| latest news |
Blast
strikes UK consulate in US
Police say they have found fragments of an explosive device
after a blast outside the UK consulate in New York.
The early morning explosion shattered windows in the building,
which also houses other offices, but there were no reports
of people being injured.
Police are at the scene and have sealed off the area around the building on Third Avenue, in Manhattan.
The explosion came as millions of voters in the United Kingdom went to the polls to elect a government.
"There was an explosion in front of the location at 3.35am [0735 GMT]," a spokesman for the New York Police Department said.
"It was detonated in one of the cement flower boxes used as a barrier outside the building.
"There was some damage to the front window but there are no reports of any injuries at this stage."
5 May 2005
FBI Investigates Animal Rights Group for Actions Against NY Pharmaceutical Company
The FBI is investigating claims by the radical Animal Liberation Front that some of its members had committed crimes against a pharmaceutical company _ all aimed at pressuring the company to sever ties with a British firm it says mistreats animals during drug testing.
The probe, involving a series of possible federal crimes by the underground organization, was confirmed Thursday by FBI spokesman James Margolin.
Margolin said the investigation would examine a number of incidents over the past year that ALF claims its members committed against Forest Laboratories and some of its executives. The investigation was first reported in Thursday's editions of Newsday.
Forest Laboratories is a Manhattan-based company with facilities in several Long Island communities. Forest, which has 3,000 employees, specializes in medicines for depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's and hypertension.
ALF wants Forest to end ties with the British firm, Huntingdon Life Sciences, which it says kills animals in testing. A Huntingdon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, but the company has said in the past it does not violate any laws in its experiments.
Jerry Vlasak, who operates a Web site in California that posts "communiques" from ALF, confirmed Thursday that the group has made claims in recent weeks that some of its members followed a Forest executive's wife to her job, entered her car, stole a credit card and bought $20,000 in traveler's checks that it then donated to four charities.
The woman, an employee at Stony Brook University, filed a report with campus police earlier this week saying that personal financial items were stolen from her car there.
Vlasak, who stated that he is not an ALF member _ although he supports many animal welfare initiatives _ said the group has also claimed responsibility for vandalizing a Forest plant in Inwood, on Long Island, last June.
It also claims it used a bullhorn at night for a week last October to harass a Forest Laboratories executive; glued the locks on the homes of other company executives in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and spray-painted their homes and cars with graffiti such as "puppy killer" and "murderer."
A recent
internal Homeland Security document lists the Animal Liberation
Front among groups that could potentially support al-Qaida
as domestic terrorism threats.
28 April 2005, Newsday
Suspicious Packages Cause Bomb Scare
at Georgia Air Force Base
Air Force officials praised the prompt actions of Robins Air Force Base disaster response teams following a Monday bomb scare that saw 2,000 employees evacuated from two large office buildings.
The alarm was sounded about 10:50 a.m. when two suspicious packages arrived at Building 300, each with incomplete return addresses and both intended for a foreign liaison officer who works in the building.
Col. Greg Patterson, 78th Air Base Wing Commander, said one package was partially open, revealing an unmarked container filled with a clear liquid. An X-ray of the second package showed batteries and wires.
"So our security forces and fire department made the decision to evacuate both building 300 and 301 until we could locate the foreign officer or determine that the packages were safe," said Patterson by telephone Tuesday morning. "They did the right thing. They responded magnificently."
The verification process took almost four hours, driven primarily by the tedious, robotic handling of the second package. "When we saw batteries and wires, we couldn't let people back in the building," he said. "Safety is the number one priority."
The foreign officer was located in Houston, Texas, and confirmed that he was expecting both packages - one containing what he called holy water and a second shipment of cheese and coffee.
By that time, an explosive ordnance disposal team from the 116th Air Control Wing on base had taken the second package to an isolated area and opened it robotically. "There was cheese and coffee in the package, but there were also several types of calculators and toys," Patterson said. "That's where the X-ray machine picked up the wires and batteries."
The base commander said the liquid in the first package was analyzed by base environmental specialists. "We handled it as if it could be of danger as well," he said.
Everyone responded correctly, Patterson said. "The buildings were evacuated quickly and orderly. There were no issues."
He acknowledged that employees who could not relocate to other offices lost four hours of production, "But when you see a package with wires and batteries and an incomplete address, you just can't play with things like that," Patterson said.
27 April
2005, Macon Telegraph
Threats
of bomb, anthrax, death: Chinese interests in Japan under
siege
The National
Public Safety Commission said Tuesday there have been 25 acts
of vandalism and harassment against Chinese interests in Japan,
including diplomatic missions and schools, reported since
April 9, when the first wave of unruly anti-Japan protests
took place in China.
The commission's chairman, Yoshitaka Murata, said that of
the incidents reported up to Monday, Chinese diplomatic establishments
were targeted in 14 cases, including a bomb threat made against
a consulate, while 11 were against other Chinese-related establishments.
"Our country has a duty to provide solid security and protection for (China's) official establishments," Murata said. "We would like to see to it that (nothing wrong) happens to the Chinese people residing in Japan.
"I would also hope Chinese authorities provide safety and protection for Japanese people and businesses" in China.
On April 12, a man called a broadcasting company in Fukuoka saying there would be an explosion at the Chinese Consulate General in the city later in the day, Fukuoka police said.
The caller said he had planted 10 kg of explosives that would go off at 7 p.m., police said.
The consulate the same day also received a razor along with a letter of protest over the anti-Japan demonstrations in China, and a razor blade was also sent to another consulate in the city of Nagasaki, the Chinese Embassy said.
Police searched the consulate's premises and found no explosives, and are investigating the case as a malicious hoax.
On Friday, an envelope containing harmless starch-like white powder was sent to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo in an apparent anthrax threat, police said over the weekend.
Also that day, a mailbox doorplate and intercom at the Tokyo residence of Chinese Ambassador Wang Yi were found sprayed with red paint.
The Japan Times: April 20, 2005
Thailand
Post Offices on Special Alert for Postal Bombs
Postal authoritities have equipped their facilities offices
across the country's deep South with bomb detecting devices
to inspect all parcels heading to the region, while adding
closed-circuit cameras as extra security to its premises in
three southernmost border towns plagued with violence, a postal
official said Tuesday.
Vikran Bungsud, director of Region 9 of the Thai Postal Office, said that the company has implemented tight security measures at 92 post offices in seven provinces in the deep South after a spate of bombs rocked the region.
Thailand has fought an unabated violence related to the region's insurgent movement since early 2004.
Sine then, hundreds of people have been killed.
Mr Vikran said that all parcels posted at the region's postal facilities would first be checked for explosives.
Those addressed to the five southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla and Satun would be redirected to the Hat Yai postal center in Songkhla for further inspection using X-ray machines.
''We have installed closed-circuit cameras in our five major offices in the three southernmost border towns of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani as extra surveillance. Mr Vikran said.
"I
believe, with these safety measures, we can prevent attacks,''
he added
19 April 2005, TNA
Suspicious Substance Causes Scare at
IRS
A suspicious package was opened Sunday at the Fresno IRS center
that forced dozens of people out of the building at Butler
and Willow in Southeast Fresno.
10 IRS employees were taken to local hospitals, but their
symptoms were improving as they were leaving by ambulance.
Officials were surprised that such a small amount of a white powdery substance could make so many sick. At this point, they don't know what that powdery substance inside an envelope really was.
Firefighters with masks and oxygen tanks escorted 10 IRS mail room employees from the building, where a very small amount of a white powdery substance was found inside an envelope.
"This is a large envelope, so there was a substance that was in there," says Rebeca Villalobos from the IRS. "People sit in very close proximity doing their work, so basically, we take all of the employees within 10 to 20 feet of that incident."
The workers then showered inside an orange decontamination tent and were taken to local hospitals. They complained of itchy watery eyes and runny noses.
Hazmat teams were sent inside the building to determine what the substance was.
150 other mail room employees were sent home.
IRS employees have seen similar incidents. Hazmat crews were there just last summer.
But, this latest scare comes during the tax return crunch. The IRS center takes 1040 forms from 11 different states.
Now, a small amount of powder could delay someone's refund check.
The IRS mail room was shut down for 3 1/2 hours, but did start up again at 5:00pm tonight.
Officials did not immediately know if there was a return address on the envelope or if there was a tax return or note inside.
They say
take these cases extremely seriously and this latest case
will be turned over to the FBI.
15 April 2005
Man
Upset With Penile Surgery Mails Bomb
A
man allegedly unhappy with penile-enlargement surgery he underwent
mailed explosives to a Chicago plastic surgeon, according
to a federal grand jury indictment.
Blake R. Steidler, 24, allegedly made an explosive device that included a model-rocket engine igniter inside a jewelry box, the federal indictment said.
Steidler drove to North Bloomfield, Ohio, on Feb. 10 and mailed the box, but then drive home to Lancaster County, called 911, and turned himself in, according to the indictment.
East Cocalico Township Police, who received the 911 call, apprehended Steidler and turned him over to federal authorities, who were holding him in Philadelphia, officials said.
Authorities called police in Ohio, who recovered the box from the mail and destroyed it. Special Agent John Hageman, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms office in Philadelphia, said the device "should have functioned and produced an explosion. ... There may have been shrapnel."
The federal grand jury indictment charged Steidler with using a weapon of mass destruction, sending explosives through the mail, interstate transport of an explosive, and related offenses.
15
April 2005
Small Bomb Damages HSBC Bank Machine In Istanbul
A small
bomb exploded outside a branch of HSBC bank (HBC) in Istanbul
Friday, causing some damage but no injuries, police said.
The blast destroyed the ATM machine of the bank in Istanbul's busy Beyoglu district, a police official said on customary condition of anonymity. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police said the device used was a percussion bomb, designed to make a loud sound but cause little damage.
Autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, militant leftist and Islamic groups are active in Turkey. In the past, leftist groups have exploded sound bombs outside of government offices and bank machines.
The Turkish headquarters of the HSBC bank, two synagogues and the British Consulate were targeted in suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul in 2003 blamed on the al-Qaida terrorist network. Those attacks killed 61 people.
15 April 2005
Train
bomb injures seven
Seven people were injured, two of them seriously, when a bomb
exploded on a passenger train in Pakistan's south-western
province of Baluchistan, officials said.
The blast occurred in the toilet of an economy class coach on the Chiltan Express, chief controller of Pakistan Railways, Mohammad Shoaib, said.
It went off as the Lahore-bound train neared Abe Gum station, 85km south of Quetta, he said.
Seven people were injured in the blast, two of them seriously, he said.
Tribal
militants fighting for greater royalties from Baluchistan's
natural resources have claimed responsibility for a series
of attacks on Pakistan's railway network in recent months.
The Chiltan Express was the target of a similar bomb blast
last month that killed one person and injured five others.
13 April 2005,
Bomb-making facility busted in J&K
Security forces busted four hideouts, including a bomb-making facility, in Doda and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said in Jammu today.
Acting on specific information, troops today raided a hideout for making bombs in Sil area of Doda district and recovered 30 litres of liquid acid, 186 detonators, three mortars, 10 rockets, a remote control device, 165 rounds, six Improvised Explosive Devices and six electric wire leads besides explosive material, they said.
The hideout was later destroyed by troops, they said adding that it was being used to make IEDs and bombs.
Troops also busted a hideout at Liran area of Darhal tehsil of Rajouri district today and recovered a revolver, three magazines, three IEDs, six detonators, a wireless set and some explosive material, they said.
Another hideout was busted by troops in Hattaseri in Thanamdi tehsil of Rajouri district and one LPG cylinder, a muzzle-loaded gun, two IEDs, three grenades and some ammunition was recovered today, they said.
Troops
busted another hideout at Chtru area in Rajouri district last
night and recovered one AK rifle, four magazines, seven grenades,
60 rounds and a diary, the sources said.
12 April 2005
Pentagon Will Test Its Own Mail for Biohazards
The U.S. Defense Department, unhappy with how mail room tests for anthrax were handled during an alarm in March, said it now is doing its own testing.
The Pentagon routinely has its mail and mail rooms tested for the presence of biowarfare agents, particularly anthrax. It also quarantines mail for three days until test results come back indicating the mail is safe to deliver.
Tests done by a testing subcontractor on samples from a detached mail facility on the Pentagon grounds were positive March 11 but Defense officials were not notified until March 14. As a result of the delay, quarantined mail from March 11 was released for distribution.
