Thursday, August 07, 2008

MIAMI - A man who authorities
said was keeping weapons and
military-style gear in his
hotel room and car appeared in
court Thursday on charges he
threatened to assassinate
Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama.

Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, was
arrested by the Secret Service
on Satu
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Thursday, August 07, 2008

MIAMI - A man who authorities
said was keeping weapons and
military-style gear in his
hotel room and car appeared in
court Thursday on charges he
threatened to assassinate
Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama.

Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, was
arrested by the Secret Service
on Saturday in Miami and was
ordered held at Miami's
downtown detention center
without bail Thursday by a
federal magistrate.

A Secret Service affidavit
charges that Geisel made the
threat during a training class
for bail bondsmen in Miami in
late July. According to
someone else in the 48-member
class, Geisel allegedly
referred to Obama with a
racial epithet and continued,
'If he gets elected, I'll
assassinate him myself.'

Obama was most recently in
Florida on Aug. 1-2 but did
not visit the South Florida
area.

Another person in the class
quoted Geisel as saying that
'he hated George W. Bush and
that he wanted to put a bullet
in the president's head,'
according to the Secret
Service.

Geisel denied in a written
statement to a Secret Service
agent that he ever made those
threats, and the documents
don't indicate that he ever
took steps to carry out any
assassination. He was charged
only with threatening Obama,
the presumptive Democratic
nominee, but not for any
threat against President
Bush.

Geisel's court-appointed
attorney declined comment.

In the interview with a Secret
Service agent, Geisel said 'if
he wanted to kill Senator
Obama he simply would shoot
him with a sniper rifle, but
then he claimed that he was
just joking,' according to
court documents.

A search of Geisel's 1998 Ford
Explorer and hotel room in
Miami uncovered a loaded 9mm
handgun, knives, dozens of
rounds of ammunition including
armor-piercing types, body
armor, military-style fatigues
and a machete. The SUV was
wired with flashing red and
yellow emergency lights.

Geisel told the Secret Service
he was originally from Bangor,
Maine, and had been living
recently in a houseboat in the
Florida Keys town of Marathon,
according to court documents.
He said he used the handgun
for training for the bail
bondsman class, had the knives
for protection and used the
machete to cut brush in
Maine.

In the affidavit, the Secret
Service said Geisel told
agents that he suffered from
psychiatric problems including
post-traumatic stress
disorder, but he couldn't
provide the names of any
facilities where he sought
treatment.

(MSNBC)

Category News & Politics

Tags commentary, analysis, news, politics, popular, media, assassination, barack, obama, CIA, MSNBC, presidential, election, democratic, fl