If the Copycat Effect Is Real, Then Why Is the ATF Talking About Two Skinheads Plotting....?

[McCamy Taylor]

If you were around in 1968, you know what the copycat effect is. Assassins kept knocking off civil rights and progressive political figures one after another. Scroll down to the entry entitled Assassination Copycats to read about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy and three others were murdered in 1968.

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

Here you can relive the tempest from this spring when Hillary Clinton reminded the world of Bobby Kennedy—leading people like Keith Olbermann to declare that she was attempting murder by way of the copycat effect.

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

Hillary Rodham Clinton let the political assassination meme out of the bottle! She unconsciously or consciously said she is staying in the presidential race just in case something happens. The copycat factor is a reality underlying assassinations, and she did the unthinkable.

“In case something happens” was enough reason for putting Clinton back in the stocks. So, what are we to make of this?

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=9246424&nav=menu57_2

WASHINGTON (AP) - The ATF says it has broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree.

In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an unnamed predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads.

The report goes on to name the two would be shooters (there is the fame they were looking for) and to describe their ugly plan to kill 102 African-Americans, including high schoolers, before making the suicidal attempt upon the life of the Democratic presidential nominee.

Funny thing about this case, these guys were not wrestled to the ground by Secret Service, they were not caught in the act on camera, they did not put the lives of innocent bystanders at rick. There was no anxious public that had to be reassured that everything was well, that all the conspirators had been captured, that the threat was neutralized. No one knew anything about this conspiracy---until the ATF and the courts decided to unseal the documents and make it all public. These two dudes were apprehended before they ever got around to carrying out their plans---just like some similar guys this summer in Denver. Back then, law enforcement had a very different attitude towards the press and publicity of threats against a candidate's life.

http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/special-repor-5.html

First, consider the evidence: One of the men arrested, Nathan Johnson said the other two men, Tharin Gartrell and Shawn Robert Adolph, "had planned to kill Barack Obama...on Thursday...," which was why they were in Denver, and that "Adolph was going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a 22-250 rifle which had been sighted at 750 yards." According to the FBI, "Johnson was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama and he responded in the affirmative." The Denver police found in their possession two high-powered rifles with scopes, 85 rounds of ammunition, a bullet-proof vest, walkie-talkies, wigs, fake I.D.s, hotel reservations near the convention and 4.4 grams of methamphetamine, an amount, however, too small to be charged with more than simple possession.

The feds decided to downplay that case, stressing "There is no credible threat right now and there was no credible threat based on the evidence that we have to Senator Obama or anybody else related to what we know about this case." No credible threat? These guys were there on the scene with the high tech weapons they needed, so they were much more of a threat than the two guys from Tennessee and Arkansas who had not even managed to arm themselves yet. Why the difference in the way the feds dealt with the press in August and now?

From the above link:

Speaking with a reporter the other night who has a great deal of experience on the national security beat, I was informed of two things. First, what many might think: in such situations, the media often defers to the Secret Service in not making a 24/7 circus out of the events, which, they fear, might either encourage copycats seeking their fifteen minutes of fame or accidentally divulge information that diminishes their ability to protect a candidate.

Sounds plausible. Do criminologists agree? From Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials by Robert A. Fein and Bryan Vossekuil, January 2000 (both of the authors were with the Secret Service and the paper was commissioned by the DOJ):

http://www.totse.com/en/law/justice_for_all/161907.html

Almost without exception, assassinations, attacks, and near attacks are neither impulsive nor spontaneous acts. The notion of attacking the President does not leap fully formed into the mind of a person standing at a political rally attended by the President. Ideas of assassination develop over weeks, months, even years, and are stimulated by television and newspaper images, movies, and books. Potential assassins seek out historical information about assassination, the lives of attackers, and the protectors of their targets. They may deliberate about which target--and sometimes targets--to choose. They also may transfer their interest from one target to another.
Snip
The target. When conducting a threat assessment, protectors and investigators must also pay attention to the individual's choice of a potential target, assuming the individual has selected a target. The following questions should be addressed:
How well is the target known to the individual? Is the individual acquainted with the target's work and lifestyle patterns? Is that information readily available, as in the case of many public officials or highly visible public figures?
Snip
Contrary to the general perception, few assassins in the United States-- even those targeting major political leaders--have had purely political motives.
Snip
Many attackers and near-lethal approachers craved attention and notoriety, while others acted to bring attention to a particular problem. A number of assailants of public officials and figures were consumed with seeking revenge for perceived injuries or harm. A few attacked or nearly attacked public officials or figures in hopes of being killed by law enforcement or being removed from society by being incarcerated. Several believed that assassinating their target was a way to save the world. Others responded to beliefs or imagined voices that they felt ordered them to attack a national leader. A number of subjects approached a celebrity with a weapon to try to force the target into a special relationship. Finally, a few attacked public officials or figures for money, either because they were paid to kill the target or as part of an attempt to secure ransom money.
Targets are selected on the basis of motive, not primarily because of feelings about or hostility toward a particular target or office. Whether an individual likes a particular elected official may be irrelevant if the individual's motive is to achieve notoriety. "I would have voted for him," said one would-be attacker, "if I hadn't been in jail charged with trying to kill him."
Consistent with their motives, many ECSP attackers and would-be attackers considered more than one target before moving to attack. For example, several individuals whose primary motive was notoriety considered attacking public officials like Governors and Members of Congress before ultimately deciding to attack the President or Vice President; they calculated that an attack on the President or Vice President would receive more attention.

