Obama assassination plot in Turkey broken up
(H/T – Gateway Pundit)
Adnkronos International reports that a Syrian man disguised as an Al-Jazeera reporter plotted to assassinate President Obama during his official visit to Turkey:
As United States president Barack Obama began an official visit to Turkey on Monday, reports surfaced that a Syrian man was arrested in Istanbul in connection with a plot to kill him. The man – who sought to disguise himself as a journalist for the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera – managed to obtain press accreditation and allegedly planned to stab the US president with a knife, said Saudi daily al-Watan.
Paleo Pat over at Political Byline sums up my feelings so well, I’ll just borrow them (emphasis in the original):
As an American; I am just glad to see that the plot was exposed, because the LAST THING this Country needs is our President hurt or killed. I may not agree with Obamaβs Politics, but I do not want to see the guy murdered. Anyone that would say anything any different is either crazy or just an mean spirited <expletive deleted>. It is one thing to chide the President because of his politics, but itβs an entire other matter to do something like this.
Revisions/extensions (1:37 pm 4/7/2009) – The AP reports (H/T – Ed Morrissey) that it was a hoax involving a “mentally-disturbed” man. Oddly, the details track quite nicely with the leftist meme that popped up when the original reports came out.
Ed, however, is puzzled why the Turks would quickly release a mentally-disturbed individual connected to an assassination plot. I seem to recall John Hinckley being declared insane.