INDEPTH: CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Some recent (theoretical) conspiracies
CBC News Online | Updated October 27, 2003
Six years after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, her former butler Paul Burrell has released a book he describes as "a loving tribute" to his former employer and confidante. Critics call it controversial. Even before the book's release in England, Diana's sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, said the book was a "cold and overt betrayal" of the princess and the Royal Family.
In the book, Burrell claims that 10 months before the crash Princess Diana had expressed fears that there was a plot to involve her in a car accident caused by brake failure. In a letter to Burrell she said she suspected there may have been someone plotting an accident "in order to make the path clear for (Prince) Charles to marry." Diana and Prince Charles were separated at the time; she was dating billionaire Dodi Fayed and he was seeing Camilla Parker Bowles.
Burrell now says the letter has haunted him ever since, particularly because it was so detailed. Diana feared such an accident would give her a head injury.
These revelations have led many conspiracy theorists to wonder if there was, indeed, a plot to end Diana's life. Conspiracy theories almost inevitably surface whenever a high-profile personality dies of anything but natural causes.
But conspiracy theories are not a new idea. Roughly 700 years before Diana's death, skeptics questioned the motives of the Knights Templar and drew nefarious conclusions.
The warrior monks possessed great military strength yet, during the Crusades, failed to save Jerusalem from Muslim forces.
This failure coupled with the Knights' great wealth and privilege led to accusations they weren't, as they claimed, dedicated to protecting Christendom.
So what were they really up to?
In 1307, Philip IV of France accused the Knights of heresy, "homosexual vices" and idol worship. He destroyed them.
Some sociologists describe conspiracy theories as illegitimate and pathological, threats to political stability. Others dismiss them as entertaining narratives, as populist expressions of democratic culture.
Some have pieces of supporting evidence, some can be discredited with only a little digging, yet continue to endure.
Whatever their function, conspiracy theories abound. Three events from the recent past have attracted many:
ASSASSINATION OF U.S. PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY (1963)
The 35th president of the United States introduced a "New Frontier" approach in dealing with problems at home, abroad and in space.
He also guided the country through a tense standoff with the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.
Kennedy was shot to death while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Tex., in November 1963.
The ink had barely dried on newspapers announcing the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald when skeptics began to wonder who had really killed the president.
Had Oswald acted alone, as law enforcement agencies and the government concluded, or had he acted in cahoots with others?
After examining the evidence, some skeptics concluded several forces had conspired to kill the charismatic president.
Some concluded he had been killed by forces that wanted the United States to become actively involved in the Vietnam War; at the time of his death, Kennedy was considering withdrawing personnel from the area.
Others believed the Mafia had killed him because his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was a relentless foe of organized crime.
Some conspiracy theorists saw a Cuba connection; Kennedy had supported the failed attempt by Cuban exiles to overthrow the Communist regime of Fidel Castro.
DEATH OF PRINCESS DIANA (1997)
Princess Diana captivated the world with her poise, charm and charity work, but wasn't much favoured by Britain's Royal Family, especially after she and Prince Charles divorced in 1996.
Not only did she publicly question his competence to ascend to the throne, she also started an affair with Emad Mohamed "Dodi" al-Fayed, whose brash, wealthy father had run afoul of the British establishment.
The couple died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Within hours, a theory surfaced about the Royal Family arranging the accident.
The theory seemed to gain credibility when some of Diana's private correspondence was published in October 2003.
In a letter written 10 months before her death and addressed to her butler, Diana claimed there was a plot to kill her in a car accident so that Charles would be free to marry again.
"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous," Diana reportedly wrote.
9/11 ATTACKS (2001)
A series of co-ordinated suicide attacks that involved the hijacking of four commercial jets killed approximately 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
The attacks also destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Five other buildings were destroyed or partially collapsed. The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., was seriously damaged.
The attacks prompted a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Some theorists have argued that U.S. President George Bush supported the attacks against his own country hoping they would provide the pretext for the War on Terrorism.
According to other theories, Jewish workers were warned not to go to work at the World Trade Center and important government officials were warned not to fly on aircraft whose flight path crossed through airspace over New York or Washington.
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