WASHINGTON - Law enforcement agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 88 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday.
In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF's Nashville field office, said the two men planned to kill 88 African Americans, including 14 by beheading. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.
The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.
"They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," Cavanaugh said. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."
The MSNBC story reported that the two men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., were planning to fund their killing spree "in a robbery or home invasion," of which both Cowart and Schlesselman had purchased nylon rope and ski masks. ATF agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and three pistols from the men when they were arrested.
As for the Obama assassination plot, legal documents show that Cowart and Schlesselman "planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows." In other words, they were planning a drive-by shooting. "Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint states. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."
These guys are complete nutzoid insane. The MSNBC story reported that Helena-West Helena, on the Mississippi River in east Arkansas' Delta, is one of the nation's poorest regions, even trailing parts of the Appalachia, in its standard of living. The town has a population of 12,200, of which 66 percent is black. Thinking about the hate talk that has been spewing from the McCain campaign, and even the right-wing talk radio, these guys probably believe that they are doing their country a service in attempting to kill Barack Obama. And it is not just Obama here--I would guess that they would even believe it was the black population that probably took away whatever jobs there were in Helena-West Helena, whatever education, or economic prospects there could have been. Cowart and Schlesselman were found and arrested before they could put their plan into action. But I wonder how many other racist, neo-Nazi, KKK-supporting, crazies that are still out there, perhaps even quietly creating their own plans? And if Barack Obama does get elected, how many of these individuals, or even groups, will go out of their way to incite their own violence? I can't say, but I think this country may be in for a very rough four to eight years.
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