Police Believe Madeleine McCann In Northern Europe

I was interested in a story on CNN today about Madeleine McCann, the little girl that disappeared from Portugal in 2007. Specifically the article mentions police now believe that she was taken by a pedophile ring in Belgium and is somewhere in Northern Europe. But the report raises all sorts of questions, and I want to highlight them here.

First off the report says:

the officer writes that "intelligence suggests that a pedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken.

"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken," the officer wrote.

I have to ask where they got this intelligence. It's extremely detailed. It suggests that they have someone inside this ring in Belgium. Certainly Interpol's not going to confirm if they do, but doesn't the release of this report indicate the same thing? Are they no longer inside the group? More importantly in my mind, if they knew this information, why couldn't they find her?

I really don't want to second guess the police on this, but it just seems like there's more information they're holding back, and I can't figure out what.

My hope is that they did not let her slip through their fingers for the higher cause of justice in the hope that they'll be able to catch more of the pedophile ring. That would be awful.

Alright, next piece.

On Tuesday, the documents revealed a previously undisclosed sighting of Madeleine in the Netherlands shortly after her disappearance.

The possible sighting of Madeleine in May 2007 stemmed from a report by a Dutch shopkeeper, who told authorities she encountered a little girl in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

She said the child identified herself as Maddie and said she was taken from her mother while on holiday.

"I start to ask where her mommy was," Anna Stam said. "She couldn't tell me that. I wanted to give her a balloon, but she didn't want that. She only wants her mommy, she said. And she said that these people took her from her mommy."

Is this woman telling the truth? Seriously? Does anyone else read this and think

WHAT THE FUCK?

If I were at the grocery store and a little child came up to me and said "I want my mommy, I don't know where I am. I don't know where she is. These people took me from my mommy." I would say "Come with me child, we're looking for the police." Maybe it's because I'm bigger and wouldn't shy away from a fight, but COME ON. Any time a child says that, shouldn't you be the slightest concerned?

I want to travel to Amsterdam and smack the woman around.

Sorry, I'll stop sounding like Nancy Grace now.

So now what for the McCanns? How to find this girl? How certain are they in this data? And to what end was the report released? I really do hope they find that poor child, and soon.