THE President-elect has already been the subject of two bizarre plots by white supremacists. At the Democratic Convention in Denver in August, three men were arrested after one was stopped for driving erratically and his rented pick-up truck was found to contain two rifles, two-way radios, a bulletproof vest, fake driving licences, wigs, balaclavas and methamphetamines.
One of the trio told police they "planned to kill Barack Obama at his acceptance speech (because] blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot."
A second plot, uncovered last month, saw two skinheads who met on the internet planni
ng to drive their vehicles towards Obama and shoot him from the windows. The pair said they were willing to die trying to kill him.
Neither plot may have been a credible assassination attempt, but the secret service is taking no chances. Since Obama first started receiving credible death threats in May 2007, dozens of heavily armed agents have followed him everywhere, clearing streets of traffic and pedestrians, and travelling in fast-moving convoys.
The Ku Klux Klan, with an estimated 7,000 followers, makes little secret of its intentions towards Obama. "I'm not going to have to worry about him because somebody else down south is going to take him out if he is elected President," said grand wizard Railton Loy before the election.
Yet the biggest threat to Obama remains a lone wolf gunman. According to Mark Potok, who charts extremist activity for the Southern Poverty Law Center, white supremacist groups have become extremely active in the American military and are trying to recruit former soldiers and source weapons and training from existing troops.
He points out that Timothy McVeigh, the Aryan Republican Army bomber who killed 168 people in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma, was a former soldier.
