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Small Bomb Explodes Outside Spain Hotel
A small bomb exploded Sunday outside a vacant resort hotel in southeastern Spain, the Interior Ministry said. No injuries were reported.
The Basque separatist group ETA was suspected in the explosion, officials said.
The bomb went off at about 3 p.m. in the garden of a resort complex in the Mediterranean town of Villajoyosa, 20 miles northeast of Alicante, a local official said.
A telephone warning had been phoned to the Basque newspaper Gara, a method typical of ETA, the official said.
The hotel,
normally used as a vacation residence by employees of the bank
BBVA, was not in use at the time. The area was evacuated and cordoned
off before the explosion, the official said.
ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths since the 1960s in its
campaign for an independent homeland in territory straddling northern
Spain and southwestern France.
Forty-three people were wounded in Madrid in a Feb. 9 car bombing blamed on ETA, and two suspected ETA members were arrested in the seaside town of Valencia on Feb. 17 on suspicion of planning an attack.
ETA also carried out a string of small bombings on northern resort towns last summer.
Alliance company says bomb threats resulted in $40,000 loss
Two teenage
employees of Alliance Castings were charged Friday with making
false alarms after police found them allegedly responsible for
two bomb threat phone calls to the factory in January.
Demetrius A. Cannon, 18, 825 S. Wade Ave., and Stephen L. Hancox,
19, 929 Reed St., have both been charged with the fourth-degree
felony following interviews that were conducted on Thursday by
detectives Scott A. Blake and William Mucklo.
The plant reportedly received the two calls at about 11 p.m. Jan. 20. City firefighters were placed on standby and two police officers along with the shift commander went to the factory while it was being evacuated.
No bomb was found, and employees were later given the option of returning to work or going home if they felt uncomfortable about the situation in the plant.
The company
reported Wednesday that the bomb threats cost the company $40,339
in the loss of steel, man hours and production. The financial
loss of the company is what elevated the charges from a first-degree
misdemeanor to a fourth-degree felony, police said.
27 Feb 2005, AP
Animal Rights Extremists Target Airport Employees
Animal rights extremists have opened a violent campaign against BAA, the company that runs most of Britain’s big airports, for its role in importing live animals for laboratory research.
Attackers have caused damage worth tens of thousands of pounds to the homes and vehicles of senior managers at BAA and other firms they claim are involved in importing animals.
Each year, thousands of mice, birds, monkeys and other animals are imported through airports for use in medical experiments.
An anti-import campaign was launched in December by a protest group called Gateway to Hell with co-ordinated demonstrations at Heathrow and Manchester airports. The campaign is targeting BAA, Air France, Air Mauritius and the Dover Port Authority. Air Mauritius denies it imports animals.
The group is linked to Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), which has co-ordinated years of protests against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a medical testing company based near Cambridge.
Four days after the new campaign began, unknown assailants attacked the homes and vehicles of five air transport executives including Margaret Ewing, 49, group finance director of BAA.
In all five attacks, homes were spray-painted and a total of 14 cars vandalised with paint-stripper or by having their tyres slashed.
Three cars in Ewing’s drive were badly damaged. Graffiti was daubed on the walls of her home saying: “You are now a target for us, you will not win.”
Ewing, who is married with children, said last week: “They did some criminal damage, which was very upsetting, and my family are simply trying to get over what happened.”
BAA held a meeting with police last week to discuss security for its staff. The company has altered records kept at Companies House to remove the home addresses of its directors on security grounds. This is not infallible — last week it was possible to obtain online archives with home addresses.
Others attacked on the same night as Ewing included John Hextall, 48, a director of UTi, a freight-forwarding company. UTi believes its directors were targeted because it had delivered four shipments of vaccine from Heathrow to HLS, which uses animals to test products on behalf of drug companies.
Other UTi directors have received threatening letters from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) at their home addresses warning of “more visible signs of action” if the firm did not halt trade with HLS. As a result, UTi has said it will no longer do business with HLS.
Other attacks have been launched against directors of Benair and the Charles Kendall Group, both of which are freight companies. UPS, which has also worked with HLS, has seen demonstrations at its depots, including those in Crawley, Peterborough and Coventry. Benair issued a statement after the attack denying it had ever had any connection with importing live animals.
Last night Brian Cass, managing director of HLS, said the new attacks were not just directed against his company, but were aimed at stopping all animals coming into the country for medical research.
“This is aimed at companies, universities and the entire medical research community,” said Cass. “The government needs urgently to put serious resources into combating these people.”
A spokeswoman for the Research Defence Society, which represents users of animals in experiments, said: “A lot of animals are bred within the UK and quite often within the facilities where they are used. Certain animals, such as specialist transgenic strains of mice, have to be imported. Certain species of primate cannot be bred in the UK because conditions are not right.”
She added that 85% of the animals used in 2.8m experiments each year are mice and rats.
A spokesman for the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit, a police body that monitors the animal rights movement, said the Gateway to Hell campaign was closely connected to Shac. “It is linked to Shac by people who run the website,” he said.
The Gateway to Hell website is registered in Thailand in the name of a group based at the same address as Shac in Evesham, Worcestershire. Shac last week denied any knowledge of the connection.
Keith Mann, a spokesman for Gatewaytohell.net, said: “Once we have stopped the airports, which we will do before too long, it is going to be difficult for them to find other ways of bringing animals in.”
Mann, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 1994 for criminal damage and attempted arson, said the protest campaign was intending to expand to take on ports such as Dover.
Asked whether
or not he condoned the attacks, Mann said: “It is an obvious
extension to the campaign. The more the authorities clamp down
on legitimate protest, as is happening through injunctions, it
seems logical that people are going to resort to other kinds of
tactics. They are effective, the proof is there.”
27 Feb 2005, Sunday Times
Radical Christian Group in UK Targets Abortion Clinics
A militant evangelical Christian group plans to target pregnant women and medical staff at abortion clinics as it steps up its campaign against what it calls a tidal wave of filth, The Times has learned.
An MP will make a written statement to the House of Commons next week calling on the Home Secretary to investigate the activities of Christian Voice, which shot to prominence with its campaign against Jerry Springer — The Opera. Adopting the tactics of American fundamentalist Christians, the group pickets buildings and posts the home addresses and phone numbers of its targets on the internet.
Last week, a cancer charity turned down a £3,000 donation from the show after Christian Voice threatened to picket its clinics if it accepted “tainted” money from the show.
Abortions in Britain have reached a record level. In 2003, the total number of abortions was 181,600, compared with 175,900 in 2002, a rise of 3.2 per cent. The number of girls aged 14 and under having abortions is above 1,000 a year.
The group, led by Stephen Green, gained notoriety when it circulated the home addresses and telephone numbers of senior BBC figures when the musical was screened on BBC Two last month. Some people on the list received calls threatening them with bloodshed.
Mr Green, 53, told The Times last night that his next target is abortion clinics. “The taking of innocent blood brings judgment on our land and cries to Heaven for vengeance,” he said. “The presence of abortion centres in our towns is iniquitous. They should be shut down. It would not take much: just a few prayer vigils outside clinics.”
John Cryer, the Labour MP for Hornchurch, is composing a written statement to the House calling for Charles Clarke to investigate Christian Voice. “They will be targeting women who are already in a vulnerable state, nervous and afraid with all sorts of problems, and making their lives even worse,” he said.
During questions on Commons business last week, Mr Cryer described members of Christian Voice as fundamentalist thugs for “strong-arming” the small cancer charity Maggie’s Centres into refusing a donation from Jerry Springer.
Abortion clinics said last night that they feared a rise in US-style anti-abortion tactics and are being especially vigilant. Marie Stopes said that small groups of protesters already picket some of its clinics, blocking pregnant women as they attempt to enter and thrusting leaflets into their hands. “They stand outside with posters and rosary beads,” a spokesman said. “Members of staff sometimes have to escort the women into the clinics.”
In America clinics have been firebombed and since 1991 three doctors and four members of clinic staff have been murdered. Neal Horsley, the American anti-abortionist, who posted photographs of murdered abortion doctors on the web with a red line through their faces, told The Times that he has links with groups in Britain, but refused to name them.
Mr Horsley, a convicted marijuana dealer, former member of the US Air force and Presbyterian minister, believes that the Ten Commandments justify murder to prevent the death of unborn children. “I wouldn’t do it myself, but if I was on a jury in a trial of someone who had killed one of these doctors I would acquit him,” he said.
Photographs of women visiting abortion clinics have been posted on American websites, which label them as homicidal mothers who must be held up for the world to see.
Mainstream Christian groups distanced themselves from Christian Voice, which also lobbies against homosexuality and is preparing to launch a campaign against sex education in schools. Mr Green, the author of a virulently anti-gay book called The Sexual Dead End, said: “Homosexuality is a pathology, an emotional or psychological disorder. It is a very sad thing but it is something you can get over.
“It was a bad day when they let homosexuals in the Armed Forces. People there do not want to be objects of sexual attention from blokes they are sharing a trench or tent with.”
He added: “It was an even worse day when they let women on the front line. They should be in the home. The man should be the leader in the family and the woman should be the daughter or wife under the authority of her father and then her husband.”
Mr Green is married, has four grown-up children and lives on a smallholding in Carmarthen, South Wales. He claims that Hindus are wicked and Said: “We would like to reach out to Muslims and tell them they cannot find salvation in a dead Prophet.”
He converted
to Christianity when he married his wife, Caroline, in 1981, and
set up Christian Voice in 1994, but became a full-time activist
15 months ago. Mr Green told The Times that he is not sure why
he feels so strongly: “Perhaps the Lord thinks I have got
a certain gift. With all the hate mail I have been getting, I
am obviously rattling Satan’s cage.”