John Jester, director of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, said the problem was a delay by managing contractor Vistronix, which learned of the initial test results within 24 hours but failed to notify the Defense Department at that time.
A subsequent
alarm March 14 at a mail facility in Fairfax County, Va.,
actually was a false alarm, caused by an air flow problem,
Jester told the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging
Threats and International Relations this week in Washington.
7 April 2005, UPI
Sun
reporter takes fake bomb into Windsor Castle
Police are investigating another security breach at Windsor Castle after a Sun journalist drove a van containing a fake bomb close to the Queen's apartments just days before the royal wedding blessing.
Sun journalist Alex Peake drove past the chapel where the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles are due to be blessed on Saturday, the newspaper said in a front page story titled "Gatecrasher in the Castle".
The newspaper said Mr Peake and photographer Gary Stone posed as delivery drivers.
Their hired van carried a brown box that had been clearly marked with the word "bomb".
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "This apparent breach of security at Windsor Castle in the run-up to the royal wedding properly raises serious concern.
"It is only right that the facts are established before any action is taken against any person who may be culpable."
The statement added: "The commissioner has ordered an immediate inquiry to establish these facts."
A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said: "Security is a matter for the police who have been asked to investigate."
The news came after it emerged on Tuesday that two intruders broke into the private area of Windsor Castle on April 3.
Self-styled comedy terrorist Aaron Barschak was involved in another high-profile security breach when he gatecrashed Prince William's 21st birthday party in 2003.
The paper
has also breached security in parliament smuggling a fake
bomb into the House of Commons last year
7 April 2005, Press Association
Bomb blasts
kill three people
Three bombs exploded almost simultaneously tonight in southern
Thailand's Songkhla Province, killing three people and wounding
at least 21, local media reported.
One of the explosions took place at Hat Yai International Airport, killing one and injuring 15, and another at the Carrefour supermarket in Hat Yai town in the province, killing two and injuring six.
The third explosion took place in front of a hotel in Muang District in the province. No casualties were reported there but local reporters phoned TV and radio stations in Bangkok saying the hotel was damaged.
Authorities have cut the telecommunications system in the area as they suspect more bombs could be detonated by remote control using mobile phones.
Since
January last year, a series of unrest-related incidents has
been reported in southern Thailand where Muslims are dominant.
4 April 2005
Domestic Terror Group Reported to Be Reaching Out to Al Qaeda
A couple of hours up the road from where some September 11 hijackers learned to fly, the new head of Aryan Nation is praising them -- and trying to create an unholy alliance between his white supremacist group and al Qaeda.
"You say they're terrorists, I say they're freedom fighters. And I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples' heart, in the Aryan race, that they have for their father, who they call Allah."
With his long beard and potbelly, August Kreis looks more like a washed up member of ZZ Top than an aspiring revolutionary.
Don't let appearances fool you: his resume includes stops at some of America's nastiest extremist groups -- Posse Comitatus, the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nation.
"I don't believe that they were the ones that attacked us," Kreis said. "And even if they did, even if you say they did, I don't care!"
Kreis wants to make common cause with al Qaeda because, he says, they share the same enemies: Jews and the American government.
The terms they use may be different: White supremacists call them ZOG, the Zionist Occupation Government, while al Qaeda calls them the Jews and Crusaders.
But the hatred is the same. And Kreis wants to exploit that.
The best thing that can be said about August Kreis is that he has helped preside over the decline of the once-feared Aryan Nation, a movement inspired by the racist tenets of Nazi Germany. He cannot or will not say how many followers the group now has.
What's clear is that Aryan Nation had a violent streak aligned with its anti-Semitic and racist ideology. One of its followers, Buford Furrow, received two life sentences, plus 110 years, for an August 1999 shooting spree in which he shot and wounded four children and one adult at a Jewish community center in the Los Angeles suburb of Granada Hills. Furrow then drove to nearby Chatsworth, California, where he shot and killed a Filipino-American postal carrier.
Others had been accused of involvement in bank robberies, shootouts with authorities and the murders of blacks and others.
More recently, the Aryan Nation lost its Hayden Lake, Idaho, compound, after losing a civil suit led by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Last year, founder Richard Butler died just as the group's leaders were fighting amongst themselves.
Around that time, Kreis tried to open up shop for Aryan Nation in northern Pennsylvania, but got run out by locals. Now he is in Sebring, Florida, and, although his rhetoric is full of revolution and defiance, he wanted to meet our CNN crew at a local park because he didn't want trouble from his neighbors.
You might think white supremacists like Kreis would spurn al Qaeda, since they tend to view non-Aryan Christians as, in their own term, "mud people." In fact, most of them do. But Kreis wants to change that.
"That's old-school racism, white supremacy, this is something new," he said. "We have to be realists and realize what didn't work [previously] isn't going to work in the future."
The idea of a Nazi-Islamic alliance dates back to World War II, when Adolf Hitler played host to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, that city's Muslim leader. Some Nazis, moreover, found refuge in places like Egypt and Syria after the war.
Three years ago, I met a Swiss Islamic convert named Ahmed Huber, who began his life as a devotee of Adolf Hitler and moved on to praising former Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who led that nation's Islamic revolution and vigorously opposed U.S. policies.
Huber wanted to forge a fresh alliance between Islamic radicals and neo-Nazis in Europe and the United States. And he cannot be simply dismissed as a crackpot: Huber served on the board of directors of a Swiss bank and holding company that President Bush accused of helping fund al Qaeda.
Mark Potok, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that while some U.S. extremists applauded the September 11 attacks, there is no indication of such an alliance -- at least not yet, and not on a large scale. If it exists anywhere, he said, it is in the mind (and the Internet postings) of August Kreis.
For its part, the FBI says it hasn't seen any links between American white supremacists and groups like al Qaeda.
"The notion of radical Islamists from abroad actually getting together with American neo-Nazis I think is an absolutely frightening one," said Potok. "It's just that so far we really have no evidence at all to suggest this is any kind of real collaboration."
So while August Kreis may be calling, there is no sign that al Qaeda is listening.
But that hasn't stopped him. As we ended our interview, we asked Kreis if he had any message for Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants.
"The message is, the cells are out here and they are already in place," Kreis said. "They might not be cells of Islamic people, but they are here and they are ready to fight."
30 March 2005, CNN
Explosive Traces Found at Abortion Clinic Bomber’s Home
Traces of an explosive used to bomb an Alabama abortion clinic were found in Eric Rudolph's home in North Carolina, a federal agent testified Tuesday in a key pretrial hearing for the serial bombing suspect.
Richard Alan Strobel, an explosives expert for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said small quantities of the compound EGDN were found on a towel, a tool box, a cardboard box and a brown wig taken from Rudolph's trailer during a search days after the January 1998 bombing.
Strobel said the same explosive substance was found in the crater left by the nail-laden bomb that exploded outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, killing a police officer and critically injuring a nurse.
``The finding of EGDN tells us we are dealing with dynamite,'' he testified.
The testimony came at the start of a hearing before U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith, who is considering a defense request to throw out the explosives evidence as unscientific and unreliable.
The defense has argued that investigators could have unknowingly transferred explosives traces found at the clinic to Rudolph's trailer or a storage unit he had rented.
Strobel, who helped gather evidence both at the bombing scene and in North Carolina, testified that agents went to great lengths to avoid contaminating potential evidence, wearing protective suits over clean clothes, along with two sets of gloves.
During the hearing, the injured nurse, Emily Lyons, sat with her husband. She lost an eye in the bombing and still has vision problems.
Rudolph, who was arrested in Murphy, N.C., in 2003 after a 5-year manhunt, has pleaded not guilty in the clinic bombing. He also is accused in the fatal Olympic park bombing in Atlanta in 1996 and two more bombings in the Atlanta area in 1997.
Preliminary jury selection for Rudolph's trial is set for April 6, with opening statements not expected until early June. Rudolph could face the death penalty if convicted.
In court papers filed over the weekend, federal prosecutors indicated they are hoping to show jurors that Rudolph had ties to a fundamentalist church in Benton, Tenn., led by Dr. John Grady, an early activist against abortion in Florida.
The defense objects to the evidence as irrelevant and as a violation of Rudolph's First Amendment rights.
The defense also
is trying to limit evidence about Rudolph's ``negative views
about the government, African-Americans, Jews and homosexuals,''
according to the government. Prosecutors claim such attitudes
were ``inextricably linked'' to Rudolph's views against abortion.
29 March
2005
Letter said to be laced with anthrax sent to city hall
A letter threatening to be laced with anthrax was sent to Jamestown City Hall Monday morning, police said.
Preliminary results from the Kentucky State Police crime lab in Frankfort Monday evening said the letter did not contain the deadly substance, Jamestown Police Chief Jeffrey Kerns said. He said officials plan to conduct another test on the letter.
Police received the letter around 10:30 a.m. EST. The city is nestled on Lake Cumberland in Russell County.
Police closed City Hall for the rest of the day.
Four employees
were at city hall when the letter arrived, Kerns said. The
building was evacuated and the four employees were decontaminated
as a precaution, Kerns said. He did not say whom the letter
was addressed to.
26 March 2005, Associated News
French
criminal group AZF resurfaces with new bomb-blackmail threats
A group seeking to extort money through bomb threats against
railway lines and other targets in France has resurfaced,
after a year's absence, with a warning of attacks in May if
it's demands are not met, officials said.The group or individual
-- calling itself AZF -- sent two letters on Thursday; one
to President Jacques Chirac and one to the interior ministry.
One of the letters contained a detonator, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement, while not elaborating on which one contained the device.
The letters "contained threats with a view to extorting money," it said, adding that authorities have been warned to react quickly, though no financial demand nor potential targets have been mentioned.
The national anti-terrorist police are handling the investigation and their first task is to find out if the current threat is linked to the previous one.
Although a logo made up of the initials AZF appeared on the two new letters it is different to a logo used in the previous threats.
The name itself is thought to refer to a chemicals factory that blew up in Toulouse (southwestern France) in 2001 causing 30 deaths.
AZF first appeared in December 2003 with a promise to blow up railway lines if it was not paid 4 mln eur and 1 mln usd in cash.
25 March 2005 newsdesk@afxnews.com
Letter threatens Brentwood synagogue
The congregation of a Brentwood synagogue last night switched its service marking the Jewish holiday Purim to a local community center after receiving a threatening letter, along with suspicious white powder, in the mail yesterday afternoon.
Other Nashville-area businesses also were listed in the letter, said the FBI's D. Keith Bryars, who heads the Nashville Joint Terrorism Task Force. Bryars declined to identify or describe the other facilities, but he said the FBI had been in contact with them.
Rabbi Ken Kanter of Congregation Micah, 2001 Old Hickory Blvd., said the letter forced them to do some quick reorganization on the night of a holiday service.
''We were inconvenienced and we were forced to make some quick changes, but that's the only immediate reality change we dealt with,'' he said. ''There is a sadness that these things go on, but I also admire the strength, that in a crisis like this, the community gathers together and supports each other.''
The 260 worshippers who showed up for the service, which started late, showed ''great spirit and enthusiasm,'' Kanter said.
Kanter did not want to disclose the contents of the letter against the FBI's wishes but said it did not specifically single out the Jewish community.
An employee at the temple opened the envelope about 1 p.m., noticed the white powder and immediately placed it inside a cellophane bag, said Joaquin Toon, a spokesman for the Nashville Fire Department.
The fire department's Hazardous Material Unit was sent to the scene along with the FBI, the Metro police bomb squad and personnel from the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, the Metro Health Department and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
''It was an excellent response by all those groups,'' Bryars said. ''The individual and the area were decontaminated, and any residual effects would be negated by what they did.''
Emergency crews decontaminated the synagogue's office with water and bleach and had the employee scrub down with soap and water, Toon said.
Medics and representatives from the Metro Health Department examined the employee, who did not seem to have any ill effects, he said.
The FBI took control of the suspicious package, which was sent to a state crime lab in Nashville for testing.
The lab is part of a nationwide response network qualified to handle and test such an unknown material, Bryars said. It also reports to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
''The substance is undergoing testing to be 100% positive, but at this time there's no indication that it is, in fact, a biological agent such as anthrax or ricin.''
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed, the frequency of similar suspicious incidents has declined, Bryars said.
