Fury as man who plotted firebomb attack on Muslim community in New York is given bail
Tennessee man recorded threatening to shoot and bomb a Muslim community was put on bail
A US judge's decision to release a Tennessee man on bail after he was recorded threatening to stab, shoot and firebomb a Muslim community in upstate New York has been criticised by civil rights activists.
Robert Doggart, 63, and a former candidate for Congress, said he wanted to take his "battle-tested M-4" military-style assault rifle, "with 500 rounds of ammunition, light armour piercing", a pistol with three extra magazines and a machete, to burn down "the kitchen, the mosque and their school" in the hamlet of Islamberg, according to a criminal complaint against him.
On a phone call in March excerpted in the criminal complaint, Doggart told an FBI source that the inhabitants of Islamberg "have to be killed... If we can get in there and do that not losing a man, even the better."
"We will be cruel to them," Doggart said of the people of Islamberg. "And we will burn down their buildings... And if it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds."
Federal agents began investigating Doggart after a confidential informant and social media posts alerted them to threats he had made.
As part of a deal, Doggart pleaded guilty in April to "interstate communication of threats", a non-terrorism offence, which carries with it up to five years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000.
Appearing at a detention hearing on April 20, at which a federal agent testified about Doggart's plot in detail, the defendant was ordered detained without bail after magistrate judge Susan Lee said she found "clear and convincing evidence that the defendant [is] a danger to the community".
But at a hearing soon after, Lee recommended Doggart be released into the custody of two family members on US$30,000 bail after hearing evidence regarding his mental health. Doggart's attorneys, Bryan Hoss and Janie Parks Varnell, said that since his arrest their client had stopped consuming prescription medication and alcohol.
Doggart was accused of targeting Islamberg, a hamlet that's home to a small Muslim community about 210km northwest of New York City, in Hancock County. The buildings he allegedly cited for attack are owned by The Muslims of America (TMOA), a religious organisation headquartered in Islamberg.
The hamlet, founded in 1984, has been the focus of "radical-right conspiracy theories and claims, alleging that it is one of a string of secret jihadist training camps in the backwoods of America", civil rights organisation the Southern Policy Law Centre said.
Last Tuesday, the presiding judge in the case, Curtis Collier, allowed Doggart's release, but rejected the previous plea agreement, saying that the prosecution failed to prove that Doggart's plot was a "true threat".
In a statement, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights organisation, called on the Obama administration to treat Doggart's "planned, religiously motivated attack as an act of domestic terrorism"."We urge authorities to place Mr Doggart in custody until this case is resolved, and failing that, to offer protection to his intended targets," said CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad.
