Arrest of Neo-Nazis in Obama Assassination Plot a Reminder of Enduring White Supremacist Culture in US

On Monday police arrested twenty-year-old Daniel Cowart and 18-year-old Paul Schlesselman for possession of unregistered firearms, conspiring to steal firearms and making threats against a presidential candidate.

Police say the men were plotting to kill 102 African-American students and then assassinating Barack Obama. While police say no formal plan was ever developed a search is on for other individuals who may been involved.

Officials told ABC News that Obama has been the target of an estimated 500 threats, most of which are not taken seriously. But in an estimated dozen or so cases, the threat was considered serious enough that law enforcement agents were assigned to track down suspects.

Daniel Cowart is believed to have been a member of the Supreme White Alliance. Earlier this year he was photographed at a birthday party for Adolf Hitler along with other members of the Neo-Nazi group. Days before the arrests, investigative journalist James Ridgeway visited Columbia Missouri and talked to Steven Boswell of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Movement about Barack Obama’s campaign.

Steven Boswell, interviewed by James Ridgeway.

James Ridgeway joins us now from Cleveland, Ohio where he has been covering the presidential race for the Guardian newspaper.

James Ridgeway, longtime investigative reporter and senior Washington correspondent for Mother Jones magazine. He is traveling across the country to battleground states and reporting for Guardian newspaper’s special “On the Road to the White House.”=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/uselectionroadtrip His books include Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads and the Rise of a New White Culture.