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744. Date: June 13, 1998
Target: President Bill Clinton
Location: Eugene, Oregon
Details: Prior to Clinton visiting Eugene, advance teams located two bombs in a culvert near the airport where Clinton would arrive, and detonated both bombs. An anonymous phone tip warned police of the devices. The caller was arrested after police played a tape of the threat over the radio station, and relatives of the man recognized his voice. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
745. Date: June 20, 1998
Target: Joint Chiefs Chairman Henry Shelton
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Details: Shelton was dining at a restaurant with his wife and several military attaches. An alert bodyguard noticed a suspicious group of men who appeared to have the restaurant staked out. He warned Shelton, and Shelton's group slipped out another entrance, avoiding the men.
746. Date: June 26, 1998
Target: Attorney General Janet Reno
Location: Newark, New Jersey
Details: A manager of an electronics store was arrested in a plot to assassinate Reno for prosecuting the World Trade Center bombers. The man was from the Middle East and was believed to belong to a terrorist group.
747. Date: June 27, 1998
Target: U.S. Ambassador
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Details: Thai police and FBI agents arrested four Pakistani nationals who plotted to assassinate the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy. The group had a $27,000 contract from an Iran-based terrorist group.
748. Date: July 5, 1998
Target: President Ernesto Samper
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Details: A leftist rebel group planned to assassinate Samper while he visited war-torn Segovia. The attack was canceled because crowds surrounded Samper during his visit.
749. Date: July 14, 1998
Target: President Bill Clinton
Location: Brownsville, Texas
Details: Three men linked with the Republic of Texas group were arrested in a plot to shoot Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI Director Louis Freeh, and other state and local officials. The men reportedly planned to modify cigarette lighters to shoot cactus thorns laced with the AIDS virus, anthrax, botulism, or rabies. They had sent a "Declaration of War" to Clinton and others by e-mail.
750. Date: July 16, 1998
Target: Defense Minister Dag Jostein Fjaervoll
Location: Oslo, Norway
Details: Police removed a 500-gram bomb from under FjaervoH's car. The detonator was missing and may have fallen off. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
751. Date: August 10, 1998
Target: President Fidel Castro
Location: Miami, Florida
Details: Police arrested Cuban exiles that were plotting to kill Castro during his trip to the Dominican Republic.
752. Date: February 1999
Target: President Bill Clinton
Location: Pakistan
Details: Osama bin Laden reportedly planned to kill Clinton during his visit to Pakistan. The plot failed when Clinton canceled the trip. It was bin Laden's second attempt to assassinate Clinton.
753. Date: May 3, 1999
Target: Prime Minister Tony Blair
Location: Skopje, Macedonia
Details: The Yugoslav army's chief of staff, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, revealed that he was ordered by Slobodan Milosevic to assassinate Blair during his visit to refugees in 1999. The plot called for Pavkovic's team to shoot down Blair's Puma helicopter as it arrived at the airport, using an Orkan Hurricane multiple rocket launcher system capable of firing 288 bomblets. Pavkovic said he had a similar opportunity to assassinate Hillary Clinton when she visited refugees a few days after Blair. Pavkovic stated they decided not to carry out the attacks for fear of retribution.
754. Date: May 24, 1999
Target: President Eduard Shevardnadze
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Details: Police arrested ten people in a plot to assassinate Shevardnadze. The plotters planned to seize the presidential residence, Parliament, and a television station. A large cache of weapons, machine guns, sniper rifles, grenades and grenade launchers was confiscated.
755. Date: June 16, 1999
Target: Unnamed Judge
Location: Fargo, North Dakota
Details: Jeffrey D. Maasjo was arrested in a courthouse parking lot. He had in his car an assault rifle, 230 rounds of ammunition, a number of smoke grenades, and material for making pipe bombs. Maasjo had been arrested earlier in the month for pulling a knife on a sheriff's deputy who was arresting him for being AWOL from the Marines. Maasjo was upset his knife was not returned to him. He told police he planned to confront the judge who had presided over the case. He also initially told police he had planted pipe bombs around the courthouse, but later recanted. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
756. Date: November 5, 1999
Target: Judges of Jefferson County, Colorado
Location: Tampa, Florida
Details: FBI agents found materials to make a deadly agent, while searching the home of a man arrested for threatening judges. The man had inert ingredients to make ricin, a highly toxic, powdery substance derived from castor beans or rosary peas. He also had test tubes and beakers. The man had reportedly sent a rambling, ten-page note to a Colorado Court of Appeals judge in which he threatened to wage biological warfare on Colorado's Jefferson County justice center. One county judge was mentioned by name, and the man referred to the possible use of ricin. He said he would "be able to do with a briefcase what it took Timothy McVeigh a truckload of explosives to do in Oklahoma City," a reference to the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people. An FBI-led anti-terrorism task force arrested the man.
