Posted on 08/10/2008 12:59:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
AMERICAN law enforcement agencies fear Barack Obama will be the target of a violent attack by white supremacists at the Democratic convention in Denver this month. Ever since the Senator for Illinois emerged as the likely Democratic presidential candidate, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups have been making racist threats.
In an interview on Fox News, Railton Loy, Grand Wizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan International, said of Obama's presidential campaign: "I'm not going to have to worry about him, because somebody else down south is going to take him out... If that man is elected president, he'll be shot sure as hell. The hate would be so deep down south."
Meanwhile, websites and blogs have been buzzing with racist posts.
"Obama will die, KKK forever," says a post by "Rodney" on a blog run by a person identified only as Strider333. "The KKK or someone WILL assassinate Obama! If we get a N***** President all you N*****'s (sic] will think you've won and that the WHITE people will have to bow to you F*** THAT."
John W Hickenlooper, the Democrat Mayor of Denver, confirmed that he was aware of threats against Obama from white supremacists and other racist groups.
He added that the Denver Police Department was working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service. He said: "We are looking at every possibility and making sure that we have prepared for every conceivable contingency. If someone is threatening violence we will go to great lengths to deal with that."
The federal government is providing Denver – and St Paul, Minnesota, where the Republicans are staging their convention at the start of next month – with $50m (£26m) each to cover the security costs of staging the conventions.
The Denver Police Department will nearly double in size, bringing in an additional 1,500 police officers from communities throughout Colorado and beyond. National Guard specialists trained to deal with biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons will also be available.
Keen to take advantage of an unprecedented level of media attention – 16,000 journalists are expected – protesters are preparing to flock to Denver in their tens of thousands.
They will include everyone from environmental to health groups and those championing the rights of unborn children to Hillary Clinton supporters, as well as more sinister groups.
Obama's decision to accept his party's nomination not at the convention's Pepsi Centre but at the 75,000-seat Invesco Field, home to the Denver Broncos, has created another headache for the Secret Service. They have had to work out plans to secure the open-air stadium, which is adjacent to a major highway. According to officials, it will almost certainly be closed during Obama's speech.
Mark Potok, an expert on the radical right at the Southern Poverty Law enter in Montgomery, Alabama, said: "People on these racist and white supremacist websites are being quite careful because they know that if they make a threat they will very likely get a visit from the Secret Service.
"The scary thing out there is the lone wolf phenomenon. There are enough crazy people in this movement that it is possible one of them will decide today is the day to kick off the Aryan revolution."
A survey by the centre, which tracks hate groups and handles legal cases against white supremacist organisations, found that the number of racist groups in America has soared in recent years, from 602 in 2000 to 844 in 2006.
It is not just the security forces who fear a racially motivated attack on the Democratic presidential candidate. An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 59% of Americans (and 83% of African-Americans) are concerned "that someone might attempt to physically harm Barack Obama".
On Thursday, Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, appeared in court in Miami after allegedly threatening to assassinate Obama. He was in a training class when he allegedly referred to Obama with a racial epithet before adding: "If (Obama] gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself."
According to court documents, Geisel said in an interview with a Secret Service agent, that "if he wanted to kill Senator Obama he simply would shoot him with a sniper rifle, but then he claimed that he was just joking".
A search of Geisel's car and hotel room in Miami uncovered a loaded 9mm handgun, knives, dozens of rounds of ammunition including armour-piercing types, body armour, military-style fatigues and a machete.
After the assassination of high-profile black leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, violent attack is of clear concern to black politicians. Colin Powell, former secretary of state, has said his decision not to stand for the presidency in 1996 was largely due to his wife's fear that he might be shot.
Obama was placed under Secret Service protection in May 2007, the earliest ever for a candidate for the presidency.
Obama's Secret Service detail has recently been increased to a level which rivals that of President George Bush, far exceeding the level of protection afforded to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Whenever the Illinois senator holds an event or makes an appearance, a dozen Secret Service agents lead bomb-sniffing dogs through event venues.
The Obama campaign declined to comment on specific threats to the candidate.
I thought you could go to jail for making statements like these people made re: the assassination of a President or Presidential Candidate.
Someone, somewhere, is always saying the president must die, regardless of who the president is. That there are nuts out there that mean it is no surprise, regardless of the skin color of the president.
Obama is hardly the first candidate to face assassination threats. Sorry moonbats, but your Obamagod is nothing unique in that regard, however much you'd love to pretend that he is.
I certainly don't want this nation erupting into chaos over an assassination of Obama. I'd rather wait for Obama to impliment his communist policies and have the nation be awake enough to erupt over that. I want to be fighting on the side of Constitution loving patriots, not racist assassins.
“...Does anyone think Obama is more hated by racists than President Bush in by liberals?...”
Probably not, but libs tend to be gun averse, rednecks ain’t.
Honestly, I too fear Obama will be assassinated. It would be a disaster on so many levels. Pray the SS keeps him safe for his sake as well as the country’s. That is a situation we do not need to happen.
