The failure to find any trace of Madeleine McCann rightly troubles millions of us, in the UK and in continental Europe. No one can now doubt the urgent need to have hard, fact-based evidence to replace the rumour and innuendo so far being pushed.

 

One important, but apparently unused, means of securing it could be the UK’s intelligence community, in particular a little-known agency, JARIC, the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre, based at RAF Brampton.

 

JARIC is a world leader in analysing CCTV, aerial and satellite imagery, collected from all over the world.

 

It should be ordered both to overfly the target area of Praia da Luz immediately and collect any aerial imagery of it that can be found, dating back to May 2, 2007 (the day before Madeleine went missing), as well as any images that may be extant.

 

It should also be instructed to examine any satellite images of the target zone for the period after May 2. It is perfectly possible that the European Commission’s satellites which track fishing boats may also be able to shed light on Madeleine’s fate. JARIC will quickly tell us.

 

JARIC cannot task itself; it must receive its instructions from the Prime Minister or from the Ministry of Defence. They should instruct JARIC and its other colleagues in the British intelligence community to intervene at once.

 

PROFESSOR ANTHONY GLEES
Director, Brunel University
Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies