Thursday 7 August 2008

Enfants Kidnappés 7/08/08: A Belgian paedophile network?

http://www.kidnapping.be/maddie/maddie.html

Chiens policiers


Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor, stated that, "The Belgian Federal Prosecutor has received no information from the British or Portuguese investigators according to which the little English girl Madeleine McCann would have been abducted at the instigation of a Belgian paedophile network," the information coming from the British media. Once again, this trail is not new. We have already spoken about it. It was Toscano who started this rumour. This Spaniard passes himself off as a journalist, specialising in missing children, having already found several. He was interviewed on several occasions by the Portuguese authorities but his allegations were very quickly ruled out.

We have even stated here that Toscano was, "not credible," and we stick to it. Above all, Toscano was seeking to get himself talked about when he was intending to publish a book. As for the children whom he would have found, he has never been able to prove it. It was he who had set off the false trail for: El Frances. El Frances was found a short time later. He is interested in little boys and not little girls. He was very quickly ruled out as a potential suspect following thorough checks. The British press is coming up with that old story as if it was a new lead and Clarence Mitchell is still acting surprised as if this was the first time it was mentioned!

Alright, let's be clear that if there are paedophile networks, they are not structured. The networks, "get their supplies," another way. First of all there are members of the network who, "offer," their own children. Then, there are parents who rent out their children for an hour or for a whole of a weekend. The networks get their supplies, in Belgium, as in France, in the UK and in other countries, in certain of their country's orphanages who all rent out children. A Belgian journalist is in the process of preparing a comprehensive book on the subject. And finally, it is very very easy to buy a child.

In some countries, less industrialised than us, a real parallel economy has been developed in the sale of children. They are sold with a guarantee of their good health. Satisfied or exchanged! Genuine!! These children are sometimes sold for just 40 €! So, why take the risk of abducting a child abroad, traveling with her, with the risks involved, without taking into account the infrastructure and people needed to organise, plan, logistically support and move a kidnapped child!! Abductions are mostly carried out by a lone predator or by a very small group of two or three predators, often badly organised.

The Maddie frenzy having restarted, I am ready to bet that we will soon have new witness statements from people who are will have seen Maddie in all corners of the world!


Police dogs.

In this case there is a lot of talk about dogs that detect blood and dogs that detect bodies. They have played a key role in the aftermath of events. To understand how these dogs react, we asked an expert on the subject. But before asking him questions, we need to understand that a dog trained by the police has nothing in common with one privately trained.

The police have technical resources available but above all criminal experience on the ground so that the training of their dogs has nothing in common with clubs for training open to individuals. This idea is important because it lets us distinguish between the objectives of a private trainer who does not have the skills of the police and those of a professional police dog handler, trained in techniques of which the individual has no idea.

We must also understand that the dog's sense of smell is trained and by his training the police dog surpasses his peers in the use of the same organ. Or to give you a clearer idea, an individual's normal untrained dog is capable of smelling a drop of vinegar in a bathtub full of water. This capacity being developed by his training, you can easily imagine the power of the sense of smell of this type of dog.

Our expert, who must remain anonymous, is a chief dog handler for finding human remains. A serving police officer, he and his dog are known and respected in police canine circles. Being still in service and not yet having received a positive response from his superiors for participating in our interview, we are obliged to guarantee his anonymity.

  • Can the odour of blood be detected after a detergent wash?

The dog is perfectly able to detect traces of blood, dilute residues. These residues may be trapped in minute spaces between fibres. Thus, in one case, our dogs found residues trapped in the joins between the floor tiles of a room.

  • How long after cleaning can the dogs still smell the odour of blood?

We have had positive results several weeks after the fact. According to the frequency of cleaning, this time limit may be shorter. If premises are cleaned daily or several times a day, the time limit for detection may be reduced to a few days, rather than weeks. On the other hand, if cleaning is only weekly, the time limit may be four weeks before the disappearance of the odour for the dogs.

