U.S. charges former Marine with making a threat against Obama

By: By Lindell Kay | THE JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS<br></br>MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Published: February 27, 2009

JACKSONVILLE

A federal grand jury indicted a former Camp Lejeune Marine on Wednesday on charges that he threatened the life of President Obama, the U.S. Attorney's Office said yesterday.

Kody Brittingham, 20, formerly a lance corporal in the 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, was accused of making threats against Obama while he was president-elect, said Robin Zier, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

The Jacksonville Police Department arrested Brittingham on breaking-and-entering charges in mid-December 2008.

Naval investigators had discovered a journal, reported to have been written by Brittingham, in his barracks after his arrest by civilian authorities in December. The journal contained plans on how to kill the president, as well as white-supremacist material, a federal law-enforcement official said.

Brittingham was administratively separated from the Marine Corps on Jan. 3, pending legal action by civil authorities, said a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division, 1st Lt. Philip Klay.

Brittingham is being held in the Onslow County Jail on the charges of attempted armed robbery and breaking and entering.

He was arrested in December along with three other Marines and a civilian in connection with an armed robbery at Liberty Inn on Marine Boulevard and an attempted robbery at My Hotel on Commerce Drive. Before the robberies, the five worked together as security at a local nightclub.

Though the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating the five for possible federal weapons violations, there is no indication that the other four knew about Brittingham's journal, a law-enforcement source said. Brittingham is the only one of the five suspects who is white.

Of the other three Marines, two are still on active duty and one has been discharged.

Brittingham joined the Marine Corps on July 10, 2007. His military awards include the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. He never deployed with the Marine Corps, Klay said.