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Background to the
death of Princess Diana
"Psychological
modification had become a military science which was
not only researched by regularly practiced, that some
one could be persuaded to believe that they were a
stunt driver, driving through a building made of
cardboard, or that could be a victim of deliberately
induced stress which was sufficient to disturb the
balance of their minds" Open Verdict,
p221
Introduction
Tony Collin's book Open
Verdict: A Account of 25 Mysterious Deaths in Defence
Industry (1) contains a detailed investigation into
strange deaths linked to the British defence industry during
the 1980s. There have been a number of deaths in which
investigators have alleged that people were killed by the
intelligence services in Britain - or those working on it's
behalf on a "plausible deniable" basis. These include the
peace campaigner and famous rose grower Hilda Murrell
(who died after being taken from her house after discovering
a burglary in 1984), and more controversially, the former
British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. His strange
and sudden resignation in 1976 following a sustained
campaign against his government by various elements within
MI5. He later developed an illness similar to Alzheimer's
Disease. A rumour that he had died of "botched anesthetic"
were mentioned in Smear! Wilson and the Secret State
by Robin Ramsay and Steven Dorrill (Grafton, London,
England, 1992).
Hilda
Murrell who died after being taken from her
house after discovering a burglary in
1984
Dorril in another book he
co-wrote with Anthony Summers Honeytrap claimed that
Stephen Ward, the osteopath as the centre of the
Profumo affair in Britain was "killed on the orders of MI5".
The authors say that an unnamed MI6 officer told them that
Ward "was deliberately given a drugs overdose" by Stanley
Rytter, who is alleged to have worked for MI5. Dorrill and
Summers further claimed in an article in The Guardian (3rd
May 1988), that their MI6 contact told them that "Ward was a
threat", and that there were "sex photographs, which could
damage the Macmillan government and the royal
family".
Suspicious
deaths in the Defence industry caused by car
crashes
There are four deaths in
Open Verdict which were caused by suspicious car
crashes. I have taken a few examples from this book as they
have a certain resonance after the death of Princess
Diana in Paris in
August 1997, and the revelations of the former MI6 officer
Richard
Tomlinson.
In March 1987, in Popham near
Basingstoke on the A33, David Sands did a U-turn at
80 mph on a duel carriageway at high speed crashing into a
derelict café, strangely with two extra cans of
petrol in his car boot. This lead to him being burned beyond
recognition by the fire that engulfed the car. He worked for
a company named Esams, (Elliot Automation Space and Advanced
Military Systems Ltd) Marconi's sister company on star Wars
contracts. Specifically "on the simulation of signals
technologies and a secret application directly related to
stealth, EW (electronic warfare) and intelligence
gathering". (p189, & see chapter 4).
On 10th April 1987, Stuart
Gooding drove across to the wrong lane in Cyprus and hit
a lorry coming in the opposite direction, the same day that
David Greenhagl fell from a bridge in Britain. The only
personal details given was that Gooding was aged 23 and a
scientific officer, and at the Royal Military College of
Science. Since independence in 1960, Britain has held 93
square miles of Cyprus for its military bases which include
an outpost for GCHQ and EW related operations. Greenhagl
worked as a "defence contracts manager" at the defence
division of ICL (International Computers Ltd). His death
occurred 130 yards from a police station.
Michael Bakers worked at
Plessey Major Systems in Poole on System X when he had his
"accident" on 3rd May 1987. He was also a signals specialist
in the territorial unit of the SAS (Special Air Services).
Allegedly Baker was taking two friends to Kingsbridge Lakes
to teach them fly fishing when his BMW crashed went` through
the central reservation of a dual carriageway and
overturning. Although, strangely yet again, neither of his
passengers were injured, Baker died of brain damage at the
scene of the crash. It was claimed he had "lost
concentration" which led to the coroner recording a verdict
of accidental death. Neither passenger appeared to be very
forthcoming on the fine details of the crash. One was
reported as being totally resistant to any
inquiries.
In 1982, Professor Keith
Bowden whose work involved sophisticated military
computer simulations, drove his BMW across a duel
carriageway and down a railway bank. According to Collins,
"an accident investigator hired by her (Hilary Bowden, his
widow) solicitor says someone removed the new tires on the
car at some point before the crash and replaced them with
worn-out retreads". With echoes of Henri Paul, it was
claimed later by the police that he had been drinking, but
Hilary Bowden said:
"We were very
shocked by that because l had been told by a doctor that
he had not been drinking, by a policeman he had not been
drinking, and by the man who he was with all evening that
he had not been drinking. I've only that information to
go on".
Joe, an former airforce
engineer was an informant of Collins when he worked on
Computer News - the first mainstream publication to
highlight the coincidental deaths or workers in the British
defence computer industry. Joe described a crash which had
remarkable similarities to some of the incidents detailed
above. He related to Collins how he spun his car at high
speed across a dual carriageway, only being saved by the
fact that the car :
"hit dense brush on
the central reservation and came to a halt facing in
approximately the right direction. When he realised with
some surprise that he was unhurt, apart from a minor
whiplash injury, he tried to move the car and found that
the handbrake was on. He had no recollection of what had
happened, but assumed that for some reason that he had
attempted a hand brake turn at high speed. He felt his
life was still in danger"
Deaths
in the defence industry
What
is the link between all these (deaths) ? Is it simply
overwork or is there something more sinister afoot ?
Doug Hoyle MP, reported in The Guardian,
28th March, 1988.
