Authorities play down plot against Obama

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid on Tuesday dismissed reports of a plot to assassinate Barack Obama, calling threats made by two men held on drug and weapons charges "racist rantings" by two people "high on meth" and "not a credible threat" to the senator from Illinois.

The threats, according to authorities, were made by Nathan Johnson and Shawn Robert Adolf, two of three men arrested Sunday evening in connection with a routine traffic stop in nearby Aurora that turned up two rifles with scopes (one of them described by Eid as "a sniper rifle"), body armor; camouflage clothing; and equipment for making methamphetamine.

Those items were in a truck driven by Tharin Gartrell that was stopped by police. Gartrell apparently led police to Adolf and Johnson, staying in separate hotels, who were later arrested. Adolf, who has several outstanding felony warrants, broke his ankle attempting to elude arrest by jumping out of his hotel room's sixth-story window. A quantity of meth was recovered from his room, police said.

Eid said that the evidence of a plot "did not meet the legal standard" to be "a true threat" but that the investigation was continuing.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, during an interrogation by Colorado state police and Secret Service agents, a girlfriend of one of the three men said that Gartrell, Johnson, and Adolf, while high on meth, stated an intention to kill Obama during the convention. Adolf rented a room in the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver, believing Obama would be staying there later in the week, and he acquired a rifle fitted for a silencer, along with body armor and other equipment. The girlfriend also said that Adolf had ties to white supremacists. According to an affidavit, the woman quoted Adolf as saying: "No nigger should ever live in the White House."

Nevertheless, Eid said that the threats were not credible, partly because the three men, who he repeatedly referred as "meth heads," were "high on meth" when making the threats.

The arrests were a common topic of conversation among convention-goers and others in town for the convention. Brandon Brea of Orinda, Calif., who was wearing a large "Obama" pin on his sweatshirt, wanted to know whether President Bush had appointed the prosecutor in the case. "That will tell you whether this thing gets buried," said Brea, who was strolling on the 16th Street pedestrian mall.

Eid was indeed appointed by Bush, in 2006. Before that he was a close aide to Bill Owens, then the Republican governor of Colorado; previously he was a longtime lawyer and business executive born and raised in the state. The son of an Egyptian immigrant, Eid is the first Arab-American U.S. attorney, his official biography says.

Obama and top officials for his campaign have had little to say about the arrests, as Obama has usually declined to discuss death threats against him since he emerged as a serious presidential candidate. He was placed under Secret Service protection in May 2007 after a death threat, the first time that a presidential candidate had received such protection before being nominated. A 22-year-old Miami man was arrested three weeks ago after he was accused of publicly threatening Obama's life and the life of Bush. He told authorities he was joking.

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