26 Feb 2005,
Fake Bomb Placed at Australian Shopping
Mall
Arson
squad detectives have launched a three-pronged investigation to
track down whoever left a fake bomb in the Knox City Shopping
Centre.
A shopkeeper found the device -- complete with flashing lights, wires and two pipes -- at a fruit store in the complex in Melbourne's outer east at 10.20am on Wednesday.
It caused chaos and panic, and is estimated to have cost traders tens of thousands of dollars with the centre closed for the day.
Special operations group bomb squad experts found it was an elaborate fake bomb.
And arson squad detectives yesterday tracked three avenues of inquiry.
While some collated and studied security video, forensic experts examined the components of the device.
Other detectives gathered witness statements.
Several traders criticised centre management for not sounding the evacuation alarm immediately after the suspicious device was found.
Manager of Unique Pasta and Deli, Brigitte Begovic, said it took 25 minutes before the alarms were activated, leaving traders and shoppers in a state of panic.
"We found out (to evacuate) only after a trader came over and yelled, 'get out, get out, there's a bomb', and then it was up to us to get the customers out" she said.
"We had to scream to the nearby traders to get out, because they didn't know what was going on either. The alarms came on only 25 minutes after we had evacuated."
Martin Visser from Baker's Delight said it was chaos for customers.
"When we realised something was going on we followed our own evacuation plan but for the customers it was just chaos because there was no alarms or anything."
Manager of Select Flowers Sarah Beddome said it wasn't the first time the evacuation procedure had fallen down.
"We had a small fire here just before Christmas and no alarms went off at all," she said. "The only sirens I heard this time were coming from the police cars and fire trucks outside."
Centre manager Blazenka Jurin said the emergency plan was in line with the centre's procedure. She would not comment further.
Business owners estimated sales losses and additional costs resulting from the hoax would run into the thousands.
Fruit Market owner Joe Zhou said traders would meet to discuss ways to recoup losses.
"All the retailers are a bit worried about the money situation at the moment," he said.
"We still have to pay our staff for the day and rent to the centre.
"And some shops had to throw food out, so it will all add up.
"I'm not sure that insurance will cover it because nothing actually happened -- it was just a hoax," Mr Zhou said.
25 Feb 2005, Herald Sun
Feds Trace Path of Arizona Letter Bomb to City Office
Federal authorities have confirmed the package found at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library last February was the same cardboard box that blew up in the hands of the city’s diversity and dialogue director a few days later.
The bomb inside a shoebox-sized package addressed to Don Logan had been initially placed on a desk in a public part of the library on or around Feb. 21, 2004, said Tom Mangan, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
It made its way through U.S. mail, city mail and finally to Logan on Feb. 26.
The blast was triggered by the opening of the box, Mangan said.
This was one of the few pieces of information authorities have released to the public in months. Saturday is the one-year anniversary of the package bomb explosion at the city’s Human Resources building, 7575 E. Main St.
"We have some investigative leads but we can’t comment on them," Mangan said.
A letter and questionnaires were mailed to 136 people who attended the library’s Feb. 20, 2004, "Authors and Appetizers Among Friends" event. The inquiries did not provide any investigative leads, Mangan said.
Packages and books sent to the library are now screened along with other mail, said Pat Dodds, a city spokesman. Library security monitors have also received special training on how to handle and recognize unattended belongings, he said.
Logan, who appears to be mostly recovered, has no immediate plans to leave his job.
Renita Linyard, Logan’s secretary at the time, and Jacque Bell, a human resources representative, also suffered injuries and have since returned to work.
"What that tells me is that other people besides people in my office were put at risk," said Logan, who said he is thankful the explosion was not on a bigger scale and no one else was hurt.
Security is still being provided to Logan but Scottsdale police detective Sam Bailey would not comment further.
The U.S. Postal
Service is offering a $100,000 reward in addition to the $6,000
award from Silent Witness.
East Valley Tribune 25 Feb 2005
FBI Forecasts New Threats to the United States
The FBI forecasts that sub-national and non-governmental entities will play an increasing role in world affairs for years to come, presenting new “asymmetric” threats to the United States. In a report to the National Association of Chiefs of Police, FBI officials claim that although the United States will continue to occupy a position of economic and political leadership — and although other governments will also continue to be important actors on the world stage — terrorist groups, criminal enterprises, and other non-state actors will assume an increasing role in international affairs. Nation states and their governments will exercise decreasing control over the flow of information, resources, technology, services, and people.
Globalization and the trend of an increasingly networked world economy will become more pronounced within the next five years. The global economy will stabilize some regions, but widening economic divides are likely to make areas, groups, and nations that are left behind breeding grounds for unrest, violence, and terrorism. As corporate, financial, and nationality definitions and structures become more complex and global, the distinction between foreign and domestic entities will increasingly blur. This will lead to further globalization and networking of criminal elements, directly threatening the security of the United States.
Most experts believe that technological innovation will have the most profound impact on the collective ability of the federal, state, and local governments to protect the United States. Advances in information technology, as well as other scientific and technical areas, have created the most significant global transformation since the Industrial Revolution. These advances allow terrorists, disaffected states, weapons proliferators, criminal enterprises, drug traffickers, and other threat enterprises easier and cheaper access to weapons technology. Technological advances will also provide terrorists and others with the potential to stay ahead of law enforcement countermeasures. For example, it will be easier and cheaper for small groups or individuals to acquire designer chemical or biological warfare agents, and correspondingly more difficult for forensic experts to trace an agent to a specific country, company, or group.
In the 21st Century, with the ready availability of international travel and telecommunications, neither crime nor terrorism confines itself territorially. Nor do criminals or terrorists restrict themselves, in conformance with the structure of our laws, wholly to one bad act or the other. Instead, they enter into alliances of opportunity as they arise; terrorists commit crimes and, for the right price or reason, criminals assist terrorists. Today’s threats cross geographic and political boundaries with impunity; and do not fall solely into a single category of our law. To meet these threats, we need an even more tightly integrated intelligence cycle. We must have extraordinary receptors for changes in threats and the ability to make immediate corrections in our priorities and focus to address those changes. And, we must recognize that alliances with others in law enforcement, at home and abroad, are absolutely essential.
Counterterrorism Forecast
Terrorism is the most significant threat to our national security. In the international terrorism arena, over the next five years, we believe the number of state-sponsored terrorist organizations will continue to decline, but privately-sponsored terrorist groups will increase in number. However, the terrorist groups will increasingly cooperate with one another to achieve desired ends against common enemies. These alliances will be of limited duration, but such “ loose associations” will challenge our ability to identify specific threats. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates will remain the most significant threat over the next five years.
The global Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) threat to the United States and its interests is expected to increase significantly in the near term. We expect terrorists to exploit criminal organizations to develop and procure WMD capabilities. Globalization will make it easier to transfer both WMD materiel and expertise throughout the world. The basic science and technologies necessary to produce WMD will be increasingly well understood. Similarly, raw materials will be more available and easier to obtain.
Violence by domestic terrorists will continue to present a threat to the United States over the next five years. The number of traditional left-wing terrorist groups, typically advocating the overthrow of the U.S. Government because of the perceived growth of capitalism and imperialism, have diminished in recent years. However, new groups have emerged that may pose an increasing threat. Right-wing extremists, espousing anti-government or racist sentiment, will pose a threat because of their continuing collection of weapons and explosives coupled with their propensity for violence. The most significant domestic terrorism threat over the next five years will be the lone actor, or “lone wolf” terrorist. They typically draw ideological inspiration from formal terrorist organizations, but operate on the fringes of those movements. Despite their ad hoc nature and generally limited resources, they can mount high-profile, extremely destructive attacks, and their operational planning is often difficult to detect.
Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice
24 Feb 2005
Mens News Daily
Suspicious
Package Postal Truck Causes Scare in Texas
Harlingen, TX--Haz-Mat crews and the FBI had a sticky situation on their hands at the Texas State Bank Tower in North McAllen.
This after a McAllen postal employee finds a suspicious piece of mail in his truck.
"The mail carrier saw sort of like a gluey substance in the letter or package. Following protocol he identified it as a suspicious package and called the fire department," said police Lt. Rene Alaniz.
Chemical response teams secured a perimeter and suited up to retrieve the mysterious mail. Fearing the worse they worked to diffuse a potential danger.
But just over two hours into their investigation the DBI and the Postal Service would reveal that the package didn't pose a threat at all.
Someone admitted to the FBI and Postal Workers that they were just playing a joke.
"They have not provided information about whether it was a he or she but it has been identified that it was a hoax. The person that talked to the Postal Service and the FBI identified the product that was used but they are not releasing it until they complete their investigation," said Texas State Bank CEO and Vice President Tony Gorman.
Texas State Bank says while the situation was tense no evacuation order was ever issued. And they are pleased with how workers responded to the potential danger.
We have our normal disaster and recovery processes and procedures that are in place when we encounter something unusual and this was one of those situation where we were prepared to do what was necessary in our backup but fortunately we didn't have to do much," Gorman said.
It is unclear where the mail originated, but Texas State Bank says the package didn't come from them nor was it addressed to them.
24 Feb 2005,
KGBT News
Boy Charged After Following Internet Bomb-Making
Instructions
The Pinelands Junior High School student caught with what police described as a makeshift bomb crafted from a model rocket engine is facing weapons charges.
The 13-year-old student, identified by the district only as a seventh- or eighth-grader, was arrested Feb. 10 after school officials discovered the device in his locker, according to police.
Detective Arthur Chadwick said Tuesday the boy told police he offered to blow up a teacher's mailbox for a female student. At that point, the girl told school officials about the bomb, Chadwick said.
The student faces juvenile charges of unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon on school grounds, according to police.
Chadwick said the boy crafted the bomb, which was roughly the size of a golf ball, out of rocket model fuel, aluminum foil and a wick. The boy learned how to make the bomb from the Internet, he said.