Diana is said to have feared
that MI5 could try and kill her in a helicopter crash
(Sunday Mirror, January 4th, 1998). Such "accidents"
have happened before in the past in the British defence
industry, and more recently when a Chinook helicopter
stuffed full of intelligence personnel mysteriously ended up
being scattered over a Scottish hillside in 1995. Within a
few days of the alleged Soviet spy and GCHQ worker Geoffrey
Prime appearing in court in 1982, a senior GCHQ radio
operator Jack Wolfenden died instantly "when his
powered glider went into a shallow dive and crashed into a
Cotswold hillside in perfect flying weather. He was an
experienced pilot and they was no sign of illness or
mechanical failure to explain the crash". His colleague,
Ernst Brockway was found hanging a few months later,
leaving no suicide note. His widow, Janet, told reporters
"my husband was a sick man and that's all there is to it. I
have been told by the police and GCHQ to say nothing". After
the inquest, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, replying to a
question in the House of Commons, stated that Brockway and
Wolfenden had been cleared of any suspicion of
spying.
Mark Wisner, was a
Professional Technical Officer who worked on the Tornado
aircraft at the Aeroplane and Armament Establishment
(A&AEE). On 24th April 1987. according to Open
verdict, he was found dead at his home wearing high-heel
women's boots, suspenders and a PVC top with nine feet of
cling film wrapped around his face. A hole had been left for
the mouth, and a plastic bag had been placed over his head.
No exact time of death is usually given in cases of this
nature. (David Sands, his company EASAMS, also dealt in
software for the Tornado fighter). It was reported
afterwards that he was a transvestite, although none of his
work colleagues were aware of this.
Wisner died exactly a week
after Shani Warren, a secretary to the Divisional
Manger of a firm called Microscope, which specialise in
"intelligent electronic systems". Soon after her death on
17th April 1987 her company was bought by GEC Computers -
it's first acquisition for seven years for £16 million.
She was found dead in a lake, "gagged with a blue scarf, a
noose was tied around her neck, her ankles were secured with
a tow rope and her wrists were tied behind her back. She had
been face down in 18 inches of water for an indeterminate
period". Her car - which was found parked in a layby
adjoining a lake, was "an immaculate black Vauxhall
Cavalier". However, Collins reports that it was later found
"to have a faulty gear box which prevented it being driven
away in first or second gear" It was later determined by a
Home Office pathologist that Shani had tried to strangle
herself, gagged herself, bound her ankles, tied her hands
behind her back, and hopped in stiletto heels into the
shallow water were she drowned".
Richard Pugh, who had
recently left a company which was involved in "digital
networks and exchanges, C3i for NATO and associated EW
equipment" tied himself virtually head-to-toe with rope and
was "accidentally asphyxiated".
Stephen Drinkwater, who
worked in the highly classified copying department in GCHQ
was found asphyxiated with a plastic bag over his head in
his bedroom by his father in 1983. Collins reports that
there was speculation at the time that his death may have
been linked to the Prime affair - but the coroner recorded a
verdict of misadventure.
Stephen Oke, in 1985 was
found hanging from a beam from a beam in a loft in his home
in Cornwall where he was employed at GCHQ's most advanced
listening post at Morwenstow. The coroner was "puzzled by
the fact that a piece of string was found twisted around
Stephen's hands and tied in a reef knot, but he was told by
the police that Stephen could have done this himself". At
the time his wife and children were on holiday in the
Midlands whilst he redecorated the kitchen. Amongst the
unanswered questions of the case was that cigarettes were
found at the scene - although Stephen did not smoke - and a
brandy bottle was found in the dustbin - although he did not
drink spirits.
The
death of King Ghazi in 1939
Arab suspicion at the
involvement of the British Security services, notably MI6 in
the death of Princess
Diana is perhaps
based on more than general suspicion of the West, and the
belief that her relationship with Dodi was causing anguish
for the racists in the British Establishment.
In A Brief History of
Saddam's Iraq, (from Saddam Hussein: The Politics of
Revenge, by Said K Arubish in The Guardian,
January 22nd, 2000) one particular section stands out. We
are given a basic outline of the modern history of what was
called Mesopotamia, and was then occupied by the British
during World War One, who were 'given a mandate' (like with
KFOR in Kosovo
today) to rule it from 1920. By this time of course, Iraq
had assumed enormous strategic importance as it contained
some of the worlds greatest oil reserves. According to the
author:
Under King Faisal I
, who ruled from 1921 to 1933, the monarch had deputised
for the British, but his son, King Ghazi was totally anti
- British and instinctively populist. He was killed in
1939 in a mysterious car crash - a formative event for
Saddam Hussein, who grew up obsessed with avenging the
death of Ghazi. Like most Iraqi's, he blamed the British
and the Iraqi governing class for the death.
The article then goes on to
list the various woes that usually befall non-Western
countries with strategic reserves, especially of oil.
Saddam's route to power followed military coups and radical
purges of anyone considered to be tainted with communism,
and he effectively was consolidated as a dictator with the
backing of the Western powers, who were only too eager to
pay for their control of oil reserves with the blood of
those who originally lived there.
It is worth noting that Ghazi's
death in 1939, as someone opposed to British hegemony in the
Arab world, came on the brink of the War, the outcome of
which was decided almost as much at Al Alamein, as at Kursk
in 1943. His death can only be seen as benefiting the
British at the time, to judge the popular reaction as
reported in the article.
Obviously, the plan to kill
Milosevic as reported by Richard
Tomlinson, was not
the most original idea that had ever been hatched at
MI6.
Reference
1 Open Verdict: an Account
of 25 Mysterious Deaths in The Defence Industry. Tony
Collins, edited by Stephen Arkell. Sphere Books, London,
England, 1990.
© 1997
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