US government agents say they have thwarted a plan by two conspirators to kill the White House front-runner and shoot or decapitate 102 black people.The plot is understood to centre on Tennessee where Martin Luther King was assassinated exactly 40 years ago.
Details of the conspiracy were contained in court records unsealed on Monday by members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – America's specialist law enforcement agency.
ATF agents said they disrupted plans by white supremacists to rob a firearms store and attack a predominantly black school. According to the ATF, the men planned to go on a killing spree across the United States with Mr Obama, the Democratic nominee who is poised to become the country's first black president, as their final target.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office of the ATF said the two skinheads planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are held to be symbolic by white supremacists and relate to nationalist leader David Lane as well as Adolf Hitler.
Details of the alleged plot emerged just before Mr Obama arrived in Pittsburgh for a campaign rally after an earlier visit to Canton, Ohio.
Advisers remained tight lipped but said there were no plans for the candidate to make any reference to the ATF's announcement.
It was not known how detailed the alleged plot was, how far advanced it was or how feasible the plan. Agents said that the two men did not identify the school by name.
"They said that would be their last, final act – that they would attempt to kill Sen Obama," said Mr Cavanaugh. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."
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