But Superintendent of Schools Detlef Kern refused to call the device a bomb last week, and said that the school district handled the situation "by the book." He said, at the time, officials seized the device and immediately contacted police. Kern also said there was never a need to evacuate the school and that the device posed no imminent danger to students or staff.
Still, Christine Melnick, whose daughter is in seventh grade at the junior high, expressed frustration in an e-mail Tuesday about the incident. She said parents were not notified after the incident and that rumors were allowed to spread through the community.
Kern said last week that officials felt no need to send out a general notification to parents about the incident.
Bruce Greenfield,
Ocean County superintendent of schools, agreed with Kern last
week. He said, in this situation, district officials were not
required to send any public notification because the device no
longer posed any threat.
23 Feb 2005, Asbury Park Press
Kentucky Man Arrested for Bomb Threat Letters
Flemining County, KY--There's now an arrest in the bomb threats that closed down the Fleming County schools earlier this month.
47-year-old Gary King of Owingsville in Bath County is being held under a $1 million bond.
King faces seven counts of terroristic threatening for saying he would bomb the Hillsboro Elementary School and other schools on February 10th.
The sheriff's office says King made the threats in letters he wrote and placed in mail boxes around Fleming County.
The threats forced the county schools to close while all schools were checked out for bombs.
22
Feb 2005, WKYT News
Package
with Suspicious Powder Causes Evacuation at IBM
Fire officials say it was a false alarm and employees are now back to work after a scare at a Lexington business.
The scare at IBM on Aristides Boulevard, off Newton Pike, started Tuesday morning when someone opened a box of computers.
When firefighters and police arrived on scene, they had no idea what they were dealing with in the IBM building.
An employee opened a package and noticed an unknown white residue inside the package, which led to the evacuation.
While the employees were outside the building, officials contacted the shipper and they determined there was nothing hazardous.
Lexington fire battalion chief Joe Kinney. "It was shipping glue. It looked like a powder. We just came out to verify what happened."
Employees
were outside of the building for about 45 minutes to an hour as
authorities worked on determining the origin of the powder.
22 February 2005, WKYT News
Belfast Politician Receives Letter Bomb at Home
A campaign of republican intimidation against the new policing arrangements will not succeed in derailing the reform process, the latest postal bomb target said today.
Former Newry and Mourne District Policing Partnership chairman Michael Carr said his work on the partnership would continue despite having a "viable" explosive device sent to his home by dissident republicans.
Bomb disposal experts spent four hours dealing with the device at the father-of-four's Warrenpoint home yesterday afternoon.
This is the second time Mr Carr has been targeted, having earlier received bullets through the post.
The incident, which is being blamed on the Real IRA, followed two security alerts in the Newry city centre linked to dissidents, and Mr Carr said he was "shocked and annoyed" by the escalated threat.
"I was suspicious anyway as I had heard about the alerts, so I took it outside and called the police," he said.
"It was a viable device all right and they said it would have exploded and it would have done a fair amount of damage.
"This is particularly nasty - my young son could have opened it and it was just lucky that I was at home. There is also a threat to the postal workers who have to handle these packages and there was a great deal of inconvenience for neighbours as well."
Suspicious packages were sent to a recruitment agency in Newry's Upper Water Street yesterday and to the City Hall tourist office causing chaos in the city and forcing police to evacuate commercial premises.
DPP members from across the province, including Cookstown, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Strabane, have received threats and devices through the post.
Mr Carr said the intimidation, while effective, would not dissuade him from playing his part in the DPP.
"The arrangements are working - that's what is getting to these guys. Even if Michael Carr is not there the Patten reforms will continue. It's too big and there are too many benefits for it not to happen," he said.
"I've got their message but they haven't got ours, that the Patten changes will be implemented."
Newry and Mourne District Council's mayor, Henry Reilly, said he was disturbed by the news and paid tribute to his colleague.
"Although I don't share the politics of Michael Carr he is an honourable man who is universally respected for the quality of his work and his commitment to the community and I just wonder what these people think they are going to achieve by trying to injure or kill a good man," he said.
"I think this is making people more determined to try to achieve the service which they deserve."
18 Feb 2005, Belfast Telegraph
Scottish Football Referee Sent Razorblades and Other Postal Threats
Old Firm referee Mike McCurry claims he has been terrorised by Scottish football fans throughout his career.
The 41-year-old, who will take charge of Sunday’s Old Firm clash at Parkhead, has revealed he has been sent death threats, dead rats and razor blades in the post.
McCurry said: “Aberdeen fans send me dead rats in the post and that kind of stuff.
“Every now and again you get that kind of thing, especially from the Aberdeen fans.
“After one game against Rangers or Celtic, Dons fans sent me chicken giblets – and from time to time you get a wee package from them.
“I think it goes back to a Hearts-Aberdeen game I did once. Right at the very end of the match Aberdeen, who were 1-0 down, had the ball in the net – but the linesman called offside.
“The TV pictures proved it was 100% correct. But at the time the Aberdeen fans weren’t too happy, and I suppose they’ve never forgiven me.
“So you get the usual death threats and that sort of stuff. Once I even got a letter with a razor blade taped to the inside. The idea was I’d slice a couple of fingers off when I was opening it.”
Hugh Dallas has also been the subject of abuse, and McCurry revealed yobs also hurled concrete through his window on one occasion.
He told the Daily Record: “I’ve had a coping stone put through the patio window when I was in the house, and it landed about two feet from me.
“It was after the game when Henrik Larsson broke his jaw in a collision with Livingston’s Gus Bahoken.
“The Tuesday after that I came back from training and was sitting down to watch TV with a plate of scrambled eggs on toast.
“But I didn’t know a crowd of about 15 guys had gathered outside my house. I heard a couple of thuds and just thought it was kids playing out the front.
“So I picked up the remote to put the telly on mute, and just then the patio window came crashing in.
“I went outside thinking it would just be a group of young kids and I wanted to grab one of them and call the police.
“But when I went out I was confronted by about 15 guys aged between about 27 to 40 shouting the usual Glasgow stuff, ‘Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’.
“At
that point, I hasten to add, I went back inside and finished my
scrambled eggs.”
18 Feb 2005, Scotsman
Postal Bomb Scare at Carlisle Barracks
A suspicious looking item inside a state-owned vehicle on the grounds of Carlisle Barracks, the site of the U.S. Army War College, caused police to close off a portion of a roadway and limit vehicle access to the area for a few hours Thursday afternoon.
Army Lt. Col. Bob Suskie said the item consisted of a cell phone and some electronics attached to a box, and the person who brought it onto the post said it was a fake bomb he used for training at a state government agency.
But the man could not produce proper credentials and it took some time to verify that he was a state worker, so a bomb squad used high-pressure water to destroy the item, Suskie said.
The incident occurred about 12:15 p.m. in an area of the post where vehicles that lack Defense Department sticker identification must submit to inspection.
The man's name and the state agency for which he works were not disclosed. Suskie said no charges were expected.
18 Feb 2005
EMT
Instructor Advised to Send Replica Bombs by Mail
A local paramedic instructor was on his way to teach a terrorism response class Sunday when his training materials were confiscated by security screeners at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Christopher Suprun, an emergency medical technician, said he notified a screening supervisor beforehand that he was carrying the training aids – a videotape case and a briefcase, both rigged to look like bombs.
He said he uses the fake bombs to show his students how everyday items could be made into improvised explosives.
The materials tested negative for explosive residue, but the U.S. Transportation Security Administration closed the checkpoint in Terminal C about 8 a.m. Sunday as supervisors debated how to handle the situation.
Replicas of explosives are prohibited on airplanes, said Andrea McCauley, a TSA spokeswoman.
"The best thing to do is to mail it beforehand," she said.
Mr. Suprun, who responded to the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said he was flying to Baltimore to teach a refresher course for emergency medical technicians at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He said he has never had any problems traveling with the training aids.
But he said he is frustrated by the unclear response from the TSA at the checkpoint.
Mr. Suprun said it took more than an hour for the agency to tell him the items were prohibited. He said that he even called the local TSA office before leaving and that he was told to notify a supervisor at the checkpoint, which he did.
"I'm sort of amazed by the breakdown in the process," he said. "If I call McDonald's and I ask if they have any Big Macs, they know they have Big Macs. So if I call TSA, I expect them to tell me what I should do for airport security."
On Sunday, a police officer and canine team determined that there was nothing harmful with the training aids.
"We told him we had no problem with it," said David Magaña, a D/FW Airport spokesman. "There was nothing in there that was explosive or anything that could be used to make an explosive."
Ms. McCauley said that TSA employees made the right decision but should have told the passenger immediately. The agency usually recommends that law enforcement trainers ship their materials, she said.
"We've never had an incident like that at D/FW with a trainer that I can recall," Ms. McCauley said.
She recommended
that anyone unsure about an item visit www.tsa.gov or call the
local TSA office and ask to speak with a customer service manager.
14 Feb 2005, EXTA News
Incendiary Device Found at Courthouse in California
The FBI and Auburn police are investigating the discovery of an incendiary device that was left at the entrance of the Placer County Courthouse over the weekend.
The discovery raised questions about whether the device was connected to a series of arsons and attempted arsons in Northern California by someone claiming to be with the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.
A passerby on a morning walk discovered a purple backpack near the building's east entrance and called police at about 8:15 a.m. Sunday.
The Placer County Explosives Ordinance Disposal team used a remote controlled robot to examine the contents of the bag. Investigators would not say whether the device was similar to those used in a string of arsons and attempted firebombings in Placer and Amador counties in recent months.
A 21-year-old Newcastle man was arrested last Tuesday and charged in connection with the crimes. Ryan Lewis is scheduled to appear at a bail hearing in federal court Thursday afternoon.
