Fears for Obama

With the presidential election only days away, federal officials are looking closely for any uptick in threats to presidential candidates from white supremacist or other extremist groups. But in contrast to the pre-election atmosphere of four years ago, U.S. agencies have picked up little "chatter" about looming Islamic terror plots—and scant indications of any imminent pre-election messages from Al Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden.

Earlier this week, authorities announced they had busted up a far-fetched plot directed at Democratic candidate Barack Obama by two young "skinhead" racists in Tennessee. That case, along with a similar extremist plot broken up before the Democratic Party convention in Denver  and the recent arrest of a neo-Nazi leader in Virginia, have pointed up the extent to which the government is paying attention to the threat to Obama from far-right extremist factions. "I don't know that we're seeing a resurgence of these groups," Michael Ward, deputy assistant FBI director for counterterrorism, told NEWSWEEK. "But we are seeing an increase in rhetoric."

Ward says the increasing anger of white supremacists has manifested itself in Internet postings and threats reported to law-enforcement agencies. What worries the FBI most, he says, are "lone wolves" who might be seething with anger and armed to the teeth but who do not show up on any government radar screens.

Since last February, a presidential-campaign-threat task force created by the FBI and Secret Service has conducted more than 650 "threat assessments" to evaluate reports that could involve threats to presidential or vice presidential contenders or any others connected to the election. About 100 of those threats have been assessed to be "racially motivated" and are thought to be directed at Obama. Another 100 of the reports received since last winter are deemed to be "political" and come from across the ideological spectrum. They include pro-gun groups and anti-abortion extremists. Other categories used by the task force to track threats don't breakdown along ideological or political lines.

A similar interagency group was put together four years ago when U.S. agencies were anxious about the possibility of a pre-election attack by Al Qaeda or its affiliates. Ward said concerns about an attack by Al Qaeda or other Islamic extremists haven't evaporated. But this year, concerns about white-supremacist threats have grown. "They're both high on the radar screen and they're of equal concern," he said.

At least three lurid right-wing-extremist threats directed at Obama have come to light through government court proceedings since the end of last summer. First, as delegates and journalists were arriving in Denver in late August for the Democratic National Convention, three alleged white supremacists were arrested by local and federal authorities on drug and gun charges. In court papers, the Feds said that the three, who had access to a rifle with a sniper scope, had discussed their hatred for Obama and the possibility of shooting him from a "grassy knoll." However, investigators said that most if not all of this lurid conversation took place while the suspects were addled by methamphetamines; the suspects were never actually charged with threatening Obama, which in itself is a possible federal crime.