US bugged Diana's phone on night of death crash

[gldstwmn]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_ne...968664,00.html

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.

[amber]

So what does this mean? I'm drawing my own conclusions, but it was a bit confusing. I mean, what is the overall point? The thing always seemed suspicious to me, but now this article says it is, but it is not? Was he over the limit, or was it faked?
Perhaps someone could summarize...
It is odd that the secret service was bugging her, and that makes it suspicous, but I have still never heard an actual reason why someone would want her dead.
But god fricking knows what any countries' "intelligence" would think is important. My mom has an FBI file on her, and she never did anything.
Anyway, I am confused, I would love if someone distilled the points of this article...Because it seems to go both ways. As far as I'm reading into it, there are a lot of suspicious peripheral circumstances without much reason or rhyme.

[irishgrl]

your MOM has an FBI file on her? how did she find out? for that matter, how could anyone find out? is there a process whereby you request that info? are we entitled to know? Most interesting...

as for the article, one wonders why the US would be bugging Diana's phone at ALL. And all this investigation did was ultimately confirm the French results? (except for the new revelation that the US was inexplicably involved) Very strange...

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

your MOM has an FBI file on her? how did she find out? for that matter, how could anyone find out? is there a process whereby you request that info? are we entitled to know? Most interesting...
...

FOIA maybe?

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by amber

So what does this mean? I'm drawing my own conclusions, but it was a bit confusing. I mean, what is the overall point? The thing always seemed suspicious to me, but now this article says it is, but it is not? Was he over the limit, or was it faked?
Perhaps someone could summarize...

I wish I could. The Secret Service aka Department of the Treasury? Why? The more that comes out about this thing, the weirder it gets. Apparently, she had good reason to be paranoid. Between people bugging her phones, the Duke of Edinburgh ordering a "hit" on her and her fragile emotional state, it couldn't have been easy. Not everyone is cut out for that sort of thing.

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

FOIA maybe?

FOIA? arent there restrictions on what you can request? I wonder if the DOJ might be a place to start?

[PsychCat]

Huh... and all this was on Clinton's watch.
Go figure.

Move along people.... there's nothing to see here....