#1064: Harry Riley

We feel compelled to throw in a brief entry on Harry Riley as well. Riley, as you may recall (or not), is a retired US army colonel and the leader of Operation American Spring, a May 2014 rally in DC intended to stop President Obama’s attempt to turn America into a “socialist-fascist-communist-Marxist dictatorial, tyrannical system”, oust him from office and put him in Gitmo. The operation was supposed to proceed in several stages; first the event would draw 10 million attendees (activist Jim Garrow suggested 30 million). Then at least a million activists would remain in DC until their demands were met. Of course, the turnout was somewhat lower than expected (in fact, the estimation was off by approximately 10 million) numbering in total around 100 people (according to Riley “I think we probably had three or four thousand the first day,” but he has shown himself to be less than ideally trustworthy on this matter). Organizers blamed the weather, but prior to the event Terry Trussell, Operation American Spring’s chief of staff, and far-right radio host Mark Hoffmann warned attendees to prepare for violence and possibly even a drone strike to “destroy the capital just to get rid of us,” so perhaps they were just scared. After the event Riley claimed that “probably 1,000” activists are still on the National Mall pushing for Obama’s removal from office as part of stage two of the operation. People who were actually there suggested that Riley’s estimate was off by approximately … 1,000, describing instead a total number somewhat “less than ten”.

At Phase 3 of the operation “[t]hose with the principles of a West, Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson, Lee, DeMint, Paul, Gov Walker, Sessions, Gowdy, Jordan, should comprise a tribunal and assume positions of authority to convene investigations, recommend appropriate charges against politicians and government employees to the new U.S. Attorney General appointed by the new President.” Which is ridiculously illegal and serves to confirm the suspicion that despite Riley’s claims to be defending the Constitution, he really doesn’t have the faintest clue what’s in it.

Actually, Riley suggested that he wasn’t really behind the operation – the main strategist was God, and the main reason the campaign would succeed in forcing President Obama out of office was that the campaign was “bathed in prayer” and “under God”.

Diagnosis: Delusional nutter. Evidently pretty harmless.