START:
Between the 4th and the 9th
of May 2007 the troops available to the McCanns were:
11 members of family and
friends
Craigh Mayhew, MW operations
director.The Consul and Pro Consul
The British Ambassador
Alan Pike – trauma psychologist and assistant
Alex Woolfall, PR Head of crisis management
3 Leicester Police Officers
2 Criminal Behaviour Experts from CEOP
Sheree Dodd from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Phonecall from Cherie Blair, and one from Foreign Secretary Margaret
Beckett.
In any case, experts in
various fields who would not normally have been involved in such a case and
certainly not that early in the proceedings. Consular assistance is normal,
Mark Warner getting their PR expert in is understandable, but only if he was
working to promote Mark Warner and not the McCanns. For why would the victims
of a crime need PR?
A trauma unit is par for the
course these days so that is not out of the ordinary.
So right from the start we
have two Foreign Office officials working for the McCanns, these people do not
act on their own, they are instructed by the Foreign Office. Who do not in
general send out the troops in such numbers without being told to do so - and such commands come from 'above' so to speak.
20th May: Gerry
returns to the UK , he appears not to have seen any family, gets photographed
in Rothley amongst yellow ribbons.
22nd May: Gerry
returns with Clarence Mitchell – lent to him by the F.O.
24th May Last
photo released to the world’s Press.
24th May – the day
Missing People launched with ‘A New Yellow
Ribbon Symbol ‘ a large scale projection
on Marble Arch.
24th May – The
McCanns make a pilgrimage to Fatima. The
DT reports: ‘The McCanns are launching a series of trips
across Europe to help widen the search [..] the couple, both devout Catholics,
started their ‘mission’yesterday in Fatima. ‘
Recap:
Missing Persons – changed to
Missing People on May 24th. The event is alleged to have been
instigated at the behest of the European Commission, spearheaded by former EC
Vice-President and self-appointed ‘Guardian Angel of Children’, Franco
Frattini. The event was attended by John McCann.
Franco Frattini wanted Blair
for European Council President as he repeated in a speech some two years later. http://archivio.siciliainformazioni.com/now-italy/italy-backs-blair-for-eu-president-frattini-says-he-has-the-stature-and-charisma-for-the-job/
Although Gerry returned to Rothley to ‘trawl
through four years of family albums' – to select new pictures of her he comes
back with a picture allegedly taken on the day she disappeared – the pool
picture.
He also comes back with the head of the
Media Monitoring Unit, who controls what comes out in the news – a job
description given to us by the man himself: Clarence Mitchell.One may conclude: Foreign Office and possibly soon to be ex-PM Blair seem somewhat involved, so too is the European Commission who are promoting Missing People and their yellow ribbons.
There is a strong connection to the yellow
ribbons in Rothley two days earlier in my opinion. The usual public response is
an avalanche of teddy bears, dolls, flowers
and messages. Not yellow ribbons. So how did the good people of Rothley have
such an uncanny feel for what was to come?
We don’t know where Gerry was, apart from Rothley, during that trip. However, he found Clarence and came back with the news that they would start a European ‘mission’.
ROME:
Clarence started at the top: God’s representative on earth.
Kate’s Diary: 27th May: Clarence spoke to us about a possible visit to the Vatican. Rome is already preparing itself.’
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-Oçonnor, the RC Archbishop of Westminster, had been instrumental in organising the visit. (this suggests government connection)
SKY reports that the Pope has been kept up
to date on the search for the 4 yr old.(note: not the Pope who has expressed an
interest but the already emerging top level which the McCanns at that time
occupied.)
29th May: The McCanns leave in
Sir Philip Green’s private jet for Rome.
30th – audience with the Pope
30th – asked a question by a
Swedish journalist he is told by Gerry: ‘We have no immediate plans to go to
Sweden and we hope and pray that this will be over before we get to
Scandinavia.’
(for two people who want the widest possible awareness it seems that Scandinavia wasn't on the list - this may be because the itinerary was not planned by the McCanns but e.g. the Foreign Office?)
(for two people who want the widest possible awareness it seems that Scandinavia wasn't on the list - this may be because the itinerary was not planned by the McCanns but e.g. the Foreign Office?)
MADRID:
1ST
June – McCanns have a busy day in Madrid taken up with government- and
non-government agencies [..] various TV interviews and a press conference.
It is at this point that the intention of
becoming a representative of far more than one child is apparent:
Steven Kingstone: (voice over) ‘here they appealed for
help from the public and action from the Spanish authorities.’
Gerry McCann: I would like some reassurance,
in Spain, that there has been some proactive, errm investigation regarding
Madeleine’s disappearance and I think it is at least worth exploring the
possibility that Madeleine’s disappearance should not be considered in
isolation.’
Steve Kingstone: As the couple see it, that
means cross-referencing this inquiry with other missing children cases
throughout Spain and Portugal. [..] This afternoon the McCanns met Spain’s
interior minister to discuss a broader approach to child abduction.
