Liars & Traitors Everywhere

Princess Diana died five years ago this coming Saturday, and to commemorate her death, Ken Wharfe, a retired policeman who used to be a "trusted" bodyguard, is publishing his memoirs about his days with her. His fee is more than 30 pieces of silver, close to half a million greenbacks, actually. There's something very wrong here. Ex-Inspector Wharfe had the privileged position of personal protection officer, but he retired from the force three and a half weeks ago, thus making it hard for the fuzz to do anything about his indiscretions. Exactly what action can be taken against this Judas is unclear. A furious Prince Charles has demanded that Scotland Yard take action, but unless the Yard can extract a financial penalty through Wharfe's pension, they may as well be whistling "Dixie." Wharfe is not only a Judas, he's also a liar. I will not repeat the crap he writes about Diana, but police bodyguards do not have access to, say, whether a lady carries a vibrator in her toiletry bag, as this scumbag claims. The Murdoch rag that is paying Wharfe the money is as guilty as he is. None of the so-called journalists in British rags have ever had any kind of access to the royals-or to society, for that matter. Unlike, say, Richard Johnson or Liz Smith, who are wined and dined by American society wannabes and have access to the rich and famous, English toffs are terra incognita to journalists in general and gossip columnists in particular. So what the hacks do is make it up.

Having lived and worked in England for 30 years, it is my misfortune to know most of these reptiles. Never have I come across a lower species than them, and believe you me, I've met some pretty ghastly people in my time. I was a friend of Diana toward the end of her life. I never saw the wild mood swings and sexual promiscuity attributed to her by lowlifes who never got within 10 yards of her. Oliver Hoare, the man she supposedly hounded with hundreds of telephone calls, is a very old friend, as is his French wife Diane. He did call the cops because his telephone did ring nonstop, and the calls were traced back to Kensington Palace, where Diana lived, but in my not-so-humble opinion they were part of the dirty-tricks campaign being waged between Diana's civil servants and those of Prince Charles. The couple had separated, and their courtiers were trying to establish their turf. Discrediting the opposition is the oldest trick in palace turf wars.

So a pretty blonde mother of two gets killed in an underpass by a drunken chauffeur, and a seedy cop gets rich by inventing all sorts of dirt. Wharfe was taken off the duty of guarding Diana in 1993-he officially "resigned"-because she never trusted him. It seems he was intrusive. He now has his revenge.

What a horrible world Murdoch and his ilk have created, where a man can get rich by publishing lies about an innocent girl who got in over her head at the tender age of 19. The last refuge of a scoundrel is freedom of speech.

And speaking of scoundrels, ex-presidents have written books, given lectures and continued to participate in public life, but none has come back as a popular entertainer. Trailer-trash Bill Clinton might, and I think the Jerry Springer role would suit him perfectly. This is the triumph of the lowest common denominator, period. Mind you, I don't think Clinton has the discipline to go through the rigors of being a host of a talk show, even for the $100 million that he's asking. But the network that pays that kind of moolah for the services of a proven liar and perjurer should be targeted by all those who believe crime should not pay, which is a large number of the American people. Let CBS pay the scoundrel all he wants, and then let those who like female mud wrestling tune in. And while we're at it, let's boycott those who advertise on the Bill Clinton horror show.

When I was a struggling reporter in the Middle East following the Six Day War, I met a wonderful Egyptian, Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, who befriended me after Arnaud de Borchgrave introduced us, and clued me in to Middle East intrigues. He was an intellectual and from a very old and noble family, but nevertheless a lefty. Mohamed was of course anti-Israel, but also anti-Nasser, believing that Pan-Arabism did not work. He was, of course, right, although Nasser's heart was in the right place.

Nasser was one of the very few Arab leaders who was not personally corrupt, but his policies almost did Egypt in. When the war began in June of 1967, Israeli agents within the United States government suckered King Hussein to join in, wiping out the gallant Arab legion in the process, and losing the West Bank and Jerusalem. Hussein would never have believed Nasser when the latter rang him and told him that Egyptian aircraft had taken to the air and were about to bomb Tel Aviv. Egypt lost all its aircraft in the opening hour of the war, Israel having caught them on the ground. The Americans confirmed Nasser's bull, and the little King gave the go-ahead.

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed opened my eyes to Israeli brilliance where disinformation was and is concerned. He also was the first to suspect that Abu Nidal, the most notorious terrorist of the 20th century, was an Israeli agent. In its long war against Palestinian nationalism, Israel managed to infiltrate every faction and recruit a veritable army of Palestinian informers and collaborators. Abu Nidal became Israel's prime instrument for convincing the world that all Palestinians were terrorists. After Menachem Begin-an ex-terrorist himself-became Israel's prime minister in 1977, Abu Nidal began murdering every Palestinian moderate, the very people Begin was afraid of because they accepted a two-state solution.

It does not take a genius to see through Nidal. Although he did attack a few soft Jewish targets such as the El-Al counters in Vienna and Rome, Israel never really went after him. No one killed more moderate and worthy Palestinians than Abu Nidal did, a fact that suited "greater Israel" proponents such as Begin and Sharon.

The Iraqis obviously got rid of him because he could no longer serve any purpose. Nor could Israel use him. He was a busted flush, but some of us knew what he was up to 25 years ago. Not that any of these great American pundits blowing hot air on the idiot box ever bothered to check out Nidal. He was a Palestinian terrorist, just like all the Palestinians. It plays well in Peoria, but also in Los Angeles, Washington and in the Big Bagel. I wonder if my friend Mohamed is still alive, and if he is, what he thinks of Abu Nidal's "suicide."