The Death of Princess Diana

[John Simkin]

Terry Hanstock has written an article updated the investigation into the death of Princess Diana (Lobster 51). He points out that the media has shown a keen interest in the case. Patricia Cornwell went on “This Morning” (ITV 1, 10th November, 2005) to claim that Diana was the victim of a perfect crime. There have also been documentaries on her death on television: Channel 5 (2nd November, 2003), BBC2 (20th January, 2004) and Channel 4 (5th February 2004).

The Daily Express has taken a particular interest in the case. This is probably because the owner of the newspaper, Richard Desmond, is a close friend of Al Fayed.

The main surprise is that in December 2003, Michael Burgess, the H.M. Coroner for Surrey, asked the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to interview witness of his behalf. As a result, Sir John Stevens set up Operation Paget. Stevens decided to lead the investigations and recently he has been giving interviews suggesting that he has found important new evidence in the case. He has also said this is as a result of leads providing by Al Fayed. In an interview on the radio, Stevens claimed that Al Fayed had good reason to campaign for a fresh investigation into the death of Princess Diana. The preliminary report is due out very soon. One would expect another Warren Report but Stevens’ replies suggest otherwise.

One of the strangest aspects of the case concerns the embalming of Princess Diana’s body. The French authorities claim that the “decision to embalm the Princess and fly her back to Britain within hours of the tragedy was taken in London. The order was passed on to the French authorities by the British Ambassador Sir Michael Jay, presumably acting on the instructions of a higher authority.” Jay denies that he made this request and claims the decision was made by the French.

Forensic experts from Glasgow University criticized the decision to embalm the top half of Diana’s body. “This is, in our experience, highly unusual.” It also makes the carrying out a post-mortem very difficult. These experts also pointed out that the “embalming fluids would make it difficult if not impossible to tell if Diana was pregnant or not.”

[David Richardson]

Being a republican, I reckon I must be immune to stories about Princess Diana. I feel sorry for the lass, since I reckon she had a bit of a wasted life … but I really reckon that this case has been investigated about as much as it needs to be.

The British Establishment is definitely corrupt enough to want to nobble Diana, and is definitely incompetent enough to screw up the aftermath of a death by explainable causes … but that doesn't amount to a conspiracy in my book.

[John Simkin]

Being a republican, I reckon I must be immune to stories about Princess Diana. I feel sorry for the lass, since I reckon she had a bit of a wasted life … but I really reckon that this case has been investigated about as much as it needs to be.

The British Establishment is definitely corrupt enough to want to nobble Diana, and is definitely incompetent enough to screw up the aftermath of a death by explainable causes … but that doesn't amount to a conspiracy in my book.

I agree. However, another possibility is that this is a conspiracy against the royal family. Remember the leaks about Diana fearing that Prince Charles would arrange for her to die in a road accident? Do way of course. But it could explain the way the story is developing.

[John Simkin]

Being a republican, I reckon I must be immune to stories about Princess Diana. I feel sorry for the lass, since I reckon she had a bit of a wasted life … but I really reckon that this case has been investigated about as much as it needs to be.

The British Establishment is definitely corrupt enough to want to nobble Diana, and is definitely incompetent enough to screw up the aftermath of a death by explainable causes … but that doesn't amount to a conspiracy in my book.

I agree. However, another possibility is that this is a conspiracy against the royal family. Remember the leaks about Diana fearing that Prince Charles would arrange for her to die in a road accident? No way of course. But it could explain the way the story is developing.

[Dawn Meredith]

[I agree. However, another possibility is that this is a conspiracy against the royal family. Remember the leaks about Diana fearing that Prince Charles would arrange for her to die in a road accident? No way of course. But it could explain the way the story is developing.

This was in fact written by her own hand- predicted if you will- in a journal.

I think there is plenty of evidence of foul play here.

Dawn

[Matthew Lewis]

But if she was worried about being killed in a road accident, why didn't she wear her seat belt? I've seen it written that if she had been wearing it that night, she would have survived.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

No agency would have killed her in such a hap-hazzard way,and how many people would have been involved, the driver the body guard, the ambulance service, French Police, the coroner, etc, etc there was no earthly reason to have her eliminated, she posed no threat to the British Crown, she died as she lived, a self serving dilitant, posing as substance. Let this one go.

