----- Original Message -----
From: GLOBE-INTEL
To: TOPSECRET@CIA.GOV
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 4:03 AM
Subject: SECRET DIANA TAPES
SECRET NSA TAPES COULD PROVIDE SENSATIONAL TESTIMONY TO SUPPORT PRINCESS DIANA'S
DRAMATIC LETTER
by
Gordon Thomas
One thousand and fifty secret electronic transcripts made by America's "spy in
the sky", the National Security Agency, NSA, are believed to contain even more
shattering evidence to support Princess Diana's handwritten letter uncannily
forecasting she would die in a car crash.
The NSA tapes show she and her lover, Dodi al-Fayed, were under surveillance by
NSA and other intelligence agents before their deaths in Paris.
As pressure mounts for an inquest, these tapes could be a crucial exhibit.
The NSA tapes are stored in a climate-controlled vault at NSA's headquarters at
Fort Meade outside Washington. They have been heard by only the agency's most
senior staff.
NSA controls a worldwide electronic eavesdropping system normally only used
against America's enemies.
Dodi's father, Mohammed al-Fayed, the millionaire owner of Harrods, has waged an
unsuccessful battle in the US courts to obtain copies of the tapes. He believes
they also contain evidence that his son and Diana planned to marry - and that
she may even have been pregnant before her death.
But equally explosive could be the revelations about the intelligence web that
electronically enshrouded the Princess in the last weeks of her life.
Israel's Mossad has never denied it had recruited Henri Paul, the driver of the
car in which Diana, Dodi al-Fayed and Paul died. He was deputy head of security
at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. It is owned by Mohammed al-Fayed.
Former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson has claimed the British Secret Intelligence
Service was "actively involved in tracking Diana". He has said that MI6 were
helped by NSA satellite surveillance to maintain watch on Diana and Dodi
al-Fayed as they sailed around the Mediterranean on his father's yacht, the
Jonikal, in the weeks before Diana died.
Senior Buckingham Palace aides have been told Diana reveals on the NSA
intercepts, explicit sexual details about Prince Charles. She claims his
behaviour forced her to have an affair with James Hewitt.
Hewitt, who has so far unsuccessfully failed to sell what he calls "steamy love
letters" from Diana, claims the NSA transcripts boost his claims about life in
Royal circles.
The Royal Coroner will also have to decide what steps to take to trace secret
video tapes Diana is now known to have made months before her death.
Hints of their contents appeared last year at the trial of Diana's former
butler, Paul Burrel, who was acquitted of stealing her possessions. Mention of
the tapes was made. But the judge stopped the trial before their contents could
surface. Since then, the tapes are believed to be in the custody of Scotland
Yard. Last week, they refused to discuss the matter.
There are seven tapes. Each is the length of a Hollywood blockbuster. But if
made public - say London intelligence sources - no movie could have their
impact.
"Just call them explosive. That's all I need say", said a London intelligence
source.
While it is not clear what Diana intended to do with the tapes, any plans were
ended with her death a few months later.
A Buckingham Palace courtier suggested Diana may have planned to use them as a
bargaining tool to try and get a better financial settlement in her divorce. Or
maybe to secure her place in history.
More certain, the tapes' revelations, delivered in the same little-girl voice
which was Diana's carefully cultivated stock-in-trade to convey something
sensational, go to the heart of what she saw as wrong in the House of Windsor.
The story behind those tapes is complex and revealing - and casts new light on
Diana's mindset in the months before she died in 1997.
The very existence of the tapes had been a closely-guarded secret until the
collapse of the Paul Burrel trial. Then rumours began to emerge that the Queen's
intervention to stop the trial was because she had become aware of the contents
of the tapes.
The tapes were shot in March, 1997, five months before her death. Diana sat
before a VHS video camera in the main drawing room of her home, Kensington
Palace,, and spoke in all for 12 hours over a period of ten days.
Only one other person knew she had made the tapes, Dodi al-Fayed. His father,
Mohammed al-Fayed, confirmed he wants the Royal Coroner, Dr Michael Burgess, to
listen to the tapes - and compare them with the 1,050 intercepts NSA made later
that year.
In the past, the US Justice Department has said the intercepts contain matters
of "national security".
Mohammed al-Fayed has fought a lengthy, but unsuccessful, court battle in
Washington to obtain copies.
A former Buckingham Palace aide has hinted that the video tapes are Diana's
video diaries.
"In a sense, they are an oral history of the Royal Family. She deals with each
member in detail", he said. He claimed last week that the videos reserve her
most stringent criticism for Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
"She describes how she caught Charles and Camilla de flagrente. She reveals how
she listened in on their phone sex talk. She says that Camilla was the raunchier
of the two. She gives examples", said the source.
He said that on one tape, Diana talks of the "sexual treachery" of her husband.
Of how he would make late night calls to Camilla of "a sexual nature".
"Diana paints a portrait of how she pleaded with him for the sake of the
children to give up Camilla. She says that she turned to Anne (Princess Anne)
and Andrew (Prince Andrew) for help. Both, she says, refused to lift a finger",
said the source.
"She describes how Charles and other members of the Royal Family - the Queen
excepted - used to store expensive gifts in bin-liners.
"On one video Diana describes how there was a right old panic when a member of
the Saudi Royal Family came visiting and his wedding gift had been binned. Staff
spent hours going through the bags looking for a set of gold goblets."
"She talks about how his welcome into the Family had turned to cold hostility
once the marriage had broken up.
"Undoubtedly, the most revealing part of her video diaries is how Diana saw her
future", the source said.
"She makes it clear that she would do everything possible to make sure Charles
never became King. She wanted William to succeed to the Throne when the Queen
died. Diana clearly saw her role to be the power behind the Throne."
Royal Coroner, Dr Burgess, will have to decide how much, if any, of these
allegations will be allowed to surface in any inquest on Diana. His only public
comment so far was to confirm: "this is a high-profile case and everything has
to be weighed very carefully. The questions go behind the 'survivability'
argument over whether she (Diana) should have gone to hospital sooner. The speed
of the car, seatbelts, where people were sitting: these are all relevant
questions for an inquest to consider".
He could hear evidence from NSA officers as well as testimony from MI6, CIA and
possibly from Mossad. All the agencies were closely involved in monitoring Diana
and her lover, Dodi al-Fayed, in the weeks they spent together before their
fatal car crash six years ago this past week.
The potential revelations at the inquest could be even more sensational than the
Hutton Inquiry.
Gordon Thomas's own relationship with Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed began six
months before their deaths. Dodi was to produce Gordon Thomas's screenplay,
Mambo. Diana was slated to be the executive producer. The film focused on her
interest in banishing land-mines. It was to be shot in South Africa. Brad Pitt,
Gene Hackman and Embeth Davitz were slated to star. The first pre-production
meeting was scheduled on the very day Dodi and Diana died.
ends
GLOBE-INTEL is a free subscription service provided by
http://www.globe-intel.net
