Officials say their investigation began when Prieto told a man at a gun show that he wanted "to incite a race war prior to the 2024 United States Presidential Election."...As reported by the indictment, Prieto said he wanted to target a rap concert because "there would be a high concentration of African Americans" and planned to leave confederate flags after the violence and to shout phrases like "KKK all the way."
I'm struck by how no one in this story is who they claim to be. A man using a fake name who isn't a Klansman intended to pose as one, enlisting the aid of a man who was an undercover Federal spy -- a 'confidential human source' who spies on gun shows for the Feds. The CHS carried on these conversations with him "over several years," growing increasingly alarmed at the murderous wishes he expressed. So he introduced him to an actual undercover agent, who actually got him to confess to the murderous plans and try to enlist them to participate in the fake Klan attack.
“The reason I say Atlanta. Why, why is Georgia such a f*****-up state now? When I was a kid that was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why is it not now?"
When this 58 year old man was a kid, Jimmy Carter was the governor of Georgia, so that probably isn't as true as he believes it to be. Not that he sounds like a man of good judgment or clear reason.
Not a great judge of guns, either.
PRIETO stated he preferred to use two rifles and a bolt-action sniper rifle because it was more accurate. PRIETO suggested the CHS and UC should use an AK-platform weapon, as AR variant rifles were less reliable.
That hasn't been true since the Vietnam era.
In any case, I'm happy that this kind of attack was stopped from happening.
I'm also happy that the Klan is so weak these days that people have to fake them because there's not much of a real one left. Once upon a time if you wanted the Klan to stage an attack you'd start by joining the Klan; these days you couldn't find a branch of them to join.
That's a genuine improvement we should try to build upon. Fortunately starting a race war is probably out of the question; just another bit of bad judgment in his tangled mind.
11 comments:
All good things as you noted but still seems a very interesting series of coincidences. The CHS been talking to this guy "for several years" but only now became concerned enough about the guy's intentions to bring a real agent in? Was the CHS concerned about how this guy was going to act around the 2020 election? (Four is 'several' in my dictionary.) How likely is it that this guy just now decided that killing a bunch of African-Americans was the way to go? If the guy talked about it before, which seems likely, why didn't it concern the CHS then? Seems kinda specific that the guy wanted to spark the war before the 2024 election, and seems kinda specific that the CHS apparently didn't think the Federales should get involved until the guy mentioned the 2024 election. Overall, seems kinda convenient that a middle-aged white race warrior with a plan that mentions the Klan and the 2024 election suddenly comes to the attention of the Feds when we're being inundated with stories about 'election security' and it looks like black voters are asking why they continue backing politicians who are adding to their economic misery in a variety of ways.
Well we likely won’t find out more at trial because there won’t be a trial: this guy will plead to avoid dozens of years in Federal prison.
Still, it occurs to me that there’s relatively little mileage to make here. I’m not a huge fan of the spying on American citizens that has become so normal; on the other hand, I’m really pleased that this attack won’t happen and racial ties won’t be damaged by it. I’m delighted that there will not be a mass murder in the city of my birth festooned with Confederate flags. So I’m going to give them this one.
I mean think how much worse it would have been if the attack had occurred. If you wanted to make political hay, and we’re evil enough to let a mass murder happen to achieve it, you could have advanced the various causes of things like gun control and racial division a lot more by letting it happen. This is clearly a win even if the methods are suspect and frequently misused.
The idea of starting a race war to "immanentize the eschaton" goes back at least to my childhood. When people want to get Americans fighting each other, it seems to be the first thing they think of.
Yes, AVI, except back then it was the white "crackers" who were willing to start those wars.
Now it's Obama followers--not to mention Obama himself along with Eric Holder.
And--of course--the various Communist Party front groups. Not that there's much difference between the Obama crowd and the CPUSA bunch.
It is indeed remarkable that everyone involved was pretending to be someone else, including the wannabe shooter, and, as Christopher points out, there are some interesting coincidences.
The false flag intentions of the shooter feel like part of a shift where mass murder is used as a political provocation more than just a personal vendetta. I don't know.
Well let’s hope that this guy is only representative of himself. However, terrorism to drive political outcomes is not new.
AVI: Charles Manson comes to mind
Far Side Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/far-side-wolves-in-sheep-s-clothing.jpg
However, terrorism to drive political outcomes is not new.
Yes, well, in my head I was thinking about crazies, not terrorists, per se. I meant something like, "You used to be able to trust crazies. Sure, their version of reality was wildly different, but when they shot a bunch of people you could trust them to tell you why, as crazy as the reason might be. Now, they've adopted false flag tactics and you can't even trust them anymore. What is the world coming to?" *shakes fist at sky*
I'm not at all sure that's true. Maybe the crazies were always lying. It's just the sense I have that an extra layer has been added to their motivations.
If they’re crazy (in the sense you mean) enough it’s hard to lie effectively because they can’t imagine your thoughts well enough to craft a lie that would fool you. There are other ways of being crazy, like those called sociopathy or psychopathy, that are highly effective liars. They have a strong sense of reality and a strong theory of mind, just no sense that it’s important to treat others fairly.
But terrorist threats may often be crazy; or, you know, not. The most dangerous ones are those who are upright and moral according to their religious beliefs or ethical convictions.
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