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Secret Service: Facebook poll no threat to Obama

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-02 02:10

WASHINGTON: The Secret Service has determined that a juvenile was behind the online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, an agency spokesman said Thursday.

In this photo made Thursday, July 16, 2009, a Facebook user edits their privacy settings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  [Agencies]

No criminal charges will be filed against the juvenile or the juvenile's parents, spokesman Edwin Donovan said. Donovan would not identify the names of the child or parents or say where they are from.

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents took no chances.

The poll asked respondents "Should Obama be killed?" The choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.

After Secret Service agents met with the child and the child's parents, they determined there was no intent to harm the president.

"Case closed," Donovan said. "I guess you could characterize it as a mistake."

The poll was not created by Facebook, but by an independent person using an add-on application that had been suspended from the site, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said earlier this week.