Lewis is suspected of setting five incendiary devices at the Park Hill Professional Center which were discovered on January 12. The devices did not detonate.
One week later, the Auburn Journal and several other newspapers received letters claiming to be from the loosely-organized domestic terror group called the Earth Liberation Front and taking responsibility for the Auburn incident.
The writer of the letter also claimed responsibility for a December 27 incident in which incendiary devices were planted at several new homes under construction in Lincoln. The letter stated the ELF wanted to do economic damage to JTS Development, the home builder.
Last Monday, seven incendiary devices were set off at a nearly-completed apartment complex in Sutter Creek in Amador County. The devices damaged two units at the complex. Investigators found the words "We Will Win-ELF" spraypainted on a construction trailer at the site.
The FBI said Lewis is being held only in connection with the Auburn case. While investigators believe the arsons and attempted arsons are tied to the Earth Liberation Front, they would not comment on whether Lewis was part of the group.
The Auburn Police Department said Sunday's incident was troubling because it diverged from the pattern established in the other attacks. Instead of targeting a site under construction, whoever planted the most recent device did so at a historic landmark.
"The difference in this one is the venue is not a construction project which has been their professed targets in the past, so it's a little different game when it's a courthouse," said Sgt. Chris Reams of the Auburn Police Department.
Police said
they would increase patrols at construction sites, government
buildings and other, undisclosed locations.
14 Feb 2005, KXTV News
Bomb
Alert at Belfast Tourist Office
Newry City Hall was today evacuated after a suspicious package was found at the building's tourist office.
It was later declared a hoax and the building was reopened. Staff had been evacuated from Newry's City Hall and Sean Hollywood Arts Centre after police found the suspicious package.
An earlier security operation in the city was also declared a hoax.
And in a separate incident in Lurgan, a bomb investigation ended shortly after 10am and was also declared a hoax.
Traffic was disrupted in both Lurgan and Newry during the morning rush hour and caused major roads to be sealed off.
Commenting on the Newry City Hall operation a PSNI spokeswoman said: "A suspicious package was found at a tourist office. The building was evacuated."
A spokeswoman for Newry and Mourne District Council said: "A suspicious parcel was discovered by staff in Newry City Hall this morning when opening the post.
"The matter has now been passed for investigation to the appropriate authorities."
The first suspicious object was discovered near the Abbey Road and Water Street areas of Newry at around 8.45am.
Following a controlled explosion it was found to be a hoax.
SDLP councillor John McArdle said the incident was reminiscent to the dark days of the Troubles.
"I think it's an absolute disgrace. They want us to return to the 30 years during which we suffered in this area," he said.
"Whoever is carrying this out should be ashamed of themselves."
Traffic diversions have been set up at Kildare Street and Sugar Island in the city. News of the alert came at around 8am and Army bomb disposal experts were called to the scene at the junction of Lake Street and Antrim Road.
Traffic on
roads surrounding the Old Soye's Mill part of the town was affected.
There has been no indication of any paramilitary involvement.
Construction workers at the Forest Glade Developments site were
unable to go to work as traffic was diverted around the police
cordon.
16 Feb 2005, Belfast Telegraph
Envelope Containing White Powder Sent to
British Council in Athens
A member of staff at the British Council in Kolonaki, Athens on Wednesday found an envelope containing an unidentified white powder, semi-official Athens NewsAgency reported.
The British Council alerted the fire department, which sent a team of 10 specially-trained firemen equipped with special suits to pick up the envelope and take it to the Centre for Special Diseases,the report said.
The envelope's contents will be tested to see if they are toxicor whether the incident was a hoax, it added. Enditem
16 Feb 2005,
Xinhuanet
Police in Kansas Stop Car and Find Explosive
Devices
Lee's Summit police deactivated two possible explosive devices Tuesday after they stopped a motorist on a counterfeiting warrant.
The incident started about 7:30 p.m. near Southeast 5th Street and Nathan's Pass. During the stop, an officer noticed two suspicious packages. Both items were deactivated without incident. Police evacuated several homes for a few hours.
Authorities are continuing the investigation.
16 Feb 2005 Kansas City Star
Suspicious Delivery Creates Sticky Situation for Bomb Squad in Tennessee
A sticky situation developed for Howard Nitzberg, who called the Knoxville bomb squad after receiving a 17-pound package at his Digi-Tek Computer store.
Nitzberg received a box from packaging company Stephen Gould.
Nitzberg and Stephen Gould salesman James Fair have been wrapped up in a billing dispute since November 2003.
Nitzberg said his DigiTek company received -- but didn't deposit -- a check for services that he said was less than what Fair owed.
Then he got the box.
Nitzberg was suspicious and called the police last week.
They dispatched the bomb squad and a portable X-ray machine.
Police found 90 dollars worth of coins mixed in with peanuts, scraps of coin wrappers and a sticky substance Nitzberg said was syrup.
Nitzberg said it wasn't cute or funny to him.
Fair refused to affirm or deny he sent a package.
11 Feb 2004,
AP
Pipe Bomb Left at California Fire Station
A middle-aged man found a live pipe bomb while walking Monday afternoon and took it to the nearest Escondido fire station, authorities said.
That set off a flurry of emergency activity and official warnings against touching any explosive device.
"Just leave it alone. Call 911," said Sgt. Conrad Grayson of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's bomb squad.
The man discovered the bomb while walking on Stanley Street near North Broadway, said Escondido fire Capt. Steve DiGiovanna. He said the explosive looked as if it had been discarded or didn't activate.
At 12:40 p.m., the man arrived at Fire Station 3 at 2165 N. Village Road, where DiGiovanna was working.
"He found one of the firefighters and said, 'Hey, I have something you probably want,'" the captain said.
The firefighter told the man to put the bomb in front of the station. Firefighters roped off the device and called the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's bomb squad.
"We had to treat it as an emergency call," DiGiovanna said. "We now had an explosive device at the fire station."
He said a bomb squad detective disarmed the pipe bomb and took it away for disposal.
7 Feb 2005 North County Times
Bomb Squad in Ireland Renders Suspicious Device Safe
The Army Bomb Disposal Unit have made safe a suspicious device found near Thurles, Co Tipperary.
It was left beside a phone box in the village of Ballycahill earlier today.
The device consisted of black powder and an improvised detonator. However there was no power source for the detonator.
An army spokesperson said that while the device was suspicious it is not yet clear if it was an elaborate hoax.
6 Feb 2005, RTE News
Kansas Teen with Explosive Devices Targets School Employees
A 17-year-old Nickerson High School student was arrested after several homemade explosive devices detonated in south-central Kansas, destroying mailboxes and shattering a car windshield.
It appears some of the intended targets were school employees, officials said.
The student, Marcus Curran, 17, was arrested Friday as he ate lunch at the high school, said Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson. He was later booked into juvenile facilities on five counts of arson and two counts of attempted arson.
A hearing was planned for this week to determine whether to try him as an adult or a juvenile.
Charges also may be filed in Rice County, where two of the devices were found.
Henderson said investigators think the 17-year-old is the one who made the devices.
Henderson said his officers went to the 300-student high school to question another student, but that student wasn't in class Friday. He wouldn't say whether other arrests were planned.
The first reported explosion occurred Jan. 16 in Hutchinson, and subsequent explosions were reported in Nickerson, Sterling and rural Reno County. The last explosion was reported Friday after news of the student's arrest was made public. The device had detonated earlier in the week, Henderson said.
Teachers and other school district employees were relieved after learning of the arrest, said Jerry Burch, Nickerson schools superintendent.
"It is a scary thought to think that you might have been targeted," he said.
Two of the devices were found outside the homes of Nickerson teachers, Henderson said, and another outside the home of a school secretary. One of the devices was found on the football field at Nickerson High.
Henderson said three of the 10 were duds. The five devices that exploded were powerful enough to destroy mailboxes, he said, and one shattered the windshield of a car owned by one of the teachers. The sheriff's department reported that officers have found explosion debris as far away as 50 feet. Luckily, Henderson said, no one was hurt.
Two other devices were found unexploded, one by a postman and another by a person who went to his mailbox to retrieve his mail. Neither of the unexploded devices were found at the homes of school employees.
"After interviewing the student," Henderson said, "we think all the devices have been found."
Henderson said there were two or three different versions of the explosive devices. They were made of either glass, metal or plastic with a fuse or wire attached.
The investigation was conducted by investigators from the sheriff's department, the U.S. Postal Service and the state fire marshal's office.
6 Feb 2005, AP
Oregon Youths Arrested with Homemade Bomb
Two Keizer boys have been charged with making explosive devices.
Police were called Wednesday night to the house of a 13-year-old boy after his mother discovered a suspicious object in the child's bedroom.
The officers determined that the object was an explosive device, and the Salem Bomb Squad was called to disable it.
The bomb squad confirmed that the object was made from legal fireworks. But the fireworks had been converted into a "lethal, improvised explosive device."
Police were then led to the house of a 14-year-old boy. There, they found instructions for making bombs and several of the required ingredients.
Both boys have been lodged at the Mid Valley Juvenile Detention Center, where they are being held without bail. They are charged with the unlawful manufacture and possession of a destructive device.
4 Feb 2005,
KOIN news
Suspicious
Packages Investigated at Orlando Police Headquarters
Two suspicious packages left at Orlando police headquarters Friday were investigated.
No threat was received, but a bomb squad was sent to the scene to investigate, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.
Hughey and Central were blocked while a member of the bomb squad checked the backpack and duffel bag. They discovered that the items contained only clothing.
Police headquarters
was not evacuated, but people were cleared from the front of the
building.
4 Feb 2005, WESH news
Animal
Rights Group Aims at Enemy's Allies
Greg Avery was a small-time activist on the fringes of the animal rights movement here when, one day in 1999, he trailed a truck full of cats from a breeding farm to its destination: the gates of Huntingdon Life Sciences, Britain's largest animal research laboratory.
