Priorities

After our M-Dice conversation, as transcribed in our last post, I got the feeling that Fred was not very convinced.

So the next morning during breakfast he returned to the subject:

“Dear, you got me thinking with that M-Dice story and either you’re contradicting yourself or you’re not making any sense at all.”

“Hmmm... how’s that, then?”

“Well, if I understood the analogy correctly, the body was destroyed back in 2007, right?”

“Right.”

“So it’s doesn’t make any sense why would Cameron order SY to do a Review on Maddie without being absolutely sure that it would have a successful outcome, whatever that may mean to him in political terms.”

“Yes, and I think you're right. I’m sure that when he ordered the SY Review he was certain that the outcome would be one he desired”

“So, if, according to you, in May 2011 everyone knew that there was no body to begin with and, again according to you, that fact completely stalls the process, why start it in the first place? See, it doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s because you didn’t listen attentively to me, dear.”

“Huh?”

“I did say, and I’ll repeat it, that when he ordered the SY Review he was certain that the outcome would be the one he desired.”

“I’m seeing a word game coming up!…”

“Never, dear, underestimate the utmost importance of words so we should use them with absolute clarity. I said he was certain but didn’t say that his certainty was correct, did I? And that, my dear, was the problem. His certainty wasn’t correct, in fact, far from it.”

“Honey, we’re talking about a Prime-Minister! He just doesn’t pull out of the sky what and how he decides! He’s adequately informed so that when he makes a decision it’s a judgment based on solid fact!”

“The key words in what you just said were “adequately informed”. He wasn’t adequately informed on this issue.”

“What? Are you saying that he was left out of the loop? That he didn’t know that the body had been destroyed?”

“Who knows, dear, who knows… one never knows how high up the chain these details do go as sometimes the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule is very often applied, and I’m not speaking about each one’s sexual options.

But what I’m certain of is that he wasn’t told the reasons as to why they were forced to recall the game back in 2007, because if he was, then he made a very wrong decision.

As no one intentionally makes a wrong decision, I must assume that he wasn’t informed about the reasons they had to recall the game.”

“Game? What game?!?”

““The McCann Hunting Party 07””

“What?!? Are you crazy or are you trying to make me think I’m crazy?!?”

“Neither, my dearest and loved one, it’s all a question of understanding priorities.”

“Priorities, what priorities?”

"“Whose priorities?" is what you should ask.

I’m talking about the priorities of that big conglomerate of people that I like to call “Black Hat Nation” You know, the McCanns, the Tapas 7, the Guests, the Ocean Club and whoever else you imagine, or know, to have been part of the cover-up”

“You jump from a game that I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about to priorities of those involved on the “Dark Side of the Force” and am I supposed to understand?!? Care to explain?!?”

“Let me ask you this, the instant Maddie died, out of all priorities what was the very FIRST PRIORITY of the entire “Black Hat Nation”?

What really, really mattered the MOST to all those people as of May 3rd, 2007, around 18:30. Mind you, remember that not all those who are Black Hats now were Black Hats at that moment, as we explained, in the Maddie Cube post. Nevertheless, as people joined the “gang”, so to speak, Priority ONE remained constant.”

“To ensure that Smith was to appear and say he saw a man with a little girl??”

“No.”

“To ensure that the GNR and the PJ bought the abduction story?”

“No, let me give you a hand here… some joined the “gang” just because of Priority ONE.”

“Where to hide the body on May 3rd?”

“No”

“Where to hide the body after that first hiding place?”

“No”

“What then woman?!?”

“How to get rid of Maddie’s body. That was the Black Hat's Priority ONE.”

“Huh?”

“If Smith didn’t appear, as he didn’t or if the GNR/PJ didn’t buy the story, which they were forced to buy by the way it was jammed down their throats, all that would be completely useless to the Black Hats if the body was found that night, wouldn’t it?”

“Errr… yes…”.

“And where to hide the body first and then where to take it afterwards is just partly right because it was humanly impossible to destroy the body with such “short notice” but I would go out on a limb here and say that if they could have done that then, they would have, that same night.”

“Now I follow you. The body couldn’t be found by the cops!”

“No, not only by the cops! It couldn’t be found by anyone that wasn’t in the loop!

