The Club of 4

“There are basically four kinds of Enablers in the Maddie Affair: Diplomatic, Judicial, Police and Media ones.

Some would say that a fifth group should be considered.”

“Which is?”

“The Disrupters. They’re paid hands and couldn’t care less if the tide is ebbing or flowing as long as the checks keep coming.

That differentiates them from all the other 4 groups who, although just being indirect stakeholders, they are still stakeholders and that makes them very interested in the out come of things even if they have little or no say about it.

Disrupters are only worried who will be the next to pay for their talent for gratuitous violence.

So we don’t see Disrupters as Enablers. Much too much detachment and cold-heartedness, the pure Disrupters that is.”

“Pure?”

“Yes, we believe that many do have their hearts set on this as they have to protect those who protect them and their dark little secrets but that’s us reading between the lines while reading between the lines…”

“Things best left unsaid?”

“Exactly. Let’s now detail each of the other groups of Enablers.

About the Diplomatic Enablers little can be said. Their presence is compromising enough, both to their Country as well as to themselves. That’s why we’ve never heard of them again after the disastrous intervention by the British Ambassador at the time.

They continue to cooperate in the process, as Wikileaks showed, guaranteeing that the official version is the only one and ensuring that everywhere in the world everyone sings from the same official hymn sheet.

Their safeguard clause is to keep the issue in lowest possible profile and whenever it’s mentioned, it’s to keep their role to the lowest possible profile.

They hope and pray that when the dam breaks no one will remember them and not get any mention in the press, which is what is most likely to happen.

The very few mentioned will use the “I was just following orders.” the oldest excuse for a criminal act.”

“Which isn’t devoid of reason or truth…”

“No, in fact it isn’t.

The Judicial Enablers have the most difficult life of all. You see, their participation is not only in written form as it has to be precise, thus not minimally ambiguous in any manner, but has to produce the desired effect.

For example, whoever determined that the McCanns could fly home because there was no more interest being interrogated in Portugal just a couple of days after they were officially declared arguidos or persons of interest to the case, cannot “unsay” it now.

Nor can the person who wrote in the archiving dispatch that there was no evidence to prosecute the McCanns can “unwrite” it now.

Nor can the person who determined Maddie a Ward-of-Court, “undetermine” it now.

Their safeguard clause is only the hope that when the flood comes they’ll remain dry or only get their clothes wet from spraying droplets.

The Police Enablers, I’m sure are the angriest ones. Their job has been totally ridiculed, their personal and professional pride simply stripped away. And I’m not just referring to both Leicester Constabulary and Scotland Yard but also to the PJ. I’m sure that many in this Portuguese police force cooperated actively in the farce.

One cannot inflict such humiliation on others and remain unscathed. And you can’t promote all those involved. There will always be those left behind and there will always be those who will have some dignity and leave, taking the secrets with them.

Their safety clause is the fact that they were the baking staff when the dough was being made. They’re the ones who know all the facts. Both about what happened on May 3rd as well as what happened afterwards.

The honest ones are just waiting for the right opportunity to spill the beans. They know they did their job well and its not their fault that others kept sticking rods in cogs to stop them from working.

Another important aspect is that to disregard camaraderie between operatives of the same business is being dangerously naïve and that is certainly not a characteristic one could use to describe those involved. That’s why Mr Amaral may never see his day in Court.

The last but not least, the Media Enablers. Let me divide them into two kinds.

The first, the “Ferrari” or “Porsche” kind, are those who work for the “serious” Media like, in terms of TV, BBC and SKY in the UK and RTP, SIC and TVI in Portugal and the equivalent in newspapers in both Countries.

These people are masters in “herd control”. Their techniques rely basically on two very simple principles: shamelessness and short memory.

Shamelessness in the sense that what has been said today can be contradicted with the same conviction tomorrow. All that is required is to say, if even anything is required to be said, that their sources fooled them.

To change opinion they only have to disregard, shamelessly, what was their previous absolute certainty. They will say one thing today independently if it’s the exact opposite of what was stated yesterday. The excuse? They were fooled. Poor, poor souls.

Short memory of masses. Daily problems afflict everyone, so who is going to remember what worried one last week? Especially when those responsible to “reveal” the new problems society has to worry about are the journalists themselves?

The principle is that what is said today will be forgotten by tomorrow. Bury the old information with new one.

Take the blog for example. How many posts with compromising evidence has the blog posted and how many are remembered today? The human mind tends to simplify information and Textusa has become known to support that there was swinging during that fateful week.

The facts that Mrs Fenn lied, that Mr Brunt altered the image of the Tapas dinner tables, that there were no Tapas dinners, that the Tapas sheets are proof of the active participation of both the Guests and the Ocean Club staff in the cover-up, that Derek Flack, JW and TS lied (we don't believe TS decided to do that by herself and we believe that she had no idea why she was asked to do it or the possible consequences), that the UK Police withheld statements in Britain, that the Stroller was no other than Gerry, that the whole body disposal at the beach/church was nothing but clutter may be vaguely remembered but that’s just about it.

Vaguely is the key.

But on the other hand, the blog proves the opposite. People may remember vaguely the details of the facts I just listed, but they are in the blog be seen when researched.

That’s why it is very strange that some people who’ve dedicated some time and work to research the issue, suddenly delete it all just because they lost interest in the case. But that is something we will speak of when we speak about the Riff-Raff.

The second class of Journalists Enablers is the “Trabant” or “Lazzeri” kind, or those who work for tabloids with the job of exploiting to the maximum the most basic human emotions in defense of what is to be protected.

I will not waste any more words on waste. They may influence many Brits but the world is not exactly made up only of Britain no matter how the BHs are trying to convince people otherwise.

The safeguard clause of these Enablers is their work. Note that in the vast majority of the reports it’s emphatically highlighted that the McCanns abandoned their children in an apartment.

An article may be convincingly supportive of the couple but there is that damning paragraph “Maddie who disappeared from Praia da Luz in the Algarve after being left alone with her twin siblings in an apartment not very far away from where the parents were having dinner”. It may not be these words but this is the idea.

Notice that they fall back on the negligence theory. What they haven’t safeguarded is the case that the dam breaks completely and it’s not only the parents who will be locked away in the Tower of London.

It’s a risk they’ve taken and that might well come back to haunt them in the future, or near future.

They completely trust the Deciders not to allow things to go that way. However the word trust is only to be used, as they’ve seen, either in private jokes or to write fictional work…

I left these Enablers, the journalists, for last because they have proved to be quintessential to provide us with solid evidence.

Mr Brunt and his team did it with his Tapas dinner table video. Channel 4 did it with their documentary “The Cutting Edge”, commonly and widely known as the Mockumentary.

But the most precious piece of hard evidence is a book. Written by a Journalist, or so he says he is. So it’s not Mr Amaral's book nor Mrs McCann’s.

I’m obviously talking about “Vanished” written by Danny Collins, an investigative journalist.

A treasure that many have overlooked over the years.

If I had to define it in one word, you know what it would be?”

“What?”

“Insightful. Very insightful.”

“Must read it then.”