SY Contradicting SY

SY, the pawn, has been moved on the board of this sick game the Maddie affair has become  A significant move. They have now as intended, set foot on Praia da Luz, right on PJ’s doorstep, or rather, right in their living room.

The world saw live, British officers of that once prestigious police force known as Scotland Yard in very disreputable positions, namely on their knees, sifting with their hands through the dirt of Luz with the pretence enthusiasm of someone who knows that everyone knows they’re pretending to find Maddie’s corpse and also knows that whoever was watching them also knew that SY knew before it started that it would be easier to find gold nuggets on that piece of land than any trace of the English girl.

Last Tuesday, the whole world accompanied SY's public humiliation live.

SY would take that humiliation gladly and then some more if the real objective had been achieved, which, as we write wasn’t: to seduce PJ.

The evident aloof and distant posture by the PJ agents on site indicates clearly that PJ is far from being seduced into participating in the farce.

It’s like SY was telling PJ “look what fun we’re having playing Find-Pieces-of-Maddie. It’s fun! C’mon, play with us! Look how much fun it is to get dirty! Our mums will be furious!! C’mon!” and PJ answering “Nah… nope, not interested. We’re too busy here… having fun crossing our arms and watching the clouds pass by. But by all means do continue to play alone.”

If the farce was a B-movie, it would be like David Niven playing, as he did best, the gentleman thief together with his voluptuous female partner planning to have her (SY’s officers on the ground) seduce the owner of the house (PJ) while he (Redwood and his Grange team) went up to rob the safe (PJ’ investigation) up in the bedroom.

But in this version the to-be-seduced owner has turned to the seductress and told her very drily “Madam, do tell your boyfriend that if he ever is within three feet of my stairs I’ll have his legs broken on the spot. Now please stay clear of me, I have better things to do.”

Whoever was watching TV on Tuesday, must have thought it was filmed somewhere in England, or at best, in Gibraltar. SY spending a very significant amount of human, material and financial resources on something that PJ didn't show even the slightest interest in.

Are SY acting on intelligence received and if so why are they, rather than the PJ, initiating the searches? Wouldn’t normal procedure be to forward this to the country with jurisdiction, to act on it?

One just has to imagine the scene replicated inversely - PJ spectacularly setting up camp in Leicester to examine every inch of some piece of scrubland in its outskirts with helicopters, drones, ground radars, dogs, excavators, etc to look for the body of a Portuguese girl while SY, although present, would keep their distance from what was happening right in front of them.

It would be completely ludicrous, wouldn't it? Yet, the other way around is a real scenario as we all saw it with our own eyes.

Just the fact that anything that might be found has to be reported to PJ and so become part of their investigation and not of Operation Grange begs the question – why isn’t PJ interested in finding whatever is to be found there in the first place? Isn't it interested? The answer is yes, they are interested in finding Maddie's body but no, they're not interested in looking for it there.

SY literally doing all the dirty work for PJ while they are watching them do it.

If everyone, and we mean everyone, didn’t know it was a farce, SY would be calling PJ incompetent.

As everyone knows it’s indeed a farce, everyone just cringes witnessing SY humiliating itself.

Using again a movie reference, if this was one of those American prison ones, the PJ was only missing shotguns placed on hips to be guards with SY in the role of prisoners, on their knees,  dressed in SY uniforms instead of orange fatigues.

Subtitle: Policemen clean grounds in Praia da Luz (man in blue is PJ )

Guards and prisoners don’t fraternise much in those movies, now do they?

We think PJ has grounds to sue SY for harassment. In the last months it has been exaggerated.

But one thing one has to give the British side is that it’s persistent. But like any determined stalker, it’s shameless but above all patient. So it will continue to harass.

Now, once set foot on the ground, the problem facing Britain is on how to keep SY there on foreign soil where it is not welcome and where it is made to feel that way.

It the intent is, as we said to infiltrate “enemy lines”, to do that one cannot abandon the battlefield. SY has to find ways to prolong its unwelcomed stay. Otherwise they will have to go back to harrassing-by-distance.

Sure it can go over each inch of that piece of scrubland in maximum detail where it has been authorised to be, but each inch scrutinised today is one less inch to have an excuse to scrutinise tomorrow.

That’s why SY has now come up with two other locations it says it intends to search. They couldn't request to search these when they asked to search for the first one otherwise they wouldn't gain time.

And while the request for these two further locations are under PJ analysis, SY has unsurprisingly to us requested to stay an extra week on the authorised location.

We also heard for the first time during this past week that SY also wanted to check the sewers near apartment 5A with optical cables. As far as we know this hasn't been formally requested or been authorised.

