Hoje foi um
dia histórico, embora o facto deva passar despercebido a muita gente. Richard Dearlove, antigo director dos serviços secretos britânicos no exterior, MI6, esteve a testemunhar no inquérito à morte da princesa Diana, facto que representa uma novidade ímpar em relação à exposição pública do "Secret Intelligence Service" (SIS), conforme o próprio explicou:
"(...)
- Well, if you respond to an allegation, you create an expectation that you will always comment or question or answer a question when one is posed about the activities of the service. Therefore, in the interests of national security, the better choice is to say nothing, and that includes denying allegations, even though the allegations may be untrue. So it is a sensible policy which has been followed for a long time and has been endorsed by successive governments.
- Now you are here in part to deny the allegations, which would appear to be a departure from the usual policy.
- I am on this occasion. When matters of let's say grave concern arise, rare exceptions of policy are made, and obviously, in this particular instance in this court, I think one can understand why an exception is being made
(...)"
Como seria de esperar, houve diálogos bem interessantes e relevantes sobre as práticas dos serviços secretos no país da Sua Majestade, que, afinal, não são muito diferentes daquilo se suspeitava:
"(...)
- Can I ask you about how line management operated for people who were posted abroad? I would just like to lay a little bit of ground. We have heard from Sir Michael Jay as he was, Lord Jay now, that there were SIS officers posted to the Paris Embassy and he told us, I think, that it is called a 'station'. Would I be right in thinking that SIS has stations in a number of countries abroad?
- Let us say in a number of countries.
- It would be perhaps rather surprising if they did not?
- I think it would.
- And Paris was one of those where there was an SIS station?
- Yes. In this instance, I think we can acknowledge that.
- I do not think the world will stop rotating on that one, Sir Richard.
(...)
- Now how, in practical terms, did the process work? One imagines that there was an idea, somebody said -- let's take a hypothetical example. Somebody says, 'We need to break into this office to put a bug in there'. It is entirely hypothetical. How does it come up the chain and what is the recording of it and the process?
- There would be a plan written and described from the appropriate section. It would come up through several managerial filters as to whether the proposal was viable. That proposal would also have to include a passage of legal compliance. So there would be a reference as to whether the proposed act would be lawful under an ISA authorisation. When the paperwork was completed, in essence -- and I mean, this would apply, let's say, to an initiative overseas as much as to an initiative that was developed within head office -- and once those papers were completed, they would be signed off by, let's say, the senior regional official. They would come to me for further signature and then they would go down restricted channels to the Foreign Secretary.
- LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: You have not mentioned the ambassador of whichever place we are talking about.
- MR BURNETT: That was my next point, sir.
- If the proposal was originated in the field overseas, there would have to be a passage in that proposal which reported the ambassador's views, so that the local -- we have used the phrase already -- head of station would have had a discussion with the ambassador and the views of the ambassador would be included within the papers which would be sent by me to the Foreign Secretary.
(...)"
Nada supreeendente foi a negação de que o príncipe Filipe tem pouco contacto com o MI6: "It is completely off the map"...
"(...)
- Now, you are aware, aren't you, that it is suggested that the French security apparatus and the French police and the French medical services and the French pathological services -- I think that is all of the French -- were in on a plot of some sort which would suggest, Sir Richard, that you in MI6 or Prince Philip -- and we will come to him in a moment -- somehow could control the French state. Now I must give you an opportunity to comment on those allegations.
- Well, it is a mischievous and fanciful allegation.
- Can I turn to Prince Philip? Again, so that one understands what is being suggested, stripped to its bare bones, it is that Prince Philip was in a position to direct MI6 operationally and that he did so from Balmoral Castle, with the Prince of Wales' involvement, Lord Fellowes, Lord Jay, various others, and executed a conspiracy which resulted in the deaths of Dodi Al Fayed and the Princess of Wales. I am putting it simply and without any hyperbole. What was Prince Philip's relationship with the Secret Intelligence Service in the mid-1990s, but please cover the whole period if there is any difference?
- Absolutely nothing of substance. I say 'nothing of substance' because I think there were one or two occasions when he visited the service as Her Majesty's consort.
- Now, we have heard -- again, it would come as no surprise to anybody -- that the service would be involved in providing security advice for foreign visits of the Royal Family.
- Occasionally.
- But to the suggestion that --
- But I might say not directly. The security assessments would be gathered through the embassy to which the service might make a contribution.
- So to the suggestion that Prince Philip was an active operational member of MI6, what do you say?
- I can say nothing other than it is utterly ridiculous.
- Is the same true of Prince Charles?
- The same is true of Prince Charles.
- Now, it is suggested -- again, I try to strip it to the bare bones -- that Prince Philip and the intelligence agencies really run this country and that we are not a Parliamentary democracy at all. Again, I must give you an opportunity to comment on an allegation that you, as head of MI6, and no doubt your counterparts in the other agencies are in fact running this country behind the scenes with Prince Philip.
- I do not want to be flippant. I am tempted to say I am flattered, but once again, this is such an absurd allegation. It is difficult to deal with an allegation which is so absurd. It is completely off the map. I cannot think of any other way of saying it.
(...)"
