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FBI documents reveal plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II in 1983

The file refers to a club that “has a popular reputation as a republican bar that is frequented by sympathisers with the Provisional Irish Republican Army”…reports Asian Lite News

An FBI file relating to a visit to the US by the late Queen Elizabeth II has revealed a potential plot to assassinate her.

The document, available on the FBI’s online vault, outlines what appears to be intelligence provided to federal agents about a threat to the queen’s life in California 40 years ago.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, made an official visit to the US west coast in February and March 1983.

The file states that a phone call was made by “a man who claimed that his daughter had been killed in Northern Ireland by a rubber bullet”.

It adds: “This man additionally claimed that he was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge on to the royal yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite national park.”

The file refers to a club that “has a popular reputation as a republican bar that is frequented by sympathisers with the Provisional Irish Republican Army”.

Another document, among more than 100 pages published online by the FBI, this time relating to the queen’s state visit to the US in 1991, reveals concerns that Irish groups were planning to protest at the monarch’s attendance at a baseball game as well as a White House event. The information came from a Philadelphia Irish paper titled Irish Edition.

The file said: “The article stated anti-British feelings are running high as a result of well-publicised injustices inflicted on the Birmingham Six by the corrupt English judicial system and the recent rash of brutal murders of unarmed Irish nationalists in the six counties by loyalist death squads. Though the article contained no threats against the president or the queen, the statements could be viewed as being inflammatory. The article stated that an Irish group had reserved a large block of grandstand tickets.”

A separate file among the documents, dated 1989, said that while the FBI was unaware of any specific threats against the queen, “the possibility of threats against the British monarchy is ever present from the Irish Republican Army”.

The queen’s second cousin, Lord Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bombing in County Sligo in Ireland in 1979.

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FBI reveals plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II in 1983

The alleged threat came on February 4, 1983 — about a month ahead of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip’s visit to California….reports Asian Lite News

Newly released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents have revealed an alleged plot to assassinate the late Queen Elizabeth II while she was a visit to the US in 1983, the media reported on Friday.

On Monday, the FBI released a 102-page cache of files, which was uploaded on the agency’s information website Vault, relating to the late British monarch’s travels to the US, following her death last year, reports the BBC.

The documents were published after a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by American media outlets.

The assassination threat was made to a police officer in San Francisco, the files reveal.

Aan officer who frequented an Irish pub in San Francisco warned federal agents about a call from a man he had met at the venue.

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 alleged threat came on February 4, 1983 — about a month ahead of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip’s visit to California.

“He was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park,” the BBC quoted the document as saying.

In response to the threat, the Secret Service had planned to “close the walkways on the Golden Gate Bridge as the yacht nears”.

It is unclear what measures were taken at Yosemite, but the visit went ahead. No details of arrests were published by the FBI.

Many of the late Queen’s state visits to the US came during heightened tensions amid the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

In 1976, the late Queen was in New York City for America’s Bicentennial celebrations.

The documents reveal how a summons was issued to a pilot for flying a small plane over Battery Park with a sign that read “England, Get out of Ireland”.

The late monarch’s second cousin Lord Mountbatten was killed in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing off the coast of County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, in 1979.

Ahead of a personal visit by the late Queen to Kentucky in 1989, an internal FBI memo read “the possibility of threats against the British Monarchy is ever-present from the IRA”.

It continued that “Boston and New York are requested to remain alert for any threats against Queen Elizabeth II on the part of IRA members and immediately furnish same to Louisville,” in Kentucky, the BBC reported.

On a state visit in 1991, the late Queen was scheduled to see a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with then President George H. Bush.

The FBI warned the Secret Service that “Irish groups” were planning protests at the stadium and “an Irish group had reserved a large block of grandstand tickets” to the game.

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Top FBI official visits India, looks to boost cooperation

Garcetti arrived in India on Tuesday and met all the members of the Embassy…reports Asian Lite News

The assistant director of the International Operations Division of US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Raymond Duda, arrived in the national capital, New Dehli, on Tuesday and will advance the agency’s cooperation with law enforcement in India.

“A pleasure to welcome @FBI Assistant Director of International Operations, Raymond Duda, to New Delhi. During his visit, AD Duda will further the FBI’s cooperation with law enforcement agencies in India. International crime requires international cooperation,” US Embassy in India tweeted on his visit. Duda became the assistant director of the FBI’s International Operations Division in February 2022. He had most recently served at the assistant-director level at another agency in the U.S. Intelligence Community, according to the statement released by the FBI.

Duda joined the FBI as a special agent in 1991 and was assigned to work on bank and insurance fraud and other white-collar crimes in the Charlotte Field Office in North Carolina.

