| news jan/feb 2004 |
| Prodi survives parcelbomb attack |
Powder Disrupts Mail Service in Virginia
A suspicious powder found in the mail yesterday morning forced the evacuation of the city's main post office and resulted in a one-day suspension of some delivery routes.
Preliminary tests on the substance, described as a brown or off-white granular powder, showed no biological or chemical threat, authorities said.
As a precaution, five Postal Service employees who were close to or touched the powder underwent decontamination. Two of the five asked to be treated at a local hospital, but no serious ailments were found, said Thomas Kingry, a postal inspector from the Richmond field office.
The building reopened after being closed for about two hours during the morning, he said.
"Even
though the vast majority of these incidents turn out to be nothing,
you can't treat them like they're a hoax," Kingry said after
business resumed. "You have to treat them like they're the
real thing."
27 Feb 2004, Richmond Times Dispatch
Mail
Bomb Injures 3 at Scottsdale City Office
Investigators hope to re-create a device that detonated in the hands of Scottsdale's diversity director Thursday to try to find clues about who sent the mail bomb.
The attack shocked Scottsdale employees, prompted warnings to other Valley cities, and rocked residents' sense of security.
Don Logan, director of Scottsdale's Office of Diversity and Dialogue, suffered serious burns on his hands and arms in the 1 p.m. explosion at the Human Resources Building near Scottsdale City Hall. A mailroom employee delivered the letter-size package to Logan, to whom it was addressed, in his cubicle.
Logan's secretary, Renita Linyard, and a co-worker, Jacque Bell, suffered minor injuries.
When the package exploded, it shot shrapnel into the walls, carpet and ceiling and burned a 3 1/2-inch-wide hole in Logan's desk. About 25 people were evacuated from the building.
"Such hateful action will not be tolerated, " City Manager Jan Dolan wrote in a news release.
Employees will be told today to be "vigilant" and not open mail from an address or person they don't know.
27 Feb 2004, Arizona Republic
Bomb Evacuates Hospital in Utah
Approximately 97 people were evacuated from a VA Medical Center building Wednesday afternoon while a bomb squad deactivated two explosives.
About 3:20 p.m. hospital staff found a bag that had been left unattended on the second floor of Building 3. They called VA police, who called the Salt Lake police bomb squad.
The building is an inpatient and outpatient facility, but patients are not confined to beds, so both staff and patients were able to leave the building while officers X-rayed the bag, said Susan Huff, public affairs officer for the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System. The bomb squad "rendered the contents of the bag safe" about 6:30 p.m. without causing an explosion, and patients and staff were allowed to return to the building.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office will investigate the origins of the bag.
26 Feb 2004, Desert Morning News
A Wal-Mart in Rockwall is open after the store had to be evacuated Tuesday night.
A box was delivered to the store Tuesday and someone called claiming there was a bomb inside the package.
The Wal-Mart employee was told to have a bank teller inside the building fill a bag with money and leave it outside.
The store was evacuated and police moved in.
The box was removed and no explosives were found
The suspect got away with an undetermined amount of cash.
25 Feb 2004, NBC News
Bomb Squad Investigates After Man's Death
The Snohomish County bomb squad was called to an Edmonds home Tuesday afternoon to investigate what appeared to be a small explosive device, but was actually coins wrapped in duct tape with a digital watch.
Police called the bomb squad after finding the suspicious package at the home of an Edmonds man, 57, who apparently committed suicide earlier that afternoon, said Edmonds Sgt. Jeff Jones.
The 6-inch-square
package was made to look like an explosive device, but its purpose
was unknown, he said.
25 Feb 2004
Package Bomb Blast Injures Woman
A 72-year-old Van Buren woman was injured Monday in an apparent bomb explosion in a Fort Smith neighborhood, police said.
Dorothy Snyder was taken to Sparks Regional Medical Center after the explosion, which occurred shortly before noon outside a residence in the 1500 block of North Waldron Road, Fort Smith police Sgt. Jarrard Copeland said. The hospital would not release information Monday on Snyder’s condition.
Copeland said Snyder told police she went to a vacant house that she has been taking care of in the 5300 block of North O Street, and she found a suspicious-looking package on the front porch. Snyder picked up the package and walked to the nearby home of her friend Chad Holcombe, intending to show it to Holcombe, Copeland said.
Holcombe said he heard Snyder knock twice on his door and was on his way to answer the door when the bomb went off.
“She was going to knock a third time, and she dropped it fumbling around there, and it went kaboom, and she screamed and said, ‘Oh Chan, my God, it’s a bomb!’” Holcombe said.
Holcombe said he found Snyder with multiple injuries, the most serious of which appeared to be a severed artery in her left leg that was spurting blood. He called 911, then brought out a stool for Snyder to sit on and began applying pressure to the wound.
A neighbor, Zach Johnson, helped tend to Snyder while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Johnson provided a bungee cord which the men tied around Snyder’s leg just below the knee to restrict the blood flow.
Holcombe said Snyder told him she had found what appeared to a box wrapped in duct tape on the screen door of the vacant residence. The object apparently was a homemade bomb, although Snyder did not recognize it as such until it exploded, Holcombe said.
25 Feb, 2004 Times Record
FBI Joins Pipe Bomb Investigation
Bomb Found In Trunk Of Woman's CarOfficials Sunday were trying to find out why explosives were left in the trunk of a woman's vehicle at her Naperville home.
A pipe bomb along with a shoe box full of a white, powdery explosive substance was found in the trunk of the car in a residential parking lot in the 1600 Block of County Lake Road in Naperville Saturday, according to Illinois State Police Tollway District Trooper Doug Whitmore.
An anonymous caller reported the finding to the Illinois State Office of Homeland Security at 11 a.m. Saturday, Whitmore said. Officials from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force were notified, and found the explosives later that day at 2 p.m., he said.
A total of 20 units from the two buildings on either side of the parking lot were evacuated, he said.
Whitmore had no description for the car where the explosives were found. The vehicle belonged to a woman whose name, age and address were being withheld, he said.
State police officials along with officials from the Naperville Police Department and the DuPage County Bomb Squad were investigating the incident, according to Whitmore. He said the powdery substance had not yet been identified.
A pipe bomb is a lead or steel pipe containing explosives, with screw caps on either end. Thread is attached as a fuse, Whitmore said.
No one was
immediately available from the FBI, the Naperville Police Department
or the DuPage County Sheriff's office.
23
Feb 2004, NBC News
Italian Police Arrest Letter Bomb Suspect
Italian police say they have arrested a man suspected of sending a parcel bomb in the central city of Perugia.
The bomb exploded at a police station on Friday, injuring three officers.
Investigators said they believed the man was part of a professional criminal network and have ruled out any terrorist connection.
They say the bomb was more powerful and technically more sophisticated than a recent series of parcel bombs sent to Italian and European politicians.
Those attacks were blamed on anarchists.
Three policemen were injured when the bomb exploded as the officers were examining it.
One of the wounded policemen had to have two fingers amputated and parts of two others removed, reports news agency AFP.
The parcel had been sent to a woman, who became suspicious when she found a video cassette inside and alerted police, said AFP.
LETTER BOMB TARGETS
28 December:
Romano Prodi (European Commission president)
29 December:
Europol (EU criminal intelligence service);
Jean-Claude Trichet (European Central Bank chief)
30 December:
Eurojust (EU body working for judicial co-operation)
5 January:
MEP Hans-Gert Poettering;
MEP Gary Titley;
MEP Jose Ignacio Salafranca
Police dismissed any suspicions of a terrorist motivation after interviewing the woman.
Italian authorities have blamed Italian anarchist groups for previous parcel bombings.
In December and January, a number of letter bombs posted in Bologna, Italy, were sent to European Union officials, including former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who is president of the European Commission.
At the end of last year, an Italian police officer was wounded when a parcel bomb blew up at a police station in Rome.
20 Feb 2004, BBC
Rhode Island DMV Gets Anthrax Scare in Mail
A package containing a letter and an unidentified white powder was delivered to the temporary offices of the Division of Motor Vehicles Tuesday, prompting DMV employees to call police.
According to police, Cheryl Ney was opening mail at DMV offices in the Apex building Tuesday afternoon when she came across a large brown envelope addressed to the "Registry of Motor Vehicles." When she tore it open, Ney found the letter and suspicious powder.
Ney notified DMV Director Charles "Ted" Dolan, who in turn alerted police.
Fire Department Hazardous Material Officer William Cullinan was called in to secure the package. The incident did not interrupt operations at the DMV.
Dolan said packages containing white powder have been delivered to DMV offices "three or four times over the past year." All those scares proved to be hoaxes.
Police Lt. John Clarkson said the envelope has been sent to the state Health Department for testing. If, as expected, the powder is found to be non-hazardous, police will examine the letter.
Clarkson did not know when the Health Department experts were likelyto complete their analysis.
The envelope
bore a Providence return address
20 Feb 2004, Pawtucket Times
Suspicious Powder in State Department Office
The State Department yesterday sealed off a satellite office that performs visa work after white powder spilled out of an envelope containing an Indian passport, officials said.
A preliminary test could not rule out the possibility that the powder was anthrax. Officials, who were doing follow-up tests last night, said that they were moving cautiously but that they did not expect the substance to turn out to be anthrax.
Officials said they expect to have test results today.
The envelope was opened about 11 a.m. in the visa services unit, on the seventh floor of a building in Columbia Plaza, a complex in the 2400 block of E Street NW, the D.C. fire department said. Fire department spokesman Alan Etter said the powder spilled from between the Indian passport's pages.
Officials sealed off the floor and briefly quarantined about 20 employees while fire department crews performed a preliminary test on the powder, Etter said. The workers showed no ill effects and were allowed to go home, officials said.
"There's no reason at all to believe this is anything sinister," Etter said.
The office and seventh floor remained off limits, however, because the test found that the powder contained protein, Etter said, leaving open the possibility of anthrax.
The FBI was having the powder tested last night by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in the District, FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said. She said initial field tests often produce "false positives."
20 Feb 2004, Pakistan Tribune
Suspect Device at Limerick Prison
A suspect device was discovered at Limerick prison today in the latest security breach at the jail.
The alarm was raised when prison officers found a crude home-made pipe bomb in the yard near the kitchen area of the jail at 10.30am.
The kitchen area was immediately evacuated and alternative lunch arrangements had to be made for more than 200 inmates and staff.
It was unclear whether the device, which had wires and fuses attached,was thrown over the 20-foot perimeter wall or if it originated inside the prison complex. The Army Bomb Squad was called in from Cork and Gardaí at Roxboro Road also confirmed that they were investigating the incident.
Prison sources said the latest security breach was part of a further escalation in tensions among members of feuding factions at the prison.
"We have so many people involved in the ongoing Limerick feud in separate wings at the prison now that tensions are very high.
"It's only a matter of time before someone is killed inside the prison with the amount of home-made weapons getting in," said one prison source.
Yesterday's security breach comes in the wake of ongoing concerns among prison staff about changes in security practices during ongoing construction work at the prison.
This includes the construction of a new wing which will accommodate 106 additional prisoners, some of whom have already arrived following the closure of Spike Island Prison.
Earlier this week, it emerged that visitors to the jail were no longer being searched for drugs or weapons.