  • The dog only detects the odour of blood or the human cadaver odour?
We must make a distinction here. The dog carries, "imprints," of very specific odours. Something like drugs dogs who have, olfactory "imprints," of narcotics. These imprints are listed in his head. He never forgets them. However, the odour of blood is an odour of blood! That means that the dog does not distinguish between the odour of human blood and the odour of animal blood. That is why the lab is always with us when we use our dogs. On the other hand, at home, the human cadaver dog and the one that detects blood only do one. Each of our dogs detects the two odours. In contrast to our friends at New Scotland Yard who have a deluxe version: two different dogs - one for each odour. The training and the techniques used are the same. There is no difference in, "capability," between the dogs. The advantage in having two different dogs is in the fact that if the, "cadaver," dog marks a place and the dog that detects blood does not, we can deduce that the victim died without blood loss. As is the case with strangulation for example.

  • For how long must a body remain in place for the odour to be detectable by the dogs?

There are several possibilities. If there was blood flow at the time of death, the odour would be detectable immediately. What we call, "blood flow," signifies that the victim had blood loss. Whether due to blows received or banging themselves while falling, doesn't matter, as long as there is blood flow. It is here that having two dogs makes sense. Ours immediately smells the odour of blood, although he detects both. The British police will go with the two dogs but only the dog that detects blood will react. In short, the dog will detect the odour of blood (due to blood flow at the time of death) sooner than cadaver odour which will not yet be well-defined.

On the other hand, if there was no blood flow, death by strangulation, for example, there is a certain delay before decomposition of the body. As long as that decomposition has not taken place, the dog would only be able to detect the scent of a human being. Thus, if there was no blood, - I stress, the body would take several days to decompose. Under normal atmospheric conditions, in our climate it will be several days before the odour is detectable by the dog.And this,even if the body is buried beneath several metres of concrete or camouflaged by other subterfuges which I cannot talk about here. Of course, decomposition can be more rapid. If the body is stored in a damp cellar, decomposition would be more rapid and as a result, the odour detectable more rapidly. According to a police convention between several European countries and outside the EEC (Editor's note: a convention that both the UK and Portugal are part of), it is accepted that the body takes 72 hours before the odour is detectable.

  • In the context of the accidental death of a child, could the odour be detectable if the body only remained a maximum of two hours in the apartment?

Once more, we must be careful. If there was no blood flow, then I am clear: NO! It is impossible! The dog would have smelt the laying down of human scent. And if there was blood flow, only the dog that detected blood would react and not the one that detected human cadaver odour. The body could thus be moved during, around 72 hours, before the cadaver odour was detectable. This time limit is reduced to 48 or 24 hours hours in tropical climates.

  • Cadaver odour detected by the dogs, could it come from contamination? Clothes bearing cadaver odours which were contaminating the room where the dog works?

Yes, it is theoretically possible. Contamination of a place by clothes already carrying cadaver odour is plausible. Thus, a person working in a morgue could, through negligence, contaminate another place by carrying the odour there. But the dog has not failed in his work. In our example, the dog will mark the cadaver odour because that odour is well and truly there! The way that odour was brought into the place is another thing which the investigators, and not the dogs, have to clear up! On the other hand, if the odour of blood is also detected, then we can reasonably place in doubt the theory of contamination. This remains very theoretical and I must say that in 15 years of work and practical canine interventions in complex criminal cases, I have never come across this. Because to be valid, the person contaminating the place would have to be there in their work clothes (in the example of a morgue employee). If that person has changed their clothes or washed, there would be nothing to contaminate the place.

Justice USA style: Sentencing juveniles to life without parole.

Living in hell for life

The USA has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners.

One in every 100 adults in the USA is in prison.

The USA has an even more significant record in the numbers of people sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars: Life without parole.

"Paul Wright, the editor of Prison Legal News and author of two books on the prison system--who himself served 17 years of a life sentence--said life without parole sentences are "a death sentence by incarceration. You're trading a slow form of death for a faster one."