If found by someone somewhere it would turn up at the cops' feet, right? Then it would be Game Over for the McCanns & Tapas and a new game called “Up Pops the Question” would start.

And the first question would be “Why did you fake the abduction?” followed closely by “Why does the body have these fractures?”

It would be a game once started no one would know where it would end so best not even think of allowing it to start.

If the body was found, the whole deck of cards would crumble with unforeseen consequences. THAT had to be simply ABSOLUTELY and COMPLETELY avoided.

The body was NOT TO BE FOUND EVER, full stop.

And obviously the only way for the body never to be found was to destroy it.

That was Priority ONE. Following?”

”Completely.”

“Obviously, the body first had to be hidden but always keep in mind that Priority ONE was to destroy it as soon as possible and in doing so destroy all possible evidence that her death happened in the Ocean Club.”

“Because of the Guests…”

“Yes dear, because of the type of Guests who were there and because what those same Guests were up to during that week and was not to be known….

Now that you’ve understood what was Priority ONE, you have to understand the relevance of its implications.”

“Ok… I’m all ears.”

“The most evident one was that the movements of the body had to be resumed to very minimum and that ABSOLUTELY NO MISTAKES could be made when doing that.

The other obvious implication was that while it was being figured out how, when and where it was to be destroyed, the body had to be hidden SAFELY. Kept in SAFE “houses” and when I say SAFE I mean real SAFE.”

“Obviously.”

“Yes, just these two obvious implications prove how ridiculous were and are the various theses of the body being walked about PdL to being hidden, even if TEMPORARILY, on the beach, in a sewage pipe, in the PDL Church, in an abandoned house, etc…”

“Yes, that would be absurd to even think much less propagate it as fact…”

“Well, at least now you know the amount of patience and self-control we three have to have when we read things we read, knowing full well why they are being written. But let me continue.

“Please do.”

“The risk involved if the body was found also means there’s no question that the body had to be permanently guarded and watched over all the time.

Only those “in the know” would have access to it.

And even they would have to pass through some sort of “sentinel” whose primary responsibility would be to ensure that if any stranger showed up accidently he or she would be directed to go somewhere else or in case it was an unwelcome, thus, foreseen visit, like the police, that they would “force” their entrance into “out-of-bounds territory” the body would no longer be where it had been before the busybodies arrived.”

“Yes, not seeing it done any other way.”

“We believe that the body was firstly moved to Murat’s for convenience sake due to its short distance from the apartment. There are other reasons which we consider this to be but that’s something I’ll get into on another occasion as we believe Murat’s role wasn’t as secondary as it’s made out to be.

Anyway, Murat’s would be a SAFE location only for a very short time. It was too near Apartment 5A and all the area surrounding it, which included Casa Liliana, would be crawling with people from the next morning onwards and subject to thorough inspection on the following days as it indeed was.

But it was SAFE for that night. Time was short and there were many chores to be taken care of, like cleaning the apartment, walking around with Tanner's daughter, be seen at Tapas as a whole group (which never happened as such as poor Gerry and poor Jane didn't have supper that night), raise the alarm.... Also the body would be guarded SAFELY while the whole gang of nine could be present in facing the police with their absurd story.

And even if the GNR/PJ didn’t leave to return in the morning and remained stoically nearby Apartment 5A, the moving of the body from Murat’s to the second hiding location would be an easy task and wouldn’t raise any suspicion. After all a car going out of a nearby house would be perfectly normal. Life didn’t stop just because Maddie went missing.

But the GNR and the PJ did go home and only returned in the morning. That facilitated things further.

So, on that same night, David and Gerry have a 4 a.m. trip and no, not to search for missing Maddie and much less to the beach.”

“To take the body to the second SAFE location, right?”

“Spot on! And that early “walk” just serves to show how everyone was sort of “hypnotized” at the time! We would buy anything!

I mean what two people who are ABSOLUTELY certain that the child had been ABDUCTED expect to find her down at the beach seven hours after she had been TAKEN, according to them?

After all had she been ABDUCTED or HAD SHE NOT? 

Or had they thought the abductor might have changed his mind and left Maddie to play on beach under the moonlight?!? That 4 a.m. beach story should have been enough to sound all possible alarm bells!”