Sunday
religious school and adult programs at Congregation Micah
have been canceled this week pending the results of the laboratory
tests. A Bat Mitzvah ceremony scheduled at the temple today
will be at the Gordon Jewish Community Center, 801 Percy Warner
Blvd
26 March 2005, Tennessean com
Mail Bomb Scare Closes U.S. Army Post Office in Germany
A “suspicious package” closed the Army post office on Cambrai-Fritsch Casern in Darmstadt, Germany, on Wednesday afternoon for about 90 minutes while security and bomb disposal experts investigated.
The post office and adjacent community mail room were closed from about 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
A base spokeswoman said a German team of bomb disposal experts came to the casern and cleared the post office to re-open.
The spokeswoman
said force-protection measures prevented discussing what caused
the package to be considered suspicious.
25 March 2005, Stars
and Stripes
Environmental Activists Mail Threats that Target UK Holiday Homes
Police are investigating a threat of direct action against holiday home owners in the area.
Both The Whitehaven News and the North West Evening Mail have received an anonymous letter purporting to be from a group calling itself Affordable Local Living.
Their letter states: “Owning your home should be a right for all and not an investment opportunity for the minority.
“People with more than one home should be heavily taxed, however MPs are some of the worst offenders often owning four or five homes, so we know this will never happen.
“We have identified numerous properties (mainly terraced) and through direct action we hope to make the Millom area a much less desirable place for investors.
“Our aim is to reduce terraced prices by 20%, this figure has been achieved in other parts of the country. We hope the majority of the community will not be upset by our actions.”
The local police said the matter was being investigated and urged the writers of the letter to contact them directly. Millom has suffered a spate of attacks on cars and coaches and the police have moved swiftly enacting an Anti Social behaviour Order.
Two further ASBOS against troublemakers are going to court. The new ASBO gives the police extra powers to act.
25 March 2005, Whitehaven News
UK to Extend Corporate Manslaughter Law
The Corporate Manslaughter Bill will increase the risk of manslaughter prosecution for businesses and directors.
The UK Home Secretary yesterday set out tough new laws to prosecute companies and organizations whose ‘gross failure’ at senior management level results in a fatality.
The draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill will update existing laws on corporate killing. The proposed new criminal offence of corporate manslaughter will apply when someone has been killed because the senior management of a corporation has ‘grossly failed to take reasonable care for the safety of employees or others’. This tackles the key problem with the current law: the need to show that a single individual at the very top of a company is personally guilty of manslaughter before the company can be prosecuted.
The new offence will mean that courts can look at a wider range of management conduct than at present. It focuses responsibility on the working practices of the organisation, as set by senior managers, rather than limiting investigations to questions of individual gross negligence by company bosses.
The new offence will be clearly linked to the standards required under existing health and safety laws. The criminal liability of individual directors will not be affected by the proposals. Corporate manslaughter is an offence committed by organisations rather than individuals and will therefore carry a penalty of an unlimited fine rather than a custodial sentence.
Ministers have stressed that no new burdens will be placed on companies that already comply with health and safety legislation. Organisations taking a conscientious approach to their current obligations have nothing to fear.
The proposals will apply to Crown bodies, such as government departments, as well as the wider public sector and industry. They create a broad level playing field between public and private sectors and apply when both are carrying out similar activities, for example:
* Ensuring safe working practices for their employees (e.g. that staff are properly trained and equipment is in a safe condition);
* Maintaining the safety of their premises (e.g. ensuring that lifts are properly maintained and fire precautions taken); and
* When providing goods and services to members of the public, or when operating commercially (e.g. providing transport services, operating care homes or running hospitals).
The draft
legislation is also available on the Home Office website at
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk
23 March 2005, Portal
Publishing
Suspicious Powder Found in Mail Order Mailroom
Police say a suspicious powder has been found in a package at a mail order facility in Cheshire, NBC 30 reported.
Cheshire police told NBC 30 a call came in at 8:21 a.m. Wednesday from the Bloomingdale's By Mail on Knotter Road.
Inside the package was a bag with some sort of powder. The Fire Department tested the powder for anthrax. The test results came back negative.
A Federated Department Stores spokesperson told NBC 30 the suspicious powder was cocaine found in the pocket of a coat being returned from Florida.
Police have not confirmed the substance was cocaine.
Firefighters at the scene requested backup from the State Police Emergency Response Unit.
State troopers with experience dealing with biohazards were also sent to the scene.
The area where the suspicious powder was found was blocked off and employees were not allowed to leave.
The scene
was cleared around noon.
23 March 2005, NBC30
News
MI5 warns of heightened risk of mainland attacks by IRA
MI5 has
increased the level of its warning of attacks by the Provisional
IRA and by dissident republican paramilitary groups on mainland
Britain, senior anti-terrorist officials said yesterday.
The threat has been increased to "substantial".
However, this is still lower than the perceived threat from
Islamist groups linked to, or inspired by, al-Qaida. The threat
level from al-Qaida-linked groups is "severe-general".
It was raised to this level, the second highest, 14 months
ago.
It is believed to be the first time the security services
have raised the level of perceived threat from the IRA since
the early days of the Good Friday agreement of 1998.
The warning, issued two weeks ago, comes amid the growing
crisis in the republican movement in Northern Ireland over
the robbery of the Northern Bank in Belfast and the killing
of Robert McCartney.
It also follows the collapse of the talks between leaders of Northern Irish political parties, including Sinn Fein, last December.
Even before the talks, a group of republicans inside the IRA issued a statement opposing any moves to decommission weapons as part of a deal with Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party.
On Friday, MI5 issued a second alert, warning of an increased threat from dissident groups, notably the Real IRA - the breakaway splinter group which refused to accept the Good Friday accord and bombed Omagh in 1998 - to police special branches around Britain. Police told the London business community to be on guard.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said there was no specific intelligence related to any particular locations, events or individuals.
But the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, recently said that the general election and the royal wedding would be obvious targets for a high profile terrorist attack.
The security services have warned for years that the Good Friday agreement did not put an end to IRA training or targeting or acquisition of weapons or criminal activities, such as cross-border smuggling and racketeering.
But they now fear that groups within the IRA are prepared to take things further, by resuming terrorist attacks in Britain.
MI5's warning to police special branches on Friday was passed to the Met's anti-terrorist branch which alerted the business community.
The warning states: "Reporting indicates that dissident Irish republican terrorists are currently planning to mount attacks on the UK mainland," according to yesterday's Observer.
An email from Inspector Martin Gurney, of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit, to London First, an umbrella promotional group representing more than 300 leading companies, health trusts and educational institutions, said that methods of attack include "incendiary and improved explosive devices", "postal devices", and "shooting attacks".
It also warned that hoax calls could "amplify the disruptive effect of such attacks."
A London First spokeswoman confirmed that the organisation had received the Scotland Yard email on Friday, and forwarded it to its members.
These include British Air ways, Tesco, Barclays, Boots, Hilton, and the Canary Wharf Group.
"Since September 11 [2001], there is a growing need from businesses for information," she said.
The spokeswoman
added: "We recently established a relationship with the
anti-terrorist police, and this is the first time we have
been sent anything of this nature, saying that there was a
heightened alert."
21 March
2005, The Guardian
Police
dissident terror warning
Anti-terrorism police have warned
that dissident Irish republicans may be planning attacks in
Britain in the run-up to a general election.
The police sent a warning e-mail to businesses in London on
Friday, the Observer newspaper reported.
The e-mail said the threat level had been raised to "substantial".
A Scotland Yard spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the e-mail but said there was no intelligence on specific targets.
The "substantial" threat is just one below the "severe-general" level currently applied to al-Qaeda operations.
Reporting
indicates that dissident Irish republican terrorists are currently
planning to mount attacks on the UK mainland
Police e-mail, reported in the Observer
The internal threat assessment, used by the Anti-Terrorist Branch, the army, MI5 and MI6, is thought to have been passed to more than 300 major companies, educational institutions and NHS Trusts.
The system was introduced to help counter terrorism after the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in October 2002 that killed 202 people.
A Scotland Yard spokesman would only say: "There is no specific intelligence that indicates places, events or people in the UK that would lead us to issue specific warnings to the public."
The Observer said it had seen an e-mail sent from a counter-terrorism inspector in the Metropolitan Police to the London First lobby group which helps promote the capital.
It said the note read: "Reporting indicates that dissident Irish republican terrorists are currently planning to mount attacks on the UK mainland."
The note warned of "incendiary and improved explosive devices", "postal devices" and "shooting attacks".
The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Margaret Gilmore, said MI5 had received new intelligence that dissident republican groups had a new will to carry out mainland attacks.
She said that although the new warning was significant, most businesses were already operating on the higher threat level relating to al-Qaeda operations.
The IRA has observed a ceasefire in its attacks in Britain since 1997.
But the breakaway Real IRA was believed responsible for the Omagh bombing in 1998 and several mainland attacks up to 2001.
Security analysts believed that the group has largely broken up, although there may be threats from further splinter groups.
20 March 2005, BBC
ETA Attacks Businessmen Who Refuse to Contribute to Cause
ETA claims responsibility for several attacks in an statement in the Gara newspaper
The armed group pointed out that some of the attacks are a consequence of the businessmen's refusal to "contribute with money to the liberation of the Basque Country". Some others aimed at "Spanish tourist and economic interests".
The Basque armed group ETA claims responsibility, in an statement published in the Gara newspaper, for some attacks against several companies and one in Getxo. ETA points out that the attack in Neguri, a wealthy residential area in Getxo, aimed "the goods of the powerful people", which later quotes in a list.
ETA also claims responsibility for the attacks against a crane company in Ordizia, a parcel service company in Donostia-San Sebastian and two car dealers in Bilbao and Barakaldo. The Basque armed group also claims responsibility for the bomb in Denia last January 30, the bomb near a convention centre in Madrid last January 9 and the attack against the residence for employees of bank BBVA in southeastern Spain last January 27.
ETA says some of these attacks are a consequence of the refusal of the businessmen to "contribute with money to the liberation of the Basque Country" and others aimed at "Spanish tourist and economic interests".
20 March 2005, EITB News
U.S. Courthouses Address Security Issue
For years, lawyers and judges worried about lax security at the downtown King County Courthouse. It took a bloodbath to get their concerns addressed.
Metal detectors went up the next day, and weapons were barred from the court buildings, except for those carried by law enforcement and military personnel. Unarmed civilian screeners keep order alongside armed deputies.
Officials in Fulton County, Ga., are now starting a similar crackdown following the shooting of Judge Rowland Barnes and three others at an Atlanta courthouse. The March 11 shooting came just a day after Barnes asked for extra security because the suspect had been found with crude knives hidden in his shoes.
"Whenever you have an incident like the one in Atlanta, every judge thinks about it," said Washington Supreme Court Justice Charles Johnson. "They look around and start thinking about whether what has been done is enough."
Johnson served on a statewide court-security task force following the 1995 Seattle shootings, in which a man walked into the courthouse with a concealed semiautomatic pistol and used it to kill his pregnant, estranged wife and two of her friends as they sat on a bench outside a courtroom.
"I think we have the best system possible, but what happened in Atlanta certainly could happen here today, next week, or never," said John Urquhart, spokesman for the King County Sheriff's Office. "There's always someone bigger and badder and stronger than a particular deputy."
The Atlanta shootings - as well as the killing of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother in Chicago last month - have court officials across the country evaluating security measures, from metal detectors to the availability of guards.
There is no clear, nationwide picture of what measures have been taken to secure courthouses. Security in federal courts is handled by a single agency, the U.S. Marshals Service, but at the state and local level security measures vary widely.
The National Center for State Courts in Virginia has received a $100,000 Department of Justice grant to hold a court security summit with state supreme court justices next month.
"You don't want to feel that the people in Atlanta died without at least using that to say we've learned from it," said Mary McQueen, president of the courts center and the former Washington state courts administrator.
There still is no law barring anyone from carrying a firearm into any Washington courthouse outside King County.
In Georgia, deputies at the Fulton County courthouse use metal detectors to prevent the general public from bringing in weapons; court officers, however, are allowed to carry guns in the courthouse. The Atlanta shooter stole a weapon from a deputy.
Immediately after the March 11 shootings, Fulton County boosted security, adding 40 uniformed deputies and announcing that high-risk inmates will be transported separately, accompanied by specially trained officers.
Florida made similar efforts after three courthouse killings in the late 1970s and early '80s. Now, all visitors are screened by metal detectors. In Miami-Dade County, bailiffs and corrections guards aren't armed; instead, armed police officers with special training guard each buildings, said Jill Beach, spokeswoman for the local 11th Circuit Court.