In 1995, he was transferred to the Charlotte Safe Streets Task Force, which focused on investigations of violent crimes. He was promoted to task force supervisor in 2005, and to the supervisor of Charlotte’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2008.

Meanwhile, US ambassador-designate Eric Garcetti, who assumed his office last week, welcomed his first guest in India.

Garcetti arrived in India on Tuesday and met all the members of the Embassy.

On Garcetti’s arrival in India, Indian Embassy in the US tweeted, “Namaste, Ambassador-Designate Eric Garcetti! We’re thrilled to welcome you to #IncredibleIndia and work with you to build even stronger ties between our two great nations.”

The Senate on March 15 (Local Time) confirmed the former mayor of Los Angeles, Eris Garcetti, to be the US ambassador to India.

Garcetti won the mandate by a vote of 52 to 42, a major victory for US President Joe Biden as well, who stuck by his political ally in the face of the allegations and the prolonged process that has left the world’s most populous democracies without US representatives.

After the result, Garcetti said in a statement, “I’m thrilled with today’s outcome, which was a decisive and bipartisan decision to fill a critical post that has been vacant for far too long. Now the hard work begins.” (ANI)

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Sikhs remains among most targeted for hate crimes: FBI

Anti-Black or African-American hate crimes continued to be the largest bias incident category, with 63.2 per cent of all single-bias incidents in 2021….reports Asian Lite News

A total of 1,005 hate crimes related to religion were reported in 2021 in the US with Sikhs being the most targeted religious groups, according to statistics revealed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Incidents related to religion comprised 14.2 per cent of incidents, the Hate Crime Statistics revealed.

The largest categories of religion-based crime included anti-Jewish incidents at 31.9 per cent followed by anti-Sikh incidents at 21.3 per cent.

While anti-Muslims accounted for 9.5 per cent of religion-based hate crimes, anti-Catholic incidents accounted for 6.1 per cent.

Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 7,262 total incidents and 9,024 victims, demonstrating that hate crimes remain a concern for communities across the country.

The overall number of agencies reporting decreased to 11,834, from 15,138 in 2021, so data cannot reliably be compared across years.

According to the 2021 data, 64.8 per cent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ bias toward race/ethnicity/ancestry, which continues to be the largest bias motivation category.

Anti-Black or African-American hate crimes continued to be the largest bias incident category, with 63.2 per cent of all single-bias incidents in 2021.

Additionally, anti-Asian incidents represented 4.3 per cent of incidents reported in 2021, the statistics revealed.

Together, incidents related to sexual orientation and gender identity represented 19.7 per cent of all single-bias cases reported in 2022.

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Additional Classified File Found at Pence’s Home

The search by FBI was reportedly not linked to other investigations into classified files, reports Asian Lite News

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found an additional classified file during a search of former US Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Indiana.

The search was conducted by FBI agents from Indianapolis and is not currently linked to other investigations into classified files, the BBC reported.

In a statement on Friday, Devin O’Malley, an adviser to Pence, said that the former Vice President agreed to the consensual search and the additional file were removed following “a thorough and unrestricted search”.

“The Department of Justice completed a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours and removed one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice-president’s counsel,” O’Malley added.

Friday’s development follows disclosures by Pence’s attorneys that they found “a small number” of classified files from his Vice-Presidency at the home last month.

This is also the latest development in a growing controversy over classified documents that has already embroiled both former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden.

Trump faces a criminal investigation for allegedly mishandling classified documents, while Biden faces a probe by the US Department of Justice.

To date, about 300 classified documents have been recovered from Mr Trump since his administration ended.

While Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he declassified any documents he took when he left the White House, Biden has said that his team did “what they should have done” by alerting officials immediately when classified files were found and that he is co-operating with the special counsel’s investigation, the BBC reported.

A spokesperson for Pence told CNN on Friday that he was away during the FBI search, though a private attorney was present at the house.

In January, representatives for Pence sent a letter to the National Archives — the US government agency that manages the preservation of presidential records — alerting them that they had found classified documents in his home.

Those materials have already been handed over to the FBI.

Classified records are supposed to go to the National Archives once an administration leaves office.

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USA

FBI concerned over secret Chinese ‘police stations’ in US

FBI Drector Christopher Wray, told senior politicians that the agency was monitoring reports of such centres across the country….reports Asian Lite News

The FBI is “concerned” over reports that secret “police stations” linked to China have been set up across the US, a report said.

A September report issued by the NGO Safeguard Defenders revealed that Chinese public security bureaus established the “overseas police service stations” in several continents, including two in London and one in Glasgow, the BBC reported.

In North America, it found stations in Toronto and in New York.

FBI Drector Christopher Wray, told senior politicians that the agency was monitoring reports of such centres across the country.



“We are aware of the existence of these stations. To me, it is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop, you know, in New York, let’s say, without proper coordination.

