FBI Downplays Credibility Of Obama Threat

U.S. Attorney In Denver Says There Was No Real Danger For Candidate, Convention-Goers Or Colorado

(CBS/AP)  Authorities investigating a possible plot to assassinate Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention have three men in custody - including one found with high-powered rifles, three fake IDs and two wigs in a truck - but they expressed doubts Tuesday that the suspects had posed a credible threat.

Law enforcement sources told CBS station KCNC-TV in Denver that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative."

One of the suspects told authorities they were "going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle ... sighted at 750 yards," reported KCNC.

The men arrested Sunday face drug and gun counts but are not expected to be charged with making threatening statements, conspiracy or other national-security-related crimes, according to a federal law enforcement official in Denver who spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges have not yet been filed.

Obama will become the first black nominee for president by a major party at this week's convention. One of the men arrested, Nathan Johnson, told a Denver TV station that others involved in the case had made racist statements regarding Obama and had discussed killing him Thursday, the day of his acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High.

"He don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot," Johnson told KCNC-TV Monday in a late-night interview from jail, where he was being held on drug charges.

When asked whether he felt there was a plot to kill Obama, Johnson said, "Looking back at it, I don't want to say yes, but I don't want to say no." He said he wasn't involved in any plot.

By Tuesday, Johnson was declining media requests for interviews. He did not speak at a bond hearing where he was given $10,000 bond. The low bond amount, though, indicated authorities don't believe he was capable of assassinating Obama.

"We're absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a statement.

The assassination investigation was triggered after police in Aurora, a suburb east of Denver, stopped a truck that was swerving erratically around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The driver, 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell, had a suspended driver's license, and the truck was rented in the name of another person, said Aurora police Detective Marcus Dudley.

Aurora police Lt. Bob Stef said police saw two scoped rifles, two wigs, camouflage clothing, a bulletproof vest and two walkie-talkies in the truck. A search also revealed 4.4 grams of what police believed to be methamphetamine and three IDs in other people's names, Stef said.

Johnson, 32, and Shawn Robert Adolf, 33, were arrested in area hotel rooms after interviews with Gartrell. Adolf jumped out a sixth-story window of a hotel when police arrived Sunday. He broke his ankle in the fall but tried to run before police found him a short distance away.

Three senior FBI officials said it's unclear whether shooters could have had a clear path to hit the stage from outside the convention hall. At least two of the men may have had white supremacist ties, the officials said, adding that it was unclear whether any of them were serious about carrying out threats. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

A fourth federal official familiar with the investigation said an assassination attempt was unlikely.

"The capability and their opportunity and what they had for their weaponry - I don't see that they would have been able to carry it out," the official said on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

A news conference to discuss the charges was expected later Tuesday.

Adolf was hospitalized and was being held on $1 million bond for several outstanding warrants involving drug charges. Adolf had a handcuff key in one hand and a swastika ring on the other when he was arrested, a senior FBI official said. Adolf was listed on the "Most Wanted" list of the Weld County, Colo., sheriff's department for burglary, larceny, aggravated motor vehicle theft and other charges.

Gartrell, who has no known address, was being held at the Arapahoe County jail on $50,000 bail on drug and weapons charges. The jail said he was due in court Thursday.

A woman described by federal authorities as the girlfriend of one of the men was also arrested, though her name and charges weren't immediately clear.

Law enforcement officials were also investigating whether the men were linked to vandalism shootings that targeted at least two federal buildings in Denver over the past two weeks. Windows were shot at the U.S. Custom House and the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Station on the same street in Denver's downtown Federal District.

Additionally, a bullet was recovered from a Hertz rental car that was hit on Aug. 15, and authorities are now looking to see if it could have matched the guns seized from the men.

Gartrell lived in rural Nevada in the 1990s with his father, a journeyman ranch hand and heavy equipment operator, Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said Tuesday.

Lee told the AP that Gartrell was run over by a truck as a child and that "it was absolutely amazing that he wasn't hurt badly."

As a teen, Gartrell tried to enroll at a high school about 80 miles north of Las Vegas, but provided transcripts from a high school in Colorado that showed "quite a bit of disciplinary action," said Debi Smallwood, administrative aide to school Principal Steve Hansen. Gartrell was told he'd have to enroll in an alternative high school but never did, Smallwood said.

[wellhell3]

So some whack jobs got their big britches on like they were planning something...Yawn!

[pepperp1]

Just like the fainting spells at all his campaign stops early on FAKE, Obama Drama poor little Obama pooh stop playing the poor victim Dems will not rally to him\


He is down two in the daily Gallup McCain moves ahead a like magic a poor Obama cable talk show pity party occurs with no mention of him tanking because of his inadequate resume

[leslief48]

So Larry, Darryl, and Darryl were thinking of shooting Obama but decided to get high instead...big doin''s in Denver!

[zerato-2009]

Hmm truck rented in anothers name, fake ID''s, High powered rifle sighted in at 750 yards, disguises, staying in rooms in separate hotels, armed white racists in same town as Black nominee. I suppose they were there to hunt.

[mandalay-bay]

"Aurora police Lt. Bob Stef said police saw two scoped rifles, two wigs, camouflage clothing, a bulletproof vest and two walkie-talkies in the truck. A search also revealed 4.4 grams of what police believed to be methamphetamine and three IDs in other people''s names, Stef said."