Suddenly, he recalls, it came to him: Why focus on one little cat farm when you could declare war on a major publicly traded company that experiments on thousands of animals each year?
Over the next five years, the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign, known as SHAC, brought Huntingdon to the edge of bankruptcy and forced the company to cease trading on the London Stock Exchange and move its corporate headquarters to New Jersey. Activists with clubs assaulted two of its senior executives, while dozens of other employees reported harassment ranging from damage to their property to threatening phone calls and false allegations of pedophilia.
The campaign spread to the United States, where a federal grand jury in Newark last May indicted SHAC USA and seven individuals on charges that included violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The trial is scheduled for June.
The campaign against Huntingdon -- a company with 1,400 employees and $120 million in annual sales -- is the longest, most aggressive and most ambitious that the militant wing of the animal rights movement has ever conducted.
It marks an escalation in tactics and a new internationalization of the movement, which to a large extent was born and bred in Britain and still follows the lead of British activists.
Proponents of animal testing argue that without it, most of the drugs and modern therapies developed to combat cancer and a host of other diseases would not exist. But animal rights advocates contend that testing is inhumane and largely unreliable. For activists such as Avery, testing is nothing less than mass murder.
The key to strangling Huntingdon, says Avery, has been to focus on harassing its suppliers and customers -- ranging from the bank that lent it money to the caterer who supplied its cafeteria food. "We decided to hit companies who don't need Huntingdon but Huntingdon needs them," he said. "These are banks with tens of millions of pounds -- why risk their reputation for some crappy little company? If they wouldn't make a moral decision, we would force them to make a financial one."
Brian Cass, Huntingdon's managing director, said his company has survived the onslaught and is back on its feet. But Avery, who insists that he and his supporters operate within the law, contends the campaign is well on its way toward driving Huntingdon out of business within the next two years.
Avery, 36, has waged his campaign with just a handful of paid organizers, a few dozen dedicated volunteers and a support system of several thousand sympathizers utilizing a network of cell phones and Web sites. "It's very much a David and Goliath thing," he declared.
But in this war of attrition, it's hard sometimes to tell David from Goliath.
An Obvious Target
On a crisp but sunny autumn Wednesday, Gavin Medd-Hall, 40, an unemployed computer technician, led a band of five protesters on a journey south of London. Over the course of the day, they visited three companies that supply services to Huntingdon or carry out animal research for it on contract.
At each stop they unfurled a 10-foot-long vinyl banner with a color photo of a terrified cat strapped down for experimentation.
Outside the local offices of Fujisawa Healthcare Inc., a Japanese drug manufacturer, the protesters pulled out loudspeakers from a backpack and began their harangue. "Five hundred animals are dying every single day in a painful medieval torture chamber," intoned one of them. "You have blood dripping from your hands, Fujisawa, because of your disgusting lust for money and profit."
Huntingdon, which conducts experiments on up to 75,000 rats, mice, guinea pigs, cats, dogs and monkeys every year, is an obvious target. Two hidden-camera investigations in the 1990s uncovered deliberate abuse of animals by staff members in England and the United States. Company officials say that the incidents were isolated and that strong safeguards are in now in place to ensure they don't recur.
Huntingdon operates two labs in England and another in New Jersey that test new drugs, shampoos, food products and industrial chemicals on animals.The company produces toxicology, metabolic and other studies for pharmaceutical companies around the world that by law must conduct such studies before receiving product approval.
The company acknowledges that it kills thousands of animals during its testing, but insists that conditions under which the tests proceed are as humane as possible. An hour-long guided tour of portions of two buildings t the main site here revealed nothing to contradict those claims. Forty beagle puppies in one room were kept in kennel-style conditions. The floors were clean, food and water plentiful and the people in charge expressed affection and concern for the dogs.
Avery said he and each of SHAC's half-dozen full-time employees are paid less than $100 a week. He buys his clothes at a charity shop in London, and he and his family live in a house lent to the movement by a wealthy benefactor. Hundreds of other people donate money or time to the cause, and therein lies its real strength, according to Avery. "They call us extremists," he said. "But 7 million people in this country have cats, and 6 million have dogs. They all identify with animals in the labs."
In the early days of the campaign, Avery was arrested and jailed for threatening the life of a Huntingdon official. SHAC's Web site published the names and home addresses of company employees and urged supporters to harass them. A half-dozen cars of company workers were firebombed. Many of the attacks were carried out in the name of the Animal Liberation Front, an underground movement that has operated sporadically in Britain since the mid-1970s.
Three men in ski masks confronted Cass, the managing director, when he pulled into his driveway one evening in February 2001. They battered him in the head and ribs with pickax handles until a neighbor chased them off.
An activist named David Blenkinsop, 38, is serving a three-year sentence for the assault on Cass as well as five years for his part in a firebombing campaign.
Avery insisted
that he opposes violence and illegal activity, although he has
been convicted four times for activities related to Huntingdon.
He, his wife, Natasha Taylor, and his former wife, Heather James,
served six months each in 2002 for conspiracy to incite criminal
damage after the
SHAC Web site published the names and addresses of the Huntingdon
employees.
SHAC continues to publish the names, addresses and phone numbers of companies that do business with Huntingdon, although it posts a disclaimer that it "does not encourage illegal actions of any kind against these companies."
After SHAC published the name and address of BOC, a British supplier of gas to Huntingdon, a female employee's property was damaged. A message signed "ALF" was posted on Bite-Back, a Florida-based Web site: "If you don't think it is torture put yourself in that lab for one day. You would not be able to stomach it you sick freaks."
Last month, BOC announced it was severing ties with Huntingdon. A company statement called the move "a commercial decision."
Economic Pressure
A 10-foot-high fence topped by razor wire surrounds the headquarters of Huntingdon Life Sciences, 70 miles north of London, and the front gate is protected by a brick compound.
Cass recalled the time five years ago when demonstrators massed outside the complex every day, shouting abuse and taking down the license plate numbers of employees and suppliers. But the key moment, he said, came when
SHAC targeted the company's financial base.
Huntingdon's fund manager, Phillips & Drew, sold its 11 percent stake in February 2000 after its London offices were evacuated following a bomb threat and the disclosure on the SHAC Web site of home phone numbers of the fund's directors.
The Royal Bank of Scotland dropped out a year later, calling in its $35 million loan. And when no other British bank would agree to assume theloan, the Bank of England stepped in to avert bankruptcy. The accounting firm Deloitte and Touche resigned as the company's auditor in February 2003. The company's insurance broker also quit, forcing the government to provide emergency coverage.
Huntingdon eventually found new financing with Stephens Inc., an Arkansas investment bank, and reincorporated in the United States as Life Sciences Research Inc. The American company's share price, which fell to less than $1 in 2002, has risen to more than $11, and it recently reported its 15th consecutive quarter of revenue growth.
"This company is in a lot stronger position today than it was in 2000," said Cass, who remains grimly defiant. On the bulletin board of his office is a photo of him in a SHAC sweat shirt that reads: "Spongers, Hypocrites Anarchists Cowards."
At first, he said, government officials were slow to react. But this past year, police arrested 202 people on charges related to animal rights activism. The government has enacted new laws to establish security zones aroundbusinesses and homes targeted by activists, to allow for the prosecution of people colluding in harassment, and to enable executives and boards of directors of targeted companies to keep their identities and addresses confidential.
Officials are acting in part out of concern that SHAC's success is spreading.
Earlier this year, activists pressured Cambridge University into scrapping plans to build a primate research center, and a new campaign is seeking to force Oxford University to abandon plans for a new $35 million research laboratory.
Cass said the new laws have made a difference, although he maintains that activists still get away with intimidation. "I'll believe these things have worked when that phone rings and it's a High Street bank saying, 'We'd like you to open an account with us,' " he said.
Just as Huntingdon migrated to the United States, SHAC has followed. Kevin Kjonaas, a student at the University of Minnesota, traveled to England to work with Avery and James in the early days of the campaign. He returned to the United States and founded SHAC USA. Kjonaas is one of seven activists facing federal animal terrorism charges for allegedly conducting and encouraging violence, vandalism and intimidation against Life Sciences, Stephens Inc. and other companies. The activists, who deny the charges, argue that the authorities are violating their right of free expression by branding them as terrorists.
Despite the
new pressures, Avery insisted that SHAC will triumph. Its most
recent newsletter pledged to move on to demonstrations at British
airports to
block the importation of lab animals for testing at Huntingdon.
"Time to
close the gateways to hell," reads the headline, which appears
under SHAC's
motto: "We never give in and we always win."
31 Jan 2005, Washington Post
Candy Container Explodes in Italy—Italian Unabomber?
A plastic candy container exploded Wednesday in northeastern Italy as a group of middle school students walked by, raising fears that the "Italian Unabomber" had struck again, police said. There were no injuries.
The explosive device was packed into the plastic container of one of Italy's most popular candy treats, a chocolate egg whose hollowed inside contains a surprise trinket for children, according to police in Treviso, where the incident occurred.
The candy container exploded after a boy kicked it to start a game with his friends as they walked to a theater on a field trip, said Marco Mantengoli, principal of Morgano Middle School.
A robot-like device was being sent to the explosion site to examine another candy container similar to the one that exploded, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
"The children were astonished but not really shocked," Mantengoli said by telephone. "Maybe they haven't fully realized what happen."
"Police told the teachers to take them to the theater all the same to let them relax," the principal said.
Whoever is behind a dozen similar explosions in northeastern Italy since at least 1994 has been likened in the Italian media to the American recluse "Unabomber" who sent dozens of bombs through the U.S. mail for nearly 20 years.
