An unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the U.S. Secret Service, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency's mission, the Boston Globe reports. The agency is tracking a far broader range of possible threats to the nation's leaders even as it also investigates financial crimes such as counterfeiting.
The new demands are leading some officials to raise the possibility of the service’s curtailing or dropping its role in fighting financial crime to focus more on protecting leaders and their families from assassination attempts and thwarting terrorist plots aimed at high-profile events. Edwin Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said that though “there is no doubt the protection mission has grown,'' the agency can still fulfill both its missions.