Such measures don't stop emotional outbursts in divorce proceedings or criminal trials. But they can help ensure that outbursts don't escalate to gunfire.
"Emotions run extremely high in criminal court situations, when people are facing possible incarceration, they sometimes do very unpredictable things," Beach said. "But there was no way he ever had any chance of getting a weapon."
California's chief justice recently said two-thirds of his state's 451 courthouses lack adequate security. One judge, he said, stacked law books in front of his bench as a barrier to bullets after his rural courthouse was the scene of an attempted hostage-taking.
Washington provides the least money of any state for prosecutors, public defense and courts, McQueen said. As a result, counties must pay for court security and the measures they take are determined by available funding.
Thirty years after a judge was killed by a letter bomb in southeastern Washington's rural Franklin County, the county courthouse still doesn't have mail screening and its metal detector only comes out for high-profile cases.
"Violence
could happen anywhere in a courthouse," said Franklin
County Clerk Mike Killian. "You could have someone who
doesn't want to pay taxes go up and shoot someone in the assessor's
office. ... You need to be proactive."
20 March
2005
Suspicious
Envelope Addressed to Judge Prompts Courthouse Scare
The Allegheny County bomb squad was called Wednesday morning to Washington County Courthouse after a suspicious package was received in a senior judge's office.
Workers were ordered out of the basement. No one was allowed to enter the courthouse through the basement from the new Family Court Center after the large, thick envelope addressed to Senior Judge John F. Bell was received in his office as part of the daily mail delivery. The staff of Judge Paul Pozonsky also was told to stay out of its first-floor offices directly above Bell's office. However, the courthouse was not evacuated.
The bomb squad X-rayed the manila envelope, and after determining it was not explosive, opened it. The envelope was found to contain three thick letters in individual envelopes from murder defendant Marlene Smith of Washington, who is being held in Belmont County (Ohio) Jail.
Washington County Sheriff John Rheel said the judge's staff was suspicious of the letter because all the corners were taped, and a return address that had been cut from another piece of paper was taped on. The staff called the Belmont County sheriff's office, which was the return address, but no one there was aware of a package being sent. Bell was not expecting such a package.
The sheriff's office was notified, and the bomb squad was called.
"It fit a lot of profiles," said Washington County Chief Deputy Sheriff William Bryker. In addition to having the corners taped and the taped-on return address, the envelope was hand-addressed, and the address for Bell's office was incorrect.
"We have to take substantial steps when we suspect something is awry," Bryker said. "We definitely want to err on the side of caution."
Bryker said the bomb squad also took precautions before opening the letter in case it contained a toxic substance, such as anthrax.
He commended the judge's staff for raising questions about the envelope and following proper procedures. Bell was in a second-floor courtroom Wednesday when the letter was received.
Rheel said the entire courthouse was not evacuated because "the package was delivered through the mail, so it was rather obvious that motion wasn't going to set it off."
If it was a bomb, it likely would have detonated upon being opened, he said, so his office told the judge's staff not to touch it and to leave the area while the bomb squad was called.
Marlene Smith is scheduled to go to trial April 5 in Belmont County for the 1997 murder of Anthony Proviano, a second-year medical student whose body was found in his car behind a motel in St. Clairsville, Ohio, after failing to return home for Christmas. Also being held in the murder is Douglas Main of Canton Township.
Bell said Smith appeared before him on drug and retail theft charges a number of times over the years when he was a full-time judge, and she would sometimes stop by his office to chat with his staff. He said he didn't read the letters she sent, but apparently she wanted his help in some way and enclosed autopsy and crime scene photos from the murder case.
Wednesday's scare came as security is being stepped up at the courthouse in the wake of a shooting rampage by a criminal defendant at a courthouse in Atlanta. County judges are to discuss further security measures at a meeting Friday.
17 March 2005, Observer Reporter
Kentucky Attorney’s Office Evacuated After Receiving Suspicious Package
A suspicious package reported Thursday at an attorney's office in Erlanger posed no serious threat, News 5 reported.
Police said the office at 3814 Dixie Highway received the package at 9 a.m. from someone they hadn't conducted business with in a while. The package was a cardboard box wrapped in duct tape.
Erlanger police responded and they called for assistance from the Cincinnati bomb squad. After testing, officials said the package was tested and normal contents were found inside.
Dixie Highway was closed for about 10 minutes while crews handled the package.
The building
was evacuated.
17 March 2005, WLWT News
Anthrax Scare Turns Out to Be False Alarm
An apparent mix-up at a laboratory is being blamed for the anthrax scare that closed three area mail facilities that handle Pentagon-bound mail, and prompted nearly 900 workers to receive antibiotics.
The two-day scare that recalled the fatal bioterrorism attacks of 2001 turned out to be a false alarm after definitive tests at two facilities came back negative Tuesday for the deadly spores.
Officials believe the confusion stemmed from a mistake at the laboratory that did the initial testing, and the mistaken conclusion was confirmed by a Defense Department laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md.
The working theory is that workers at the initial laboratory, Commonwealth Biotechnology Inc. in Richmond, Va., contaminated the sample taken from the Pentagon with actual anthrax that is kept on hand for comparison purposes, a Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday. That would explain why the sample came back as positive for anthrax.
That initial sample, possibly already contaminated, was then delivered to Fort Detrick, which confirmed the presence of anthrax. ``It had already been handled by the contractor,'' said Caree Vander Linden, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick.
Later tests proved negative and officials realized the initial error, officials said.
Robert Harris, chief operating officer of Commonwealth Biotechnology, said it is premature to conclude that there was contamination at his lab and said testing is ongoing.
``The issue of contamination is questionable,'' he said. He said he still believes that the original sample might have been ``a true positive sample'' for anthrax. ``That's a possibility at this point.''
He said his company does daily testing on swabs taken from filters at the Pentagon mail facility.
Warning signs at the two Pentagon mail facilities on Monday led to the comprehensive testing. Nearly 900 workers were given precautionary antibiotics, and officials closed three mail facilities, including two that serve the Pentagon.
``We have nothing to suggest anything remotely like the events of October 2001,'' said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant defense secretary for health affairs, said.
In 2001 anthrax-by-mail attacks killed five people and panicked Americans still raw from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, scores of initial tests in government mailrooms have falsely reported anthrax.
Anthrax
can be spread through contact with the skin.
16 March 2005, AP
Government Security Report Outlines Terror Scenarios
Homeland Security Department officials are preparing a report that catalogues a dozen ways terrorists might strike in the United States in an effort to get state and local authorities thinking about ways to block them.
The department has been working for a year on a National Planning Scenarios plan that outlines a number of plausible attacks including by nerve gas, anthrax, pneumonic plague and truck bomb.
The report, still confidential, was requested by a presidential directive in December 2003 and will be made public in upcoming months, Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Tuesday.
Homeland Security "has developed a number of scenarios that will aid federal, state and local homeland security officials in developing plans to become more prepared to prevent and respond to an act of terrorism, should it occur," Roehrkasse said.
The plan also "will help us better target our efforts and resources in improving the nation's preparedness," he said.
Officials said there was no credible indication that such specific attacks were being planned.
The draft plan was first reported Tuesday night on the Internet site of The New York Times.
The report does not hypothesize where such attacks would take place since, Roehrkasse said. "The overall goal is to increase the overall baseline preparedness of all states and cities throughout the country," he said.
Besides identifying possible types of attacks, Roehrkasse said the report also estimates how many deaths and amount of economic damage the attacks would cause.
According to the Times, they include:
Blowing up a chlorine tank, killing 17,500 people and injuring more than 100,000.
Spreading pneumonic plague in the bathrooms of an airport, sports arena and train station, killing 2,500 and sickening 8,000 worldwide.
Infecting cattle with foot and mouth disease in several places, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
But a nuclear bomb, an exploding liquid chlorine tank or a widespread and prolonged aerosol anthrax spray ranked among the most devastating attacks outlined in the report, Roehrkasse said.
An estimated 350,000 people could be exposed to an anthrax attack by terrorists spraying the biological weapon from a truck driving through five cities over two weeks, according to the report. An estimated 13,200 people could die.
The report
also includes scenarios of natural disasters to hit major
cities, including a 7.2 magnitude earthquake and a Category
5 hurricane
26 March 2005, AP News
Mailed Threats Not New to Tennessee State Workers
The recent killings at an Atlanta courthouse and this week's anthrax scare at the Pentagon shows that safety in government buildings remains an uncertainty — something that Tennessee state workers know all too well.
Over the past three years nearly a dozen suspicious packages or messages sent with threats have been delivered to state workers in Nashville, state records show. Those targeted include workers at TennCare when, in November, the controversial bureau was sent an envelope filled with white powder. The incident prompted state Highway Patrol officers to seal the TennCare building on Church Street for several hours.
Just yesterday, a presentation Gov. Phil Bredesen was making with Dolly Parton at the downtown branch of the Nashville Public Library was cut short because of a bomb scare.
The bomb scare turned out to be only that. And the powder mailed to the TennCare office tested harmless. But these threats underscore how easy it is for those who work at a government office, or for the thousands who go to do business there, to become victims.
''When people see security, people in uniform, they feel they're in a safe place. They do let their guard down,'' said Capt. Bobby Trotter, who oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol team that guards the state Capitol and the nearby parts of downtown Nashville.
Bredesen said he is aware of threats and his staff stays aware of such things.
''I'm sensitive to the fact that when you're in a public place like that and Dolly Parton is there and it's been advertised very widely, it's a tempting target for somebody to do that kind of thing — make a phone call or leave a letter, or something like that,'' Bredesen said after he was whisked from the library.
Trotter said it's key to stay aware, even in government buildings that appear secure.
''What I always tell my officers is to never let the day get routine,'' he said. ''Never take anything for granted. Be vigilant. Pay attention.''
There is good reason for vigilance, it seems. State incident reports show that crime at Nashville's Capitol state complex include death threats slurred over a telephone; computers, engagement rings and wallets stolen; and a man strolling across the Capitol grounds, armed with a handgun.
After being held at gunpoint and handcuffed by state troopers, the man with the handgun said he had retrieved it from Metro police and was simply walking home with it in his hand. ''He stated several times that if he had known that it was going to cause so much of a problem he would have never attempted to walk down the street with it,'' according to the May 2004 report.
Other incidents at the Capitol or at surrounding buildings, some of which are state buildings and other privately owned, include:
• Dozens of thefts and burglaries, where the state lost thousands of dollars in computers and in specialized equipment.
• Vandalism to vehicles and stolen cars in parking lots and garages nearby.
• Mysterious letters and packages, some filled with suspicious powder. Each of those eventually proved harmless.
It appears the initial tests that detected anthrax in two military mailrooms near Washington on Monday may have been false, as well. As a precaution, hundreds of postal workers were offered antibiotics, and many took them.
Also as a precaution, three mail facilities were closed: two that serve the Pentagon and one in Washington that handles mail on its way to the military, as well as all federal offices in the area.
Even though the mystery packages received locally proved harmless, they are certainly eerie to those who received them, invoking the specter of the 2001 anthrax-by-mail attacks that killed five and panicked Americans still raw from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In one case in February 2004, an envelope filled with white powder was mailed to the Tennessee Supreme Court by an inmate in the Giles County Jail. In another case in June, a jar filled with a purple jelly substance and apparently armed with an M-80 firecracker was left at the Capitol. No one was injured in either case.
''What it did was give us a reminder that even though these incidents are few and far between, that for the one time that it's not a false alarm, it can be scary,'' said Marilyn Elam, the communications director for TennCare.
She and other workers were held in the building while the authorities investigated the package and the powder in November. She said that she and the other workers remained calm. ''You're really much more focused on the job, rather than your personal safety.''
Threats near the Capitol
Suspicious packages, threats or harassing letters at the Capitol complex since 2003. Authorities said arrests are hard to make in these cases because it's often difficult to pinpoint who sent a letter or left a package.
2004
Nov. 3 — Suspicious white powder arrives in the mail at the TennCare office.
Oct. 4— Threatening package received at the Andrew Jackson Building.
Sept. 27 — Harassing letter arrives at Gov. Phil Bredesen's office.
June 21 — Suspicious package found at the state Capitol.
April 7 — Suspicious envelope is discovered at the state Capitol.
Feb. 9 — Suspicious package is delivered to a state office in the James K. Polk building on Deaderick Street.