Gerry knows the political jargon by now but not where he stands in the pecking order - it is not his place to demand reassurance from the Spanish government that they are investigating this case 'properly'. Demanding proactive investigation is a bit rich coming from that source I feel..
Gerry knows the political jargon by now but not where he stands in the pecking order - it is not his place to demand reassurance from the Spanish government that they are investigating this case 'properly'. Demanding proactive investigation is a bit rich coming from that source I feel..
BERLIN AND AMSTERDAM:
The McCanns flew into Berlin in a private Hawker jet, lent to them by the owner.
They met British ambassador
Sir Peter Torry and the Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit.
Gerry’’s Blog: 6th
June 2007:
[..] There has also been a
little bit of criticism in the German press about the amount of media coverage
[..] I was still surprised by the question as to whether Kate and I may be
involved in Madeleine’s abduction!
[..] We had to delay our
flight to Amsterdam because of some information received by the police [..] it
turned out to be nothing of interest. Unquote
(A man had phoned the PJ
saying he was the abductor but he would only speak to the parents themselves.
Nothing of interest then.)
The BBC reports on the 6th
June that: 'the parents of Madeleine
McCann have said their trip around Europe to raise awareness of their missing
daughter is their way of taking positive action.' Unquote
Once in Amsterdam there were
no government ministers to meet, no presidents of charities or any such
dignitaries. Not even the Mayor of Amsterdam. Just journalists, who didn’t ask
the right questions. So more or less 0
points for that visit. Although after the scheduled meetings Gerry caught up
with “a friend of mine who was attending
a medical conference in Amsterdam”. (This was most probably Matthew
Oldfield - interesting since they barely
knew each other before the PdL holiday – but perhaps useful.)
MOROCCO:
Surprisingly, no jet for
Morocco, but an ancient pre-war plane. (One wonders if the luxury part of the European Tour had already been down-scaled rather than that the luxury jet had engine trouble.)
They arrive with posters
printed in Arabic and these same posters are presumably the ones which the
Moroccan schoolchildren had to hold up for the photographs.
The Portuguese journalist Paulo Reis reports:
[..] the English couple was
accompanied by a very British gentleman who is presented to us as a British
diplomat from the Foreign Office. John Kayne accompanies the English
couple on his journey for two weeks.
The McCanns meet with the Directors of various children’s charities and
Kate tells us that ‘for these meetings to take place permission must have been
granted by the King himself’. A little later she mentions a ‘palace-sponsored
child welfare watchdog’. Still – that’s
as close as they got to the King. As an extra they are received by the
minister of Islamic Affairs, this meeting is arranged by his daughter, who is
their translator.
If we look at the overall
results it all started very well in Rome, in Madrid other children were added
to the mission but both Berlin and Amsterdam were rather disappointing. There
was no mention of the British Ambassador in Amsterdam and there are few details
of the meeting with the Mayor of Berlin.
In both cases the press
conferences proved to be a minefield. Neither of the McCanns came over well and
in Amsterdam advice was given to Gerry by Clarence whilst holding up a pair of
pyjamas to hide their conversation. Journalists tend to notice such things.
Morocco too, seems even more of a disappointment. Virtually nothing in the way of government officials, the usual news conference where this time they are flanked by a translator and Clarence.
More to the point – we are
told that an official from the Foreign Office has accompanied the McCanns for
two weeks. That’s just about right, starting with Rome on the 29th
of May to the 12th of June. So that means the F.O. had their minder
in place.
BUT:
‘madeleine’Chapter 11:
At the beginning of June,
Gerry had a call from the director of communications at the Foreign Office…
[..] whatever the case, it was suggested to Gerry that we should use Madeleine’s
Fund to employ someone to replace Clarence once our campaign visits were
complete. Unquote
So from the above we
see: government participation and no doubt at all, connections made so that the
McCanns could meet dignitaries and preferably government officials. After the
Pope's blessing the expectations may have been high, but in fact it went downhill
from there fairly fast, resulting in the Foreign Office recalling Clarence and
presumably all other liaison with foreign powers to arrange visits for the
McCanns ceased at that time.
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It seems that by the middle of June
things started to go quiet:
17th June: Kate’s Diary:
'Cherie Blair phoned to find
out how we were.[..] I also had the chance to speak to Tony who told me that we
weren’t to hesitate to ask him if there was something he could do to help.’
19th June Gerry is in the
UK, loses his wallet with the credit
cards the Home Office have assured the PJ he doesn’t have, visits (according to
Clarence Mitchell) the F.O. and returns
to PdL only to find a drunk in the road who needs help.
There are no photographs
from this entire trip, so no journalists lying in wait in Gatwick or elsewhere.
It does not appear that he has taken up Blair’s kind offer of help given just two
days earlier.