The octopus trying to spread its tentacles. Anything will do. They must stay.

But what has been requested and been authorised is not clear. We didn't know the searching of sewers around the scrubland had been formally requested or been authorised. The image above, however, could be from the roads existing inside the scrubland.

SY thinks that only through continuous physical presence it can pressure PJ into submission. Into conceding in opening the files to SY's eager eyes. Or at least allow a SY liaison officer in the PJ investigation.

They have deserved it, they think. After all they have spent loads of cash on “dinner and flowers” to now come away empty handed. Well, it is mistake many men do make isn't it? Ask any woman with self-dignity.

But they face a problem. That problem is called Mark Harrison, the British advisor who searched PdL in 2007 looking for Maddie’s body. A dead Maddie. A dead Maddie in PdL.

 “This report has highlighted the extensive and professional efforts made by the Portuguese authorities regarding the search to locate Madeleine McCann alive. It has now begun to consider further opportunities to re-search locations in order to address the possibility that she has been murdered and concealed nearby…. “

“At the conclusion of this initial process of ‘clearing the ground under your feet’, I am satisfied a systematic review and search procedure has been conducted and accurately recorded by the PJ.”

“It was also essential that the official management and recording of the search was conducted by the Portuguese police themselves rather than by British officers without any powers and not conversant with Portuguese law and judicial processes.”

Doesn't that last phrase in the quote above hit the nail on the head about what went on this week in PdL?

Mark Harrison states his credentials – National search adviser for all police agencies in the UK and visiting Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Southampton.

He worked with experts from the University of the Algarve between 20JUL07 and  10AUG07: Professor Oscar Ferreira and Alverinho Dias assessed the terrain and Dr Jorge Goncalves  marine biologist was also a consultant.

We wonder what sort of expertise Redwood has brought in to assess such a difficult task. We have heard of a British team of specialist forensic archaeologists from Alecto Forensics from Preston Lancashire being present. We just hope they're not as “competent” as FSS.

Assistance to Harrison was directed by Guilhermino Encarnação, PJ Regional Director, who also decided the order of priorities for searching and the terms of reference for the search activity.

The searches were recorded and mapped and contemporaneous video commentaries were provided of all search activities which took place between 01 - 08AUG07.

Previous searches to find a missing girl alive or dead lasted 7 days from the date Maddie went missing.  2 of the 3 zones had been repeatedly searched and involved 80-100 personnel from GNR, Fire Brigade, Civil Protection, Red Cross and Urban Police. Officers on horseback and air scenting dogs were employed.

2 officers from Leicester Police were involved:  DIs Neil Holden and Alan Orchard.

Holden attended a meeting at Portimão with Harrison, the PJ director and PJ agents on 23JUL07. Holden was also the family liaison officer (the rest had been sent home after a week).  Harrison recommended the employment of EVRD and CSI dogs. The dogs were deployed on 31JUL07. 2007.

Harrison conducted reconnaissance flights using the Civil Defence helicopter.

Timetable  of searches:

23JUL07 meeting at Portimão, attended by PJ Director, Harrison, PJ agents and Neil Holden.

25JUL07 PJ Director set priorities for searching - accommodations of McCanns and friends , Murat’s Villa and grounds and vehicles of suspects and friends.

26JUL07 PJ Director asked Harrison to consider the beach for re-search and marine environment.

30JUL07 meeting with Harrison, PJ Director, DI Alan Orchard. Timeline sent to PJ to re–search areas.

31JUL07 canine searches of properties of McCanns and friends. Report sent to PJ with copies to Leicester police and NPIA.

01AUG07 canine searches of East beach and wasteland in Luz.

02AUG07 Villa in PdL – items were removed to screen

04 - 05AUG07 Robert Murat’s property with canines and geophysical equipment.

07 - 08AUG07 West beach and remaining wastelands with canines.

08AUG07 drains around 5A - visual inspection.

When there was a search for a living child, dwellings, business premises and refuse bins were searched.

After the conclusion of the searches, there was a meeting in Portimão with Goncalo Amaral, the PJ Director, Martin Grime - the dog handler, a representative from Leicester Police and Harrison.

Besides the significant difference in commitment by PJ and current absence of Leicester Police, how do they compare to the current searches being undertaken?

Open area East of PdL between the village urban limits and Boavista Golf Club, which was previously searched by dogs. He suggests wells and fissures in cliffs would be possible places, on the ‘least effort’ principle.

PdL shoreline – with EVRD dogs (it had already been searched by the Maritime Police and Coastguard.  Harrison concluded that a beach burial was extremely rare. He recommended a limited search of rock falls at the base of the cliffs and a sweep of the beach by dogs and geophysical equipment. He did feel it was possible for Maddie’s body to have been dumped in the sea.

