A man, Lloyd Dewitt Tiller of Shreveport, Louisiana, is under arrest and charged with issue threats against Finance Minister Jim Flaherty:

A stockbroker from Louisiana has been indicted by a U.S. grand jury in connection with threatening emails that were sent to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Lloyd Dewitt Tiller, Jr., 59, from Shreveport, La., has been charged with two counts of sending a threatening interstate communication, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Tiller is alleged to have sent an email last Nov. 13, threatening to injure Flaherty. Another, sent Jan. 18, threatened both the the finance minister and his family.

The threats were quite graphic, with other news reports quoting the emails as threatening to cut Flaherty's throat. The concern was high enough that Jim Flaherty was assigned a personal bodyguard.

Meanwhile, in the United States, authorities there were equally concerned. A little-known branch of the US Department of State was assigned to investigate, and I doubt the person who sent the emails had any idea just what sort of trouble he was bringing down on himself.

From the US Department of Justice news release on the indictment against Lloyd Dewitt Tiller:

A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Shreveport stock broker with sending threatening communications over the internet to an official of the Canadian government, United States Attorney Donald W. Washington announced today. LLOYD DEWITT TILLER, JR., 59, of Shreveport, is charged with two counts of sending a Threatening Interstate Communication.

This case was investigated by the United States Department of State Diplomatic Security Service and the Shreveport Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Gillespie, Jr.

The US DOS Diplomatic Security Service, or DSS, is one of those branches of US law enforcement that most people have never heard of, unless Donald Bellisario decides to create a show around it like he has with JAG or NCIS.

Actually, the DSS might make for some good television. International in scope and very strict in membership, the Diplomatic Security Service is an elite group:

The Diplomatic Security Service is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. State Department. The majority of its Special Agents are members of the Foreign Service and federal law enforcement officers at the same time, making them unique. Unlike all other civilian federal law enforcement officers, these DSS agents must serve multiple-year tours overseas on a regular basis as a condition of employment. A minority of DSS agents are members of the State Department's civil service, and do not serve tours overseas; they focus on criminal work and dignitary protection within the United States. All DSS agents have the power to arrest, carry firearms, and serve arrest warrants and other court process. The State Department's web site says that "Diplomatic Security does not formulate foreign policy. It plays another essential — yet behind the scenes — role: To provide a safe and secure environment for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Not only is Diplomatic Security a unique organization in the foreign affairs community — it is the only law enforcement agency with representation in nearly every country in the world".

DSS agents are hired after an intensive evaluation process that includes a Foreign Service Board of Examiners writing evaluation, knowledge-based test, panel interview and situational judgment exercises carried out by veteran DS agents. Those selected undergo a comprehensive medical examination needed for worldwide availability, as well as an exhaustive background investigation for security clearance at the level of top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information. A final suitability review and vote by a Foreign Service panel evaluates a candidate's overall ability to represent the interests of the United States as a diplomat abroad.

After a new DSS agent is hired, he or she begins a seven-month training program that includes the Criminal Investigator Training Program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, a Basic Special Agent Course at the Diplomatic Security Training Center, and courses at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. A new agent is usually assigned to a domestic field office for three years before taking on an overseas assignment, although an agent can expect to be sent on frequent temporary duty assignments overseas even when assigned to a domestic post. As members of the Foreign Service, agents are expected to spend most of their career living and working overseas, often in hazardous environments or underdeveloped nations throughout the world.

DSS agents have been involved in the investigations of most terrorist attacks on U.S. interests overseas in the past twenty years, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa in 1998. Perhaps most notably, in 1995 DSS agents assigned to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan were involved, along with Pakistani police and intelligence, with arresting Ahmed Ramzi Yousef, who was wanted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The DSS Computer Investigations and Forensics Branch (CIF) was established in 2004 to help DSS investigators confront a rapid increase in crimes involving computers and other electronic technologies affecting the U.S. Department of State's operations and security.

In 2005, DSS opened 218 investigations involving computer forensics, a 19 percent increase over 2004, and a 43 percent increase over 2003. DSS investigators have used computer forensics to uncover passport and visa fraud, counterintelligence matters, espionage and child pornography.

No word in any of the reports on what support the DSS received from Canadian officials, or if DSS agents carried out any part of their investigation in Canada.

Assuming the charges stick, it would look like Lloyd Dewitt Tiller lost his cool, perhaps because he and his clients lost money, when the decision was taken to tax income trusts. Too many eggs in the income trust basket perhaps? I suppose there are four lessons to take from this:

• Diversify your portfolio. Invest in different countries, and in different types of investment opportunities.
• Don't hit that "Send" button for at least 24 hours when you are angry. But then Tilller's alleged emails were two months apart, so maybe cooling down was an issue for him.
• The US government has specialized law enforcement for everything. I don't know if the person who sent the threatening emails was thinking that he might be investigated by local Ottawa police, or perhaps the RCMP, and maybe the local Shreveport police, but I'm willing to bet he'd never heard of the DSS. Whatever crime you might think of committing, remember that Uncle Sam probably has agents who are specialized in hunting you down.
• As long as the US has these various branches of law enforcement, Donald Bellisario is never going to run out of ideas for prime time TV action-crime dramas.