The practice of searching visitors was supended following the removal of several old prefab units at the main entrance to the prison.
The prefabs were removed as part of the ongoing construction work.
Previously, visitors entered through the prefabs, where they were screened, but the practice has been temporarily suspended during building work.
Today's security alert follows last month's probe into the smuggling of a suspect package into Limerick prison.
On January 23, CCTV footage reavealed that a suspect parcel had been left on a window ledge at the prisoners' workshop.
The package was later picked up by an inmate, prompting a major search of the complex by prison authorities amid fears that it may have contained a gun.
The searches yielded a number of weapons, including home-made knives and bars but no firearms were discovered.
Security footage showed that the package had been smuggled in through a site entrance at the rear of the prison by a person wearing construction clothing.
20 Feb 2004, Ireland on Line
Explosive Device Clears Kansas High School
North High School was evacuated Wednesday and students were sent home after a homemade explosive device was found in a girl's backpack.
The device, described by police as a "cardboard container, full of powder, taped and fused," was later destroyed by the Wichita Police Department's bomb squad. The student was taken in for questioning by police.
The school, which was evacuated at 10:48 a.m., was reopened by about 12:45 p.m. That was the time North had planned to dismiss students Wednesday because parent-teacher conferences were scheduled.
North principal Denise Wren said she was searching the girl's backpack Wednesday morning on an unrelated matter that she would not discuss. No threat was phoned into the school, she said.
"In searching the backpack, I found a device," she said. "I had no idea. It was just enough of a situation that I felt like I needed to get my school resource officer involved."
Wren evacuated the school by calling a fire drill on the intercom.
"I was very honest with them (the students)," she said. "I told them that it wasn't for practice, that we had found a device and... for their safety, we were going to evacuate."
Some students said there was initial shock and confusion.
"Everybody was like 'What, what was that?' " said freshman Ernesto Alba, 15, who was in gym class at the time of the announcement.
Students were moved off schoolgrounds. Those who had vehicles were allowed to leave. Other students were sent to nearby Minisa Park, where parents and buses picked them up.
The bomb squad arrived at the school before noon and removed the device by about 12:30 p.m.
Wichita police Capt. Darrell Haynes of the department's special operations bureau said he wasn't sure what kind of damage the device could have caused.
"But we were concerned about it," he said. "It's a pretty good-sized device. It's probably larger than any conventional firework."
Haynes said the powder in the device was likely fireworks powder. He said the girl claimed she made the device last summer.
There was no indication she planned to set it off, Haynes said.
Haynes said the case will be presented to the district attorney who handles juvenile cases for possible charges. Wren would not specify what consequences the girl would face at school.
19 Feb 2004, The Witchita Eagle
Mailbox Bombs Found in Wisconsin
Bad River Indian reservation residents have been warned to be aware of mailbox bombs.
Ashland County Sheriff John Kovach said his department received two reports of mailbox bombs exploding on the reservation Sunday on Old Odanah Road, in the Town of Sanborn. No one was injured.
In a Tuesday press release, Kovach said the bombs were made from chemicals that, when combined, become unstable and explode.
Deputies have distributed handouts to Old Odanah Road residents handouts that advise extreme caution when opening mailboxes.
"If a (suspicious) item is located, do not touch or handle it. Call 911," the sheriff advises.
The U.S. Postal Inspector, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have been alerted.
A reward of
up to $500 is available for any information leading to the arrest
and conviction of those involved in the mailbox bombings.
19 Feb 2004, Ironwood Daily News
New Mail Inspection Efforts After Ricin Scare
The House and the Senate are initiating new mail inspection procedures, including the opening of all mail at an off-site location, after the latest discovery of a deadly substance in the postal system.
Under new protocols, all letters will be removed from envelopes and then reinserted and resealed after being found safe, House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood and Chief Administrative Office Jay Eagen said in a letter to House members.
The Senate Sergeant at Arms office said similar measures would be adopted on the Senate side.
Since 2001, when a letter containing anthrax was sent to the office of then-Senate Majority Tom Daschle, all first class mail to the Capitol is first sent to an off-site inspection center where the corner of the envelope is cut and the envelopes are sterilized through irradiation and tested for toxins.
But mail service was again disrupted and Senate office buildings closed Feb. 2 when the toxin ricin was found in the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. "As a practical matter, it is not acceptable to put members and their staff at risk from such threats," Livingood and Eagan wrote.
But Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, wrote the two officials Tuesday, asking them to suspend the new procedures, which he said raised privacy concerns. He also questioned having the testing outsourced to a private corporation.
"I believe these new procedures fundamentally damage the integrity of the chain of communication between constituents and members of Congress," Kucinich wrote.
Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee, said he planned to expand an experiment in which mail is scanned before reaching the Capitol and then sent electronically to lawmakers' offices.
A dozen House offices have participated in the project since the anthrax scare, and Ney recently said he planned to expand the digital mail program to 25 offices.
Mail to congressional offices was suspended following the ricin incident, but it is to resume in the Senate this week and the House next week.
Livingood
and Eagan said that the House has received more than 600,000 pieces
of first class mail in that period, and that delivery delays will
continue for several months while the new system is implemented.
18 Feb 2004, Associated Press
Letter Bomb Attack in South Africa
Durban - Police are still waiting for the results of tests done after a letter bomb attack on a Matatiele businessman on Monday.
Neville Viviers, 56, who runs a security company, suffered injuries to his hands, face and neck after a package he fetched from the post office blew up as he opened it.
Viviers had received a slip in the mail to collect a registered article at the post office.
Director Bala Naidoo said explosives experts took forensic samples from Viviers' home, the scene of the blast, to determine the type of explosive used.
"We have initiated a high level investigation into the matter.
"The motive for the bomb is still unknown but we have not ruled out a connection to his (Viviers') business interests," he said.
17 Feb 2004, SA News
A small parcel bomb exploded outside a building that houses the finance minister's office, shattering doors and windows but causing no injuries, police said Tuesday.
Pamphlets scattered by the Monday night explosion denounced President Lucio Gutierrez's economic austerity policies and attributed the explosion to a previously unknown group calling itself the Armed Revolutionary Left, police said.
Gutierrez has been criticized in largely impoverished Ecuador for meeting International Monetary Fund demands for cuts in subsidies and other measures to shore up the country's finances and help it qualify for loans.
Finance Minister Mauricio Pozo, who was headed to Washington to meet with IMF representatives, was not in his third-floor office at the time of the blast in a bank building housing finance ministry offices in the heart of Quito's commercial and financial district.
The bomb shattered the building's glass doors and several ground-floor windows.
During the past two years, more than half a dozen parcel bombs have been detonated in Quito and Ecuador's largest city, the port of Guayaquil.
The bombers have used several similar-sounding leftist revolutionary names to identify themselves.
17 Feb 2004, Associated Press
Italian Police Find Bomb Materials in Raid
ANARCHISTS, TIMER AND DANGEROUS PYROTECHNIC MATERIAL RETRIEVED
A kitchen
timer to close bomb electric circuits, high potential "interesting"
pyrotechnic material, many objects "to offend" and ideological
documents were retrieved by DIGOS (police special operation crime
squad) during the search on anarchist group members. The investigators
noticed that the kitchen timers were the same as those used to
make some "parcel bombs".
17 Feb
2004, AGI
Bankers Named as Targets on Animal Rights Site
Animal rights campaigners are inciting personal attacks against staff at State Street.
A group called No Justice, Just Us published personal details of the Wharf bank's staff on the internet because of alleged links with animal research laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
NJJU has also produced a magazine which lists the names, addresses and phone numbers of over 10 Wharf-based employees.
In a chilling message to supporters, it says: "Make the b*stards pay".
"You will find after the list is a selection of tips and tricks for smashing the monsters who must pay for murdering the animals at HLS," the magazine states.
The group goes on to encourage people to "make silent or abusive calls especially at 3am in the morning. Make the b*stards pay."
It also suggests putting their phone numbers on phone box calling cards advertising prostitutes, and to send them junk mail.
One senior member of staff at the bank, who did not want to be named, told The Wharf: "This is something I am aware of."
The campaign website - which was taken offline this week - also listed details of HLS employees along with pharmaceutical firm Yamanouchi - an HLS customer.
The magazine also offers "tips and tricks for making 'em suffer" - including sending locksmiths, decorators or pest control firms round to the named individuals.
The magazine says: "The people listed here are not bit part players. They are the ones that matter.
"Think about what is going on inside Huntingdon and don't feel frustrated... take out all that anger on the people listed here."
Robin Webb, press officer for the Animal Liberation Front, said the website had most likely been closed down by the FBI or a similar authority.
He added that "no justice, just us" has been a well-used phrase within the animal liberation for a number of years.
"It's an indication that the law has failed in the pursuit for justice for animals.
"I can't say what individuals should do.
"I can only explain why people are driven to work outside the law as the law has consistently failed animals," added Webb.
In October last year animal rights group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) launched a protest against State Street over its alleged links with Yamanouchi.
One SHAC campaigner bypassed security to get to State Street's One Canada Square offices and spoke to staff about the firm's links with HLS.
SHAC claims not to be involved with No Justice, Just Us.
State Street
was unavailable for comment.
12 Feb 2004, Trinity Mirror
Man Exposed to Anthrax Sues Government
A Winchester man sued the federal government for negligence after he was infected with anthrax.
David Hose, 61, was exposed to anthrax in 2001 while working for a firm which handled diplomatic mail for the State Department in Sterling, Virginia. He has demanded $12 million in damages and the government has until mid-April to rule on the claim.
Hose suffered a number
of health problems after being diagnosed with inhalation anthrax
and was hospitalized for long periods of time. The suit claims
he is too sick to work.
13 Feb 2004, NBC News
Huntingdon Life Sciences to Prosecute Animal Rights Extremists
Huntingdon Life Sciences is preparing private prosecutions against militant animal rights protesters because it is not getting enough protection from the law.
Andrew Baker, the head of Europe's largest contract testing laboratory, wrote to Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, last week complaining at the lack of action against violent demonstrators who are harming his business by driving away suppliers and customers.
It is understood that the letter complains about the "abject failure" of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate crimes properly and to bring successful prosecutions against repeat offenders.
Several companies have ended their links with Huntingdon Life Sciences after their directors and staff were subjected to violence, intimidation and threats by members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), the group formed in 1999 "with the sole aim of closing HLS down".
Mr Baker, the chief executive of Life Sciences Research, the laboratory's parent company, said yesterday that there was a mountain of evidence that pointed to activists in Shac and yet no action was being taken against them.
His company is drawing up detailed plans to use private investigators, solicitors and barristers to pursue those he claims are responsible. One senior member of its legal team, who asked not to be identified, said: "This is an example of where a private prosecution can be used to uphold the rule of law."
Mr Baker, a Briton who has been subjected to intimidation at his home in New York, said: "This needs a decision from the top that this problem can be and must be solved. Existing laws can and must be used to prosecute the perpetrators of these acts for assault, grievous bodily harm, blackmail, coercion, and even attempted murder. They are being allowed to carry out crime after crime and get away with it."