12th July – 14th July -Things are looking a bit better on the next trip when Gerry is
honoured by the Police Federation but this junket is arranged entirely by The
Sun, who sponsors the award. The Sun even suggests giving the McCanns an award
(for what I am not clear) but Kate writes in her book that they didn’t feel
worthy of such honours.
Gerry visits CEOP – but that
is not a government institution as such – it was at the time a Ltd. Co. with government
funding.
Gerry does meet with the
Press Complaints Commission’s president. He visits Sir Christopher Meyer at his
home in London where Sir Christopher gives him the bad news that the PCC doesn’t
do money for bad publicity.
Somewhere along the line the
McCanns have paid Bell Pottinger half a million pounds to keep Madeleine on the front page for a
year. Possibly during this period when the media were losing interest.
22nd July – 26th
July Gerry is in the US. But once again,
not meeting top people, but congressmen and an Attorney-General. He seems to
have spent nearly two days at the US
missing children centre.
Gerry’s blog 25th
July:
[..] visit to the White
House to meet with the First Lady’s deputy Chief of Staff Sarah Armstrong. This
visit was facilitated by Lady Catherine Meyer, founder of the British charity
PACT. Unquote
Again some name-dropping (Pope and G 8 summit had already had a pat on the back) cunningly phrased but in effect he met the deputy of the
Chief of Staff of the wife of the
President and had a lightning tour of the public areas of the White House.
Gerry managed to mention the G8 summit in a TV interview and gives the impression they had taken note of the plight of the McCanns. He mentions a discussion with the Attorney General to
advance legislation, but it that's all. He basically only spoke to the
president of ICMEC and a few notables and he got into the White House
because an ex-ambassador’s wife pulled a few strings.
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It seems obvious is that
the press were losing interest by mid June and at the same time the Foreign Office had suggested that if the
McCanns wanted media liaison they could pay for it themselves.
The charities stand out in
this collection of players, principally
Missing People – the yellow ribbons in
Rothley, the relaunch on the same date that the McCanns announced their
European Tour.
Which may well have been
arranged with the F.O. during that visit
which also produced the pool photo.
Blair was about to step down as PM and desperately keen to become European President. That may have been one factor in the unprecedented help given. Cherie Blair was a director of PACT, a charity which paid the directors more than the total income at one time but had always had European ambitions as evidenced by her interference regarding the Human Rights Act.
EU wanted to set up a complete DNA database of all EU citizens, still does as far as I know. An abducted photogenic toddler might have been just the catalyst the politicians needed.
But only by early June was political help being withdrawn, so it took a month for the doubts about the abduction to reach those with the power to take decisions - still Blair. Brown didn't take over until the end of June. Perhaps Whitehall finally understood the importance of those shutters or perhaps they'd finally looked at the very files they refused to send to the Police Judiciare: MBM's health records and the McCann's credit card records.
And by September Gordon Brown was not so easily brought into line - gone were the days when Gerry would phone Brown and leave a message to phone him back asap. From then on it seems he doesn't even want to speak to them, the glory days didn't last long.
From the Vanity Fair Interview, September 2007 published in February issue 2008:
But only by early June was political help being withdrawn, so it took a month for the doubts about the abduction to reach those with the power to take decisions - still Blair. Brown didn't take over until the end of June. Perhaps Whitehall finally understood the importance of those shutters or perhaps they'd finally looked at the very files they refused to send to the Police Judiciare: MBM's health records and the McCann's credit card records.
And by September Gordon Brown was not so easily brought into line - gone were the days when Gerry would phone Brown and leave a message to phone him back asap. From then on it seems he doesn't even want to speak to them, the glory days didn't last long.
From the Vanity Fair Interview, September 2007 published in February issue 2008:
........ they now feel deserted by the Prime Minister.
In the interview, Clarence Mitchell, the McCann’s spokesman, said: “...it is true that we have requested a meeting with the prime minister to show him the strength of our case, to explain Kate and Gerry’s innocence - and yet all we’ve been offered is a medium-level-consular meeting, which we rejected.”
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This link is well worth a read:
'MAD COW' LEGISLATION' 02 November 2009
By Dr Martin
Roberts
Finding
of Fact
• 14. FCO told the Commissioner that a family member had made clear to FCO staff that all comments made by that individual to FCO had been made in strict confidence and were not intended for disclosure to third parties. FCO did not approach the family member again during the Commissioner's investigation but told the Commissioner that they were confident the individual would not appreciate being contacted regarding disclosure of the relevant personal information, a position the Commissioner accepted.
• 14. FCO told the Commissioner that a family member had made clear to FCO staff that all comments made by that individual to FCO had been made in strict confidence and were not intended for disclosure to third parties. FCO did not approach the family member again during the Commissioner's investigation but told the Commissioner that they were confident the individual would not appreciate being contacted regarding disclosure of the relevant personal information, a position the Commissioner accepted.
unquote
