Secret Service harasses mourning GI mother

Sep 27, 2004

The Secret Service says it's "investigating" "threatening remarks" made towards George W. Bush by a 55-year-old New Jersey woman who lost a son in Iraq.

Sue Niederer's son, Army Lieutenant Seth Dvorkin, 24, was killed in Iraq last February. Since then, she has regularly joined protests against the war.

Her real crime? Several days before the Secret Service opened their "investigation," in September, Niederer stood up at a rally attended by Laura Bush wearing a t-shirt reading, "President Bush killed my son." She asked Mrs. Bush, if the war was so just, "why don't your children serve?"

Niederer, who had a ticket to the event, was arrested and charged with trespassing. The charges were later dropped.

The Secret Service SAYS their investigation stems from remarks Niederer made in an interview she gave last May. She was quoted as saying that she wanted to "rip the president's head off" and "shoot him in the groin area."

Really? If that were true, if those remarks made the Secret Service see her as a possible threat to Bush's safety, it didn't stop them from giving her a ticket to the Laura Bush rally, after she showed her own ID. It didn't stop them from letting her into the rally, after her name had been added to the guest list.

Clearly, they didn't see her as a "threat" until AFTER she had embarrassed the Bushes and brought attention to the continuing deaths of soldiers in Iraq.