Feb. 2 — Suspicious letter including white powder arrives in the mail at the state Administrative Office of the Courts in the Nashville City Center building at 511 Union St. Unlike many of the other cases listed, this delivery bears a return address, that of an inmate in the Giles County Jail who is serving time for theft, vandalism and worthless checks.
2003
June 24 — Suspicious powder arrives in the mail at a state office at the Citizens Plaza building at 400 Deaderick St.
June 17 — Sexually offensive letter arrives at a state office in the David Crockett Tower, 710 James Robertson Parkway.
Feb. 27 — Suspicious letter arrives at the TennCare office on Church Street.
Source:
State Safety Department incident reports
The Tennessean 16 March 2005
County Courthouse in Savannah Under Quarantine
A Chatham County Superior Court judge's offices were temporarily quarantined Tuesday after an envelope containing a suspicious white powder was delivered.
The Hazardous Materials Team was called in after a judge's secretary opened routine correspondence and the powder spilled out. The letter was delivered through the U.S. mail.
The material was analyzed and determined to be foot powder, according to Sgt. Tommy Tillman, spokesman for the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.
Tillman said that while suspicious packages have been found outside the courthouse, he could not recall letters or packages mailed to a local judge containing suspicious substances. He called it the "first threat like this in 15 years."
The sheriff's
department and the FBI are conducting a joint investigation
16 March 2005, Savannah Morning News
IRS Building Shut Down After Strychnine Discovered in Mail
A portion of the Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington was shut down for about two hours this morning after the discovery of a suspected poisonous substance in a package, local fire officials said.
It was the second time in two days that a suspicious substance disrupted work in a federal government building in or near the capital. Two Defense Department mail centers were evacuated yesterday after sensors detected anthrax bacteria. Samples taken at the facility tested positive for anthrax, the Washington Post reported on its Web site, citing the Department of Health and Human Services.
Tests showed the substance in the package at the IRS was strychnine-based, similar to rat poison, Washington, D.C., fire department spokesman Alan Etter said. Anthony Burke, a spokesman for the IRS, said there was an "unknown substance in a suspicious package" and gave no details about how or where the package was discovered.
About 200 workers at the facility that processes Defense Department mail were being checked for exposure to anthrax and federal health officials have recommended they take a course of antibiotics, the Post reported. No one has reported any symptoms of contamination.
Since
envelops containing anthrax were sent to government offices
in 2001, all packages and mail destined for federal buildings
are irradiated and scanned before delivery.
15 March 2005 Bloomberg News
Mail Sets Off Anthrax Alarm at Defense Mail Centers
Sensors at two military mail sites in the Washington area detected signs of anthrax on two pieces of mail Monday, but officials said the mail already had been irradiated, rendering any germs inert.
Officials weren't sure whether this was an attack. Additional tests and other sensors at the two facilities, one of them at the Pentagon and the other nearby, found no presence of the bacteria, which can be used as a biological weapon.
The mail delivery site, which is separate from the main Pentagon building, was shut down Monday after sensors triggered an alarm, spokesman Glenn Flood said. It was expected to remain closed until Tuesday.
It was
unclear when sensors at the second mailroom were triggered
Monday. Firefighters in nearby Bailey's Crossroads, Va., reported
it shut down after a hazardous material was detected
15 March 2005, Chicago Tribune
Signs of Anthrax Detected at Two Pentagon Mail Facilities
Sensors at two military mail facilities in the Washington area detected signs of anthrax (search) on two pieces of mail, but the mail had already been irradiated, rendering any anthrax inert, defense officials told FOX News late Monday.
Officials weren't sure if this was an attack. Additional tests and other sensors at the two facilities, one of them at the Pentagon and the other nearby, found no presence of the bacteria, which can be used as a biological weapon. There were no initial reports of illness.
The Pentagon's mail delivery site, which is separate from the main Pentagon building, was evacuated and shut down Monday after sensors triggered an alarm around 10:30 a.m. EST, spokesman Glenn Flood said. It was expected to remain closed until at least Tuesday while the investigation continued.
While subsequent tests proved negative, the appearance of the bacteria is now the target of a criminal investigation by the FBI (search), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (search) and local law enforcement. The substance will be further tested at a facility at Ft. Meade, Md. (search)
It was not clear when sensors at the second Defense Department mailroom were triggered Monday, and Pentagon officials only said a nearby satellite mail facility was closed. But firefighters in nearby Bailey's Crossroads, Va., reported that a military mailroom had been shut down after a hazardous material was detected, and no one was allowed to leave that building.
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell said mail at both facilities were irradiated before arriving at either one. The radiation treatment would kill any anthrax bacteria, but sensors would still be able to detect it.
She had no information about the origin of the two pieces of mail.
About 175 people work at the Pentagon's mail facility, and another 100 may have been in contact with deliveries for the Pentagon, officials said.
Medical personnel took cultures from anyone who may have had contact with those deliveries, and those people were also offered a three-day course of antibiotics and told to watch for the signs of anthrax exposure: fever, sweats and chills.
Follow-up tests were being conducted at the U.S. Army Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Dietrich, Md., officials said. They would take two to three days to complete.
General operations at the Pentagon appeared unaffected.
Anthrax can be spread through the air or by skin contact. Officials noted that sometimes anthrax sensors can give false-positive results.
Several cases involving letters laced with killer substances remain unsolved.
In October 2001, someone sent anthrax in letters through the mail to media and government offices in Washington, Florida and elsewhere, raising fears of bioterrorism. Five people were killed and 17 more sickened.
In October 2003, two letters containing the poison ricin, sent to the Transportation Department and White House, were intercepted before they reached their destinations. The letters objected to new rules for long-haul truckers.
A small amount of ricin was discovered Feb. 2, 2004, on a mail-opening machine in the office suite of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. The discovery led to a shutdown of three Senate office buildings for several days, and about two dozen staffers and Capitol police officers underwent decontamination.
The Postal Service has since installed anthrax detection equipment in mail-handling facilities across the country in hopes of detecting any future attack early and preventing spread of the agent.
Former government bioterror expert Stephen Hatfill was surveilled for months following the attacks and was described by the Justice Department as a "person of interest." He sued former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other government officials for unspecified monetary damages, saying his reputation was ruined.
No one
has ever been charged with the crimes.
15 March 2005, Fox News
Threat Mailed to Judge’s NJ Office and Home
An immigration judge who has been receiving threatening letters at her Newark offices in recent months received a letter of an "alarming nature" at her home Saturday afternoon, law enforcement sources said.
Judge Esmeralda Cabrera, who works at the U.S. Immigration Court in Newark, received the letter in a batch of normal mail delivered to her Staten Island home, the sources said.
She had recently received a number of letters that sparked an investigation by federal authorities. That investigation, which remains ongoing, added a new, personal dimension on Saturday.
"These are public officials. It's not rare they receive threats," a law enforcement source said. "They get threats all the time, all the time."
However, sources said, this latest threatening letter crossed a boundary between her public role as an official to her province as a private citizen.
"Once it goes to the residence it can be a lot more alarming," a law enforcement source said.
A person who picked up the phone last night at a number listed as Cabrera's said the judge did not live there.
Law enforcement sources would not describe the content of the page-long typed letter but did say it was alarming, sources said.
When Cabrera opened the letter she contacted the police. The police department's bomb squad and elite Emergency Services Units responded to the scene as a precaution.
The responding officers took the letter as evidence and were planning to turn it over to federal authorities who were going to examine it and add it to the larger investigation of threats she has received at her office, sources said.
Cabrera makes life-altering decisions in her normal course of work. She enforces the controversial Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility law, passed in 1996 as a response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The law has resulted in a sharp increase in asylum seekers who end up in detention for long stretches, awaiting approval of their requests. She has the power to deport them.
The menacing
letters addressed to Cabrera come as law enforcement agencies
closely examine security protocols for the roughly 2,000 federal
judges and magistrates nationwide in the wake of a murderous
rampage by a defendant in Atlanta and the killing of a judge's
husband and mother in Chicago earlier this month
14 March 2005, Newsday
Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Anthrax Threats Against British Foreign Office
A man pleaded guilty in the United States to threatening to use anthra against staff at the British Foreign Office in London and could face up to life in prison, according to the US state attorney's office.
Kenneth West was accused of sending a letter containing death threats and a powdery substance he claimed to be deadly anthrax to the Foreign Office in 2002.
He pleaded guilty in a Miami court today to the charge of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, Marcos Daniel Jimenez, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.
Evidence presented by the state at the plea hearing showed that West, also known as Christian Noel Iglesias, had sent the death threats on July 22, 2002 while held in a federal detention centre in Miami.
The letter "caused significant disruption" at the Foreign Office in London, which was partly evacuated, and to nearby buildings, the statement said.
"The letter was linked to West through DNA testing and fingerprint analysis, as well as other scientific tests," Mr Jimenez said.
He said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Britain's Anti Terrorist Branch were involved in the investigation. West's sentencing hearing was scheduled for May 20, 2005.
A spate of anthrax attacks rocked the United States in 2001, when letters laced with the deadly substance showed up in congressional offices, newsrooms and post offices, killing five people.
A number of anthrax threats have since been made in the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
While a number of people have been arrested for issuing the threats, US officials have not arrested anyone for the anthrax deaths.
A report out in January showed that readiness against biological terrorism has improved as the United States has spent $US3 billion ($3.79 billion) to protect the public since the 2001 anthrax attacks, but that much work remains to be done.
12 March 2005, Courier Mail
UK Man Sentenced for Mail Threats Against TV Celebrity
A jobless insulation contractor who sent a threatening letter to BBC sports presenter Sue Barker has been jailed for six months.
Barry Tullett, of Meadow Road, Barking, east London, mentioned the murder of Jill Dando in his "appalling" note.
Tullet, 57, who pleaded guilty to three charges of sending offensive messages, had also sent two threatening letters to a Daily Mail journalist.
He was also made the subject of an anti-social behaviour order.
The order, imposed at West London Magistrates Court, prevents him communicating with any staff at the BBC or the Daily Mail for an indefinite period.
Tullet had earlier admitted three charges under the Malicious Communications Act of sending a message which was "grossly offensive for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety to the recipient".
"I am quite satisfied that these offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence is justified," said district judge Paul Clark.
"Any right thinking person would be appalled and repulsed by the contents of these letters.
"They contain gratuitous abuse, directed at members of the media in general, and in particular those to whom they were addressed."
The recipients of the letters would "understand the references to other people as being veiled references to them" .
The judge said the recipients would experience "offence, revulsion and fear".
Tullett's letter to Sue Barker, sent from Thailand on 20 February, 2004, said it might be time that the BBC had another Jill Dando.
Since ending her career as a professional tennis player, Barker has become a popular sports presenter with the BBC, best-known for hosting A Question of Sport.
Nina Singh, for Tullett, said he had not intended to cause harm or distress, and when interviewed by police he said he was sorry and shocked at the language in the letters.
The judge
sentenced him to three months for the letter to Sue Barker
and another three months for the letters to the Daily Mail
journalist.
11 March 2005, BBC News
Focus on Safety for Judges Includes Mail Protection
After years of efforts to safeguard courtrooms, the killing of a Chicago judge's husband and mother at their home has roused deep concern among federal judges and refocused the attention of government officials on ways to make judges and their families safer outside the courthouses.
Discussion of judicial security is expected to take center stage next week at the semi-annual meeting of the Judicial Conference, a high-level group of federal judges led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court.
"Certainly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, everyone took a timeout to look closely at security at federal courthouses and other facilities," said David A. Sellers, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and editor in chief of The Third Branch, the courts' official newsletter. "What happened last week in Chicago is similar. It calls for another timeout, this time to look at the specific issue of off-site security."
The Chicago judge, Joan Lefkow, did have off-site protection last year when a white supremacist was being tried on charges of plotting to kill her. But Bart A. Ross, the man now suspected of killing Judge Lefkow's husband and mother, had no apparent connection to supremacist groups, and instead was one of the numerous Americans who each year file lawsuits against public officials, a reminder that threats could come from anyone with a grievance. Mr. Ross shot himself to death Wednesday night.
The focus on security comes just over a year after the inspector general of the Justice Department released a report highly critical of the way the United States Marshals Service had been handling the job of safeguarding federal judges. The report said the service was working with databases that had not been updated since 1996, regularly taking longer than its own mandated time limits to respond to threats against judges and using manuals so old they did not take into account some new technologies, like cellphones.
