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Animal Rights Activists Terrorize Stock Broker With No Ties to Testing
Focus: He was not a scientist and did not harm animals. But they blew his car up anyway
The latest attack shows that animal rights extremists are now targetting people with little connection to testing labs. Tim Luckhurst reveals who is behind these terrifying tactics
26 June 2005
The black Hyundai car was parked in the garage of Michael Kendall's home when it burst into flames, on the night of 26 May. "We heard the alarm go off and ran out to see what was going on," said a neighbor in Bracknell, Berkshire. "A tyre exploded, making a huge banging noise. You could feel the heat coming off the fire."
Mr Kendall, his wife and two young daughters, who had all been asleep in the house before the blaze, escaped unhurt. The fire was blamed on an electrical fault in the vehicle, and not considered suspicious at the time.
That all changed, dramatically, on Thursday. A website called Bite Back carried claims that the Animal Liberation Front had placed an incendiary device under the car. The attack was, it now seems, part of a campaign of terror being waged in this country against any company with a connection, no matter how remote, to scientific research involving animals.
Michael Kendall has been described as a family man with no personal links to animal testing whatsoever. He is, however, finance director for the small Canadian stockbrokers Canaccord Capital, which has provided services to Phytopharm, a British biotechnology group. Phytopharm has, in the past, been a customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the research laboratory based in Cambridgeshire that has received a great deal of threatening attention from animal rights extremists.
When Bite Back suggested that this tenuous link had made Mr Kendall a personal target, his company responded by ending its relationship with Phytopharm. Soon afterwards, the Phytopharm share price tumbled.
That was exactly what the ALF wanted. It claimed responsibility for the fire with an internet posting that announced "a new era" of attacks had dawned. "If you support or raise funds for any company connected with Huntingdon Life Sciences we will track you down, come for you, and destroy your property with fire."
The tactic is called tertiary targeting. Barbara Davies of the Research Defence Society (RDS), which promotes understanding of the use of animals in research, says: "The targets of extremists are getting more and more tenuous because the primary targets are so careful to protect their staff. The militants have taken to intimidating the people who supply services to animal researchers. Their objective is to force organisations to close down by targeting individuals."
A spokesman for the National Extremism Tactical Co-Ordination Unit (Netcu), the police task force dedicated to fighting animal rights terrorism, explains. "They will even take it to the fourth degree of separation and target a supplier to a supplier to a supplier. It is extremely serious, very distressing and alarmingly effective."
The website of one of the most militant groups, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, declares: "Shac is here to deliver justice to Huntingdon's suppliers." Jim Watkins (not his real name) was a victim of Shac. He believes extremists targeted him because a foreign shareholder in his company had once done business with HLS. At first he received threats by email. One read: "You're fucked. Your company is fucked. I would gladly go to prison for stabbing an animal abuser to death."
Next, a very authentic hoax parcel bomb was delivered to his house. "Then we got a dozen home visits, always at night." His attackers let off fireworks, spray-painted his house and threw paint stripper on cars. Letters were sent to his neighbours alleging that he was a convicted paedophile. Jim says: "As battlefield tacticians they are technically brilliant. It works. You can't stand it. You do what they want to make them stop."
Major police investigations are currently under way. The head of Netcu, Superintendent Steve Pearl, says: "These are extremely serious crimes. They demonstrate that animal rights extremists continue to recognise no boundaries in what they are prepared to do."
Experts identify four main groups whose members include those involved in what the FBI calls terrorism but British authorities prefer to define as extremism or criminal militancy. These groups also include people who do not approve of extremist tactics. Shac was formed in 1999, as was Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs or SNGP, which campaigns for the closure of Newchurch Farm, near Burton on Trent in Staffordshire, where guinea pigs are bred for laboratory use. Speak is a group originally set up to prevent the building of a primate research centre at Cambridge University. Then there is the ALF itself, a network of groups in Britain and around the world that advocates "rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property".
None of these organisations has formal memberships. They also share members. A Netcu spokesman explains: "There is substantial overlap between all the extremist groups and between legitimate groups and extremists. Overlap between protest and criminal action is a huge problem in the animal rights movement."
Intelligence sources explain that the leading minds behind the broader ALF movement establish local front organisations, on the classic Trotskyite model, to fight specific campaigns. These groups recruit honest, committed animal welfare activists but also provide cover for extremist activity. This is almost always claimed under the ALF banner. The police are currently very concerned about the Gateway to Hell Campaign, an initiative set up to prevent the import of animals for vivisection. It claims to be "an independent collective of animal rights activists". Police sources fear it involves several seasoned ALF extremists.
The campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences rose to prominence in 2001, when shareholders, banks and investors began to be targeted, causing massive disruption and expense to businesses and individuals. Now builders, hauliers, cleaning companies and caterers are deemed "legitimate targets".
Gateway to Hell achieved a notable "success" recently when it celebrated British Airways' promise not to accept the carriage of primates, wild birds or other live animals "for use in any laboratory or for experimentation or exploitation". Earlier activists intimidated Air Mauritius into ending its transport of live macaque monkeys. A spokesman for the airline described that campaign as "commercial terrorism".
Barbara Davies warns: "Secondary and tertiary targeting has had the potential to seriously damage medical research in this country. At the moment all the extremists have to do is say, 'We know where your children go to school' and suppliers will take the route of least resistance and withdraw services to the target companies."
But the RDS believes help is on the way. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, which received royal assent in April, gives the police new powers to tackle intimidation of individuals and companies working in the supply chain to animal research facilities. The Government's intention is to end campaigns that the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, believes put "breakthroughs in areas like Aids, cancer and Alzheimer's directly at risk".
But campaigners vow to go on. Keith Mann, 39, a leading member of the ALF now in prison for contempt of court, said yesterday that they have no choice. "We have got Asbos being used against us - we have injunctions to stop us protesting. All that is left now is to turn to extremism."
WHO ARE THEY?
Shac
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Formed in 1999 with main aim of closing down Europe's largest animal testing lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences. Defended its targeting of Jim Watkins by claiming that he worked for a company that had raised millions for another company that was a customer of HLS. Motto: "Words mean nothing. Action is everything."
SNGP
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs. Also started in 1999, to campaign for closure of Newchurch Farm in Staffordshire, where guinea pigs are bred for use in scientific tests. Has targeted Calor Gas, which supplies fuel for the central heating at the farm. Motto: "Liberation now".
Gateway to Hell
Just launched, with stated aim of ending vivisection in the UK by targeting the airports, airlines and other means by which animals for laboratory use are imported. Claims to be an "independent collective of animal rights activists". Has already been associated with intimidation of British Airways staff.
The ALF
The Animal Liberation Front, a network of groups committed to direct action against "animal abusers". Tactics include breaking into laboratories, causing damage and destruction to property and making increasingly personal attacks on staff and directors. No central leadership; described by opponents as "the al-Qa'ida of animal rights".
27 June
2005, The Independent
Animal Rights Extremists Target Executive
with Bomb
Animal rights activists forced the broker of drug maker Phytopharm to quit today after targeting one of its top executives.
Canaccord Capital resigned as broker to the company less than a month after an incendiary device exploded under the car of its European finance chief.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which urges direct action against firms that have business ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
A message on the Bite Back website said: “Phytopharm get out of HLS or see your share price crash and your supporters’ property go up in flames.”
The shock resignation of Canaccord Capital wiped almost a quarter off the value of Phytopharm early on, although shares in the drug maker recovered to stand 10% lower.
Phytopharm was targeted twice last year when militants broke into its offices in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, and forced the company to secure an injunction against them.
Although it does not operate its own laboratories, Phytopharm angered animal rights activists by working with Japanese group Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals on the development of an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease.
Yamanouchi is listed on the website of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) as a global target for its links to Huntingdon Life Sciences. However, the licensing deal between the Japanese firm and Phytopharm collapsed earlier this year.
Phytopharm develops medicines from plants and ancient remedies which are used to treat degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease as well as obesity, asthma and eczema.
The company
has signed a deal with consumer goods giant Unilever to develop
an appetite suppressant that will generate £6.7 million
during the course of the year.
23 June 2005, The Scotsman
Mail Terrorist Arrested for Sending
Razorblade to Chinese Consulate
A jobless man has been arrested for sending a threatening letter to the Chinese Consulate General here along with a razorblade, prefectural police said.
Mitsuhiro Naito, 38, a resident of Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, is accused of intimidation. He admitted to the allegations during questioning. Police are grilling him over the motives behind his crime.
