Glendon Crawford, KKK Member, Found Guilty in ‘Death Ray’ Plot to Harm Muslims
I would point out that this was brought to the attention of law enforcement by two local Jewish groups as well as a KKK informant the year after. I hope any of my fellow Muslims who might be inclined to harbor antisemitic thoughts take note of that.
An upstate New York man was convicted Friday of plotting to kill Muslims and harm U.S. President Barack Obama with a mobile X-ray device after a jury rejected his lawyer’s argument that he was entrapped by the FBI. […]
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Belliss said investigators began tracking Crawford in 2012 after he approached two local Jewish groups with his technological idea for how they could defeat their enemies. They also learned Crawford sought support for the device in 2013 from a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) grand wizard in North Carolina, who was an FBI informant. That was something the agents and undercover investigators didn’t initially know about, he said. […]
According to the prosecutor, Crawford’s tireless pursuit of the plan drove the investigation. The evidence showed he was “cold, calculated” and “committed.” He was not “cartoonish” or “a goofy simpleton,” as the defence suggested, the prosecutor said. […]
More: Glendon Crawford, KKK Member, Found Guilty in ‘Death Ray’ Plot to Harm Muslims
From the FBI’s press release about the same (it’s more detailed):
“Glendon Scott Crawford is a terrorist who would have used a weapon of mass destruction to kill innocent members of our Muslim community were it not for the good judgment of citizens who quickly alerted law enforcement to his diabolical plan and the outstanding work of the Albany FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force,” said United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian. “This case illustrates how vigilance, the shared values of Americans of all faiths, and vigorous investigation can defeat dehumanizing bigotry and hatred.” […]
During the investigation, Crawford, with help from accomplice Eric J. Feight, took steps to design, acquire the parts for, build and test a remote initiation device that could have activated the radiation machine, and acquired (from an undercover FBI Agent) the X-ray device that he planned to modify into a weapon of mass destruction. The X-ray device that he planned to use had been modified so that Crawford could not have used it to hurt anyone. […]
Crawford, a self-professed member of the Ku Klux Klan, wanted to use the device against Muslims, and he scouted mosques in Albany and Schenectady and an Islamic community center and school in Schenectady as possible targets. Crawford also suggested the Governor’s Mansion as a potential target.
With undercover agents, Crawford discussed placing the radiological device within a van or truck, parking the vehicle near the entrance to the target location, and then remotely activating the device so that it would direct lethal doses of radiation at people coming in and out of the target location.
A central feature of Crawford’s completed X-ray device was that its targets would be exposed to dangerous and lethal doses of X-ray radiation without being aware of the exposure, the harmful effects of which would likely not be immediately apparent. […]
Upstate New York Man Convicted for His Role in Attempting to Acquire a Lethal Radiation Device