Terrorism Suspects Arrested for Death Threats Against McKinney, Obama and Holder

The story takes a twist with the F.B.I.'s offer to provide special protection to McKinney under the "victim witness" program.

Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

(SALEM) - Death threats made against three African-American politicians have resulted in several arrests and a substantial seizure of weapons in Georgia. The three people named by the reported terrorist suspects are former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Attorney General Eric Holder, and President Barack Obama, according to FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Brian Lamkin with the bureau's Atlanta office.

One of our contacts has spoken with the former Congresswoman over the past 24 hours, confirming that she is not being intimidated and is OK.

Katie Leslie and Craig Schneider with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, report that the assassination of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney was part of a terrorist plot hatched by four North Georgia men; that was the case made by federal prosecutors Wednesday in a bond hearing for the accused.

The four men, three of whom are senior citizen-age, are accused of planning to bomb federal buildings, disperse the toxin ricin in major U.S. cities, and assassinate federal judges and prosecutors. They pleaded not guilty at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Gainesville.

73-year old Frederick W. Thomas, and 67-year old Dan Roberts, were charged in the U.S. District Court in Gainesville, Georgia with conspiracy to buy explosives and possession of a silencer, while 68-year old Samuel Crimp, and 55-year old Ray Adams, were charged with conspiracy to manufacture and disperse the deadly toxin ricin. Federal law enforcement officials report seizing 52 weapons, including assault rifles, and 30,000 rounds of ammunition, including special sniper rounds, from Thomas's home in Toccoa, Georgia.

From: Feds: Senior Citizen Militia Members Targeted Holder, McKinney Published by TPM Muckraker

In their report, Feds: Senior Citizen Militia Members Targeted Holder, McKinney, TPM Muckraker writes that the alleged ringleader is 73-year old Thomas, and that the covert group, as it turns out, called itself "covert group."

A comment Thomas reportedly left in a right-wing blog, called a novel the author says was intended as a “cautionary tale” about an elderly man who killed 52 federal agents “far from fantasy.”

The Associated Press reports that Thomas apparently suffers from back pain, heart disease and emphysema. He is said to have been seen puffing from an inhaler several times during a hearing. However the feds say they aren’t buying that argument.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney told a reporter, "Age is not a barrier to the crimes these defendants are charged with." Referring to the aging suspects, he said they, "can pull a trigger just as easily as you or I can."

Wayne Madsen reports that McKinney was at her mother's home in Georgia yesterday when the FBI Special Agent, Brian Lamkin and informed her that she was on the target list for the four arrested men, along with Obama and Holder. A Department of Justice official offered to provide special "victim witness" protection to McKinney, who, unlike Obama and Holder, does not have special security assigned to her.

McKinney said that while she is not afraid of the four Georgia men arrested in the alleged assassination plot, she remains concerned that the FBI had on its payroll a hate radio host who announced to his listenership in 2006 that McKinney should be lynched on her way to vote.

That radio host, Hal Turner, was found guilty in 2010 of making threats against three federal judges on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and was sentenced to 33 months in prison. It was also discovered in 2008 that Turner, who often called into the WABC-AM New York radio programs of Bob Grant and Sean Hannity, was a paid FBI informant.

Shot of Irony

Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the story Wednesday. What I can tell you about Cynthia McKinney, is one of the very few significant U.S. politicians who takes her human rights activism right to the doorstep of the accused. The former Representative is also the 2008 Green Party presidential candidate. Her politics reflect the values and human morals Obama told Americans he would represent in his election to the Office of U.S. President, before he changed into the corporate anti-pot pro-Israel president that he is today.

Hal Turner, the radio host who also worked for the FBI, who has a history of making threats against various public figures; is an American white nationalist, and a Holocaust denier.

McKinney has been extremely active in the efforts to free Gaza from Israeli occupation, and for those efforts she is labeled by all sorts of pro-Israeli groups as being 'antisemitic' which could not be father from the truth.

Turner on the other hand, also a former Republican political candidate who sought, but did not receive, the Republican Party nomination for election to the United States Congress from New Jersey's 13th congressional district, is exactly who might legitimately be described that way.

It is a case of Israel crying wolf by screaming 'antisemite' when they are criticized for Human Rights violations, that creates this vicious circle of misunderstanding. It is perverse that the heart of a person driven to be arrested in international incidents for the sake of humanity, whose friends and fellow activists are priests, Holocaust Survivors and Nobel Laureates, would ever be regarded as anti-Semitic.

The Anti-Defamation League wrote with regard to antisemitism, that "her service in Congress has been clouded by a perception that she also harbors such feelings."

The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote of McKinney: "she has given off hints that her distaste for Israel's policies contained elements of anti-Semitism". Good job SPLC, you're nothing but a supporter of Israel's atrocities and I don't care how noble your roots are. You turn on a Black woman of immense strength in writing such rubbish.

Special Protection?

The story takes a twist with the F.B.I.'s offer to provide special protection under the "victim witness" program, following the indictment of four men in northern Georgia for plotting to kill McKinney.

She is quoted by Bay View suggesting that the idea of special protection is a little late.

“

Sadly, the U.S. Capitol Hill Police, lumbering under the weight of several lawsuits filed by its own Black police officers, could never think of protecting me even after a direct threat had been made against me. My untold story is that I struggled in the Congress with mean-spirited threats all of the time. Nasty name calling, racial slurs, even stalking and bomb threats. I tried to deal with it as best I could and with grace. So now, the FBI, the government agency that was paying the shock jock to threaten me, rings to inform me that I now qualify for their “victim witness” services. I don’t know what political reaction they expect from me. I do have an idea, but they surely won’t get it. Recently, I have been reaching out to conservative White individuals and organizations for dialogue and I will continue to do so. The people I’ve been reaching out to are hearing my message and it is getting through: If you and I fail to talk about our problems, we will never resolve them and the same old culprits who have skillfully divided us on the false basis of race will continue to steal opportunity from both of us. Let’s at least talk to each other and keep our eyes together on the ones stealing the people blind. I will continue my political activities with the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Palestine that just this past weekend announced its findings that from witness testimony from Israel and Palestine, it is clear that Israel practices its own unique form of apartheid. I will continue to oppose the senseless, inane, immoral, illegal wars of the Obama administration. I will continue to pursue war crimes prosecutions against war criminals and that includes former presidents and prime ministers. I will continue to seek understanding with my fellow Americans so that we can oppose the madness that is now running our country that, unfortunately, is running roughshod over the environment and our world.

”

Sources:

Nov-10-2011: Feds: Senior Citizen Militia Members Targeted Holder, McKinney TPM Muckraker

Nov-10-2011: Death threat against Cynthia McKinney: Why is the FBI calling me? SF Bay View

Nov-09-2011: Attorney general, former congresswoman, federal judges were alleged targets of Georgia terrorists Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wayne Madsen Report

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