Shac was formed by Greg Avery, his former wife Heather James and his current wife Natasha Avery: all committed animal rights activists who maintain that they are not linked with the illegal activities of the Animal Liberation Front. The trio, however, have served one-year jail terms for conspiracy to incite public nuisance.
Huntingdon Life Sciences is licensed by the Government to carry out testing required by law for pharmaceutical and other companies and has spent millions on security in recent years.
However, Securicor, the country's best-known security company, told Huntingdon Life Sciences last month that it will not be renewing its contract when it expires next month.
The move came just days after Cambridge University announced it had scrapped plans for a new £32m medical research centre because of an open-ended bill for security.
Private prosecutions are rare and can be costly, but they can and do succeed. Julian Young, a senior partner with the London solicitors Foreman Young, added that the Crown Prosecution Service could take over the prosecution at any time.
Greg Avery, the spokesman for Shac, said yesterday of the plan for private prosecutions: "At the end of the day Shac is a legal campaign and senior barristers look at all our material. This smacks of desperation from Huntingdon: if we were breaking the law - which we are not - the police would be on us like a shot."
A spokesman
for Huntingdon Life Sciences said yesterday: "The arguments
of Shac have not won over anyone, but the intimidation, threats
and the violence have, sadly, had an effect."
8 Feb 2004, The Telegraph
White Powder Clears Texas Postal Facility
Two white powdery substances, one meant to be menacing and the other inviting, were found at separate locations Thursday and Friday in Beaumont and both have been determined not to be the deadly chemicals.
With two false anthrax scares in a little more than 12 hours, local law enforcement agencies have taken every precaution while warning that the incidents should be treated as "the real deal".
Employees of the U.S. Postal Service Remote Encoding Center and a Beaumont citizen were on high alert Thursday and Friday when powdery substances were found a little too close to home.
Hundreds of employees were evacuated Thursday night when law enforcement officials cleared the postal building at Pearl Street and Orleans in downtown Beaumont after a white powdery substance marked anthrax was found in the men's bathroom.
Carmen Apple, an officer with the Beaumont Police Department, said Beaumont police received a call around 9 p.m. and immediately began evacuating the building.
"The police department responded and evacuated the facility," she said." There was a note that said the powder was anthrax."
Apple said BPD's Hazardous Materials Department took samples of the substance.
"The substances were taken and were field tested," she said. "The results showed that the substance was not anthrax."
Although the substance tested negative for hazardous material, BPD investigators have not yet determined exactly what the substance is.
Apple said it is the responsibility of the law enforcement agency to treat every possible anthrax scare as if it were the "real deal."
"If someone perpetuates an anthrax hoax, we have to respond as if it were the real deal until we know otherwise," she said. "It is better to be safe than sorry." She added that the encoding center usually has employees coming and going at all times.
"There were hundreds of employees effected by the anthrax scare," she said. "Shifts are beginning and ending at almost every hour."
Employees were not allowed back into the building until around 1:15 a.m. Friday morning.
Since the incident took place at a federal building, Beaumont police said the case is now being handled by the FBI.
"As for what a suspect would be charged with and penalty information, I wouldn't be able to comment on it," Apple said. "The FBI has taken over and they are handling any kind of criminal investigation. All I can comment on is what happened Thursday night."
While the powdery substance from the encoding center was being tested Friday morning, a Beaumont citizen made his way to the Beaumont Fire Department with what a BFD news release said "appeared to be a suspicious package."
The Beaumont resident said the package, which contained a small glass bottle with a cork stopper, had been left in his mailbox.
Brad Pennison, a Beaumont firefighter, said inside the bottle was a note and a powdery substance.
"The police department was notified and members of the Law Enforcement Terrorism Task Force responded to the fire station," he said. "Postal Inspectors were also notified since it was found in a mail box."
Following an investigation, it was determined that the bottle contained a wedding invitation and sand that had been sent through the mail.
Penisson said citizens should be aware that if a suspicious package is located, it should not be touched or moved.
"Authorities
should be notified and allowed to come to the location of the
package to check it out," he added.
7 Feb 2004, South East Texas News
NJ Health Dept. Receives Anthrax Hoax
Police are investigating an apparent anthrax hoax, triggered when someone sent a letter containing a white powdery substance to the local health department.
The department received the letter Jan. 22, but the case was not made public until Tuesday, police said, because of the ongoing investigation.
The letter contained a substance with a note hinting it may contain anthrax, police Capt. John Reardon said.
"It was immediately sealed into plastic bags," he said. "The letter was sent out for testing immediately."
Tests showed the powder was not harmful, but police would not say exactly what it was.
The room where
the letter was opened remained closed off for six days.
4 Feb 2004, Associated Press
Suspicious Powder Found at a 2nd Postal Site
An unidentified powder was discovered late Monday at a mail distribution center here, where anthrax spores were discovered in 2001. A federal law enforcement official said on Tuesday evening that the substance had tested negative for ricin.
State health officials said the gray, sandy powder was discovered leaking from an envelope in an area where mail is hand sorted. The envelope, addressed to the Republican National Committee, was found around the same time that a white powder tested positive for ricin, a deadly poison, in the office of the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, in Washington.
The results of tests for biological or chemical agents should be available on Wednesday, health department officials said.
The mail center remained open and a normal shift of 150 workers were on the job on Tuesday, though the area where the envelope was discovered was cordoned off. The worker who handled the envelope had been wearing gloves, officials said. None of the workers needed medical treatment, said Carl Walton, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service.
There have been at least 125 incidents at the Wallingford center over the last two years in which a suspicious powder or package was found, said John Dirzius, president of the American Postal Workers union of Greater Connecticut, which represents two-thirds of the 1,200 people who work at the center.
"It is premature to close the facility without knowing what we're dealing with," Mr. Dirzius said.
The envelope was a business reply envelope that does not require postage, officials said, and appears to have been mailed within Connecticut. The powder was discovered by a postal worker late on Monday. By midnight, the postal inspector began contacting state and federal authorities.
4
Feb 2004, New York Times
Suspect Package Causes Evacuation at U
of Cincinnatti
The 7th floor of Baldwin Hall was evacuated for almost two hours Monday afternoon after a "suspicious" package arrived in the mail.
A box was noticed at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering's office at approximately 2:45 p.m.
The box was addressed only to the department and contained a green duffel bag.
"I said, 'Maybe we shouldn't open this duffel bag,'" said Alayne Housley, assistant secretary.
After Public Safety was alerted, the 7th floor, the dean's office and the building library above it were evacuated. Public Safety officers used a remote control device to open the bag, according to Housley.
Experts eventually discovered the bag contained personal items such as a blow drier, soup and clothes. The evacuation ended at approximately 4:30 p.m.
The civil
engineering student who was the intended recipient picked up the
box Monday evening, according to office staff.
4 Feb 2004, News Record
Italian police investigating a series of package and letter bombs sent to prominent European Union figures yesterday made their first arrest.
A 25-year-old Sardinian was being questioned on suspicion of sending a threatening package to Romano Prodi, the commission president, last month. The package of spent fireworks and shotgun cartridges was sent in the name of the Sardinian Anarcho-Insurrectionalist Gang, which claims a string of bombings and other attacks on the island.
It was not clear if the man, named as Luca Farris, or the group sent other devices in December and January to Mr Prodi, members of the European parliament and officials of EU agencies. On December 27, a letter bomb delivered to Mr Prodi's home in Bologna exploded in his hands, but he was unhurt.
Other attempts were claimed by the Informal Anarchist Federation, known as FAI, protesting against a repressive "new European order".
Claiming responsibility for an attack on a petrol station in Sardinia on January 12, the Sardinian Anarcho-Insurrectionalist Gang has claimed to have links with FAI.
Police said
Mr Farris, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in subversive
activities, lived with his parents at Assemini, on the island's
southern coast. They said he worked as a boatman.
4 Feb 2004, The Guardian
Powder
at Postal Facility not Ricin
Powder
found Monday night in an envelope at a mail processing center
where anthrax was discovered in 2001 has tested negative for ricin
and appears to be simple wood ash, officials said Tuesday evening.
The gray, sandy powder was found Monday night leaking out of an envelope addressed to the Republican National Committee. The discovery came at about the time a white power that tested positive for the poison ricin was found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office in Washington.
Mark Saunders, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, said the substance found in Wallingford tested negative for ricin.
John Dirzius, president of the American Postal Workers local at Wallingford, said the material will still be tested for possible threats, including anthrax, but appeared to be ashes.
"It doesn't appear to be anything more than that," he said.
William Gerrish, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health, said results from several other tests on the substance were expected later this week. The agency is testing for anthrax, plague and other substances that could be used for biological warfare, he said.
The Wallingford center had remained open as the letter's contents were tested by the health department. Postal workers had said they were worried about how the situation was being handled.
"Absolutely, we're concerned," said Keith Larsen, 38, a mail handler at the center. "I mean, they lied to us in the past, so we don't know what's going on in there."
Anthrax spores were found at the Wallingford center in fall 2001. A 94-year-old Oxford woman, Ottilie Lundgren, died after inhaling the bacteria, one of five people who died nationwide during the anthrax attacks that fall. Investigators believe she got anthrax from mail that passed through the center. Three initial tests came up negative before a fourth, more sophisticated test found lethal levels of anthrax. The center never closed, a decision workers criticized at the time.
The Wallingford worker who found the powder Monday had been wearing gloves, officials said.
"All the employees are fine," said Carl Walton, a Connecticut-based postal service spokesman. "Nobody needed medical treatment. They washed up and went home."
Investigators believe the letter, a business reply envelope that did not require postage, was mailed from somewhere in Connecticut.
Dirzius said a normal shift of about 150 workers were on the job when the letter was discovered.
"We can now get back to doing what we do best, delivering America's mail. We're all very relieved," he said.
4 Feb 2004, Associated Press
Suspicious Powder Discovered on Capitol
Three U.S. Senate office buildings are closed, and congressional business has been disrupted a day after a suspicious powder, believed to be the poison, ricin, was discovered on Capitol Hill.
Authorities are awaiting definitive results from tests conducted on the white substance found in a mailroom in the Dirksen Senate Office building Monday. Eight tests on the material have already been done, and six of them came back positive for ricin.
Although Senate office buildings closed as a precautionary measure, the Senate is in session. "Somebody, in all likelihood, manufactured this with the intent to harm, and this is a criminal investigation that will be under way," majority leader Bill Frist told fellow senators.
The Capitol building is open, although public tours have been canceled. House office buildings are also open. Mail delivery to Capitol Hill has been suspended.
Senator Frist said it appears the contamination has been isolated. "All air sampling, all environmental studies to date are negative with the exception of what was found in that single office at that site," he said.
But suspicious powder was also found at a postal facility in Connecticut, where anthrax spores were found in 2001. A series of anthrax-tainted letters were mailed to locations in the eastern United States that year, including to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Five people died. No one has been arrested in those incidents.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with the discovery of the white substance on Capitol Hill, or in Connecticut.
Inhaling significant
quantities of ricin can result in death within a day or two. There
is no known antidote.
4 Feb 2004, Voice of America
Bomb Scare at Bank of Jamaica and Foreign Ministry
The entire staff of both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bank of Jamaica were forced to evacuate their buildings for approximately an hour after they received bomb threats simultaneously yesterday morning.
