Nexus - 1504 - New Times Magazine-pages

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some of the areas where the early French investigation failed Diana's Anti-Landmines Campaign abysmally. For example, the inquest showed up mistakes made A significant portion of inquest time was dedicated to evidence during the initial night-time investigations. Under cross- regarding the possibility that Diana was pregnant at the time of examination, French investigators blamed some of these errors her death. This is a proposition put forward by the conspiracy on poor lighting. Sergeant Thierry Clotteaux (6 November, camp as a possible motive for murder. The evidence, or lack afternoon) admitted that "the lights were not so great" (50.17-18). thereof, has always indicated that this would appear to be an Another police investigator, Hubert Pourceau (6 November, issue impossible to prove either way. morning), stated that a 19-metre-long (Mercedes) tyre mark (7 If Diana was murdered, more likely as possible motives November, 16.5-9) was missed "...because it was night-time and would have been other factors: the rapidly developing it was not very visible. They couldn't see it" (40.12-13). relationship between Diana and Dodi, and Diana's prominent This begs the question: where was the forensic lighting that and effective involvement in the international anti-landmines one would expect at any night-time crash scene, let alone the campaign. scene of arguably the most important car crash of the 20th Diana's anti-landmines activity was a possible motive for century? murder that was almost completely ignored by the 832-page Investigators revealed that during the night they had to rely on Paget Report, produced by Lord Stevens in December 2006. the lights of the emergency vehicles; then, after those vehicles Michael Mansfield, QC, acting on behalf of Dodi Fayed's had left the scene, they were reduced to using the dim tunnel father Mohamed AI Fayed throughout the inquest, provided lighting. Apparently they didn't even have some compelling arguments regarding her their own torches! campaign. During his cross-examination of the Conservative former Minister for the Diana's "Rocking" Ambulance Armed Forces, The Hon. Nicholas Soames, On the morning of 17 October 2007, a . MP (12 December 2007, afternoon), statement given to the French investigation Diana's Mansfield quoted Soames's Tory y Thierry Orban, a photographic reporter, . . colleagues at the time. One told Diana: was read out to the inquest. Referring to the anti-landmines "Don't meddle with things about which you ambulance carrying Princess Diana, Orban activity wasa know nothing" (81.15-16). Another stated: "I then followed the ambulance, . . described Diana as a "loose cannon" receded by motorcyclists and followed by a possible motive for (75.25) when referring to her visit to the lice car which kept us at a distance. After murder that was minefields of Angola in January 1997. the Pont d'Austerlitz, opposite the Natural Soames himself in 1997 portrayed Diana, History Museum, the ambulance stopped, the almost completely Princess of Wales, as a "totally unguided driver got out hurriedly and got into the ignored by the missile" (64.6). ack. That was when I took the only hoto of the ambulance, which is in any case blurred. It was rocking, as if they were doing a cardiac massage" (12.25, 13.1-8). This stoppage occurred within 500 metres of the hospital gates. In his statement to Operation Paget, Dr Martino, who was inside the ambulance, explained the situation: "I had the vehicle stopped in order to re- examine the Princess... I did not do any cardiac massage at that moment but it is not easy to do cardiac massage or resuscitation with a vehicle moving" Government and many high-ranking (Report, p. 515). public figures were profiting from The ambulance driver Michel Massebeuf's statement to the their [landmines] proliferation in countries like Angola and French investigation was read to the inquest on the morning of 14 Bosnia. The names and companies were well known, it was November. He described what happened: "However, in front of explosive and top of her list of culprits behind this squalid trade the Jardin des Plantes, the doctor [Martino] asked me to stop. was the Secret Intelligence Service, the SIS [MI6], which she Soames is alleged by Diana's close friend Simone Simmons to have directly threatened Diana with an "accident" if she continued with her anti-landmines activities. On the morning of 10 January 2008, Simmons gave evidence regarding a four-inch-thick anti-landmines dossier, titled "Profiting Out Of Misery", which Diana compiled in the last year of her life. Simmons stated that Diana claimed the dossier "...would prove that the British 832-page Paget Report, produced by Lord Stevens in December 2006. We stopped for about five minutes, in order for him to be able to elieved was behind the sale of so many of the British-made provide treatment that required a complete absence of andmines that were causing so much misery to so many people. movement" (23.15-20). ‘I'm going to go public with this and name names,' she declared" This evidence raises the question: why did Thierry Orban (52.13-22). witness a rocking ambulance if there was no cardiac massage London Daily Mail journalist and close friend of Diana, taking place and "complete absence of movement" was required? Richard Kay, said in his testimony to the inquest on 20 This question was not put to Dr Martino when he was cross- December (morning) that he received a phone call from Diana examined on the afternoon of 24 January 2008. just hours before she died. He confirmed that during this call the The statements by Thierry Orban and Michel Massebeuf were Princess stated that she fully intended to "complete her both inexplicably omitted from the Paget Report. Also, it is not obligations to...the anti-personnel landmines cause" (28.17-18). known why Orban and Massebeuf were not cross-examined Kay said that this would have involved a future visit to the during this inquest. minefields of South East Asia. Diana's activity was a —--Nhbl ate. £8 almost completely ignored by the 832-page Paget Report, produced by Lord Stevens in JUNE — JULY 2008 NEXUS = 27 anti-landmines possible motive for ‘ murder that was December 2006. www.nexusmagazine.com