[Guest]

no agency would have killed her in such a hap-hazzard way,and how many people would have been involved, the driver the body guard, the ambulance service, french Police, the coroner, etc, etc there was no earthly reason to have her eliminated, she posed no threat to the British Crown, she died as she lived, a self serving dilitant, posing as substance. Let this one go.

Quite so - I for one am more concerned about the lack of subsequent legislation outlawing young parasitical aristocrats being driven around by drunken chauffeurs at high speed endangering the lives of other more socially useful road users.

Someone in this depressingly predictable thread has said that "there is plenty of evidence of foul play here"

This is a statement that sends me to the edge of despair for this forum

[Ron Ecker]

To Andy's further despair, Mark Lane is taking the case.

http://www.tmz.com/2006/07/14/princess-di-...eadly-neckties/

[Owen Parsons]

Mark Lane's a pretty solid researcher. His involvement is just enough to make me think there may be something to this...

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Mark Lane's a pretty solid researcher. His involvement is just enough to make me think there may be something to this...

Owen, how far is your tongue in your cheek. In this country we endured 16 years of "Diana Worship" and following her death, the biggest breakout of mass hysteria ever witnessed, and STILL it goes on. people who live the play boy/girl lifestyle often die in fast cars, or private jets, its where they spend large amounts of their essentially parasitic lives. If Mr Lane wants to waste his time its his to waste..............

[John Simkin]

Owen, how far is your tongue in your cheek. In this country we endured 16 years of "Diana Worship" and following her death, the biggest breakout of mass hysteria ever witnessed, and STILL it goes on. people who live the play boy/girl lifestyle often die in fast cars, or private jets, its where they spend large amounts of their essentially parasitic lives. If Mr Lane wants to waste his time its his to waste..............

Maybe the people of America thought the same when the Kennedy brothers were assassinated.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Apples and oranges. The Kennedy's were killed because they posed a real threat to vested interests. This is because through the office of the president they had real power. But you know this John. The only reason this keeps getting revived is it sells a lot of red tops..

[Len Colby]

Mark Lane's a pretty solid researcher. His involvement is just enough to make me think there may be something to this...

I don’t know about that in the 70’s he was the mouthpiece for Jim Jones and the “People’s Temple” in fact he was in Jonestown when the murders and suicides took place. He has also been associated with Willis Carto America’s leading anti-Semitic Holocaust denier and a white supremacist since the 70’s and even was Carto’s lead attorney in lawsuit with a Holocaust survivor in which the veracity of the Holocaust was questioned [ http://www.zundelsite.org/english/debate/061_jam.html ]. I don’t know enough about Lane of the Assassination to say what his judgment or scruples were back in the 60’s but by the 70’s they seem to be quite questionable he seems drawn to any case that draws scandal and attention. His getting involved in this case at best proves nothing.

“Through the U.S. Embassy in Guyana, Ryan learned that agreement for the visit was conditional. Ryan would have to ensure that the Codel [congressional delegation] was not biased, there would be no media coverage of the visit and Mark Lane, the People’s Temple legal counsel, would have to be present. On 6 November, Lane wrote to Ryan and informed him that he would not be able to attend at the time they wanted, and claimed that the Codel was nothing more than a “witchhunt” against the People’s Temple. Lane responded with a declaration of his intentions to visit the settlement anyway and that he would be leaving on 14 November.”

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/

“Lane also made inferences in the letter to a "witchhunt" against the People's Temple by the U.S. Government. On November 10, Mr. Ryan responded to Lane's letter, expressing regret at Lane's remarks about the Codel's motives”

http://www.rickross.com/reference/jonestown/jonestown2.html

“Those who sought to leave were prevented and rebuked. Local journalist Kathy Hunter wrote in the Ukiah press about "Seven Mysterious Deaths" of the Temple members who had argued with Jones and attempted to leave. One of these was Maxine Swaney.[129] Jones openly hinted to other members that he had arranged for them to die, threatening a similar fate to others who would be disloyal.[130] Kathy Hunter later tried to visit Jonestown, only to be forcibly drugged by Temple guards, and deported to Georgetown.[131] She later charged that Mark Lane approached her, falsely identifying himself as a reporter for Esquire, rather than as an attorney for Jim Jones. He led her to believe he was seeking information on Jones for an exposé in the magazine, and asked to see her evidence.”

John Judge

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/Jonestown.html

Beatings, Threats Reported by Woman Who Attempted to Interview the Rev. Jim Jones

Monterey Peninsula Herald - Nov. 20, 1978, front page

"My visa was cut to one day from the original 11, and I was told to leave the country on the next plane," she said. "Apparently, the temple is in contact with Guyanese immigration officials."