A melhor parte, contudo, foi quando se discutiu o plano do atentado a Milosevic denunciado por um ex-agente do MI6, Richard Tomlinson. O antigo chefe dos serviços secretos confirmou a sua existência e apresentou uma justificação para o facto do mesmo nunca ter sido colocado em prática:
"(...)
- Well, the proposal was essentially rejected -- I would say killed stone dead -- by the officer's line managers on the basis that his idea was out of touch with service practice, service ethos and that it was not a proposal to which any serious consideration would be given.
(...)"
Uma resposta que mereceu uma observação assaz acertada e permitiu recordar um outro plano, este denunciado pelo ex-agente do MI5, David Shayler, que foi negado:
"(...)
- The question arises how, if you are right in saying that SIS does not contemplate assassination, one of its officers could have raised the possibility and committed it to writing in 1992 or 1993.
- A very unusual event, I agree, but the service does not control the thoughts of its officers and did not in this particular instance, clearly. But I think that the immediate reaction of the officer's line management to this suggestion shows a very consistent attitude to the issue of assassination which I have previously described. So the fact that the idea was so categorically rejected at a level immediately above the officer -- you know, it has not gone through stages upwards -- I think
5 indicates very clearly indeed what I have said about SIS's attitude to assassination and, by implication, Her Majesty's Government's attitude to assassination.
- Now, there is a very well-known allegation of planned assassination that I wish to ask you about. It has been suggested widely and publicly that, in February 1996, SIS conspired with one of its Libyan agents to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi. Now, first of all, just to locate that in time, you were head of operations at the time.
- I was indeed head of operations at the time.
- Were you the chief of the service when that allegation emerged publicly?
- Yes, I was.
- Is it true?
- No, it is not true, and I think one should add that -- this is an allegation that was made by a former Security Service officer, David Shayler. It was fully investigated by the Metropolitan Police, who sent a team into SIS. They were given full access, full cooperation, and it was shown as a result of their investigation that Shayler's allegations were without substance.
- Now, Shayler, you say, was a former Security Service officer; that is MI5 --
- MI5.
- -- not MI6, as it happens.
- Not MI6.
- So investigated by the Metropolitan Police?
- An independent police investigation, which was ordered by the Crown Prosecution Service.
(...)"
Finalmente, durante as palavras finais entre o representante legal de Al Fayed, Michael Mansfield, Richard Dearlove e o juiz Scott Baker, introduziu uma ideia que, creio, poderá vir a dar que falar...
"(...)
- The reason I am putting it to you, so that it is clear you see, I want to suggest that if there were elements of the security services who wanted to do something without your knowledge, it is not difficult. It was not difficult then, was it?
- It would be very difficult to do. You used the words, 'to do something'. I am not quite sure what you men by that, but it would be very difficult to do something, if not impossible, as I have described.
LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: But, Mr Mansfield, I thought Mr Al Fayed's whole case, if I can put it that way, is built on the fact that this was not something that was done without the knowledge of those running MI6; this was their scheme.
- MR MANSFIELD: Yes, I appreciate. May I make it very clear, Mr Fayed -- an observation was made yesterday -- has certain beliefs which he has made clear. He is plainly not a member of MI6 or, certainly, the establishment either. He has certain beliefs and I have never at any stage withdrawn any of his beliefs but you will see I have focused very carefully on elements of what he is suggesting that may be true; in other words, for which there is, forensically, evidence to support his beliefs. May I make it perfectly clear that this jury and you, sir, will not be just considering at the end of day in an inquest of this kind whether the beliefs as expressed by Mohamed Al Fayed are supported on every front. There are other possibilities --
- LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I am well aware of that --
- MR MANSFIELD: And this is one.
- LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: The other possibilities have to be supported by evidence. Well, everything has to be supported by evidence.
- MR MANSFIELD: I am only examining with this witness --
- LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: But there is a limit to how far you can dig on matters on which there is no evidence and not even an assertion.
- MR MANSFIELD: Well, there is evidence here, may I say straightaway and I am not dealing with assertion. We had a witness only this time last week who made it very clear that his belief was that the materials he had were relevant to what happened in Paris. Not only did he have that belief, he had obviously his experience and he went straight to the French authorities with it. Therefore, on the back of that, I am entitled to ask this witness, since there are obvious similarities, as he drew last week, to ask this jury to consider through you the possibility that elements within the security services, which again is consistent with Mohamed Al Fayed's belief, elements within the security services in 1997 were responsible not just for drawing up a plan but the possibility that in fact one or more of them may have been responsible for what happened.
- LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: So Prince Philip bypassed the top people and went to somebody else?
- MR MANSFIELD: No, sir. I do not have any evidence at the moment and I have made it very clear that there are all sorts of individuals that I have not accused of anything.
- LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, I have not stopped you yet but I am simply warning you that there is a limit to how far one can go on these things.
- MR MANSFIELD: Well, sir, I have kept it very contained so far and I have been very focused; I have come straight in on what the jury has heard.
(...)"
Fica o "link" para continuar a "assistir" ao
inquérito à morte da Princesa Diana.
Etiquetas: David Shayler, MI5, MI6, Princesa Diana, Richard Dearlove, Richard Tomlinson