At the foreign affairs ministry, the threat, delivered over the phone by a female at about 11:18 am, interrupted a meeting with Panamanian Ambassadors as well as a board meeting.
The Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) searched the building for over an hour but no bomb was found and employees were allowed to re-enter the building shortly before 1:00 pm.
A female also
called in the bomb scare at the Bank of Jamaica, but the police
were unable to determine whether the same person made both calls.
4 Feb 2004, Jamaica Observer
Parcel Bomb in Italy Intercepted
A letter bomb
addressed to the President of the Republic, sent from Sardinia,
may have been intercepted over the last few days. This was reported
in "La Stampa", stating that it may have been sent by
ASAI, the Sardinian anarcho-revolutionary movement, which has
claimed responsibility for many attacks carried out over the last
12 months. The Head of State arrived on the island today for a
three day visit. The news has been denied by the Carabinieri and
there has been no message with the signature of the anarchist,
Luca Farris.
4 Feb 2004, AGI
Ricin Probe Focus: Letters to White House, Agencies
A letter addressed to the White House containing low-grade ricin was intercepted in November and is being investigated by the FBI along with two other attempts to send the deadly poison to federal agencies, federal officials said Tuesday.
The revelation about the White House letter came one day after ricin turned up in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), and follows by four months the interception of a ricin-laden letter to the Department of Transportation in October.
Federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday that investigators are looking into whether the three letters are connected and whether they can match the ricin samples. A source said there was no public health risk from the White House letter.
The focus of the investigation appears to be on a domestic source, rather than an international terrorist group like al-Qaida.
Frist said the powder sent to his office was identified in several preliminary tests as "active" ricin, which can cause illness. "Preliminary tests are that it is active. How active? We don't know at this juncture," he said. More tests were being done, he said.
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., is conducting further tests to help determine the size of the powder's particles, said spokesman Chuck Dasey. Those tests -- electron microscopy studies -- are not expected to be completed for days.
There is insufficient information to link the deadly poison to foreign terrorists, Frist said.
"Because of the nature of the agent, it clearly is intended to terrorize. ... In terms of implying whether or not there's linkage to terrorist activity or al-Qaida or what's happening elsewhere in the world, it's premature in that regard," Frist said.
Investigators could be targeting the trucker calling himself "Fallen Angel" who made the first of three attempts to deliver ricin in October.
That letter was addressed to the U.S. Department of Transportation and intercepted Oct. 15 by postal workers in Greenville, S.C.
It warned that if a change in trucking regulations requiring drivers to sleep 10 instead of eight hours each 24-hour cycle wasn't reversed by its start date of Jan. 4, 2004, "I will start dumping."
The letter added, "You have been warned this is the only letter that will be sent by me."
The regulations took effect Jan. 4 as scheduled.
FBI officials warned that it is too soon to draw conclusions and have not closed the door on any avenues of investigation.
The FBI has conducted a well-publicized investigation into the Department of Transportation letter, issuing a news release and posting a reward of $100,000 for information on Jan. 8.
Postal workers in Greenville have been polygraphed, and truckers have been canvassed for clues.
The outside of that letter had a typewritten message on the outside saying "caution RICIN POISON Enclosed in sealed container Do not open without proper protection.(sic)" Inside the envelope was a small metal vial containing ricin.
The enclosed letter identified the author as "a fleet owner of a tanker company" who said he had "easy access to castor pulp," which can be used to make ricin.
The author then warned: "If my demand is dismissed I'm capable of making Ricin."
The FBI had acknowledged it was looking into whether the ricin in Frist's office was connected with the "Fallen Angel" letter before news of the White House letter was leaked to the media Tuesday.
"It's just a basic step in our investigation now that the material in Sen. Frist's office has been determined to be ricin. It's only common sense for us to see if there is a connection," said Debbie Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, which is involved in the investigation led by the Capitol police.
Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said everything in Frist's mailroom has been seized and made part of the investigation. Asked whether anything looked suspicious, he said, "There was nothing on first blush that would lead us to believe that there was any visible threat. But we still have a lot of investigative work to do on the things that are yet in that office and that we've confiscated from that office."
The letter to the White House, which was intercepted at an off-site mail handling facility, contained a fine powdery substance that tested postive for ricin, according to a law enforcement source who spoke on the conditition of anonymity.
But, the official added, "It was also determined that there was no public health risk."
Meanwhile, an envelope leaking a granular substance was discovered Tuesday at the Wallingford, Conn., postal facility where anthrax led to the death of a New York woman in the fall of 2001, postal officials said. The letter was addressed to the Republican National Committee, according to postal inspectors.
Preliminary
tests indicated the material was not ricin, said Mark Saunders,
a spokesman for the Postal Service in Washington. John Dirzius,
president of the American Postal Workers local at Wallingford,
said the material will still be tested for possible threats, including
anthrax, but appeared to be wood ash.
3 Feb 2004, Newsday
Ricin
Scare Reveals Limits of USPS' System
The
U.S. Postal Service is installing a costly new biohazard-detection
system, but as now configured the system would not have detected
the ricin that turned up Monday in a Senate office building.
"Right now we're set up for anthrax," said Paul Smith, public affairs manager for the Postal Service's Eastern region. "The system can be configured to stop other (biological) agents; it would require a software adjustment."
The system is being installed in 282 mail-processing plants across the country.
The dissemination of anthrax through the mail has been an overriding concern for the Postal Service since the attacks in the fall of 2001 that killed five people nationwide, including two employees at the Brentwood Mail Processing and Distribution Center in Washington.
Unlike anthrax, ricin is not easily absorbed through the skin. Experts say it is not an efficient way of killing large numbers of people because it is not as easily dispersed as anthrax. But ricin is highly toxic when inhaled or injected, and there is no known antidote. Anthrax can be treated with antibiotics.
Using $350 million appropriated by Congress for this purpose, the Postal Service last year tested the system and has thus far installed it in four mail-processing facilities: Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Lancaster.
The national rollout of the system begins next month when the South Jersey facility in Bellmawr will be equipped.
Originally, the Postal Service considered buying equipment that would use radiation to neutralize biological threats. As the agency learned by irradiating federal mail, the equipment is expensive and can damage mail.
And, in the case of ricin, which is an inert toxin, irradiation would not work.
The Biohazard Detection System, manufactured by Northrop Grumman Corp., works as follows:
As mail goes through the sorting system, it passes under a hood that operates much like the vacuum vent above a modern stove. Air is sucked up, and the particles are mixed with a solution that breaks down the DNA.
The liquid sample is then analyzed, and it is determined whether the DNA matches that of anthrax.
A ventilation-filtration system is designed to contain any release of particles if the mail is "pinched," spilling some of its contents, Smith said.
From the time a letter goes under the hood until it is determined to contain anthrax takes 90 minutes to two hours. If a sample tests positive, lights flash and a horn-type alarm sounds. In a multilevel facility such as Philadelphia's, someone would then pull the fire alarm to alert the entire building.
Despite the delay, Smith said, it would then be possible to prevent the contaminated mail from leaving the facility. Moreover, employees who came into contact with the affected mail could be immediately identified and treated.
"We'd be able to be in immediate contact with the Centers for Disease Control," Smith said. "And we'd be able to monitor our employees more easily."
Meanwhile, the President's $37 million budget request for the Postal Service, submitted Monday to Congress, does not include $779 million for additional biodetection technology the agency had sought. Mitch King, manager of governmental affairs for the Postal Service, said the agency would take the request directly to Congress.
Margaret Hamburg, the former bioterrorism chief at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, acknowledged that the postal system had been used to spread a biological threat but said that in terms of U.S. vulnerabilities, there were other areas, such as the public health service, that needed to be addressed.
"The truth is that anyone in the business of doing major harm with a biological agent is unlikely to do it through the mail," she said.
Meanwhile, Congress is awaiting results from a Government Accounting Office investigation into the way the anthrax contaminations in Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington were handled by postal officials.
The investigation was requested in the fall of 2002 by Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R., N.J. The results should be released in April, said Nick Manetto, Smith's spokesman.
"It will look at how it was handled at each location and tell us what was done right and what needs to be changed," Manetto said. "The problem with anthrax was that there was no ready-to-go response. There were several assumptions made that were inaccurate. At first it was thought that cross-contamination was not possible. Those (assumptions) obviously were wrong. We hope the GAO report will be a launching point to move us toward a game plan so we know what to do with anthrax, ricin, and anything else that might come along."
An announcement is expected within a week that the Trenton, N.J., regional mail-processing center in Hamilton, Mercer County, has been fully decontaminated. It has been closed since October 2001, after four letters containing anthrax passed through sorting machines and contaminated the 282,000-square-foot facility.
The cost of
cleaning and renovating the post office could reach $100 million,
according to some estimates. It is uncertain when the building
will reopen - months of cleanup and other work are needed as a
result of the massive fumigation, officials said.
3 Feb 2004, Philadelphia Enquirer
Animal Rights Activists Attack Home in UK
Animal rights protesters who attacked a home linked to a guinea pig breeding centre have been dubbed “terrorists” by a Midland MP.
Michael Fabricant (Con Lichfield) called on the security services to deal with threats such as activists who have targeted David Hall & Partners, which breeds the animals for medical research, at Newchurch, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Fabricant said: “One of my constituents runs a guinea pig farm for medical research which is controlled by the Home Office to protect the animals and to ensure the guinea pigs are bred and kept humanely.
“He has written to me saying: ‘Before New Year’s Eve, the activists smashed all the downstairs windows of my 86-year-old father’s home whilst he was in the house, and then threw red paint bombs through the smashed windows.
“’He was petrified. Between Christmas and New Year they were also at my niece’s house . . . and they turned off all her water and then concreted the stop cock so she could not get it back on’.”
Mr Fabricant told the Commons: “Those animal rights terrorists must be controlled, so may we have a debate on the issue?
“Perhaps the Home Secretary could designate those people as terrorists, so that organisations for which I have the greatest respect, such as the security service, can be utilised to try to restrain their activities.”
Cabinet Minister Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, told him: “Many of us have a lot of sympathy with animal rights movements and support them. We want proper protection for animals and an end to cruelty, but to take things to such an extent and to terrorise scientists, doctors and others involved is wholly unacceptable.”
Last night Mr Fabricant said: “The irony is that if this particular guinea pig farm is closed, laboratories will import these guinea pigs from France where there are no inspections whatsoever to ensure that they are protected against cruelty.
“I oppose the testing on animals for cosmetics and other nonmedical experiments.
“I just wonder about the hypocrisy of those animal rights terrorists who persecute my constituents yet have been vaccinated against polio and other diseases when this is a product of animal research.”
2 Feb 2004, Birmingham Post
Mail Bomb in Kansas is Under Investigation
The U.S. Postal Service is investigating a mail bomb that was sent from Wamego, Kan., to a residential customer in Washington, Kan., northwest of Kansas City near the Nebraska border.
The package was delivered to the customer about 4 p.m. Friday. The customer opened the package and suffered a hand injury when it detonated, according to postal inspector John Salanitro. The victim, whose name was not released, was treated at a hospital and released.
