Suspected assassins were consumed by seething hatred towards "Black" Obama

New York, Aug 27 (ANI): US federal investigation authorities have said that people arrested in connection with a possible plot to kill Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, were consumed by a seething hatred towards the Illinois Senator.

"Obama don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office.

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He ought to be shot," Nathan Johnson, 32, told a TV station in Denver.

Yet the suspects - at least one of whom allegedly has white-supremacist ties - were slapped only with minor drug and gun charges, although more serious indictments could come after the convention, sources said.

Authorities recovered a terrifying arsenal that could have been used in a shocking attack: A Remington 270 sniper rifle, a Ruger 22-250 sniper rifle, boxes of Remington and Winchester ammo, two-way radios, bulletproof vests, camouflage and wigs.

And in a chilling interview late Monday night, one of the men made his murderous hatred crystal-clear.

US Attorney Troy Eid called Johnson, Tharin Gartrell and Shawn Robert Adolf "hateful and bigoted meth heads," but added that they were high all the time and that investigators were not convinced they had a solid plan to assassinate Obama.

Still, "the investigation is . . . ongoing. It is an open case," the New York Post quoted Eid, as saying.

The alleged scheme unraveled when Johnson's cohort, 28-year-old Gartrell - a professional club-music DJ who had a suspended drivers license - was stopped on Sunday for driving erratically in Aurora, Colo. Inside his pickup truck was the cache of weapons, officials said.

Police said they also found 4.4 grams of methamphetamine. (ANI)