Glenn Scott Crawford, an industrial mechanic working for General Electric in Galway, New York was arrested on Tuesday, for allegedly attempting to create and sell a truck-mounted, high-intensity radiation emitter – One which, when directed at a human being, would cause intense radiation poisoning and ultimately death.
According to the Times Union, law enforcement began looking into Crawford in April 2012, after he approached an Albany Synagogue:
…To speak with a person who might be willing to help him with a type of technology that could be used by Israel to defeat its enemies, specifically, by killing Israel’s enemies while they slept,” the complaint says. He referred to Muslims and enemies of the United States as “medical waste,” according to court records.
Later that day, Crawford telephoned a second area synagogue, using his cell phone, and made a similar offer, the complaint states. An FBI agent’s affidavit indicates that someone at the unidentified synagogue contacted Albany police, who relayed the information to the FBI. At that point a Joint Terrorism Task Force began an investigation.
Crawford was put in touch with an undercover FBI agent who alleges Crawford identified himself as a member of the KKK. So, what does the FBI do? They send two more undercover informants – posing as members of a different KKK chapter – to collect enough evidence to arrest this wannabe Dr. Strangelove.
The Time Union points out that Crawford hadn’t actually built the death ray – he was still collecting parts. Still, that was enough to have him arrested on charges of “conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, including use of a weapon of mass destruction.”
Everyone got that? A New York mechanic, claiming to be a member of the KKK, approaches not one, but two synagogues, in an attempt to sell them a “death ray” to give to Israel. He is then arrested for making the same offer to (who he thought were) fellow Klansmen.
Go figure.
[via io9, Times Union]
I totally buy this story.