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Pamella Bordes & Her Friend From Libya

The Evening Standard 17-03-1989

This story was investigated & researched by Christopher Long from October 1988 to March 1989, provided exclusively to the Evening Standard (for 17-03-89) and to the Daily Express (for 18-03-89). The bulk of the story was dictated to reporter Stewart Payne, following up the Paris connection, and then filed by him to London.

Pamella Bordes, the alleged high society prostitute who has dated a Government Minister, is believed to have close social links with one of revolutionary Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffy's closest aides.

The revelation adds a new dimension to the security row over how Indian-born Miss Bordes succeeded in obtaining a House of Commons pass to work for a Tory MP as a research assistant.

And it is a further embarrassment to Sports Minister Colin Moynihan who took the 27 year-old former Miss India model to a Conservative Winter Ball.

Miss Bordes made regular trips to Paris where she socialised with Ahmed Gadaff Al Daim, a high-ranking major in the Libyan security service and a cousin of the Libyan leader. She is also said to have made a number of social visits to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, by private jet.

The news will have grave security implications for the British Government.

The information comes from a close girlfriend of Miss Bordes. The two women have mixed in the same social circles in London and are both Asian.

Mr Ahmed Gadaff Al Daim is already well known to Western security agencies, including Britain. A handsome 36 year-old, Mr Al Daim is a feared figure among the Libyan exile community living in Britain.

He has visited London but not since Britain broke off all diplomatic ties with Libya after the embassy siege and the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in April 1984.

But a security source has confirmed to the Standard that his movements are monitored in the West and it is known he is frequently in Paris.

The Standard has confirmed that he is a regular visitor at one of Paris's most luxurious and expensive hotels, where Miss Bordes has also stayed, according to her friend.

At the hotel today, mention of Mr Al Daim's name brought a look of alarm to the manager's face.

"If you know who he is, you must understand why I do not want to say anything about him. He is a very powerful man and I do not want to get into trouble.

"He is not staying here at the moment but he is one of our most regular guests."

Asked about friends, the manager smiled and said: "He is always with beautiful girls. But he is very discreet. We never ask who they are and he certainly never tells us."

At the concierge's office, his name is immediately recognised although he has not been seen this week.

According to the friend, Miss Bordes has also stayed at this hotel.

The two women became friends about four years ago. Miss Bordes comes from Rajasthan in Northern India and the friend from Calcutta. The two visited each other's London home, attended the same parties and frequently went to a private London health club.

It was there that Miss Bordes would boast of her social conquests and let slip her friendship with Mr Al Daim.

The friend said: "Pamella is a small-time Indian girl who discovered early on how to manipulate and use men. Now she has hit the headlines, she has got what she always wanted – fame".

She said Miss Bordes acquired her first taste of the high life when she won a Miss India contest about seven years ago. From that point, she vowed never to return to village life in India but to seek instead the bright lights and wealthy people to be found in Western capitals.

The Miss India contest was held by a Bombay-based magazine and it gave Miss Bordes access to the Miss Universe competition in Lima.

She was unplaced but went on to New York where she got a job working for an advertising agency. "There she was spoilt by the attention of rich men," said the friend. Soon her social circle included arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and the Emir of Qatar.

At some stage afterwards she went to Japan and then to Britain where an early boyfriend was a convicted arms dealer.

This man worked in Paris and it was there she met her husband-to-be, Henri Bordes. They are now separated.

By the autumn of last year, Miss Bordes was telling her friend of her frequent trips to Paris to meet the cousin of Col. Gadaffy.

She gave no clue to the purpose of their meetings but gave the friend the impression that it was a "personal relationship".

But the friend said that Miss Bordes's main ambition was to be seen in the company of wealthy and influential men. "That was her ambition."

Mis Bordes comes from Jaipur, 250 miles west of Delhi. Pamela Singh, as she then was, went to the Marharami Dyatri Davi school in Jaipur, until 1979 when she transferred to the Lady Sri Ram College in Delhi to study literature.

A college friend said: "She was embarrassingly forthright and somewhat headstrong."

Miss Bordes has been dominating the headlines since the allegation five days ago that she was a prostitute.

But her stormy relationship with Sunday Times editor Mr Andrew Neil had already made the diary pages and she was widely photographed attending the Conservative Winter Ball with Mr Moynihan last month.

It is now known that she was able to get a Commons security pass to work as a research assistant for Dover MP, Mr David Shaw with the help of fellow Tory MP, Henry Bellingham.

Mr Bellingham has said that he provided her with the pass to help his colleague and that both men had vetted her.

Mr Shaw was totally unaware today of any links Miss Bordes may have had with the Libyan major.

He said he had been assured by the Commons authorities that she had been checked out in the normal fashion, which is understood to include a full vetting by the security services.

"From my point of view, this has all become too silly for words. My job was to clear her with security, which I did or Henry Bellingham did and for whom I take responsibility."

Subsequently Miss Bordes was reported to have said that her story, if told in full, could bring down the government.

© (1989) Christopher Long. Copyright, Syndication & All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
The text and graphical content of this and linked documents are the copyright of their author and or creator and site designer, Christopher Long, unless otherwise stated. No publication, reproduction or exploitation of this material may be made in any form prior to clear written agreement of terms with the author or his agents.

Christopher Long

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