http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/21/ndiana121.xm l
Ex-MI6 chief details Balkan assassination plan By Nick Allen and Gordon Rayner Last Updated: 12:51am GMT 21/02/2008 The former head of MI6 has admitted in court that a secret plan was drawn up to assassinate a Balkan leader suspected of genocide. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/exclusions/diana/nospl it/diana.xml> Diana, Princess of Wales inquest coverage in full Sir Richard Dearlove, the most senior spy to give evidence before a British jury, confirmed that MI6 was authorised to use "lethal force" against specific targets if it had ministerial approval. But, as he gave evidence at the inquest into the death of <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/20/ndiana120.x ml> Diana, Princess of Wales, he said assassination had never been used during his 38 years in the service, and denied "absolutely" that MI6 agents had murdered the Princess. Sir Richard, codenamed "C" during his time as head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, was defending the agency against allegations made by Mohamed Fayed and two former spies. Richard Tomlinson had claimed that MI6 had plotted to assassinate the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, while David Shayler has spoken in the past of a plot to kill Libya's president Col Muammar Gaddafi. Sir Richard confirmed that a plan to kill a Balkan leader during the war in 1993 was put down on paper by an agent, but said it was "killed stone dead" straight away. He said the target was not Milosevic, but would not be drawn on whether the planned victim had been the notorious Serbian warlord Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic), who was shot dead in 2000. There is no suggestion MI6 was involved. "An officer working in one of the sections to do with the Balkans had suggested the possibility of assassinating another political personality who was involved in ethnic cleansing," Sir Richard said. The idea was "out of touch with service practice, service ethos and it was not a proposal to which consideration would be given," he claimed. Sir Richard was MI6 director of operations when the Princess of Wales, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. He told the inquest that he felt the allegation of MI6 involvement in the Princess's death was a "very personal one" because he was responsible for all the agency's activities at the time. The inquest heard that under the laws governing MI6 provision was made for "lethal force" to be used but only with Government authorisation in times of emergency or crisis which caused danger to the UK or its citizens. Sir Richard said lethal force had never been authorised in his 38-year career at MI6. Sir Richard described how MI6 would require authorisation from the Foreign Secretary to carry out any operation that would involve breaking the law, such as bugging or assassination, even if the act was being carried out abroad. Sir Richard gave evidence two days after Dodi's <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/18/ndiana118.x ml> father alleged that his son and the Princess were "murdered" by MI6 on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh, Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales. He described the suggestion that the Duke was able to direct MI6 operationally from Balmoral and involve the French state in a cover-up as "mischievous and fanciful". The inquest continues.
