August 26, 2008
Plot to kill Obama
Authorities are downplaying this but it would appear that, like the way they downplayed the recent incident of an Egyptian who entered this country on a Sudanese passport test flying a pilotless drone aircraft capable of carrying several hundred pounds of explosives, there is probably more here than the police are willing to say:
More details emerging from Denver as we write this in the predawn hours on the now-suspected plot to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with a high-powered rifle on national television during his outdoor acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Thursday night.Authorities have reported a fourth arrest in the unfolding plot that The Ticket first wrote about here a few hours ago at the end of Monday night's Democratic National Convention events at the Pepsi Center.We knew then that authorities in suburban Aurora had stopped a pickup truck for swerving between lanes early Sunday morning in what they thought was a routine drunk driving incident.But in the rented vehicle of Tharin Gartrell, a 28-year-old convicted felon (see photo), they found two high-powered scoped rifles, ammunition, sighting scopes, radios, a cellphone, a bulletproof vest, wigs, drugs and fake IDs.According to Brian Maass of Denver's KCNC Channel 4, under questioning Gartrell implicated two other men -- Nathan Johnson, who is 32, and Shawn Adolph, who is 33 -- and Johnson's girlfriend, Natasha Gromack. Johnson also reportedly confirmed the plot to FBI and Secret Service interrogators.
It seems to me that this plot was a couple of steps beyond "harebrained" but less than "very serious." Besides, from what we know of history, any plot - no matter how ridiculous- has a chance to succeed if a series of coincidences occur that allow it to happen.
That's one thing the left doesn't get when they ridicule the right for highlighting plots like the plan to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Before the fact, such plots look ludicrous. But how would they look if a series of circumstances arose - negligence or carelessness on the part of authorities - that saw the plot succeed?
Plots like this only look harebrained before the fact. If they had picked up John Hinkley at the Denver airport before his trip to Washington, what would they have thought? Same goes for Sirhan Sirhan, Bobby Kennedy's assassin.
History doesn't care how unlikely a scenario is; only if you succeeded or failed in carrying it out.