Posting an opinion article from Francisco Moita Flores, University Teacher & former PJ Director
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This morning in Correio da Manha:
http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=253643&idselect=93&idCanal=93&p=200
The Speculation
From the first hour on, the theory of Madeleines kidnapping only fits for those who react to these things in an emotional way.
The british press has started a new campaign about Madeleines case. Now, the front line is the attack against the portuguese press. And dont say its the tabloids. All, including BBC, Sky News, are distorting and manipulating news with one objective: to save their faces. They bet the whole World that Madeleine was abducted. Now, there is no way back. Their issue is very simple: all news that point to an abduction are good. As long as the abductor is not english. All news that point to other solutions are bad. Theyre speculation. They seek to attack the pitiful family.
The truth, which no image assessor , no journalist can hide, is that this family has received the best that Portugal can offer in times of distress. We cried with them, we prayed, we wanted to believe the whole image operation was about their distress in the search for their daughter. Even Justice was tolerant. If portuguese parents had abandoned three children to their fate in order to have a good time with their friends, and one of the children disappeared, the press, the police, the social services would be all over them. With the McCanns, we closed our eyes to their negligence. Theyre english and so on, they like to get drunk in the Algarve and so on, and of course! theyre culturally different from us. They, the owners of progress, who give their children complete freedom, we, the peasants, who dont take our eyes off our children. But there is another truth. From the first hour on, the theory of a kidnapping only fits those who react to these things in an emotional way. The portuguese and english police who are investigating this case could not commit that mistake. Mysteries, to be solved, need the exercise of reason and not of tears. And reason, sometimes, pushes us into places of horror. The McCanns interviews say what the affectuous masses want to hear. They are carefully prepared by assessors, they integrate the british campaign against other possibilities to solve the mystery, they induce their listeners to believe there is no truth except the abduction. A truth they cannot explain themselves.
There is still another truth. Only those who ignore what a criminal investigation is about, can talk about new investigation lines. Because theyre all the same age. Its just that some possibilities show they were not sustainable, and others had legs to walk. The arrival of dogs that are specialized in blood and cadaver odours is no speculation. Its an evidence. They underline the suspicion that the child may have been killed inside that house. Was it the kidnapper? What for? Did he want to abduct a corpse? So who was it? The answer scares british press, and hence the xenophobe attacks against the portuguese journalists and police. It had to be someone who visited the house and knew it. Someone who knew it well enough to know where the cleaning products were kept, in order to clean blood stains. And, if this police research is confirmed, one cannot even talk about accidental death. Anyone who, alone or accompanied, hides clues, is trying to conceal a crime. There is no simpler deduction exercise available. The instrument of detetctives. Other paths are in faiths territory. The priests celebrate masses, detectives discover crimes.