Although highly critical of the report, officials at the marshals service promised to undertake the requested reforms.
Judge Jane R. Roth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the chairwoman of the conference's Committee on Security and Facilities, said she would attend the gathering in Washington on Tuesday and meet separately with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Benigno G. Reyna, director of the marshals service.
"We are very concerned, and we are making every effort to ensure that the intelligence-gathering on threats to judges and the evaluation of threats to judges is improved," said Judge Roth, who sits in Wilmington, Del.
With federal judges numbering more than 800, the biggest hurdle is money. "The expense of providing off-site security to judges would be phenomenally high," she said.
At the moment, the marshals service will do a survey of any federal judge's home, upon request, and recommend security upgrades like a home alarm system, perimeter cameras and a dog. The judges, however, must pay for the upgrades.
"I think, frankly, we should make sure every federal judge has a home alarm security system," Judge Roth said, "and I think there is a strong argument to be made that the federal government should pay for it."
The Federal Bar Association has also joined the effort. The group's president, Thomas R. Schuck, a Cincinnati lawyer, sent letters on Wednesday to President Bush, the attorney general and others asking them "immediately to assess and assure that funding for security requirements is adequate and that all prudent arrangements for the protection of judicial personnel, their families and our public courthouses have been made."
In a phone interview on Thursday, Mr. Schuck said his group and others were pinning their hopes on next week's meeting in Washington. "I think this will start the dialogue," he said.
David Turner, a spokesman for the marshals service, said the agency could not comment on security measures, even down to tiny details that may seem inconsequential but could put a judge's life in danger.
"Unfortunately, we can't answer what seem like even innocuous questions," Mr. Turner said. "So we have to come across sometimes like the village idiot."
Three federal judges have been killed in the last quarter-century. Judge John H. Wood Jr. was shot outside his home in San Antonio in 1979 by a hit man hired by defendants in a drug-smuggling case, Judge Richard J. Daronco was shot at his home in Pelham, N.Y., in 1988 by a retired police officer upset that the judge had dismissed a suit and Judge Robert S. Vance, an appeals judge, was killed by a mail bomb in 1989 from a man upset about a bombing conviction.
Judge Roth said she and other federal judges were also concerned about the increasingly high-profile politicization of the judiciary.
Linking judges to politics in this way creates a climate in which political extremists or other aggrieved parties are nudged closer to violence against judges and their families, Judge Roth said.
11 March 2005, NY Times
Two Courts Cleared in Detroit for Anthrax Scares
Courthouses in downtown Detroit and Bloomfield Township were evacuated Wednesday after employees opened envelopes containing white power and notes suggesting they contained anthrax, authorities said.
Both were determined to be hoaxes.
The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, which houses the Wayne County Circuit Court criminal division and prosecutors' offices, was evacuated after an employee of Judge Timothy Kenny opened an envelope about 3:30 p.m., said Darryl Fordham, chief of staff for the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
Hundreds of people left the building as hazardous materials crews secured the area.
Fordham said a note inside the envelope stated the powder was anthrax, but officials later said it appeared to be part of a hoax.
The powder smelled like talcum powder, police said in a news release. The contents of the letter, as well as the identity of the sender, remained under investigation.
"The general consensus is that it's one of a series of hoaxes going around government offices," said John Roach, spokesman for Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans.
The FBI is investigating.
Earlier in the day, local and federal authorities responded after an employee of 48th District Court in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township opened an envelope about 10:50 a.m. that contained white powder, police said.
The courthouse
was reopened about 1:30 p.m.
10 March 2005, Detroit
Free Press
Bomb threat at Wipro office in Bangalore
An anonymous call claiming that a bomb was planted at an office
of software major Wipro on Mahatma Gandhi road in Bangalore
on Wednesday put the police on high alert.
A dog and metal detector squad was rushed to the multi-storeyed building, which also houses The Times of India office, after the call was received at Wipro's office - one of the New York Stock Exchange listed companies in the city.
"Checking is going on, including physical checking," a police official said. The squad is currently taking an inventory of the entire building.
Wipro's main campus is located on Sarjapur road on the city outskirts.
9 March 2005, Press Trust of India
Belgian Authorities Intercept Radioactive Letters Ahead of Bush Visit
Belgian authorities said Wednesday they intercepted five letters with a slightly radioactive substance addressed to the royal palace, NATO headquarters and the European Parliament ahead of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit last month.
Officials said police were examining the letters, which contained small amounts of natural uranium. They insisted the letters never posed a health risk to those who handled them or a threat to Bush or European leaders meeting in Brussels.
They said they still had no idea who could have sent the letters, which were also mailed to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and to the Belgian Foreign Ministry.
An investigation into a similar scare, when letters containing suspicious powders were sent to NATO and to the palace two years ago, has still not yielded results, officials said.
Public Health Agency spokeswoman Inge Jooris said natural uranium is only slightly radioactive and is present in soil and rocks.
"The quantity of radiation present can be compared to the natural radiation that you find if you were to visit the Ardennes (Belgian hills) or during a flight to the United States," Jooris told TV station VRT news.
Security was extremely tight during Bush's Feb. 20-23 visit to Belgium. Many avenues and streets were cordoned off, and workers at the European Union headquarters, which Bush visited, were told to stay home during his talks there.
9 March 2005, AP
Eco-Radicals Target Growth in Northern California
Most Bay Area residents know Auburn -- a quaint Gold Rush town in the Sierra foothills -- as a pit stop on the way to Lake Tahoe. Brick buildings from the 1850s dot the streets, and old-timers still gather for coffee at the marble counter of the 109-year-old Auburn Drug Company.
But in the past three months, Auburn has become known for something else: ``eco-terrorism.''
The Earth Liberation Front -- the underground environmental network that has used sabotage, arson and vandalism to attack everything from logging equipment to genetically engineered crops and SUVs -- has hit the foothills town and fast-growing nearby communities.
And this time, the radical group's target is sprawl.
In late December, crude incendiary devices were found in three houses under construction at a luxury subdivision in Lincoln. Graffiti that read ``Enjoy the world as is -- as long as you can'' was found along with buckets filled with gasoline, diesel fuel, wires and kitchen timers.
In January, five more devices were found at a commercial building under construction in Auburn. And last month, a newly built apartment complex in the Amador County hamlet of Sutter Creek was targeted. ``We will win,'' was scrawled in red paint at the site, but a sprinkler system rendered most of the devices useless before they went off.
No one has been injured. But the spate of attacks -- and the arrest of four young locals in connection with the arson attempts -- has stunned residents, infuriated developers and contractors and intrigued law enforcement officials who have tracked the elusive ``elves'' for years. Investigators still have not caught the members who burned down a San Diego apartment complex in August 2003, causing $50 million in damage.
The ELF has been tough to crack because its members operate in autonomous cells and are savvy about technology, surveillance and forensics. ELF attacks -- which have occurred across the country -- are often marked by two calling cards: graffiti and politically charged missives claiming responsibility for and explaining the ``action.''
``It was done in honor of everyone who has felt helpless to sprawl and development, everyone who feels their rural lifestyles are being threatened by these mass-produced designer communities,'' reads the communique about two of the three arson attempts in the foothills near Sacramento.
Last month, a tip led FBI agents to Newcastle resident Ryan Daniel Lewis, 21. He was indicted Feb. 24 in all three incidents, and was denied bail. Lewis, who lives with his parents on a 17-acre mandarin orange orchard, has pleaded not guilty, and his defense attorney has requested a jury trial.
After Lewis' arrest, pipe bombs were found at the historic Placer County Courthouse in Auburn and a local DMV office. And in the past week, three other Newcastle residents -- Jeremiah Colcleasure, 24, and sisters Eva and Lili Holland, ages 25 and 20 -- have also been arrested in connection to the first three attempted arsons.
Joyce Estey, 65, agrees that the foothills are growing too quickly. But she questions why someone would turn to arson and pipe bombs to make their point.
``You feel like you live in a rural area, and something like this doesn't happen here,'' said Estey, shortly after the news of Lewis' arrest. Estey regularly meets her daughter and grandson at the courthouse. Built in 1894, the majestic three-story building is the crown jewel of Old Town Auburn. But the attempted bombing makes her uneasy.
``Why would they put a bomb in a courthouse that's more than 100 years old?'' said Estey. ``And doesn't a bomb or a fire pollute the environment?''
Keith Slotter, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Sacramento field office, said the ELF has become more active in Northern California.
``They continue to gain followers,'' said Slotter. ``And sprawl is their primary issue.''
Placer County is one of California's fastest-growing counties. It added 75,000 residents from 1990 to 2000, according to the U.S. Census, a 44 percent increase. Many newcomers are Bay Area refugees and retirees who have settled in booming south county communities like Lincoln, Rocklin and Roseville, where HP has a facility.
Longtime residents worry that the rapid pace and sheer volume of new construction is ruining the region's quality of life.
``It's Southern California and Silicon Valley all over again, and that's a huge concern,'' said Dale Smith of Friends of Placer County Communities, a ``smart growth'' group that has battled Wal-Mart and other mega-stores. ``But these bombings are counterproductive. It throws a bad light on people who really do care about their community, and that's unfortunate.''
Smith said he was not surprised that 20-somethings were involved.
``I don't quite understand it,'' he said, ``but young people have been prone to do stupid things ever since I was young.''
Placer County has always leaned Republican: President Bush won 63 percent of the vote in the November 2004 election, and many town officials and county supervisors have a pro-development reputation. Though some residents have banded together to fight big-box department stores, radical environmental groups are not the norm here.
More than 190 investigations associated with the ELF and its twin, the ALF, or Animal Liberation Front, are under way in FBI field offices across the country. Just last month, FBI Director Robert Mueller warned a Senate committee that environmental extremists are expected to continue attacks on residential and commercial development.
``Builders of all types should be on the lookout,'' said John Frith of the California Building Industry Association, who said FBI agents have met with developers and contractors. ``There's reason to believe that radical environmentalists will continue their efforts, particularly as development occurs in more rural areas.''
9 March 2005, Mercury News
Bomb Alert in Indian Post Offices
Waking up to threats from Maoist rebels, the authorities have decided to equip the posts offices of the steel city with letter bomb detector machines.
The step is being taken in view of the threat issued by the rebels to blow up post offices of Singhbhum. Sources in the Bistupur main post office said 20 letter bomb detection machines have arrived for installation at various post offices in East and West Singhbhum. The post offices marked out for installation of the machines include Bistupur, Sakchi, Telco, Golmuri and Tatanagar Railway Mail Service (RMS) post office. Besides, the machines would also be installed at the post offices of Ghatshila, Chaibasa and Bahragora, the sources added. K.K. Sinha, director, Jharkhand circle of Post and Telegraph, confirmed that the letter bomb detection machines will be installed at the post offices of Singhbhum as well as in other districts of the state. He, however, declined to comment further.
Sources in the divisional post office at Golmuri said the Jharkhand circle of Post and Telegraph had recently sent a letter outlining the threat of a possible attack from the rebels. “The Maoist ultras had two months ago threatened to blow up some post offices of Singhbhum. The decision to install letter bomb detection machines has been taken as a precaution against the threat issued by the rebels,” the sources added.
“It is difficult to discard the threats. It is better to take precaution in advance,” sources at the divisional post office added. Sources said the letters are kept on top of the equipment to detect whether they were carrying any explosive items or not. The machine will detect the explosive items within seconds. More such machines would be installed in areas that have a large concentration of rebels.
“As of now, 20 letter bomb detection machines have been despatched to the divisional post office here. More would be sent after these machines are installed at the earmarked post offices,” the sources revealed.
The sources revealed that the machines would be installed in a phase manner at other rebel-infested regions. “More post offices of the Singhbhum region, which have a larger concentration of ultras, including Ghatshila subdivision, would shortly be getting letter bomb detection machines,” they said.
7 March 2005, The Telegraph
Nepal's
security forces destroy Maoist bomb factory
Nepal's
security forces have destroyed the largest bomb-making factory
set up by Maoist rebels in Chitwan district, about 225 kms
from here and seized a large cache of bombs, the army said
today.
Joint teams of security forces raided the factory in Devitar village acting on a tip-off by locals, a statement issued by the Royal Nepalese Army headquarters said here.
Security forces have recovered over 2,000 socket bombs, a large number of roadside mines, 320 detonators, gun powder, large quantity of raw materials and hundreds of home made weapons and equipment from the site, it said.
