The conservative site Newsbusters has denounced the concern expressed by Joseph Palermo, a Huffington Post Blogger, about the potential assassination of Barack Obama by Blackwater (or other private security companies) whose balance sheets have benefited immensely from George Bush’s Long War on Terror. Newsbusters claims that Palermo’s fear for Obama is merely ludicrous “tin foil hat” lunacy from the Left. Oddly enough, three days later, The Washington Times, not exactly a bastion of liberals or progressives by anyone’s definition has written a story about the same topic: fear of an assassination attempt against Senator Obama which have led to increased security by the Secret Service:
Secret Service presence has increased for Sen. Barack Obama since his dramatic win in Iowa, amid fears over the safety of the man seeking to become America’s first black president.
The Illinois senator’s security now rivals that of President Bush, with a dozen Secret Service agents wearing dark suits and earpieces leading bomb-sniffing dogs through event venues, sweeping all equipment brought by journalists and flanking the candidate as he plunges into crowds of supporters.
“For many black supporters, there is a lot of anxiety that he will be killed, and it is on people’s minds,” said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a Princeton University professor of political science and contemporary black culture. […]
Another black presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson, drew Secret Service protection because of violent threats during his campaigns in the 1980s. And former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell ruled out a presidential run in part because his wife expressed fears he would be assassinated. […]
At his first morning event yesterday, at least a dozen plainclothes Secret Service agents, most with yellow pins on their lapels, stood guard in and around the Palace Theater, and, unlike other candidates touring the state, uniformed police were also on hand. The theater was emptied early so bomb-detecting dogs could sweep through, and journalists covering the event were corralled for inspection.
“Just put all your equipment down, leave the room, and close the door,” one agent barked as another agent paced the hallway with a bomb-detection dog. Known as a “sweep” on the White House beat, the media did as told, allowing agents to rustle through their computer bags and turn on electronic equipment to make sure it was real. […]
There were more agents in the theater yesterday, some undercover, some wearing temporary pins. Reporters who have covered the candidate for months said the increase in security was obvious.
I guess this just proves (at least to conservatives, anyway) that the US Secret Service is now just another fringe leftist organization, much like the CIA has become since its analysts started opposing the stated views of Our Dear Leader Bush and his favorite sidekick Dick “Fuck You Senator Leahy” Cheney. Or maybe this just proves that Mr. Palermo’s concerns about Obama’s “health,” in a time of private armies controlled by conservative religious extremists, aren’t as crazy or outlandish as they seem to our right wing brethren.
And now we know why Colin Powell never chose to run for the Presidency. I guess his wife and the Secret Service have something in common — a healthy respect for all the violent nut cases on the American right who don’t mind using violence or threats of violence to achieve their aims. People like say Timothy McVeigh, for example. Or the Klu Klux Klan, the Minutemen, and even well known Republican politicians. Or certain good folks residing in Alabama who were planning for a massacre of “illegal immigrants” by stockpiling grenades and a rocket launcher, among other weaponry. Not to mention Eric Rudolph who perpetrated acts of right wing terror against both abortion providers and gay people.
So before we begin accepting the right wing meme that only crazy left wing conspiracy theorists would even consider Obama (or any other popular Democratic politician for that matter) to be at increased risk of assassination, maybe we should recall a few lessons from our own recent history, a history filled with vastly more examples of violence from those on the right side of our political spectrum than from the left. It seems the good people in the United States Secret Service have already done so. Good on them.