“It seems to me that these people saw too many movies and forgot that in the movies the director chooses the ending at his will but in real life things don’t happen just because you want them to happen… But that’s me digressing; do you know where the body was taken to?”

“We have a pretty good idea as to where they went and as to who helped them.”

“Who?”

“I’ll give you a clue for now and I’ll just say that to have a body in one’s house is something that is far from being an enjoyable or welcomed experience and does clearly surpass any boundary set by any sort of friendship, and much less when that body has HIGH RISK written all over it, in bright red, underlined and in bold."

“I would freak out! No way would I have the body of somebody else’s’ kid here! And Maddie’s body? No way, Jose!!!

There I must agree with you, it would be like helping to stash away money from a bank robbery with the lights of police cars illuminating your place but only a thousand times worse!!

I mean, that’s committing a crime, knowing you were committing it and knowing the seriousness of the crime you were committing!”

“I know it’s a bit gruesome to say what I’m about to say but I can only imagine that many were very, very happy when they heard that Maddie's body was no more.

When they finally were able to do it, there must have been such a collective sigh of relief that I’m sure that a sailboat that accidentally happened to be calmly sailing in front of Luz at the time all of sudden found itself somewhere near Morocco due to such a gale force wind.”

“Yeah… then they were safe, no body to be found ” said Fred “but that doesn’t answer what started this conversation, you know, why did Cameron decide to go for a Review if as you just said the body had been literally destroyed?”

“Once again you’re jumping to conclusion. I said priorities, as in plural, not priority. So what does one do after completing Priority ONE? One moves to accomplish Priority TWO”

“Priority TWO? There was a Priority TWO?”

“Yes dear, there was. But for Priority TWO you have to subtract from the “Black Hat Nation” the McCanns and the remainder Tapas 7 but leave all the rest in.”

“Errr… not following!”

“You’ll understand in a jiffy. Priority TWO is not as evident to see as Priority ONE but believe me, although it was pursued with less urgency, it was pursued with much more passion.”

“And will the lady please oblige this humble man as to what in the heck was Priority TWO?!?”

“Hunt the McCanns, my dear. Hunt the McCanns. That gale force wind was not only a sigh of relief but also the announcement of the launching of the “McCann Hunting Party 07”, a game that only the “Black Hat Nation”, minus those I just said, played and knew that it was going on .”

“This just keeps getting crazier and crazier. So now you’re saying that back in June/July 2007 the Black Hats were after the McCanns? I thought they were doing everything to protect them!”

“Dear, let me put it this way, imagine that there was national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, very much like the Prohibition that took place in the United States from 1920 to 1933.

Now imagine that you've decided to throw an illegal party, say for 60/70 people, with the most expensive alcohol available. 

I’m talking about in opening 2 or 3 cases of Barca Velha, which can sell for 450€ a bottle, in having a huge bowl of Champagne Sangria made up with the lavish Krug and the most exquisite fresh wild berries and in having brought in two dozen lobsters from Portugal, I mean the works!

You throw this party in the basement of second-rate dump where you know the cops looking for big alcohol dealers like yourself would never expect to find you.”

“Go on”

“When the party is in its crescendo one of the “three-quarters” or even maybe just a friend of some “three-quarter”, drunk as hell, decides to go outside to get some fresh air and stumbles on a woman passing by and throws up all over her…”

“Hew… gross! But what in the heck is a “three-quarter”?”

“A “three-quarter” is one of those people that are seated at the ends of those long tables during ceremonies and/or negotiations, you know, three-quarters away from the important people.

People who think they are important but really aren’t and their role is to give importance to the occasion by occupying space… they’re tolerated, and if greeted won’t wash their hands for a fortnight just out of respect…”

“I got it, I got it!”

“Back to the story, naturally the woman walks away furious and warns that she’s coming back with the cops. 

You’re told the cops are coming and the fact that idiot threw up on the street means that you now have a huge problem on your hands. The cops are coming and the place is filled up with booze!!!YOUR booze!

You get rid of all that EXPENSIVE alcohol and seafood as quickly as you can, see all of it go to waste, and have them replaced with bottles of orange and apple juice and small prawns so that when the police arrives the “three-quarter” will be able to excuse his gross behavior by saying he had been eating prawns with fruit juice when he felt dizzy and came out on to the street and then happened what had happened.

