D-Notice 5 - Sept 2009 - Letter to Joana Morais

Visit Blog to view letter received by Joana

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/09/d-notice-5.html

Joana Morais

D-Notice 5

This article has been edited temporarily, pending legal advice.

The owner of this blog has been requested by an English law firm to remove allegedly confidential information, in observance of a D-Notice. While we do not recognise the validity of any such measure on Portuguese soil, we have been legally advised to remove the sensitive information, until the matter can be fully studied and dealt with. This may take some time, given the fact that this request has no precedent in the Portuguese legal history.


Letter to the Lawyers

D-Notice 5 Lisbon, 25th September 2009

Dear Sirs,

I have received your emails dated September 23, 2009, and September 25, 2009.

As such, I have forwarded your emails to my lawyer, whose law Office will soon establish contact with you, in order to deal with your request to remove an article, or parts thereof, which was posted in The Maddie Case Files forum.

Under counsel from my lawyer, for the time being and while your request is being studied, I will remove mention of your client’s name, as well as references that connect him with *** and the ***** accusation, as stated in the article that was written by journalist Mark Hollingsworth for ES Magazine, included in the London Evening Standard, edition dated August 28, 2009.

Nevertheless, I must add that as a Portuguese citizen, I do not recognise any United Kingdom jurisdiction to repress or limit that which is a fundamental right of Portugal’s Democracy, which is the Freedom of Expression.

I refer to Article 37º of the Portuguese Constitution, which protects the Portuguese Citizens’ right to, and I cite: «freely express and publicise his or her thoughts in words, images or by any other means, as well as the right to inform others, inform himself and be informed without hindrance or discrimination» and also that «The exercise of the said rights shall not be hindered or limited by any type or form of censorship».

Best regards,

Joana Morais
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http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/09/d-notice-5.html

D-Notice 5
Mark Hollingsworth Investigates The McCann Files

Disillusioned with the Portuguese police, Gerry and Kate McCann turned to private detectives to find their missing daughter. Instead the efforts of the private eyes served only to scare off witnesses, waste funds and raise false hopes. Mark Hollingsworth investigates the investigators.

by Mark Hollingsworth

It was billed as a ‘significant development’ in the exhaustive search for Madeleine McCann. At a recent dramatic press conference in London, the lead private investigator David Edgar, a retired Cheshire detective inspector, brandished an E-FIT image of an Australian woman, described her as ‘a bit of a Victoria Beckham lookalike’, and appealed for help in tracing her. The woman was seen ‘looking agitated’ outside a restaurant in Barcelona three days after Madeleine’s disappearance. ‘It is a strong lead’, said Edgar, wearing a pin-stripe suit in front of a bank of cameras and microphones. ‘Madeleine could have been in Barcelona by that point. The fact the conversation took place near the marina could be significant.’

But within days reporters discovered that the private detectives had failed to make the most basic enquiries before announcing their potential breakthrough. Members of Edgar’s team who visited Barcelona had failed to speak to anyone working at the restaurant near where the agitated woman was seen that night, neglected to ask if the mystery woman had been filmed on CCTV cameras and knew nothing about the arrival of an Australian luxury yacht just after Madeleine vanished.

The apparent flaws in this latest development were another salutary lesson for Kate and Gerry McCann, who have relied on private investigators after the Portuguese police spent more time falsely suspecting the parents than searching for their daughter. For their relations with private detectives have been frustrating, unhappy and controversial ever since their daughter’s disappearance in May 2007.

The search has been overseen by the millionaire business Brian Kennedy, 49, who set up Madeleine’s Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, which aimed ‘to procure that Madeleine’s abduction is thoroughly investigated’. A straight-talking, tough, burly self-made entrepreneur and rugby fanatic, he grew up in a council flat near Tynecastle in Scotland and was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. He started his working life as a window cleaner and by 2007 had acquired a £350 million fortune from double-glazing and home-improvement ventures. Kennedy was outraged by the police insinuations against the McCanns and, though a stranger, worked tirelessly on their behalf. ‘His motivation was sincere,’ said someone who worked closely with him. ‘He was appalled by the Portuguese police, but he also had visions of flying in by helicopter to rescue Madeleine.’