The National Police Agency has confirmed that 23 cases where facilities linked to China have been subject to intimidation, but this is the first time that a suspect has been arrested.
On April
13 this year, Naito mailed a letter saying, "Throw yourself
on the ground and apologize for your anti-Japan education,"
to the Chinese Consulate General in Nagasaki, investigators
said. He enclosed a razorblade in the envelope.
23 June 2005, Mainichi News
Biotech and Pharmaceuticals Fight Back Against Animal Rights
Extremists
The biotech and pharmaceutical industries are striking back against animal-rights extremists through the courts, legislatures, and public relations campaigns.
"We thought if we just kept our heads down, the problem of extremism would go away," said John Gallagher, director of corporate communications for Chiron Corp., an international biotech firm. "That was wishful thinking."
Gallagher was part of a panel discussion of the issue yesterday at the Biotechnology Industry Organization's gathering at the Convention Center.
Speakers described violent attacks, harassment and vandalism by the extremist fringe of the animal-rights movement, calling it "a burden of terror to biotech."
The tension between the biotech industry and animal-rights activists will continue to be on display at the meeting. Today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will protest outside the convention, showing what it says are secretly recorded videos of monkeys being choked, taunted and abused at a Virginia laboratory that belongs to Covance, one of the world's largest drug-development service companies. Covance is suing PETA in this matter.
PETA campaign coordinator Christy Griffin stressed that her organization worked within the law. "In every social-justice movement in history, you have people who feel the need to break laws to bring about change. That is something PETA is not involved in."
Nonetheless, two PETA employees were arrested last week in Ahoskie, N.C., after police found 18 dead dogs and cats in a shopping center garbage bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk told the Associated Press that the workers were supposed to pick up the homeless animals from animal shelters, then bring them to PETA headquarters in Norfolk for euthanization.
PETA was not the focus of the panel's criticism yesterday. Rather, the speakers denounced groups that advocate stopping animal research "at any cost." Those groups include the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).
"They will hurt you, harass your families, and threaten your investors," said Frankie Trull, president of the National Association for Biomedical Research, a trade group.
She showed data that indicate the number of extremist groups and attacks on biotech companies is increasing - a view confirmed by John Lewis of the FBI's counter-terrorism unit, who was part of the panel discussion.
The irony, said Tim Morris, an executive from GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.'s United Kingdom division, is that many big companies are reducing animal use and relying more heavily on cell and computer models. At Glaxo, he said, only 5 percent of research and development involves animals, and 99 percent of those animals are rodents and rabbits.
Chiron became a target of ALF and SHAC in 2003, after the company used Huntingdon Life Sciences, based in Cambridgeshire, U.K., to do some research. Chiron's Emeryville, Calif., campus was pipe-bombed, its executives were harassed at their homes, and employees received threatening calls, e-mails and faxes.
When Chiron got a restraining order against SHAC in the United Kingdom, the group responded with Internet postings of personal information about the judge and lawyers, Gallagher noted.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization and individual companies have stepped up campaigns to inform the public about their animal-treatment policies, and about the human life-saving treatments that have come from animal research. They also have successfully pushed for state and federal laws against extremists' actions.
"But,"
Trull said, "we believe animal-rights activists have
had an impact on young peoples' decisions to reject careers
in research."
21 June 2005, Philadelphia Enquirer
Police Investigate Explosive Device
in Sausalito
The Sausalito Police Department has a lead in its investigation into an explosive device found this week in the Marina Plaza Harbor, police Officer Jason McConnehey said today.
An anonymous source has informed the Sausalito Police Department that one harbor resident has an enemy or enemies "that would want to scare or frighten him,'' McConnehey said.
An explosive device resembling a pipe bomb might have been placed near the resident's boat on the pier to intimidate the resident, according to McConnehey.
A sailor found the device on Wednesday, but he thought it was a firecracker or a toy and threw it in one of the marina's storage containers.
"He thought it was a gag, or a toy. He didn't think much of it,'' McConnehey said.
When a Marina Plaza Harbor office worker heard about the item, which was a 12-inch tube, 1.5 inches in diameter with a fuse coming out of the side and two caps on either end, he reported it to the Police Department.
Officers were called to the marina's B dock at 11:45 a.m. on Friday and they evacuated several docks, McConnehey said.
Officers contacted the University of California, Berkeley Police Department bomb squad, the Sausalito Fire Department, and the U.S. Coast Guard for assistance.
Most of the device was destroyed when the bomb squad safely detonated it, McConnehey reported.
"It
appeared to be a dud,'' and the Police Department is calling
the device and the incident a hoax but detectives are continuing
to investigate who may have placed the device on the pier,
McConnehey said.
19
June 2005 BCN
Hate Mail and Suspected Parcel Bomb
Prompt Evacuation in Texas
Austin Police Department evacuated parts of West Campus Monday because of a "large, suspicious white package" thought to be a bomb. The package was found in the back parking lot of Ely Properties and was reported by Deacon Shields, the company's broker.
Ely Properties, as well as the surrounding buildings on the north block of 24th Street between Seton Avenue and Rio Grande Street, were evacuated by noon. After assessing the threat of the package, police closed off an additional block in each direction, further diverting vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
"We are a little concerned with what we are seeing," said Kevin Buckman, an APD spokesman. "For the public's safety, we are going to take extra precautions and expand our perimeters. Maybe we'll need to push them back further."
According to Ely employees, the 2-foot-by-1-foot package was wrapped in white butcher paper with the name "Kevin Phillips" written across the front in blue ink.
Jeff Tucker, an Ely employee, said that Phillips, an ex-tenant, lived in one of their properties for a year and frequently sent the company hate letters and postcards with threatening messages on them.
Television media were permitted to stand in an alley protected by four emergency vehicles: a bomb squad truck, ambulance and two fire trucks.
Concluding that the contents of the package were "suspicious," according to Detective Jim Neilson, the APD Bomb Squad attempted to reveal what was inside with a disrupter, a tool used to disable handmade bombs by shooting high-powered bursts of water at them. The first shot was not strong enough, but the second opened the package with a loud burst.
Neilson said the content of the package was not explosive but would not give any description of what was held inside because the case is now under investigation.
"From our perspective, we care that we can render it safe," Neilson said. "It is now going into investigation to find who placed it there, why it was placed there and any rationale for placing it there."
Ely employee Mary Costello said the company received a postcard Friday, allegedly from Phillips, reading, "I'm going to hurt you."
While police were on the scene, the mail arrived. According to Denise Peterson, the employee who picked up the mail, 15 to 20 pieces of the mail were from Phillips. Peterson said that in one of the postcards the threat escalated to "I'm going to kill you."
Phillips could not be reached for comment, and APD would not confirm Phillips' involvement.
14 June 2005, The Daily Texan
Suspicious Powder Sent to Coalition Embassies
Five embassies in Canberra, including the British High Commission, were closed temporarily today after receiving packages containing a suspicious white powder.
Envelopes containing the same powder, which police later said was harmless, were also sent to the Australian parliament and the office of the Prime Minister, John Howard.
The American, Italian, South Korean and Japanese embassies, as well as the British High Commission all shut this morning after discovering the packages. Emergency response staff and hazardous material handling teams were sent to each mission to secure and test the envelopes.
Australia's Parliament House remained open while police closed and later reopened the building's delivery entrance. All the envelopes were sent in the post.
Tests showed that the packages were harmless: "We haven’t been told what the powder is, but it appears to be a normal household powder," a police spokesman said.
Similar packages have been sent twice in the last week to the Indonesian Embassy, apparently to protest the imprisonment of an Australian woman in Bali on drug smuggling charges. One of the packages was a hoax, the other contained a harmless bacteria that led to staff at the embassy being quarantined and decontaminated.
"It is a nonsense, it is a waste of resources and it is a silly way for any person to make their point, political or otherwise," said Commander Shane Connelly, a deputy chief police officer.
Although Commander Connelly said that there was no apparent political motive behind the deliveries, all the countries whose embassies were targeted this morning have sent military forces to Iraq.
The American Embassy was closed for several hours after staff found their envelope and called local police, an embassy spokeswoman said.
"At some point in the late morning, Australian Federal Police restricted access to and from the embassy, and it was pretty much the better part of the day until they determined... it was not a bad substance," the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman would not say if there was a note in the envelope although the Italian deputy ambassador, Angelo Travaglini, told the Associated Press that the package they received did not come with a note.
10 June 2005, Sunday Times
Another Suspicious Package with Powder at Indonesia Embassy
A suspicious package containing white powder sparked a fresh security alert Tuesday at the Indonesian Embassy in Australia's capital but tests showed that the powder was harmless, police said.