The document mentions factors that make potential attackers more likely to act out. One of them is times of crisis---like our current financial crisis.

Here is Ben Mcintyre from the TimesOnLine on the copycat effect and assassination in an article written in August of this year:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article4615164.ece

There is also, crucially, a copycat element to American assassinations. Sirhan was obsessed with the murder of President McKinley in 1901, and had been reading about the killing of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914. Arthur Bremer read books about Sirhan, Oswald and Booth before shooting the presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972.
Hinckley had a biography of Oswald, but was also fixated by the film Taxi Driver, in which the deranged and alienated main character is inspired, in large part, by the diaries of Bremer. Assassins feed off one another.

Before anyone tries to make political hay from the fact that American Nazis have been charged with plotting to kill Obama---which seems to confirm that McCain/Palin are inciting the right wing with their “Palling Around With Terrorist” Tour---consider how dangerous giving these two losers even a moment of publicity is. What other alienated, angry, suicidal American is watching the news, thinking Instead of just killing myself, I can try to kill a politician and die in a blaze of glory ?

Is that what the people at the United States Department of Justice had in mind when they decided that two guys with no weapons constituted a big enough threat that the whole nation had to be warned about it just a week before the election?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Because the repukes are trying to scare people..and they have no real concern about any negative

effects it would have...

This was released in hopes that it would somehow help McSame.

[billyoc]

2. They downplayed the threat of these two knotheads, too. "no credible plan..."

[bertman]

3. I'm usually right with you, McCamy, but this time it may serve as a warning to any other

ignorant skinheads that they are likely to get busted.

With all the McAnus/Palin race-baiting and muslim-hating those fuckers don't need anything to copy. They're already trying to do the dirty deed. Let's just hope the SS is on its toes.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. I'd rather know than have it hidden and covered up. Duh. What Soviet state did you crawl out from?

Freedom of information and the right to know are the bedrocks of a free informed society.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. You have a good point.

In August, they found a way to describe the threat to the press, but at the same time they made the would be assassins sound like total losers (Meth addicts) who never had a chance (as in Don't even think about copying these guys. It won't do you any good. .) What is bothering me about the latest stories is there is none of the usual Hey, these bozos never had a chance. What jackasses! Who would want to be like them? that I have come to expect from law enforcement.

Can anyone here remember ever hearing the DOJ, ATF or Secret Service break a story about a plot like this right before an election? At the very least, Obama will have to have more security from here on out, since the Secret Service will be worried about copy cats. And he is supposed to be campaigning hard this last week. How is extra security going to interfere with his campaign style? In a way, this reminds me of the psychological dirty tricks that CREEP used to pull back in 1972.

[elleng]

6. I have no 'need' to know;

this is one instance when everyone should be silent.

We hope to recognize and be able to deal with the next 'soviet state,' with help of truthful media and indepent judiciary.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. Open government. Would one hold them without charges, or have the charges secret?

[McCamy Taylor]

9. The high school targetted is being kept secret. Why not the campaigning candidate?

At least until he is no longer on the campaign trail. Once he is elected, his security will be tighter and he will have less public exposure.

[madeline_con]

8. I thought the dooshbags in Denver were more likely suspects.

I'll have to agree it sounds like a Repuke fear inspiring move.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Third reason McCain campaign benefits from this news story.

From a Huffington Post article this summer, when the specter of an Obama assassination was raised during a Latino focus group here is what happened

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/25/dark-clouds-obama-assassi_n_121327.html

But, just as the enthusiasm for Obama gained strength, Alex Moreno, a 36-year-old who runs his own window washing business, raised an issue that has emerged repeatedly in such groups by whites, blacks, Hispanics, yuppies and blue-collar workers:

"I am concerned about a black President being assassinated, and having the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles following us everywhere."

Peter Hart, the Democratic pollster overseeing this focus group, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said afterward that the assassination issue has been raised in every presidential focus group he has seen this year.

Moreno's question brought the gathering to a brief standstill as Obama supporters, the few McCain backers, and those who are undecided nodded in agreement.

After Moreno raised the assassination issue, the tone of Obama supporters became less optimistic, and the tone of McCain backers became more harshly critical of Obama's candidacy.

It is impossible to know for sure that the ATF is doing this under orders to assist the McCain campaign, however we have all seen the pattern of executive branch misconduct in recent days, from W. ordering Mukasey to ignore the SCOTUS ruling in Ohio that the 200,000 be allowed to vote all the way to the suspiciously timed incursion into Syria yesterday.

Why the hell weren't Bush and Cheney impeached? We knew that they would interfere with this election. It is only going to get worse when Obama wins. They will rob the treasury, burn all the records, pardon all the criminals, and escape to Dubai.