| 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 unli