FBI uncovers 1980s plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II

2023-05-26 08:09:00, Kuriozitete CNA

Queen Elizabeth II faced an assassination threat during a 1983 visit to the US, newly released FBI documents show.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released a dossier of files relating to the late queen's travels to the US following her death last year.

They show how the FBI, which helped ensure the monarch's security during her visits, was concerned about IRA threats.

The death threat was made to a San Francisco police officer.

According to the filing, an officer who frequented an Irish pub in San Francisco alerted federal agents to a phone call from a man he had met there.

The officer said the man told him he was seeking revenge for his daughter, who "had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet".

The threat came on February 4, 1983, about a month before Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip's visit to California.

"He would attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and do so by either dropping an object from the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia or attempting to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park," the document says.

In response to the threat, the Secret Service planned to "close the crossings on the Golden Gate Bridge as the yacht approached." It is unclear what measures were taken at Yosemite, but the visit continued. Details of the arrests were not released by the FBI.

The 102-page cache was uploaded to the Vault, the FBI's information site, on Monday following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by US media.

Many of the late Queen's state visits to the US, including a 1983 visit to the West Coast, came during heightened tensions amid the unrest in Northern Ireland.

In 1976, the late queen was in New York City for America's bicentennial celebrations.

Documents reveal how an invitation was issued to a pilot to fly a small plane over Battery Park with a sign reading "England, Get Out of Ireland".

The files show how the FBI was alert to what it considered to be the real potential of threats against the late queen.

Her second cousin Lord Mountbatten was killed in an IRA bombing off the coast of County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, in 1979.

Before a personal visit by the late queen to Kentucky in 1989, an internal FBI memo said "the possibility of threats against the British Monarchy is ever-present from the Irish Republican Army (IRA)".

Ai vazhdoi se "Bostonit dhe Nju Jorkut u kërkohet të qëndrojnë vigjilentë për çdo kërcënim kundër Mbretëreshës Elizabeth II nga ana e anëtarëve të IRA-s dhe menjëherë t'i dërgojnë të njëjtën gjë Louisville", në Kentaki.

Mbretëresha e ndjerë, e cila zotëronte kuaj garash, dihet se e ka vizituar Kentakin disa herë gjatë jetës së saj për të shijuar pamjet kryesore të kuajve të shtetit, përfshirë Derbin e Kentakit.

Në një vizitë shtetërore në vitin 1991, mbretëresha e ndjerë ishte planifikuar të shihte një lojë bejsbolli në Baltimore Orioles me Presidentin George H Bush.

FBI paralajmëroi Shërbimin Sekret se "grupet irlandeze" po planifikonin protesta në stadium dhe "një grup irlandez kishte rezervuar një bllok të madh të biletave të tribunës" për ndeshjen.

The bureau told NBC News that there may be "additional records" that exist in addition to those released this week, but it did not set a timetable for their release./ CNA.al