FBI files reveal 1983 threat to kill Queen Elizabeth II during U.S. visit

LONDON The FBI uncovered a potential threat to kill Queen Elizabeth II during the 1980s while she was visiting the United States, files released online by the agency show.

The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, visited the United States from February to March 1983, at a time when Northern Ireland was experiencing a long period of sectarian violence known as the Troubles.

According to the 102-page document on the FBI'S online vault, the threat came in a phone call from a man who claimed his daughter had been killed by a rubber bullet fired by British forces in Northern Ireland.

The man said he “was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth” during her trip by dropping an object onto the royal yacht from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge or in an attack when she visited Yosemite National Park, the report said. The intelligence came via a police officer who frequented a pub popular with sympathizers of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA), the report added.

The files give an insight into the FBI'S efforts to manage risks arising from the monarch's private and public visits to the United States from the 1970s onward, and they note that “several anonymous threatening telephone calls” about her were made to local police.