You ensure that the “three-quarters” and his friends have some breath mints and all will corroborate the prawn and fruit juice story.

At this point what is on your mind?”

“Not be seen there and make all the booze disappear, evidently!”

“Exactly, Priority ONE is to escape from the Police!

The police arrived and are overwhelmed by the nine people, sorry I forgot to tell you that the “three-quarters” was part of a group of “three-quarters” which had been invited as such to the party, your party , by some friend of yours, and was made up of him and another eight “three-quarters”.

Continuing, as I said all eight vouch for his story and even volunteer to pay the woman for a new dress. So the cops buy the story and write it off as the man having suffered from a sudden unfortunate and rather clumsy indisposition due to the cheap seafood he had just been eating.

Meanwhile, you and your closest friends are attentive of all the movements of the cops and only relax when you see the cops go away. During all this time you were ONLY worried about yourself, and nothing but yourself. Priority ONE, escape the cops!

But now, when the cops have gone away, and you’re no longer in Priority ONE mode, you switch to what? To Priority TWO.

You now start to grasp reality. What that stupid sod had really done and how much damage he had really caused you. You start to realize how much money you were been forced to throw away just because of that stupid idiot. Not to say you were this far from spending the rest of the night in jail which most likely would ruin your reputation and with it your life!

So now, because you’re sure you’re on SAFE ground again and you are able to think, anger starts to rise... what do you think would be your opinion THEN of that idiot who had just ruined your EXTRAVAGANT and EXPENSIVE party and had almost ruined your life AND that of your friends?

You obviously can’t go to the police and file a complaint against him, now can you?

“I would wring his neck for sure, that is what I would do!!”

“Now add to all that rage what it must have been like to watch all the glee and fun with which Gerry seemingly had with all his new-found popularity. He behaved like a spoiled rich brat in a toy shop, demanding and dropping toy after toy… apparently forgetting that not only he wasn’t “rich” but he was only just a friend of a “three-quarters”.

He wasn’t even a “three-quarters” himself! The way he paraded himself about must have really caused some stomachs to turn and churn… And just to think all that goading concerned the death of his own daughter! "

“Boy, they must’ve really hated his guts!!”

“You can say that again. If the Black Hats neither liked nor disliked the Tapas Group until the disposal of Maddie’s body, because that was what was concerning them the most, after that, they really started to seek vengeance for what they lost, what they risked and for what they were forced to put up with.

That’s when the hatred for the Tapas started and for the McCanns in particular.

Thus the reason for “The McCann Hunting Party 07”.

Or do you think the Brit dogs would ever set foot in Portugal if that particular game wasn’t on?”

“Huh?”

“Think, my dear, think. When the dogs came, no one knew what they would find, or if they would find anything at all, but you, if you were a full member of the “Exclusive Black Hat Club”, knew one crucial thing.”

“And that would be?”

“That IF the dogs were to find anything it would be circumscribed to the quarters and belongings of that dreadful group of “three-quarters”, wouldn’t it?

So the dogs going to Portugal at the end of July, confirms two things. 

The first is that it the trip was approved by the “Black Hat Highest Hierarchy” as it presented no risk in exposing their secret and could even end up in helping them nail the T9, and second it confirms that there’s no Maddie’s body, otherwise some impediment would be found for the dogs not to go.

Not saying who decided to send in the dogs nor questioning the reasons behind that decision, just underlining the decision of letting them go.”

“It makes sense. At least to me it does. But you said that the game had to be recalled. What was the glitch?”

"First you must understand hunting techniques. It is, after all, a hunting game, not a firing squad one.  

Neither is the prey waiting in a pre-scheduled spot to be shot nor does the hunter walk into the hunting ground careless about the noise he's making, fires two shots in the air and says, "Hey, you big bad bear where are you? Come on out that I have a little "surprise" for you!!..."

No, the hunter waits for his opportunity and the prey doesn't know is being hunted.

The hunter either waits for his prey or, in some cases, is surprised by it.

When I say surprised I mean he is the one going to find the prey and not the prey coming to him, so when he does find it there's that moment of surprise, that "there it is!!" moment.

Then and there he must suppress at all costs his surprise, reacting to it as if expected. Any movement not completely under control will frighten the prey away."