Salanitro said investigators don't believe the incident was a random act of terrorism and don't believe the public is at risk. The package contained a device rigged to detonate when the package was opened.
1 Feb 2004, Kansas City Star
White Powder Letters Prompt Alerts in Maryland
Towson University police have issued a crime alert after two employees received suspicious letters with white powder inside Thursday.
One of the letters arrived at the University Union; the other went to the Administration Building. A field test determined the white powder was not hazardous.
The university
is asking faculty, staff and students to be alert to the hoax
and to examine their mail carefully.
30 Jan 2004, WBAL News
Bomb Scare at Diplomatic Zone in Bangladesh
Police, army and intelligence agencies yesterday seized three 'improvised explosive devices', wrapped in as many household thermal flasks and left on the roadside at Park Road of Baridhara diplomatic enclave, which later proved a hoax.
Security personnel at the spot suspected the three 'suspicious' containers were left at the site to create panic in the diplomatic enclave of the city, guarded heavily round the clock by over 100 armed police and plainclothesmen.
A gardener from the adjacent nursery alerted the on-duty policemen at the Chinese Consular nearby about the suspicious containers.
Immediately after the bomb alert was raised at around 8:00am, nearly 70 students of the "L'Ecole Francaise de Dacca" (Dhaka French School) across the narrow road hurriedly evacuated the building, leaving behind their books and stationery.
The school was also declared closed, well ahead of the scheduled Eid-ul-Azha vacation. Children were asked to collect their belongings on Saturday.
On the eastern side of the school near the walled plot of the Thai Embassy and a bushy nursery on an empty plot of the Kuwait embassy lay the three thermal flasks, neatly wrapped in white medical plaster. One of the caps of the metallic flasks was marked "XXD OPEN" with a ballpoint pen.
Top police and National Security Intelligence (NSI) officials sealed off the road and barred everyone from approaching the area. Only 100 yards away at the main entrance to the US Embassy, a group of armed policemen stood guard.
An army Major who arrived at the spot to examine the three 'devices' said the flasks could be 'improvised explosive devices' which could go off with minimum impact or heat. He said they want to be absolutely sure about what is in the flasks.
An NSI team arrived there with an explosives detector and a portable x-ray machine and examined the three flasks for 'residual traces of explosives' with the detector.
Officials said the detector did not show any trace of explosives and they would now have to x-ray the flasks. Rummaging desperately through the operation manuals of the machine, the NSI team tried in vain to operate the US-made x-ray machine.
Another small x-ray machine was called in by the NSI and that too would not function. At exactly 3:00pm, more than seven hours after the mysterious flasks were found, the dejected NSI team formally asked the army for help and left the scene with their luggage.
Later, a police bomb expert said he could help with the x-ray machines. In the evening, the NSI team arrived at the site with their x-ray machines again. Police then fetched a set of x-ray films from Gulshan market and went for the x-ray, which revealed that the containers were fully empty and safe.
It took the authorities 11 hours to run the check. The dubious-looking flasks were left at the same spot with the army personnel saying that they would collect the containers from the spot during daytime today.
30 Jan 2004, Daily Star
Mail Bomb Attack on French Muslim Prefect
A bomb exploded in the mailbox of a school in France on Thursday, the third attack in what is apparently a campaign to intimidate a man appointed as the first prefect in France who is both foreign born and Muslim.
The police said that the bomb, which caused little damage, exploded before dawn at a high school attended by the teenage son of Aïssa Dermouche, who earlier this month was named prefect of the Jura department, an administrative region along the Swiss border.
While there is yet no clear evidence that the bombings were politically motivated, their timing and target have caused national alarm.
France is gripped in a tense debate over the role its immigrants should play in its tradition-bound society, and the bombings have raised fears that long-simmering resentment among right-wing nationalists could lead to violence.
Revelations on Thursday that two earlier bombs — one planted in Mr. Dermouche's car and another at the business school he ran until recently — were more sophisticated than first believed have led to speculation that they were the work of a highly motivated individual or group.
"It's not necessarily a professional job, nor is it completely amateur," said an investigative official here. "It's somewhere between the two."
The police have found traces of triacetone triperoxide on the wreckage of Mr. Dermouche's car, which was destroyed in early Jan. 18, just four days after his appointment to his new job was announced.
Triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP, is a dangerously unstable explosive favored by many violent groups because of its ease of manufacture from commonly available ingredients: nail polish remover, acid and bleach.
Its use suggests a well thought out campaign against Mr. Dermouche by one or more persons willing to take significant risks. The substance formed part of the bomb discovered in the shoes of Richard Reid, suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda, while he was aboard a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001.
"It's not just a Molotov cocktail," the investigative official said.
The first bomb was slipped between the windshield and hood of Mr. Dermouche's car. The second bomb, on Sunday, shattered glass doors at Mr. Dermouche's former business school.
The bomb on Thursday was slipped through a letter slot on a wooden door of his son's school building and blew apart an interior mail box. There were no injuries or witnesses in any of the bombings.
The official said investigators were not ruling out any hypothesis about who was behind the attacks. He said that it could turn out to be someone with a personal grudge against Mr. Dermouche and who was angered by his recent appointment.
But the official said that at least five people had called several news and government agencies to claim responsibility for the bombings on behalf of various right-wing, anti-immigration causes.
After the
first bombing, the police detained the boyfriend of Mr. Dermouche's
former wife because there had been open animosity between the
men. But the man was released and the official said the subsequent
bombings made it unlikely that he was involved.
30 Jan 2004, New York Times
Suspicious Envelope Found at California Naval Base
Officials temporarily shut down the main gate Wednesday to the U.S. Naval Weapons Station when a suspicious envelope was discovered in the mail room.
The letter-sized envelope contained a white powdery substance in a package, said Gregg Smith, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach, headquarters command for the Fallbrook station.
By Wednesday evening, Smith said, the powder was believed to be an unsolicited sample product from a company that specializes in polymer synthetics.
The envelope and package tested negative for all chemical and biological hazardous agents, he said.
"We assume the chances are that it was just a legitimate sale request, and that these people didn't realize sending a powdery substance to a military base wasn't the best thing to do," said the spokesman.
The mail room is next to the main gate of the weapons station on Ammunition Road. Gate traffic was halted between 11:30 a.m., when the package was opened, and 1:45 p.m.
The area surrounding the small mail room also was closed off, Smith said.
Drivers were routed onto the station through Camp Pendleton. About 400 people work at the Fallbrook station and hundreds of vehicles go through the Ammunition Road gate daily. Traffic backed up for a time.
"If this had taken place during rush hour, this would have been substantially worse," Smith said.
The gate closure didn't affect station operations, he said. The station is a storage site for some of the fleet's most powerful ordnance, including air-launched missiles.
The mail room employee who opened the envelope was feeling fine, Smith said.
Hazardous materials teams from San Diego County and Camp Pendleton responded to the incident. Smith said the county team tested the powder.
A county spokesman said the County Department of Environmental Health declined to comment "for security reasons."
"There's always going to be an occasional suspicious package," Smith said. "To my knowledge, there's never been a suspicious package with white powder at the Fallbrook station. We have never had a live suspicious package be anything other than a false alarm."
28 January 2004, North County Times
P.M. Office in Korea Target of Bomb Threat
Seoul police are strengthening patrols after the Prime Minister's Office received a bomb threat believed to be from a Korean-Chinese protest group, officials said yesterday.
A threatening letter arrived Tuesday at the office of the prime minister's secretary for civil affairs, which is in charge of Korean-Chinese issues.
"A letter written by a Korean-Chinese group based in Seoul said they plan to retaliate for the government's expulsion of Korean-Chinese and blow up gas pipe lines in Yeouido," a police spokesman said.
Yeouido is an island in central Seoul where the National Assembly and headquarters of major political parties and financial companies are located.
1 Feb 2004, Korea Herald
Bomb Squad Detonates Suspicious Packages at UC-Davis
Sacramento Yolo Regional Bomb Squad members detonated two suspicious packages Monday afternoon that were addressed to UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef.
The contents of the packages, too dense to be determined by an X-ray, turned out to be harmless - a teddy bear, a game and a couple of books, said university police Sgt. Nader Oweis.
The two small packages - the size of a shirt box and a small book - wrapped in Christmas paper and duct tape and mailed inside a large manila envelope, were from the same person who sent a couple of suspicious e-mail messages to the chancellor in recent weeks, Oweis said.
"This kind of heightened our concern and we decided not to take any chances. We decided to err on the side of caution," Oweis said. He declined to reveal the name of the sender or the content of the e-mails.
University spokeswoman Maril Stratton said this morning the return address on the package was not local and that the e-mails contained random statements directed to the chancellor, but not concerning any particular issue.
On Monday, about 350 people were evacuated from the Mrak Hall administration building and nearby Everson Hall and the area was cleared to detonate the packages with a water cannon on the lawn north of Mrak. Vanderhoef was out of town for the day.
An assistant in the chancellor's office reported the suspicious package at about 1:45 p.m. and UCD police officers arrived at about 2 p.m. After examining the packages, the bomb squad was called, Oweis said.
The fourth and fifth floors of Mrak Hall were evacuated at about 2 p.m. and the rest of the building was evacuated at about 3:30 p.m. for the rest of the day. The south side of Everson Hall was later evacuated. The packages were detonated at 4:36 and 4:52 p.m., each making a slight popping sound and sending little pieces of the packages and contents flying.
Agencies handling the incident included the Sacramento Yolo Regional Bomb Squad, UCD Police Department and UCD Fire Department. The package pieces and suspicious e-mail messages were collected for an ongoing investigation by university police.
Stratton said in past years, the chancellor's office and law school received suspicious mail containing white powder. Razor blades also were sent to faculty members who conduct research on animals, at UCD and across the country, a few years ago.
28 Jan 2004, Davis Enterprise
Bomb Squad Destroys Suspicious Package at Massachusetts Bank
Police said a man walked into the Greylock Federal Credit Union on West Street, demanded money and said he had a bomb. That statement put into motion a day's worth of careful, methodical procedures.
After taking a couple of X-rays of the package, the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad determined it was indeed suspicious enough to be destroyed.
Chief Anthony Riello of the Pittsfield Police Department said, "It was a soft sandwich bag or soft picnic type bag. Within that there was another container, unknown what exactly that was, and there was a pipe inside of that with some wires that raised their suspicions that it could have been a bomb."
29 Jan 2004, Capital Nine News
Suspicious Device Detonated at South Carolina Bank
A suspicious package was detonated by authorities Thursday afternoon after they received a bomb threat at Spratt Savings and Loan.
The Chester Police Department and the Chester County Sheriff's Office responded to the bomb threat by blocking off parts of Saluda Street, one of the main roads into downtown Chester, and connecting Pine Street. Rush-hour traffic was rerouted to York Street.
While waiting for the State Law Enforcement Division Bomb Squad to arrive, Major Mike Brown of the Chester Police Department saw the package inside the bank, which is located on Saluda Street.
"I went to the window and saw the item laying on the floor," Brown said, adding the package was about 6 inches long and wrapped in a newspaper.
When the bomb squad arrived, it moved the package -- a white putty-like substance with a red stationary light -- to the bank's parking lot. The bomb squad then blew up the package.
