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One of President Barack Obama’s top funders, Code Pink’s Jodie Evans, is encouraging the kidnapping of former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura, according to new statements issued this week by Jodie Evans and Code Pink. While it might be tempting to look at this latest effort by Code Pink as an innocuous publicity campaign, Code Pink’s history of working with state sponsors of terrorism and supporting violent protest against President Bush–and their near successful arrest of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales–is cause for concern. Two weeks after meeting Obama at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco, Jodie...

WASHINGTON - The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission. The Secret Service is tracking a far broader range of possible threats to the nation’s leaders, the officials said, even as it also investigates financial crimes such as counterfeiting as part of its original mandate. The new demands are leading some officials, both inside and outside the agency, to raise the possibility of the...

Former Secret Service agent opens window into private lives of presidents October 14th, 2009 Jamie Weinstein In his In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents they Protect, journalist Ronald Kessler gives us a peek inside the intimate lives of our presidents. Through interviews with over 100 secret service agents from the past and present—dating all the way back to John F. Kennedy—Kessler paints a picture of what our presidents are like when no one is looking. They're always watching. We learn from the agents Kessler interviews that John F....

Repeat email-threat offender apprehended after threatening president and his familyLate last month, Crescent City's John Gimble sent an email describing his plan to brutally murder President Barack Obama's wife and children before finishing with the president himself and then desecrating the corpse with a felt tip marker. On Tuesday, after an investigation by the Secret Service, Gimble was indicted for threatening the president and is currently in custody. Authorities have not revealed to whom the email was sent, but if it was president@whitehouse.gov, man, how colossally stupid would that have been? Then again, Gimble has a history of collossaly stupid...

Obama Assassination Poll Rocks Facebook September 28th, 2009 by Adam Ostrow Politics and social media can sometimes be an explosive combination. But now, a poll posted to Facebook through a third-party application has gone so far as to draw the attention of the US Secret Service. The poll, which has since been pulled, asked the question: “Should Obama be killed?” and offered users four multiple choice answers. According to Talking Points Memo, who obtained a screenshot of the poll, more than 750 users voted in the poll before it was pulled by Facebook. Facebook, meanwhile, offered the following statement to...

The social networking site Facebook is cooperating with a Secret Service investigation into a survey posted on the site asking users if they supported killing the president. A spokesman for Facebook confirmed the company was cooperating with the government investigation, but downplayed Facebook's culpability in the creation of the poll, emphasizing that it was posted using third-party application hosted on the Facebook website. "The third-party application that enabled an individual user to create the offensive poll was brought to our attention this morning. The application was immediately suspended while the inappropriate content could be removed by the developer and until...

The rise of cyber attacks - and the call for global collaboration on solutions that reduce the threat - has led the United States Secret Service to become the sixth government agency to join Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP). The move reflects a growing awareness of the need for a united effort and common solutions to defend against the advanced persistent threat of cyber attacks against nations and commercial organizations alike. High-profile attacks, such as GhostNet and the U.S. electrical grid infiltration, create the imperative for government agencies and private industry to work together on viable and robust solutions that...

The Turkish government on Wednesday blamed a tense confrontation between Turkish security agents and U.S. security personnel Tuesday on a failure to communicate by the Secret Service. The incident took place within 10 to 15 feet of President Obama's limousine as he was preparing to leave an event at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. A group of security agents and police officers, yelling and shouting, converged on a corner of the tent housing the limousine and appeared to use force to move individuals away from the tent. The Secret Service on Tuesday blamed the fracas on a language barrier,...

A Luzerne County man charged with assaulting a Secret Service agent - punching him with a set of brass knuckles and smacking him in the head with a chunk of asphalt - has agreed to plead guilty to simple assault and related offenses. Under the terms of a plea agreement signed Tuesday morning, Kenneth Kile, 25, of 64 Penn St., Kingston, also agreed to plead guilty to reckless endangerment and a weapons offense. Mr. Kile was arrested in June on charges he assaulted William Slavoski, 52, resident agent in charge of the Scranton Secret Service office, on the Central Scranton...