Mrs. Hunter stayed on, missing the flight. She later found out from Guyanese friends that temple members were waiting for her on the airport road. She believes they planned to kill her.

The government gave me an armed guard after the second day. I got an escort to the airport when I finally did leave," she said.

In addition to the attacks and threats since her return, which she believes have come from Peoples Temple, she said attorney Mark Lane visited her home and tried to link her to a conspiracy against the group. Lane is a lawyer for Jones.

Will the threats keep her from writing more about Peoples Temple?

No," Mrs. Hunter said. "I'm Irish. They can't stop me."

http://www.maebrussell.com/Jonestown/Beati...20reporter.html

Lane wrote a book about Jonestown in which he apparently insinuated that there was “a government conspiracy against the Peoples Temple and its leader the Reverend Jim Jones” and indicated that his client was not Jones or the People Temple but rather a defector who had left two weeks before the massacre, odd then that he was still representing Jones and the temple on the day of the massacre. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080153206...ce&n=283155

“At a press conference in 1978 [announcing a lawsuit by People Temple survivors against the CIA for causing Jonestown - Len] the prominent civil rights lawyer Mark Lane stated: "I have been deeply impressed with what I have seen there [in Jonestown]...It makes me almost weep to see such an incredible experiment, with such vast potential for the human spirit and soul of this country, be cruelly assaulted by the [uS government] intelligence organisations..." On another occasion, Mark Lane called Jonestown "the closest thing on earth like paradise I have ever seen."

[…]

“Mark Lane was quoted as saying "the intelligence community in the United States has participated in deliberate efforts to destroy People's Temple, Jim Jones and Jonestown".

Lane said he thought the government targeted People's Temple because its experiment in socialist living was an "embarrassment" for the United States government. "Twelve hundred Americans have fled to the jungles of Guyana in search of human rights and an opportunity to lead fulfilling lives-opportunities that are not available to them in the ghettos of America," Lane added.”

http://www.whale.to/b/jeffrey.html

[John Simkin]

Lord John Stevens, who is carrying out this inquiry on Princess Diana’s death, gave interviews to the UK media a few months ago, explaining that he had discovered some important new information on Diana’s death. He said that it had created a “new line of inquiry”. Then everything went quiet. The Stephens Report has yet to be published (expected in the next few days). The Diana inquest is due to start this week. Last week the BBC leaked selected aspects of the report to suggest there was no conspiracy to kill Diana. The main focus was on the fact that the driver Henri Paul was drunk at the time of the crash. This resulted in the BBC and most newspapers reporting that this proves that the death was not a conspiracy. This was the main theme of last night’s programme. See the producer’s blog here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006...piracies_1.html

The whole purpose of this exercise is to distract from the really important aspects of Stephens Report. This is the connections between the security services and her death. Remember, Mohamed al-Fayed, father of Dodi, Diana’s boyfriend who also died in the crash, believes that the couple were murdered by British agents. He believes that these agents worked for MI6 and the deaths were sanctioned by the state.

Personally, I don’t believe this is true and that she died in an accident. However, I suspect that Stephens has stumbled upon another linking conspiracy. For example, he has discovered that the CIA was bugging the conversations of Diana and Dodi. It is claimed this was without the knowledge of MI6.

There is also the French intelligence angle. It is believed that the Stephens Report will disclose the fact that Henri Paul was in the pay of the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance, the French equivalent of MI5. Secret accounts containing more than £100,000 in 14 banks were found across France. On the night that he died Paul was found with £2,000 in cash on him. Evidence suggests he may have met his 'handler', a senior official in the security services, that evening.

Henri Paul was portrayed in the press as a boozy no-hoper. Yet his autopsy betrayed none of the liver damage associated with heavy drinking. Then there is Paul’s girlfriend, a 25 year old Moroccan student. She told police that Paul hardly drank.

Paul, like Lee Harvey Oswald, was working for the intelligence services, before his death. The inquiry, like the Warren Commission, turned him into a patsy. The truth of the matter is far from clear. The one advantage we have over the JFK assassination, is that unlike the Kennedy family, Mohamed al-Fayed is determined to get to the truth. He has the money to make that happen. For example, some aspects of the mass media, for example, the Daily Express, are willing to print details of his conspiracy theories.