Was Princess Diana Murdered by the British Military?

Conspiracy theorists will be having a field day as reports come out that Scotland Yard is investigating claims that Princess Diana was assassinated by the British military.  Odds are the truth will never be known and the real circumstances of Diana's death will be the subject of endless speculation just as with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The Daily Beast looks at the latest news on this legend that will likely endure no matter what findings are made.  Here are highlights:

Sixteen years after a fatal car crash in a Parisian tunnel, some argue that questions still remain over the cause of a collision that killed Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul. Fayed’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, and a host of conspiracy theorists have claimed that the British military or the royal family were behind the crash.

Since the closure of a formal inquiry into her death, the British police have not considered any of the theories worthy of investigation, until now.

The latest claims originate from the family of a star witness who appeared in a recent court case involving members of the elite SAS Special Forces unit. In a letter written by the estranged in-laws of a man known only as “Soldier N,” it is claimed that the ex-Special Forces operative had boasted that the SAS “was behind Princess Diana’s death” in conversations with his ex-wife.

The allegations will be examined by specialist officers at Scotland Yard, according to a spokesman who said: "The Metropolitan Police Service is scoping information that has recently been received in relation to the deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility.”

The letter in question, which has been seen by Britain’s Sunday People newspaper, does not include any first-hand evidence. A senior military official told me there were serious doubts over the source of the claims. “This allegation was made after a marriage had broken down, based purely on comments that were, rightly or wrongly, taken seriously. That’s if they were ever said at all,” he said. “The case of Princess Diana has had a lot of conspiracy theories bandied about around it—and I’m sure this won’t be the last.”

The first of those conspiracy theories emerged in August 1997, within hours of a black Mercedes 280-S striking the 13th pillar of the Pont de l'Alma road bridge near the river Seine in Paris. The shocking death of Diana, who was 36 at the time, prompted an unprecedented outpouring of public grief in Britain led by Tony Blair, the newly elected prime minister.

Al Fayed claimed that his son and Diana were killed by the British military at the behest of the royal family because they wanted to ensure the couple would never be married. He claimed Diana was pregnant with his son’s child and the royal family was horrified by the prospect of a union with a Muslim family. The former owner of Harrods alleged that the Queen’s husband had instructed MI6 to carry out the hit. “Prince Philip is the one responsible for giving the order,” he said. “He is very racist. He is of German blood, and I'm sure he is a Nazi sympathizer.”

Diana herself had apparently feared that members of the royal family were plotting to murder her.  A decade after her death, it emerged that she had sent a letter to her butler, Paul Burrell, in which she claimed that Prince Charles was planning to have her killed.

As noted, we probably never really feel we know for certain what happend.