Smethurst, and the official spokesman, Clarence Mitchell’

He continued: ‘This will relieve the McCanns of the daily pressure of coordinating the legal teams which will expedite the clearing of Gerry and Kate's names, allowing all the parties to refocus on finding Madeleine’.”

Mon Sep 24 Forensic Scientist from Control Risks comes to take hair samples from Dr Kate McCann, Sean and Amelie. They produced ‘negative results’.

Gerry McCann blog entry:

“Kate and I have been very busy with our legal advisers as we want to be eliminated from the inquiry as soon as possible and start concentrating wholeheartedly again on the search for our daughter. We are very confident this will happen when all the facts are presented together. We are very grateful and thankful to have several businessmen who have pledged financial support to cover legal costs and we were delighted Clarence Mitchell agreed to help us as an official spokesman. It is scary and daunting to imagine how we could have managed to deal with these latter ‘developments’ without such offers of support and commitment. Clarence will try and minimise the impact of the huge media interest in Madeleine’s disappearance on us, as we try and return slowly towards as normal a life as is possible”.

Tues Sep 25 Received a photograph from a Spanish tourist of a girl resembling Madeleine being carried on a peasant’s back. Brian Kennedy calls the McCanns and says he is flying out to Morocco to see if it is Madeleine

Tues 2 Oct Goncalo Amaral removed from the Madeleine McCann case

Fri 5 Oct Gerry McCann blog entry:

“The investigation will have a new coordinator appointed to replace chief inspector Amaral. We are happy to continue cooperating with the Portuguese authorities and in fact as arguidos, we can request that certain investigations are carried out”.

Not sure I understand the implications of that manuscript - reads more like something from James Bond.  Why would the King of Morocco give unofficial permission for Metodo to undertake an undercover operation in his country just because a little British child disappeared in Portugal as a result of her parents irresponsible behaviour?  I am sure the King or his official representatives are not prepared to risk their countries international standing for such a trivial reason, even less for an unrecognized British business man and a suspect firm of private detectives from Spain.

All sounds a bit surreal to me.

Even if I did not know, what I know.
Even if I did not believe, what I believe.

This to me (and surely the man on the clapham omnibus) is evidence of a massive fraud that has been committed? 

With Gerry meeting him in a park,

Even if I did not know, what I know.
Even if I did not believe, what I believe.

How much more evidence would the man on the clapham omnibus need with regard to corruption? 

 

With some of their former dodgy investigators already in prison, even though Hagland did this for free... 
surely there is a crime that has been committed here somewhere? 

If the aim of this escapade is to create 'publicity' and thus 'money in the fund', given by people on the pretense that it was going towards a 'real search', then surely this is pure and simple evidence of obtaining money through deception? 

How do I report a crime?

This is a monetary system.
Money is power......, but only in a monetary system.
Power can corrupt.
Absolute power, can corrupt beyond redemption.

The people who are involved in controlling the money also control the law within the monetary system. They are control freaks. They cannot commit "crime's" within their framework, because they actually control what crime is defined as.

Very interesting, thank you, Tony.

Mon Sep 24: Forensic Scientist from Control Risks comes to take hair samples from Dr Kate McCann, Sean and Amelie. They produced ‘negative results’.
unquote

http://www.controlrisks.com/Pages/Home.aspx

I searched their site, there is no match for 'forensic' or 'forensic scientist'. How on earth can such an 'independent' firm have the authority to obtain forensic material in any case?
They had no authority to collect forensic material as that would compromise the chain of evidence. Peter would know all about that.
The hair might as well have been collected by the milkman who'd have equal status to CRG in court, that is to say none.

In an interview in 2007 with the Amarals I think it was Gonçalo Amaral who  called them soldiers. Perhaps CRG deserves a topic of its own.

From McCannfiles.com:

Private security team hired by Kate and Gerry McCann for secret investigation The Times

David Brown in Praia da Luz and Patrick Foster
September 24, 2007

A private security firm has been secretly investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for four months because her parents feared that Portuguese police were failing properly to search for their daughter.

Control Risks Group (CRG) is believed to have been checking reported sightings of Madeleine from around the world and building up profiles of likely abductors.

Kate and Gerry McCann turned to the company, which employs former members of the intelligence services and special forces, after becoming concerned that officers in the Algarve assumed their daughter was dead.

