A Racial Plot?

Three men now under arrest in Denver on federal and local gun and drug charges spent last Saturday night discussing their hatred for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, according to documents made public by the government late Tuesday. One of the suspects allegedly talked about killing Obama on the "day of his Inauguration" using a .22-250 caliber sniper rifle and high-powered scope--the same model rifle that was found in one of the suspect's possession by police during a routine traffic stop last weekend.

The three men under arrest, whom authorities believe to be white supremacists, talked about how they hated Obama because he was black, how they "could not believe how close he [Obama] was to becoming president, and how no "n----r" should ever live in the White House, a female witness told the Secret Service, according to the documents. (The witness is unnamed in the papers.)

According to a set of court complaints released by federal authorities, two of the three suspects, under questioning by the Secret Service, told investigators that they were present for discussions about killing Obama in what one of them characterized as a "shooting on a grassy knoll." One suspect told the Secret Service that the men did not have a political motive for killing Obama, but rather, as paraphrased by the government documents, "the only reason to kill Obama is because Obama is black."

Federal, state and local authorities are now trying to determine whether the conversation threatening Obama's life was simply, as one official put it, "drugs talking" or whether the suspects really had motive, means and a genuine opportunity to attack the candidate on the night that he accepts the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. Authorities say the suspects had been using drugs heavily at the time of the discussions, and investigators seized quantities of methamphetamine.

As news of the arrests first circulated Monday and Tuesday, some law-enforcement officials went to great lengths to play down the gravity of the threat to the candidate and the Democratic National Convention, which will culminate Thursday when Obama delivers his speech accepting the nomination before a crowd of 75,000 at Invesco Field. "We're absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado," declared Troy Eid, the U.S. attorney for Colorado.

But other federal officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said it was too early to dismiss the suspects' menacing conversation as merely drug-fueled racist bravado. "No one should take this lightly," said a senior federal investigator directly involved in the case. The investigation is ongoing. It is not yet known if any of the defendants have lawyers or have entered pleas.

According to the complaints, which were filed in federal magistrate's court in Denver on Tuesday, the investigation began late last Saturday night with a routine traffic stop. According to the documents, a police sergeant in Aurora, a Denver suburb, was on traffic patrol at 1:37 a.m. when he saw a blue Dodge pickup swerving and driving erratically. The patrol officer pulled over the truck and, while checking the identification of the driver, 28-year-old Tharin Robert Gartrell, discovered that the man's driver's license was suspended and that he was on probation for possessing methamphetamine. A search of the pickup turned up what cops believed was a mobile methamphetamine lab, several grams of amphetamine (in Gartrell's pants pocket), three boxes of bullets, one bulletproof vest and two bolt-action rifles. One of the guns, a Ruger Model M77 Mark II .22-250 rifle, was loaded and had a hunting scope and bipod shooting stand attached. A check on the gun disclosed that it had been stolen in Kansas in 2005, according to the documents.

Gartrell told the local police that he had no knowledge of the gun and the drugs, but that the truck belonged to his cousin, Shawn Adolf, who was staying at a Hyatt hotel in Denver. A criminal record check disclosed that Adolf was wanted on several felony warrants. Officers visiting the hotel room identified by Gartrell did not find Adolf there, but rather 32-year-old Nathan Johnson. Police searched Johnson and found him in possession of a small quantity of drugs.