None of the embassy staff had to undergo decontamination, less than a week after the mission was sealed off and its staff decontaminated when an earlier package of white powder was opened there.
That powder also was found to be harmless, and the hoax was linked to supporters of an Australian woman convicted in Indonesia of drug smuggling in a case that sparked anger among many Australians.
On Tuesday, officers in breathing gear sifted through mail at the diplomatic mission after the suspicious package was reported. Its powder was later tested, "and has returned a harmless result,'' police sergeant Steve Cooke told reporters.
Cooke declined to say whether a note was included in the package.
Speaking from India, Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa branded Tuesday's scare another attempt to intimidate Indonesia, but praised security at the embassy.
"We are relieved that the security measure and detection system have obviously worked,'' Natalegawa said, but added: "It shows that the attempts to intimidate our mission (are) still with us.''
Australia's junior foreign minister, Bruce Billson, led a parliamentary delegation to Jakarta this week to smooth over concerns raised by last week's anthrax scare.
He said he did not believe the latest incident would harm bilateral relations.
"We need cool heads when these things occur,'' Billson told reporters in Jakarta, adding that relations "will not be knocked off course by these incidents.''
The Australian government and supporters of Schapelle Corby, a 27-year-old beauty school student sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment last month for smuggling 4.1 kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana into the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, condemned the embassy attack last week as damaging to her appeal.
Corby, who claims the drugs were planted in her surfboard bag by luggage handlers in Australia is appealing her conviction and sentence while prosecutors also are appealing her sentence, saying it is too lenient.
Negotiations began in Jakarta this week on Australia's push for a prisoner exchange treaty that could enable Corby and 13 other Australians in Indonesian prisons to serve their time at home.
Billson said after discussions with Indonesian officials that such a treaty would take months.
"We discussed the Corby case briefly and recognized that calm heads are what (are) needed now,'' he said.
A poll published Tuesday revealed Australians are divided on whether Corby is guilty or innocent.
The AC Nielsen poll of 1,401 people published in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper showed 17 percent of people are convinced Corby is innocent and 17 percent believe she was probably or definitely guilty.
A slight majority _ 51 percent _ thought the trial in Bali was unfair.
The poll had a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.
A previous poll linked to a television show aired before Corby's May 27 verdict had suggested more than 90 percent of Australians believed she was innocent.
In a possible blow to the tourism industry in Bali, which draws thousands of Australians each year, 48 percent of the people in the latest poll said the Corby case would make them less likely to visit the tropical island
10 June
2005, AP
Bomb Explodes in College President’s
Mailbox
The US Postal Service and the Seminole County Sheriff are investigating the explosion of a home-made bomb in the mailbox of a college president.
Sheriff Joe Craig says Seminole State College President James Utterback found the bomb Saturday morning after it had exploded in his mailbox.
The device was made of an unidentified chemical that was placed inside a two-liter soda bottle. Utterback touched it, then went inside to wash his hands and call police.
Craig said yesterday that no one was hurt and the mailbox was left intact.
He says the device was designed to explode off of heat, and it probably didn't get quite hot enough to do the damage it should have.
Utterback told police he had an idea who might have left the bomb, and Craig said that person will be interviewed.
9 June
2005, AP
Embassy Powder Attacks Spark Warnings
of Retaliation Against Australians
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has warned of possible retaliation against Australians in Indonesia in response to the Indonesian Embassy scare.
"This was a reckless, evil act," Mr Howard said yesterday. "In so far as possible retaliatory action is concerned in Indonesia, there is always a danger of that."
The letter posted with the white powder to the Indonesian Embassy on Wednesday did not refer to Schapelle Corby, but was full of threats and racial abuse.
The Advertiser has been told the Indonesian language used in the brief hate statement was of a very poor standard.
Despite the lack of direct reference to Corby or her 20-year jail sentence, Mr Howard yesterday insisted the two were linked.
Preliminary tests carried out on the powder showed it was definitely not anthrax, ACT police said. However, the incident has already caused damage.
An Indonesian MP yesterday demanded a travel warning be issued for Indonesians traveling to Australia.
The attack on Indonesia's Canberra embassy, and the Government's linking of it to the Corby case, has received widespread media coverage in Indonesia.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, has been upgrading security at diplomatic posts around the world. On September 9 last year, a bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta killed 10 and injured more than 200.
"Just as we cannot guarantee a random act of stupidity with an evil intent . . . equally I cannot expect a guarantee from the Indonesian Government that some evil act of retaliation won't occur in that country," Mr Howard said. "Attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia and could be directed against any locations known to be frequented by foreigners.
"The recommendation that Australians defer non-essential travel applies to Indonesia as a whole, including Bali."
The Australian Embassy in Jakarta has remained closed to the public since the September suicide bomb attack.
Three Indonesian police officers and an agriculture official will travel to Canberra to assist with the investigation of Wednesday's incident in Canberra.
The hate mail, delivered just after 10.30am on Wednesday, was addressed to the Indonesian ambassador, Imron Cotan – who was not there at the time – and was opened by a secretary. The building remained closed and under tight security last night.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer revealed the letter was mailed from a post office close to Melbourne.
3 June 2005, AP
Mystery Powder Mailed to UK Car Firm
Three people were taken to hospital today after a mystery white powder was posted to a firm, police said.
Paramedics used decontamination procedures on seven employees at HPI in Salisbury, Wiltshire, after one mistakenly opened an envelope containing the unknown substance.
A police spokesman said: “Seven people underwent an ambulance decontamination procedure, while the fire brigade decontaminated the wider area.”
Three of the employees were then taken to hospital for precautionary check ups, he said.
The firm was shut by police for two hours. It reopened at around 1.30pm, he said.
It is understood the firm targeted has received hoax packages before.
The powder has been sent for analysis and detectives are working to confirm who sent the package.
Martin Wright, marketing director of the company, which provides information to people buying second-hand cars, said: “We were sent a package which, when opened in the post room was found to contain a white powder.
“Immediately we locked it in a room and called 999.”
He said that no one was injured but the three employees who were closest to the package when it was opened were taken to hospital for checks.
Mr Wright said he had no idea who was behind it, adding: “We have had some events like this before.
“Fortunately it has never come to anything.”
1 June 2005, AP
Mail Threats and Bomb Scare at TV’s Big Brother House
Army bomb disposal experts were called to the Big Brother house today after a suspicious package was found.
A specialist team was sent to the house in Elstree, Hertfordshire, after the alarm was raised at 12.30pm.
A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire Police said they rushed to the scene after being called by studio staff from the Channel 4 show.
"The package was X-rayed but it was found not to be suspicious."
An Army source said one of the housemates had been receiving threatening mail, and the show's bosses originally thought the package was connected to the death threats.
The source added: "They have been very concerned about the post they have been receiving for one of the people from a particular group."
Manchester
Evening News, June 6 2005
Suspicious Package With Powder Shuts
Down Mailroom at Australian Mine
The administration centre of Australia's largest underground mine has been shut down due to a security scare.
Workers in the mail room at the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs in South Australia's north raised the alarm when they received a package with white powder on it.
The workers called the police just after 1:00pm ACST and a hazardous materials team from the Western Mining Company was sent to isolate the package and decontaminate the room.
Three workers went through decontamination and a health check but are not suffering any ill effects.
The Western Mining Company (WMC) says it advised all its employees of the scare by email, but the incident has not affected its mining operations.
The administration centre will remain closed until police give the all clear, which is expected to take 48 hours.
Police are investigating the incident.
ABC News 6 June 2005
Suspicious Letter Sent to Court in Bali
Indonesian police are checking a letter containing a "strong smell" sent to the head of a Bali court that recently jailed Schapelle Corby on drugs charges.
"Members of the police forensic laboratory, including officers from Jakarta, are investigating the smell and the letter has been taken for laboratory tests," Bali police spokesman A.S. Reniban said today.
The investigation follows an incident last week in which Indonesia's embassy in Canberra was sealed off in a biological agent scare triggered by an envelope containing a white powder.
Although it later proved to be harmless, authorities believed the letter was the work of supporters of Corby, a 27-year-old Australian woman jailed for 20 years last month for attempting to smuggling marijuana onto Bali.
Mr Reniban said judge Nengah Suriada had a dizzy spell on opening the noxious letter last Friday.
However, the judge had not reported the incident until today, when he returned to work and found his office still contained the odour, he said.