But that's when the hunter goes after the prey but most often it's the other way around. 

You have two ways of making the prey come to the hunter. The first is for the hunter to wait, having set up a trap or not, that the prey enters the "kill zone" and the other is frighten the prey and "push" it into that same zone.

This last technique is, for example, used for hunting wild boar. A dozen or so beaters will make as much noise as they can while walking in the hunter's direction. Any boar that is between the two will run into his unfortunate fate."   

"Nice hunting lesson, especially coming from someone who dislikes it so much..."

"What I like or dislike is completely irrelevant... What matters is that they did a "wild boar" hunt on the McCanns."

"Huh?"

"They made "a lot of noise" to bring them to the "kill zone".

Take into account that the beaters are there to make the loudest noise possible but only upon direction. 

First the hunter must guarantee that all is set right so that the "kill zone" is to be really a "kill zone". Only after that does he direct the beaters to start beating. 

What I'm trying to say is that when the game started they didn't go full out against the McCanns. Instead and although they hated their guts, they did all that was possible to do to appear that they had befriended them..."

"Nice friends to have..."

 "Life is what life is and you have to do what you think you need to do to achieve your goals and these people are "experienced" hunters. 

Let's just go back to the dogs. We don't know exactly how they appear into the scene. No, I'm not speaking about what is written in the PJ Files, let's not be that naive.

There are two possibilities, either they were sent in, as I believe they were, by the BH HQ, or then they came as is written in the PJ Files. 

What's the difference? Not much but knowing it would clarify what exactly their role was. In the first case, they were a trap and the choice of bait was the correct one, if the other, the dogs were sent for and a fluke the prey walked right into the "death zone" where the hunters had been patiently waiting.

Independently, as "luck" would have it those British dogs indicated cadaverine and blood on all the stuff and places that had the McCann mark on it.

At this moment the hunters have their prey exactly where they want it to be. 

Keep in mind what I just said about suppressing surprises. Every movement to fix the sights on the prey has to be done ever so carefully to make sure the prey suspects nothing, and when it does, it's too late.

So what kind of "gun" do you think they used in this case?"

"Err... Haven't the faintest idea."

"Evidence! Evidence, obviously Fred! We're talking about charging people with a crime! With what else could it be but evidence?"

"Ok, I should have thought of that... sorry..."

"With the prey in place, anyone with anything that resembles a fang just wanted to jump for the McCanns' jugular, but they had to do it nice and slow. 

There's another peculiarity to this hunt that can't be disregarded: the hunters only have ONE shot. They must "kill" the prey with just a single shot."

"Why?"

"Because that's the only way you have to guarantee that the prey doesn't turn on you! A wounded prey has nothing to loose. 

Let's now leave analogies aside and see how it all was done. How do you think they played this game?"

"Haven't a clue but believe me I'm really interested to know!"

"They held on to the evidence and let it drip out bit by bit so the public's opinion is radically turned. Make it look like that it's the PUBLIC who want their blood and NOT THEM.

They kept saying how ridiculous and ludicrous it was, with those or other words that rhyme but mean nothing while feeding the mob with small bits of information that damned the couple by the day.

That way, the McCanns would have no reason to turn on them, and when the couple was to be dragged in shackles towards the Tower, what could they "do" but watch, with the most pitiful and sympathetic of looks, maybe even with a tear or two in the corner of their eyes, shrugging their slumped shoulders as if to say "Oh, we're so sorry to see you being dragged like that... we share your pain as we did all that we could do... but don't worry, be strong, we'll get you out of there as soon as we can..."

The couple not turning on them means their secret continued to be safe and they had a secret to keep otherwise the McCanns would have been arrested May 3rd and they weren't! 

That's what made this game such a challenge! They wanted to take the McCanns down in such a way that the McCanns did not have the slightest suspicion it was their doing!

"And how was that done? I'm already skipping asking how could have been done because knowing you, it was done..."

"Yes, it was. They had two directions of attack to explore. One, the evidence provided by the dogs and the other the negligence."

"The negligence? But I thought that negligence played in their favour... I mean wasn't it you who said that without negligence there would be no abduction?"

"And that's correct. But if you go back then, and when Priority ONE, destroying the body, was still being pursued, the negligence wasn't exactly... well, negligence."