A large quantity of food grains, clothes and utensils collected by the rebels were also recovered from the factory.
The factory was established by the Maoists to make socket bombs, improvised explosive devices, it said.
Meanwhile, the Maoists looted two tankers of kerosene which were being transported to the district headquarters on Friday, state-run daily 'The Rising Nepal' reported.
The tankers belonging to Phungling-based Rubi Kiran Enterprises were hijacked by the rebels at Kabeli Dovan on the border between Panchthar and Taplejung districts in eastern Nepal.
Security forces have been mobilized in the area to hunt the rebels, the report said.
Local
authorities in Taplejung district sent four persons to jail
for their alleged involvement in the Maoist activities
6 March
2005, India News
Hospitals, Businesses Ponder Value of Biohazard Detectors
Until two years ago, Washington Hospital Center doctors thought the threat posed by a dirty bomb was about as real as a Tom Clancy novel: thrilling fiction, but certainly no reason to change everyday hospital procedure.
"But then the switch flips," said Christopher Wuerker, chairman of emergency management at the District hospital, describing how he and other administrators decided they should spend about $100,000 on radiological detection devices for key entrances. "You hear experts start talking about how such an attack could happen. You read about how widely available nuclear isotopes are. You go from not needing this equipment to needing it immediately."
In coming to terms with exotic threats like dirty bombs and toxins, local hospitals, police and fire departments, and other emergency agencies face a difficult choice: Invest tens of thousands of dollars in increasingly complex detection equipment, or risk being less than prepared in the event of a terrorist strike.
The marketplace is flooded with new devices, ranging from cheap tests resembling high school chemistry sets -- helpful in weeding out "white powder hoaxes" -- to expensive portable electronic machines that can quickly identify toxic agents such as ricin.
Total revenue for the biodefense industry cannot be pinned down because many companies are privately held and don't have to publicly report their sales. But some public-health experts think that hospitals and government agencies are too quick to buy equipment they may never use.
"Since 9/11, we've obviously been told, for good reason, that we don't know what threats might be lurking out there, and obviously we need to be prepared," said Stephen S. Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Columbia University. "But at the same time, if you buy such a machine, it should have a broader function. It shouldn't be used for some special purpose, in which you may never even use it. It promotes a false sense of security. The money could be better spent on something for daily use."
At Washington Hospital Center, the decision was made easier because federal money was available to pay for $12.5 million in emergency equipment it bought recently. Federal agencies have provided billions of dollars in local grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to boost preparedness.
Hospital and emergency-preparedness officials said that may not be the best use of their money in terms of saving lives, but the fear of not being ready for an attack is acute.
"It's difficult to deal with these fanatical threats when doctors and nurses are just trying to get through the day," Wuerker said. "But we have to address all the needs. We have to address all the threats."
In some cases, hospitals have spent their own money.
At Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, fears of a terrorist attack run deep. Anxiety among physicians and first-responders is especially strong because Hackensack is densely populated, packing 43,000 residents into four square miles. A biological attack could quickly infect thousands of people if health officials didn't quickly identify and treat victims.
Last month, hospital officials decided that the threat warranted spending $69,000 on an M-Series M1M Analyzer, a portable biological-agent-detection machine made by BioVeris Corp., a Gaithersburg biotech firm. Powder, soil, water, or food samples are placed into vials and inserted into the M1M. Proprietary testing mechanisms analyze the substances and within 15 minutes can identify anthrax, botulinum neurotoxins, ricin, and staphylococcal enterotoxins.
Without the machine, samples would have to be sent to another lab, delaying results for perhaps 24 hours.
"We know that from the anthrax attacks of 2001 that when you diagnose these diseases early, you start treatment early, you increase survival," said Edward Yamin, vice chairman of the hospital's trauma department.
"We had to have it," said Robert L. Torre, vice president and chief operating officer of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation. "We knew right away that this hospital needed it, and this community needed it. We hope they sell a hundred of these things and nobody ever needs to use them."
Since launching the product last year, BioVeris has sold 40 analyzers to the Defense Department, for use in laboratories and in battle. The sale in Hackensack was the company's first to a non-military customer. Such sales are a key focus this year for BioVeris and its 200 employees.
BioVeris President Richard J. Massey said the company is sensitive to concerns that an M1M could collect dust, and its marketing strategy includes highlighting daily uses for the machine, such as testing fluids for influenza or other viruses. Washington Hospital Center officials say they try to use federal money to buy equipment that can be used every day, such as a high-speed X-ray machine that can quickly scan for broken bones in accident victims as well as for shrapnel from an attack.
Michael P. Allswede, who coordinates disaster preparedness at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, questions whether hospitals should buy biological-detection devices at all, though his facility hasn't. "Here's the simple fact: Sick people come to the hospital, not powder specimens," he said. With that in mind, officials at Inova Fairfax Hospital and several hospitals in Montgomery County said they rely on more low-tech practices: performing thorough physical examinations using specific questions to help determine whether symptoms could be related to biological agents.
Identification of specific toxins has been left mostly to first-responders and hazardous-materials teams. They have been snapping up handheld devices such as the RAMP system (for Rapid Analyte Measurement Platform), developed after the 2001 anthrax attacks by Response Biomedical Corp. in Burnaby, B.C. The machine, which costs about $9,000, contains antibodies from toxins such as anthrax and ricin. When samples containing those toxins are inserted into the machine, the antibodies quickly bind to the substances, signaling to the user the specific type of toxins.
Bill Radvak, the company's chief executive, said the firm sold more than 200 RAMP devices and he expects to sell more than that this year. His buyers include major corporations and manufacturers, medical schools and defense contractors. He declined to identify any of his customers, citing security concerns and request for confidentiality.
20/20 GeneSystems Inc., a Rockville start-up, offers a cheaper test that has been popular for detecting powder hoaxes, which have overtaken bomb threats as the method of choice to disrupt businesses and schools. In Maryland, there are three or four white-powder incidents each month, according to Dennis R. Schrader, the state director of homeland security.
The BioCheck Kit sells for about $25 and tests whether certain biological materials are present in suspicious substances, indicating whether they could be toxins. Jonathan Cohen, 20/20's president and chief executive, said his company has sold thousands of tests -- to Montgomery County's hazardous-materials team, the Orlando police, the Florida Department of Health, Jacksonville police for use at the recent Super Bowl and law-enforcement agencies in Europe. 20/20 recently began marketing the BioCheck Kit to corporations.
It's not exactly foolproof. Wheat flour, because it contains protein, can test positive. But it can help rule out many phony threats.
"If somebody sends a company a hoax and they don't have the capability to quickly test it, they have to shut down until they can test the whole building," said Richard B. Emery, president of Emery & Associates Inc., which trains companies to use the RAMP system.
A member of a hazardous-materials team for a global pharmaceutical company -- for security reasons, the team member requested anonymity -- said after the 2001 anthrax attacks, his employer was persuaded to buy 20/20's product and a handheld biodetection system from Alexeter Technologies LLC of Wheeling, Ill., near Chicago.
"You have to have it," the team member said. "For employee piece of mind and because when you are manufacturing a product, you have to know right away whether a threat is real."
The company has used neither product.
Scott Gottlieb, who studies biotech companies for the American Enterprise Institute, said the companies likely to succeed in the bioterrorism market are those working on technologies that constantly sniff the air for traces of toxins.
One company he mentioned, publicly traded Cepheid Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif., is part of a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. that is completing installation this year of devices to detect anthrax at 284 mail facilities. Machines placed over mail-processing areas constantly suck in air and filter it through cartridges provided by Cepheid. The cartridges process air samples, looking for genetic matches with anthrax.
Continuing purchases by the U.S. Postal Service have been a boon for Cepheid. Its sales in 2003 were $16 million. The company's guidance for sales in 2004 was $46 million to $48 million. The firm's chief executive said he is increasing efforts to sell the machines to government agencies and private companies.
Gottlieb said potential customers include airlines, transportation hubs and large gathering places such as sports arenas.
For its air-sniffing purposes, the Homeland Security Department has spent more than $35 million with six companies, mostly start-ups, to modernize its air sampling in 30 metropolitan areas.
The current system requires technicians to remove collection samples in 36-hour increments, then take them to laboratories. That would slow a response to a biological attack.
Homeland Security officials want to update the system so it both collects the samples and tests them, and then sends results electronically.
"Now is a very critical time, but this is also an opportune time," said Jane A. Alexander, a Homeland Security Department official overseeing the project. "The technology is mature enough where we can now do these things."
7 March 2005, Washington Post
Bomb Alert in Indian Post Offices
Waking up to threats from Maoist rebels, the authorities have decided to equip the posts offices of the steel city with letter bomb detector machines.
The step is being taken in view of the threat issued by the rebels to blow up post offices of Singhbhum. Sources in the Bistupur main post office said 20 letter bomb detection machines have arrived for installation at various post offices in East and West Singhbhum. The post offices marked out for installation of the machines include Bistupur, Sakchi, Telco, Golmuri and Tatanagar Railway Mail Service (RMS) post office. Besides, the machines would also be installed at the post offices of Ghatshila, Chaibasa and Bahragora, the sources added. K.K. Sinha, director, Jharkhand circle of Post and Telegraph, confirmed that the letter bomb detection machines will be installed at the post offices of Singhbhum as well as in other districts of the state. He, however, declined to comment further.
Sources in the divisional post office at Golmuri said the Jharkhand circle of Post and Telegraph had recently sent a letter outlining the threat of a possible attack from the rebels. “The Maoist ultras had two months ago threatened to blow up some post offices of Singhbhum. The decision to install letter bomb detection machines has been taken as a precaution against the threat issued by the rebels,” the sources added.
“It is difficult to discard the threats. It is better to take precaution in advance,” sources at the divisional post office added. Sources said the letters are kept on top of the equipment to detect whether they were carrying any explosive items or not. The machine will detect the explosive items within seconds. More such machines would be installed in areas that have a large concentration of rebels.
“As of now, 20 letter bomb detection machines have been despatched to the divisional post office here. More would be sent after these machines are installed at the earmarked post offices,” the sources revealed.
The sources revealed that the machines would be installed in a phase manner at other rebel-infested regions. “More post offices of the Singhbhum region, which have a larger concentration of ultras, including Ghatshila subdivision, would shortly be getting letter bomb detection machines,” they said.
7 March 2005
Artistic ‘Mailbomb' Maker Acquitted in Ohio
College art student Andy Shondrick has a quirky sense of the absurd -- a trait that almost landed him in prison.
Last August he mailed a clock in a homemade package, which he said was a parody of a bomb, as a housewarming gift to a female friend.
But the heavily taped cardboard box looked like a real bomb to postal inspectors when they X-rayed it after it began beeping at the Lakewood Post Office.
Worried employees evacuated the building and a bomb squad was called.
Shondrick was charged last November with mailing a threat to use an explosive device and mailing a hoax bomb -- felonies that could have brought him as much as 20 years in prison.
On Thursday a jury acquitted the 23-year-old after deliberating about two hours following a three-day trial in U.S. District Court.
"We're thrilled," said Gordon Friedman, Shondrick's attorney, who said the charges should never have been filed.
"What he did was stupid, naive, or maybe even reckless," Friedman told U.S. District Judge John Adams during the trial, "but his purpose was not to set out to intimidate through threats."
Shondrick could not be reached for comment after the verdict.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Tripi said he accepted the jury's verdict.
Shondrick, of Granger Township, testified that he never intended to harm or threaten anyone and voluntarily met for hours with postal inspectors. "I wanted to give her an experience," he testified. "An interactive piece of art."
Steve Stebbins, the lead postal inspector on the case, testified the package was one of the most advanced hoax bombs he had ever seen.
"It was a very sophisticated working mail bomb, except that it had no explosive," he said.
Shondrick, a studio arts major at the University of Akron, wanted to send a gift to Theresa Szentendrei last August after she moved into a Lakewood apartment.
She is also an artist, so he decided to make a novelty clock and package it creatively.
He spent two weeks on the project. Inside a homemade cardboard box, he placed a decorated clock. He made a device using wire, watch batteries and nails, that would beep and light up once the lid of the box was lifted
He also placed five pieces of cardboard tube painted red, stacked in a pyramid and taped to resemble cartoon dynamite, he testified. He included several coils of wire, not connected to anything, and marbles as decorative elements.
He also enclosed a tape of "Edward Scissorhands," Szentendrei's favorite movie, and several photographs of the couple. He also included wire cutters and four colored wires poking through holes in the cardboard.