Kennedy commissioned private detectives to conduct an investigation parallel to the one run by the Portuguese police. But his choice showed how dangerous it is when powerful and wealthy businessmen try to play detective. In September 2007, he hired Metodo 3, an agency based in Barcelona, on a six-month contract and paid it an estimated £50,000 a month. Metodo 3 was hired because of Spain’s ‘language and cultural connection’ with Portugal. ‘If we’d had big-booted Brits or, heaven forbid, Americans, we would have had doors slammed in our faces’ said Clarence Mitchell, spokesperson for the McCann’s at the time. ‘And it’s quite likely that we could have been charged with hindering the investigation as technically it’s illegal in Portugal to undertake a secondary investigation.

The agency had 35 investigators working on the case in Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. A hotline was set up for the public to report sightings and suspicions, and the search focussed on Morocco. But the investigation was dogged by over-confidence and braggadocio. ‘We know who took Madeleine and hope she will be home by Christmas,’ boasted Metodo 3’s flamboyant boss Francisco Marco. But no Madeleine materialised and their contract was not renewed.

Until now, few details have emerged about the private investigation during those crucial early months, but an investigation by ES shows that key mistakes were made, which in turn made later enquiries far more challenging.

ES has spoken to several sources close to the private investigations that took place in the first year and discovered that:

* The involvement of Brian Kennedy and his son Patrick in the operation was counter-productive, notably when they were questioned by the local police for acting suspiciously while attempting a 24-hour ‘stake out’.
* The relationship between Metodo 3 and the Portuguese police had completely broken down.
* Key witnesses were questioned far too aggressively, so much so that some of them later refused to talk to the police.
* Many of the investigators had little experience of the required painstaking forensic detective work.

By April 2008, nearing the first anniversary of the disappearance, Kennedy and the McCanns were desperate. And so when ***** *****, a former ****** ****** ******* who worked on *** *******, and Kevin Halligen, a smooth-talking Irishman who claimed to have worked for covert British government intelligence agency GCHQ, walked through the door, their timing was perfect. Their sales pitch was classic James Bond spook-talk: everything had to be ‘top secret’ and ‘on a need to know basis’. The operation would involve 24-hour alert systems, undercover units, satellite imagery and round-the-clock surveillance teams that would fly in at short notice. This sounded very exiting but, as one source close to the investigation told ES, it was also very expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. ‘The real job at hand was old-fashioned, tedious, forensic police work rather than these boy’s own, glory boy antic,’ he said.

But Kennedy was impressed by the license-to-*** presentation and ****** and Halligen were hire for a fee of £100,000 per month plus expenses. Ostensibly, the contract was with Halligen’s UK security company, Red Defence International Ltd, and an office was set up in Jermyn Street, in St James’s. Only a tiny group of employees did the painstaking investigative work of dealing with thousands of emails and phone calls. Instead, resources were channelled into undercover operations in paedophile rings and among gypsies throughout Europe, encouraged by Kennedy. A five-man ******** ***** was dispatched in Portugal, overseen by the experienced ******, for six weeks.

Born in ****** in ****, ****** had been a highly effective ****** ***** for the ******** police. A maverick and dynamic figure, he successfully ******* gangs of football hooligans in the 1980’s. While not popular among his colleagues, in 1991 he was seconded to work on *** ******* ******** against drug dealers, gangsters and terrorists, and was later awarded the Queen’s Police Medal foe ‘outstanding bravery’. By all accounts, the charismatic ***** was a dedicated *****. But in November 2002, the stress appeared to have overcome his judgement when he was ****** for ********.

While working on an *** ********** , ****** was ****** leaving a ***** ***** **** area at Manchester airport with a ***** of ***** he had not **** for. The ******* were called and he was given the option of the ****** being ****** with under ******* or to face ******. He chose a ****** ***** and so in effect admitted his guilt. ****** was sacked, but was furious about the way he had been treated and threatened to sue ***. He later set up his own consulting company and moved to **** in *******.

