by Jon E. Lewis
At 7 p.m. that evening Dodi Al-Fayed and the Princess of Wales left the Ritz Hotel to go to Dodi Al-Fayed’s apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye. They had no intention of returning to the Ritz Hotel that night. We are also certain that Henri Paul had no intention of returning to the Ritz Hotel after he went off duty shortly after their departure. For a number of reasons the plans of all three individuals changed. The Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed had planned to dine at a well-known Paris restaurant and at about 9.40 p.m. they were being driven there. It was because of the attention of the paparazzi during this journey that Dodi Al-Fayed instructed his chauffeur to drive instead to the Ritz Hotel. They arrived there at 9.50 p.m. This was unexpected and consequently the night duty security officer called Henri Paul’s mobile telephone and told him of their arrival. Henri Paul apparently expressed surprise but immediately returned to the hotel. All of the evidence we have examined indicates that this was entirely in keeping with Henri Paul’s conscientious approach to his work.
Much has been made of Henri Paul’s “missing three hours” between leaving the Ritz Hotel and returning on that Saturday evening. No one can be sure exactly where he was during those three hours, but it is clear that, until he was telephoned at 10 p.m. by the Ritz Hotel night duty security officer, he cannot have known that he would be returning to the Ritz Hotel and nor did anyone else.
Once back at the Ritz Hotel, Dodi Al-Fayed had a conversation with his father. Mohamed Al-Fayed recalls that Dodi informed him of his wish to return to the apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye in order to present the Princess of Wales with an engagement ring. Dodi Al-Fayed had purchased a ring for her that afternoon from Repossi Jewellers. The Princess of Wales was not with him at that time and we believe she never saw that ring. I do not know whether Dodi was going to ask her to marry him that night. I cannot say what the Princess of Wales’ response would have been. However, we have spoken to many of her family and closest friends and none of them has indicated to us that she was either about to or wished to get engaged. Her last conversations with friends and confidantes were to the contrary. Prince William has confirmed to me that his mother had not given him the slightest indication about such plans for the future.
At around 10.20 p.m. Dodi Al-Fayed passed a message to Henri Paul through the night duty manager. Another car would now be required to take the couple back to his apartment in rue Arsène Houssaye. This car was to depart from the rear of the Ritz Hotel.
The car, the driver and the point of departure all therefore changed within a very short space of time. This left no opportunity, in my opinion, for anyone to put into action any plan, particularly one that would have required so much preparation and so many people to effect it.
At around 12.20 a.m. on Sunday 31 August 1997 the Princess of Wales, Dodi Al-Fayed and Trevor Rees-Jones left the Ritz Hotel in a Mercedes driven by Henri Paul. As we now know, Dodi’s chauffeur-driven car and backup vehicle were to depart from the front of the hotel shortly afterwards.
The French investigation traced and identified many eyewitnesses, including drivers and their vehicles. There may be other eyewitnesses who have not come forward but I am confident that, on the evidence we have, a full and comprehensive picture of events can be constructed.
We know that the car travelled at excessive speed during the final part of the journey while again being followed by the paparazzi. We know the route it took. We can say with certainty that the car hit the kerb just before the thirteenth pillar of the central reservation in the Alma underpass, at a speed of 61 to 63 miles per hour. This is about twice the speed limit on that section of road. What exactly happened at the end of that journey is a matter for the inquests to decide. However, we conclude that nothing in the very rapid sequence of events we have reconstructed supports the allegation of conspiracy to murder. In particular, following the work done by police collision investigators and other experts, we are confident that any theories concerning flashing lights inside the Alma underpass can be discounted as the cause of this crash.
The Fiat Uno
We believe there was a glancing contact between the Mercedes, driven by Henri Paul, and a white Fiat Uno just before the Alma underpass. Much has been made of a French photojournalist, Mr James Andanson. It has been alleged that he was the driver of the Fiat Uno and an agent of the security services.
We are completely satisfied that this Fiat Uno did not belong to James Andanson, nor was it driven by him that night. James Andanson committed suicide in May 2000 and shortly afterwards the photographic offices he shared in Paris were burgled. The French conducted a full investigation into his death and we agree with their conclusion that James Andanson took his own life. Despite claims to the contrary, the burglary was fully investigated and known professional criminals arrested. There is no evidence that James Andanson was an agent of any security service.
In August 1997, James Andanson did own a white Fiat Uno, a popular make and model of car at that time. However, it was nine years old, in a state of disrepair, had been driven over 360,000 kms and was registered in his own name. He openly part-exchanged the car for a Fiat Punto at a local garage later that year. James Andanson’s widow has given the team her full cooperation and assistance, for which I am grateful. We are satisfied James Andanson was at home with his wife on the night of Saturday 30 August 1997, before flying to Corsica on a photographic assignment the following morning.
