Plot Against Obama Not a 'Credible Threat'

Who knows for sure what these maniacs were up to, but authorities now say there wasn't a credible threat to Barack Obama.

DENVER — Authorities are investigating whether a man arrested with rifles, ammunition and drugs in his truck made statements threatening Barack Obama, but emphasize he never posed a "credible threat" to the candidate or the Democratic National Convention.

Federal and local authorities had scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon, but U.S. Attorney Troy Eid downplayed the case.

"We're absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado," Eid said in a statement.

FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright confirmed the FBI was investigating reports the man had threatened Obama, who will be in Denver this week to accept the Democratic nomination for president. The Joint Information Center — a command set up by city, state and federal authorities to field media inquiries during the Democratic convention — said it had no immediate comment.

The action started around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when police in the eastern suburb of Aurora stopped a truck that was swerving erratically. The driver, 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell, had a suspended driver's license, and the truck was rented in the name of another person, said Aurora police Detective Marcus Dudley.

In the truck, officers found two rifles, including one with a scope; a bulletproof vest; boxes of ammunition; walkie-talkies; and suspected narcotics, Dudley said.

Aurora police, on edge because of heightened security surrounding the Democratic convention in Denver, alerted federal authorities.

Three hours later, at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, federal agents arrested Nathan Johnson, 32, at a hotel in Denver. He was being held on drug charges, Dudley said.

A half-hour after that, 33-year-old Shawn Robert Adolf jumped from a sixth-story window when authorities tried to arrest him at a hotel in suburban Glendale, police said.

More from the Rocky Mountain News.

Obviously, there are a lot of crackpots in and around Denver and thankfully law enforcement is staying on top of things.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

Update: Andy McCarthy weighs in.

Maybe Sen. Obama will have a new appreciation for law-enforcement, and for the fact (which most on the Left won't entertain) that sometimes when police stop and search someone — without a warrant! — for mere erratic driving, they really do discover far more serious crime. Let's also hope the media cover this responsibly rather than framing white supremacists named Adolph as rank-and-file Republicans.

AJ Strata:

Did they have any chance of getting their guns into the convention area? Probably not. And why the camouflage (which is for outdoors)? To get into the center with HW would more likely require playing at being a site worker or something. Walkie Talkies? Give me a break, every RF signal is monitored in a situation like this. These people were drugged up idiots play acting.

And now they get to play prisoner - for a long, long time.

Naturally, some leftwing idiot blames talk radio. Good grief.

This is what happens when the airwaves of this country are saturated with racist and ideological hate speech by right wing ideologues such as Hannity, Limbaugh and Savage. It isn't surprising but it is extremely disapponting and disheartening to see the extreme right once again returning to publicly expressing fantasies of violence against Democrats and liberals, thus inciting emotionally unstable people to carry out such violent fantasies. This same use of violent rhetoric was what led to the death of Martin Luther King and other prominent Civil Rights leaders in the 60's, and may have contributed to the Kennedy assassinations. Now it appears that some in this country would like to return to using violence as a political tool once more.

What a tool. I guess using the same logic, we should blame the climate of hate from leftwing talk radio for inciting people to kill Michelle Malkin.

Last week when some nutcase sent white powder to McCain, the left immediately blamed Karl Rove and questioned the timing. But now they're sure it's some nefarious plot driven by Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Of course when we found out it was a Muslim, the story quickly disappeared.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Update: While still noting it wasn't credible, further details emerge noting the plot included taking a shot at Obama during his Thursday speech. Further details on these mutants from Dan Riehl.