Obama Assassination attempt foiled
 

http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2...ge4383601g.jpg
(CBS/AP) The FBI is looking into reports in Denver media outlets that a man under investigation for drug and weapons violations may have made threats against Barack Obama, officials said Monday.

"It's premature to say that it was a valid threat or that these folks have the ability to carry it out," said a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Law enforcement sources told CBS station KCNC-TV in Denver that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative."

One of the suspects told authorities they were "going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle ... sighted at 750 yards," reported KCNC.

Overnight, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a prepared statement that the case was under investigation, but that he was "absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado."

Obama will be in Denver this week to accept the Democratic nomination for president.

FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright confirmed the FBI was investigating the reports but declined to elaborate. The Joint Information Center - a command set up by Denver, state and federal authorities to field media inquiries during the Democratic convention - had no immediate comment.

Aurora Police Detective Marcus Dudley said that 28-year-old Tharin Robert Gartrell was arrested early Sunday in a routine traffic stop in the Denver suburb of Aurora. He is being investigated for possible methamphetamine and firearms violations, officials said

Subsequently, KCNC reports, authorities went to the Cherry Creek Hotel to contact an associate of Gartrell's, 33-year-old Shawn Robert Adolf.

Adolf, who police said was wanted on numerous warrants, jumped out of a sixth floor window of the Denver area hotel. Law enforcement sources said he broke an ankle in the fall and was captured moments later. Those sources say he was wearing a ring with a swastika, and is thought to have ties to white supremacist organizations.

A third man - an associate of Gartrell and Adolf was also arrested. Nathan Johnson, 32, also taken into custody at a hotel in suburban Denver, told authorities that the other two men "planned to kill Barack Obama at his acceptance speech."

Johnson, along with his girlfriend, Natasha Gromek, were also under arrest on drug charges.

Law enforcement in Denver was trying to find out whether the reported threats to Obama were valid. "It could also turn out that these were nothing but a bunch of knuckleheads, meth heads," the U.S. government official said.

link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/...n4383593.shtml

Why do people think that in this day and age, in the US....it's almost that possible to pull somethign like that off at that 'close' of a distance?

Something else doesn't 'feel' right...a 6th floor window and only a broken ankle?...I wonder what broke the fall.

Musta been the drugs.

and how many asses are there in assassination? heh!

That's terrible, but unfortunately, it's not that surprising. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other attempts that never made it out into the public. There are way too many crazies out there.

probably has been since LAST year....

Mug shots are never flattering, but those two . . .wow.

They look like Vanilla Ice gone bad and Gollum.

The drugs broke the fall? :p

A white supremacist named Adolf? I never would've seen this coming.

The most dangerous place for a presidential candidate is during a meet and greet along a rope line…close proximity, direct contact with a candidate etc. Personally I don’t think these two had the skill or the know how to actually pull off this attempt. An assassin needs to have the ability to blend in and judging by the mug shots it was amateur hour.

Hm, so, does Moron Alert sound plausable?:rolleyes:

Possibly. I've seen on Discovery Channel (a series about the human body) that this guy was picked up by a tornado and carried a good distance and dropped. No injuries other than minor scrapes and bruises. It was because he was unconscious, so his body was limp and more able to absorb shock than a tense one, which is prone to injury. Maybe a similar situation?

Yeah, they don't look like they belong...

When I worked on adult inpatient psych units, every time a President was coming to town, we'd inevitably get a visit from the Secret Service because one of our patients had threatened him at some point.. every President, every time. We had to notify them if the person happened to escape before/during the Presidential visit. I had forgotten all about that, it's been so long. Fun times...

You would know huh?

Can we get that here on Greek Chat?!

I'm not surprised. I've expected many more attempts...Obama is the first African American to have such a platform. I'm sure there are a handful of naive and backward Americans who aren't quite happy about such a "change." Sad.

Yep. I think this isn't the first or the last. This is just the first one at this stage in the game that has been exposed.

You're right, any kind of change poses a threat and sparks violence to curb the change and keep the status quo. Add an African American Presidential hopeful to the mix and it's multiplied.

because he's such a change from the status quo:rolleyes:

you're right...I apologize for forgetting the abundance of black presidential hopefuls in this nation's history

I agree with you that his policies aren't all that much of a change - but as DSTChaos noted, there's only going to be one kind of "change" that matters in relation to these kind of attempts.

Hardly. That's very simplistics. It's very easy (and more true than untrue) that they see his shitty policies rather than the color of his skin. It's not always that glamorous to use the race card, Chaos.

Are you talking as far as assassination attempts? Because I think that his skin color will have more of an effect on any threats of violence against him.

If you're talking just disagreement with his policies, then I (as someone who disagrees with a large part of his platform) think it's another story, and would agree that it is more likely to go beyond his skin color.

I tend not to think of myself as a "simplistic" person, but hey, maybe that's a point where reasonable minds disagree.

I meant that it's simplistic to boil it down to race. Just because seemingly "racist redneck hicks" are attempting to assassinate him, it's not necessarily because of the color of his skin but could be due to his dangerous, disruptive, and embarrassing policies.

How many assassination attempts have there been on any other candidate in the past, say, 20 years? How many candidates have been viewed as "radical/dangerous/disruptive" in either direction? It sure seems like one answer is "0" and the other is "certainly not 0" . . .

In your quest to avoid "oversimplification" it sure seems like you're ignoring the clear solution under Occam's Razor. You really think dudes with ties to white supremacist/neo-Nazi organizations are worried about Obama's stance on public finance or welfare compared with the very real threat of a Black man leading in every major poll?