While ******, however flawed, was the genuine article as an investigator, Halligen was a very different character. Born in Dublin in 1961, he has been described as a ‘Walter Mitty figure’. He used false names to collect prospective clients at airports in order to preserve secrecy, and he called himself ‘Kevin’ or ‘Richard’ or ‘Patrick’ at different times to describe himself to business contacts. There appears to be no reason for all this subterfuge except that he thought this was what agents did. A conspiracy theorist and lover of the secret world, he is obsessed by surveillance gadgets and even installed a covert camera to spy on his own employees. He claimed to have worked for GCHQ, but in fact he was employed by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) as head of defence systems in the rather less glamorous field of new information technology, researching the use of ‘special batteries’. He told former colleagues and potential girlfriends that he used to work for MI5, MI6 and the CIA. He also claimed that he was nearly kidnapped by the IRA, was involved in the first Gulf War and had been a freefall parachutist.

Very little of this is true. What is true is that Halligen has a degree in electronics, worked on the fringes of the intelligence community while at AEA and does understand government communications. He could also be an astonishingly persuasive, engaging and charming individual. Strikingly self-confident and articulate, he could be generous and clubbable. ‘He was very good company but only when it suited him’ says one friend. He kept people in compartments.’

After leaving the AEA, Halligen set up Red Defence International Ltd as an international security and political risk company, advising clients on the risks involved in investing and doing business in unstable, war-torn and corrupt countries. He worked closely with political risk companies and was a persuasive advocate of IT security. In 2006, he struck gold when hired by Trafigura, the Dutch commodities trading company. Executives were imprisoned in the Ivory Coast after toxic waste was dumped in landfills near its biggest city Abidjan. Trafigura was blamed and hired Red Defence International at vast expense to help with the negotiations to release its executives. A Falcon business jet was rented for several months during the operation and it was Halligen’s first taste of the good life. The case only ended when Trafigura paid $197 million to the government of the Ivory Coast to secure the release of the prisoners.

Halligen made a fortune from Trafigura and was suddenly flying everywhere first-class, staying at the Lansborough and Stafford hotels in London and The Willard hotel in Washington DC for months at a time. In 2007 he set up Oakley International Group and registered at the offices of the prestigious law firm Patton Boggs, in Washington DC, as an international security company. He was now strutting the stage as a self-proclaimed international spy expert and joined the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge, where he met ****.

During the Madeleine investigation, Halligen spent vast amounts of time in the HeyJo bar in the basement of the Abracadabra Club near his Jermyn Street office. Armed with a clutch of unregistered mobile phones and a Blackberry, the bar was in effect his office. ‘He was there virtually the whole day,’ a former colleague told ES. ‘He had an amazing tolerance for alcohol and a prodigious memory and so occasionally he would have amazing bursts of intelligence, lucidity and insights. They were very rare but they did happen.’

When not imbibing in St James’s, Halligen was in the United States, trying to drum up investors for Oakley International. On 15 August 2008, at the height of the McCann investigation crisis, he persuaded Andre Hollis, a former US Drug enforcement agency official, to write out an $80.000 cheque to Oakley in return for a ten per cent share-holding. The money was then transferred into the private accounts of Halligen and his girlfriend Shirin Trachiotis to finance a holiday in Italy, according to Hollis. In a $6 million lawsuit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, Hollis alleges that Halligen ‘received monies for Oakley’s services rendered and deposited the same into his personal accounts’ and ‘repeatedly and systematically depleted funds from Oakley’s bank accounts for inappropriate personal expenses’.

Hollis was not the only victim. Mark Aspinall, a respected lawyer who worked closely with Halligen, invested £500,000 in Oakley and lost the lot. Earlier this year he filed a lawsuit in Washington DC against Halligen claiming $1.4 million in damages. The finances of Oakley International are in chaos and numerous employees, specialist consultants and contractors have not been paid. Some of them now face financial ruin.

