21 February 2008

Related:

Richard Tomlinson's MI6 Directory: http://richardtomlinson.6x.to/
276 Unique Names of MI6 Officers: http://cryptome.org/mi6-list-276.htm

A writes:

Next week a number of SIS [MI6] officers are listed to give evidence to the
Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed inquest in London. They will
be called by names such as 'A', 'E', etc.

Operational Note by the Coroner on the SIS witnesses:

http://www.scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk/press_notices/0408.htm

Schedule of their planned appearances:

http://www.scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk/sitting_days/index.htm

These witnesses will be questioned about a proposal by one of them to
assassinate someone in a road tunnel - a person who was originally
identified as Slobodan Milosevic, but appears now (although not with
complete certainty) to have been another, unnamed, Serbian figure.

References to peace talks etc. suggest that this unnamed figure, whose
name has been redacted from certain materials provided to the interested
parties at the inquest, was Radovan Karadjic. However, it is still
possible that the actual named target was Milosevic.

Some of the SIS officers' identities can be deduced from Richard
Tomlinson's letter to his solicitor, available here:

http://www.inside-news.ch/shayler/!milosev.htm,

in which he writes that:

    "The minute was approximately 2 pages long, and had a yellow minute card
    attached to it which signified that it was an accountable document
    rather than a draft proposal. It was entitled "The need to assassinate
    President Milosevic of Serbia". In the distribution list in the margin
    were P4 (Head of Balkan operations, then Maurice Kendwrick-Piercey),
    SBO1/T (Security officer responsible for eastern European operations,
    then John Ridd), C/CEE (Controller of east European operations, then
    Richard Fletcher or possibly Andrew Fulton), MODA/SO (The SAS liaison
    officer attached to MI6, then Major Glynne Evans), and H/SECT (the
    private secretary to Sir Colin McColl, then Alan Petty)." 

Going by the transcript of evidence given to the inquest on 20 Feb by
the guy who was head of SIS operations at the time of the car crash in
Paris, and who later became Chief

http://www.scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk/hearing_transcripts/200208pm.htm,

it is possible to make the following identifications of next week's
witnesses:

    A is Nicholas Fishwick, the guy who made the proposal
    E is Richard Fletcher or possibly Andrew Fulton
    G is SIS officer John Ridd
    H is very probably Maurice Kendwrick-Piercey 

Whether all individuals mentioned in the quoted paragraph by Tomlinson
were interviewed for the purposes of the inquest, and whether they will
all be called as witnesses to the inquest, remains unclear. Evidence
from the SAS liaison officer (the SAS, as well as doing other things,
provides special forces personnel to carry out such jobs for SIS) would
be particularly interesting.

The 'Times' quotes Lord Foulkes, a member of the Intelligence and
Security Committee, as saying "the coroner should now seriously consider
stopping the inquest."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3406344.ece

It remains to be seen whether this sort of commenting on a matter
currently ongoing before a court - and which is no business of the
executive or the legislature - will spread?