"This kind of sentencing is virtually unheard of elsewhere in the world. "Western Europeans regard 10 to 12 years as extremely long term, even for offenders sentenced to life," says James Whitman, author of the book Harsh Justice."

"And among the prisoners with life sentences in the U.S. are 2,380 people who were sentenced to life without parole as "juvenile offenders"--in other words, they were under the age of 18 when the crimes they were accused of were committed--according to Human Rights Watch."

"Of these juvenile offenders, 73 were sentenced to life in prison without parole at the age of 13 or 14 years old, according to research done by the Equal Justice Initiative."

"Antonio Nunez was raised in Los Angles, his life shaped by gang violence. As the Equal Justice Initiative described in its report "Cruel and Unusual," at the age of 14, he got into a car with two older men, one of whom had been kidnapped. A police chase ensued, and gunfire was exchanged. No one was killed; no one was even hurt. But Antonio was sentenced to life in California's San Quentin prison, where he remains today"

California has the mandatory, "three strikes and you're out," sentencing. A third felony offence lands the offender with a 25 year sentence. Since 1994, over 1,000 people have gone to prison for 25 years in California for non-serious crimes.

"Take Santos Reyes. His "crime" was to help his cousin, a Mexican immigrant who was unable to take a drivers' test because he couldn't write English, but needed a license so he could begin working as a roofer with Reyes. For this, Santos was convicted of felony perjury.

Reyes had been convicted of two previous felonies more than a decade before--stealing a radio when he was 17 and a robbery when he was 22. In neither case was anyone harmed. In the years between, he had gotten married, had two children and worked steadily as a roofer. But because the perjury charge was a third felony, he was sentenced to prison under three strikes--where he has spent the last nine years, all for taking a drivers' test for his cousin."

"U.S. policymakers seem determined to march out of step with the rest of the world on the use of harsh prison sentences. In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on all nations to abolish life without the possibility of parole sentences for youth offenders. The margin was 185 to 1--with the U.S. casting the one and only vote against."

So, the United Nations, by a massive majority, called on all nations to abolish life without parole. Yet, in the USA, juveniles are being sent to prison for the rest of their lives. The USA, with its death sentence gung-ho state of Texas, and its, "three strikes and you're out," state of California sentencing people to 25 years behind bars for non-serious offences, seems to be rather out of step with other developed nations. Even Pakistan has abolished the death penalty. The USA is probably the most powerful and richest country in the world, but in terms of justice it lags way behind most of the civilised world. A country that does not give a 13 year-old the opportunity to change or to be rehabilitated is, in my opinion, in judicial terms, totally uncivilised.

"Everyday that I wake up, it's a pain knowing that I have this sentence, and if these devils get their way, I will have to be here the rest of my days. Knowing this, and being in this situation, just the thought alone will kill you from the inside out. A natural life sentence tells the public that you are a vile and insidious person, and that you possess no rehabilitative potential to reenter society and be a productive citizen. This is a bald-faced lie, and this lie can be brought to an end today."


-- Jamie Jackson, serving a life without parole sentence in Illinois


SOS Madeleine McCann 7/08/08: the McCanns' rented car covered 11,229 kms in four months.


SOS Madeleine McCann 7/08/08

The Renault Scenic was rented by the McCanns on May 27th 2007 and returned to the rental company on September 23rd. Alexander Cameron was also registered as a driver, on May 27th. At the end of August, another driver was included on the list: Michael Terence Wright.

The last contract signed agreed an extension up to September 24th. Before the end of that contract, the McCanns contacted the company because Madeleine's parents wanted to keep the car for longer.

The rental company in its turn, had a contract with Renault Portugal and had to return the car to them. This prevented the extension of the rental to the McCanns. The only option open to the McCanns for keeping the Renault Scenic was to purchase it, but they refused the offer.

On September 23rd, the car was returned to the rental company in Lagos. A tall man, of around 1.80 metres, aged around 60 to 65, with short gray hair, speaking English, took the car back and signed the return slip. The car had covered 11,229 kms, between May 27th and September 23rd.