        President Obama’s appointee Attorney General Eric Holder ordered an investigation of CIA and civilian interrogators and contractors to determine if detainees at Guantanamo prison were abused. Robert Alt of the Heritage Foundation believes that the investigation can lead to a chilling effect among CIA agents.         This investigation is like so many others by the Democrats. It is designed to discredit Republicans for political gain. The ACLU backs this investigation and is calling for criminal prosecutions.        The C.I.A. was cleared by the inspector general’s office of any wrongdoing, but Attorney General Holder claims that he saw allegations of...

There were signs comparing President Barack Obama to a Nazi and showing him with an Adolf Hitler-style mustache, but federal officials believe another sign referencing the president and his family went too far. A man who was holding a sign reading "Death to Obama" Wednesday outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in Hagerstown, Md., has been turned over to the Secret Service. Washington County Sheriff's Capt. Peter Lazich said the sign also read, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids." Lazich said U.S. Secret Service agents took the unidentified 51-year-old man into custody Wednesday afternoon after...

Just heard a massive government presence on Wilshire Blvd near the CIA offices - anyone close to know what is going on?

In the 8 o'clock hour, Pacific Time, today, Lee Rodgers will interview Ronald Kessler, New York Times best selling author about his new book "In the President's Secret Service" Behind the scenes with agents in the line of fire and the presidents they protect. Should be a very interesting interview. KSFO radio

The nation has not endured a presidential assassination since John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963. That is largely because of the dedication of Secret Service agents. But since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took over the Secret Service in 2003, the agency has been cutting corners to the point where the lives of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other protectees are endangered. That is the opinion of a number of current Secret Service agents who have told me for my book, “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the...

Here is video of Ronald Kessler talking about a new book he has written about the Secret Service, which reveals some little known "secrets" about the Presidents. The book is titled, In the President's Secret Service. Kessler says Jimmy Carter was the most despised President by the Secret Service Agents in recent times. According to Kessler, Carter would fake carrying his own luggage by carrying luggage that was actually empty or passing luggage off to an aide as soon as he was out of camera sight. He also reportedly told Agents not to speak to him in the morning because...

Secret Service Spaz-zes over radio comment By Laura Crimaldi Saturday, August 8, 2009 Secret Service agents yesterday interviewed a “Hill-Man Morning Show” co-host at the WAAF [website]-FM studios in Brighton after he made a threatening comment about President Obama while talking about the national health care proposal. Anthony Parziale, who is known to listeners as “Spaz” on the Greg Hill-hosted morning-drive program, plans to write a letter to Obama to apologize for his remarks and invite the commander-in-chief for a beer, said George Regan, a spokesman for Entercom Communications Corp., which owns WAAF. “He plays a tough-guy role on the...

Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency’s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," already an Amazon.com best-seller since its publication on Tuesday, features startling disclosures about the presidents and their families. Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Kessler, the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, based his book on interviews with more than 100 current and former...

Paging Jonah Goldberg! If this developing story did not smack of some twisted Orwellian nightmare then I might chuckle, but instead I am left wondering if this is the start of something bigger. In any event, I am not sure if there has been a precedent of this nature and I am holding the White House responsible. Unless of course if Secret Service calling up individuals because of what they post on the Internet is normal, then perhaps I am just over reacting. It all began several days ago, when I wrote about the 'disinformation' collection request issued by the...

A new book by Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Ronald Kessler features startling revelations about current and former U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," released Tuesday, August 4, discloses that threats against the president have increased dramatically – by a staggering 400 percent since Obama entered the White House. Kessler is the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, and his book is based on interviews with more than 100 current and former agents.

Former US president John F. Kennedy had an affair with a Swedish flight attendant, according to a new book based on interviews with current and former Secret Service agents. According to ex-agent Robert Lutz, President Kennedy took a liking to a Swedish Pan Am Flight attendant who was riding on the press pool airplane which typically follows US presidents while they travel. While Lutz, who was assigned to the press plane, had initially planned to ask the good looking Swede out for dinner, members of the Secret Service detail assigned to President Kennedy told Lutz to back off. “She’s part...

