>From apadmin Fri Nov 12 17:12:52 1999 Service-Level-Designator: k = State and Regional Story-Number: 0085 Selector-Code: 0ca-- Priority: r = Regular Category: n = State Regional Format-Identifier: Body-Type Text Keywords: AM-CA--AmmianoThreat Version: Bjt Story-Date: 11-12 Word-Count: 0576 Subject: AM-CA--Ammiano Threat, Bjt,560 Mayoral candidate beefs up personal security after Internet death threat jlsnkw1 AP Photo FX103 By JESSIE SEYFER= Associated Press Writer= SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Mayoral candidate Tom Ammiano _ who prides himself on being an accessible guy, regularly seen taking the subway to work _ will likely be seen with bodyguards from now on. After a death threat appeared on the Internet, Ammiano announced Friday that he plans to beef up his personal security with the help of San Francisco police. ``I'm not cavalier about these kinds of things,'' Ammiano said. ``We have been working with police and we're stepping up security.'' Along with antigay rhetoric, the threat contained detailed information on the exact route Ammiano takes to work and where the San Francisco Supervisor ``can often be found with only a small handful of people around him.'' It was posted Wednesday afternoon on two local Internet discussion groups and quickly yanked off. ``Mr. Ammiano cannot be allowed to become mayor of this city,'' the message read. ``I therefore have decided that I must take matters into my own hands. He is a sitting duck.'' The message's level of detail gave Ammiano pause. ``I had sometimes received e-mails before,'' he said. ``But not so specific as to habits and location.'' Such threats are taken particularly seriously in San Francisco where nearly 21 years ago, when another gay, populist supervisor _ Harvey Milk _ was assassinated. Milk, along with Mayor George Moscone, was shot and killed by fellow supervisor Dan White, who committed suicide after serving a short prison sentence. Ammiano, like Milk, has risen to national attention as the result of intense grassroots efforts. The outspoken supervisor entered the mayoral race as a write-in candidate just weeks before election day and beat candidates who spent at least 10 times more money. Ammiano faces Mayor Willie Brown in a runoff election Dec. 14. The city's police chief said a team of officers in the city's investigative unit were evaluating the threat, but did not return requests for comment Friday on the status of the investigation. Threatening a public official is a felony, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine. The message may be traceable to a person using information the bulletin board's computer retains, what's known as an Internet Protocol address. Internet service providers assign IP addresses to users every time they dial up. Service providers, either voluntarily or by court order, can usually provide police with a subscriber's real name because the subscriber has paid for dial-up service with a credit card. That is, unless the user has used an ``anonymizing'' service, said Tim Pozar, director of operations at Brightmail, a San Francisco-based email filtering company. Users who access an anonymizing Web site and then post a message to a bulletin board will leave behind the anonymizing site's IP address and not their real one, Pozar said. ``If they've done that, the police may have a bit of a problem,'' he said. That's because anonymizing Web sites are often in foreign countries that don't have to cooperate with U.S. laws. In any case, threats appear to be a regular occurrence for high profile officials. ``There are death threats every day,'' Mayor Brown told the San Francisco Examiner. ``It doesn't even faze me anymore.'' (Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-11-12-99 2013EST