“It violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes,” he was quoted as saying

Asked if the stations violated US law, Wray said the FBI was “looking into the legal parameters”, reports the BBC.

The senior intelligence official was speaking at a US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, where he was grilled by senior lawmakers.

According to the NGO, the units were reportedly created to tackle transnational crime and to provide administrative services to Chinese nationals abroad, such as renewing drivers’ licences abroad and other consular services.

However, Safeguard Defenders said they also serve a “more sinister goal”, by contributing to “cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese”.

China has however, denied running the overseas stations, the BBC reported.

Wray further said the US had opened a number of charges related to the Chinese government harassing, stalking, monitoring and blackmailing people in the US who had been critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“It’s a real problem and something that we’re talking with our foreign partners about, as well, because we’re not the only country where this has occurred,” he added.

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‘FBI stole my passports during search’

The raid followed suspicions that Trump may have violated the Espionage Act and other laws by taking classified documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021…reports Asian Lite News

Donald Trump has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of stealing his passports during a recent search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump wrote on Monday on the Truth Social network he co-founded.

“This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”

It remains unclear why Trump only spoke out about this a week after the search of his property in Florida.

The raid followed suspicions that Trump may have violated the Espionage Act and other laws by taking classified documents from the White House when he left office in January 2021.

A court in Florida published the list of seized items as well as the search warrant last Friday at the request of US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The list of seized items includes documents and several boxes. Passports are not explicitly listed there.

Fact checkers at the Washington Post newspaper say Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements in his four-year term from 2017.

Trump and his Republican supporters say the raid was orchestrated by Democrats to deflect from President Joe Biden’s unpopularity. Trump is weighing another presidential bid in 2024.

Protest outside FBI office called off

A pro-Donald Trump protest outside the FBI office here was called off as reportedly no protester turned up fearing a trap.

The Sunday demonstration was first reportedly organised by one Adam Hardage, a far right outwinger, to “protest the out-of-control FBI and its actions” against ex-President Trump, media reports say.

A Sunday demonstration outside the headquarters in the nation’s capital was first promoted by the far-right Falun Gong-backed Epoch Times, who reported shortly after the August 8 raid at Trump’s Florida residence that a veteran named Adam Hardage had called for a demonstration on the following Sunday “to protest the out-of-control FBI and its actions against President Trump”.

The outlet later reported on Thursday, just a few days before the event was scheduled to happen, that it had been cancelled after conspiracies began speculating throughout pro-Trump media forums that the event was a “trap” and could perhaps be co-opted by the same agency the supporters were protesting.

Demonstrators in support of the “twice-impeached president” did manage to successfully gather outside the federal agency’s offices in Riverside, California, with approximately 50 people convening on Wednesday just two days after the raid adorned with “in Trump we trust” signs and MAGA flags and hats, according to the TV Network CBS.

The far-right backlash to the raid of the one-term president’s home has prompted both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue internal bulletins warning of the possible risk of violence targeting the government employees.

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-Top News China USA

FBI uncovers dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on US soil

Among the most alarming things the FBI uncovered pertains to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest.

A frenzy of counter-intelligence activity by the FBI and US other federal agencies has focused on what career security officials say has been a dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on American soil over the past decade.

Since at least 2017, federal officials have investigated Chinese land purchases near critical infrastructure, shut down a high-profile regional consulate believed by the US government to be a hotbed of Chinese spies and stone-walled what they saw as clear efforts to plant listening devices near sensitive military and government facilities, CNN reported.

Among the most alarming things the FBI uncovered pertains to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest.

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the FBI determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defence Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons, CNN reported.

While broad concerns about Huawei equipment near US military installations have been well known, the existence of this investigation and its findings have never been reported.?Its origins stretch back to at least the former Barack Obama administration.

It’s unclear if the intelligence community determined whether any data was actually intercepted and sent back to Beijing from these towers. Sources familiar with the issue say that from a technical standpoint, it’s incredibly difficult to prove a given package of data was stolen and sent overseas.

Photo taken in 2019 shows then U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, FBI Director Christopher Wray announcing 23 Criminal Charges Against China’s Huawei & Wanzhou Meng.

But multiple sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN that there’s no question the Huawei equipment has the ability to intercept not only commercial cell traffic but also the highly restricted airwaves used by the military and disrupt critical US Strategic Command communications, giving the Chinese government a potential window into America’s nuclear arsenal, CNN reported.

“This gets into some of the most sensitive things we do,” said one former FBI official with knowledge of the investigation.

“It would impact our ability for essentially command and control with the nuclear triad. That goes into the ‘BFD’ category. If it is possible for that to be disrupted, then that is a very bad day.”