Meanwhile, ******* was running the ********* in Portugal and often paying his ************ upfront, so would occasionally be out-of-pocket because Halligen had not transferred funds. ***** genuinely believed that progress was being made and substantial and credible reports on child trafficking were submitted. But by mid-August 2008, Kennedy and Gerry McCann were increasingly concerned by an absence of details of how the money was being spent. At one meeting, Halligen was asked how many men constituted a surveillance team and he produced a piece of paper on which he wrote ‘between one and ten’. But he then refused to say how many were working and how much they were being paid.

While Kennedy and Gerry McCann accepted that the mission was extremely difficult and some secrecy was necessary, Halligen was charging very high rates and expenses. And eyebrows were raised when all the money was paid to Oakley International, solely owned and managed by Halligen. One invoice, seen by ES, shows that for ‘accrued expenses to May 5, 2008’ (just one month into the contract), Oakley charged $74,155. The ‘point of contact’ was Halligen who provided a UK mobile telephone number.

While Kennedy was ready to accept Halligen at face value, Gerry McCann – sharp, focused and intelligent – was more sceptical. The contract with Oakley International and Halligen was terminated by the end of September 2008, after £500,000-plus expenses had been spent.

For the McCanns it was a bitter experience, ******** has returned to ***** and, like so many people, is owed money by Halligen. As for Halligen, he has gone into hiding, leaving a trail of debt and numerous former business associates and creditors looking for him. He was last seen in January of this year in Rome, drinking and spending prodigiously at the Hilton Cavalieri and Excelsior hotels. He is now believed by private investigators, who have been searching for him to serve papers on behalf of creditors, to be in the UK and watching his back. Meanwhile, in the eye of the storm, the McCanns continue the search for their lost daughter.

in ES Magazine (London Evening Standard)– Paper edition only, 28 August 2009

First Published in the Blog here: http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/08/mark-hollingsworth-investigatesthe.html

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http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/08/mark-hollingsworth-investigatesthe.html

http://www.intelligenceonline.com/business-intelligence-and-lobbying/2008/10/09/red-defence-in-red-zone,49438194-ART

30/08/2009 03:17
Joana Morais said... 6
I have added interesting links to the article, and I also bough a pdf document from Intelligence Online at http://tinyurl.com/nxsfx9

A site "dedicated to tracking and deciphering intelligence activities on a global scale". Reading that document published in 09/10/2008, Intelligence Online N° 579 I found out that much of the information written by this journalist comes from there. Some information presented is still available from press articles in the web, I added a PDF document above with a few UK media articles from 2008[see the PDF icon at the 7th paragraph].

Well, well, well............................will this sorry saga never end?
How does one go about getting a 'D' notice?
It can't be that easy or everyone would be doing it.
Has this got anything remotely to do with National Security?
If it has I'd bloody well like to know WHY!!!!
Somebody please stop the despicable duo. And SOON.

the slave wrote:Well, well, well............................will this sorry saga never end?
How does one go about getting a 'D' notice?
It can't be that easy or everyone would be doing it.
Has this got anything remotely to do with National Security?
If it has I'd bloody well like to know WHY!!!!
Somebody please stop the despicable duo. And SOON.

Having taken all of 30 secs to find a copy of the article unredacted I would suggest that if there is a "D" notice it has nothing to do with Mr ***** working on the case of a missing child but more to do with his previous work for *** and ******* ******* as a *********** *******.

Chris wrote:

the slave wrote:Well, well, well............................will this sorry saga never end?
How does one go about getting a 'D' notice?
It can't be that easy or everyone would be doing it.
Has this got anything remotely to do with National Security?
If it has I'd bloody well like to know WHY!!!!
Somebody please stop the despicable duo. And SOON.

Having taken all of 30 secs to find a copy of the article unredacted I would suggest that if there is a "D" notice it has nothing to do with Mr ***** working on the case of a missing child but more to do with his previous work for *** and ******* ******* as a *********** *******.

I've been looking for much longer than 30 secs and failed miserably.

Just google anything that looks like a semi unique phrase like "But Kennedy was impressed by the license-to-"

Thanks. Found it.

