Diana crash inquiry findings to be announced (i.e. More Whitewash) Staff and agencies Thursday December 14, 2006 Guardian Unlimited The Paris car crash in which Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed died was an accident, an official police inquiry is expected to conclude today. The former Metropolitan police chief Lord Stevens will announce the findings of his three-year investigation at a noon press conference in central London. The Princess of Wales, 36, and her 42-year-old lover died when their Mercedes crashed in the French capital's Pont de l'Alma tunnel on August 31 1997. At the time of the crash, the car was being pursued by paparazzi photographers as it was driven from the Ritz hotel to Fayed's flat. A French investigation into the tragedy concluded that the couple's chauffeur, Henry Paul, who also died, had lost control of the Mercedes because he was driving too fast while under the influence of alcohol. However, conspiracy theorists claim the princess and Fayed were murdered by the British establishment to cover up allegations that she was pregnant and the couple were due to announce their engagement. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, described the report's expected conclusions as "shocking". Mr Fayed, who owns Harrods, insisted he was "the only person who knows the truth" about the crash and that Lord Stevens' report had "betrayed" him and the British public. "How can I accept something really shocking? I know deep in my heart that I'm the only person who knows the truth," he said. Mr Fayed, who will give his official reaction to the report at a press conference this afternoon, claimed Lord Stevens had spent £5m of taxpayers' money "wasting my time". He said the detective had "done all what the intelligence wanted him to do" - referring to his previous claims that British spies were involved in the crash. "I am the only person who was close to Diana and to my son," he said. "She had no family. She had friends that pretend they were her friends." Asked what grounds he had for disputing the report's expected findings, he said: "The evidence is made up just to make it convenient for the terrorist and the gangster who murdered my son." Clarence House, the official residence of Prince Charles, and Scotland Yard would not comment ahead of the release of the 800-page report, which will be published on the internet. Lord Stevens was asked to undertake the major inquiry when the inquest into Diana's death was opened and adjourned in January 2004. He will be joined by Paul Stephenson, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, and Detectice Chief Superintendent David Douglas, the senior investigating officer. Princes William and Harry were understood to have been briefed on the outcome of investigation yesterday. Last year, the Prince of Wales was interviewed as part of the inquiry and was apparently asked in a one to one meeting with Lord Stevens whether he had ever plotted to assassinate his ex-wife. Lord Stevens is expected to dismiss numerous conspiracy theories that have arisen, and it has also been suggested he will criticise the paparazzi more harshly than the 1999 French investigation did. One conspiracy theory suggests the blood samples from the car's chauffeur were switched, a claim understood to have been disproved by new DNA tests. Other revelations rumoured to be in the report include allegations that the US secret service was bugging the princess's telephone conversations in the hours before she died and confirmation that she was not pregnant. Forensic teams examined the wrecked black Mercedes S280 in painstaking detail, and the inquiry is said to bring together around 20,000 documents and 1,500 witness statements. New witnesses were discovered, and cutting edge computer technology used to put together a 3D model of the crash. Lord Stevens admitted the inquiry had been "far more complex than any of us thought". "We have new witnesses, we have new forensic evidence," he said. However, the MI5 whistleblower David Shayler today said the results of the investigation should not be taken at face value, claiming parts of the evidence did not add up and warning that conspiracy theories would continue to circulate. "For example, James Andanson, a paparazzo who was in Paris that day, who was alleged to have owned the Fiat Uno [in the tunnel at the time of the crash] but claimed to have owned a different one, was found some months later burnt-out in his car 150 miles from his home. "The French have concluded that it was suicide, but I would contend that if someone wanted to commit suicide in a car, they attach a hosepipe to the exhaust, put it through the window, and they go very peacefully. "No one I know commits suicide like that." Lady Butler-Sloss, who is now in charge of Diana's inquest, is due to resume the hearings in January 2007.

Diana probe says death was accident, but conspiracy rumours persist AFP 14 Dec 06 A long-awaited report into Princess Diana's death in a Paris car crash is expected to dismiss theories of a murder plot by British intelligence, concluding that it was just an accident. But even as it was to be published, the father of Diana's boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed dismissed its expected findings as "garbage" and insisted a conspiracy was behind the couple's death in 1997. Fleeing paparazzi photographers, Diana, 36, her boyfriend Dodi, 42, and chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, were killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of August 31 that year. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived the crash. Press reports suggest the report by Lord John Stevens -- the former commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police -- has concluded that Diana died after the drunk driver lost control of the car. It largely confirms the findings of a two-year investigation in France, which said Paul lost control of the black Mercedes because he was driving too fast while high on drink and prescription drugs. The latest report is said to have upset Princes William and Harry when they were briefed earlier in the week about how paparazzi photographers behaved before and after their mother's death. According to The Times, Stevens and his team believe that had Diana, al-Fayed and Paul worn their seatbelts, as Rees-Jones did, they could have survived. Stevens is expected to criticise the paparazzi. In 1999, the French investigation formally cleared nine photographers and a press motorcyclist of manslaughter charges. In February this year, three photographers were convicted of breaching France's privacy laws for taking pictures of Diana and Dodi on the night they died. Leaked details of the report also failed to silence plot theorists who believe that British intelligence agents assassinated the princess and her Muslim lover Dodi to prevent them from marrying. Hours before its release, Mohammed Al-Fayed dismissed the report for rejecting a key conspiracy claim and accused Lord Stevens of being "blackmailed" by British intelligence. Al-Fayed has long maintained that it was a conspiracy involving British intelligence agents, and notably said Paul's blood samples were switched to falsely implicate him as drunk. "He has just done what the British intelligence has asked for," Al-Fayed said of Lord Stevens. "They blackmailed him, definitely." He added that he had hired five of Britain's leading pathologists to conduct their own investigation, the results of which ran counter to Lord Stevens' reported findings. "If he has done DNA it is garbage," he said. Fayed also authorized an exclusive jeweller to release a video which it said showed Dodi picking up an engagement ring for Diana, just hours before both died in the car crash. In a letter to AFP, which obtained a copy of the video, the jewellery company Repossi said it was making the images available after receiving authorization from Al-Fayed. The black-and-white video -- which was timestamped August 30, 1997 -- shows a man resembling Dodi entering Repossi's upscale Place Vendome boutique in central Paris. The man entered at 5:44 pm and stayed a total of seven minutes. During that time he can be seen examining items of jewellery pulled out of a case and placed on a table. At the end of his visit, he seems to pick something up off a table and then leaves.