Mark Warner crèche area could benefit from a further search – by enhanced detecting methods for human remains.

Harrison did not recommend a full scale re-search of the village, without new information or intelligence.

He did conclude that as searches were limited to certain locations “therefore  it cannot be said that the concealed remains of Maddie are not within the village of PdL”.

Is SY simply acting upon the words of Harrison when he concluded that it could not be said that her concealed remains were not within the village? Meaning the choice of site/s is speculative and based on assumptions?

But, although he does say that it cannot be ruled out that the body may still be in PdL, none of his recommendations for re-searching are being followed by SY currently. There seems to be no indication of the beach search, cliffs or anywhere near Boavista Golf Course. The search in the immediate vicinity of the apartment (terrains), which were reported previously and were not recommended by Harrison.

He allows the possibility of Maddie's body being in PdL due to his limitations, and those were only in reference to private properties with no public access. People's homes. The scrubland now being searched is privately owned but anyone can access it as it isn't fenced.

He considers that what he did to be enough. It covered all plausible possibilities. He, in our opinion, just says what he says to be on the safe side.

So, as can be seen, SY faces a huge problem. There is very little to search in PdL that wasn’t searched in 2007. Little they can do that wasn't done in 2007. Then with the full collaboration of PJ. Even the sewers around 5A were searched.

SY faces a real big problem in finding excuses to prolong the stay in PdL.

PJ is already saying that it needs its agents for other duties now that the holiday season is picking up. Tough job ahead for SY.

But SY has another problem. You see, by doing this specific search, SY has contradicted itself.

The current search area, as of 03JUN14 is an area of scrubland, around 1.5 km from the McCanns’ apartment, between Rua 25 de Abril and Rua de Calheta. This search will presumably be as meticulously recorded as the searches outlined by Harrison.

What needs to be known is why did SY arrive at the conclusion that this particular scrubland required such spectacularly expensive searching, using means never before seen to look for a missing person in a specific and delimited area.

It is said that it was because a witness “saw a man walking holding a little girl who looked like Maddie in his arms near this area”.

Today 06JUN14, CdM paper edition, says that it was a female tourist who now says she saw a man, within a group, holding a little girl in his arms:

“Scotland Yard also ensures that there is a British witness who saw one of the men carrying a child in his arms up to the wasteland, situated less than 500 meters from the resort. The British say that he fled, but before he was able to bury the girl's cadaver.”

Unless there was a proliferation of men walking around with blonde little girls that night in PdL, this man can only be Smithman. We already have him and Crèche Dad. One more is a little too many. As Kate says, one coincidence, two coincidences… the third coincidence is not a coincidence.

The scrubland is more than 500 m from the resort. It's 1,500 m. If the man had the time to bury Maddie, how long was the witness watching the scene? Apparently she saw him carry Maddie and saw him flee, so one can assume she saw him bury her. And how plausible is that?

How plausible is it that a group of men holding a girl looking like Maddie is only now been reported, 7 years after? And people still doubt that this case is filled with collaborationists. Real and imaginary.

Ridiculous. As usually all “third coincidences” are.

Jornal de Notícias, June 3, 2014 - paper edition, as shown in Joana Morais, says very clearly that it was Smithman the reason for the choosing of that specific scrubland:

“The site in Praia da Luz where the British Police yesterday began the search for the body of Madeleine McCann was not chosen at random. 

Seven years ago, a witness saw a man carrying a child in his arms in a nearby street, walking towards the beach. And, in the close vicinity, live people whom the English detectives consider to be persons “of interest”. 

It was the cross-checking of this data, coupled with the fact that a vacant lot underlies both factors, that has led the police to the believe that the girl's body may have been buried there.”

So it was Smithman the basis for SY to have requested to search that scrubland.

Only it could not have be Smithman.

Says who?

Says SY.

SY has stated very clearly that Smithman wasn’t seen anywhere near the scrubland it is now searching.

SY is now saying that Smithman left the apartment, headed down Rua da Escola Primária and after crossing with the Smiths, turned RIGHT, toward West, up Rua 25 de Abril:

But in UK Crimewatch, according to the BBC was the truest account of what happened that night, SY says that he went the opposite direction!

As pointed out in our Discrepancy 13 - The Smith Sighting, on our “UK Crimewatch - Discrepancies II” post (25OCT13), it is quite clear that SY in October 2013 said that Smithman after crossing with the Smiths, turned LEFT towards the East heading down the road towards the church as the BBC's UK Crimewatch reporter is showing below:

“It was here at 10 pm that an Irish family witnessed another man carrying a child, they saw him coming down the hill from the direction of the Ocean Club heading that way towards the beach. Could this have been Madeleine and her abductor?” (UK Crimewatch video at 23:34)

Absolutely no ad libbing is to be considered as the reporter is showing in which direction the last witnesses to have seen the key suspect say he went. If it was that way, then that way it was. To the East.