Well, attempts or plots? I haven't read the article but I believe that it was just a plot, no? A gunmen didn't shoot at Obama but miss, did he? I would imagine there have been plots of assassination for every viable presidential candidate in the last twenty years. Have every single one of them been uncovered? Hardly. I attempted to google information on that but all it brought up was the Obama attempts.

Radical/dangerous/disruptive? That's what every viable presidential candidate (and some not so viable) is labled as every year by both sides of the spectrum of the media and the general public. That's how I labeled Obama and how someone else will label McCain.

Many white supremacist and so forth are also very against the federal government, money not backed by securities, and gun control among other things. Obama represents all those things politically and so not necessarily the attempt was due to Obama's race. It's just far too easy (but wrong) to peg it solely to racism as Mrs. Wright would have you believe.

But it's always glamorous for you to be an idiot.

*edited*

You know, I really have no idea what EW's issue was. He says that Obama isn't a challenge to the status quo but then he acknowledges in his white supremacist post that Obama represents "all of those things."

I dunno what his point is. :) I never said it was just about race. Although in my response to his post I only referenced race, my original post said that ADDING race to the equation heightens the potential for assassination attempts because this is a historic election in that regard.

Exactly.

Sure, supremacists tend to also be anti-government and would hate a perceived socialist but that certainly doesn't refute what I said.

My post was about the general phenomenon and not about this particular assassination attempt. EW would know that if he wasn't so obsessed with Reverend Wright.

This is semantics, but I don't think the distinction is all that important. Either way, this is the first plot I've heard getting to this level that I can remember. The lack of ability to search for other examples may indeed be indicative of the dearth of other attempts.

Quite true - and since this happens, and there have been no credible attempts on McCain's life (for instance), we should begin to look for the difference between the other candidates labeled as such and Mr. Obama, no?

So let's start to look at the differences. Many past Democratic candidates have supported a larger Federal government, held similar fiscal opinions, and certainly supported the same gun control legislation. We have heard of zero credible plots to take their lives.

Again, the difference seems simple: he's black.

White supremacist organizations have a very simple mandate that runs against what you're claiming in this thread, and I'm not sure why you're ignoring that mandate. It's not "pro-Obama" to recognize that the guy will certainly face dangers that no other Presidential candidate will face, and that a large part of that is because of his race.

While not recent, I wasn't aware Robert Kennedy was black?

Edit: And one may argue (similar to my google search) that there hasn't been such media hype on both sides of the aisle about a Democrat nominee like Obama since perhaps.... Robert Kennedy?

So you get the point that assassination attempts occur because of the threat of change. Kennedy represented that and he not only had an attempt but he was aware of the assassination potential. He therefore had to understand that the potential is different than that of other presidents whose policies or other qualities fit the status quo.

Now...follow me here to get the larger and more general point...multiply that potential when the candidate is of a group that instantly challenges the status quo: black, female, homosexual, Jewish, etc.

Take care.

This is why I limited the argument to the last 20-25 years - because the "change" of the 60s seems like a difficult time to translate to today (plus I didn't want to muddy this up with irrelevant material such as the attempt on Reagan). It wasn't out of convenience for my argument, but expedience for our relevant memories - I personally have no idea if anyone threatened Mondale, but would remember any other credible threats.

However, if you'd like to make such a comparison, it seems like a tacit admission that race is a primary factor for assassination attempts on Obama even though RFK was white - just think for yourself about the changes RFK represented and the period in which he lived.

Additionally, your OpEd interjection (and really this whole point) is a complete strawman, honestly - the main point still stands: Obama's policies have been parroted or preceded by others who did not receive the same threats (that we know about). These people were white.

Besides this, if your only example is RFK during the height of the civil rights movement and its dovetailing with Vietnam, you're not exactly disproving my point, since RFK was a strident supporter of the civil rights movement, even though his assassination shows no real connection to the movement itself (personally I think Sirhan Sirhan was just crazy, rather than anti-Israel).

Follow me poor dear,

at what point did I say any thing about him having any ability to or actually any stance that isn't the status quo? If anything, he's anti-change. He's the same boring politician as every other with no difference.

Furthermore, your initial premise is foolish and simply stupid. Assassination attempts occur only because the threat of change? Reagan as a counter example comes quickly to mind. I didn't realize the "so-called progressives" were the only politicos to be subject to assassinations. If you qualify your statement with "assassinations sometimes come because of fear of change", then it might be true but also invalidate your following sentences.

Then I guess you wouldn't be the one to attempt to assassinate Obama because he symbolizes change. Don't confuse your opinion of Obama with the general point that has historical and contemporary significance.

I am obviously not talking about the attempts of sociopaths who are obsessed with a President or something of that nature. And I don't know why you are other than to debate that very small point. Obviously you aren't the only one who knows that Booth was obsessed with Reagan.

ETA: If your only point is that you don't agree that many perceive that Obama stands for change, that social change may not have been a factor in this instance, race might not be a factor, and that these attempters may have plotted this for reasons other than the threat of change...okay...personal opinion noted....

ETA2: As an aside, interesting compilation of failed and "successful" attempts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ation_attempts

Those who were found insane, who said that God told them to do it, and who were obsessed with presidents for seemingly random reasons aside; these assassination attempts were generally based on a threat of change to something and/or displeasure with policy.

I was talking to someone about a month ago, and they said they won't vote for Obama, because he will be assassinated. It is worth noting that EVERY president since Nixon has had an assassination attempt in which the intended assassin prepared, and arrived to the scene ready to assassin. So, I don't think voting for someone because one candidate is going to be assassinated is a valid reason

Thank you DST for backtracking and essentially agreeing with me.