World

Barack Obama Receives 30 Death Threats Daily

by candice.tsuei | August 4, 2009 at 10:54 am

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Barack Obama has been receiving 30 death threats everyday since he took office nearly seven months ago. The number of death threats has increased 400% from the 3,000 annually at the time of President George W. Bush.

Despite the rising number, Obama's Secret Service is "over-stretched and under-resourced," according to a Ronald Kessler's new book, "In the President's Secret Service."

"We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters," a Secret Service agent told Kessler. "Headquarters' mentality has always been, 'You can complete the mission with what you have. You're a U.S.S.S. agent'."

Along with Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, his wife Michelle, codenamed Renaissance, and his two children Malia and Sasha, codenamed Radiance and Rosebud, have also been receiving protection from Secret Service.

According to the report, white supremacists in Tennessee planed to assassinate Obama late last year. After Obama secured the presidential nomination, "assassinate Obama" became a popular search term online.

During Obama's inauguration in January, Secret Service cooperated with more than 40,000 agents and officers from some 94 police, military, and security agencies, to make sure that the security throughout Washington was tight.

Despite a sprawling security shelter during Obama's inauguration in January, his security team received tips that the African-American President might be attacked by groups or individuals affiliated with the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab.

The details of these threats have been kept secretly to prevent the rise copycat attempts. Even though most threaths can not be held credible, each one has to be investisgated meticulously.