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Secret Service Agents Stake Out the Ugliest Corners of the Internet
HughPickens.com writes: Josephine Wolff reports at The Atlantic that Secret Service Internet Threat Desk is a group of agents tasked with identifying and assessing online threats to the president and his family. The first part of this mission — finding threats — is in many ways made easier by the Internet: all you have to do is search! Pulling up every tweet which uses the words "Obama" and "assassinate" takes mere seconds, and the Secret Service has tried to make it easier for people to draw threats to its attention by setting up its own Twitter handle, @secretservice, for users to report threatening messages to. The difficulty is trying to figure out which ones should be taken seriously.
The Secret Service categorizes all threats, online and offline alike, into one of three categories. Class 3 threats are considered the most serious, and require agents to interview the individual who issued the threat and any acquaintances to determine whether that person really has the capability to carry out the threat. Class 2 threats are considered to be serious but issued by people incapable of actually follow up on their intentions, either because they are in jail or located at a great distance from the president. And Class 1 threats are those that may seem serious at first, but are determined not to be. The overall number of threats directed at the first family that require investigation has stayed relatively steady at about 10 per day — except for the period when Obama was first elected, when the Secret Service had to follow up on roughly 50 threats per day. "That includes threats on Twitter," says Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service. "It makes no difference to [the Secret Service] how a threat is communicated. They can't take that chance of assuming that because it's on Twitter it's less serious."
The Secret Service categorizes all threats, online and offline alike, into one of three categories. Class 3 threats are considered the most serious, and require agents to interview the individual who issued the threat and any acquaintances to determine whether that person really has the capability to carry out the threat. Class 2 threats are considered to be serious but issued by people incapable of actually follow up on their intentions, either because they are in jail or located at a great distance from the president. And Class 1 threats are those that may seem serious at first, but are determined not to be. The overall number of threats directed at the first family that require investigation has stayed relatively steady at about 10 per day — except for the period when Obama was first elected, when the Secret Service had to follow up on roughly 50 threats per day. "That includes threats on Twitter," says Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service. "It makes no difference to [the Secret Service] how a threat is communicated. They can't take that chance of assuming that because it's on Twitter it's less serious."
But I wasn't an assassin, I swear!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Pfft. The Secret Service is antiquated for protecting the president. Maybe useful for protecting the family, but Presidents have known for awhile that the best way to not get assassinated is to have a total buffoon as the Vice President. I mean what crazy Liberal would shoot GWB knowing that Dick Cheney would take over? No one is going to shoot Obama and end up with crazy uncle Biden in the oval office! You can go back probably till Reagan and it holds true. And how many assassination attempts have been made on recent presidents? Zero.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
This is a fairly typical story on a right-wing pseudo-news site: http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/ban...
Now, let us sample some of the comments that could be interpreted as threatening:
"I dare you to come to Texas and tell Texans that you are going after their guns."
"We need to undo everything he put in place while in Office. he is a lying muslim and traitor. We also need to immediately remove ALL of his appointees on day one of the next time we return to a Presidency. This muslim theocracy he works under is illegal."
"Maybe while he's out of the country, we can talk our military into not letting AF One back INTO the country. Tell them to land somewhere else, not AMERICA. Keep him out, Maybe even the Secret Service will do their job of their oath of office to protect our nation from within (obama) and outside. Then he can stay in Kenya, without his protection and live it up! We'll send for AF 1 later, or even blow the damn thing up."
"I hope the military and the police departments do not follow his orders when POTUS decides to grab our guns. I do not want to have to shoot a fellow American, but I have that constitutional right."
"MOLON LABE! Send your storm troopers, you skunk, wannabe Adolf Hitler and you Communist wannabe Josef Stalin. See what happens when free people rise up and take back their country in a revolutionary war against tyranny. Oh did I forget also call you "King Barak the Only"?"
"One if the best reasons for our 2nd Amendment is that we will be able to defend ourselves when the Obama goons come after us!!!"
"omuzloid wont stop until the heart beat of america stops.....this sodomite muzloid is not fit for the office of the president and our elected servants in dc are cow towing to this loathsome peice of trash in the hopes of secureing the illegal power that he has grabbed the republicans are just as guilty as the demicrats.....we need to clean house senate and the presidency and we need to do this before omuzloid can create more havoc and strife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"I look for Obama to go after our guns through his illegal abuse of executive authority. We are the only ones who will stop him and that might not be pretty."
"He wants a revolution, so he can martial law! I say lets give it to him! "
"I want to send my sincere condolences to the families of the officers sent to try and take my GUNS.When our brave first responders follow illegal orders against there oath of office , I know they know better. Someone has to stand up and be first , and if our police and military refuse I WILL STAND ALONE. OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS."
That's just one story on one site! It's an impossible task trying to monitor all the potential threats.