Assassination of Queen Elizabeth II was planned in the United States: FBI

Queen Elizabeth II received death threats when she visited the United States in 1983, according to recent documents released by the FBI. News BBC

Recently, the United States intelligence agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the FBI, has released several secret documents about the late Queen’s visit to the United States.

These documents show that the FBI, which was responsible for the security of the royal family, was very concerned about the threat from the Irish Republican Army-IRA.

The assassination threat came to a San Francisco police officer.

The officer, who frequented a San Francisco Irish pub, alerted detectives to a phone call he received from someone he knew there, according to documents.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip with security guards during a tour of Yosemite National Park

The police officer said the man told him he wanted revenge for the murder of his daughter, who had been ‘killed by a rubber bullet in Northern Ireland.’

The threat came on February 4, 1983, about a month before Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip arrived in California.

“He will try to harm Queen Elizabeth by dropping something from the Queen’s royal yacht Britannia under the Golden Gate Bridge, or trying to kill her when she visits Yosemite National Park,” the document said.

In response to this threat, the Secret Service ‘closed the Golden Gate Bridge walkway as the yacht approached.’ And it is not clear what action was taken at Yosemite Park, but the Queen visited there.

The FBI did not say whether anyone had been arrested.

The 102-page classified document was uploaded to the FBI’s information website, To the Vault, after some US media outlets filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

During many of the late Queen’s visits to the United States, including this one in 1983, there was tension surrounding the Northern Ireland crisis. In 1976, the Queen came to New York to attend the 200th anniversary of the United States.

The document also revealed how a pilot was ordered to fly a small plane over Battery Park, carrying the words ‘Leave England, Ireland’.

The FBI was on high alert at the time it considered a real threat against Queen, the file said.

Lord Mountbatten, a close relative of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, died in 1979 in an IRA bomb attack in County Sligo, Republic of Ireland.

Ahead of a private visit by the Queen to Kentucky in 1989, the FBI issued a memo at the time saying “threats against the British royal family from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) remain.”

It said ‘Boston and New York are being asked to be on alert for any threats against Queen Elizabeth II towards IRA-infested areas and Louisville.’

Queen had her own racehorses, and visited Kentucky several times during her lifetime to attend horse shows, including the Kentucky Derby.

Queen Elizabeth II used to come to Kentucky to watch the races

The Queen was scheduled to watch a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with President George H. Bush during a 1991 state visit.

At that time the FBI warned detectives that an ‘Irish group’ planned to protest at the stadium and that ‘an Irish group had purchased tickets for a large section of the grandstand.’

The FBI told NBC News that there may be more information beyond the documents released this week, but did not say when they would be released.