The unsolved mystery of the Diana tragedy

"When love comes so strong, there is no right or wrong. Your love is your love." – from A Boy Like That from West Side Story

On the 31st of August, seven years ago, the world was shocked over the tragic death of Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, and driver Henri Paul, when their black Mercedes limousine crashed onto the 13th pillar of the Alma Tunnel in Paris.

Princess Diana was one of the best-loved, highly celebrated, and most photographed public figures of the 20th century. Her widely chronicled life started when she, as a shy, young Englishwoman, got married to Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, in a spectacular fairytale wedding.

But the fairytale magic turned tragic as she suffered through an unhappy marriage to Prince Charles. Her eating disorders, bouts of depression, and extramarital scandals were the blood ink of tabloids.

Still, the paparazzi pursued her all the more. She had become the "People’s Princess," the "Queen of Hearts," and people hungered for more photos and news about her. A very public divorce ensued and ultimately, her untimely death jolted the world.

The Conspiracy Allegations

Dodi’s father, Egyptian-born tycoon and Harrods chairman Mohamed Al Fayed, believes that Diana and Dodi were victims of a plot by the British secret service, and that the government has engaged in a cover-up.

Harrod’s director of security John Macnamara said, "Mr. Al Fayed has never accepted that this was a simple traffic accident. He believes that his son and the Princess of Wales were murdered and he is quite sure that the truth will emerge in the fullness of time."

Journalist Sherman Skolnick writes, "Leading journalists in the UK agree with stories by me and others that Diana was assassinated. And the simple reason for the murder is, British Intelligence is pledged to protect the monarchy. The monarchy was not going to have a new stepfather for the heir to the throne, Prince William; they weren’t going to have a Moslem."

The Paparazzi

When initial news of the car crash broke, there was an international outcry blaming the paparazzi. But within 48 hours after the release of the autopsy finding that Henri Paul had been drunk, the focus shifted and the primary blame was on Paul. (Closed circuit TV tapes from the Ritz showed Henri Paul acting normally and his parents do not believe the "drunken" story because he had just passed a rigorous medical examination for his pilot’s license a few days before the crash.)

Eyewitnesses say there were at least 15 paparazzi who "arrived almost immediately" at the crash site. Some say they acted insensitively and clicked their cameras away.

In a recent Carlton TV documentary, Diana: The Paris Crash- A Special Inquiry, Anthony Scrivener QC, a former chairman of the Bar Council, cited eyewitness testimony that the motorcyclist close to the Mercedes was driving aggressively, making it hard for Henri Paul to keep his line.

Al Fayed’s French lawyer, Georges Kiejman, a former Minister of Justice, has repeatedly stressed, "No chase, no crash." And Al Fayed has always believed that the chaotic swarm of paparazzi and the frenzy of the chase provided perfect cover for anyone wanting to harm the couple.

Did Diana Know?

Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell revealed that, 10 months before her death, she wrote a letter that outlined her fears that someone was "planning an accident‚ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury."

According to Dodi’s father, Diana on several occasions told him of threats on and her fears for her own life saying, "If anything happens to me, Paul has all the documentary evidence to support what I am saying." Apparently, Diana knew.

Unanswered Questions

Where are the many paparazzi who were at the scene but have never been heard from since? Where are the two motorcyclists seen by eyewitnesses to have blocked Paul’s path forcing him to drive through the Alma tunnel? Where is the motorcyclist who was seen to have harassed the Mercedes in the tunnel?

Why were the Fiat Uno driver and his car never found by the French police?

Why didn’t Diana and Dodi wear their seatbelts? Why did it take one hour and 43 minutes to get Diana to the hospital and why did the ambulance stop 10 minutes before reaching there?

Why won’t the US and British intelligence services reveal the information they are known to have on the couple’s movements that night?

What caused the abnormally high percentage of carbon monoxide in Henri Paul’s blood? Were the alcohol readings really from his blood? Was Henri Paul employed by MI6 as reported by Richard Tomlinson to the judge?

The Paparazzo And The Fiat Uno

Top paparazzo James Andanson’s barely identifiable remains were found in his burned-out car at a secluded woodland in France. Initially, police believed he had committed suicide but later speculated he may have been murdered.

