4A
NEWS
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NATIONAL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008
Plan to target Obama, others stopped by local authorities
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BELLS. Tenn. — Two white supremacists charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Barack Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxes were likely too disorganized to carry out the plot, authorities said, and their planning was riddled with blunders.
Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, are accused of dreaming up the plan. While authorities say they had guns capable of creating carnage, documents show they never got close to getting off the ground.
Among the blunders: They drew attention to themselves by etching swastikas on a car with sidewalk chalk, only knew each other for a month, couldn't even pull off a house robbery and a friend ratted them out to authorities.
"Certainly these men have some frightening weapons and some very frightening plans," said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who studies the white supremacy movement. "But with the part about wearing top hats ... it gets a bit hard to take them seriously."
Despite making sure the plot was stopped, authorities did not believe Cowart and Schlesselman had the
means to carry out their threat to assassinate Obama, said a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Asked whether the two suspects had Obama's schedule or plans to kill him at a specific time or place, a second law enforcement official who also was not authorized to speak publicly said, "I don't think they had that level of detail."
The two met online about a month ago, introduced by a friend and bound by a mutual belief in white supremacy, according to an affidavit written by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who interviewed them.
Together, they chatted about how they could carry out such a terrorist spree, officials said. Schlesselman volunteered a sawed-off shotgun that would be "easier to maneuver," and also took a gun from his father, according to an affidavit.
The plot referenced two numbers important to skinhead culture by aiming to take the lives of 88 people, and 14 of them would be beheaded. The number 14 refers to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and to the eighth letter of
the alphabet, H. Two "8's or "H"s
stand for "Hell Hitler."
But that may have been as detailed as it got. Last week, Cowart drove to pick up Schlesselman from his Arkansas home so the plot could begin, according to the affidavit. They decided to start with a house robbery, and asked a friend to drive them. But when they got to the driveway, they saw a dog and two vehicles, and got spooked.
Armed with ski masks and nylon rope they purchased at a Wal-Mart, they tried again the next day to get started. Authorities say they decided to fire on the windows of a church, then bragged about it to a friend. She told her mother, who alerted the local sherriff. Investigators were able to trace the shell casings to the pair, and took them into custody after spotting their car, decorated with chalk-drawn swastikas and racially motivated words, along with the numbers "88" and "14."
Schlesselman's family said Tuesday that it was unlikely he was seriously planning an attack, even though he expressed hatred for blacks. A high school dropout who was unsuccessful finding work, he often spent time on the computer, his 16-year-old sister, Kayla said. She said she often argued with him about his racial beliefs, and he would say things like "Obama would make the world suffer."
Crockett County, Tenn. Sheriff Troy Klyce speaks outside the Crockett County Jail in Alamo, Tenn., on Monday. Two white supremocrats allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Barack Obama, federal authorities said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AGRICULTURE
'Matchmaker' allows farmers to find the right fit for their crops
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vegetable grower Joe Buley, hoping to improve his life, has turned to a matchmaker. Not for his love life — for his veggies.
He's signed up for a
"Matchmaker" event in which farmers will be placed together for 10 minutes at a time with buyers from supermarket chains, restaurants, food cooperatives and colleges in hopes of forging new partnerships benefiting growers and retailers.
"It's an excellent opportunity for me to look at some new markets," said Buley, of East Montpelier, who hoping his baby bell peppers and winter greens get snapped up.
The event, which will be held Wednesday at the Three Stallion Inn in Randolph, was organized by
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the state Agency of Agriculture to help link sellers of local products with buyers that didn't know how to find them, said Helen Labun Jordan, the agency's agricultural development coordinator.
The reasons were obvious: Farmers wanted to sell their products wholesale to a large supermarket but didn't know how to get their foot in the door. And restaurants using a core group of farmers didn't know what else was out there, she said. They needed an efficient way to exchange information, hence the Matchmaker.
Organized like a speed dating event, the farmers will get 10 minutes each with individual buyers, to pitch what they grow and hear the needs of vendors like Shaw's and Hannaford Bros. supermarkets, food cooperatives and colleges.
"This is your chance to explore options for selling to larger scale buyers through one-on-one conversations that you schedule based
on who you want to connect with," the Agency of Agriculture said on its Web site.
"The Matchmaker is an event for anyone planning to expand to larger markets, anyone currently selling wholesale who wants to expand
The daylong event will include workshops on distribution options, systems for tracking sales
quantities are needed, where, and in what form, said Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Grocers' Association.
Sometimes, growers think Hannaford's is too big to work with small growers, said Wendy Ward.
"It's an excellent opportunity for me to look at some new markets."
and preseason planning.
JOE BULEY Vermont farmer
The event will help to answer questions about what products farmers have, if they use a distributor or sell their products directly. For sellers, they'll learn what
Hannaford's "Close to Home" coordinator.
"Unlike some of our competitors, we don't have minimum-volume requirements when they're doing direct store delivery, which
is what most of our growers do" said Ward, "Some of our stores can accommodate a very small grower with just a few cases each week. We have other larger growers who do dozens of cases of every item."
Charlie Sargent, dining services purchasing agent for Middlebury College, is looking for locally raised oats for the school's homemade granola.
"We're always looking to see what else we can buy with our dollar that is local. We realize how important the college is to the local economy," said Sargent.
The college now buys artisan cheeses, milk, ice cream, apples and other produce from Vermont farms and is open to buying more.
STANDING UP FOR KU
John Wilson will stand up for KU in the Kansas Legislature. John is a KU graduate, has taught classes at KU and is the former Co-Director of the KU Center for Community Outreach. He will fight to make sure our faculty and staff salaries are competitive and that we hold the line on tuition increases. John Wilson is the kind of legislator we need fighting for us in Topeka.
John WILSON
FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE
Bringing New Energy to Topeka.
Working for You.
www.johnwilsonforkansas.com
Paid for by John Wilson for Kansas. Julia Gaughan, Treasurer.
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