A source close to the couple's legal team confirmed that CRG had been working with the family since May but refused to discuss how the company was being paid.

unquote

This all sounds a bit spy thrillerish to me - does one really need the permission of the King to enter Morocco and why would it be on the condition that they deny the King has given it?  Why bypass beaurocracy and have Kennedy`s private jet ready to whisk her away? What`s wrong with doing things properly and contacting the British Embassy or the PJ?

Woofer wrote:This all sounds a bit spy thrillerish to me - does one really need the permission of the King to enter Morocco and why would it be on the condition that they deny the King has given it?  Why bypass beaurocracy and have Kennedy`s private jet ready to whisk her away? What`s wrong with doing things properly and contacting the British Embassy or the PJ?

The King of Morocco is quite powerful. A large number of Morroccan nationals live in the Netherlands and have to have dual nationality (demanded by Morocco), although this is denied to everyone else. They also have to be buried in Morocco and this is funded by the Dutch tax-payer.

I recall a visit by Queen Elizabeth to Morocco where she was kept waiting for some time by the then King. I'm afraid I have no high opinion of the inhabitants of the country I have so far had the misfortune to encounter - the latest incumbent of the throne is supposed to be more liberal than his autocratic father.

Here's a good - though old - clip from Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmmWBfUNOE0

It reads to me like a bunch of well meaning people trying to find MM in Morocco and that at that time none of them suspected that MM might have died in the apartment or anything like that (or have I missed something?). Does Gary Hagland's diary chart his growing suspicions or what?

Woofer wrote:This all sounds a bit spy thrillerish to me - does one really need the permission of the King to enter Morocco and why would it be on the condition that they deny the King has given it?  Why bypass beaurocracy and have Kennedy`s private jet ready to whisk her away? What`s wrong with doing things properly and contacting the British Embassy or the PJ?

I'm inclined to agree.  I doubt if the King's permission is required for every punter to enter the country, that would rather wreck the tourist industry but I do wonder if the country would take kindly to some troupe of private dicks and their appendages openly and publicly suggesting that their country is harbouring a stolen child.  As for having Kennedy's private jet on stand-by to whisk her away, I would think that's illegal by any countries laws.

At the time of the McCann's grand campaign to publicise (?) their daughters plight I thought it a strange way of proceeding, particularly as it was global news from the start.  If you're honest about it, what is most likely to happen in a situation such at that.  The local councillors or governers or whatever else would round up a load of kids from the locality, give them each a Union Jack to wave or a picture of MM in this case, a bit of local press coverage just to show willing and that's the end of it.

So in truth why did they plaster themselves across Europe and North Africa with nothing positive to be gained?

Was there no help from Richard Branson who owns property - I think a hotel in Morocco? As he'd put up one million reward money, I'd have thought that Hagland and Co would have asked him for assistence at the very least....

tigger wrote:Was there no help from Richard Branson who owns property - I think a hotel in Morocco? As he'd put up one million reward money, I'd have thought that Hagland and Co would have asked him for assistence at the very least....

Doesn't his sister, Vanessa Branson live yards from where Madeleine was allegedly spotted? His Mother, Eve Huntleigh Branson was one of the first directors of PACT.

silence, before the hurricane.

sharonl wrote:

tigger wrote:Was there no help from Richard Branson who owns property - I think a hotel in Morocco? As he'd put up one million reward money, I'd have thought that Hagland and Co would have asked him for assistence at the very least....

Doesn't his sister, Vanessa Branson live yards from where Madeleine was allegedly spotted?  His Mother, Eve Huntleigh Branson was one of the first directors of PACT.

I believe it was his sister (I don't know her name) who either painted a picture of the couple fleeing Portugal in the cadaver Scenic or bought the painting.

IIRC she bought the painting.

tigger wrote:Was there no help from Richard Branson who owns property - I think a hotel in Morocco? As he'd put up one million reward money, I'd have thought that Hagland and Co would have asked him for assistence at the very least....

So he does

http://www.i-escape.com/kasbah-tamadot/overview

I have just read a post made three months ago by our esteeemed New Zealand poster, missbeetle, on the 'M is for Morocco...' thread.

She wrote:

On the link provided by Tony upthread -

- concerning Gary Hagland's preparations for his Morocco trip with Paddy Kennedy -
- amongst the kit assembled for their trip were 'gold sovereigns'.
Not a money I've ever dealt with before - but then I've never been to Morocco...
...is this a standard form of currencies with spies in North Africa?