The letter was made to look as though it had been sent by the Australian consulate in Bali but did not carry the mission's letterhead, Mr Reniban said.
A second unopened letter also sent to the Bali prosecutor's office had been collected for investigation.
The results of the tests were not known.
Australian outrage against the Corby verdict has threatened to upset improving relations between the two countries, despite renewed pledges of friendship by Canberra and Jakarta
Many Australians have threatened to boycott Bali as a holiday destination and have demanded a return of cash donated to aid victims of last year's tsunami.
Courier News 6 June 2005
Use of Explosives on Rise in Ecoterror Cases
The trial of seven animal rights activists under domestic terrorism laws focuses attention on a threat which law enforcement officials say has become greater than that of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and right-wing militias.Defendants in the federal trial in New Jersey, which has just begun and is expected to last into August, are charged with conspiracy and interstate stalking involving the vandalism and harassment of employees of labs that use animals to test drugs and chemicals.
Officials say this is part of a growing trend that in recent years has included more than 1,200 incidents of arson, bombings, theft, animal releases, vandalism, and office takeovers. Targets of what activists call "direct actions" have included laboratories, mink ranches, SUV dealerships, fast-food outlets, and new housing developments. Damages have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.
"We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics," John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate hearing recently. "Attacks are also growing in frequency and size. Harassing phone calls and vandalism now coexist with improvised explosive devices and personal threats to employees."
The FBI currently has 150 pending investigations involving 35 agency field offices working with other law enforcement agencies on such cases. "The FBI and its partners have made a number of high-profile arrests of individuals involved with animal rights extremism or ecoterrorism," Mr. Lewis told lawmakers.
A federal judge in California recently ruled that William Jensen Cottrell, a graduate student in physics at the California Institute of Technology, should serve at least seven years in federal prison and pay more than $3.5 million in restitution for firebombing more than 100 sport utility vehicles at dealerships and homes near Los Angeles.
Activists reject the "ecoterrorist" label, a controversial phrase coined by those who tend to be critical of anything (or anybody) involved with environmental activism.
Likening their activity to that of the anti-Nazi resistance in Europe or the underground railroad helping slaves escape the South, activists say that those carrying out the attacks take "all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human."
It may be true that, unlike such right-wing domestic terrorists as Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, they have not been responsible for any loss of life - other than the odd mink that's been "liberated" into the tooth-and-claw world of nature and would have been killed for its fur anyway.
Still, some animal rights and environmental extremists are ratcheting up their threats. One is quoted as saying, "If someone is killing, on a regular basis, thousands of animals, and if that person can only be stopped in one way by the use of violence, then it is certainly a justifiable solution."
While no one has been killed in any "direct action," there have been several close calls, officials say.
"The most worrisome trend to law enforcement and private industry alike has been the increase in willingness by these movements to resort to the use of incendiary and explosive devices," says Carson Carroll, of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
For their part, mainstream environmentalists and animal rights advocates are working to separate themselves from groups and individuals that break the law on behalf of their cause. All of the major environmental groups sent to the Senate Committee a letter which "strongly condemns all acts of violence, including those committed in the name of environmental causes."
Among the most radical organizations apparently involved are the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC). They tend to operate in small, autonomous cells, using simple techniques and leaving few clues other than warning signs.
Earlier this year, houses under construction in Sammamish, Wash., were firebombed by individuals who left messages signed "ELF."
In the New Jersey case now at trial, the seven defendants (most in their 20s) are charged with inciting others to commit vandalism and harass employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company in England that has research labs in the United States.
In a similar case earlier this year, a credit card belonging to the wife of a pharmaceutical company executive was stolen when her car was broken into. The card was used to buy $20,000 in traveler's checks, which was donated to charity, then followed by a warning that seemed to include a physical threat.
Such acts as these, together with vandalism directed at individual scientists and business executives, can be annoying. But the posting of personal addresses and phone numbers, together with threats of physical attacks of the type that have occurred in England, can be very frightening. And they can have a chilling effect on business decisions, or (as in the case at several universities) set back biomedical research for years.
In Pennsylvania last week, the owner of a flower business decided not to build a kennel for monkeys (intended for use at private and government labs) after vandals destroyed plants, damaged vehicles, and spray-painted such threats as "ALF is watching."
While such acts can be prosecuted under existing law, some lawmakers want to make it a federal crime to support such groups - by giving donations, for example.
Several states now are considering separate laws aimed at "ecoterrorism," stiffening the penalty for attacks on such things as university labs, dog food makers, farms where animals are caged, and hunting businesses.
Christian Science Monitor June 6 2005
Australia Post Reports Numerous Acts
of Potential Terrorism in the Mail
Australia Post has negotiated about 1000 potential acts of terrorism since 2001, similar to those that this week sent chills through Australia and Indonesia.
Envelopes containing suspicious white powder sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra and Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer this week were like hundreds more that had passed through the postal system, said Australia Post spokesman Matt Pollard.
"Since the anthrax scares in the US, there's been a number of these sort of events," he said. "Every one of them, without exception, has proven to be harmless. But every time the emergency procedures have to be activated. You have to assume the worst."
White powder incidents, as they are known, divert resources as emergency services and health authorities could become involved in incidents in which no threat is posed.
But Keith Adamson, deputy chief fire officer with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, said such response did not pose a serious problem for emergency services.
"There's a bit of a cost for petrol, I guess, but to us it's just another call," he said.
Australian Federal Police spokesman Sandy Logan said there were three white powder incidents in Canberra on one day last month, - at the National Library, the Department of Immigration and a science centre.
Investigations revealed the powder was only sand, sent by Canberra's Emergency Services Authority as part of invitations to its South Pacific Ball fund-raiser.
The scare disrupted a morning concert of Mozart for infants when the National Library building was closed.
"It tied up an enormous amount of resources," Mr Logan said.
Mr Logan added that the media coverage surrounding this week's white powder incidents stoked public hysteria about a relative non-event.
He said the possibility of a weaponised form of anthrax being engineered in Australia and sent in the mail was highly unlikely.
"That doesn't mean you don't take every one of these seriously - you do," he said.
The Age 5 June 2005
White Powder Scare at Virginia Bank
It might be a misunderstanding. It might be a prank. Or, it might be anthrax.
The Staunton Police and Fire Departments were called out to Community Bank in downtown Staunton Friday for reports of a suspicious white powder. The powder came in the mail. A bank Vice President told TV-3 that a loan clerk, opening mail, came across an envelope with white power inside. Police confirm they removed an envelope with traces of an unknown white powder substance. Samples of the substance have been sent to the lab for analysis.
Senior Vice President of Retail Banking, Benny Warner, noted, "The majority of those cases have been proven not to be any serious threat or problem. But you've got to take it seriously and follow the proper procedures to protect everyone just in case."
Throughout the entire ordeal, the bank stayed open for business. Bank staff expect the results of the powder tests back on Monday or Tuesday.
WHSV News 5 June 2005
Police Investigate 60-Year-Old Woman Delivering Suspicious Packages
A 60-year-old Haverstraw village woman accused of causing a bomb scare in the Ramapo government and police building remained an enigma to police yesterday.
Detectives said they had yet to learn why Betty L. Lange left a sealed package marked "top secret" inside the department lobby and then left, leading police to evacuate the police station and Town Hall offices Thursday morning.
Police continued to investigate Lange's background through the Rockland Intelligence Center and from other law enforcement agencies in Rockland and outside the county. She has not cooperated with investigators, police said.
Lange remained in the county jail yesterday on $1,000 bail on a felony charge of second-degree placing a false bomb and a misdemeanor count of third-degree falsely reporting an incident. She is scheduled to appear June 16 in Airmont Justice Court.
According to the charge Lange faces, even though the box did not contain an explosive device, the circumstances under which she left it reasonably gave the impression there could be a bomb in it.
"We're trying to get information from any other agencies that may have had contact with her," Detective Lt. Brad Weidel said yesterday.
Nearly 150 people were evacuated after the package was left near the police desk at 8:48 a.m. A tour of police headquarters by 125 Grandview Elementary School students was canceled.
The package, investigated by the Sheriff's Office bomb squad, turned out to contain several undeveloped disposable cameras. Ramapo employees returned to work about an hour later.
Surveillance videotapes showed Lange carrying the package into the station and driving off soon afterward, police said.
After she was arrested outside her apartment building, police said, Lange told detectives that a man had given her the package on Route 202 and asked her to deliver it to the police station.
"We were able to determine that story was not true," Detective Sgt. John Lynch said yesterday.
