Obama assassination likely wouldn't have happened: authorities
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | 6:56 PM ET
The Associated Press
Two white supremacists charged with plotting to behead black people across the country and assassinate Barack Obama while wearing top hats and tuxes were likely too disorganized to carry out the plot, authorities said, and their planning was riddled with blunders.
Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., are accused of making the plan. While authorities said they had guns capable of creating carnage, documents show they never got close to getting their plot off the ground.
Authorities did not believe Cowart and Schlesselman had the means to carry out their threat to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Obama, said a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Asked whether the two suspects had Obama's schedule or plans to kill him at a specific time or place, a second law enforcement official who also was not authorized to speak publicly said, "I don't think they had that level of detail."
The two met online about a month ago, introduced by a friend and bound by a mutual belief in white supremacy, according to an affidavit written by a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who interviewed them. Together, they chatted about how they could carry out such a spree, officials said.
Schlesselman volunteered a sawed-off shotgun that would be "easier to manoeuvre," and also took a gun from his father, according to an affidavit.
But that may have been as detailed as it got. Last week, Cowart drove to pick up Schlesselman from his Arkansas home so they could begin to carry out their plot, according to the affidavit. They decided to start with a house robbery, and asked a friend to drive them. But when they got to the driveway, they saw a dog and two vehicles, and got spooked.
They purchased ski masks and nylon rope at a Wal-Mart, and tried again the next day to get started, authorities said. They allegedly fired on the windows of a church, then bragged about it to a friend. She told her mother, who alerted the local sheriff. Investigators traced the shell casings to the pair, and took them into custody after spotting their car, decorated with chalk-drawn swastikas and racist words.
Schlesselman's family said Tuesday that it was unlikely he was seriously planning an attack, even though he expressed hatred for black people. A high school dropout who was unsuccessful finding work, he often spent time on the computer, his 16-year-old sister, Kayla, said. She said she often argued with him about his racial beliefs, and he would say things like, "Obama would make the world suffer."
His father, Mike, also doubted the plot was serious. "I think it's just a lot of talk. He would never do something like this," he said.
Cowart changed in a month, former boss says
Cowart worked at a grocery store in Bells for about a year, according to Scotty Runions, 54, who supervised him. Runions said Cowart was preoccupied with computers and bagged groceries at the store until about May 2007, before moving to Texas.
"The guy I saw on TV last night was not the same person that I knew, and I saw him about a month ago," Runions said. "This is something he's created in the past month — that's not the young man that we know."
Attorneys for both men haven't commented, but Schlesselman's sister said Tuesday that she spoke with him after the charges were made public. "He said he's sorry about everything he's done," she said.
The plot was the third high-profile incident involving death threats against Obama in the last three months.
Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges he threatened to assassinate Obama and U.S. President George W. Bush. Authorities said Geisel kept an arsenal of weaponry and military gear and made the threats while attending a training class to become a bail bondsman.
A group of men sparked fears of an assassination plot against Obama during the Democratic Party's presidential convention in Denver in August. Authorities said the men had guns and bulletproof vests and made racist threats against Obama, but were high on methamphetamine and posed no true danger.
