'Let ISIS rape you': Conservatives deluge 'American Sniper' critics with harassment and threats

Two journalists, Rania Khalek and Max Blumenthal, have become the target of death threats and online harassment from conservatives and Tea Party supporters for their criticism of the pro-Iraq War film American Sniper.

Khalek wrote on Friday that she and Blumenthal had aired their grievances with the film, which they see as glorifying the U.S. invasion of Iraq and lionizing a bloodthirsty killer who boasted of his pleasure in gunning down some 160 to 250 Iraqi "savages" during the height of the war.

This "kicked off an endless flood in our Twitter mentions of outraged rightwing military worshippers who've whipped themselves into a hateful frenzy out of blind obedience to a mass killer," Khalek said.

Chris Kyle, the film's title character and author of the memoir American Sniper, gloried in his role as an unseen killer of Iraqi civilians of all ages.

On Christmas, the film's opening day, Blumenthal took to Twitter, writing:

Khalek followed up:

Blumenthal continued:

Kyle was gunned down at a shooting range on Feb. 2, 2013 by a veteran with PTSD who Kyle and an associate thought would benefit from a trip to a Texas firing range. Both Kyle and fellow veteran Chad Littlefield were shot dead by ex-Marine Eddie Ray Routh, who is currently in custody.

Even by his death at 38, however, many of Kyle's stories had begun to come apart under scrutiny.

Michelle Malkin's Twitter aggregation site Twitchy.com published a piece blasting Khalek and Blumenthal as "American Psychos," far-left kooks trying to tarnish the memory of a great American.

Blumenthal and Khalek were then flooded with death threats and harassment.

From the now-suspended account of one Robert Clemons came the exhortation, "BOTH OF YOU ASSHOLES NEED TO BE SHOT DEAD. DO ALL A FAVOR. GO KILL YOURSELVES."

Clemens also wrote, "@RaniaKhalek it is a DAMN SHAME he never had the chance to target YOU. YOU NEED TO DIE C*NT."

Other Twitchy readers chimed in:

And finally:

Khalek said on Friday, "The response from the #TCOT community to our public disgust with Kyle's unrepentant racism and serial killer-like enthusiasm for gunning down nonwhite people has been telling."

"Some fantasize about ISIS raping and beheading me," she wrote. "Others hope I am killed by a sniper. Most can't spell or write coherently. Nearly all agree that Kyle was a hero and we should be thanking him for killing Iraqis to protect our freedom to tweet."

Watch the trailer for American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper and directed by Clint Eastwood, embedded below:

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier draft of this article mistaken claimed that Eddie Ray Routh took his own life at the scene of the murder of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. Raw Story regrets the error.