Winners....

[mandalay-bay]

Hmm truck rented in anothers name, fake ID''''s, High powered rifle sighted in at 750 yards, disguises, staying in rooms in separate hotels, armed white racists in same town as Black nominee. I suppose they were there to hunt.


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Posted by zerato at 07:13 PM : Aug 26, 2008

yeah they were hunting alright.....hunting for black Senators...

apparently it was black Senator season.

[mandalay-bay]

Hmm truck rented in anothers name, fake ID''''s, High powered rifle sighted in at 750 yards, disguises, staying in rooms in separate hotels, armed white racists in same town as Black nominee. I suppose they were there to hunt.


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Posted by zerato at 07:13 PM : Aug 26, 2008

yeah they were hunting alright.....hunting for black Senators...

apparently it was black Senator season.

[danielle_mom]

He has always been afraid to not have protection. Most of the threats have been disgruntled white men who appear to be racist.

[misha128-2009]

How many fake alerts and "fear mongering" reports have come from this administration. This time they have detained three people and significant evidence and there was "no threat". Is there any rhyme or reason in this administration as to what a threat is and when it is tangible?

[sistatee-2009]

The trio also said they shot the sheriff, but they did not shoot the deputy.

[realpatriot1]

danielle_mom,

Any Presidential candidate who doesn''t want protection on the campaign trail doesn''t have the intellectual capacity to be President. It''s not about bravery.

Do the names JFK, MLK, RFK, George Wallace, Gerald Ford, & Ronald Reagan ring a bell? If they had been more "afraid" the country would''ve been spared a great deal of trauma.

[danielle_mom]

Obama asked for secret service protection almost two years ago.

The men who protect our leaders know what they are doing and react swiftly and discretely to handle any threat. The candidates have received threats and have been in arms way on a daily basis. This incident of Obama being threatened is not an isolated event. What makes it unusual is that it is getting nation attention to drum up attention to make him appear like he is as popular as Bobby Kennedy and that the threat could have been as fatal.

No normal person wants to live their life under a microscope, a sniper''s scope and the protective eye of our national security.

[stn_sage]

LOL! There''s MORE real evidence here linking these individuals to their threats THAN there was evidence linking Oswald to the Kennedy assassination, but the FBI downplays(?)the credibility of the threat?!

It''s gotten so bad at the ''bureau'', they wouldn''t know a criminal if the guy was standing in front of them with a rifle in-hand and a sign around his neck that spelled it out to them in black-and-white! YIKES!

Lord, help us!

[clovisbuford]

"No Way.No How, No Mccain " Hillary Rodham Clinton 8/26/2008 nuff said

[demwatcher]

These guys look like a trio of disgruntled Liberals that didn''t get their welfare checks in time.

[clovisbuford]

These guys look like a trio of disgruntled Liberals that didn''''t get their welfare checks in time.
Posted by DemWatcher at 11:38 PM : Aug 26, 2008 wow its about a plot to kill a dem and the whackos like demwatcher make the culprits dems .. more likely they were cracked out from days of listening to rush ,hannity ,coulter or O"liely , like thatt church shooter

[ubrew12]

DemWatcher said: "These guys look like a trio of disgruntled Liberals that didn''t get their welfare checks in time. "

Too bad for you, then, that they''re your fellow Republicans: neoNazi''s for the new American century. LOL.

[tachoma-2009]

Good thing they don''t have 10,ooo dollars to post bail and get back to whatever they was doing... (adolf)??? hmmmmm....

[patriot12436]

I think they were not deemed a credible threat based on their iq''s. Even put together they appear to be single digit. As much as i am against obama, i think his assination would do more harm to this country. I just don''t want to see him be elected president. I wish him no harm.

[patriot12436]

I find these comments about rednecks totally unfair and biased. I don''t think these guys would be accepted as rednecks.

[patriot12436]

They were probably looking for another guy to show them how to load the bullets.

[brianbwb-2009]

It does seem that $10k is extremely low, all they have to do is have their neonazi buddies ante up, and the FBI might just have sold the life of Mr. Obama.

""We''re absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a statement."

Right, the guy''s packing, and says "Blacks" don''t belong in office, he ought to be shot, a wanted man suspected of multiple crimes, and it "was no credible threat".

Iraq was no credible threat, these terrorists are. We see by this, what side the FBI is on.

[deacon20081]

You lemmings are friggin brain dead.
Posted by JonGood54
------------------------------------------------------

A Freudian Slip there Jon? Your moron in chief would be proud...sniff, sniff.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by misha128
Is there any rhyme or reason in this administration as to what a threat is and when it is tangible?

Posted by gctomajtom

This administration? ANY administration will be having a hard time determining when a threat is credible or not.

It''''s insane to blame "this administration." An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so I, for one, am grateful they are erring on the side safety.

----

My question is compared to other threat assessment pronouncements of this administration alone is this assessment consistent? I am not looking for absolute certainty that no one can provide; I am looking for consistent actions and statements that can be interpreted by those of us listening with similar consistency.

[eggy1620]

The one on the right could pass for Cletus on the Simpsons