Police believe Lange lives alone in an apartment on Dowd Street and possibly worked at Chromolloy in Orangeburg until a year ago. They don't believe she has any relatives in Rockland.
Her fingerprints, taken digitally, were sent through a law-enforcement database, police said, and the results showed she had not previously been fingerprinted by police.
"She seems to be a loner," Lynch said. "We've gotten a couple of calls about her, but nothing that tells us much about her or why this might have happened."
The film found in the package included dozens of photographs of parking lots, empty cars, and streets from communities such as Haverstraw. The photos included the Memorial Day parade in Tuxedo in Orange County, police said.
"She wouldn't explain any of it," Lynch said. "We are all trying to figure out what this about."
Journal News 4 June 2005
Parcel Bomb Hits Jakarta’s Paris Embassy
A small parcel bomb exploded outside the Indonesian embassy in Paris before dawn on Friday, slightly injuring 10 people and shattering windows, but officials said they had no clues to the motive.
French officials said a group unknown to police and going by the name of the French Armed Islamic Front sent an e-mail in which it claimed responsibility for the blast but they said they doubted the veracity of the somewhat oddly written message.
Investigators who combed the area found gas canister fragments but said they knew little about the device and it was too early to say who was behind the bombing.
Gas canisters were used in mid-1990s bombings in Paris for which the Algerian Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility. The e-mail message called for the release of two men who were jailed for life in France for those attacks.
The bomb, left on the pavement next to a thick outside wall of the elegant 19th century building, caused only minor damage to the embassy when it went off shortly after 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), but shattered windows in nearby buildings and cars.
Nine of the 10 injured, some of them embassy staff, were taken to hospital, most with slight cuts from flying glass.
French officials saw it as a criminal act while Indonesian president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the blast as an act of terrorism.
Indonesia has suffered a number of bomb attacks in recent years, some blamed on separatist groups and others on Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian group seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, who rushed to the scene in the wealthy west Paris district, said France had no indications of any threat against the embassy, but ordered tighter security for embassies in Paris.
"This is clearly an act with criminal intentions," he said. "As far as we know, there was no specific threat."
In Jakarta, Yudhoyono said: "I strongly condemn the terrorist act done at the Indonesian embassy in Paris. I do hope the government of France will take appropriate action to bring the perpetrator to justice."
A man living opposite the embassy said the blast woke him. "We heard a big boom around 5 a.m.," he told reporters. "There was lots of glass on the ground, but no dead, and that's the important thing."
Jakarta-based security expert Ken Conboy told Reuters that separatist groups such as the Free Aceh Movement had been blamed for some blasts in Indonesia in recent years, but added: "None of these groups have ever shown any ability to operate outside the region."
The second anniversary of the nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 202 people falls next week. That attack was blamed on Jemaah Islamiah.
The embassy blast occurred only hours after attacks on Egyptian Red Sea resorts crowded with Israeli tourists. The blasts killed at least 28 people and Israeli officials said they appeared to be the work of al Qaeda.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country, but Islam is not the state religion and most Indonesians are moderates.
Moneyplans 4 June 2005
Officials Warn Tourists to Expect Bomb Attacks at Jakarta Hotels
Australians in Jakarta have been warned to expect bomb attacks in the lobbies of hotels frequented by Westerners.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has issued a specific warning about such attacks following information from United States officials.
The US embassy reopened on Tuesday after closing for several days following an unspecified security threat.
Police in Jakarta have called on hotels to beef up security, but most already have tough checks in place following the car bombing in 2003 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta which killed 12 people.
"New information suggests extremists are planning to conduct bomb attacks targeting the lobbies of hotels frequented by Westerners in Jakarta to occur around noon on an unspecified date," the DFAT update says.
"The Jakarta Metropolitan Police (POLRI) issued a warning on 17 May 2005 about possible further suicide bombings in Jakarta which identifies as potential targets a number of other places frequented by foreigners, in particular embassies, international schools, office buildings and shopping malls.
"While no timeframes are indicated in this information, it reinforces our assessment that terrorists are in the very advanced stages of planning attacks.
"Attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia and could be directed at any locations known to be frequented by foreigners."
Non-essential travel to Indonesia should be deferred, the warning says.
AAP, 4 June 2005
Mayor Get Letters With White Powdery Substance
The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, as well as other state and local agencies, are investigating letters with a mysterious substance inside that have so far targeted the mayor of Sacramento, a Sacramento County supervisor and the publisher of the Sacramento Bee.
For a second straight day, Sacramento City Hall had to be evacuated Friday after a white powdery substance was found inside a letter addressed to Mayor Heather Fargo.
Within minutes, hazardous materials crews were called to another report of white powder. This one was inside the Bank of America loan processing center in Rancho Cordova.
Emergency crews quickly determined the incident to be a false alarm and not related to a string of threatening letters found in the downtown area.
On Wednesday, Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli received two letters containing a white substance. A similar letter was also received at the Sacramento Bee.
On Thursday, Fargo received the first of two letters containing a white powdery substance. The second arrived Friday morning.
Investigators will not release what the latest letter said, but county officials said a letter received by Nottoli contained the words "death" and "poison" and the initials "KAK."
"I don't know if they are trying to instill fear or slow down operations. That's what the FBI is going to try and figure out," Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Niko King said.
Authorities said they do not believe the confiscated white powder posed any threat to anyone who handled the letters.
Although investigators believe the letters to be a hoax, FBI officials stressed that it is a crime to send letters meant to instill fear and that whoever is found to be responsible will likely face criminal charges.
KCRA News, 3 June 2005
Australian Parliament House Closed by Hate Mail
A security scare gripped Canberra for the second time this week after a suspicious package containing white powder was delivered to Parliament House yesterday.
A sealed plastic bag addressed to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was discovered during routine mail X-raying at Parliament House's loading dock.
A full-scale emergency was declared, with parts of Parliament House locked down for nearly five hours. The package was later discovered to contain cement dust.
It was the second incident this week after the Indonesian Embassy was locked down on Wednesday after powder spilled from an envelope posted in Victoria and addressed to the ambassador.
Indonesia's Ambassador to Australia Imron Cotan, speaking exclusively to The Saturday Daily Telegraph yesterday, revealed that the note posted with the white powder made it clear that the attack was related to the 20-year jail term handed to Schapelle Corby by a court in Bali.
"Definitely it is indeed fair to assume that it [the letter] is partly or wholly related to the case," he said.
The envelope was opened by Ambassador's Cotan's secretary, Flori Utomo.
Mrs Utomo's colleague, Dominic Marando, said he was in the embassy's kitchen when he got an urgent and distressed call from Mrs Utomo.
He ran to her aid and found her sitting at her desk with white powder all over her hands, clothes and on the desk.
"I told her to drop everything and she threw the envelope on to the floor and we got out of there," Mr Marando said.
The pair ran to the kitchen where Mrs Utomo washed as Mr Marando called embassy security.
It was an anxious 12-hour wait for Mrs Utomo and Mr Marando before they the substance was declared to be unharmful.
Speaking publicly for the first time since this week's attack on his embassy, Mr Cotan called on Australians to have faith in his country's legal system.
He said the incident would not adversely affect Australia-Indonesia relations.
As he left his residence to return to the embassy yesterday afternoon, the ambassador said both nations would continue to "grow and nurture" the relationship.
He said the powder attack was "way beyond" his expectation of reactions to the Corby verdict.
The embassy reopened at 3.30pm yesterday.
Meanwhile, tests continue on the powder, but police said it was definitely not anthrax or anything hazardous.
The ambassador said security had been beefed up.
The Saturday Daily Telegraph understands there may be a link between where both packages were sent. Detectives were investigating whether there is a link between who sent the packages.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said forensic tests should reveal whether there was a link between yesterday's package and the envelope sent to the embassy.
Meanwhile, two forensic experts from the Indonesian National Police arrived in Canberra yesterday to join the investigation into the embassy attack.
Mr Keelty said one of the tasks for the Indonesian police was to help examine the letter written in Indonesian that accompanied the poison letter.
According
to an embassy spokesman it will open for business as usual
on Monday.
Daily Telegraph 4 June 2005
White Powder and Threats Mailed to Sacramento Newspaper
Envelopes containing white powder and threatening messages were mailed to The Bee and the Sacramento County administration building on Wednesday, sending hazardous-materials crews hustling to identify the substance and investigate the incidents.
The substance did not appear to be dangerous, but the letters were removed from the buildings and sent to a lab for testing, said Battalion Chief Niko King, spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department.