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Two DeKalb County police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after an investigation revealed they ran a background check on President Barack Obama. A representative for the DeKalb County CEO’s office identified the officers as Ryan White and C.M. Route. Officials said Obama’s name was typed into a computer inside a DeKalb County police car on July 20 and ran through the National Crime Information Center. The secret service was immediately notified and contacted the DeKalb County Police Department. A representative said both officers have been with the department less than five years. A...

Last week, I wrote an open letter to John Kasich, pleading with him to do something about a mentally unstable Jihadist professor at Kent State University. The professor has been linked to terrorist activity – such as posting bomb-making instructions on a terrorist website. He’s also posted pleas to use the bombs against American troops. And I’ve amassed evidence that he contributed to that terrorist website using his Kent State University computer. Nonetheless, the professor who should already have been water-boarded, tried, and sentenced continued to taunt me after the article ran last Friday. In fact, on Saturday, he sent...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's Secret Service protection has been extended for at least another six months, beginning Tuesday. Normally, ex-veeps only get six months of protection at taxpayer expense. But Cheney asked for an extension, and President Obama - whom Cheney has excoriated in several interviews since leaving office - recently signed off. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano signed the order extending Cheney's security detail, her spokeswoman Sara Kuban confirmed Monday. If the Obama administration hadn't gone along with Cheney's request, he would have been forced to hire his own security agents - or go without. Cheney's friends have...

WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.

Bush will be the first president not to benefit from one former lifetime benefit: Secret Service protection. "He'll be the first one to receive it for 10 years," said Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman. Congress changed the law in the 1990s so that any president elected after Jan. 1, 1997, and his or her spouse will receive the federal protection for only 10 years.

It was a recurring theme of Barack Obama's presidential campaign — a call for openness: "Transparency and accountability, getting the American people involved, that's how we're gonna bring about change," candidate Obama said. And the theme continued on Obama's first day as president: "Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known." But for advocates of open government, the new era of openness has yet to dawn. "Once all the pretty speeches were over in the first couple...

The heads of government in London for the G-20 summit are discussing serious and weighty issues, which in time will be duly reported on, but right now the British press is entranced by the sheer size of President Obama's traveling entourage. And no wonder. Obama arrived with 500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president's own food and water. And, according to the Evening Standard, he also came with "35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters." For sure, our president is...

A Luzerne County man was jailed Wednesday on charges of assaulting a Secret Service agent - punching him with a set of brass knuckles and smacking him in the head with a chunk of asphalt - in what city police described as a road rage incident. William Slavoski, 52, resident agent in charge of the Scranton Secret Service office, suffered injuries to his face, head and left arm in the incident Tuesday evening on the Central Scranton Expressway, police said. Police charged his alleged assailant, Kenneth Kile, 25, of 64 Penn St., Kingston, with aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering...

A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday. Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal. She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper's Web site says it is monthly publication a Brenda Lee column is posted on it. Calls to the newspaper and the White House press office...

Blogger Walt Fitzpatrick, known as The Jaghunter, was visited by SECRET SERVICE for levying a threat against President Barak Obama based on his most recent column found here: http://jaghunters.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately, we are saddled with a communist sympathizer in the White House. I don't know whether or not he's an actual card carrying commie, but he's definitely an America-hating, anti-capitalist Marxist leftist who thinks communism is the way to go. Now I remember when America used to fight against communism. It wasn't that long ago. Many of us on FR are veterans of wars against communism and some of us believe that American citizens who are communists are the enemy within, ie, the domestic enemy we've sworn to defend against. American citizen? hmmmm... that may be a loophole for Obama....

