The Blacksmith Bureau:Meanwhile

http://blacksmithbureau.blogspot.de/2013/03/meanwhile.html

Meanwhile, as the out-of-the-loop activists fight over the bones of yesterday's battles, there is the next question they haven't even begun to face because things are moving too fast for them: is there a link between the Scotland Yard/PJ review and the McCanns/Amaral libel case?

Of course there is! Don't take our word for it: you can work it out from public information for yourselves.

In early 2012, as we know, Goncalo Amaral received hitherto secret information about the Anglo-Portuguese review. He then made three public claims before just as abruptly falling silent. Two of those claims, the existence of close liaison between UK and Portugal and the existence of the Oporto squad, were immediately confirmed by the Attorney-General's department as 100% accurate.

On the third, "things are not going well for the McCanns", they were silent, for obvious reasons. Note that the Attorney-General's department made no criticism of Amaral for speaking publicly.

We know that the original position of the McCanns and their lawyers was that Amaral was a "lone voice", a "rogue cop" who did not reflect the views of his fellow investigators. That position was destroyed in court in January 2010 by the evidence of fellow officers, the demolition confirmed by the appeal court later in the year. Duarte then critically altered her case, as she revealed in her long press release following the Wikileaks stuff: everything before October 2007 was just "old news", no longer relevant since the PJ had altered the direction of its investigation.

Since early 2012 and the Amaral revelations Duarte has had to wrestle with the possibility that Amaral's informant, or informants, on current, not old, PJ thinking might be called at the libel trial. Note that Amaral's complete silence on the matter has given her no clue.

Whether the informant's name is now on the current Amaral witness list, visible to both parties, we don't know. But does anyone seriously believe that Amaral made public everything about "things" and how they were going? And that his lawyers are not going to bring this information to court?
at 12:48

Very significant and very interesting indeed.

A serious cause for concern, for the team, although the McCanns have countered this revelation by releasing news of a recent sighting in erm, erm oh yes Cyprus.

Right now it must be, for the McCanns, like discovering they're the subjects of an upcoming nightmare version of This Is Your Life - they just don't know which mystery guests will show up and drop them right in it.
Of course the London bus sightings (there'll be another one along in a minute) will engage the Facebook candlelighters and religious suppliants (at least until the next DNA test results come along), but it's a thin gruel diet satisfying only those with a meagre grasp on life, the universe and everything.
So what happens when the McCanns' Mushrooms, who seem quite content at present to be kept in the dark and have buckets of fallacious crap thrown over them, discover what has really been happening on Planet Earth these past few weeks?
Shirley Conran once famously said:"Life is too short to stuff a mushroom."
Oh I dunno though.
The McCanns have been doing that to theirs for years ...

I can't remember his name but there was one Portugese Police Officer, quite Senior, who is supposed to be a Witness for the McCanns at the upcoming Trial, can anyone remember this ?

Panda wrote:I can't remember his name but there was one Portugese Police Officer, quite Senior, who is supposed to be a Witness for the McCanns at the upcoming Trial, can anyone remember this ?

I think you must be referring to a retired PJ investigator whose name I believe is Barros. Can't remember much more.

Carolina wrote:

Panda wrote:I can't remember his name but there was one Portugese Police Officer, quite Senior, who is supposed to be a Witness for the McCanns at the upcoming Trial, can anyone remember this ?

I think you must be referring to a retired PJ investigator whose name I believe is Barros. Can't remember much more.

The name rings a Bell but I'm sure one of our clever Members will come up with some info , I wouldn't know where to look, I remember thinking when I first read it that it was strange, a Portugese Policeman being witness for the McCanns .