"If there is no reaction to the people around it - if they are not coughing, sneezing or have a runny nose - we pretty much know it's another hoax," King said. "That's usually the greatest test."
One letter addressed to James McClatchy, publisher of The McClatchy Co., was opened Thursday afternoon by his secretary, who immediately alerted authorities after seeing the white powder. McClatchy was not in the building.
About the same time, a secretary opened a letter addressed to Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli and found a single page with the word "death" written in pencil. Kathryn Linzey said the letter was surrounded by a white powder, and scrawled on the inside of the envelope was the word "poison" and "KAK."
A second letter addressed to Nottoli also was confiscated by authorities.
Investigators from the Fire Department and the Sacramento Police Department responded to both incidents, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force was notified.
Sacramento Bee, 2 June 2005
Iowa Man Arrested for Terrorism in Powder Threats
A Marshalltown man is in jail tonight, charged as a terrorist. He's accused of mailing suspicious powder and threatening to blow people up. And it might have been some household cleaners that set him off.
Investigators connected the man to two separate powder incidents in the metro in recent weeks. Investigators say their case with 46-year-old Anand Nariboli started with simple household chemicals.
They say Nariboli was upset that they didn't clean properly. So he mailed a letter in February to the company that made them, Dow Chemical in Milwaukee. They say Nariboli threatened to blow up the FBI and wrote "I will exterminate westerners and destroy all buildings in the west the next day." Then, on May 19th, part of Mercy Medical Center shut down for hours after a US Postal worker said she'd been exposed to some type of powdery substance.
Authorities say Nariboli mailed the letter containing rat poison with a statement that said all Western Europeans will be "inflicted by pain more painful than all the weapons in the universe tomorrow."
Then, last Monday, another letter, with more powder and more threats at Iowa State. A worker found the spilled powder in a mailroom in an envelope addressed to the ISU admissions office.
They say Nariboli wrote in the letter "btk 94720". -A reference to the so-called BTK serial killer. He's the man accused of killing ten people in Kansas in the 1970s.
They say Nariboli also said "bombs were going to go off tomorrow."
The number 94720 is a zip code in California. No word on why he's targeting that area, but authorities did search the University of Berkeley for a bomb. They never found bombs there or in any targeted locations.
They tell us tonight they did intercept other letters they say Nariboli sent before they reached their intended targets. They will not say who those targets were. They'll only say they were targeted at specific individuals.
WHO Tv News 2 June 2005
Improvised Explosive Device Found at NY Wal-Mart
Federal officials say the package found last month behind the Wal-Mart in Ithaca was an improvised explosive device.
It had a battery on the bottom and a kitchen timer on top.
The Wal-Mart and surrounding businesses were evacuated and a bomb dog called in.
Authorities destroyed the package by shooting it with a shotgun. It broke apart, but did not explode.
Nine officers came in contact with a liquid from the package that forced them to be quarantine for a short time.
News 10 Now, 2 June 2005
Mystery Powder Mailed to UK Car Firm (The Scotsman, 6/1/2005)
Three people were taken to hospital today after a mystery white powder was posted to a firm, police said.
Paramedics used decontamination procedures on seven employees at HPI in Salisbury, Wiltshire, after one mistakenly opened an envelope containing the unknown substance.
A police spokesman said: “Seven people underwent an ambulance decontamination procedure, while the fire brigade decontaminated the wider area.”
Three of the employees were then taken to hospital for precautionary check ups, he said.
The firm was shut by police for two hours. It reopened at around 1.30pm, he said.
It is understood the firm targeted has received hoax packages before.
The powder has been sent for analysis and detectives are working to confirm who sent the package.
Martin Wright, marketing director of the company, which provides information to people buying second-hand cars, said: “We were sent a package which, when opened in the post room was found to contain a white powder.
“Immediately we locked it in a room and called 999.”
He said that no one was injured but the three employees who were closest to the package when it was opened were taken to hospital for checks.
Mr Wright said he had no idea who was behind it, adding: “We have had some events like this before.
“Fortunately it has never come to anything.”
The Scotsman 1 June 2005
Indonesian Embassy Staff Threatened by Hate Mail and Bullets
Death threats, bullets in the mail, and now a biological agent posted to the ambassador.
Even at the height of the East Timor tensions, the backlash against the Indonesian embassy was not this ugly.
But the 20-year jail term handed to Schapelle Corby for smuggling drugs into Bali has scratched an anti-Indonesian itch among sections of the Australian public.
Before last week's verdict, staff at the Canberra embassy had received death threats by email.
At the consulate in Perth, a death threat arrived in the post -- along with live bullets.
And after her sentencing, the embassy's phones ran hot with abusive calls.
Now, staff at the embassy face up to two days in isolation while a suspicious powder that spilled out of a package addressed to ambassador Imron Cotan is tested.
It has already tested positive as a biological agent -- a term used only to describe potentially harmful substances.
It could be anything from a fungi such as athlete's foot to a bacteria such as anthrax, or a virus such as yellow fever or smallpox.
The United States Air Force survival manual defines biological agents as "viruses and micro-organisms, or their products, which are used to cause disease, injury, or death to people, animals, or plants".
Mr Cotan last month said the embassy had received several emails on the Corby case, some containing death threats.
He would not give specific details of the threats, based on advice from the federal police.
"We are getting quite a number of unaddressed emails, not only expressing their concern about the health, the condition, the legal proceedings on Corby but as well threats," Mr Cotan said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer described the threats as aggressive, inappropriate and counterproductive.
Herald Star 5 June 2005
Thai Mother Killed by Letter Bomb Addressed to Her Daughter
A mother in Sam Ngao District paid the ultimate price for letting her curiosity get the better of her – when she opened a parcel addressed to her daughter that turned out to be a letter bomb.
The victim, 56-year-old pig farmer Phayao Ruamsuk, had collected the parcel, which was addressed to her daughter Kannitha.
Kannitha, 22, had married just a few days earlier and gone to live with her husband, a veterinarian from Lop Buri.
It is not uncommon for Thai mothers to open their children’s mail, and at about 11 pm on May 24 that’s what K. Phayao did.
The force of the ensuing blast blew off her clothes, except for her underwear, and left her unconscious with deep wounds to the body and head. When police arrived at the house they found K. Phayao lying face-down and in a pool of her own blood.
She was rushed to Somdej Prajao Thaksin Maharaj Hospital in Tak, where she died of her injuries.
Her husband Khaen, 59, said the package had contained what purported to be a wedding gift – a plastic doll shaped like a cat – accompanied by a note congratulating their daughter on her recent wedding.
The parcel also contained a piece of wire and a battery, which presumably served to detonate the device. K. Khaen said he only survived the blast because he went out behind the house to cook, apparently leaving his wife to fiddle with the unusual wedding present – before it exploded.
Police arrested a 25-year-old car salesman, Jamriang Pumanat, in his house in Tak’s Muang District the following day and charged him with premeditated murder. He reportedly sent the bomb to K. Kannitha after she broke his heart by marrying the vet.
Police checked with the Sam Ngao Post Office, and staff there remembered seeing Jamriang coming to the office to mail the parcel on May 15.
Jamriang denied sending the parcel, but his handwriting on the outside of the parcel, along with the posting record made a strong case against him, police said.
K. Kannitha told police that she had known Jamriang as a friend for seven years but had rejected his attempts to become her boyfriend.
She added that she had asked Jamriang to stop calling her after she got married on May 14, but he phoned her on May 15 asking for her husband’s mailing address in Lop Buri so he could send her a wedding gift.
She refused to give the address in Lop Buri and asked Jamriang not to send her anything.
31 May 2005
Powder Threat Mailed to Iowa State University Admissions Office
The powder that forced the evacuation of Alumni Hall on the campus of Iowa State University, has now been identified. Emergency crews, after a preliminary test, say the substance was that of a common household cleaner.
The powder spilled out of an envelope Tuesday morning in the mailroom of the Admissions Office at Iowa State University’s Alumni Hall.
The powder came through the mail in a no. 10, business-sized envelope. The envelope was opened by an automated machine. A mailroom employee in Alumni Hall saw the powder spill out of the envelope. Two other Iowa State employees were also potentially exposed to the powder.
There were about 80 people in the building at the time, including three prospective students and their families. They were all evacuated. The building is expected to be closed at least until the end of the day Tuesday.
The Ames Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Unit responded to the call Tuesday morning. The Des Moines Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Unit was also called to the scene.
The envelope
was addressed to Iowa State’s Admissions Office. There
was nothing in the envelope but the powder.