Less than 24 hours until President Barack Obama visits Columbus. Now we've learned the Secret Service investigated a possible threat against the President. The controversial comment was posted in an online message board. Reporter Carol Luper tells us what that message said and how the secret service responded.Secret Service in Marysville

Gems, al-Qaida and murder. Mystery over killing of Osama Bin Laden's friend · Saudi man's death was political, say his family· US secret service was monitoring his activities Nick Fielding Friday March 2, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Pallbearers carry the coffin of Muhammad Jamal Khalifa at Ivato airport in Antananarivo, in Madagascar. Photograph: Jasleen Sethi/Reuters When Muhammad Jamal Khalifa was found dead at a remote gemstone mine in south-eastern Madagascar at the end of January, local police quickly put the murder down to a business deal gone wrong. The Saudi businessman, 49, had had to call in local police to...

Next time the sign in Chip Harrison’s car might say something like: “I’m sorry, Mr. Policeman, Mr. Messiah, and Mr. Secret Service Guy. I love babies more than I do the president. I want them to stay and him to go away -- when his term is over…let me make that clear…WHEN HIS TERM IS OVER…OR HE’S IMPEACHED.”If the sign fits in the window. Or maybe it will say something more direct, but legal, such as: “Go Frig Yourself, Mr. President.” But what it WON’T say is: “Abort Obama Not the Unborn.” Why be clever when it gets you associated...

This is getting more frightening everyday. Fascism, totalitarianism. The threat may be officially real. This an outrage. I have seen many anti-Bush signs, bumper stickers, etc. over the last 8 years which were far-more insulting and threatening than this one. Good god. We are in more trouble than I thought.

An Oklahoma City police officer wrongly pulled over a man last week and confiscated an anti-President Barack Obama sign the man had on his vehicle. The officer misinterpreted the sign as threatening, said Capt. Steve McCool, of the Oklahoma City Police Department, and took the sign, which read "Abort Obama, not the unborn." Chip Harrison said he was driving to work when a police car followed him for several miles and then signaled for him to pull over. ''I pulled over, knowing I hadn't done anything wrong," Harrison said in a recent phone interview. When the officer asked Harrison if...

(Video on site) Really cool video about the secret service and their training. Shows lots of really cool hidden guns, that look like cell phones, lighters, etc. Worth a watch

The United States Secret Service, under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and in cooperation with its local, state and federal security and public safety partners, has developed an overall security plan for the 56th Presidential Inaugural on Tuesday, January 20. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has designated the Inaugural as a National Special Security Event (NSSE). When an event is designated an NSSE, the Secret Service assumes its role as the lead federal agency for the design and implementation of the operational security plan. The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the U.S. Capitol...

George W. Bush first president in history not to get lifetime Secret Service security detail President George W. Bush will be the first president in history not to receive lifetime Secret Service protection, according to McClatchey. Instead, he will only receive the protection for only 10 years due to a law that states that any president elected after January 1, 1997 and/or his or her spouse will only get Secret Service protection for 10 years. "He'll be the first one to receive it for 10 years," Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman told McClatchey. The Bushes life post-White House seems pretty...

The Secret Service agent in Kansas City peered hard at a counterfeit $100 bill, ran a finger over it and grimaced in disgust. It was bad, ugly work. “Too slick, too,” said Charles Green, special agent in charge. More counterfeiters are using today’s ink-jet printers, computers and copiers to make money that’s just good enough to pass, he said, even though their product is awful. In the past, he said, the best American counterfeiters were skilled printers who used heavy offset presses to turn out decent 20s, 50s and 100s. Now that kind of work is rare and almost all...

President George W. Bush's "after-life," as Laura Bush calls the post-presidency, is shaping up to be pretty comfortable, with a Dallas office, staffers, Secret Service protection, a travel budget, medical coverage and a $196,700 annual pension, all at taxpayers' expense. However, Bush will be the first president not to benefit from one former lifetime benefit: Secret Service protection. "He'll be the first one to receive it for 10 years," said Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman. Congress changed the law in the 1990s so that any president elected after Jan. 1, 1997, and his or her spouse will receive the federal...

