In a rural Tennessee county where you can't buy alcohol or even find a Wal-Mart, residents of tiny Bells stopped each other to ask if anyone knew the pale-skinned young local accused of plotting to kill dozens of black people, including Barack Obama. It was a jolt to find out on Monday that a 20-year-old who grew up among them was one of two white supremacists accused of plotting a national killing spree that would ultimately target the Democratic candidate for president.Rico says it sounds to him like the typical posturing of stupid young men ("dressed in white tuxedos and top hats", really), but you never know... (And where'd he get the gun?)
The town, surrounded by fertile cotton fields, is safe and certainly not known for breeding neo-Nazis, they agreed. "If we had any skinheads in this county I wasn't aware of it. We hardly know what they are," said Sam Lewis, who lives across the street from the mother of suspect Daniel Cowart. Cowart, he said, grew up in the comfortable, well-maintained neighborhood and wasn't known as a troublemaker. "His mother is a real sweet, nice girl, and this comes as a shock and a surprise," Lewis said.
Cowart is charged, along with Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, with planning a killing spree to shoot and decapitate black people, and top it all off by attacking Obama. The charges were made public Monday.
Cowart and Schlesselman are charged by federal authorities with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president. They were being held without bond.
Authorities describe the two as neo-Nazi skinheads, and an affidavit from a federal agent says they devised a plot to kill 88 people — beheading 14 of them. The numbers 14 and 88 are symbols in skinhead culture, authorities said, referring to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two 8s or Hs stand for "Heil Hitler".
The killing spree was initially to target a predominantly black school, which was not identified in court documents. It was to end, authorities said, with the two suspects, dressed in white tuxedos and top hats, blasting guns from the windows of a speeding vehicle aimed at Obama. The reported threat of attacking a school filled with black students worried Police Chief Fred Fielder. Helena-West Helena, with a population of 12,200, is 66 percent black. "Predominantly black school, take your pick," he said. The young men said they expected to die in the attack, the affidavit said. Obama's campaign had no immediate comment on the alleged plot.
Joe Byrd, a lawyer representing Cowart, said he was reviewing the charges against his client "as well as the facts and circumstances of his arrest" and was not yet prepared to comment.
City Attorney Jasper Taylor said Cowart most recently lived with his grandparents in a southern, rural part of the county. He moved away, possibly to Arkansas or Texas, then returned over the summer, Taylor said.
Riddell said Mark Schlesselman left work twice Sunday to speak with law enforcement, only to return and say, "I've got a problem. He wouldn't condone anything like that," Riddell said. "He did look very, very upset today. He didn't speak about it to anybody at work."
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville, Tenn., field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, said authorities took the threats seriously. "Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South," Cavanaugh said. At this point, there does not appear to be any formal assassination plan, Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said. "Whether or not they had the capability or the wherewithal to carry out an attack remains to be seen," he said. The investigation is continuing.
28 October 2008
But he seemed like such a nice boy
The Associated Press has a story by Woody Baird about why Obama needed more than one Secret Service agent:
No comments:
Post a Comment
No more Anonymous comments, sorry.