Plot to kill Barack Obama: Three 'white supremacists' arrested

The Telegraph ^ | August 26, 2008 | Toby Harnden

[Schnucki]

Three men with suspected links to white supremacist groups are in custody in Denver after being arrested with rifles and a telescopic sight amid fears of a plot to assassinate Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate.

Mr Obama is due to become the first black candidate to accept the nomination of a major political party on Thursday, the final day of the Democratic Convention, at Invesco Field, an open air stadium that holds some 75,000 people.

CBS4, a Denver radio station, reported that one of the suspects told authorities they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle ... sighted at 750 yards". When one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama", a CBS4 source said, “he responded in the affirmative".

Fox News reported that the three men might have links to Sons of Silence, an outlaw motorcycle group, and white supremacists.

Authorities said that the three people has been arrested on firearms and drug charges.

Two rifles, one with a telescopic sight, walkie-talkies, a bulletproof vest, licenses in the names of other people and methamphetamine were found in a truck that was stopped on Sunday morning. One of the rifles was listed as stolen from Kansas.

Tharin Gartrell, 28, was in the rented pick-up truck when he was pulled over in Aurora, a Denver suburb, for driving in an erratic manner.

Police then went to the Cherry Creek Hotel in Denver, about four miles from Invesco Field, to pursue Shawn Robert Adolph, 33, who was already wanted on numerous warrants.

Adolph jumped out of a sixth floor hotel window, breaking an ankle, and was arrested. Police sources said he was wearing a swastika and is suspected of having ties to white supremacist organisations.

[melsec]

“Hey Cletus I can see maw’s house frum up ‘ere” “Hey Maw get off the dang rouff”

Apologies to The Simpsons

[AndyJackson]

If you are 750 yards away from the speaker podium in Invesco Field with a clear line of sight, you would be directly in the flight path of most UFO's.

I wish I had written that. There is a bright future for you.

[jrg]

Police sources said he was wearing a swastika

And so is my Buddha Amitabha statue

[theDentist]

I'm assuming (I know, I know) that the reporter used quotes around "when asked directly" and "affirmative" that he was directly quoting his source within the Police Dept. And knowing reporters are willing to skew things to make a story into a headline, and that some editors would encourage this (hmmm, is this an AP article?), there is reason to wonder how much is just hype. I'm also assuming that the editor may well have done his job to protect the newspaper by running similar questions as you posed by the reporter to be sure that the suspect wasn't sleeping during his interrogation, and to see if he knew if they were playing word games. Nonetheless, I will be looking at it more skeptically as you suggest.

[Lizavetta]

Jeebs:

[RangerM]

While I appreciate your correcting me on my less-than-perfect grammar, I think you know what I meant.

[Edit35]

Authorities are investigating whether a man arrested with rifles, ammunition and drugs in his truck made statements threatening Barack Obama..

Notice in the latest update to this "plot" to kill Obama story, authorities are skeptical on whether this druggie even made a verbal threat to Obama.

They simply arrested them because law enforcement is on "heightened alert."

When the TV station reporter caught wind of an arrest involving a rifle, he concocted in his mind a "plot" by white supremecist (sp?) motorcycle gang to kill Obama.... and then got his source, whomever that may be, to utter a phrase indicating the suspect may have responded in the "affirmative" to a possible threat.

Once the Joint Information Center began getting calls about a possible threat, they certainly couldn't just sit idly by and do nothing. They HAD to investigate these whispy rumors.

It snowballed from nothing into an even bigger nothing.

Seriously, I can't count the number of stories I've witnessed over the years from zealous reporters who start with their own conclusion, and then fill in the gaps with their OWN thoughts and quotes from selected anonymous sources.

Smarmy business, that.

[Travis McGee]

That is a GREAT movie.

[Travis McGee]

Once the Joint Information Center began getting calls about a possible threat, they certainly couldn't just sit idly by and do nothing. They HAD to investigate these whispy rumors. It snowballed from nothing into an even bigger nothing.

Remember the DC snipers, and the search for the "white man in a white van?"

[Travis McGee]

Once the Joint Information Center began getting calls about a possible threat, they certainly couldn't just sit idly by and do nothing. They HAD to investigate these whispy rumors. It snowballed from nothing into an even bigger nothing.

Remember the DC snipers, and the search for the "white man in a white van?"

[DuncanWaring]

Even Lee Harvey Oswald couldn't make that shot.

Sam Hall could make that shot.

[TChris]

This has the stench of a very convenient and stereotyped setup. It's almost as if it were a scene from a movie.

What better way to boost B. Hussein Obama's liberal, victimized status and slam stereotypical "conservatives" with the race 2x4 at the same time?

I'm very skeptical.

[beckysueb]

Of course it had to be some idiotic knuckle dragging HeeHaw watching southern Deliverance sort of people. Makes sense. Everyone knows southerners are racist drooling killers.

[beckysueb]

Exactly. Like Ruby Ridge and the Waco Invasion.

[LibLieSlayer]

Well, I am sitting in Gulfport, Mississippi shaking my head at your statement. In my experience, the white supremacists are usually from up North somewhere. I have never met one in my 53 years of being a Southerner.

LLS

[beckysueb]

It must have been the HeeHaw comment. You are in the south. You know all the stereotypical comments about the southern people and way of life there are even in FR. I guess I over reacted. My apologies. I just get really tired of it.

[durasell]

Ha! They could be brothers.

[longfellow]

buddha is a racist.