HAWAII KAI, Hawaii (Reuters) - Barack Obama, trying to enjoy the last semblance of normal life before he becomes U.S. president on January 20, caused a commotion when he took his daughters to a shopping mall in Hawaii on Friday. It made for a surreal scene -- the president-elect, daughters Malia, 7, and Sasha, 10 and family friends eating at a table at the mall watched by a crowd of onlookers and surrounded by anxious-looking Secret Service agents. The agents struggled to hold back people trying to get closer to snap pictures of Obama eating a tuna and melted cheese...

WASHINGTON -- No strollers near the U.S. Capitol. No tents on the National Mall. None of that Silly String on the parade route. That's just a sample of the items forbidden from President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration for security reasons. And while many say the inconvenience is a small price to pay to witness history, others are trying to figure out how they'll sit, snack, carry diapers or transport tired tots. Some seniors are backing out of their inaugural plans, partly because of a no-chair rule for the parade route. Parenting blogs are abuzz with complaints about the less-than-kid-friendly restrictions. Thermoses,...

WASHINGTON – The US military plans to mobilize thousands of troops to protect Washington against potential terrorist attack during the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama, a senior US military commander said Wednesday. They will fly combat air patrols and man air defenses, organize large scale medical support, and help local law enforcement provide security in the capital, said General Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command. "(It's) not because we see a specific threat, but because for an event this visible, this important and this historic, we ought to be prepared to respond if something does happen," he told...

In movies, Secret Service agents leap in front of bullets aimed at the commander in chief. But in Baghdad, agents failed to block not one, but two shoes hurled at President George W. Bush during a weekend news conference. So yesterday, a day after Bush dodged the flying footwear, Secret Service officials faced the inevitable questions about how an angry television reporter was able to throw two shoes before agents moved into the line of fire. Secret Service officials said they are reviewing the incident and the procedures used by agents guarding the president during his surprise visit to Baghdad....

CHICAGO — When President-elect Barack Obama heads home for a break from the White House, he won’t go to a sprawling ranch or private seaside compound. Obama will come back to a crowded city neighborhood, creating different security challenges for the Secret Service and perhaps headaches for his neighbors. No other recent first family has lived in a city neighborhood like the Obamas. The $1.6 million mansion he and his wife, Michelle, share with their two young daughters sits just off a busy street — a stretch of which has been closed to traffic — and his closest neighbors are...

For about 400 people in western Kenya who can call the next U.S. president "part of the family," the business of being an Obama has a whole new meaning. {Snip} But though they're at the top of the social ladder at home, the international spotlight has cast the family in an unfamiliar role -- as poor relations who suddenly appear to have hit it big. Overnight, they've gone from Kennedys to Clampetts. The modest family compound here has been inundated by hordes of visitors, varying from reporters and local politicians to ordinary Kenyans looking for help in getting U.S. visas,...

WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have chosen a private school in northwestern Washington, D.C., for their two daughters on Friday, where former President Bill Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, has studied. "A number of great schools were considered. In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama. Obama's daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, would move to the capital with their parents from Chicago, Illinois, after his father is sworn in as the next president on Jan....

The Secret Service is investigating an Internet advertisement as a potential threat against President-elect Barack Obama, but the people who created it say a technology glitch was responsible, and they feel terrible about it. Ads for a company that sells mobile-phone ring tones that appear on the Yahoo News Web site, teased viewers into taking an IQ test. But when viewers scrolled over the ad's picture of Obama, the words "When Will You Die?" flashed across the image. The Secret Service said it had known about the ad for "a couple of weeks." Yahoo, on the other hand, as well...

The Secret Service takes a lot of risks for the first family. So it's only fair that the agency gets the honor of coming up with code names for the president-elect and his family. Various sources within the Buzz recently revealed the not-so-secret nicknames. Mr. Obama will be known as "Renegade" (move over, Lorenzo Lamas). Michelle, a woman of many talents, will be referred to as "Renaissance." Malia Obama's name will be "Radiance," while little sister Sasha's will be "Rosebud." And what of the Bidens? We were hoping the Secret Service would stick to the "R" theme and dub Joe...