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Al Qaeda May Have Targeted Oscar-Winner Crowe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe said he may have been a target of an al Qaeda kidnap plot in early 2001, part of a bid by the militant network to "culturally destabilize" the United States.
The Australia-based Crowe told GQ magazine in an interview that he received FBI protection throughout the filming of "A Beautiful Mind" and for part of "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." He also was flanked by undercover agents at the Golden Globe awards ceremony in 2001.
When asked who might have been targeting him, Crowe replied: "Um ... well, that was the first conversation in my life that I'd heard the phrase al Qaeda."
New Zealand-born Crowe, who won the Best Actor Academy Award in 2001 for "Gladiator," said he was told a French policewoman in Libya or Algeria had picked up the threat in a recording.
"I don't think that I was the only person (targeted). But it was about -- and here's another little touch of irony -- it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan," he said.
Crowe said that at some point the FBI "thought the threat had probably or had possibly been overstated, and then they started to question their sources ... ."
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe said he may have been a target of an al Qaeda kidnap plot in early 2001, part of a bid by the militant network to "culturally destabilize" the United States.
The Australia-based Crowe told GQ magazine in an interview that he received FBI protection throughout the filming of "A Beautiful Mind" and for part of "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." He also was flanked by undercover agents at the Golden Globe awards ceremony in 2001.
When asked who might have been targeting him, Crowe replied: "Um ... well, that was the first conversation in my life that I'd heard the phrase al Qaeda."
New Zealand-born Crowe, who won the Best Actor Academy Award in 2001 for "Gladiator," said he was told a French policewoman in Libya or Algeria had picked up the threat in a recording.
"I don't think that I was the only person (targeted). But it was about -- and here's another little touch of irony -- it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan," he said.
Crowe said that at some point the FBI "thought the threat had probably or had possibly been overstated, and then they started to question their sources ... ."
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States.
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