Other blasts believed linked to the same man were a 2003 explosion of a booby-trapped pen that injured a child's hand and eye during a family picnic in the Treviso area; an exploding soap bubble jar that injured a 5-year-old boy in 2002; and a jar of a popular brand of hazelnut sandwich spread that went off when a woman opened it - though she escaped injury.
Experts believe the bombings may be linked because of the unusual way of hiding the explosives - often in brightly colored items that might attract the attention of children.
Wednesday's blast occurred near the city's courthouse, raising speculation the attacker meant to taunt investigators, especially a special team trying to catch the "Italian Unabomber."
"You can read this in terms of a growing challenge," Treviso Prosecutor Antonio Fojadelli said. "We're here to take up" that challenge.
Investigators said the explosive would be analyzed to see if it is similar to that used by the "Italian Unabomber."
Ted Kaczynski,
identified as the "Unabomber" in the United States,
was sentenced to life in prison in 1998. He was convicted of three
mail-bomb murders and 23 nonfatal mail bombings
26 Jan 2005, AP
Parcel
Bomb Sent to Bank of Moscow Office
A small mail bomb exploded near a Bank of Moscow office in central Moscow on Tuesday, but no injuries were reported, officials said.
City prosecutors said the blast was being investigated as a terrorist act, and that they had information that a series of similar blasts were being planned, Ekho Moskvy reported.
The City Hall-controlled bank was also targeted last month, when a small bomb exploded near another office in central Moscow. The blast did not cause any injuries.
The latest bomb, which had been sent to the bank's offices at 15 Ulitsa Kuznetsky Most, exploded near the offices, city police spokeswoman Natalya Goncharova said.
Police officials said later that an anonymous telephone call had warned bank workers about the bomb. The bank's security guards removed the parcel and placed it in the yard, where it exploded.
Itar-Tass said the device consisted of about 50 grams of explosives.
No other details were immediately available.
Explosions
and contract killings have been frequently used by the Russian
underworld battling for control over profitable businesses and
settling scores.
26 Jan 2005, AP
Animal
Rights Extremists Target Politicians and University Researchers
A hate campaign against Government ministers is being whipped up by animal rights extremists.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt are among those whose houses and families may be at risk.
Special Branch is investigating an internet website, believed to be the work of the Animal Liberation Front, which has published home addresses of the two Cabinet figures and 11 junior ministers. The site - under the name of Badgers Unknown Anarchist Ventures - urges followers: "Never do anything to an animal abuser they wouldn't do to an animal."
Police warn of windows being stoned, graffiti daubing, acid sprayed on cars and large fireworks thrown in gutters and gardens.
A senior Scotland Yard source said: "We think it could become vicious."
The list also has details of Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten, its High Steward and nearly 40 academics.
An £18million animal research base planned at Oxford has triggered the anger, police believe
It was originally
going to be at Cambridge but plans were abandoned after extremist
threats.
22 Jan 2005, The Mirror
Animal
Rights Extremists Target Hunts
A sinister animal rights group is planning a series of fire-bomb attacks to hit hunting in Ireland, it emerged yesterday.
UK-based group the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) has its sights set on the Republic and plans to launch a campaign of terror against hare coursing and fox hunting.
The FBI-listed organisation hopes to infiltrate animal rights groups after its activities in Britain were quashed.
Robin Webb, chief communications officer for the ALF, confirmed there were "very strong indications" that activists were stocking up on incendiary devices.
He warned these would be used to target property and people linked to blood sports, particularly hare coursing.
Webb said: "Our main objective is to cause damage that would have severe and dramatic economic implications for individuals and organisations linked to animal cruelty in Ireland."
But Webb admitted that he had no direct knowledge of specific attacks being planned against Irish targets.
He also added that if he was aware of any planned arson strike by a "cell" in Ireland, he would be likely to face a charge of criminal conspiracy.
Gerry Desmond, chief executive of the Irish Coursing Club, said he was aware of the threats being made by the ALF.
He added: "These people are known to be extremely violent so we are treating this as a priority.
"What these people are doing is little else than criminal, bullying and intimidating people who choose to support a sporting activity that they do not like."
He said the club had passed on information to gardai.
ALF declared war earlier this month when an elaborate hoax almost shut down the hare coursing championships in Tipperary. A spokesman claimed they had spread tacks and nails on the racecourse and even warned that firebombs were planted in the racing grounds.
Just days later, Irish hunt saboteur supporter Bernie Wright said she fully supported the ALF's actions.
She added: "We would support the Animal Liberation Front if it's going to stop coursing. What goes on there is terrible.
"The law doesn't protect animals so people have to take the law into their own hands."
Activists
with the ALF in Britain have been blamed for more than 100 attacks
on the homes of laboratory workers.
24 Jan 2005, The Mirror
Anthrax Scare at UK Labour Party Office
A letter containing white powder caused a major anthrax scare at Islington Labour Party's office on Monday morning.
The letter, sent to MEP Claude Moraes, forced the Barnsbury Street office to close for three hours while the white crystals were tested. Police later discovered it was nothing more than harmless cleaning powder.
Emily Thornberry, Labour parliamentary candidate for Islington South and Finsbury, was outside the office just after the powder was discovered.
"I was going to a meeting and saw a couple of weird-looking fire engines and people in breathing suits," she said.
"I asked straightaway what was happening and they told me.
"I did not know what to think. I was in awe of the police and firemen - we were standing outside and they were rushing into the building to help. They were extremely brave. Nothing like this has ever happened before but everyone was calm.
"Obviously it is worrying but we certainly know what the correct procedures are now."
It is believed the hoaxer also sent letters containing the cleaning powder to other London politicians of all parties.
A police spokesman said the Specialist Crime Directorate are investigating a number of similar cases but that so far all the contents have proved to be harmless.
A spokesman for the Islington Labour Party office said: "The letter arrived with the first post at about 10 o'clock.
"When we opened it there was nothing inside except a small rectangular parcel made of metal foil.
"There was a return address to somewhere in Portsmouth but this was later discovered to be false.
"As soon as we discovered the powder we called 999. The police and the fire service arrived within minutes. We had to stay inside the office for three hours until tests had been completed.
"We were all a bit shaken up but things soon got back to normal. Nothing like this has happened since the office opened in 1992."
The spokesman added that the rules for handling suspicious letters had worked well and would not be changed.
Workplaces
have been on a heightened state of alert since five people died
in October 2001 in a series of anthrax letter attacks across America.
However, experts point out that there has never been an anthrax
attack in Britain.
21 Jan 2005,
Suspicious Powder in Mail Causes Terrorism Alert at Conservative HQ
Political activity at Stratford Conservative Association ground to a halt on Tuesday when staff discovered a potential terrorist threat in their post.
Police rushed to the association’s headquarters in Trinity Street, Stratford, after an envelope containing a suspicious white substance was opened by an unsuspecting employee.
The building and surrounding street were cordoned off and scenes of crime officers were drafted in to deal with the suspect package.
Staff members
waited anxiously inside the building while officers investigated
the incident.
19 Jan 2005, Stratford Herald
Two
Letter Bombs Explode in Portugal
A letter bomb exploded at the home of an evangelical pastor in Portugal while another device addressed to a businesswoman went off outside a postal office, causing no injuries, Portuguese radio reported.
Both letter bombs went off after they were picked up from postal stations in central Portugal Tuesday, Radio Renascenca said citing a police source.
The letter addressed to the pastor was claimed from a post office in the central town of Sangalhos, located some 300 kilometres (185 miles) northeast of Lisbon, while the second bomb exploded shortly after it was taken from a mail station in the nearby town of Curia. Police said they were investigating.
Last month
a postal worker in Lisbon was slightly injured after a letter
bomb exploded in his hands. The letter had a return address belonging
to a non-existent firm and had been mailed to a private residence
in central Portugal, close to the towns targeted by the bombs
on Tuesday.
19 Jan 2005, AFP
Animal Rights Activists Scare Away Drug and Research Firms’ Suppliers
The number of companies that have stopped supplying services to U.K. organizations involved in animal research because of intimidation by animal rights activists is rising, a drug industry group said.
Some 42 of the 113 suppliers that cut ties in 2004 with drug companies and others that use animals in research reported doing so in the last quarter of the year compared with 26 in the third quarter, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said today in an e-mailed statement. Comparable figures for 2003 are not available, the ABPI said.
Some companies that provide services or supplies to drugmakers or laboratories are distancing themselves from animal researchers as some activists step up harassment campaigns, the ABPI said. The number of threatening phone calls made to companies in 2004 nearly tripled to 108 from 38 in 2003, ABPI figures show. Reports of damage to company, personal or public property rose to 177 from 146.
``Increasingly companies are getting more and more concerned about this continuing problem,'' Richard Ley, a spokesman for ABPI, said in a telephone interview. ``It's increasingly something which companies are taking into account when they think about where in the world to place their research and development work.''
Companies that have stopped providing services to animal researchers range from banks and insurers to companies that sell laboratory supplies or provide building maintenance, Ley said.
``People have become frustrated by the lack of movement in the industry to address lack of non-animal testing methodologies,'' Andrew Butler, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a telephone interview. ``There are organizations that have taken it upon themselves to take action and have been extremely successful.'' Butler said PETA works through public education instead.
``We uncover abuse and alert the media to it,'' he said.
New laws and
increased police enforcement have helped reduce the number of
incidents of activists who harass company employees and protest
outside their homes, to 89 from 146 in 2003, the ABPI said. Also,
the total number of demonstrators who took to the streets in 2004
to protest against animal testing declined to 10,922 from 11,396
according to the industry group's figures.
19 Jan 2005, Bloomberg
Animal
Liberation Front Terror Cells Target Ireland
Sinister British animal rights activists the Animal Liberation Front have their sights set on a new target - Ireland.