WHO TV News 31 May 2005
Police Investigate Suspicious Powder in Mail At Connecticut Newspaper
After a worker at The Taunton Press offices at 52 Church Hill Road found a "suspicious white powdery substance" within apiece of incoming mail there on the afternoon of May 23, police and firefighters were called to the scene to investigate whether the substance was hazardous.
Police Chief Michael Kehoe, who responded to the scene, said on May 24 that a person opening mail at the publisher's offices found an unspecified amount of a "suspicious white powdery substance" within a small snap-lock plastic bag within a postage-paid envelope, which the firm had received in the incoming mail.
Only a plastic bag containing that powder was within that envelope, he said. Businesses typically provide customers with such postage-paid envelopes to mail in bill payments.
Chief Kehoe said that no external contamination by the white substance occurred.
The police chief said that the firm apparently receives a variety of foreign objects in its voluminous mail, but that the powder was "something out of the ordinary," so the firm promptly contacted police to report the incident.
After it was found, a Taunton Press worker placed the envelope containing the plastic bag into a larger envelope to isolate the white powdery substance, Chief Kehoe said.
Firefighters then placed that larger envelope within an evidence container, which was sealed for safekeeping.
The police chief said it is unclear if the postage-paid envelope bore a return address.
Police are conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the envelope's arrival at the publisher's offices, Chief Kehoe said. Patrol Officer Domenic Costello is the investigator.
If necessary, the evidence acquired at 52 Church Hill Road would be submitted for chemical analysis, Chief Kehoe said.
"I think we took the precautions that needed to be taken...The company took the precautions that needed to be taken," Chief Kehoe said.
"You always want to be cautious in day and age," he said.
Ray Corbo, second assistant chief of Newtown Hook & Ladder, was incident commander for firefighters.
Mr Corbo said firefighters used protective gear to package the substance for police. "We turned it over to the police department," he said.
Firefighters contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to report the incident, he said.
The white substance that was found in the mail apparently had a relatively coarse texture, he said. "There was a good chance that it was not a viable threat," he said.
Taunton Press spokesman Tim Rahr, who is the firm's chief financial officer, referred all comment on the incident to police.
Newtown Bee, 26 May 2005
FedEx Agrees to Assist Government in Terrorist Fight
Before Sept. 11, 2001, when federal law-enforcement officials asked FedEx Corp. for help, the company had its limits. It wouldn't provide access to its databases. It often refused to lend uniforms or delivery trucks to agents for undercover operations, citing fears of retribution against employees as well as concerns about customer privacy.
Then came the attacks on New York and Washington and pleas from the government for private-sector help in fighting terrorism. Suddenly, the king of overnight delivery became one of homeland security's best friends.
FedEx has opened the international portion of its databases, including credit-card details, to government officials. It has created a police force recognized by the state of Tennessee that works alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The company has rolled out radiation detectors at overseas facilities to detect dirty bombs and donated an airplane to federal researchers looking for a defense against shoulder-fired missiles.
Moreover, the company is encouraging its 250,000 employees to be spotters of would-be terrorists. It is setting up a system designed to send reports of suspicious activities directly to the Department of Homeland Security via a special computer link.
FedEx's newfound enthusiasm for a frontline role in the war on terror shows how the relationship between business and government has changed in the past few years. In some cases, these changes are blurring the division between private commerce and public law enforcement.
After Sept. 11, the U.S. government altered the definition of a good corporate citizen to include help running down al Qaeda operatives, often asking companies to act as the eyes and ears of federal law enforcement. The Bush administration and Senate Republican leaders are currently pushing an updated version of the Patriot Act that would expand the ability of law-enforcement agencies to demand business records without a warrant. Already, some companies are voluntarily increasing their level of cooperation with the government, say law-enforcement officials.
Federal agents privately praise Western Union for sharing information with Treasury and Homeland Security investigators about overseas money transfers. Time Warner Inc.'s America Online has set up a dedicated hotline to help police officers seeking AOL subscriber information and also proffers advice about wording subpoenas. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has a sophisticated supply-chain security system, has been helping U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents figure out how to better track international shipping, say Homeland Security officials.
Spokespeople for Western Union, AOL and Wal-Mart all say their companies take consumers' privacy seriously and that they cooperate with legal investigations. They wouldn't provide details about their cooperation with the government.
Business associations say the government's call to arms gets a good reception in part because companies want to prevent the disruption and bad publicity that would come from terrorists using their systems. "All we are trying to do is to protect our assets and not have our assets be used for bad purposes," says Fred Smith, FedEx's chief executive.
Supporters of an expanded role for business in homeland security note that U.S. industry has often been a government ally in wartime. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. manufacturers responded by retooling factories to produce tanks, trucks, planes and munitions.
Cooperation between businesses and federal law-enforcement agencies generally isn't advertised and customers are seldom aware of it. In some cases, people waive their right to privacy when they use a particular company's service. With FedEx, customers consent to having shipments inspected as soon as they hand over their packages and sign the shipping forms.
Lee Strickland, a retired Central Intelligence Agency analyst and a specialist in privacy issues, says the new cooperation between business and the government takes place in a legal "gray zone" that has never been tested in court. He says these relationships could undermine existing privacy laws that restrict what the government can do with information it collects directly from individuals. In general, the government can only use information for the express reason it's collected.
"Since you don't know what information is being shared and how it is being stored, or how it is coded or accessed, and since you don't know what the government is looking for, there is always a possibility that it could be factored into other decisions," says Mr. Strickland. He is now the director of the Center for Information Policy at the University of Maryland.
Some companies in a position to assist aren't rushing to help. OnStar, General Motors Corp.'s in-car emergency communications system, says it won't provide information to authorities, such as the location of a vehicle, unless presented with a warrant. "OnStar philosophy is to err on the side of customer privacy," says Terry Sullivan, an OnStar spokesman. He says the company fears the public won't buy the system if people believe it's being used for surveillance.
Other shippers say they have refrained from granting a level of access similar to that of FedEx without court orders. At rival United Parcel Service Inc., spokesman David Bolger says the company won't disclose information about its customers' shipments unless required to do so by law or regulation.
The U.S. Postal Service says it doesn't provide customer payment information without a warrant. In addition, postal officials say, law-enforcement agencies are prohibited from collecting information from envelopes and packages sent through the mail without a court order.
Government officials say that the struggle against terrorism is an unorthodox fight where information and intelligence is as important as guns and bullets. Information is what FedEx has in spades.
To orchestrate its deliveries, FedEx has spent billions of dollars over the past 15 years on elaborate computer systems. It compiles troves of data about its customers and the six million packages carried daily across the world, tracking them from point of origin to final destination.
The company also maintains a large global security force, currently 500 strong. Before 9/11, it concentrated on combating employee theft and intercepting illegal shipments of narcotics, explosives or hazardous materials.
FedEx's change in mindset took place within hours of the attacks amid the confusion and frustration that followed. Mr. Smith sent a message to his subordinates "to do whatever it takes to cooperate" with federal agents, says FedEx spokeswoman Kristin Krause. This included opening up FedEx's operations in the Middle East to federal authorities and asking employees there to help investigators.
The reason behind the shift, FedEx security officials say: The company saw the nature of the threat changing. When the government wanted help fighting drugs and smuggling, FedEx felt many of its requests were intrusive and threatened to slow the pace of their deliveries.
When the worry was terrorism, Mr. Smith says, the company saw its entire system as vulnerable because trucks and planes have been the "instrument of choice" of extremists such as Timothy McVeigh as well as Islamist terrorists. FedEx's security team -- which includes several former federal law-enforcement officials -- took tactics for thwarting drug traffickers and adapted them for use against terrorism. Among them was encouraging employees to report unusual activity, no matter how small.
In December 2001, according to court records in Illinois, a FedEx driver became suspicious after making a series of deliveries of boxes to an apartment complex in suburban Chicago. The cartons were always the same size and shape and came from the same address in Los Angeles. Worried there was something sinister afoot, the driver informed his bosses and FedEx called the police.
Suspecting narcotics or explosives, the police showed up at the FedEx depot with bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs. The dogs didn't signal there was anything illicit in the boxes. FedEx then invoked the authority granted to it by every customer, which the police don't automatically have, permitting it to inspect any package without a warrant.
With a police officer looking on, FedEx popped the carton. Instead of anything dangerous, the boxes contained several hundred pre-recorded compact discs. Local police launched an investigation that eventually uncovered a CD-bootlegging operation.
