John Blacksmith writes:
Sorry
First an apology. In The Question of Libel the other day I used the phrase, “For the obtuse, the original claim by KM was that she should confess…”
The word obtuse was aimed at one or two critics who simply denied the facts as explained for their own reasons – and of course continue to do so – and not at any of those honest students of the case who had been deceived by Kate McCann’s intentionally convoluted prose on page 243 of her book. I am sorry if the word gave offence: that was not my intention.
Haters?
Perhaps I could be forgiven for enlarging on my comments yesterday concerning my own attitude to the McCann couple. I quite accept that they have many supporters who are rightly shocked and disgusted by the various “theories” of what happened to Madeleine McCann and the way the pair have become a living Cluedo board for crime fans and recreational posters.
But, as the more honest of those supporters must know deep down, these are not at the core of the sceptical or anti-McCann movement: that core, in which I do not include myself for the moment, consists of numerous individuals working hard and conscientiously simply to add to the truth. Where would we be now without the translators of the case papers which, I remind people, were released to the public, not to the McCanns? Answer: back in July 2008 when the parents’ spokesman span them so dishonestly to the UK press, confident in the knowledge that readers didn’t yet know the original Portuguese content. The translation costs to the McCanns are claimed to have run to six figures – without unpaid volunteers who would ever have financed an independent effort?
And where would we be without the owner of the Pamalam website who, in the face of great difficulties and legal threats, has ensured that the blogs of Gerry McCann have not been withdrawn and suppressed? The latter are primary sources for the way in which the pair deliberately misled the UK public about the course of the investigation into their own role as potential suspects,examples of which I gave in the Question of Libel piece. The pair short-sightedly put them in the public domain when it suited their purposes and then attempted to assert copyright on them once their purpose had been fulfilled.
This unthinking short-termism in their own interests runs throughout the case. The parents appear to have been shocked when they realised that most of the case papers were going to be made available to the public, despite the absence of any trial. But should they have been? The disappearance and investigation took place in an overseas jurisdiction, not in Glasgow or Liverpool. The parents were warned from Day One that, whatever half-baked ideas the group had picked up from English tabloids and Crimewatch about the way to catch child abductors, if they wanted to get their child back they had to accept the investigative methods of the host country.
They deliberately ignored those warnings, just as they ignored the fact that the case files would be released if the case were to be archived, in accordance with the law of the democracy in which they were guests – all of it demonstrating their unwillingness to learn anything about Portugal. They went their own way. So who should they blame for the consequences?
The case files present the details of a Portuguese case enabling the UK public – or that part of it that can be bothered – to see the details of the investigation that the parents have fought tooth and nail to conceal. One day the McCanns are going to have to accept that the struggle is lost and they must search for a new way to “expunge” the widespread public scepticism about their claims.
Candidates for inclusion
I wrote yesterday of the McCanns’ “assault” on the British public regarding, essentially, the latter’s right to hear either both sides of a legal investigation or, under the UK contempt laws, neither side until a case comes to a conclusion.
It was the gradual breach of these information rights by media manipulation that brought me to the McCanns’ case, not some prurient interest in a couple of provincial doctors and their wretched trip to the Algarve. Until 2007 The Bureau was a satirical news and arts internet journal, a side-line and relaxation from my supposedly “serious” fiction writing [chorus from the pits: yerr, boo, and you’re still writing fiction]. But it always featured articles on people attempting to manipulate the public.
In March 2008 the Bureau wrote about past cases it had campaigned on, under the ironical heading “The Bureau Never Lies-Updates”. Here it is.
The Natwest Three
After financing a lengthy and disgustingly dishonest campaign to save themselves from extradition to America (from their ill-gotten gains) the three martyrs from Natwest finally came to trial. There were no visible marks of torture or water-boarding as they shuffled their way into court, despite the forecasts by MPs, lawyers and other bribable worthies of what would happen to them in the US dictatorship when they became Bush Meat.
Only The Bureau came out with it in 2006 and said they were using everybody, including PR teams who specialise in "helping" suspects facing criminal charges - a growth area this, as the McCann family can testify. The head of civil rights organization UK Liberty who denied The Bureau's claims that she was a sucker who'd been had, replied to Blacksmith saying "...nobody knows if they are guilty or innocent." We did.
A few weeks ago the thieves pleaded guilty and copped thirty seven months in jail each.
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Braveheart
Lost leader. Note the hair
Sheridan and his wife have now both been arrested and charged with perjury.
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Misha Defonseca
M/S Defonseca is the author of "Surviving With Wolves", a heart-warming memoir of survival in WWII which was rapturously received by critics, became an international best seller earning some $23 million and has had a film made of the story. That the author claimed to have crossed Europe after her Jewish parents had been killed in the Holocaust, being succoured by a team of wolves on the way and killing a German rapist with a knife - all at the age of seven - might have raised suspicions, one would have thought.
Well, it's all product, innit?
Not a bit of it. When The Bureau tried last year to find a single supporter for its claims that the book was obviously a pack of lies from beginning to end, a typical product of Anglo-American fraudpub complete with American "editor", it found only Mr David Irvine whose collaboration is not always helpful.
The lady herself has now confessed all, including the fact that she isn't even Jewish.
Those were the sort of stories that the Bureau was covering before the McCanns launched their assault, alongside its staples such as the agony aunt column advising the Prince of Wales on his sex life.
With that track record do you think the Bureau was going to ignore the couple when they brought themselves to its attention?