The shadowy terror organisation is infiltrating animal rights groups here after a massive clampdown on their activities in Britain.
And they have already found a new target.
Powerstown Park Racecourse, Tipperary was attacked last week in an attempt to stop the annual hare coursing championships.
ALF spokesmen claimed they had spread TACKS and NAILS on the racecourse - and even warned FIRE-BOMBS were planted throughout the grounds.
The claims turned out to be a hoax - but an ALF spokesman warned it was a declaration of WAR.
He said: "What is clear here is that the members in Ireland have fired a warning shot across the bows to say 'we are here and you are going to be targeted'.
'The nails and tacks could be done next time but the club would be warned immediately before the meeting.
"The reason incendiary devices were mentioned was the cell involved is saying it is capable of making incendiary devices.
"They have been used before against premises and vehicles in the past.
"Vehicles and premises of the coursing club could be targeted with timed incendiary devices."
But the spokeman insisted the ALF is a non-violent organisation and claimed no people or animals would be hurt.
He said: "ALF has used arson as a tactic for more than a quarter of a century now and no-one has ever been harmed.
"Premises are always watched to make sure they're empty and the fire is watched to make sure it can't spread to any occupied premises."
Outspoken Irish hunt saboteur supporter Bernie Wright said she fully supported the ALF's actions - and claimed people who attend coursing meetings are sick.
She said: "People who enjoy what goes on at coursing meetings such as those in Clonmel are sick and are also likely to abuse humans.
"We would of course support the Animal Liberation Front if it's going to stop the coursing. What goes on in there is terrible.
"The law doesn't protect animals so people have to take the law into their own hands. Between shooting and hunting this is a bad country, somebody has to do something.
"It does look like ALF are getting more active now."
ALF is the central terror group for Britain's animal rights activists. Formed in the UK in the 70s, it has now spread as far as the US. Most violent terror attacks in the UK are conducted in the group's name.
More than 100 terrifying attacks were launched on the homes of British lab workers in last year alone.
A spokesman
for Powerstown racecourse admitted they are keeping security tight
in the run up to the coursing final.
16 Jan 2005, Sunday Mirror
Suspicious
Mail with Powder sent to UK Official
A suspicious package containing white powder has been sent to Plaid Cymru's vice-president Jill Evans.
The brown envelope, addressed to the MEP, was opened on Tuesday morning at the party's office in Cardigan, Ceredigion.
No-one was injured and the building was not evacuated, said Plaid.
Dyfed-Powys Police said they were trying to trace the source of the package which would be forensically examined.
Hawen Jones, 28, who opened it, said the powder was wrapped in foil, while typed on the rear of the envelope was an address in Portsmouth.
Police are investigating a link between the Plaid Cymru package and a number of others sent to people in Hampshire yesterday, added Ms Jones, who is personal assistant to Ceredigion MP Simon Thomas.
"It was a normal brown envelope which contained a small foil package which had a tear in it and there was white powder inside," she said.
"I phoned the police and six officers arrived very quickly. The office was not evacuated and the package has been taken away.
"They (the police) said that this incident may be linked to a number of similar packages sent to people in Hampshire yesterday.
"I work for Simon Thomas, but I opened Jill Evans' mail because her PA is off sick."
Chief Inspector Huw Meredith of Dyfed-Powys Police said officers dealt with the incident in accordance with "nationally agreed procedures."
"The package has been recovered and will be forensically examined," he added. "Enquiries will continue to trace the source of the package."
Jill Evans, speaking from Brussels, said the motive for the attack could simply be publicity.
"The police seem to think that the likely motive is that someone is trying to get publicity is some bizarre way," she told BBC Wales.
"MPs and MEPs are vulnerable to this sort of thing as people can get our addresses easily.
"This is a completely irresponsible thing to do and it seems the package was sent out randomly."
Mrs Evans
added: "It must have been very frightening for Hawen, but
the police said she acted properly and I think it's remarkable
she stayed so calm. The police took this very seriously."
18 Jan 2005, BBC News
Disgruntled
Former Employee Makes Bomb Threats to D&B
A Berks County, PA man accused of making bomb threats to his former employer in Bethlehem's Martin Tower three months ago will face trial in Lehigh County Court, District Justice Thomas Murphy has ruled.
Police said Robert Mikielski, disgruntled over losing his job at Dun & Bradstreet five years earlier, allegedly phoned in the threats from a Wegmans Food Store in Hanover Township, Northampton County, but they believe he was not working alone.
Police said three voice mail messages left at the D&B office in Martin Tower on Oct. 2 did not appear to come from the same person. They believe Mikielski, 54, of 53 Wilson Road, Kempton, worked with an accomplice.
At Mikielski's preliminary hearing last week, police charged him with criminal conspiracy. Investigator Scott Felchock said it appeared the threats, called in from pay phones in south Bethlehem, Hanover Township, Northampton County, and Fountain Hill, were made by two people.
Besides the criminal conspiracy count, Mikielski is charged with threatening to use weapons of mass destruction, risking a catastrophe, terroristic threats and false alarms to agencies of public safety. He is free on $35,000 bail. His bail had been reduced from $1 million in October.
Mikielski, who was unemployed when he was arrested, told police he was still angry with the company after his supervisor ''came to his desk and told him he had one hour to gather his belongings and clear the premises'' in 1999, according to court records.
Police viewed a surveillance tape from the Wegmans market and determined the man on the tape was the only person using the pay phone at the time of the call. Bethlehem investigators showed the tape to D&B senior employees, and one of them recognized Mikielski.
The company told police the threats cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars from lost productivity because employees were evacuated from the building. Police said they believe he may also be responsible for threats made between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2 that forced the evacuation of the Lehigh Valley's tallest building three times.
Felchock said
Mikielski has cooperated with police but has not identified an
accomplice. Mikielski's arraignment in Lehigh County Court is
scheduled for March 11.
Morning Call 18 Jan 2005
Life
Sentence for Letter Bomber “Seeking Fame”
A loner with a craving for fame was given eight life sentences today for waging a letter bomb campaign against former friends and work colleagues.
Justin McAuliffe sent 33 letter bombs to ex-girlfriends, former work colleagues and even members of his own family to pay them back for "perceived slights".
McAuliffe, 33, from Bedford, was jailed after admitting eight charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.
At St Alban’s Crown Court today Judge John Bevan said: "These are undoubtedly grave offences and I am satisfied that you intended to maim your victims and their death may have been a by-product."
McAuliffe wanted to "eternalise" himself in history, the court heard. He sparked a nationwide alert in September last year after packages containing lighter fluid were sent to homes and businesses in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Lancashire and London.
His home-made devices were constructed at his bedside using party poppers and matches to ignite cans of lighter fuel hidden inside Tupperware containers.
Two of the packages were posted to McAuliffe's brothers. Some reached their destinations, while others were intercepted at sorting offices in Luton and Leagrave in Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes. One person suffered minor burns when he opened one. Another parcel emitted a puff of smoke when it was opened.
Sentencing the unemployed electrician today, Judge John Bevan said McAuliffe must serve at least 10 years before he can even be considered for parole. He said it was only the "inefficiency" of his work which had stopped a far harsher sentence.
He said: "Events at school, work and at home remained in your mind and developed into grudges which dominated your thoughts."
Police found the name of Robbie Williams on a list of 50 targets to whom McAuliffe planned to send packages. He failed to send a bomb to the pop singer because he could not get hold of his address. The other intended victims escaped after McAuliffe ran out of money.
In police interviews, McAuliffe said he wanted to be remembered as a Harold Shipman-type character who had found fame and eternal life through murder.
He said: "The only way to eternal life is to become famous. People are forgotten unless they stand out for something good or bad they did while they were alive such as Elvis, Gandhi or Hitler. If you want to live forever, become famous and stand out from the crowd. Don’t be a soldier, be like Napoleon. Don’t become a murder victim, be Harold Shipman.
"By doing this, you will secure your place in history and live forever while the nobodies will die and be forgotten."
Earlier the hearing was shown a police video of the Bedford flat in which he had created his devices. Covering the table was a plastic-covered copy of a newspaper showing the devastation of the September 11 attacks.
Written repeatedly like a border around the entire room was the word "hate" while phrases on the walls included "death to them all", "they all must die" and "we are God’s unwanted children".
Speaking outside
court, McAuliffe's older brother John, 55, attacked the sentence.
He said: "He just had a mental breakdown. He never harmed
anyone. Even murderers and paedophiles don't get as much as he
has. It is a disgrace."
14 Jan
2005, Sunday Times
Schools
look to metal detection
Schools have started to introduce hand-held metal detectors in
an attempt to prevent students carrying knives. Tollbar Business
and Enterprise College in New Waltham, near Grimsby, has used
the airport-style devices, according to their principal.
He said that instead of using them at random, they use them if
they have any suspicion. The principal went on to say that the
metal detectors were bought to search children for any metallic
object including mobile phones, a blade or any foil that can be
used to wrap a drug-related substance. Each of these items are
banned from school grounds.
Jayne Walmsley, whose son Luke was stabbed to death at another
school in Lincolnshire, has welcomed the move. "I hope more
schools follow this lead," she said. "I would rather
have kids searched randomly so no one can claim to be victimised
but this is a big step in the right direction."
14 Jan 2005,
Anthrax Threat in Judge’s Mail
A powder substance and a threatening note to a Philadelphia judge led to some scary moments Thursday at City Hall.
Police lieutenant Michael Brady says a secretary for a senior Common Pleas judge opened a letter and out poured a powdery substance:
"There is a young lady who opens the mail for that office, and she opened it up and she apparently got some residual on her hands."
The area around the first-floor office of the judge -- who was not identified -- was cordoned off. A fire department hazardous material ("hazmat") team analyzed the substance and gave the all-clear. The envelope also contained a threatening note to the judge.
