WASHINGTON -- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday it has broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee killing spree.
In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an unnamed but predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville ATF field office, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.
The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.
It is not clear whether there have been any arrests or charges in the case.
Cheryl
Whitman said she and McCain share a philosophy of scaling back the role of government. a point of view partly shaped by her EBay experience. "The EBay model is very Republican in its essence -- it's about making a small number of rules and getting out of the way while not overtaxing the community," she said.
The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, and Paul Schlesselman 18, are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.
Mr Cowart and Mr Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer and threatening a candidate for president.
The court records say the men also bought nylon rope and ski masks to use in a robbery to fund their spree. They allegedly planned to go from state to state and kill people.
For the Obama plot, the legal documents show, they “planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows".
“They seemed determined to do it,” Mr Cavanaugh said. “Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South."