What a confusion. SY in October 2013 says he went East and SY in May 2014 says he has gone West.

If it can be “accepted” that SY contradicts us (we say Smithman went South), what cannot be accepted is SY contradicting itself. And that is exactly what it is doing with this farce. SY is denying the “truest account” told by… SY.

In in the next months which direction will SY tell us Smithman went? He now has only two directions left: North and South. The first will provide the excuse to go over the terrain which we were initially told was going to be searched. South, we got that covered.

But let’s refocus on the game and what this move means.

Let us at this point make clear our position about SY and its investigation. Those thinking that we think the SY is whitewashing the events, are wrong. As also wrong are those who think we think SY is being honest to the bone and is after the truth.

For us, SY has received clearly a clear mandate: to find closure on this subject.

What closure means (or indeed if the end result of this SY exercise will really mean closure) depends on what SY can do and how far it can probe into the material truth.

We are realistic and understand that it is interests involved that determine what “SY-closure” will mean. It's not sentimental things like “truth” and “justice” that determine such a thing of such political importance.

As we have said, there is a power struggle and so the weight of different interests vary in time, making the guidelines which SY will follow change. That’s why SY seems to be wavering between intentions. 

Redwood is but a Pac-Man. He, in our opinion, just does what he's told to do, goes where he's told to go and says what he's told to say. 

PJ is most certainly subject to equal pressure at least it has the dignity as not to “moonlight” as actors in farces as we have seen SY do so often recently, namely UK Crimewatch”, “BinSuperBockman”, “Algarve-18-sex-assault menace” and now “SY Circus in PdL.

Too many farces in so little time.

For us, there are 3 possibilities for “SY-closure”:

- leave things as they were and re-archive (abduction) as foreseen in our “Non-Psychic Prediction Of An Outcome: The SY's £2M Review” post (17FEB12);

- a limited version of truth (death circumscribed to McCanns and/or T9 without exposing any cover-up) as said in our “Rats” post (10JAN14);

- or full truth (explaining the cover-up was due to wanting to protect the activities of swingers - without getting into too many names).

Only the last will, in our opinion, provide full closure.

This farcical search of PdL scrubland is, in our opinion, a significant move away from the first of abduction.

It was never meant to be a serious police operation otherwise the search locations wouldn’t be announced weeks in advance, thereby giving an opportunity for possible removal of evidence. Much less by giving the visibility they did with a helicopter flying over the area now being searched and then take almost a month to act.

It is a fact that UK is spending a significant amount of resources on this now presumed fact: Maddie is dead.

That is what has to be retained from this episode.

Overcoming the ridiculousness of this whole thing, it just isn’t reasonable to think that SY would be allowed to put up such an onerous spectacle without supposedly having a solid basis to pursue the “death” lead.

After UK CW in October, Smithman was here to stay. After this operation Maddie is indeed dead.

For some reason Rothley is antagonistically silent.

Abduction has literally been thrown out the window.

Here, SY has another problem: to explain how it came to the conclusion that Maddie is dead.

After all, it was having reached that conclusion after a certainly laborious and painstaking process, that this ridiculous expenditure in PdL is justified.

It cannot have been on a hunch or a feeling. It has to be some sort of solid evidence as to why SY now absolutely assumes Maddie is dead.

Saying it was the result of a bungled burglary is not enough. Pat Brown has come up (literally invented, by her own words) a possible scenario in which a burglar could have killed Maddie - accidental death by suffocation while trying to keep her silent.

On a first look it could be something SY could indeed use but Pat overlooks the exact same thing that Mr Amaral did when he spoke of the death by couch-falling accident: time needed for cadaverine to develop.

The conversation between Jez and Gerry occurs at 21H15 and Kate realises Maddie missing at 22H00, that leaves less than 45 minutes for a process that requires at least 1 hour and a half.

Gerry and his pathetic “proud father moment” places Maddie in her bed at 21H00/21H10. He, unlike Matt before him, says he sees the little girl. He places Maddie in bed when he looks at her and identifies her as his daughter. That limits the time any burglary followed by manslaughter could have taken place.

As we said in a comment to our last post, when one sees a pig flying it doesn’t mean that pigs have started to fly. It means that pig was made to fly and one has to focus all one’s effort to understand how and why it is indeed flying. Because it is flying. That cannot be denied.

Whoever made the pig fly has to explain, in detail, the how and why.