Payments to the rental company were made with credit cards. Several extensions of the initial contract had been negotiated, with at least two different credit cards. The last extension was done on September 1st up to September 24th.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis


La Renault Scenic a été louée par les McCann le 27 mai 2007 et retournée à la société de location le 23 septembre. Alexandre Cameron était également enregistré comme conducteur, le 27 mai. Fin août, un autre conducteur a été inclus dans la liste : Michael Terence Wright.

Le dernier contrat signé accordait une prolongation jusqu'au 24 septembre. Avant la fin de ce contrat, les McCann ont contacté la société de location parce que les parents de Madeleine voulaient garder la voiture plus longtemps.

La société de location avait à son tour un contrat avec Renault Portugal et devait leur rendre la voiture, ce qu’empêchait la prolongation de la location aux McCann. La seule possibilité donnée aux McCann de garder la Renaul Scenic était de la racheter, mais ils ont refusé l’offre.

Le 23 septembre, la voiture a été retournée à la société de location à Lagos. Un homme grand, d’environs 1.80 mètres, âgé de 60 à 65 ans, avec les cheveux courts et gris, parlant anglais, a rapporté la voiture et signé le bon de retour. La voiture avait roulé 1.229** kilomètres, entre le 27 mai et le 23 septembre.

Les paiements à la société de location ont été effectués avec des cartes de crédit. Plusieurs prolongations du contrat de location initial avaient été négociées, avec au moins deux numéros différents de cartes de crédit. La dernière prolongation a été faite le 1er septembre, jusqu'au 24 septembre.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

** I think this is a typo, meant to read 11,229


SOS Madeleine McCann 7/08/08


SOS Madeleine McCann 7/08/08: the Home Office refused to provide details of Gerry McCann's credit cards.


SOS Madeleine McCann 7/08/08

A request sent by the PJ to the British authorities, requesting details of all Gerry McCann's credit card transactions for the six month period, April to October 2007, was considered disproportionate by Frances Kennah, head of the UK Central Authority, a Home Office department.

The PJ requested these details in March 2008, justifying its request with the need to identify if there were unknown motives behind Madeleine's disappearance. Leicestershire police officers had previously informed the Home Office that the Portuguese police had told them that they had decided to request that information after a witness had seen Gerry at a cash machine, speaking on his mobile phone, as Frances Kennah indicates in a letter to the PJ, included in the documents of the investigation.

Considering that the request for information about a period of time that long was disproportionate and not entirely justified by the Portuguese police, the head of the Central Authority responded that the PJ must provide more detailed information about their reasons justifying this period of time, or content themselves with information about the days just before and after Madeleine's disappearance, in which case, Frances Kennah promised to reconsider the request.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

7/08/08

L’affaire McCann : Le Home Office s’est refusé à donner des informations à propos des cartes de crédit de Gerry


Une demande envoyée par la Police Judiciaire (PJ) aux autorités britanniques, demandant les détails de toutes les transactions des cartes de crédit de Gerry McCann pendant une période de six mois, d'avril a octobre 2007, a été considérée disproportionnée par Frances Kennah, le responsable de l'autorité centrale britannique, un département du Home Office (ministère de l’Intérieur).

La PJ a demandé ces détails en mars 2008, justifiant sa demande avec la nécessité d'identifier s'il y avait des motifs inconnus derrière la disparition de Madeleine. Officiers de la Police du Leicestershire avaient précédemment informé le Home Office que les policiers portugais leur ont dit qu'ils avaient décidé de demander cette information après qu’un témoin avait vu Gerry à un distributeur automatique de billets, parlant sur son téléphone portable, comme Frances Kennah l’indique dans une lettre à PJ, incluse dans les documents de l’enquête.