Brown declined to say whether the item was indeed a bomb. "At this time, the material will be sent to SLED to determine if it was an explosive device."
SLED's evaluation of the exploded package should be completed within the next several days, officials said.
The incident started around 5 p.m. when the bank manager received a telephone call from a man stating a bomb was in the bank. The caller gave a name, but authorities would not release it Thursday night.
"The caller told him (the manager) the item was beside the couch," Brown said. "He looked and he saw the red light, and at that time he evacuated the building."
The caller requested $7,000 be dropped in a green trash can behind Food Lion on the Cochran By-Pass. He also warned the bank manager against calling the police or evacuating the building, authorities said. The caller said doing either would result in detonation.
After the bomb squad detonated the package, officers investigated the green trash can behind Food Lion.
"We did drop a package in that can to see if anybody picked it up," Brown said.
Brown could not comment on whether the bomb threat at the bank was linked to a bomb threat Wednesday at Chester Middle School. An investigation is continuing, he said.
23 January
2003, The Herald
Bomb Hoax Clears Delaware Mall
The Independence Mall shopping center in Brandywine Hundred was evacuated for more than four hours and U.S. 202 was closed for 15 minutes Wednesday afternoon while explosive experts dealt with a suspicious-looking device found attached to the door of a restaurant.
The device, which looked like an explosive, was later found to be an "elaborate fake," state police said.
The 6-inch-by-12-inch black box with wires attached was discovered on a rear door of the Melting Pot restaurant shortly before 3 p.m. by the restaurant's manager, state police spokesman Lt. Joseph Aviola said. The box was attached to the metal door with magnets.
"The manager went out the back door to a delivery truck," Aviola said. "When he was going back in, he saw this box."
Police evacuated the businesses in the horseshoe-shaped complex, closed down U.S. 202 for about 15 minutes while workers were directed out of the parking lot, then sealed off the shopping center.
State police explosive ordnance technicians responded to the scene, and police also flew in their motorized bomb-detecting robot, which can be operated from a safe distance away.
Aviola said the metal door prevented technicians from X-raying the object to examine its contents. Instead, they used a water cannon to render the device safe before inspecting it manually shortly after 7 p.m.
"It's a hoax device," Aviola said afterward. "It did not contain any explosives.
Aviola would not say what was found inside the box. He described it as an "elaborate fake."
No one had made any threats to either the restaurant or other businesses in the shopping center prior to the bogus bomb's discovery, Aviola said.
"It had to be intentionally placed there by someone," he said. "That's why we had to take the safety measures we did, even though it turned out to be a hoax."
Delaware News Journal, 1/22/2004
Environmental Terrorists Expand Scope of Violence
From a $50 million arson at a San Diego condominium to four chickens liberated from a California egg farm, radical environmental groups had a busy year - but with a difference.
While the Pacific Northwest was their focus for years, they now seem to have virtually abandoned the region, spreading their violent political action through the rest of the country, according to a list of actions released Wednesday by the groups.
The FBI considers the two largest groups, the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, to be terrorist organizations.
"All I can tell you is that they are moving out around the country," said Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C.
In an e-mail sent to news media, the radical groups listed actions from Maine to California and from Louisiana to Alaska.
The groups claimed responsibility for 75 actions in 2003. Only one - 10,000 mink freed from a fur farm in Sultan, Wash., by the Animal Liberation Front - was in the Pacific Northwest. No ELF actions were near the Northwest forests where the group had flourished since it was founded. Until last year the fronts struck often against logging operations, Forest Service facilities, fur farms, slaughterhouses and other targets in the region.
Tactics last year varied widely, from graffiti on cars of a circus train to dirt in gas tanks to arson of condominiums and firebombing of new Hummer SUVs.
About a fourth of their actions were against targets thought to have ties to a British company, Huntingdon Life Sciences, which tests drugs and chemicals on animals.
The groups claim Huntingdon kills hundreds of animals a day and treats them cruelly for unnecessary research. Huntingdon's Web site says its research saves human lives and that it is a supporter of the Fund for Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments, which says the level of animal experimentation is too high but that the immediate elimination of it is not practical.
The largest hit claimed by the groups in 2003 was an August arson fire that destroyed a five-story condominium under construction in San Diego, possibly part of what the ELF has called a campaign against urban sprawl. Damage was estimated at $50 million.
Phil Celestini, the agent in charge of the FBI's domestic terrorism operations unit in Washington, said after the San Diego fire that it was "sheer dumb luck and providence that someone has not been killed. You set a fire that big, there's no way of predicting what the ultimate consequences will be."
The FBI lists the ELF as its No. 1 domestic terrorism priority. It split off from another hard-line group, Earth First!, in 1997.
Mainstream environmental groups have taken pains to distance themselves from the ELF.
"The ELF are not environmentalists. They are arsonists," Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club, said last year.
21 January 2004, Associated
Press
Bomb 'joke' student jailed
A British woman is being held
in a US prison after she joked with an airport policeman that
she was carrying a bomb.
Shropshire student Samantha Marson triggered a security alert
as she waited to board a British Airways flight from Miami back
to Britain.
The 21-year-old from Bridgnorth was asked what was in her rucksack and told officials she had a bomb.
According to the arrest report, Ms Marson placed her bag on the belt at a security check, telling a Transportation Security Administration screener: "Hey be careful, I have three bombs in here" - before allegedly repeating the joke twice more when confronted by officials.
She was taken into custody and within hours appeared before a judge who remanded her to Dade County Jail.
Ms Marson - who is due to appear in court again on 6 February - will be released on bail if she can come up with a £2,700 bond.
Her father Jim, 75, said: "We are beside ourselves with worry.
"She phoned at about 3am on Sunday and was hysterical.
"I'm sure Samantha will accept that it's a silly thing to say but she's the sort of girl who might have thought it would make people laugh."
She had been in the US for three months with her American boyfriend and was returning to the UK to renew her visa, the paper said.
The Foreign Office said it was seeking more details of the case.
A spokeswoman said: "We have confirmed with the Americans that they are holding a British national and we are looking into it."
Both British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic warned today of the dangers of joking about security.
A BA spokeswoman said: "We will strongly advise all passengers not to make any remarks which could be misinterpreted. American authorities take this sort of thing very seriously."
A Virgin spokesman said: "With security levels so high at present, there are certain things you do not joke about.
"Most Britons having had years of heightened security would realise that you have to be extremely careful about what you say."
20 January
2004, BBC
Nigerian
Postal Service Installs Bomb Detectors
Worried by the activities of terrorists across the world, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), has installed bomb detectors/screening machines at the International Mail Processing Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, to screen all letters coming into the country.
NIPOST’s spokesperson Hussiana Charity Ato stated this in Abuja on Monday when she spoke on the topic: The post, always within your reach and yet efficient to mark the 24th anniversary of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU).
NIPOST, in the wake of the October 19, 1986 killing through bomb of the founding editor of Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa, had installed close television circuit and other metal detectors at its processing centre at the Apapa Ports.
The latest development,
Ato said, was to ensure that mails entering the country were adequately
screened to forestall any ugly incident.
20 January
2004, BBC, Daily Record
Police
defuse Thai motorcycle bomb
Police have defused a bomb in southern Thailand, the latest incident
since martial law was declared in three provinces.
The bomb was hidden in the fuel tank of a motorcycle outside a
convenience store in Pattani province.
It was a similar device to one that killed two policemen in the city of Pattani earlier this month.
A series of attacks in the south have been blamed by ministers on both Muslim separatists and bandits.
Police said they thought that the bomb discovered in the motorcycle was intended to detonate while officers were inspecting it
"It was likely done by someone who wants to create unrest in the province, as several places in Pattani have been warned of being possible targets for the unrest," said police colonel Chaithat Inthanoochit.
Six people
have been killed in violence this month including four soldiers
who were killed when gunmen raided an arms depot in Narathiwat
province.
19 Jan 2004,
BBC
Bomb Scare Closes Birmingham
Train Station
Army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion on a car following a full scale security alert at Birmingham's New Street Station.
Trains in and out of the station were halted and passengers evacuated after the car was found at 8.30pm on Thursday.
British Transport Police said the vehicle with a Southern Irish number plate was found on the short stay car park outside the station. When police checks to find the owner of the vehicle failed, a decision was taken to evacuate the entire area.
In a statement, police said: “With public safety in mind and advice from the Army Bomb Disposal Unit a full evacuation of the station took place and trains were stopped. The surrounding area was also evacuated.”
An Army bomb disposal team travelled to Birmingham to examine the car as more than 100 people stood in nearby Smallbrook Queensway.The all clear was given at 1.30am.
There was more misery for city centre commuters yesterday when a single broken down car brought Birmingham city centre to a standstill.
The car stopped in the A41 St Chad’s Queensway tunnel at 7.40am, blocking the commuter route. Tailbacks stretching back towards the M6 and along the A34 quickly built up as the tunnel was sealed off by police and firemen.
Birmingham Daily News, 17 January 2004
Pipe
bomb at prison officers' HQ
A pipe bomb type device has been found at the headquarters of
the Prison Officers' Association in County Down.
Army bomb experts dealt with a suspicious object left outside
the Prison Officers' Training College at Ballywalter Road in Millisle.
Loyalist paramilitaries were behind a series of security alerts which caused major traffic disruption in several parts of Belfast on Friday, said police.
Army bomb experts are still examining a number of suspicious objects in the Belfast area and a car at Comber in County Down.
Army bomb experts are also dealing with a suspicious car on the Dee Street Bridge in east Belfast. The Sydenham by-pass is closed.
The Cregagh Road was closed at the Knockbreda Road junction after a suspicious object was discovered there. It was declared a hoax.
And a suspect device is being examined on Raphael Street in the city centre, and Cromac street has been sealed off.
It is understood that loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, is behind the wave of alerts.
It is being linked to recent trouble by loyalist inmates at Northern Ireland's high security Maghaberry prison.
Finlay Spratt of the Prison Officers' Association said: "If they think by putting bombs outside the offices of the POA they are going to intimidate the POA, they haven't a mission - they are just wasting their time"
The Army also examined a suspicious object at the junction of Alliance Avenue and Jamaica Street in north Belfast. It was declared an elaborate hoax.
16 Jan 2004, BBCCanadian Customs Finds Contraband in the Mail
Twenty live tarantulas. An electric stun gun that looks like a flashlight. Bags of opium in a hollowed-out book.
These are three examples of the 800 seizures made by Canada Customs last year at the main Georgia Street post office in downtown Vancouver.
In restricted-access areas inspectors use everything from X-ray machines to drug-sniffing dogs to examine six million pieces of mail coming into B.C. annually from other countries.
They are looking for the proverbial needle in that massive haystack of mail -- prohibited weapons, illegal drugs, counterfeit knockoffs of designer clothes, beef from countries where mad cow disease has been identified.
Mike Hryciuk, acting chief of the Canada Customs mail centre, won't describe all the tools Customs officers use when they decide what warrants a closer look.
But he did describe some of the things in that box of tools: An ion scan machine that electronically "sniffs" mail to detect tiny quantities of illicit narcotics, such as heroin, cocaine and THC, the drug produced by marijuana plants; "detector dogs" trained to find those illegal drugs, and x-ray machines that peer through packages and outline metallic objects inside.