"Huh?"

"It was, as you remember, "like having your dinner in one's backyard" or "responsible parenting" or even "they checked on the kids regularly but this evil man who had observed them all week long, came and..."

"Yes, I know all about that clutter... isn't that negligence?"

"No and yes, dear, it all depends on the way you "spread the jam"..."

"What?"

"If you spread the jam from left to right, it's only comprehensible distraction under "responsible parenting". .

But if you spread it from right to left then becomes bad, bad negligence of the sort "Mummy why did you leave us alone crying in despair all of last night while you, daddy and your friends got drunk?"

See the difference the way you "spread it" makes in the public's mind?

"Loud and clear! During Priority ONE it was the understandable but REQUIRED absence as the parents had to away from the apartment to allow the abductor to act, while when it came to Priority TWO it was just pure, ugly negligence."

"And who does the "spreading"? The Media or "that uncontrollable lot of nasty people who only think of profit and respect nobody's privacy", which is a true statement but only said by those who feel harmed by it, the exact same people who whilst surfing the popularity wave didn't complain about those who didn't respect, in the exact same measure, the same privacy.

So all you they had do was to tell the Press to press  a little further on the "negligence gas pedal" to have the public turning against them and shouting for justice faster than you after being stung by a bee like last summer!"

"That WAS fast! Don't remind of that, please!"

"The MEDIA, "pressed" by the PUBLIC, would be the ones that would get all the blame for turning the PUBLIC's opinion against them! Is that a beauty or what?

"You bet!"

But this could only be done after they had other evidence to corroborate and allow them to launch the "bad, bad negligent parents" campaign."

"And that was the dogs, right?"

"Yes! Once the dogs "said" it was ok to go, off they went! So in August 2007 you suddenly have negligence being slowly but surely jammed into the public's mind.

The biggest star of all was, of course, Mrs Fenn and her magic supermarket bags! 

And then you also had that Chilean documentary collecting bits of "negligence" from all over PdL. Who can forget the hysterical "sketch" by Fenn's hairdresser? A riot, I tell you... 

It's quite telling that even the Chileans weren't able to reconstruct the Big Round Table. If memory serves me right I think they put about 6 people on a rectangular long table...

The only truthful testimony in that Chilean documentary was from Jenny Murat. No one enjoys being back-stabbed.

There came a point that all was prepared and set. With the negligence campaign already well set in the public’s mind, so all that was needed to add to the recipe was the forensic evidence found by the dogs and the McCanns would just have to take it and smile, or if they chose not to, not smile, because who was in charge couldn’t care less.

Once the “negligent” couple & friends would be charged, the "mob" would have both the required culprits as well as the motive for the 4-month bizarre circus.

The case would be closed and soon forgotten and the Black Hats could return to normality and no one would know better.

"Right, and I suppose now you're finally going to tell me what the glitch was, or are you going to digress once more into some other unforeseen development that only you and your Sisters were able to see?" 

"You be careful about how you speak about my Sisters..."

"Sorry, I'm just getting impatient..."

 "I understand... I understand. Yes, that's when they found the glitch, as you say."

"When?" 

"When they had already flown in all the “horses” needed into PdL for the public "dismembering" of the couple to please the bloodthirsty mob, somebody, sometime, somewhere shouted, and shouted very loudly “WHOAAAAAAAA!”

And like you are doing now, so did all who were present then and there and turned to that person with certainly mesmerized but glaring eyes who must have gulped dryly once or twice while revising more than twice all his thoughts and praying that his/her brain hadn’t been playing up any tricks…

“What?!? Did you say WHAT?!?!”

“I think it’s best not to have the McCanns charged…”

“Oh, do you? I see… and could you, if you will, please explain to us all as to WHY NOT?!?”

“Well, you see, there’s no body…”

“SO?!?!” anger no doubt in quick crescendo and patience plummeting as fast…

“Well, if there’s no body, how can it be explained that the McCanns were able to get rid of the body… without any help in Portugal? And if they got help to dispose of the body… well it shows that they weren’t exactly acting alone, were they?”

Silence.

Everyone quickly understood that what was happening was that if the McCanns were charged without a body, or its remains, found or stumbled upon, it could pop right open the Pandora’s box that everyone had worked so hard to keep its lid shut.