I'd love to know what these fellows did get up to in Morocco -
- account snipped just as it was getting interesting!

Did they really go touring round lagoons dressed as English twitchers...
...with gold coins and an armed Royal Guard called Mohammed?

UNQUOTE

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PK, maybe it's time for a little bit more from Gary Hagland's as-yet-unpublished book, which will presumably be called something like 'My time with the McCann Team'.

Unfortunately, there are parts pof Gary Hagland's book which are openly libellous about certain characters and I really can't publish those bits - I will let Gary Hagland take the risk.

But I thought CMOMM members might be interested in this extract, which details Hagland's close association with the founder of Helping To Find Madeleine (HTFM).  Hagland has a tendency to write in riddles and somewhat obtusely; I think many on the forum will know who he is talking about though.

Here, then, is another extract from Hagland's book:

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QUOTE

Throughout the world a number of people, particularly women, recognised [Kate and Gerry's distressed state of mind] and to varying degrees emphasised with the plight of the McCanns.

One particular woman, living in the hinterland of England's idyllic Peak District National Park, was different though, in that she determined to do something practical to help find Madeleine.

As my informal supplier of an insomnia-busting hypnotic agent, this nurse founded a web-based social network group she called Helping To Find Madeleine (HTFM).

The not-for-profit organisation quickly took off and grew to include volunteers from the four corners of the globe.

The aim of the group was simple: support the effort to find Madeleine McCann.

It did this by the distribution of posters, bulletins and tokens of Madeleine throughout the world to ensure people remembered Madeleine and what she looks like, and through its website and its medium of social networking to motivate people to keep looking for her.


HTFM was a remarkable asset for me, for the effort. Both Kennedys hugely underrated it, though, seeing it as no more than a glorified Tupperware party for bored housewives.

Crippling chauvinism aside, from the perspectives of strategy and logistics the group worked wonders.

For example, the fact I could mull in my mind the question of Madeleine being abducted-to-order by a wealthy Arab family of the Berber tribe and conceptualise in my mind's eye a poster in Philippine tagalog, describing Madeleine, urging Filipino maids working in the United Arab Emirates to call in to Metodo 3 if they saw here, and that a reward was on offer, was all well and good, but it was HTFM which translated it into reality.

Design, translation, production, distribution, HTFM was a one-stop shop.

Any administration the operation required en masse the HTFM team was on tap, 24/7.

In-between, it ploughed its own supportively rich furrow.

The integrity of HTFM and the altruistic endeavours of its management got me thinking about charity; after all, I was in effect working with if not for one.

The trouble with charity is most people like others to know when they think they are doing it; it becomes a sort of moveable moral high ground for the otherwise vociferously unremarkable to eke out recognition and quasi-respect.

While liberals, for example, may cite liberalism as the politics of kindness, a charitable donation isn't necessarily an act of kindness.

It is for this reason I detest overt charitable activity, remembering the Bible's observation in Matthew 6: 1: "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound not trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say unto you, they have received their reward".

Not once did I encounter any aspect of HTFM trumpet itself beyond its stated aim or seek any form of recognition.

It was, as far as I was concerned, a true charity, in design, form and action.

It was with the support of HTFM in mind that I began to research and analyse Morocco as a realistic trarget destination for Madeleine...

[REST SNIPPED]   


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FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT GARY HAGLAND'S BIOGRAHPY HAS NOW BEEN OBTAINED

In addition to biographical details I've already posted on the forum, enquiries reveal that Hagland was sent to an expensive private boarding school in Surrey by his well-off parents, who in the 60s were living and working in Singapore.

I've already posted that Hagland worked for Hong Kong Police in the late 1970s, possibly in intelligence. I've now been able to confirm this, and it appears he worked for a trusted covert unit working on the most sensitive intelligence issues, possibly concerning the activities of Chinese 'Triad' groups.      

In his unpublished book, Hagland also refers to his contacts in MI6, another intelligence agency.

When we put that together with the knowledge that Brian Kennedy employed, in his Madeleine investigations, no fewer than THREE people all heavily involved in the security and intelligence services - Kevin Halligen, Henri Exton and Tim Craig-Harvey, it is patently obvious that the intelligence services have been heavily involved in this case. Was Hagland recruited not only for his knowledge of money-laundering regulations, but also for his intelligence and security service contacts?     

His work in Hong Kong did not last many years, and he returned to England, recuperating, it seems, with friends of his at Alford House, Surrey.

That's all I have for now