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Al-Qaeda plot to kidnap actor
 In one of the more bizarre terror plots hatched by al-Qaeda, Australian actor Russell Crowe was the target of a kidnapping scheme as part of a "cultural destabilisation plan". Crowe has revealed he was approached by the FBI in the months leading up to his Academy Award win for Gladiator in 2001 and warned, vaguely, of the threat: "That was the first [time] I'd ever heard the phrase al-Qaeda. It was about - and here's another little touch of irony - taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural destabilisation plan."Detectives guarded the actor at the London premiere of Proof Of Life and FBI agents shadowed him at the Golden Globe. The FBI continued their protection through filming of A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander. He also hired his own private security detail. He said in an interview for the March edition of GQ magazine: "I never fully understood what the f... was going on. Suddenly, it looks like I think I'm f...ing Elvis Presley, because everywhere I go there are all these FBI guys around." The original threat was received just before the Golden Globe awards on January 21st where Crowe lost out to Castaway's Tom Hanks for the top award before winning the Oscar. An FBI spokesman said at the time: "We received word of a possible kidnap attempt . . . we regard this as a serious matter." Posted by: tipper 2005-03-07 |
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