Alleged Clinton Threat Spurs Probe

Secret Service agents are investigating the background of a former Marine from Camarillo to determine if he should be taken into custody for an alleged threat against President Clinton, authorities said Friday.

James Carl Brown, 21, is suspected of making a threat against the president in the form of a newspaper photo with “telescopic cross hairs” drawn upon it, said Secret Service Agent Kevin Riordan.

Brown spent Thursday night in County Jail for allegedly using a crossbow to wound three ducks in a Port Hueneme creek earlier this month.

While searching Brown’s Camarillo apartment for evidence linking him to the duck incident, authorities discovered the alleged threat against Clinton.

The photo is from a 1993 front-page story in a San Diego newspaper. The accompanying story deals with Clinton allowing gays in the military, Riordan said. In addition to using a black ballpoint pen to draw the cross hairs on Clinton’s forehead, Brown allegedly inscribed the piece with a slur against homosexuals, Riordan said.

In addition to the alleged threatening piece of material, authorities found numerous legal weapons and “militia-style” propaganda inside Brown’s apartment.

It was Brown’s “military background and his paramilitary leanings,” Riordan said, that piqued the agency’s attention.

“At the time he put the sites on the the picture he had just completed boot camp and was on his way to Advanced Infantry Training,” Riordan said.

It makes no difference whether the supposed threat was made a year ago or last week, he said. “It’s taken extremely serious regardless of what year it is,” Riordan said.

Brown was not at home Friday afternoon and did not respond to a request for comment.