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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 rur