Andanson had made a specialty of traveling around Europe snapping the British Royal Family. It is rumored that he once made 100,000 pounds from a picture of Prince Charles kissing royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke while they were skiing with his sons in Klosters.

Andanson was at the head of the paparazzi chasing Diana around the Mediterranean weeks before she died. The Al Fayed camp had always believed he was at the tragedy scene since he had relentlessly pursued Diana and Dodi prior to their arrival in Paris.

Earlier, his Fiat Uno was impounded by the police on suspicion that it was the same car seen at the Alma tunnel. Eventually, the police said they were satisfied it was not the car supposed to have been involved in the crash.

Confidential police forensic reports published by the Daily Express indicate that paintwork and plastics from the white Fiat Uno owned by Andanson match exactly evidence recovered from Diana’s Mercedes which had clipped an Uno before crashing in the Paris tunnel.

The Butler Saw It

Paul Burrell was Princess Diana’s butler from 1988 until her death in 1997. He was accused of stealing and keeping some of Diana’s personal properties but was absolved when the Queen declared she knew that he was keeping them.

Burrell reportedly received as much as 400,000 pounds ($620,000) in a deal with the tabloid Daily Mirror to serialize his memoirs. In his 20/20 interview, he said he felt he had to set the record straight and acknowledged that he acted as an intermediary between Diana and her lovers. He also admitted that he sometimes smuggled visitors into Kensington Palace under the noses of the guards stationed at the entrance.

Diana’s Not So Saintly Life

The British tabloid Sun reported that Burrell said that she once went out to meet one of her lovers, cardiac surgeon Hasnant Khan, clad only in a fur coat and diamond and sapphire earrings. It quoted Burrell as saying Diana had begged Khan to marry her, and that she had sometimes given cash handouts to help prostitutes working on the streets of London.

The Secret Diana Spy Tapes

On the 23rd of June 2002, the Sunday Express reported:

"Explosive tapes on the secret life of Princess Diana will prove that she was pregnant and intended to marry Dodi Al Fayed. American secret agents regularly monitored Diana’s conversations and collated 1,000 secret documents using its spy in the sky‚ the National Security Agency."

The tapes were recorded by the NSA’s Echelon satellite surveillance system. They are said to contain highly sensitive material including Diana’s marriage plans, her views on Prince Philip, who was known to be highly critical of her, and new details of her love affair with James Hewitt.

Lawyers of Mohamed Al Fayed have been trying to obtain the tapes through America’s Freedom of Information Act.

What Might Have Been

Mohamed Al Fayed declared, "I could not help reflecting on what might have been if this tragedy had not occurred. Diana, the Princess of Wales, and Dodi were deliriously happy and were about to get engaged – and I know in my heart that she was pregnant. By now I would have been grandfather to a four-and-a-half-year-old child." (Quoted in 2002)

Paul Burrell believes that if Diana, who loved America and its people for their warm and forgiving nature, were alive today she would be married and living in America in a beachfront house in Malibu.

Had Diana and Dodi gotten married, Los Angeles would certainly be one of the cities they’d live in. Not very many people know that Dodi was the executive producer of the award-winning Hollywood movies Chariots of Fire and Hook.

Diana And Dodi’s Legacy

Dodi and Diana were the Romeo and Juliet of the 20th century but this time it wasn’t their feuding families that prohibited their love. They were star-crossed lovers caught in the rage of an ongoing religious war between the Christians and the Moslems. A Christian princess married to a Moslem man might have been okay, but not when she is the mother of the future king of a Christian kingdom.

Someone always has to be the sacrificial lamb before something considered odd `` could finally be accepted. It used to be taboo for women to smoke and even vote, for white people to be married to black people. Today, same sex marriages are still a no-no. Fear and prejudice keep minds closed. The world is opening its mind but at a really painfully slow rate.

In the frenzy and sensationalism that accompanied Diana and Dodi’s death, many people missed the messages they might have truly wanted to convey. That love does not know the boundaries of religion, and that we all could live and prosper side by side whatever our religions might be.

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