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Men's Threat to Kill Obama is Downplayed
Wednesday 27 August 2008
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by: Nicholas Riccardi, The Los Angeles Times

Federal authorities say the pair's rants while on a methamphetamine binge do not meet the legal standard for filing charges, despite their possession of rifles and sniper scopes.
Denver - Federal authorities today downplayed threats made by a pair of men arrested here over the weekend with rifles, sniper scopes and an alleged desire to kill Barack Obama.

Shawn Robert Adolf, 33, and Tharin Robert Gartrell, 28, were being held on parole violations while an associate, Nathan Johnson, was in jail on methamphetamine charges. U.S. Atty. Troy Eid said the men, during a meth binge, had expressed strongly racist views and spoken about killing the presumed Democratic presidential nominee.

The talk, Eid said, does not meet the legal standard for filing charges for threatening a presidential candidate.

"The law recognizes a difference between a true threat - that's one that can be carried out - and the reported racist rants of drug abusers," Eid said at a packed afternoon news conference.

There have been low-grade fears for months about possible threats to the life of Obama, who will become the first African American major-party presidential nominee when he accepts the nomination at a football stadium Thursday night. Obama received Secret Service protection early after he announced his campaign in 2007, a recognition of the risks he faces.

Eid acknowledged that many questions have not been answered, including why the men had high-powered weaponry, body armor, two-way radios, wigs and camouflage gear. It was also unclear why they decided to base themselves in a suburban Hyatt hotel where they believed - erroneously - Obama was staying.

"We are just going to continue to investigate this," Eid said.

In a jailhouse interview with KCNC-TV, Johnson said he did not know whether Adolf and Gartrell would have taken action.

"I don't want to say yes, but I don't want to say no," he said.
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COMMENTS
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If these two had made the
Wed, 08/27/2008 - 14:17 — Anonymous (not verified)
If these two had made the same threat against Bush-Cheney or McCain-???, two-thirds of the right-wingnuts in the country would be using it as proof the current Administration has been right in its Constitution-shredding actions, while the other third would be asking why the Unitary Executive doesn't immediately label them Enemy Combatants and pack them off to Guantanamo.
The run up to the
Wed, 08/27/2008 - 13:37 — Ignatz Farquad (not verified)
The run up to the assassination; naturally they will let these "misfits" and "malcontents" walk despite the sniper rifles, the wigs, the two-way radios, the body armor; these "drug addicts" have black ops military Blackwater written all over them. Maybe the Republican Criminal Organization is now less worried about losing their place at the trough, now that the swiftboating is taking hold, the media is obviously on board and the Democrats are showing their usual talent for self-destruction (perhaps Obama's advisors have been infiltrated with GOP double agents, you know the "oh, let's not get negative" crowd), so they called it off and threw the B-team under the bus; or maybe its a cover your ass diversion for the real plot, which one suspects will be perpetrated by someone with a three word Arab sounding name. U.S. Atty. Troy Eid - formerly a Republican lobbyist, of course, a Bush appointee. Since when are US attorney's so solicitous of methamphetamine addicts? Since when do Republicans care about legal standards and thresholds? You can bet if they found four guys with high powered rifles, sniper equipment, body armor, radios and wigs in a hotel "they thought" McCain was going to be in, these guys would be on the next plane to Cuba, never to heard from again, unless they were wearing Obama buttons. Wake up folks - Republicans will do anything - anything - to hold onto power. They are thugs in business suits, all liars, crooks, war criminals. Murder is hardly beneath them, when necessary. Ask Mel Carnahan. Paul Wellstone, and Dr. Bruce E. Ivins.