KKK member plotted to harm Obama with X-ray ‘weapon of mass destruction': prosecutor
Source: Reuters
REUTERS
18 AUG 2015 AT 09:19 ET
A Ku Klux Klan member conspired to use a remote-controlled X-ray device hidden in a truck, which he called Hiroshima on a light switch, as a weapon of mass destruction to harm Muslims and President Barack Obama, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday.
But a lawyer for Glendon Scott Crawford at the start of his trial said that government undercover agents dragged him further into the plot to build what media dubbed the death ray machine after he tried to pull away in the initial stages, when he had no more than a piece of paper sketching out his ideas.
In opening arguments at U.S. District Court in Albany, a lawyer for Crawford, 51, of Galway, New York, said the device would have never been built if not for the government supplying the necessary components via criminal sources.
(Crawford) has strong political views and he saw Muslim extremism in Europe coming here, defense lawyer Kevin Luibrand said.
-snip-
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/kkk-member-plotted-to-harm-obama-with-x-ray-weapon-of-mass-destruction-prosecutor/
KansDem
(28,498 posts)"Krazy, Kookoo, Kracked"
valerief
(53,235 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)entrapment normally means you get the guy to do something he wouldn't do without you suggesting it, but this asshole was basically harmless until the feds helped him along.
At the very least it was a waste of gummint time.
William Seger
(10,779 posts)If he made the plans, how do you know he wouldn't carry through? What if other KKKers encouraged him?
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)is it a stretch to think they would know when he tried to actually build the thing?
William Seger
(10,779 posts)... to the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York to "kill Israels enemies while they slept." What if he had simply given the plans to someone else to build?
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)they were feds and they were watching him?
And what if every asshole with an criminal idea was given the means to do it? Every potential rapist was given a girl to practice on? Every hacker given a list of passwords? Every burglar given a front door key?
We'd catch 'em all, wouldn't we?
Quackers
(2,256 posts)William Seger
(10,779 posts)Hopefully, the jury will weigh the actual evidence for entrapment rather than jumping to conclusions based on the defense attorney's assertions.
yourmovemonkey
(267 posts)I knew him please check my post down the thread
melm00se
(4,993 posts)should create reasonable doubt
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)The best example of that was in the mid 80s when there was a drug deal where the buyers and sellers turned out to be FBI, DEA and local undercover cops. Not one single player was an actual criminal.
They almost shot each other too.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,174 posts)It is just as wrong for the police to go undercover and goad, encourage, and then even provide supplies to these fools no matter which side of the political spectrum.
As a case here in BC, Canada where a couple were found guilty of a "terrorist plot" to blow up the Legislature. The "bomb" was produced by the police via an undercover "contact". It was a fake bomb of course. They had histories of mental illness and drug abuse, and never ever would gotten their ideas off the ground without the help. In the end they went through with it partly because they were scared because they were intimidated by this undercover "terrorist contact" that if they backed out, they would be killed.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-couple-convicted-of-bomb-plot-had-a-way-out-but-feared-being-killed/article25512255/
Court heard two undercover Mounties, who were posing as members of a terror network and cannot be identified, staged an argument on June 29, 2013, while Mr. Nuttall was in earshot. One of the officers whom Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody believed to be the more senior member of the terror network said he was not happy with Mr. Nuttalls work. The officer said Mr. Nuttall was not ready to carry out the plot and was wasting his time.
Mr. Nuttall had, one day earlier, told his wife he feared they would be killed if they did not see the plot through.
Aren't there enough problems for the police, in all its forms, to deal with without spending time and money concocting these elaberate entrapment operations?
packman
(16,296 posts)Should have given him all the shit plus some and seen what he could have come up with - a newer and better mousetrap, a super-duper microwave bread toaster , a cosmic blaster - God knows what such a mind could have conceived.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)tanyev
(42,568 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)yourmovemonkey
(267 posts)We were very close friends for decades before he totally went over to the dark side. He was actually a smart guy until his mind got polluted by RW radio and an independent church that preached politics more than the gospel. I broke off all ties with him during the 2008 election. That was when it was clear he'd gone completely off the rails. He was stockpiling guns and ammo back then even, and burying them on his property. My childhood friend became a very unpredictable scary person.
I've known him since we were 5, and I can tell you that nobody ever convinced him to do anything that he didn't want to. He was crazy, opinionated, overconfident and obstinate. That was cool when we were in our late teens and roommates for about a year, but most of us mellow a little with age. Scott just got more mean and surly. He became a very dangerous man.
The feds may have strung him along, but he initiated this hair-brained idea and he continued to pursue it. I've read the indictment, and some of the things that he said in the recordings are just horrible. If this thing had actually worked, he had no problem with the idea of unleashing it on innocent children and families. There is a daycare in the Mosque he wanted to 'test' it on. It's very close to where I live now. Some of his intended victims are my neighbors.
The thing I just can't seem to wrap my head around is that Scott had a pretty good life, and yet he just threw it all away. A nice home in the hills, a beautiful wife (she's a great cook!), 3 happy and healthy sons and a solid union job with a good pension. His heart became so hateful and corroded that he couldn't even stand back and see that he had what most people can only dream of. I still feel awful for his family, but his mind was poisoned. He'd broken off all ties with anyone who disagreed with him or held an alternative view, and the echo chamber must have just gotten louder and louder. It's a terrible waste, but (believe me) it seems inevitable to me that he would have eventually acted on his anger and hatred either way.
NBachers
(17,120 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)PatrickforO
(14,577 posts)hate radio became our legacy. That's sad. Good they caught the guy though, before he could actually kill someone.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)The Norway shooter seems like he also was consumed by anger/hatred and one day acted on it.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)PatrickforO
(14,577 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Our Courts are so slow and backlogged.
Wish our obstructive political system would allow more judges to be appointed quickly.