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Marine duo accused of threatening Obama

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Less than three months into his term, President Barack Obama’s life allegedly has been threatened twice by people who swore an oath to obey his orders.

Pfc. Nicholas Daniel Hanke and Kody Brittingham, a former lance corporal who was separated from the Corps in early January, both face criminal charges stemming from recent threats authorities said the men made against the commander-in-chief.

Hanke, 20, a student at Marine Corps Engineer School, Camp Lejeune, N.C., was arrested March 10 for allegedly shouting threats, including one against Obama, after boarding a plane at Wilmington International Airport in Wilmington, N.C., about 50 miles south of Lejeune.

His arrest came two weeks after a federal grand jury indicted Brittingham for allegedly threatening Obama’s life. Two days after Brittingham’s Feb. 25 indictment, Obama visited the base, where he received a warm reception from about 2,000 Marines, sailors and Coast Guardsmen.

If Hanke was at the school house that day, he was several miles from Goettge Field House, where the president announced his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

On March 10, Hanke boarded a US Airways flight about 6 p.m. Before the plane’s aircrew had a chance to taxi on the runway, Hanke started shouting there was a bomb on the plane, Gary Broughton, the airport’s director of operations, told the Wilmington Star-News. Hanke allegedly pushed a flight attendant and the captain, and then ran from the plane.

Airport security chased him down and, as they were cuffing him, authorities say Hanke head-butted an officer and shouted more threats, including some against Obama.

“He was just yelling everything he could think of to yell,” Broughton told the Star-News.

Airport officials notified the FBI and the Secret Service. Local authorities charged Hanke with making a bomb threat, resisting arrest, assault and battery, communicating threats, and three counts of assaulting government officials, according to a New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. He was placed in the local jail on a $5,000 bond and released March 11.

Brittingham remains in Onslow County jail under a $40,500 bond.

Brittingham, 20, was with Headquarters and Support Battalion, 2nd Tank Battalion, when he allegedly made the threats against Obama, president-elect at the time. Brittingham was administratively separated from the Corps on Jan. 3.

Brittingham’s legal troubles began in mid-December, when he and three other Lejeune Marines were arrested by Jacksonville police in connection with attempted robbery. He was charged Dec. 16 with attempted robbery, breaking and entering, and conspiracy. His bond was set at that time.

After his arrest, Naval investigators found a journal allegedly written by Brittingham in his barracks room, containing plans on how to kill the president and white supremacist material, a federal law enforcement official told The Daily News of Jacksonville.

However unlikely it may be that such threats would be carried out, they conjure up an unfortunate historical connection coming from Marines. The alleged shooter in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, enlisted in the Corps in 1957.

The Corps currently has more than 201,000 Marines, so two separate incidents “shouldn’t be considered a trend,” according to a spokesman with Marine Corps headquarters in Washington.

“We consider these to be isolated incidents involving two Marines who allegedly made inappropriate comments or threats,” Gunnery Sgt. Frederick Zimmerman said. “We have and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in these matters.”