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As threats against Obama increase, security will be tight for Florida visit

Associated Press file photo

Secret Service agents keep watch from the roof of the White House on the day of President Obama's inauguration.

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2009

Updated: 10/23/2009 05:13 pm

TAMPA - A congressional report shows the Secret Service is investigating more threats against government officials, including President Barack Obama, than ever before, according to The Boston Globe.

On Monday, Obama will meet with troops at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. He will then attend a fundraiser in the Miami area. Obama will travel to Arcadia on Tuesday to tour the DeSoto Next General Solar Energy Center and give a speech.

Security for the president during his Florida visit will, as always, be tight, Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

"The Secret Service is not an intelligence-gathering agency," he said. "We always collaborate with local law enforcement because they have the institutional knowledge of the area we're visiting."

During trips, the Secret Service works closely with local offices of the FBI, immigration and customs and other federal agencies, along with city, county or state police to identify people or groups who may pose a threat to the president, Wiley said.

"Even if it's someone at the bar who's had too much to drink and said something inappropriate and police tell us about the guy, we're going to show up at the bar," Wiley said.

When he was a candidate, threats against Obama were higher than then-President Bush, Wiley said. Obama had a Secret Service detail 18 months before the election, the earliest of any presidential candidate.

The agency has looked into a number of race-based threats since Obama took office and worked to take down a Facebook poll that asked "Should Obama be killed?"

Threats against the president of the United States are nothing new.

But according to a book by journalist Ronald Kessler, since Obama's election, threats against the president's life has increased by 400 percent from his predecessor.

That number is inaccurate, Wiley said.

"The amount of threats we've received is consistent with past presidents" George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Wiley said. "There is no difference."

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report in August that found the number of white supremacist militia groups has spiked by 35 percent since 2000 and that at least 50 new militia groups have formed in the last two years.

The rise may be attributed to the election of America's first black president, coupled with "high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America," according to the report by the nonprofit center, which investigates and tracks hate groups.

The Secret Service does not have the luxury of investigating every threat, but any potential danger to the president, vice president, their families and visiting heads of state are the agency's highest priority, Wiley said.

The Secret Service regularly protects 32 people and arranges security for high-profile events. The 144-year-old agency was founded to probe financial crimes. Some government officials have suggested that investigating counterfeit money operations be transferred to the Treasury Department so the Secret Service can focus on terrorist and assassination threats, according to the Globe.

The Secret Service has increased its employees from 6,700 two years ago to a projected 7,055 in the coming fiscal year. The additional manpower will be almost entirely devoted to protecting national leaders, the Globe reported.

Information from Tribune wires was used in this report. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

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