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Xanga blogger detained for threats against the US President

Xanga blogger detained for threats against the US President

A Freeport, Pennsylvania Area High School student has been arrested following threats he made on against US President George W. Bush, other government officials and classmates on a Xanga Blog.

16-year-old Jeff Neely, a 10th-grader, has been detained in the Butler County Juvenile Center on charges of making terrorist threats.

The Valley News Dispatch reports
that the US Secret Service initiated the criminal investigation when it came across a message Neely posted on a blog at Xanga.com. The paper reports that it was unable to dtermine what had exactly been written.

View Comments (15)
  • I guess I can’t even speak these days without somebody arresting me! I’m not sure about all of you but how many 16 year olds out there are even smart enough to pull of harming the president. Second off was it even in line with the teen’s constitutional rights to arrest him for something that was said, and clearly blown WAY out of proportion?? You tell me but I like having rights!!

  • I think that this is stupid because the guy should know that any one has access to the websites.

  • No, Jeff is not stupid. He is an amazing, intelligent individual that is passionate about his cause. He allowed his emotions to get the better of him, this is true, but I would appreciate if you would not insult some one that you do not know in the slightest.

  • I happen to know Jeff, and what an amazingly nice guy he is. And I know when he was stating anything about the president he wasn’t being serious! He was irritated about oil drilling in Alaska and he wasn’t seriously going to act on these supposed “threats”. This has been blown way out of proportion.

  • This is Crazy! the goverment wants to arest a 10th grader! this is just proof that were no longer free in America! Who cares if were at war! Now that we have the republicans in charge were all goign to feel the wrath of there party and the chirstan right. God help us.

  • To whoever has commented that Jeff is stupid. You are the stupid ones. This is a country built on Freedom of Speech…His xanga contained no threats against the president and the Valley News DISGRACE completely got its facts wrong. The Secret Service confronted Jeff, No federal Charges were made….The reason he was arrested in the first place was because the school Mistook Jeff’s version of “The Wall” from Pink Floyd as a hitlist.

  • This is absolutely absurd. We being Americans, have the right to freedom of speech. In my opinion, Bush should not be the president. The only reason why he even got into a good college is because of his father. The kid had every right to speak his mind about the President, and the government needs to get over it. The kid is not stupid either, at least he had the audacity to tell people how he felt.

  • The fact that someone would be arrested for making an angry blog post is disturbing. How is an average kid online supposed to have the resources to do anything to the president?

    The fact that he was arrested is simply mindblowing.

  • I actually knew the person, i worked with him a couple of summers ago. He wouldn’t have gone as far as actually hurting anyone. We as people are allowed to protest aren’t we. He was just exercising his rights an american citizen.

  • There seems to be a big misunderstanding about the difference between criticizing the President and making threats (even if they’ll not be carried out) against the President. Most folks with an education know that you can say the President isn’t smart, or that he’s strange looking, or that he makes horrible decisions. But…smart folks don’t cross the line to threats, direct or veiled, real or perceived.

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