THE PERSON REFERED TO(NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH A MP BORN C 1323 CONNECTED WITH MIDHURST SUSSEX OR A PLACE IN COUNTY RUTLAND.) IS HARDLY A SECRET,HE'S BELGIAN

I found that hilarious, i remember it at the time, and it doesnt matter how many D notices there are, its all on the internet for anyone tosee. I wonder what else will find itself on the internet for everyone to see?

Litigious people often don't realise that whatever they want kept silent on one site is usually elsewhere on the internet. I doubt such as CR would disabuse them either. Keep the ££s raking in LOL

Just noticed that the video on Joana's site re the following has been removed.

images of the McCanns second apartment in Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal. The Portuguese police searches the McCanns apartment and finds several sleeping medicaments, confidential CEOP manuals, books about murder like The Interpretation of Murder, and smell of corpse in the cuddle toy which belonged.

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/09/exclusive-new-videos-madeleine-mccann.html


When you try to play it a message comes up saying its been removed 'due to a legal complaint'

I'm getting really fed up with this now - the time is approaching for more direct and high-profile action than justbandying words on the Interwebthingy (Worthwhile though that is).

Peaceful demonstrations haven't yet been outlawed in the UK, have they?

Maybe the law-abiding Justice seekers of the UK should now be thinking of some other ways to show we are not going to let this go.

The End Is Nigh wrote:I'm getting really fed up with this now - the time is approaching for more direct and high-profile action than justbandying words on the Interwebthingy (Worthwhile though that is).

Peaceful demonstrations haven't yet been outlawed in the UK, have they?

Maybe the law-abiding Justice seekers of the UK should now be thinking of some other ways to show we are not going to let this go.

I think it depends who the peaceful demonstators are as to whether they're outlawed or not. I saw that someone who swore at a Councillor on Twitter looks like getting a custodial sentence so free speech is definitely dead.

The End Is Nigh wrote:I'm getting really fed up with this now - the time is approaching for more direct and high-profile action than justbandying words on the Interwebthingy (Worthwhile though that is).

Peaceful demonstrations haven't yet been outlawed in the UK, have they?

Maybe the law-abiding Justice seekers of the UK should now be thinking of some other ways to show we are not going to let this go.

I tell you what TEIN if there is a whitewash I have a feeling people will take to the streets of Downing Street, If and when then Im in thats for sure

Lillyofthevalley wrote:

The End Is Nigh wrote:I'm getting really fed up with this now - the time is approaching for more direct and high-profile action than justbandying words on the Interwebthingy (Worthwhile though that is).

Peaceful demonstrations haven't yet been outlawed in the UK, have they?

Maybe the law-abiding Justice seekers of the UK should now be thinking of some other ways to show we are not going to let this go.

I tell you what TEIN if there is a whitewash I have a feeling people will take to the streets of Downing Street, If and when then Im in thats for sure

Me too Lillyofthevalley, and I have a two and a half hour flight to get there, but get there I shall, it will all be televised, and it may be the only way to get it into the public domain for the majority of the public.

I think it depends who the peaceful demonstators are as to whether they're outlawed or not. I saw that someone who swore at a Councillor on Twitter looks like getting a custodial sentence so free speech is definitely dead..

I dont agree with swearing at anyone but this is getting ridiculous when custodial sentences handed out for swearing at someone and yet people who commit burglaries, muggings, assaults etc., are frequently handed suspended sentences, community service, etc., they need to get their priorities right imo

Hello HideHo, I'm not clear on this - was the D notice imposed recently? Or was it imposed in 2009 - was that when Joanna Morais posted it?
So has it lapsed? Or is it still in force?

Sorry, I may be a little dense on this. Just read the full PDF. Amazing work. The Carter Ruck interference in parliamentary discussion is still amazing, although we should be used to it by now.
re Jimenez: the recent topic on 'another blunder by mr. Gerry' the post on Amazon is v.v. interesting. 'don't ask me - it's the parents' strategy'.

I have visions of your home: one room as living room, beds in the corners - rest of the house given over to banks of computers, filing systems with hard copies, photocopy machine, state of the art printers.....