However, the Chinese government strongly denies any efforts to spy on the US. Huawei in a statement to CNN also denied that its equipment is capable of operating in any communications spectrum allocated to the Defence Department. 

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FBI, MI5 chiefs warn of China threat

The Chinese government has a longstanding practice of hacking and stealing proprietary information to try to get an economic advantage…reports Asian Lite News

FBI Director Christopher Wray and United Kingdom MI5 Director General Ken McCallum have urged business leaders to be aware of the threat from the Chinese government and help the government agencies protect corporate secrets from theft by China.

Addressing business leaders in London, Wray said, “We consistently see that it’s the Chinese government that poses the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security, and by ‘our,’ I mean both of our nations, along with our allies in Europe and elsewhere.”

He said the Chinese government poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realize. “The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology–whatever it is that makes your industry tick–and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market. And they’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it,” he said.

Wray said China often disguises its hand in order to obtain influence and access where companies don’t suspect it. “Outside of China, their government uses elaborate shell games to disguise its efforts from foreign companies and from government investment-screening programs like CFIUS, America’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.”

Adding to what FBI Director, McCallum said most of what is at risk from Chinese Communist Party aggression is not, so to speak, my stuff. “It’s yours.” “The world-leading expertise, technology, research, and commercial advantage developed and held by people in this room, and others like you.”

The Chinese government has a longstanding practice of hacking and stealing proprietary information to try to get an economic advantage.

Wray also spoke about the China threat and emphasized the importance of partnerships to address it. This is the first time the two leaders have gathered to address a global threat with an audience of business and academic leaders.

“We’re not just in the business of articulating problems, we’re doing something about them, together with MI5, with the private sector itself, with other government partners,” Wray said.

Wray encouraged the business leaders to partner with the FBI and MI5 so they can have the appropriate intelligence about this threat. The information can also help companies decide whether partnering with China is worth the risk of having proprietary information stolen. Companies must take the long view in making decisions about China, just as the FBI and MI5 are approaching the threat from a long-term perspective.

“Maintaining a technological edge may do more to increase a company’s value than would partnering with a Chinese company to sell into that huge Chinese market, only to find the Chinese government and your ‘partner’ stealing and copying your innovation,” Wray said.

According to the FBI, the counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.

Confronting this threat is the FBI’s top counterintelligence priority. “To be clear, the adversary is not the Chinese people or people of Chinese descent or heritage. The threat comes from the programs and policies pursued by an authoritarian government,” according to the FBI.

The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favourable to China, according to US security agencies.

At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.

China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response. The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat. (ANI)

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‘Russian diplomats in US threatened by FBI, CIA’

According to the NDTV reports, The CIA, US Intelligence and the U.S. State Department did not respond to the allegations…reports Asian Lite News

Russia’s ambassador in US alleged that Russian diplomats in US are being threatened with violence and U.S. intelligence services try to establish contact with them.

Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said that since Russia invaded Ukraine, face-to-face meetings with U.S. officials had ended, NDTV reported.

“It’s like a besieged fortress. Basically, our embassy is operating in a hostile environment … Embassy employees are receiving threats, including threats of physical violence,” NDTV quoted him as saying.

“Agents from U.S. security services are hanging around outside the Russian embassy, handing out CIA and FBI phone numbers, which can be called to establish contact,” He added.

According to the NDTV reports, The CIA, US Intelligence and the U.S. State Department did not respond to the allegations.

Meanwhile, Moscow has demanded that the United States immediately stop persecuting Russian journalists and provide them with normal working conditions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.

“We demand that the trampling upon Russian journalists be immediately stopped and that they be allowed to work under normal conditions, in accordance with the standards of freedom of speech that Washington loves to tout so hypocritically,” Zakharova said in a statement.

The spokeswoman said that more restrictions are being constantly imposed on the Russian journalists accredited in the US to make their work more difficult or to intimidate them into leaving.

Zakharova said that the US continues its “Russophobic witch-hunt” of pressuring “unwanted journalists” using security services into covering events in a way that benefits Washington.

She noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently attempted twice to involve a head of a Russian correspondent office in Washington in “compromising cooperation,” saying it was yet another example of the unprecedented pressure Russian journalists have to face.

Meanwhile, the United States has targeted 8 Sberbank executives and 27 Gazprombank executives, as well as Moscow Industrial Bank and its ten subsidiaries in its latest sanctions package, the White House announced in its Fact Sheet on Sunday.

“The United States also sanctioned eight executives from Sberbank- the largest financial institution in Russia and uniquely important to the Russian economy, holding about a third of all bank assets in Russia; twenty-seven executives from Gazprombank – a prominent Russian bank facilitating business by Russia’s Gazprom, one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world; and Moscow Industrial Bank and its ten subsidiaries,” the Fact Sheet said.

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