The investigation into the incident is continuing.
Leonard Thomas is the US Postal Service carrier who delivered the letter. He says he lives with a fear of anthrax every day:
"Ever since 9/11 and the incidents we had with the anthrax, it's always a problem. It does bother me that I could be handling something that could be harmful to myself or someone else."
Lt. Brady says these days, vigilance is mandatory:
"We've got to play it safe every time. We've got to bring the people out, we've got to bring the equipment out. We've got to be sure."
Brady says threats of terrorism now crop up at City Hall a few times each year.
In 2003, a
letter sent to Mayor Street contained a powder that turned out
to be artificial coffee creamer.
15 Jan 2005, KYW News
Threatening
Letters with Suspicious Powder Sent to Politician in Belgium
Letters containing suspect white powder have been sent to a Brussels bourgmestre, it was reported on Friday.
Philippe Moureaux, the socialist bourgmestre of Molenbeek – one of Brussels’ poorest communes – received several anonymous threats in November.
Then on Tuesday this week, he was sent a letter, which was opened by a worker at his office at around 8 am.
The white powder inside turned out to be harmless.
On Wednesday, another letter arrived with a similar appearance and was collected by the local police.
Its contents are still being analysed. Both letters were sent from Charleroi.
If the second letter contains a harmful substance, the case could be passed to the federal court for a full investigation.
13 Jan 2005,
Expatica
Hoax
Bombs Found in Irish Sorting Office
Members of policing oversight bodies in Northern Ireland were the target of a series of hoax incendiary bombs found in the province’s main Royal Mail sorting office, it was revealed today.
Staff at the Mallusk plant outside Belfast were forced to evacuate the sorting office last night when a suspect device was found in the mail.
Army bomb disposal experts were called in and a search made of the premises, during which three more packages were found.
They were all later declared to be elaborate hoaxes, said a police spokesman.
The packages had been addressed to members of District Policing Partnerships in the north west of the province.
The DPPs were established under policing reforms to give local people a say in local policing. They have been opposed by republicans and dissidents have been behind a continuing campaign of intimidation against members.
Meanwhile a blast bomb exploded at a police station in County Armagh last night.
The device
was thrown over a back gate at the barracks in Lurgan but caused
no damage. No injuries were reported.
A man
who created a homemade bomb to "scare people," according
to police, was arraigned before Judge Daniel Spahn in municipal
court Monday.
Erin "Chipper"
Gump, 44, of 2312 Chestnut St. was arraigned on a charge of possessing
a dangerous ordnance and is being held on $10,000 bond before
his preliminary hearing Friday.
Gump was arrested Jan. 7 after the City Police Narcotics Division,
the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other uniformed
officers conducted a search of his home for drugs and weapons
and found an "anti-personnel" bomb.
Detective Jon Sowers said the officers did not expect to find the bomb, which was more than a foot long, 3 inches in diameter and consisted of explosive powder, ball bearings and 3-inch nails. Sowers said the bomb was designed to launch the ball bearings and nails as projectiles when detonated.
Gump told police the propellant used in the bomb was designed for fireworks. Sowers said Gump had told police the bomb was made only to "scare people."
Police also found assorted weapons, cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and drug paraphernalia during the search.
The Youngstown Bomb Squad arrived in Steubenville the last Friday night to detonate the bomb.
Sowers said
the bomb squad said the propellant was low-grade, but was not
designed to be compacted as it was in the bomb.
11 January 2005, The Scotsman
Authorities have arrested a 19-year-old Holden man in connection with a July 12th anthrax scare that shut down the Meraux post office. A customer found a plastic bag filled with white powder the lobby.
Timothy Blake Dixon was arrested by two Saint Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office detectives.
Colonel Richard Baumy of the Sheriff's Office says Dixon is a former resident of Saint Bernard.
The F-B-I says tests proved the white, granulated substance found in the post office was not a bioterrorism agent.
The anthrax scare meant a two-day delay in mail delivery for nearly four-thousand Meraux postal customers.
Powder
scare in Danish parliament
The Danish prime minister's office remains sealed off after a
letter containing suspicious white powder was delivered to the
parliament building.
The whole of Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen was closed down
and no-one allowed to leave after the discovery.
But parts of the building were later reopened and staff were released after undergoing decontamination treatment.
The powder has been sent to biological defence laboratories for testing and results are expected on Tuesday.
The letter was found in the prime minister's office and the parliament building sealed off just before 10:00 GMT on Monday.
Police had reopened surrounding streets and parts of Christiansborg Castle by 1330 GMT.
Reports say Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was not in his office at the time.
Denmark, which
supports the US war in Iraq, has experienced a number of false
scares after letters containing anthrax killed five people in
2001 in the US.
10 January 2005, BBC
Letter Bomber to be Sentenced in UK
An unemployed electrician said to have been behind a nationwide letter bomb campaign will appear in court next week to be sentenced.
Justin McAuliffe, 33, admits eight charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent as well as two counts of sending a noxious substance with intent to burn, maim or disfigure.
But McAuliffe, formerly of De Parys Avenue, Bedford, has denied eight further charges of attempted murder, one charge of sending an explosive substance with intent and one of possessing an offensive weapon.
The charges allege that he posted a total of 33 packages to ex-girlfriends and former colleagues in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Lancashire and London.
McAuliffe was not at St Albans Crown Court to hear Stuart Trimmer, prosecuting, tell Judge John Bevan that he expected to be able to resolve the issue of the outstanding charges before the sentencing hearing next Friday.
Judge Bevan
adjourned the hearing until next Friday.
5 January 2005, The Scotsman
“Economist” Offices Evacuated
for Powder Scare
Firefighters and police have been called to investigate a suspicious white powder in a package at a building housing the offices of The Economist magazine in New York.
A fire department spokesman says it is too early to say what the powder might be, though it is being treated as potentially hazardous.
"It's a hazmat (hazardous material) incident," the spokesman said.
Another fire department official later said three people had received medical attention on the scene but they did not require hospital treatment.
"They were a bit overwhelmed," the official said.
A police spokesman says a package has been found containing an unknown white powder and authorities have sent it to the health department for tests.
He adds that similar alerts are a frequent occurrence since a spate of anthrax alerts after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
A web log, or blog, written by an Economist journalist says her office has been evacuated and staff moved to another part of the building.
"We're having
an anthrax scare here," said the blog www.janegalt.net.
5 January 2005, Reuters
Florida Law Firm Receives Anthrax Threat
A local law firm that reportedly received anthrax threats in recent weeks was evacuated and quarantined for a brief time Tuesday afternoon after an attorney opened a letter that contained a white powder.
Attorney Calvin Brown, of Collins, Brown, Caldwell, Barkett & Garavaglia law firm, opened a standard-size envelope about 1:30 p.m. and unfolded a piece of paper with the white powder, said Capt. Joe Earman, of the Indian River County Fire Rescue.
"(Brown) said there was encrypted writing on the paper. He said (the powder) had an insecticide-type smell," Earman said, adding little information about the envelope and letter was available because it was immediately quarantined. "We are treating this as a very serious issue and are taking all of the necessary precautions in case the powder is harmful."
Brown, who appeared to be nonchalant about the incident, declined to comment.
The envelope and powder were removed from the second floor of the office complex at 756 Beachland Blvd., sealed in a red bio-hazard bag and taken to a crime lab in Fort Pierce. Detectives safely removed the powder in a secure room there and transported it to Miami to be analyzed and identified.
The Vero Beach Police Department could receive the results as early as today.
"We advised (office employees) to exit the building and not go back in there until we determine what was in the envelope," Earman said.
Police and fire officials made Brown disrobe in the parking lot and surrender his clothes in an effort to quarantine any powder that may have spilled on him.
Officials suggested anyone who could have come in contact with the powder or envelope — which reportedly did not have a return address but was postmarked in Orlando — to treat themselves as if they had a cold by washing their hands on a regular basis.
The anthrax scare started shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Robert Stevens, 63, photography editor for The Sun tabloid in Boca Raton, died from inhaled anthrax in October 2001 after it had showed up on his office computer keyboard.
Stevens had
become the first death from anthrax in the United States since
1976.
5 January
2005, Scripps News
Unmarked Parcel Causes Scare in California
A belated Christmas gift found on a Monterey doorstep sparked a bomb scare Wednesday morning.
Shortly after 10 a.m., a woman noticed a package -- wrapped and placed in a shopping bag -- on the stoop of her Grove Street home, Monterey police said. The package was unmarked and had no address, said Randy Taylor, Police Department spokesman.
The woman brought the item to the police station on Madison Street and told officers she'd received threatening calls before finding it. It does not appear to have been sent through the U.S. mail or another courier, Taylor said.
Police did not release the woman's name because an investigation is pending into the suspicious phone calls.
He said it was right to report the suspicious package to police, but she shouldn't have brought it to headquarters.
"The right thing to do if you see a suspicious package is to leave it and call the police," Taylor said.
The Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office's ordnance team responded to Monterey and noticed wires in the package, although the squad couldn't tell what the package contained, he said. The bomb squad then blew it apart with a high-pressure water cannon.
What did police find inside? Flower bulbs and a note: "Merry Christmas. -- From Santa."
The Salinas Californian
New Facility at Brentwood Will Irradiate Mail
Any piece of mail sent to a federal agency in D.C. first has to go to New Jersey, where it's irradiated before returning south for delivery.
But a new facility slated for Northeast Washington will do away with the trip to the Garden State.
That massive spending bill Congress sent to President Bush (website - news - bio) this week includes $507 million to set up a mail irradiation building. It will be on the site of the Brentwood mail facility, where two workers died in 2001, after anthrax-laced letters passed through en route to the offices of Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.
A U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman says they hope
to break ground in the spring and open the facility in 2006. That's
expected to cut 48-hours off delivery times.
