Two men from New York have been arrested for a bizarre plan that centered on their development of a mobile X-ray system that would be used to silently kill people they deemed “undesirable.”
Glendon Scott Crawford, 49, a self-described member of the Ku Klux Klan, and his accomplice, Eric Feight, 54, were arrested after an undercover operation by the Albany FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force exposed their plan.
The two were charged with conspiracy to provide material support for use of a weapon of mass destruction.
What they wanted to do
The men wanted to create a device that was not only mobile, but something they could use at a distance from their target. They wanted it able to emit high levels of X-ray radiation that would not immediately harm their intended targets, but rather cause injury a few days later, which could result in their death.
According to the criminal complaint, the suspects intended to use their device as a means for harming or otherwise killing “enemies of Israel”; specifically, the Muslim community was mentioned as their main target.
The undercover agents involved in the arrest were told by Crawford that he “harbors animosity towards individuals and groups that he perceives as hostile to the interests of the United States,” referring to them as “medical waste”.
Pretty clear evidence
Crawford was previously a manufacturing employee at a GE plant in Schenectady, NY. While there, he used another GE employee as a proxy for obtaining the parts necessary for creating a remote initiation system. During this time, he contacted two Jewish organizations for funding assistance for an off-the-shelf technology that could be used by Israel to defeat its enemies by killing them while they slept.
The organizations contacted federal authorities, which prompted the investigation.
Undercover agents were sent to meet with Crawford and Feight, posing as potential middle men and customers interested in purchasing the device. During these meetings, Crawford described the machine as being something capable of emitting 8 to 10 rays, roughly a unit of radiation dose, upon its intended target.
According to the criminal complaint, he described the device as “Hiroshima on a light switch” and that “everything with respiration would be dead by the morning.”
Behind the device
Crawford described the X-ray system as having three parts: the X-ray, a power source, and a remote initiation device. And it would be compact enough to fit into a truck.
Feight was recruited by Crawford to develop the remote initiation device portion of the project, with the request that the device be able to be powered by a “plug-in cigarette lighter electrical source”.
During one of the meetings with undercover agents, Feight explained why he wanted to be part of this project: “When I started seeing how things, the direction things were going … after the elections,” Feight said, “You know, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Trial
Both men appeared in court on Wednesday. If convicted, each faces up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and five years of supervised release.
Story via: cnn.com
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