Bond Alter Egos Take Stand in Diana Inquest

Things are starting to take a turn for the Bond at the ongoing inquest into Princess Diana's death.

A female manager working for Britain's secret intelligence service, known as MI6, took the stand Tuesday and denied long-proffered claims by Mohamed Al Fayed that the agency had any files on either the late royal or Dodi Fayed, negating any possibility that the agency had any conspiracy-theorized plans in place to have the couple killed.

The agent, who added to the Bondsian nature of the proceedings by going only by the name Miss X, had the courtroom cleared of any non-essential personnel before testifying in the inquest in a bid to protect her identity.

While the attorneys, jury and courtroom staff remained in London's Royal Courts of Justice, reporters were only allowed to listen, not witness, her testimony in an annexed room.

While Fayed, the owner of Harrods department store and father of Dodi, has long claimed publicly that Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II, had ordered the assassination of Diana and Dodi, both of whom died in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, Miss X testified that an intensive search of the agency's database made her certain that there was "no plan whatsoever" in place.

Miss X, the first of 10 MI6 officers scheduled to testify this week, all of whom will be identified only by letters, said she conducted the search back in 2004, after officers from Operation Paget, the official Metropolitan Police investigation into the deaths, asked for relevant documents pertaining to the duo.

When Ian Burnett, the lead inquest attorney, asked whether there were any files or cards on either Diana or Dodi, Miss X replied, "Absolutely correct."

Burnett further pressed the issue, asking, "If, for the sake of argument there had been any plan at all involving Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, would that have been drawn up by your searches?"

"Yes, there was absolutely no plan whatsoever."

When asked similarly specific questions about monitoring or surveillance on the either or both members of the high-profile couple, Miss X said, "There was none."

She also took time out to clarify whether there were any files on Prince Philip or indeed any active member of the royal family, definitively stating that they do not keep tabs on the ruling family.

"I would just like to say at this stage, sir, we don't hold one, either files or cards, on the royal family. I could do a search on all of them."

One search that did drag up some information, however, was a search of Mohamed Al Fayed.

Miss X testified that a MI6 card containing private details about the businessman was created back in the 1980s, with his name also appearing in secure telegraphic messages between MI6 staff in as early as 1994.

While no information was given about the nature of the mentions of Fayed's name, back in the 1980s, he was the subject of a Department of Trade investigation after a company he and his brother bought out called foul on the Fayeds' past, claiming they lied about the extent and means of their wealth. Fayed has subsequently been denied a British passport by two successive British governments on the grounds that, per the Daily Telegraph, he was not of a good character.

Last week, Richard Dearlove, the former director of special operations and former head of MI6 who worked at the agency for 38 years and who was in charge at the time of Diana's death, adamantly testified that the intelligence agency did not assassinate anyone, royal or not, during his tenure—a statistic he would most certainly know.

During his testimony, Dearlove blew the lid off the rogue superspy persona crafted by Bond and countless other action heroes, claiming that for an agent to kill anyone, authorization would need to be agreed upon by a group of managers, with the death order being personally signed off on by him and, ultimately, the Foreign Secretary.

Testimony in the inquest is scheduled to resume on Wednesday. It was estimated this week that the inquest is expected to cost more than £10 million ($20 million U.S.), most of which will be footed by taxpayers.