Two U.S. men were charged Monday for plotting a "killing spree" against African-Americans that would have been capped with an attempt to kill Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
The U.S. attorney's office in Jackson, Tennessee, said Daniel Cowart, 20, and Paul Schlesselman, 18, were self-described white supremacists who met online through a mutual friend.
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Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday October 27, 2008. In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond.[Xinhua/Reuters] |
The pair planned to kill more than 100 African-Americans, including 14 who would be beheaded.
According to an affidavit from the federal agent who questioned them, Cowart and Schlesselman planned to charge at Obama with a car, firing from the windows as they went.
They would be dressed in white tuxedos and top hats during the attempt, the affidavit states.
However, officials have not found any evidence that Cowart, from Tennessee, and Schlesselman, from Arkansas, had any details of Obama's schedule.
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Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday October 27, 2008. In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond.[Xinhua/Reuters]? |
"We take this very, very seriously but we see no evidence these guys have the ability or the wherewithal to pull off what they say they wanted to do," an official was quoted by the CNN as saying.
Cowart and Schlesselman were arrested in Tennessee, after an aborted robbery attempt last week.
They made their initial appearances before a federal judge Monday and are scheduled for a bond hearing Thursday.
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is the first African-American nominee to lead a major-party ticket and was placed under Secret Service protection in May 2007, far earlier than other candidates.
His campaign declined to comment on the case.
Threats against Obama have led to arrests in two previous cases.
(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2008)
