By Yagya Sharma
The man claimed he was going to attempt to harm the queen “by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the royal yacht.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released a cache of files relating to late Queen Elizabeth II’s travels to the US, and threats made to her during a 1983 visit to California.
The files showed how the FBI, which helped secure the monarch’s safety during her visits, was worried about threats made by the paramilitary group called Irish Republican Army (IRA).
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According to the investigation agency, the threat was made to a police officer in San Francisco, who frequented an Irish pub in the city. The files revealed that the officer warned federal agents about a call from a man he had met at the venue, reported the BBC.
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 ahead of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip’s visit to California. The queen and her husband visited the west coast of the United States in February and March that year.
Four years earlier in 1979, IRA paramilitaries opposed British rule in Northern Ireland and killed Louis Mountbatten, the last colonial governor of India and an uncle of Philip, in a bomb attack.
The file stated that the man claimed he was going to attempt to harm the queen “either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the royal yacht Britannia when it sails underneath”, reported South African broadcaster ENCA.
In response to the threat, the Secret Service had planned to “close the walkways on the Golden Gate Bridge as the yacht nears”. Alternatively he “would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park”, they added.
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