DUBAI (Mona Moussly)
The United State's Secret Service was investigating on Tuesday a poll published on the social networking website Facebook asking if President Barack Obama should be assassinated amid tensions on planned health care reforms.
The controversial poll asked users: "Should Obama be killed?" and offered four answers: No, Maybe, Yes and "Yes, if he cuts my health care."
The Secret Service said it was treating the survey, posted on Facebook over the weekend, like any other threat to an American president.
Some 750 voted in the poll before it was taken down The poll was only removed from Facebook after the agency alerted the company, which said the poll was created by a person using an add-on application.
"All we are saying is we are aware of the poll and we are investigating the matter," Secret Service spokesman, Ed Donovan, told Al Arabiya.
More than 750 Facebook users had reportedly cast votes by the time the poll was yanked.
When asked what the majorty of votes were Donovan said: "We will not be giving the nuts and bolts of the investigation." |
" Once we found out about it, we worked with Facebook to have it removed " Secret Service spokesman The president's proposed health care plans have stirred much controversy with several anti-Obama protests being held across the United States.
Former president Jimmy Carter and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have blamed racism for the outrage, but Obama dismissed the claims on the Late show with David Letterman where he joked: "I was actually black before the election."
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a U.S. civil rights group, has reported a rise in traffic on white supremacist websites since Obama was inaugurated. |
