Gordon Thomas: Gideon's Spies

It did not. Yatom’s consuming need to have his own man inside the Ritz drove him. But other events that no one could have foreseen were moving to their own climax.

The blinking light—signaling an incoming telephone call—which awoke Maurice was timed by the recorder at 1:58 A.M. on Sunday, August 31, 1997. The caller worked in the Paris gendarmerie accident unit and had been recruited by Mossad some years before; its computers classified him as a mabuah, a non-Jewish informer. On the totem pole of Maurice’s Parisian contacts, his caller was somewhere near the bottom.

Nevertheless, the man’s news about a traffic accident stunned Maurice. It had occurred less than an hour before, when a Mercedes sedan had struck a reinforced concrete pillar on the westbound roadway of the underpass beneath the place de l’Alma, a notorious accident spot in the city.

The dead were Diana, Princess of Wales, mother of the future king of England; Dodi Al-Fayed, son of Mohammed, the Egyptian-born owner of Harrods of Knightsbridge, the “Royal” store; and Henri Paul. The couple’s bodyguard had been critically injured.

Hours after the accident Maurice flew back to Tel Aviv, leaving in his wake questions that would remain unanswered.

What part had his pressure played in the accident? Had Henri Paul lost control of the Mercedes, causing it to smash into the thirteenth concrete pillar of the underpass beneath the place de l’Alma, because he could see no way of extricating himself from the clutches of Mossad? Was that pressure linked to the high level of prescribed drugs found in his bloodstream? When he had left the Ritz with his three passengers, had his mind continued to vacillate over what he should do about the pressure? Was he not only responsible for a terrible road accident but also the victim of a ruthless intelligence agency?

Questions would continue to fester in the mind of Mohamed al-Fayed. In February 1998, he publicly announced: “It was no accident. I am convinced of that in my heart of hearts. The truth cannot remain hidden forever.”

Five months later, the British network ITV, screened a documentary that claimed Henri Paul had close links to French intelligence. He had none. The program also hinted that an unnamed intelligence agency had been involved in the deaths; there were dark hints that the agency had acted because the British establishment feared Diana’s love for Dodi could have “political repercussions” because he was an Egyptian.

To this day Mossad’s involvement with Henri Paul has remained a well-kept secret—the way the service had always intended it should remain. Mossad acted at the behest of no one outside Israel. Indeed, few outside the service still have any idea of Mossad’s part in the death of the then most famous woman in the world.

Mohamed al-Fayed, prompted by what he saw as a campaign of villification in the English media, has continued to claim that unnamed security services had been ranged against his son and Diana. In July 1998 two Time magazine journalists published a book that included the suggestion that Henri Paul could have had some connection with French intelligence. Neither Al-Fayed or the journalists offered any conclusive proof that Henri Paul was an intelligence agent or even an informer—and none of them came near to identifying Mossad’s involvement with him.

In July 1998, Mohamed al-Fayed asked a number of questions in a letter he sent to every one of Britain’s members of Parliament, urging them to raise the questions in the House of Commons. He claimed that “there is a force at work to stifle the answers I want.” His behavior was seen as the reaction of a grieving father lashing out in every direction. The questions deserve repeating, not because they shed any light on the role Mossad played in the closing weeks of Henri Paul’s life, but because they show how the entire tragedy has gained a momentum that only the true facts can stop.

Al-Fayed wrote of a “plot” to get rid of Diana and his son and attempted to link all kinds of disparate events with his questions:

“Why did it take one hour and forty minutes to get the princess to hospital? Why have some of the photographers failed to give up some of the pictures they shot? Why was there a break-in that night at the London home of a photographer who handles paparazzi pictures? Why have all the closed-circuit television cameras in that part of Paris produced not one frame of videotape? Why were the speed cameras on the route out of film, and the traffic cameras not switched on? Why was the scene of the crash not preserved but reopened to traffic after a few hours? Who was the person in the press group outside the Ritz who was equipped like a news photographer? Who were the two unidentified men mingling in the crowd who later sat in the Ritz bar? They ordered in English, watching and listening in a marked way?”

Mossad had no interest in the relationship between Diana and Dodi. Their sole concern was to recruit Henri Paul as their informer in the Ritz. Regarding the mysterious news photographer: in the past Mossad has allowed its agents to pose as journalists. It may well have been Maurice keeping watch outside the hotel. The two unidentified men in the hotel bar may have had some connection to Mossad. It would no doubt comfort Mohamed al-Fayed if that were true.

By 1999, Mohamed al-Fayed’s belief in a “plot” had hardened to what he saw as “a full-blown criminal conspiracy.” He insisted it had been manufactured by MI5 and MI6, and French intelligence with Mossad “manipulating in the background.” To those who would listen, and they were steadily declining in number, he would name a London newspaper editor as well as a close friend of Diana as both having “direct links” to Britain’s intelligence services.

The reasons why these services had become involved in the “conspiracy” was clear-cut in Mohammed’s mind. “A decision had been made by the Establishment, and at the very top, that Diana must not be allowed to marry a Muslim. Then the future king of England, Prince William, would have an Arab as his stepfather and another as his grandfather. There was also a real fear that I would provide the money to allow Diana to become a rival to the Queen of England. The Establishment would do anything to end my son’s relationship with the one woman he had ever truly loved.”

Facts were never produced to support an allegation which, if proven, would surely accelerate the end of the Royal Family in Britain and perhaps pave the way to a crisis of confidence that could even sweep away a government.

Nevertheless, al-Fayed authorized his spokesman, Laurie Meyer, a former anchorman with one of Rupert Murdoch’s television networks, to state to the media: “Mohammed firmly believes Di and Dodi were murdered by agents loyal to the British Crown and that other agencies were deeply involved in the crime. He further believes there is deep-seated racism within the Establishment.”

To confirm that murder most foul had taken place, al-Fayed had employed the skills of a former senior Scotland Yard detective, John MacNamara. By early 1999 the soft-spoken investigator was scouring the world for evidence. Along the way, in Geneva, Switzerland, he met a former MI6 officer, Richard Tomlinson, who claimed he had seen documents at MI6 headquarters on the bank of the River Thames. Tomlinson insisted they described “a plan to murder the Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic—a plan that has unsettling parallels to the way Di and Dodi died. The MI6 document stated that the ‘accident’ should happen in a tunnel where the chance of fatal injury is high. The weapon of choice the document recommended was a high-powered laser beam that could be used to temporarily blind the driver of the target vehicle.”

Despite all his efforts, MacNamara has been unable to find any independent evidence to support Tomlinson’s claims—and efforts to obtain the MI6 document totally failed.