Considérant que la demande d’information à propos d’une période de temps aussi long était disproportionnée et pas entièrement justifiée par la police portugaise, le responsable de l’autorité centrale à répondu que la PJ devrait fournir plus d’informations détaillées à propos des raisons qui justifient cette période de temps, ou se contenter avec l’information des jours juste avant et après la disparition de Madeleine, dans ce cas-ci, Frances Kennah a promis de reconsidérer la demande.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

SOS Madeleine McCann: the Belgian network and the shadow of Toscano

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

7/08/08

Read also: The McCann case: The Home Office refused to give information about Gerry's credit cards.

The information contained in the email written by the British police officer, John Shord, to the Leicestershire police and sent to the Portuguese authorities, saying that Madeleine McCann had been kidnapped to order by a Belgian Paedophile network is from information circulated by Antonio Toscano, a so-called Spanish journalist who stated he was an expert in cases of abduction.

Toscano, who attributed Madeleine's abduction under orders from a paedophile network to someone called, "El Frances," was interviewed several times by the Portuguese authorities, but his allegations were quickly ruled out after investigation. The Spanish man had even demanded to be seen by Kate and Gerry McCann, who had refused.

"The intelligence suggests that a paedophile network in Belgium put out an order for a young girl, three days before Madeleine was taken," the email puts forward, adding that, "someone connected to this network saw Maddie, took a photo of her and sent it to Belgium (*) The buyer agreed that the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken."

According to a friend of the McCanns, quoted by The Telegraph, on the subject of Belgian paedophile networks, it would also be common knowledge that it is easy to traffic in North Africa.

The information from the British media is all the more surprising when we remember that most of the journalists on that side of the channel received the same copy of the procedure, in which there are all the details of the work carried out by the PJ, in conjunction with the British police, concerning these revelations.

The Dutch witness statement was checked.

A source from the Dutch police, contacted in Amsterdam, confirmed having investigated Anna Stam's witness statement and having ruled out any possibility that the child seen was Madeleine McCann. In perfect English, the police officer maintains that he does not understand the persistence of the media, because, according to him, "the Portuguese authorities requested and obtained, via Interpol, the collaboration of the Dutch police and the conclusions of the investigation carried out in the Netherlands were sent not only to Portugal but also to the United Kingdom.

The Telegraph, quoting the McCanns' spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, states that the, "revelation," reinforced Kate and Gerry McCann's theory that their daughter would have been abducted by an international network.

Anna Stam, a shopkeeper in Amsterdam, the same town where Kate and Gerry McCann lived before the birth of the twins, is one amongst many Dutch people who contacted the police maintaining that they had seen Madeleine, but, each time, the lead turned out to be false.

Concerning all these witness statements, not only in the Netherlands, but in the rest of the world, the PJ had notably requested support from Interpol. A fax sent from Lyon, European headquarters of the organisation, and which is in the documents that all the journalists have received (including the British) places all the resources of the organisation at the disposal of the Portuguese authorities.

Given that the Dutch witness statement is not a unique case, it is probably necessary to wait for other, "revelations," because Madeleine remains the only missing child who has succeeded in being seen on every continent, sometimes on the same day.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis


(*) The Belgians know better than anyone, "the Dutroux effect." : after that case, it became more common to associate the image of the country and of the Belgian people with paedophilia. However, the whole country, independent of questions of politics or logistics, Achilles heel of Belgian society, went onto the streets to demand reforms in the judicial sector and in particular in the police. If there is a country in Europe where efforts have been made to prevent another case like that of Dutroux it is indeed Belgium and it has now become common practice for the country's authorities to offer support and collaboration to its European partners, as was the case with the trial of Michel Fourniret and his wife Monique Olivier.


Le réseau belge et l’ombre de Toscano

Lire aussi: L’affaire McCann : Le Home Office s’est refusé à donner des informations à propos des cartes de crédit de Gerry

7d19f2bd397facc233fa53070b0754b3.jpgL’information contenue dans l’email écrit par John Shord, un officier de police britannique, à la Police du Leicestershire et transmise aux autorités portugaises, donnant compte de que Madeleine McCann aurait été kidnappée sous commande d’un réseau de pédophilie belge, est parti d’informations mises à circuler par António Toscano, un prétendu journaliste espagnol qu’affirmait être spécialiste dans les affaires d’enlèvement.