On the rare occasions when racist groups do public marches, the marchers are mainly FBI undercover agents and Leftists trying to keep the fiction of a massive 'racist America' alive. These tiny, pathetic groups are typically outnumbered 100 or more to one by a wide range of counterprotesters and are universally pilloried by the media.
When the moonbat BusHitler crowd gathers their smelly legions to snarl traffic and do massive property damage disguised as "free speech", they typically number in the thousands, their numbers are dramatically inflated by an adoring Press and counterprotesters are pilloried, ridiculed and minimized.
The comparison of the two is so completely lopsided that it's one of the numerous elephants in the room that the dinosaur media refuses to touch.
If I were Obama, I’d be MORE concerned that Hillary’s people would be trying to do him in. CHAOS! Threats on all sides; some real, some imagined, and all sapping the momentum from the campaign.
Liberals aren’t gun averse, they just work for the government and get free U.S. Marshal security. Hollywood hires their own and even people like Dianne Feinstein owns a gun.
They just don’t want the rest of us to have guns.
The left would love to pretend that Obama is a brave hero because a couple of dozen white trash nuts spew their hate between gulps of cheap beer.
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Exactly. Well said. Just how many people can possibly be involved in this racist junk? Probably no more than 150 nationwide.
Bingo.
If you ever perused the "hate speech" section at DU, supposedly it is the emails that DU receives from right-wing haters. But it also is full of F-bombs, just like the DUers. It looks suspiciously like the hate speech is actually coming from DU operatives.
Barack has already played the race card against McCain at least twice, so you know where his campaign is going.
As you have surmised, I will also suspect that it will be Obama operatives who will try to infiltrate racist websites and make threats against messiah.
This isn't too hard to figure out.
Many years ago during the height of the "Aryan Nations" crap in northern Idaho, I recall a TV interview with the then-Governor of Idaho where he stated something to the effect of "all of this idiocy is being caused by twelve people".
probably not, but the lefties will try and make everyone think that they do just because it helps their propaganda train. If another DhimocRAT black man happened to do that, they would still blame GWB and the right-wingers.
And I believe if somebody takes a shot at Obama, it will NOT be anyone from “Our” side of the ideological spectrum, but one of his disillusioned and insane worshippers....
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Exactly, that would be the most likely scenario and consistant with historical precedent. The assassins of both JFK and McKinley were leftists, as well as both of the would be assassins of Ford.
I have seriously wondered about this situation...my guess is that “something” will happen and it will be blamed on these groups. The doer..probably a Hitlery plant—if it is “successful” Or an Obama plant if it “appears” unsuccessful..with an evil black rifle thus giving the De-moron-crats the push they need to get “Assault weapons ban II” ram rodded through congress.
Maybe I am a conspiracy theorist—but as dicey as things have been for gun owners I can SO see this happening and with the media playing the racist extremist group angle up they are merely setting the stage...
JM2B
“Probably no more than 150 nationwide.”
And 25 of THOSE are actually Federal Agents, keeping an eye on these people....
Exactly. It will be the various extremist elements that comprise the base of the 'RAT party that will be demonstrating at BOTH the 'RAT convention AND at the Republican convention. It will be the left-wing loons that headlines like these refer to:
"With Democrat Convention in Mind, Denver Bans Carrying Urine, Feces," for "nefarious purposes."
"Ridin' Naked 'Rat voters like these.
Subversives like Shepard Fairey - the guy who did the Obama portrait that you see everywhere. See more of his masterpieces here (scroll 1/2 way down)
Loons screaming for gas to go to $10. and more.
Shake-down artists demanding "Reparations"
Nancy Pelosi's loony-tune fruits and nuts constituents - one of whom had enough clothes on to be able to pin an "Obama 08" button on his shirt as he took part in the 2008 Up Your Alley Fair in San Francisco on July 27.
These are the sorts of radical left-wing elements that influence Obama
We haven't even begun to mention Hillary's supporters, including -PUMA- who will be there in full force. They don't plan on sitting back and allowing the DNC to diss them and their "girl" without a fight.
“...Liberals aren’t gun averse, they just work for the government and get free U.S. Marshal security. Hollywood hires their own and even people like Dianne Feinstein owns a gun...”
You’ve got a valid point. I was thinking of the hand wringing, metrosexual variety, not the militant version.
Militant liberals have caused the deaths of 100,000,000 people in the past 100 years.
Does anyone think Obama is more hated by racists than President Bush in by liberals?
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Yes. definately. I have snooped around on the white supremacy sites. The hate for him is palpable.
I think the whole thing is a ploy, too. Notice that when the guy was arrested for making threats against Obama last week it was only mentioned in passing that he was also threatening to kill Bush. This is nothing but an attempt to make Barry look sympathetic and to paint people who don’t like him and don’t want to vote for him as racists who are probably also potential killers.
And the hatred of President Bush by liberals?
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