An Illinois man was charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama after putting his message on a contact-the-White-House online form.
Normally, the man's comments, including — "I am going to kill Obama and no one I repeat no one is going to stop me" — is not the kind of comment the White House site is looking for when it comes to public discourse. But the Secret Service was quite interested and acted on the tip about the Feb. 27 posting.
The man, Louis Allen Kinderman, 29, of Lincoln, Ill., allegedly used a fake name and email — [email protected] — to disguise his identity. He also said he was from Dallas, according to an affidavit by Secret Service Agent Lee Russell, who is based in Springfield, Ill. The affidavit was first published by The Smoking Gun, and verified with the Secret Service by NBC News.
Creepily, "A.J. Hidell" was an alias used by Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy — in Dallas — in 1963.
Despite the efforts to throw off law enforcement, agents were able to track Kinderman down using his Internet protocol address, a unique string of numbers that identifies every computer or home network connected to an Internet service.
When agents paid Kinderman a visit, he let them look at his computer. An examination of the laptop showed Kinderman was trying to hide his online activity by using proxy servers and misleading (aka "spoofed") IP addresses.
After agents confronted Kinderman about the threats, he admitted sending them. He was arrested Monday. Arraigned in federal court that day, the judge released him on $10,000 bond, ordering him to not have any guns in his possession, to remain within the boundaries of two Illinois counties, and to be aware he'll be subject to electronic monitoring, reports The Smoking Gun.
The Secret Service is declining any additional comment, telling NBC News the case is an "ongoing investigation."
— via The Smoking Gun
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