We know now the she is an innocent 14-year-old girl; but, without at least a minimal investigation, there is no way of knowing who she really is. Just how many 69-year-olds are there on MySpace, anyway? And you are correct, real terrorists are probably too busy planning real attacks to be bothered with making such a blatant statement on a popular website. However, I'm not as concerned with the terrorists as I am about nutters that might take their presidential grudge a little too far. Sending a couple of Secret Service field agents to look into an internet post isn't exactly the same as sending her to Gitmo. My point is that the investigative tactics were unnecessary, but the investigation itself isn't without merit. I tend to believe that the Secret Service gets a load of calls every day, and that not every one of them deals with the (now obvious) frustrated rantings of a child. But it's those cases you hear about in the news, and it paints a very bad picture, one that I'm sure isn't entirely accurate. In fact, we all know how selective our memory can be about important events, no matter how recent. I, for one, would like to hear the agents' side of the story. -monkey
This minimal investigation could have been a bit less intrusive. Although I'm sure that MySpace has its share of big, hairy overweight blokes pretending to be nubile 16-year old cheerleader virgins, there is a lot that you can glean from what a person posts, and how they post it (the FBI does have this fancy Behavioural Analysis Unit, or is that just on TV?). Doing your basic groundwork saves embarrassment later. To a 14-year old, it can be pretty close. So would I, but the problem is that even if they were telling the honest truth as they recalled it, I would not believe them. Our respective governments have done too much to have much credibility left, so anything they do, however reasonable, is now tainted with suspicion. All the more reason for them to walk softly while carrying that big stick.
The Secret Service is not part of the FBI. Now, if the press leaked the news that the Secret Service was collaborating with the FBI to analyze a little girl's MySpace page, there would be an uproar about the government working behind our backs, almost like they were spying on us. People might say "Hey, you have a question, come ask me!" Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I still maintain that this was a minor, routine investigation. I agree that their technique was poor, but it's their job to look into things like this. -monkey
The Secret Service supposedly has better toys than the FBI. It was a routine investigation, but done piss-poorly. I would expect a bit more... stealth, and subtlety from a Secret Service. So this leads me to one of two conclusions: 1. This was just a poorly handled case (Secret Service are dumb, overreacting morons? Let's not assume so). 2. The handling of this case in this way was quite deliberate. Let's make an example of her and scare the crap out of all those unruly teenagers and their parents. Cue worried parents all over the country admonishing their brood not to bad-mouth Bush or they'll be in royal trouble.
It is there job to look into this, but surely this could have all been concluded without actually visiting the girl. It would have meant the girl would not be traumatised, this would have never made the news and made them look bad. Damage limitation surely? as the title says "secret" service. Edit: post was made before i saw nexxos post.
For my part, I think the Secret in Secret Service is more of a title now than anything else. The kind of super-secret spying to which you're referring mostly takes place in the movies. Some of the best information law enforcement agencies get is obtained by good old fashioned legwork. In other words, meeting the people and asking questions. On one hand, we shake our heads at our government, wondering how dumb they have to be to make some of the decisions they do. Then, we wonder if they deliberately harassed with this girl, knowing that she'd go to the media, making her a pawn in their game to set an example to an unwitting public. Me? I think these couple of agents just went overboard, flexing their government muscles when all that was necessary was as Nexxo said earlier: If they had done that, it would have been the end of it. -monkey
The two notions are not at all incongruous. Intimidating this girl to scare the public into line is pretty dumb thinking. Taking a low-key approach, with a casual, friendly visit and some avuncular advice on the responsibilities of the freedom of speech would have worked so much better. It would have demonstrated: "see, we're not the ogres that you think we are. We do understand your point, there are just better ways of making it". It might have challenged some of her beliefs. She would then have posted this on MySpace. That is wise thinking.
wow....... there are tons of pictures and animations that are antibush and lots of them you see bush die or get hurt. pheeerrr my 1337 paint skilzz here you have a replica of what it might have looked like...... almost.
honestly, knowing a couple of secret service guys (one of my co-workers is married to one... nice guy, so are his buddies), they're not really trained to do investigative work into threats towards the president... traditionally that job was delegated to the FBI. The majority of the detective work in the Secret Service is done for their original task of hunting down counterfeitters. Also, Secret is in their name for who knows what reason (even my co-workers husband couldn't tell me why the hell it was there)
So what happens if a non-american person did this like....i dont know...a bored 19 year old IT student, who happens to be on this very forum, asking this question... Could I get done for it? Seriously...it's pretty out of order, what happened to freedom of speech and all that, are people no longer allowed to express their feelings towards people? Oh wait...I forgot, Mr G .W <apeface> Bush is a control freak, and gets offended very easily, and does what he likes without fear of backlash...remind anyone of a certain German Leader, who died in say 1945? P.S : I don't like him much...
