World

NSA Has Papers On Diana

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 18, 1999 / 6:57 PM EDT / CBS

At the request of Mohamed Al Fayed, the Pentagon is taking a closer look at U.S. intelligence documents containing references to Princess Diana. Al Fayed believes the car crash that killed Diana, his son Dodi and their driver, was a conspiracy plotted by people who did not want the future king of England to have an Egyptian stepfather.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Tuesday that an initial review of the documents last May yielded no information useful to the investigation of the August 1997 accident and doubted this second look would either.

Bacon declined to discuss the nature of the documents under review except to say they number "several dozen" and were generated "in ordinary operations." He said, for example, that they may include reports from American embassies on the public reception of Diana and Prince Charles on trips abroad.

The fact that National Security Agency agents had received intelligence on Diana via international electronic monitoring was disclosed after the agency denied a Freedom of Information Act request for any intercepts mentioning her. In its denial the agency acknowledged that such intercepts do in fact exist.

Meanwhile, France's state prosecutor has recommended dismissing charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist placed under formal investigation after he car crash.

Judicial officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prosecutor decided there was insufficient evidence to pursue the charges of manslaughter and failing to aid people in danger, reports CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton.

French Judge Herve Stephan, who is investigating the accident, handed the case over to the state prosecutor earlier this summer for a recommendation on whether to bring charges.

Diana and Dodi Al Fayed seen leaving the Ritz Hotel shortly before the Paris crash.

Stephan, who is not obliged to follow the prosecutor's recommendation, is expected to announce soon that the two-year investigation into the crash is over. He will then determine whether to proceed with charges against the ten suspects.

The photographers and the motorcycle courier were placed under formal investigation -- one step short of being charged -- shortly after the accident. They have maintained their innocence throughout the probe.

The investigation initially had focused on the photographers, all of whom had been tailing Diana and her party in hopes of getting pictures of the princess and her boyfriend. However, test results later showed that Diana's driver, Henri Paul, was drunk at the time of the accident. Alcohol is considered to be the main cause of the crash, along with the speed at which Paul was driving.

Tests on the Mercedes showed no mechanial problems. The car appears to have entered the tunnel at the Pont de l'Alma at between 78 and 96 miles per hour and at the moment of impact was traveling at between 59 and 73 miles per hour.

Stephan may ultimately decide to charge several of the photographers for failing to assist a person in danger, which is a crime in France, the judicial officials said.

No one else is being investigated, but the crash is still surrounded by as much speculation as the assassination of President Kennedy. "Some people love a conspiracy theory," says Michael White, a British journalist. "Americans know that because the grassy knoll in Dallas is still doing business and selling books. It's going to be the same with Diana."

The French judge is expected to issue his report soon. If he accepts the prosecutors' recommendation, that should effectively close the criminal case in the world's most thoroughly investigated car crash. But it won't end the controversy.