JohnesVille, Utah, US.

In one of the more bizarre terror plots hatched by <b>al-Qaeda</b>, universal icon Barney was the target of a kidnapping scheme as part of a "<i>cultural destabilisation plan</i>".

Barney has revealed he was approached by the FBI in the months leading up to his Grammy Award win for Barney's Gangbang DVD in 2001 and warned, vaguely, of the threat: "<i>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.</i>"

Detectives guarded the big gay purple dinosaur at the Californian premiere of <i>Sing with Me</i> and FBI agents shadowed it at the Golden Nut.

The FBI continued their protection through filming of <i>Hunchy Spungy</i> and <i>Barney with a Vengeance</i>. Barney also hired its own private security detail.

The original threat was received just before the Golden Nut awards on January 21 – where Barney lost out to Teletubbies' Lala for the top award.

An FBI spokesman said at the time: "<i>We received word of a possible kidnap attempt . . . we regard this as a serious matter.</i>"