Hryciuk said customs officers also use "indicators" that help them identify mail that is most likely to contain contraband. Without elaborating, he indicated that those indicators include the written declaration or customs form placed on the outside of packages mailed to Canada; information provided by the importer or exporter; the way the goods are packaged; and the country of origin.
Less than 10 per cent of the incoming mail -- less than 600,000 of the six million pieces of Canada-bound mail coming into the main Vancouver post office -- is referred to Canada Customs for further examination. That's when things like x-ray machines and dogs are used.
Referrals often happen simply because officials suspect the sender did not pay all the import duties to Canada Customs, perhaps because the item may be undervalued or inaccurately described on the declaration form.
Other items of mail are sent to another federal government agency. For instance, one of the seized items last year contained a product which resembled a child's pacifier, but it was pacifier with a battery-powered light. Health Canada doesn't want to see that in a baby's mouth. It's used by young adults at rave concerts. Environment Canada also tries to enforce the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which restricts or bans importation of animal products and live animals that are headed for extinction, such as all elephants, many monkeys and all sea turtles.
Hryciuk said about 200,000 pieces of mail were opened last year.
Canada Customs seized a relatively small percentage of those opened envelopes and packages -- 800 in all -- but Hryciuk said "thousands" of other pieces of mail were referred to other government agencies or sent back to the sender.
Last year, more than 500 of those Canada Customs seizures were letters and packages with illegal drugs inside. It won't come as a surprise that cocaine, heroin, opium, cannabis products and steroids are some of the illicit drugs Canada Customs officers find, but many people haven't heard of restricted drugs like kaht, a plant grown in East Africa.
Hryciuk said drug smugglers try anything they can to conceal drugs -- in hollowed-out books, packaging materials, in DVD and cassette containers, inside fabric buttons, toothpaste tubes, a bag of coffee.
The second-largest category of items seized in Vancouver last year was restricted or prohibited weapons. Almost 100 were seized by Canada Customs.
Officers found no firearms but they seized switchblade knives, a crossbow, stun guns, plastic replicas of small, automatic assault rifles, knife-edged, metal throwing weapons, a weapon called a nunchaku, which consists of two wooden or rigid cylinders connected in the middle by a metal chain.
"Anything you can think of, you can find in the mail," said Gerry Kennedy, superintendent of the Canada Customs enforcement unit at the post office -- including the 20 live tarantulas.
Kennedy said the critters came in a package from Cambodia. Although the package didn't have the proper documents, investigators later determined the tarantulas were being legally imported, so they were given to the intended recipient.
"They scared the heck out of me, but these [customs officers] see that kind of thing day in and day out," he said.
14 January 2004, Vancouver SunArrest
after bomb found
Detectives have arrested a man in connection with a bomb found
underneath a car in Greater Manchester.
A number of premises are being searched in Britain and Northern
Ireland, following the arrest.
Officers found the unexploded device on 17 December last year, in the Halliwell area of Bolton.
The alarm was raised when a bang was heard, and it was reported the package fell from a car in Windsor Grove.
About 25 homes were evacuated during the security operation to deal with the device, which included an army bomb disposal team.
12 Jan 2004,
BBC
Four die in Indonesia cafe blast
Four people have been killed and
three injured in a bomb explosion on the Indonesian island of
Sulawesi.
The bomb hit a crowded cafe in the southern town of Palopo, 1,800
kilometres (1,120 miles) north-east of Jakarta.
Police say they do not know who planted the bomb, which was hidden under a table inside the cafe.
Violence between Christians and Muslims has dogged parts of the island despite a 2001 peace deal.
But officials expressed surprise at the blast, saying that the Palopo area was generally peaceful.
The south of Sulawesi has generally escaped religious violence, which is common in central areas with a high Christian population.
More than 1,000 people died in bloody fighting there in 1999 and 2000.
In October last year, eight Christians were killed by gunmen in the central Poso area in an attack linked with regional Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah.
The group is thought to be responsible for the bombing of two nightclubs on the holiday island of Bali in October 2002, in which 202 people died.
But correspondents say that violence and bombings in Indonesia frequently have political, ethnic and criminal rather than religious motivations.
10 January 2004, BBC
Accused
caused police bomb scare
A former psychiatric patient who took
two home-made bombs into a police office has been placed on probation
for two years.
Daniel Tollan, 38, told officers in Ayr that he had brought the devices to them after deciding not to kill his estranged wife.
Tollan said she was having an affair, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
The police station had to be evacuated and the bomb squad was called but no-one was injured.
Tollan arrived at the police office on 7 August last year and told police that he had brought in two bombs.
He then produced cylindrical packages with fuses attached and said: "I was going to kill my wife, but I thought I better bring them in here."
The bomb squad was called in and the office evacuated.
Staff and prisoners, including Tollan, were moved Kilmarnock police office for three hours.
The devices were found to contain gunpowder, wadding and fuses and could have produced a small explosion.
Judge Lord Osborne told Tollan: "You have pled guilty to an offence of a rather unusual kind."
Although he had been "very irresponsible and stupid, happily no harm of any kind resulted other than the inconvenience to those in the police station".
Placing Tollan on probation for two years, the judge added: "I advise you strongly to refrain from conduct of this kind ever again."
He had earlier admitted a charge of making or having in his possession an explosive substance at Ayr police office.
Tollan, who
was staying in homeless accommodation and was separated from his
wife, said he made the devices using material from shotgun cartridges.
9Jan 2004,
BBC
Officials Search for Letter Bomb Suspects
European Union offices were on heightened security alert Tuesday as investigators intensified the search for a shadowy Italian anarchist group suspected in a string of booby-trapped letters sent to EU officials in five countries.
No new mail bombs were reported, but bomb disposal experts rushed to Italy's EU mission in response to a suspect letter that turned out to be harmless.
Tuesday's false alarm underscored the nervousness at EU offices following the mailing of incendiary devices to at least seven EU officials and legislators since Christmas. Officials said all the letters appear to have been posted in Bologna, Italy on Dec. 22.
European counterterrorism experts set up a special task force in Rome. Experts said the evidence pointed to a small, loosely affiliated group, perhaps with roots in the anti-globalization movement.
A spokesman for Romano
Prodi, the European Commission president, who received the first
letter bomb at his Bologna home, said there were dozens of such
groups in Italy, but added that the cell in Bologna was unlikely
to be more than "12 or 15 people."
"They have a very low level of organization, but they can
be dangerous because they are unpredictable," Marco Vignudelli
said.
Investigations are focusing on a little-known anarchist group in Bologna that claimed responsibility for two small bombs that exploded outside Prodi's home on Dec. 21.
The group, calling itself the "Informal Anarchic Federation," indicated in a statement that more strikes would follow.
Prodi was again targeted Dec. 27 by the first letter bomb, which was addressed to his wife and ignited when he opened it at his home.
No one was injured in that incident, or two other letter bombs that went off - one in the Brussels office of a German conservative member of the European Parliament and another in the Manchester, England, office of a British socialist member.
"The package did have potential to cause injury and serious damage," said Detective Inspector Simon Collier in Manchester.
A third booby-trapped letter was intercepted Monday in the Brussels office of a Spanish conservative in the Parliament. Similar devices have targeted homes orces of EU officials in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
"This is a coordinated attack on all European institutions, and in my opinion the reason is quite clear: Europe is becoming more important politically and we must realize that we too as European institutions have become a target for terrorist attacks," EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said on Germany's ARD television.
Police in Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands said they were still examining the packages to determine the material used. Vignudelli said the package sent to Prodi contained a flammable powder connected to a chemical detonator.
"The information available to put these type of devices together is easy to get hold of, whether it's on the Web or in so-called anarchist cookbooks," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
"If you have even limited technical expertise you can put one of these sort of devices together."
EU officials said security services had stepped up routine screening of the 25,000 letters the organization's head office receives on an average day.
"We are being careful, but we are not in panic," said Svend Leon Clausen, head of the mail service in the European Parliament. "Of course we are a little bit worried that somebody has managed to smuggle something through the system."
Although dangerous, security experts said the packages appeared designed more to frighten than hurt.
"It's not really supposed to cause fatalities, they are meant to shake people up," said Tom Chamberlain, Western European risk analyst with Control Risk Group, a business risk consultancy, in London.
Associated Press
Letter
bomb threat puts Belfast on red alert
Security stepped up at EC office
SECURITY has been stepped up at Northern Ireland's European Commission Office in Belfast in response to a wave of letter bomb attacks on MEPs and EC officials, it emerged today.
Metal detectors are being used by staff at the Bedford Street office to scan packages being sent to the premises, Head of the Commission Eddie McVeigh confirmed to the Belfast Telegraph.
"Personnel have been instructed to take extra care with incoming mail and contact the police if they have suspicions about any object," Mr McVeigh said.
The move follows a letter-bomb sent to English MEP Gary Titley on Monday.
It was the third confirmed attack on a European MP - but the first known package to be sent to an MEP from the UK.
Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson said he welcomed extra security at Belfast's European Commission office.
"It is a sensible move after the incident involving Mr Titley. We all have to be on guard," he said.
But Mr Nicholson warned that MEPs must remain accessible to the public despite increased security.
"We cannot be locked away and must remain accessible to the people who voted for us," he said.
The UUP man hit out at those responsible for sending Monday's letter-bomb.
"I totally condemn and deplore this type of conduct from any source. I have known Mr Titley for many years and am saddened by the incident."
The wife of MEP Gary Titley opened the letter bomb sent to his Manchester office.
Charo Titley said she narrowly escaped injury when she opened the packet, thought to have come from Italy.
Mr Titley, leader of the Labour group in the European Parliament, was not at the office in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, but was in Brussels at the time.
Mrs Titley said the bomb came in a padded envelope which she thought contained a video or a book.
Mrs Titley said: "Soon after I opened it, thick grey smoke started to come out.
"It was horrible and frightening. I was shaking like a leaf. I didn't really understand what was happening.
"I remember that the first line of the address on the parcel was written to Gary in Italian."
European Commission president Romano Prodi was among those also targeted by the letter bombers. He was uninjured.
9th January 2004, Belfast Telegraph MEPs
brush aside bomb campaign
By Monday lunchtime in Brussels there was little to suggest that
the European Parliament had become the latest target of a bombing
campaign which appears to be directed squarely at the European
Union.
Bomb disposal experts had packed up, the fire brigade had left and there was little sign of any greatly increased police presence around the legislature.
Officials
want to keep the parliament as accessible as possible
Some staff had been evacuated from their offices in the sprawling
parliament building, but most continued their day as normal. Window
cleaners remained uninterrupted as they set about their work at
the parliament's information office.
Few MEPs were around as the parliament is not in session, but office staff continued with preparations for their return.
Even though it has a reputation for being distant from its electorate, Monday's response was typical from a organisation that prides itself on its accessibility to the general public.
"It's part of getting the balance right. We're not going to evacuate the entire building for two or three low level incendiary devices," said David Harley, spokesman for parliament president Pat Cox.
Earlier in the day Mr Cox had condemned the attacks as a "criminal conspiracy against democracy". He urged MEPs and their families to take extra care in their homes, their constituency offices and at the parliament itself.