Who was driving the white Fiat Uno and why they did not come forward are questions we have considered. The French investigation carried out a major search for the Fiat Uno but could not locate the car. After this length of time it is very unlikely that we shall do so. Failing to render assistance to a person in danger is an imprisonable offence in French law. This may have deterred witnesses from coming forward and giving their account.
After the accident
We are convinced that the French authorities took all reasonable steps to save the lives of those involved in the accident. We have seen the surgeons and medical staff who worked so hard that night to try to save the lives of those involved in the crash. I believe they did everything humanly possible to do that. Much has been said about the embalming of the body of the Princess of Wales and that this formed some part of the conspiracy. We have found the explanation for this and understand why it was done. Again the details are in the report.
It is clear that the Mercedes was travelling at excessive speed as it approached the Alma underpass. Henri Paul had consumed alcohol that evening. After returning to the Ritz Hotel he drank two Ricards in the Bar Vendome. This alone would have given him an alcohol level near to the French drink/driving limit, which is lower than the limit in this country. When Henri Paul returned, he could not have known he would be driving the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed later that night. On the CCTV he does appear to be walking round the hotel normally but the tests on the forensic samples taken at both his post-mortem examinations show him to have had an alcohol level of around 1.74 grams per litre at the time of the crash – this is around twice the British drink/drive limit. We are satisfied from the DNA testing carried out on samples in France and by experts in the United Kingdom that those blood samples tested belonged to Henri Paul. Henri Paul had been drinking, but how much he had consumed is questionable. There has also been speculation surrounding the abnormal levels of carboxyhaemoglobin in Henri Paul’s blood. The team, after meticulous research, has identified an explanation for this high reading. This information was shared with Mohamed Al-Fayed’s team. It concerns how and from where the sample was taken and we have worked together to find an answer.
Conclusion
I have no doubt that speculation as to what happened that night will continue and that there are some matters, as in many other investigations, about which we may never find a definitive answer. However, I do not believe that any evidence currently exists that can substantiate the allegation of conspiracy to murder that has been made. Various legal cases are currently being pursued by Mr Al-Fayed thr
ough the French courts. They are unlikely, in my opinion, to have any bearing on my conclusion that there was no conspiracy or cover-up.
Three people tragically lost their lives in the accident and one was seriously injured. Many more have suffered from the intense scrutiny, speculation and misinformed judgments in the years that have followed. I very much hope that all the work we have done and the publication of this report will help to bring some closure to all who continue to mourn the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Al-Fayed and Henri Paul.
FACE ON MARS
Humans are gregarious creatures, so it’s no wonder we’re uncomfortable with the idea of being all alone in the universe. Science has yet to conclusively prove that we are other than an insignificant anomaly in the grand scheme of things, so we can’t be blamed for getting a little bit excited when what seems to be proof of the existence of neighbourhood aliens comes along.
On 25 July 1976 the craft Viking Orbiter 1 was busy acquiring images of the Cydonia region of Mars in search of potential landing sites for Viking Lander 2. Its pictures of the Martian landscape revealed exciting geological formations, a mixture of plains and mesas and buttes (large rocky outcrops familiar in the American Southwest), but what the NASA scientists could not have expected to see was a giant face staring back at them from the planet’s surface.
The photograph was not released immediately as the scientists believed it was nothing but an amusing coincidence. It was not until the image was “rediscovered” by Vincent DiPietro and Gregory Molenaar, two engineers at the Goddard Spaceflight Center, that the rest of the world had the opportunity to view this remarkable phenomenon.
The grainy images appeared to show a humanoid face with a deep-set eye socket, a narrow nose and half of a thin, unsmiling mouth. Deep shadows obscured the other half of the face but to the viewer the features appeared to be perfectly symmetrical. The structure itself was over 1.5 miles long by 1 mile wide by 1,500 feet high (2.5km x 1.6km x 0.45km), far larger than anything built on earth. Nevertheless, once the photograph was broadcast, people quickly identified a resemblance between the Martian face and those of ancient Egyptian pharaohs or of the Sphinx at Giza. NASA, however, stolidly maintained that it was by mere chance this particular hill resembled a face, and attempted to downplay the whole matter.
Those who believed the hill was artificial began to look for other clues to support their hypothesis. One was Richard C. Hoagland, a regular science correspondent on a radio talk show in Florida, who became convinced that the Face was part of a complex of other structures visible in the Viking pictures, including a “fortress”, an artificial “cliff”, a five-sided “pyramid” and a collection of rocky forms dubbed “The City Square”. He went on to write a book about the subject and began a campaign to force NASA to admit that it was covering up the true nature of the discoveries. Debate began to rage about who could have built the monuments. Given the resemblances to Egyptian architecture, had a race of long-dead Martians visited the earth and constructed similar monuments? – a view that seemed to jibe nicely for those who had always maintained aliens had a hand in the building of the Pyramids. And, if the aliens had achieved that, what else could they have been responsible for? Where had human civilization – or, more dramatic still, human life – really begun? The implications for human history seemed enormous, and yet the scientific community continued to refuse to take the issue seriously. It seemed the scientists had a vested interest in keeping the Martian-civilization theory under wraps.
