A second person has been charged in connection with a Tennessee man's plot to attack Islamberg, a Muslim community in the Catskills, according to federal prosecutors.

Robert R. Doggart, a 63-year-old former congressional candidate, was arrested on April 10 for plotting to burn down buildings and attack the inhabitants of Islamberg, a community of about 200 black Muslims in the Delaware County town of Tompkins, near the village of Hancock.

Left: Robert R. Doggart in a campaign photograph, via Heavy.com.

On Tuesday, July 7, a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee charged Doggart with solicitation for recruiting another person to help him burn down Islamberg’s mosque, school and cafeteria. 

Above: Platte Clove valley from above. Photo by Daniel Case via Wikipedia.

A climber rappelling in the deadly Devil’s Kitchen section of Platte Clove in the Greene County Catskills fell 80 feet into a rocky gorge and miraculously survived on Thursday, July 2, according to a forest ranger involved in the rescue.

The man, who is in his mid-30s and is otherwise not being identified, was recreating off a slackline that he and two companions had set up across the narrow Devil’s Kitchen valley over Plattekill Creek when he made a “climber’s error” and fell, New York State Department of Conservation Forest Ranger Rob Dawson said today.

Although the man was not wearing a helmet when he fell, he sustained no head injuries and was conscious throughout his rescue, said Dawson, who was one of the first responders to arrived at the scene.

A tree partially broke his fall when the climber landed on the rocky gorge bottom, Dawson said.