757. Date: November 25, 1999
Target: President Mohammad Khatami
Location: Tehran, Iran
Details: Intelligence officials arrested 34 members of a religious extremist group, thwarting plans to assassinate Khatami and other top officials. The group stole weapons and ammunition from militia bases and created overseas networks to provide logistical and financial support for its campaign. Assassination targets included Khatami, former President Rafsanjani, former Tehran judiciary head Ali Razini, and former judiciary head Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi. Razini was badly wounded in a failed assassination attempt in January, and a bystander was killed, with four others wounded.
758. Date: August 1, 2000
Target: Judge Ricardo Farias and Judge Alberto Banos
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Details: A police bomb unit found two package bombs near a courtroom where a prison corruption case was being tried. One package was found outside the courtroom of Judge Farias, who was hearing the case with Banos. During the investigation, a member of a crime ring confessed to Banos he had been released from prison in order to assassinate him. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
759. Date: September 7, 2000
Target: Judge Baltasar Garzon
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Details: Armed Basque ETA terrorists planned to kill Garzon, but police received a tip and prevented the attack.
760. Date: September 20, 2000
Target: Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo
Location: Grozny, Chechnya
Details: Russian security forces foiled several attempts to kill Rushailo during his visit to Chechnya. Explosive devices were found in buildings where he was set to travel, and defused by police. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
761. Date: October 5, 2000
Target: Tourism Minister S.B. Semasinghe
Location: Medawachchiya, Sri Lanka
Details: Semasinghe had
just left an election rally when police approached a suspicious looking rally attendee. The man was a suicide bomber and detonated the device when police attempted to frisk him. The blast killed 10 and injured more than 50.
762. Date: October 7, 2000
Target: Spanish Army Officer
Location: Cadiz, Spain
Details: While driving on the highway, the army officer heard a strange noise coming from under his seat, and found a bomb stuffed underneath it. Explosives experts carried out a controlled detonation of the device. The Basque separatist group ETA was blamed.
763. Date: October 19, 2000
Target: Singing group 'N Sync
Location: Gallatin, Tennessee
Details: The mother of a teenage boy became suspicious of her son's behavior and searched his room. She found a folder entitled "Operation Death Strike," which contained a plan to carry out an attack on the 'N Sync band members. The plan included robbing a Nashville gun store to obtain weapons, then driving to Atlanta where the band was scheduled to appear. Police picked up the boy and held him for psychiatric evaluation.
764. Date: November 24, 2000
Target: Former Town Councilor Miguel Angel Ruiz de Langarica
Location: Pamplona, Spain
Details: Police thwarted an assassination attempt by the Basque separatist group ETA, arresting a gunman who was reportedly about to carry out the attack. A second suspect managed to escape. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
765. Date: January 4, 2001
Target: Chief Administrator Akhmed Kadyrov
Location: Bachi-Yurt, Chechnya
Details: Kadyrov's bodyguards, in a lead vehicle for his motorcade, noticed a suspicious mound on the side of the road. They stopped the vehicles, approached the mound, found two armed men hiding under the dirt, and killed them in a firefight. Farther along the road, the bodyguards found an anti-tank mine that the attackers apparently intended to trigger with electrical cables. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
766. Date: March 2001
Target: Governor Gary Locke
Location: Olympia, Washington
Details: An investigation on James D. Brailey Jr. began in March 2001 when an informant told FBI officials that Brailey planned to kill Locke, a Chinese-American. Brailey was a member of the Jural Society, a loosely organized group whose members oppose state and federal government. The society holds its own secret elections for state office, and in 1998 elected Brailey as "governor of Washington." Brailey was arrested for federal weapons violations on January 16, 2003.
767. Date: June 20, 2001
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Genoa, Italy
Details: Al-Qaeda terrorists reportedly plotted to assassinate Bush during his attendance at the G-8 Summit. The plot involved crashing small remote-controlled airplanes loaded with explosives into the compound. Security at the summit was very tight, airspace over the event was closed, and agents with anti-aircraft missiles were stationed around the site.
768. Date: October 2001
Target: Former President Bill Clinton
Location: Harlem, New York
Details: Fifteen vials containing an unknown substance arrived in a package at Clinton's office in Harlem. The package was addressed to Clinton at the White House, where it went through the standard X-ray process before it was forwarded to Clinton's office. The package was postmarked in Japan, and included a note written in Japanese on rice paper. Tests revealed that two of the vials contained salmonella, although it was not cultured and the result of fermentation. Clinton did not open the package and no one was exposed.
