(1) Tharin Gartrell
(2) Shawn Adolf
(3) Nathan Johnson
If you identified them as the three would be assassins of Barack Obama in Colorado during the Democratic Convention, give yourself a gold star. If you couldn't place those men, don't beat yourself up. Nearly two months ago those three creeps dropped into the bottomless pit of media obscurity. A kind of hush fell over the entire world.
And now two more Skinheads stand charged in Tennessee by the FBI with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a fefederally licensed gun dealer and threatening a candidate for President of the United States, Barack Obama. Cowart and Schlesselman planned to dress in white tuxedos and top hats and drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama: shooting at him from the windows according to court records.
By their own accounts, both Cowart and Schlesselmanhad accepted that they would die in the assassination attempt. The would be killers have been identified as Danial Cowart, 20, and Paul Schlesselman 18. Allegedly Cowart and Schlesselman planned to rob a Federal Firearms Licensee to gain the weapons needed to go on a killing spree that wouldn't stop before the murders of 88 and the beheading of 14 African Americans. Cowart andSchlesselman are being held without bond.
Apparently the United States Attorney for the district where Cowart and Schlesselman are jailed is not going to try to block the FBI from further investigation and subsequent prosecution of these two skinheads. Does Tennessee have lesser standards for holding and charging those suspected of conspiracy to commit murder, or was the carnage planned by Cowart and Schlesselman too enormous for another hush heard around the world.
The Colorado would-be-assassins were shielded from the FBI by Bush appointed US Attorney who has insisted there was insufficient evidence to justify prosecution of Tharin Gartrell, Shawn Adolf and Nathan Johnson for conspiracy to assassinate Barack Obama, let alone be regarded as a serious intent. Yet, according to federal court records, the three planned to assassinate Barack Obama during the Democratic Convention with a gun hidden inside a camera.
The FBI steps in. US Attorney Eids steps on the FBI's toes.
For his part, Eids did charge all three defendants with federal crimes that could result in prison sentences of up to 20 years if convicted. Making a threat against a candidate for the presidency of the United States could only result in 5 years imprisonment, Eids wrote for The Denver Post.
Or the difference between what could have happened in August and what could have happened near the end of October just simply may come down to the difference between law enforcement in Colorado and Tennessee.