Toscano, qui attribuait à un dénommé El Frances l’enlèvement de Madeleine sous ordres d’un réseau pédophile, a été entendu à plusieurs reprises par les autorités portugaises, mais ses allégations ont vite été écartées après enquête. L’espagnol avait même demandé à être reçu par Kate et Gerry McCann qui avaient refusé.

"Les services de renseignement suggèrent qu'un réseau de pédophile en Belgique à fait une commande d’une jeune fille trois jours avant que Madeleine soit prise," avance l’email rajoutant que "quelqu'un de relié à ce réseau a vu Maddie, a pris une photo d’elle et l'a envoyée en Belgique (*). L'acheteur a convenu que la fille était appropriée et Maddie a été prise."

Selon un ami des McCann, cité par The Telegraph à propos des réseaux pedophiles en Belgique, le trafic y serait aussi courant qu’il est facile de trafiquer en Afrique du Nord.

L’information des médias britanniques est d’autant plus surprenante quant ont se souvient que la plupart des journalistes outre-Manche ont reçu la même copie du procès, dans laquelle il y a tous les détails du travail mené par la Police judiciaire, conjointement avec la police britannique, à propos de ces révélations.

Témoignage hollandais a été vérifié

354dbd73bf160747b5b165afa65d05b4.jpgUne source de la police hollandaise, contactée à Amsterdam, à confirmée avoir investigué le témoignage d’Anna Stam et avoir écarté toute possibilité de que l’enfant aperçue soit Madeleine McCann. Dans un anglais parfait, l’officier affirme ne pas comprendre l’acharnement des médias, car, selon lui, "les autorités portugaises ont demandé et obtenu, via Interpol, la collaboration de la police hollandaise et les conclusions de l’enquête menée aux Pays-Bas ont été envoyés aussi bien au Portugal qu’au Royaume-Uni."

The Telegraph, citant le porte-parole des McCann, Clarence Mitchell, affirme que la "révélation" viendrait renforcer la théorie de Kate et Gerry McCann de que leur fille aurait été enlevée par un réseau international.

Anna Stam, une vendeuse d’Amsterdam, la même ville où Kate et Gerry ont vécu avant la naissance des jumeaux, est une parmi plus d’une dizaine de néerlandais qui ont contacté la police affirmant avoir aperçu Madeleine, mais, à chaque fois, la piste s’est révélée fausse.

La Police judiciaire avait notamment, à propos de tous ces témoignages, aussi bien aux Pays-Bas que dans le reste du monde, demandé l’appui d’Interpol. Dans un fax envoyé depuis Lyon, siège européen de l’organisation, et qui figure dans les documents que tous les journalistes ont reçus (y inclus les Britanniques), met à disposition des autorités portugaises toute la logistique de l’organisation.

Vu que le témoignage hollandais n’est pas cas unique, il faut probablement s’attendre à d’autres "révélations", car Madeleine reste l’unique enfant disparue qu’a réussi à être aperçue sur tous les continents, parfois le même jour.

Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

(*) les Belges connaissent mieux que personne "l’effet Dutroux" : après cette affaire, il était devenu courant d’associer l’image du pays et des Belges à la pédophilie. Pourtant, le pays entier, indépendamment des questions politiques ou linguistiques, talon d’achillée de la société belge, était descendu dans la rue pour demander des reformes dans le secteur de la justice et en particulier dans la police. S’il y a bien un pays en Europe où des efforts ont été faits pour éviter une autre affaire semblable à celle de Dutroux c’est bien la Belgique et aujourd’hui c’est devenu monnaye courante les autorités du pays donner appui et collaboration à ses partenaires européens, comme c’était le cas dans le procès de Michel Fourniret et de son épouse Monique Olivier.

7/08/08

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/