Flashback: US bugged Diana's phone on night of death crash Mark Townsend and Peter Allen in Paris Sunday December 10, 2006 The Observer The American secret service was bugging Princess Diana's telephone conversations without the approval of the British security services on the night she died, according to the most comprehensive report on her death, to be published this week. Among extraordinary details due to emerge in the report by former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens is the revelation that the US security service was bugging her calls in the hours before she was killed in a car crash in Paris. In a move that raises fresh questions over transatlantic agreements on intelligence-sharing, the surveillance arm of the US has admitted listening to her conversations as she stayed at the Ritz hotel, but failed to notify MI6. Stevens is understood to have been assured that the 39 classified documents detailing Diana's final conversations did not reveal anything sinister or contain material that might help explain her death. Scotland Yard's inquiry, published this Thursday, also throws up further intelligence links with the Princess of Wales on the night she died. The driver of the Mercedes, Henri Paul, was in the pay of the French equivalent of M15. Stevens traced £100,000 he had amassed in 14 French bank accounts though no payments have been linked to Diana's death. Stevens's conclusion is that Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed, and Paul himself died in an accident caused by Paul driving too fast through the Pont de l'Alma underpass in Paris while under the influence of drink. The car was being pursued by photographers at the time. Tests have confirmed that Paul was more than three times over the French drink-drive limit and was travelling at 'excessive' speed. The inquiry will quash a number of conspiracy theories that have circulated since 31 August 1997, among them that Diana was pregnant. It also found no evidence that the princess was planning to get engaged to Dodi, son of Mohamed Fayed. The Harrods tycoon believes that Paul's blood samples were swapped to portray him as a drunk in an elaborate cover-up by the establishment to stop Diana marrying Dodi, a Muslim. Stevens is expected to concede that while there was a mix-up it was an accident and that the original French post-mortem which found that Paul was three-times over the French drink-drive limit was correct. He is also expected to discount the role of the white Fiat Uno which struck Diana's car shortly before the crash, even though British police officers have failed to track down the vehicle which left paintwork on the black Mercedes. The inquiry will support the findings of the original French accident inquiry in criticising the paparazzi as a possible reason for encouraging Paul to speed. The 'bright light' theory - the claim that the driver was deliberately blinded by a beam immediately before the crash - is also dismissed by Stevens.

Flashback: Al Fayed calls Diana accident report "outrageous" By Jeremy Pelofsky Reuters 13 Dec 06 WASHINGTON - The father of Princess Diana's companion on Wednesday called "outrageous" a forthcoming report that said the couple's deaths were the result of a tragic car accident rather than a murder plot. Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Diana's lover Dodi al Fayed and owner of the famed Harrod's department store in London, also questioned whether the investigator who headed the inquiry, Sir John Stevens, was blackmailed into ruling out foul play. "It's shocking. It's completely outrageous that a leading Scotland Yard officer can come up with such an unbelievable judgment," al Fayed said in an interview with NBC's "Today" show. Diana, who was 36, and Dodi al Fayed died after their chauffeur-driven Mercedes crashed in a tunnel in Paris in August 1997 as they tried to elude paparazzi on motorbikes. A two-year inquiry by French authorities in 1999 ruled that al Fayed's driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, was to blame because he was drunk and driving too fast. Stevens, the former head of London's police force, has spent almost three years probing what happened. His investigation extended to the British royal family, conducting a lengthy interview with Diana's ex-husband Charles. Al Fayed said his son had bought an engagement ring for Diana and that she had told him hours before the crash that she was pregnant. He also accused the British government of involvement in the plot. Stevens is "being definitely blackmailed to say exactly what the British intelligence want him to say," al Fayed said. Without citing the source of the information, he said that six months ago British intelligence agents stole Stevens' computer. "I'm sure they find something very devastating for him and used what they have, information, to blackmail him," he said. Al Fayed has charged that his son and Diana were murdered by British secret services because their relationship was embarrassing the royal household. Witnesses, officials and royal commentators have dismissed arguments that the death of Diana, who was seen as one of the world's most glamorous people, was anything more than an accident.