Clarence Mitchell Costa Concordia: The Spin Starts

I was about to say the spin starts with a straw man, only it's a straw woman on this occasion.

Mind you, it won't be the first time for a straw woman will it, Barcelona anyone?

Update:
Costa Concordia cruise tragedy: Search for girl aged five as death toll rises

Angel of death.

Costa Concordia skipper Francesco Schettino 'drinking with mystery woman'
by James Bone
January 20, 2012

THE captain of the Costa Concordia is alleged to have been drinking at dinner with a Moldovan dancer on the night of the shipwreck off Italy.

Italian police want to question Domnica Cemortan, a 25-year-old former ballet student who says that she was with the captain on the bridge. Ms Cemortan is a Costa Cruises employee, but she was starting a holiday to celebrate her birthday with friends.

She had worked as an interpreter for Russian passengers on a previous leg but bought a ticket to stay on board after the ship left the Italian port of Civitavecchia.

"The woman who on the evening of the accident appears to have dined with Captain [Francesco] Schettino had regularly embarked on the vessel in Civitavecchia," Clarence Mitchell, a company spokesman, said. "Costa Cruises is ready to provide the authorities with her identity and the details of the ticket she bought."



A passenger claimed yesterday that he saw the captain having dinner and drinking from a decanter of red wine in the ship's best restaurant with an unidentified slim blonde woman and another officer shortly before the vessel hit the rocks on Friday night.

Angelo Fabbri, from Savona, said that he and his wife saw Captain Schettino in the Concordia Club restaurant at 9.05pm on the evening of the accident. A menu was served for special guests: prawn cocktails, pasta with shrimps and a fish grill.

"Schettino, in a dark suit, was sitting in front of the woman. She seemed young. At first, we thought it was his daughter. A pretty woman, 35 or 40 years old, slim, with shoulder-length blonde hair, with a black dress with open arms," he told Il Secolo XIX newspaper in Genoa.

"They were laughing. There was trust between them, great happiness. There is no doubt they were drinking, at least a whole decanter. The last drop was poured into the captain's glass.

"They left the table crossing the room single file, walking between the tables: first Schettino, then the woman and finally the third diner."

The claim that Captain Schettino had been drinking directly contradicts a statement by Pier Luigi Foschi, the chairman of Costa Cruises, that the captain was a non-drinker. All Costa officers, he said, were subject to random drug and alcohol tests.

Police were conducting urine tests on Captain Schettino yesterday, almost a week after the accident. He told the investigating magistrate that he had not drunk alcohol.

The Barcelona debacle, the bottom half of this post:

Clarence Mitchell: LIAR

Now back in Moldova, Ms Cemortan, who trained as a ballet dancer in Paris, also denied that she was the mystery woman seen dining with the captain. She added that she went on the bridge only after the ship ran aground.

"I was at dinner with friends, at 9.30pm. I climbed on to the deck and translated information provided by the officers for Russian passengers," she told the local Advarul newspaper. "The Russians were the first passengers evacuated."

She defended Captain Schettino as a hero for saving thousands of passengers. "I left the bridge at 11.50pm and he was there," she said.

"It was dark. Knowing the ship saved me. Trying to move to the exit, following the fluorescent lights, I could hear all sorts of objects falling. People were screaming. A man had a three-month-old baby in his arms and another had a three-year-old ... The ship was pitching more and more. When I reached the lifeboat, I thought we were saved. But a large piece of metal began to push the boat. Many people had jumped."

Ms Cemortan, who has a two-year-old child and has worked on cruise ships for five years, was reported to have got the ticket on the internet as a birthday present.

Costa Cruises said last night that it was not clear when the woman who was dining with the captain went on to the bridge. "I cannot either confirm or deny if the woman concerned was on the bridge at the time of the accident," Mr Mitchell said. The Australian

And for folks around the world who have never followed the McCann case with the same vigour as we in the UK, you can experience Clarence Mitchell in full spin mode in this illustrated post.
Clarence Mitchell "Operational Reasons" and Other Buffoonery