(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 Obama’s 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 asshole. It is one thing to chide the President because of his politics, but it’s an entire other matter to do something like this.
Revisions/extensions (12:37 pm 4/7/2009) – The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ 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.
President Biden. Now there’s a really scary thought.
I can just imagine the howls of frustration from the left if an assassination plot against
George W. Bush had been broken up. The Kos Kids wouldn’t even pretend. It would all be
one big joke.