We decided that we couldn't let these people strangle and stifle democracy, that's why I've returned to Brussels as normal
Packages exploded at the offices of German MEP Hans-Gert Poettering and British MEP Gary Titley. A third device posted to Spanish MEP Jose Ignacio Salafranca did not explode.
Police suspect that anarchists based in Italy may be responsible for the attacks. All of the explosive devices found so far - including a string of attacks immediately after Christmas - have been posted from the northern Italian city of Bologna.
On 27 December, European Commission president Romano Prodi was unhurt, despite a package containing a booby-trapped book bursting into flames in his Italian home.
The president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet was also targeted at the bank's offices in Frankfurt, while Europe's cross-border law-enforcement agencies, Europol and Eurojust received packages at offices in The Hague.
But MEPs and officials in Brussels remained determined that Monday's attacks would not affect their work. Gary Titley told the BBC that despite the bombing he planned to continue with work as normal.
"It was very frightening for my staff, but we sat down this afternoon and decided that we couldn't let these people strangle and stifle democracy, that's why I've returned to Brussels as normal," he said.
Police in Belgium are now reviewing security around the EU quarter in Brussels. The parliament will meet the authorities on Tuesday to decide if it needs to heighten its current rating.
Security will
probably have to be improved, but officials maintained that their
priority would be to keep the parliament and its representatives
as accessible as possible.
7th January 2004, BBC
Inquiry
over MEP letterbomb
An inquiry was under way on Tuesday after a letter bomb exploded
at the offices of a British MEP, leaving a woman slightly injured.
A bomb disposal team was at the office of Manchester-based Gary
Titley for several hours, following the explosion on Monday.
Security is being stepped up at the office in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester after the letter, which was addressed to Mr Titley, caught fire as his secretary opened it.
It was the third confirmed device targeting Euro-MPs, and the first known to have been sent to the UK.
Italian anarchists in Bologna are believed to be behind the campaign.
The package and contents have been recovered and a detailed forensic examination is now taking place
At least two other letter bombs were sent to European Parliament headquarters in Brussels - addressed to German and Spanish political leaders.
Roger Fellows, Mr Titley's office manager, said security was being "considered very closely" following the incident.
He told BBC GMR: "It was only after this incident had happened and we realised this package had come in from Italy that we realised there may possibly be a connection with the [other] letter bomb attacks.
"We will be discussing security measures with the police over the coming hours, days and I suspect, weeks to come."
Mr Titley, who was travelling to Brussels at the time, said there was "no justification" for such attacks.
Detective Inspector Simon Collier from Whitefield CID praised the office staff for their "prompt and calm actions" during the incident.
"The package and contents have been recovered and a detailed forensic examination is now taking place," he said.
"It is believed [Mr Titley] has been targeted because he is the leader of the UK members of the Labour members of the European Parliament."
Monday's letter bombs were all posted on 22 December in Bologna, the departure point for earlier letter bombs to senior EU officials including European Commission President Romano Prodi.
The group
claiming to be behind the attacks calls itself the Informal Anarchist
Federation and is protesting about what it calls the "repressive
apparatus of control" in Europe.
5 January
2004, BBC
Letter
bomb explodes at MEP's office
A secretary was slightly injured when a letter bomb exploded and
caught fire at the offices of a senior British MEP.
It was addressed to Gary Titley, leader of the UK Labour members
and was opened by a secretary in his office in Radcliffe, Greater
Manchester, on Monday.
It was the third confirmed device targeting Euro-MPs, and the first known to have been sent to the UK.
Italian anarchists in Bologna are believed to be behind the campaign.
At least two other letter bombs were sent to European Parliament headquarters in Brussels - addressed to German and Spanish political leaders.
All three were very similar, concealed in books in brown envelopes.
Quite why they've targeted non-Italian politicians is not yet clear
Mr Titley, who was travelling to Brussels at the time, said: "There can be no justification for these attacks which in reality are an attack on democracy.
"There's suggestions this has come from an Italian anarchist group".
"Quite why they've targeted non-Italian politicians is not yet clear. But I understand leaders of the main political parties have received these devices.
"Mine coming through the constituency office meant there wasn't any screening, as there is here in the European Parliament."
He said the device was the last item of mail to be dealt with from the backlog of post which had arrived during the Christmas holidays.
When the package started to give off black smoke, the secretary threw it aside and it burst into flames, he said.
The office manager put out the fire.
Mr Titley said: "Today being the first day back after the holidays, so much mail, everyone feeling very relaxed, obviously this one got under our defences."
Greater Manchester Police said: "Mr Titley's secretary opened the package and it exploded like a party popper, giving her slight injuries to her hand."
Monday's letter bombs were all posted on 22 December in Bologna, the departure point for earlier letter bombs to senior EU officials including Romano Prodi.
The group claiming to be behind the attacks calls itself the Informal Anarchist Federation and is protesting about what it calls the "repressive apparatus of control" in Europe.
The latest packages to turn up in Brussels appear to have passed through European Parliament security screening operations before the earlier devices alerted staff to a Bologna-based threat.
They were then despatched to the offices of the relevant MEPs where they remained during the fortnight-long Christmas break.
One, which was opened by a staff member, was addressed to the leader of the centre-right European People's Party, Hans-Gert Poettering.
Another unopened, device was sent to the head of the Spanish Conservatives, Jose Ignacio Salafranca.
Previous letter bombs were sent to European Commission President Romano Prodi at his Bologna home, to the head of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Jean-Claude Trichet, and to the offices of Eurpol, an EU police data-gathering centre in the Hague.
European Parliament spokesman David Harley said a security review was under way.
"The Belgian police are now working with our security services to re-scan the tens of thousands of packages which have been sent to the European Parliament in recent weeks," he said.
5 Jan 2004, BBC
Letterbombs
target EU parliament
One of a number of letter bombs sent to the headquarters of the
European Parliament in Brussels has exploded.
The blast is said to have occurred as a package addressed to German
MEP Hans-Gert Poettering, head of the European People's Party,
was being opened.
A party spokesman said: "It caught fire, there was a bang. Nobody was hurt."
Another device found at the building, where staff had returned to work after Christmas, did not explode.
The office of a British MEP, Jonathan Evans, has been evacuated after the delivery of a suspicious package.
A number of letter bomb devices have been sent to European Union institutions in recent weeks.
Investigators are looking at the possibility that Italian anarchists are behind the mailings.
Similar packages were sent to European Commission President Romano Prodi, the head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and the offices of Europol and Eurojust in the Hague, the Netherlands in December.
Mr Prodi's package exploded when he opened it at his home in Bologna.
I'm sure that everybody understands that the Christmas and the turn of the year were not quite the peace and quiet we had hoped for
All the devices were sent from Bologna, prompting authorities to block any further parcels sent from the Italian region to EU institutions.
The BBC's Andrew Roy in Brussels said the device which exploded on Monday was also postmarked Bologna and dated from December.
A second, identical device was sent to Jose Ignacio Salafranca, head of the Spanish conservatives in the European Parliament.
David Harley, a spokesman for European Parliament President Pat Cox. said: "It was identical in every respect - the same size, posted on the same day and from the same place."
Parliament spokesman Andre Riche told the Associated Press that a third suspicious package at parliament headquarters appeared to be a false alarm.
Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said the EU executive was confident in the security measures already put in place.
"I'm sure that everybody understands that the Christmas and the turn of the year were not quite the peace and quiet we had hoped for," he said.
"We are confident that everything that needs to be done has been done properly," he said.
An unknown Italian group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation is believed to be behind the campaign.
At the end of last year it threatened to target "the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order".
5 January 2004, BBC
Bologna
mail blocked after bombs
Parcels sent from Italy's Bologna region to European Union institutions
are being blocked after a spate of letter bombs, officials have
announced.
Four devices have been posted from Bologna in the past week by
suspected anarchists.
Post offices will now halt all packets addressed to EU bodies, said Bologna assistant prosecutor Luigi Persico.
One of the four devices exploded when European Commission President Romano Prodi opened it at his home in Bologna.
The three other bombs were sent to European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, and crime-fighting and justice agencies Europol and Eurojust.
None of the devices has caused injury.
An unknown Italian group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation is believed to be behind the campaign.
It has recently threatened to target "the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order".
The order for mail to be blocked covers all post offices in the Emilia-Romagna region, in which Bologna is situated.
Police will be able to open or X-ray all packages.
31,
December 2003, BBC
Letterbombs sent to EU figures
A suspected bomb sent to Trichet was found in the ECB's post room
Two suspected letter bombs have been sent to the European police
body Europol and European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet,
officials say.
Bomb experts on Monday defused a bomb in a package sent to the
Europol headquarters at The Hague.
Hours earlier police in Frankfurt, Germany found a possible parcel bomb that had been sent to Mr Trichet.
On Sunday European Commission head Romano Prodi escaped unharmed when a parcel bomb exploded at his home.
An anarchist group said it was behind two other explosions in rubbish bins near Mr Prodi's home in the past week.
EC chief
Romano Prodi narrowly escaped a bomb attack on Sunday
Staff at Europol headquarters notified police after a package
was scanned and found to be "suspicious", Europol officials
told French news agency AFP.
A bomb squad was sent to the offices and the bomb was defused. Police would not say how large the device was.
Europol is the EU's law enforcement organisation, which handles criminal intelligence and assists authorities in EU states in their fight against organised crime.
Hours earlier police in Frankfurt, Germany said they had intercepted a suspected parcel bomb sent to European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
The suspected bomb was discovered in the post room of the bank's offices early on Monday morning, a spokesman told Reuters news agency.
It had been sent from the northern Italian town of Bologna, where European Commission President Romano Prodi narrowly escaped unhurt after a parcel bomb attack on his home.
29 December 2003, BBC
Prodi
survives parcel bomb attack
European Commission President Romano Prodi escaped unhurt after
a parcel bomb attack on his home in Bologna, northern Italy.
Mr Prodi said a wrapped novel burst into flames as he opened it.
Two other explosions in rubbish bins near Mr Prodi's home in the past week were claimed by an anarchist group.
Mr Prodi said those attacks, which also failed to cause injury, and other warnings had made him more cautious as he tackled a pile of Christmas post.
"I kept it fairly far away. There was a big flame but without an explosion. It burned a piece of furniture and the carpet a bit," he said.
The pages of the book, wrapped in yellow paper and addressed to his wife, had been cut to insert explosive powder, Mr Prodi told reporters.
The book used was The Pleasure by Gabriele D'Annunzio, a famous early supporter of Fascism before his death in 1938. Mr Prodi joked that the choice of book might have been ironic.
An investigation was launched into who may have been responsible for the letter bomb.
The previously unknown group, Informal Anarchic Federation, claimed the earlier rubbish bin attacks in a letter to an Italian newspaper in which it said it wanted to target "the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order".
Mr Prodi, who was in Bologna for the Christmas holidays, received messages of support from senior politicians including Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the country's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Jacques Chirac also sent support.
His spell as president of the European Commission ends next year.
A former Italian
prime minister, Mr Prodi is expected to return to Rome to take
charge of Italy's centre-left coalition and challenge Mr Berlusconi
in the country's next general election.
28 December
2003, BBC