"All you have to do is cut the right wire to disarm the buzzer," according to a photograph of the note he had put in the box. "Once you have successfully disarmed the buzzer, remove the alarm clock, which so obviously is NOT a bomb, from the box."
Shondrick's name, town and ZIP code were written on the return label on top of the box.
Shondrick testified THAT he checked the Postal Service Web site to make sure none of the box's contents were illegal to mail. He told Stebbins he didn't think his package looked suspicious, even though it was heavily taped and the writing on the labels had a mix of capital and lower-case letters.
The package was sent from the Fairlawn post office on Aug. 16. It arrived at the Lakewood Post Office three days later and started beeping.
The post
office and area around it, including the Lakewood Board of
Education, were evacuated for several hours while the box
was blown up
4 March 2005, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Bomb Hoax Scare at Target Store in California
The investigation into a device made to look like a bomb that was found in a Target bathroom last month has led to authorities releasing a surveillance photo of a man they ish to talk to.
Target was evacuated around 11:15 a.m. Feb. 16, when the device was found in the men's rest room.
The store was closed while authorities, including a bomb expert with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, secured the scene, X-rayed the device and determined it wasn't a bomb.
"The
Eureka Police Department is interested in learning the identity
of a subject seen entering the area where the fake bomb was
placed seconds before its detection," stated a department
news release
4 March 2005, Times Standard
Extortion Bomb Threat at Mall in Manilla
Harassment and extortion are the angles being looked into by police authorities over the failed bomb attack on KCC Mall here on Tuesday.
Three incendiary devices were recovered at the men's Ready-To-Wear (RTW) section of KCC shopping mall Tuesday evening causing authorities to further heighten security around the city.
Police said one of the devices was lit but failed to explode and was immediately noticed by a sales lady.
A company-owned K-9 squad sniffed the two other bombs, placed inside the pockets of jeans of the same section.
The incendiary bombs were fashioned out from a 3310 Nokia cellular phone and were obviously meant to cause a fire.
Col. Medardo Geslani, Joint Task Force-Gensan chief said the planned attack could still be part of the planned terror activities of the Abu Sayyaf.
He said extortion activities and harassment could be the motive in the failed bomb attack.
He said they received intelligence reports regarding the secret alliance of Jemaah Islamiya, Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other rebel groups in Mindanao.
Police also released two sketches of people believed to be behind the planting of the three incendiary bombs.
The suspects entered the KCC mall together. Police believed the bombs were planted around 7 Tuesday night.
Central
Mindanao Police Director Antonio Billones said they are checking
the possible link of the KCC mall failed bomb attack to the
Valentines Day blast at Gaisano mall.(Super Balita General
Santos)
3 March 2005, Sun Star
Homemade Bombs Explode in Milan and Genoa
Italy's interior minister blamed anarchists for three explosive devices that caused blasts near a paramilitary police barracks in Genoa and two others that exploded near paramilitary barracks in Milan.
Although no injuries were reported at the two Carabinieri offices, Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told politicians the devices were "meant to kill."
Pisanu, political head of Italy's state police forces, also repeated his assessment in comments to reporters and pledged the country would crack down on the attackers.
An anarchist group linked in the past to a series of parcel bomb explosions in Italy, claimed responsibility for planting the devices in the two cities, authorities said.
The minister,
referring to the Italian Mediterranean island, described the
bombs as the latest "attempt to link the anarchists with
other subversive groups cut from different ideological matrixes,
in this case, with the movements of revolutionary Sardinian
resistance."
3 March 2005, AP
Australian Agricultural Minister Attacks Animal Rights Group
Federal Agricultural Minister Warren Truss has attacked an animal rights group, claiming it has been involved with terrorist groups in the United States.
Warren Truss says there is evidence linking People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to other groups that have conducted terrorist-type actions on farm industries, including blowing up delivery trucks.
PETA is involved in a campaign against Australian Wool, claiming practices such as mulesing are cruel to sheep.
Mulesing is the surgical removal of folds of skin in the breech of sheep as a measure against flystrike.
Mr Truss says the Federal Government is investigating whether it can legislate against PETA.
"I'm
saying that we don't want that kind of activity in Australia
and that organisations that are prepared to be associated
with violence of that nature need that fact to be exposed,"
he said.
Official
Says U.S. Prepared to Fight Anthrax
The United States is better prepared today to protect Americans against an anthrax attack like the ones that killed five people and terrorized the country in 2001, a senior U.S. Postal Service security official told The Associated Press Tuesday.
That's not the case in other countries, however, with the world's police ill-equipped to handle an "urgent" bioterrorism threat even as al-Qaida pursues chemical and biological weapons development, said other officials at an Interpol conference here.
In America, anthrax identification equipment is part of a new biohazard detection system now running in nearly 100 of the country's 283 mail processing facilities - with the remainder to be installed by November, said Zane M. Hill, the inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Service's dangerous mail and homeland security division.
The equipment can stop an anthrax-laced letter, meaning that, "all the employees there would be protected and nobody in the public would get sick," Hill said in an AP interview on the sidelines of the conference devoted to bioterrorism.
The threat of a bioterrorism attack has been a growing concern since the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes against the United States by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin revealed that al-Qaida pursued development of chemical and biological weapons after U.S. attack on bin Laden's militants in Afghanistan.
While Afghanistan was under Taliban control, al-Qaida militants trained in how to develop and use biological materials, including ricin and botulism, de Villepin told the gathering.
"More recently, after the fall of the Taliban, these groups pursued their work in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge," de Villepin said, an area in the former Soviet republic that Moscow says is a refuge for Chechen militants and international terrorists.
He didn't say how recently the efforts were detected but, separately, said: "Today, we know that certain terrorist groups have tried to get their hands on chemical and biological agents."
"The threat must be taken seriously," he added.
Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble warned that al-Qaida has stated its intention to use biological weapons and has posted instructions for making them on the Internet.
"The threat of bioterrorism is real," Noble told the conference, billed as the largest meeting of police with more than 500 police and counterterrorism officials from 155 countries.
Interpol is based in the southeastern city of Lyon.
"There is no criminal threat with greater potential danger to all countries, regions and people in the world than the threat of bioterrorism," Noble said.
"And there is no crime area where the police generally have as little training than in preventing - or responding to - bioterrorist attacks," he added.
South African Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who is also Interpol's president, singled out the possibility of an attack on the international food chain and livestock - a threat he said was receiving "relatively little" attention.
"This is not science fiction," he said, "but a call for urgent prevention."
During the two-day meeting, police were examining past terrorist incidents, including the anthrax-by-mail incidents in the United States and the 1995 sarin attacks in the Tokyo subway. Talks were also focusing on how to better prevent and prepare for threats and training police to handle them.
Senior officials at the meeting include those from the New York Police Department and London's Metropolitan Police, as well as from Canada, Malaysia, Russia and Singapore.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, international cooperation has improved. Now 117 countries contribute to Interpol's global database of names and photographs of suspected terrorists, Selebi said. The database, which had information on 2,202 people in 2001, now has the names and pictures of more than 8,000 suspects. Another database for stolen travel documents that was launched in 2002 with 3,150 entries now has more than 5.5 million.
However, gaps remain.
De Villepin said countries needed to pool information from their biotech labs, security agencies and hospitals to better track terrorist threats and know where to turn for help.
Noble noted two shortcomings that could hinder a fast response to a biological attack. He said police need a worldwide list of scientists and health experts who could be consulted in an emergency and a high-tech system whereby one police force could alert others around the world of a terrorist threat.
The U.S. Postal service, for example, could have responded faster and more effectively to the deadly anthrax attacks had there been a system in place that allowed for immediate coordination with scientists and other experts, said Hill.
"We
didn't know about the science or a lot about the health risk,"
said Hill. "We learned that as we went."
1
March 2005, AP News
New Jersey Man to be Sentenced for Mail Threats
A Vinetown man who admitted to making hoax terrorist threats last year to kill President George Bush in order to gain revenge on a former employer will be sentenced in federal court today.
The maximum sentence 33-year-old Rafael Santiago faces is 10 years in a federal prison and as much as $250,00 in fines.
According to reports, in February 2004, Santiago mailed threatening letters to the president as well as J. C. Penny Corp. in Wisconsin and Nintendo of America Inc. in Washington with his former employer's address in the return address.
In one of the letters, Santiago repeatedly referred to Saddam Hussein as his "God", saying he would take revenge for his capture with "gunfire and killing."
Additionally, two more letters were recovered and linked back to Santiago, including one to Communications Data Services in Boone, Iowa that contained a white substance later determined to be baking powder.
Santiago's lawyer has attested that his client never intended to harm anyone.
1 March 2005, Bridgeton News
Interpol Tackles Bioterror Threat
Police chiefs gathered at an Interpol conference were urged to battle harder against the menace of an attack with biological agents, feared to be the weapon of the future for terrorists.
The international community must "redouble its efforts" against the bio-terrorist threat, French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told more than 400 delegates from at least 120 countries at the Interpol headquarters in Lyon.
Stronger measures were required "not only because it brings to bear especially odious risks on our societies, but because it could be the step in the evolution of terrorism," he said.
"We know today that certain terrorist groups have tried to obtain chemical or biological agents. The threat should therefore be taken seriously."
Villepin suggested improving international cooperation in the struggle, notably by creating a common database.
He called for efforts to improve the security of category "P3" and "P4" laboratories working with potentially dangerous germs or biological agents, as well as the creation of an international monitoring and coordination centre.
For Europe, Villepin proposed a "European reaction plan against a biological attack" and a European Union update on reserves of vaccines so that each country can know the nearest country to turn to in case of emergency.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble, who opened the two-day conference, said the risks were unparalleled.
"There is no criminal threat with greater potential danger to all countries, regions and people in the world than the threat of bioterrorism," he said.
"And there is no crime area where the police generally have as little training than in preventing or responding to bioterrorist attacks."
Topics to be covered in the conference include the threat of bio-agents and toxins; forensic challenges and the US anthrax attacks.
Interpol is hoping the gathering will generate funding for a special anti-bioterror unit, recently set up. The conference itself was financed by a near one-million-dollar (756,000-euro) subsidy from the New York-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The debates, roundtables and addresses -- all closed to the media after the opening speeches -- were to discuss case studies such as Malaysia's approach to bioterrorism, the release of biological agents in three British mail centres, and the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin nerve-gas attack, which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000.
The conference will be followed by training workshops, the first in South Africa at the end of 2005, the second in Chile in 2006 and the third in China the same year.
Interpol called the conference one of the largest in its history.
"Bioterrorism knows no geographic, national, economic or political boundaries. An incident in any one country is likely to cause immediate and profound worldwide impact," it said in a statement.
Participants include police chiefs, experts and scientists from many countries and regions including Britain, Canada, Singapore, the United States and the European Commission.
Interpol is the world's largest international police organization. It was established in 1923 to help law enforcement officers from around the world -- with different languages, cultures and national laws -- to work together to combat crime.
It has
an annual operating budget of 37 million euros (49 million
dollars), mostly from its 182 member states.
2 March 2005, AFP
Aussie
bomb experts help in Valentine's Day blast probe
Australian bomb experts are helping the police investigate
the series of bomb attacks on Valentine's Day in General Santos
and in two other major cities in the country, National Police
chief Director General Edgardo Aglipay said Thursday.
The explosion in this premier port city killed three persons and wounded 37 others.
Aglipay, the key guest for the 12th year anniversary rites of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 12, and the foreign bomb experts inspected the blast site just outside Gaisano Mall to gather evidence.
"These foreign bomb experts will be working closely with the local police to determine the make of the bomb," Aglipay said.
He added the identification of the explosive would help the local authorities "solve the blast," which spoiled the Valentine's Day celebrations of some couples, by comparing it with bombs used in previous attacks.
Chief Superintendent Antonio Billones, Central Mindanao police director, urged witnesses to come out for the faster resolution of the explosion.
Billones did not discount the possibility that the explosion could have been carried out by the Jemaah Islamiya, Abu Sayyaf and the Misuari Renegade Group.
The regional police chief said the improvised explosive device was fashioned out from an empty 105mm howitzer shell that was packed with 10 kilos of TNT.
The howitzers are standard ordnance of the military, which are the only ones in possession of the said war materiel.
Billones however ruled out the involvement of the military in the explosion saying some of the empty shells fired during military operations have found their way in junk shops.