The suspicion of a cover-up appeared to be confirmed when NASA announced the launch of a second reconnaissance mission to Mars, this time with a camera aboard capable of taking high-resolution photographs that could pick out objects the size of a small airplane clearly on the planet’s surface . . . but that the Face would not be one of them. NASA argued it had more pressing scientific priorities elsewhere and time on the camera was limited. It was soon forced by public outcry to reconsider its plans. The Face had been capturing people’s imagination for over 20 years, and they wanted to know once and for all whether it was artificial. NASA backed down, and on 5 April 1998 the Mars Orbiter Camera re-photographed the Face.
Anti-climactically, the new pictures confirmed what scientists had been saying all along: the Face was just a lumpy, rather uninteresting hill. In the new photos there was no sign of any facial features at all. “All of its dimensions, in fact, are similar to other mesas. It’s not exotic in any way,” commented Jim Garvin, a NASA Mars scientist.
The believers in sentient life on Mars did not give up their dream so easily, however. The camera had taken the pictures during the Martian winter, they said; wispy cloud was obscuring the detail and making the image appear unnaturally flat. Not only that, NASA had doctored the photos to cover up the presence of an alien civilization on Mars. Once again NASA bowed to public pressure and a second pass was made over the Cydonia region in April 2001, this time during the Martian summer. These photographs appear startlingly clear, considering the distance from which they are taken, and once again show an ordinary mesa formation, complete with fissures and cracks, and no symmetrical features at all. This conclusion was backed up by evidence from the Mars Global Surveyor’s onboard laser altimetry equipment, capable of measuring planetary features to within a foot (30cm), which delineated a rocky outcrop and not an alien-made structure. The same was true of other features such as the “cliff” and the “pyramid”, and the whole mystery dissolved.
It’s very hard to release an idea that’s consumed you for a quarter of a century, and the Martian conspiracy theorists carry on regardless. Some are claiming the Face can still be clearly seen if only it is subjected to enough image processing. Others say NASA has released fake pictures in order to keep the uncomfortable knowledge of Martian life a secret. The rest of the world has quietly forgotten the Face.
Face on Mars: Has NASA covered up proof of life on the red planet? ALERT LEVEL 2
Further Reading
Richard C. Hoagland, The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever, 1987 (and various subsequent expansions)
http://www.nasa.gov – The Face on Mars
www.msss.com/education/facepage/face.html
http://metasearch.org/solar%20system/cydonia/proof_files/proof.asp
www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/hoagland/face.html
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa052900a.html
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/05/25/mars.faces/index.html
FLUORIDATION
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
General Jack D. Ripper, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Fluoride is a chemical added to the drinking-water supplies of many cities and municipalities of the world. The stated purpose of fluoridation is to prevent tooth decay, especially in children.
Since the widespread introduction of fluoridation in the 1950s, debate has raged about its pros and cons. Even medical professionals are divided on the issue: the American Dental Association and American Medical Association both endorse fluoridation, while the US National Research Council has stated that 80 per cent of children may have dental fluorosis (that is, their teeth have been weakened by fluoridation). In the UK, a leading supplier of drinking water, Welsh Water, calls fluoride “a toxic and potent chemical”.
There are claims, too, that fluoridation is a plot by the candy industry to allow kids to eat all the confectionery they want without adverse dental consequences. Some even charge that fluoridation is a Nazi/CIA ploy.
There is evidence that sodium fluoride was used in Nazi mind-control experiments during the Second World War. At the end of the conflict, US scientist Charles Perkins visited the German IG Farben chemical works and later concluded from his researches of the work done there: “Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual’s power to resist domination, by slowly poisoni
ng and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him.” According to the Nazi-plot story, IG Farben chemists and Nazi experimenters were shipped to the US at the end of the war to show the CIA MK-ULTRA boys how submission by fluoridation could be achieved.
The list of alleged fluoridation conspirators does not end with the Nazis and the CIA. The Commies, as General Jack D. Ripper famously noted, are also in the frame, since they too would benefit from a mindless America. More substantially, some identify the aluminium industry, specifically the American Aluminium Company (Alcoa), as the conspirator in chief.
Fluoride is a by-product of aluminium/uranium/steel production. Fluoridation, then, is simply these industries dumping their toxic waste under a false flag and making a nice profit. It is certainly cause for thought that Oscar Ewing, the public service official who fluoridated nearly 90 American cities, was also Alcoa’s attorney.
Conspiracy or no, the pro-fluoridation lobby struggles to sail against the wind of public scepticism. Only 10 per cent of Britons are supplied with fluoridated water. In America, 60 per cent of the population have fluoride in their water.