And everyone knew that there was no body to be found and stumbled upon. They all had made sure that there wasn’t one, hadn’t they?

I can only imagine the heavy, uncomfortable silence that must have filled that room. 

All was planned to take the McCanns down. The timing was perfect. The sightings were proving to be as ridiculous as they really were and the abductor theory was growing thinner and thinner.

And it couldn’t be done. They couldn't risk having the McCanns charged.

“Fly them out” must have been the hardest words anyone ever pronounced in the Maddie Case, but someone did say them. 

And most likely followed it with an "and when they arrive in the UK, I want all of you to check and recheck if there's any possible way of pressing charges against then without a body! I want them charged, you hear?"

That's why you had, in September 07 and with the McCanns already in UK soil, the most malignant press jackals still going for the couple in full rage mode:

It clearly shows that the scales of the balance were being tampered with and someone was really making an effort in pushing down the one which the McCanns were on.

But then came the day when reality finally sunk in: there was no way to charge the McCanns on their own without Maddie's body.

So, on the 17th of September 2007 the "The McCann Hunting Party 07" was recalled.

They all must have felt, physically, the opportunity to close the case there and then slipping through their fingers and not be able to do anything about it."

"17th of September? Why? What happened on that date?"

"This:" 

"Oh, I see... sudden "mood" change indeed... I can only imagine that this didn't go down well with the "hunters"... their hatred for the McCanns and the Tapas must have increased... exponentially!"

"The funny part about all this is that the McCanns, as the sacrificial lambs they were to be, were certainly kept out of the loop.

If we are to believe Kate McCann, they, the McCanns on the night before being pronounced “arguidos” still thought they were being thrown to the lions, thus that very impolite passage that Kate writes about her lawyer, Pinto de Abreu, only one of the best, expensive and prestigious in Portugal.

Most likely they never knew the game was taking place. That if teeth were blades and fingers claws, all those smiles and pats on the back would have caused a lot of damage on them...

And most likely too they never knew that the “McCann Hunting Party 07” had been recalled. If they didn’t know it existed, they couldn’t possibly know it was recalled, now could they? They must have thought that it was all their moaning, whining and blackmailing that they wouldn't go down alone that did it...

But like you say what wasn’t recalled was the hatred for the Tapas and the McCanns in particular."

“Ok, please, please, tell me what all this has to do with Cameron’s decision!”

“Haven’t you understood yet? When he launched the “McCann Hunting Party 11”, commonly known as the SY Review, he was indeed certain that the outcome would be the one he desired because he was misinformed.”

“Yes, you've already said that. But how is that even possible?’

“Whoever should have told him about the "07 glitch" just didn’t. As such his certainty was flawed but not his fault, mind you.

Unfortunately, unlike the 07 version of the game, this 11 version couldn’t be recalled.”

“Why?”

“The M-Dice story, my dear.”

"So the ONLY THING that's stalling indefinitely the SY Review is the Dark Cloud "Absence of Body"?“

"That's absolutely correct."

"But why didn’t they tell Cameron? Were they setting him up?”

“Oh, no! Gosh, no! These people are ambitious but far from being stupid! It was all because of the “Great Maddie War”"

“War? What war?!?”

“The one that raged across the world for more than three years. Almost four. From September 2007 until May 2011. Yours truly here took part in it, didn’t you know?”

“No”

“What did you think I was blogging for? A most interesting war. How I now smile just thinking how many dummies we shot. How foolishly naïve we were… it did take us too long to understand that we were firing against straw people…”

“What? How? Make some sense woman!”

“My dear, yesterday I ironed, something you know how much I dislike, so today I’m entitled to pamper myself.

And while we on the blog are currently on a break, I’m not exactly in my best “Maddie-mood” so we’ll speak some more tomorrow, if you don’t mind. 

Besides I still have to tell you all about Priority ZERO…”

“Priority ZERO?!?!?”

“Yes, dear, you know, the one that comes before Priority ONE…”

“Yes, THAT I know! You must be joking!”

“Now, why in heaven's name would I do a silly thing like that? The Maddie Affair is no laughing matter. Far from it, far from it.

Tomorrow we’ll speak about the “Great Maddie War”. I’ll leave Priority ZERO for another occasion. It’s much more complex…”