769. Date: December 6, 2001
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Secret Service officers noticed a man acting in a suspicious manner outside the Southwest Gate of the White House, patted him down, and found a large knife. The man then led officers to his Dodge pickup truck with Idaho license plates parked across from the U.S. Treasury Building. Inside the truck, officers found an assault rifle on the front seat, another rifle with a scope, a bullet-resistant vest, a Kevlar helmet, and a handgun. The man was taken into custody and charged. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)
770. Date: February 28, 2002
Target: Public officials
Location: Kalispell, Montana
Details: A militia group called Project Seven planned to kill enough judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers to force the state to activate the National Guard, and then kill enough National Guard troops to catch the federal government's attention. The group had collected intelligence files on the targeted officials and their families. The files were found, along with weapons, ammunition, survival equipment, booby traps, body armor, explosives, and bomb-making equipment, when police arrested the ringleader after an armed standoff that lasted seven hours. The group's leader had tried to fake his death and go into hiding after a judge ordered him to stand trial for assaulting an officer and obstructing a police officer in November 2001. An informant led police to his safe house.
771. Date: April 27, 2002
Target: President Pervez Musharraf
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
Details: Five Islamic militants were arrested for plotting to kill Musharraf with assault rifles and hand grenades, at a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the Lyari Expressway outside a naval base. The plan went awry when Musharraf showed up three hours late for the event. In another case, three militants planned to kill Musharraf with a car bomb on April 26. When that plan was aborted, the same explosives-packed vehicle was detonated outside the U.S. Consulate on June 14, killing 12 Pakistanis.
772. Date: May 14, 2002
Target: Governor Jane Hull and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Details: A career criminal, a prison chaplain, and a sex offender were arrested and accused of hatching a bizarre jailhouse plot to kill Hull and Arpaio. The plan involved kidnapping Hull and locking her in a trunk until she agreed to sign a pardon that would release one of the plotters from jail. Then they planned to kill and bury her. The scheme also involved paying a sniper $100,000 to shoot Arpaio in retaliation for harsh jail conditions. The plot was foiled when another jail inmate tipped off police. The men were arrested after an undercover sheriff's deputy, posing as a hit man, met the men and recorded their incriminating conversations.
773. Date: July 29, 2002
Target: President Hamid Karzai
Location: Kabul, Afghanistan
Details: Three would-be al-Qaeda assassins were intercepted when their station wagon, loaded with explosives, was involved in a traffic crash about 400 yards from the U.S. Embassy. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and was pursued by security personnel until it was stopped at a checkpoint approximately 1/2 mile away. Two men were arrested and a third suspect escaped on foot. An inspection of the car revealed 1,100-1,300 pounds of TNT and C-4 explosive concealed inside the doors, and two detonating buttons mounted on the dashboard near the gear shift. The explosive was embedded with large nuts for fragmentation. Their plan was to crash the vehicle into either the office of Karzai, or the U.S. Embassy, or the International Security Assistance Force HQ.
774. Date: September 18, 2002
Target: President Pervez Musharraf
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
Details: Two Islamic militants were arrested in a hideout near the convention center where Musharraf visited the day before. Police seized assault rifles, antitank weapons, hand grenades, and rockets. They planned to attack Musharraf at the convention center event, but were kept away by tight security.
775. Date: October 2002
Target: Mining Magnate Joseph Gutnick
Location: St. Kilda, Australia
Detai
ls: Following police raids on suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group, police found maps and details indicating a plan to bomb Gutnick's home and other targets, including his local synagogue, before the 9/11 attacks. The plot had been approved by senior al-Qaeda figures, including former military commander Abu Hafs, now believed dead, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is now in U.S. custody, and Saif al-Adel, believed to be in Iranian custody. It is not clear why the plot was not carried out.
776. Date: November 2, 2002
Target: Singer Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham)
Location: London, England
Details: Five men were arrested for plotting to kidnap Beckham for a $7.7 million ransom. They reportedly planned to ambush Beckham in front of her home and use a chemical spray to sedate her and her two sons. Members of the group were charged with various crimes, including conspiracy to rob Sotheby's auction house.
777. Date: December 15, 2002
Target: U.S. Diplomat
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
Details: Police arrested three Islamic militants and seized 250 sacks of ammonium nitrate, weighing 88 pounds each, in a plot to ram an explosives laden car into the car of a U.S. diplomat. The men were arrested during an investigation of a May 2002 suicide bombing outside a Karachi hotel that killed 14, including 11 French engineers.
778. Date: January 29, 2003
Target: Admiral Sir Michael Boyce
Location: Naples, Italy
Details: Police raided an apartment where they arrested 28 Pakistanis in an anti-terror investigation. Police found a picture of Boyce, 800 grams explosives, 230 feet of fuse, electronic detonators, false documents, and maps. The men were believed to be an al-Qaeda cell. The photo of Boyce was in a Pakistani newspaper and was circled in ink.
779. Date: February 11, 2003
Target: President Alvaro Uribe
Location: Neiva, Colombia
Details: A bomb that leftist rebels planned to use to kill Uribe during an announced visit exploded, killing 16 and wounding 30. FARC rebels set the bomb off as police discovered it during an advance sweep of the area. The explosives were found in a house near the airport, and police said the rebels planned to blow Uribe's plane out of the sky as it passed low overhead on final approach. The blast destroyed five houses and damaged 30 more. Uribe has survived several rebel assassination attempts. (2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)