At FedEx's main hub in Memphis, Tenn., cartons and envelopes whiz around a maze of automatic conveyer belts past giant laser scanners charting each package's journey. The parcels are sorted by employees armed with pocket guides to help identify suspicious packages. Security guards keep watch through a network of cameras. Customs agents' cars marked with the Homeland Security logo are parked outside some of the buildings.
By law, all express courier services are required to provide space for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at their facilities. Since 9/11, FedEx has gone further and has granted customs inspectors access to the company's database of international shipments, which includes the name and address of a shipper, the package's origin and its final destination.
The databases also include credit-card information and other payment details that the government is not entitled to solicit outside of a criminal investigation. "Our guys just love it," says one senior customs official overseeing inspections at international courier companies.
The agents cross-reference the information from FedEx's systems with their own databases. That helps them flag suspicious packages for a manual inspection and also helps them determine whether credit cards have been used in other suspicious transactions. FedEx and customs officials say the close cooperation allows customs agents do their jobs faster and allows FedEx to avoid shipment delays.
Pat Jones, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, says having access to FedEx's database has resulted in the seizure of several packages, including forged Iowa drivers licenses sent from Argentina, although nothing related to terrorism.
Sitting in FedEx's huge Washington office, which has a commanding view of the Capitol building, Mr. Smith, 61 years old, dismisses privacy concerns stemming from his company's cooperation with federal agencies. He says people already hand over tremendous amounts of information to the government, including personal-income data and details contained on a driver's license.
"As far as asking people to identify who they are, I don't think that's a real imposition. And to make that information available to the people protecting the public, I don't understand why that's as controversial as that has become," says Mr. Smith, who started FedEx 34 years ago after two tours of duty in Vietnam as a Marine officer. He says FedEx is willing to cooperate with federal authorities "up to and including the line on which we would be doing a disservice to our shareholders."
In a recent article in Chief Executive magazine, Mr. Smith wrote that his fellow corporate leaders had a duty to report suspicious activity. It's only by "training and empowering our own employees" that terrorism can be contained, he wrote.
Mr. Smith also sees a quid pro quo: In the post-Sept. 11 world, he sees the government sharing more with the private sector. As the president of the Security Task Force of the Business Roundtable -- an association of top U.S. chief executives -- Mr. Smith is leading a drive to gain access to the government's secret terrorist watch lists. He says they would be an invaluable tool to help companies screen employees.
So far the FBI, which controls the lists, says there's no sign the government will grant access to the classified databases. But FedEx already has access to some classified information through other channels.
Two years ago, after intense lobbying by FedEx of the Tennessee state legislature, the company was permitted to create a 10-man, state-recognized police force. FedEx police wear plain clothes and can investigate all types of crimes, request search warrants and make arrests on FedEx property. The courier cops say their main job is to protect company property and systems from abuse and fraud and help combat terrorists and criminals.
As a recognized police force in Tennessee, it has access to law-enforcement databases. FedEx also has a seat on a regional terrorism task force, overseen by the FBI, which has access to sensitive data regarding terrorist threats. Robert Bryden, the recently retired vice president of FedEx corporate security, says it's "remarkable" for a private company to have a seat on the task force. Across the country, FedEx is the only one, the FBI says.
FBI agent George Bolds, general counsel in the bureau's Memphis field office, says the bureau believes the FedEx police have a contribution to make. He says they can't go on raids or undertake surveillance missions with other task-force members.
The government also recognizes FedEx's potential as a vast human-intelligence network. The company's teams of drivers and delivery staff ply regular routes and visit homes and workplaces across the world. That puts them in a unique position to recognize potentially dangerous activity.
In 2002, the Department of Justice, under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, devised a program to create an army of domestic informants. Operation Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, envisioned workers such as couriers, meter readers, utility companies, truck drivers, letter carriers and train engineers organized into a force that would "report suspicious, publicly observable activity that could be related to terrorism," the government said at the time.
TIPS was supposed to be up and running by fall of 2002 but was abandoned after a public outcry and complaints from some companies. When UPS first heard about the program, its officials told the Department of Justice their employees would not participate, says spokesman Mr. Bolger. "We said we don't have time and our employees don't know what to look for. We are not law enforcement," he says.
After the collapse of TIPS, FedEx pressed ahead with its own program, one that embodied many of the same objectives, much to the delight of the government.
In a June 2003 speech delivered at a law-enforcement conference, then-Assistant Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels praised the firm for demonstrating "the tremendous role that companies like FedEx can play in passing along information about publicly observed aberrant behavior."
Mr. Bryden, the former security chief, says FedEx worked with Homeland Security officials last summer to develop a computer system that simplifies the reporting of suspicious behavior. FedEx spokeswoman Ms. Krause says the two sides met again in March and says the program should soon go through testing. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the program.
"We secure our supply chain and help the country," says Mr. Bryden. "And we believe that's exactly what our customers want."
26 May 2005
Domestic Terror Law to be Used Against Animal Rights Extremists
The avowed goals of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are contained in the animal welfare group's name, but federal prosecutors plan to paint a far less altruistic picture when seven of its members go on trial in Trenton next week.
SHAC's tactics in a long-running battle with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a Britain-based company with animal-research labs in New Jersey, have included threats and harassment against company officials and destruction of property, according to court papers.
The defendants are the first to be charged in New Jersey under the expanded federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a 2002 law that equates their alleged activities with domestic terrorism and provides for harsher penalties than its 1992 predecessor.
Prosecutors say that in recent years the homes and property of Huntingdon employees and employees of companies that did business with Huntingdon were vandalized after SHAC posted the their names and home addresses on its Web site.
Charged are Kevin Kjonaas, 27, identified as president of SHAC; Lauren Gazzola, 26, SHAC campaign coordinator; Jacob Conroy, 29; Joshua Harper, 30; Darius Fullmer, 28; John McGee, 26, and Andrew Stepanian, 26.
All were arrested last May. Kjonaas, Gazzola and Conroy are former New Jersey residents who were living in California when they were arrested. McGee is from Edison and Fullmer is from Hamilton, although court records do not specify which Hamilton. Harper is from Seattle and Stepanian is from Huntington, N.Y.
They face one conspiracy count that carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine, plus three counts of interstate stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit interstate stalking, each carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
SHAC spokeswoman Andrea Lindsay on Thursday called the charges "absolutely trumped-up."
"I think it's a frightening time in our country when you can be charged with terrorism _ the equivalent of flying a plane into a building _ for, at best, being controversial," she said.
The indictment alleges that on SHAC's Web site, the defendants encouraged others to "operate outside the confines of the legal system" to achieve the goal of shutting down Huntingdon, and posted a list of "top 20 terror tactics" such as damaging property, stealing documents, physical assault and conducting telephone and email blitzes to crash company computers.
In one of the many instances described in the indictment, a Huntingdon employee in 2001 had his car windows broken and tires slashed, and protesters sprayed graffiti on his house.
According to Lindsay, the list of tactics was copied from a document written by a group in England that actually supports animal research and was listed on the SHAC Web site with a disclaimer noting that SHAC did not encourage those activities.
Lawyers for the seven defendants plan to argue that their clients were not directly involved in any of the acts, but instead were exercising their First Amendment rights.
A motion for dismissal filed by Isabel McGinty, a Hightstown attorney representing Kjonaas, claims that "no individual defendant ... is alleged to have been involved in those acts, which the indictment attributes generally to unnamed 'individuals' or 'protesters."'
SHAC are not the only activists to target Huntingdon in New Jersey. In 1997, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture charging the lab unnecessarily killed monkeys during product-development tests for Procter & Gamble Co.
That same year, actress Kim Basinger visited the lab to try and secure the release of 40 beagles that were being used to test an osteoporosis drug. According to PETA, some of the dogs were being cut into without anesthesia. The dogs were eventually released to animal shelters.
In 1998, Huntingdon was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 23 violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including a failure to ensure that procedures were performed with appropriate anesthetics or sedatives. The company agreed to pay $50,000 to settle the charges.
AP 26 May 2005
Interpol Prepares to Act on Bioterror Threat
Bioterrorism is a credible threat which authorities worldwide have underestimated, the world's top law enforcement agency has warned.
Interpol says the world is largely unprepared for the possibility of attacks with crude biological agents, some of which can be developed in a kitchen.
"We, as police, cannot afford to be unprepared for the eventual use of biological agents by terrorist groups," said Jackie Selebi, Interpol president, at a conference in Cyprus.
The intelligence community has long warned that al Qaeda, the militant group responsible for the September 11 attacks, could try to use biological weapons such as anthrax, ricin, smallpox, plague or Ebola.
Al Qaeda manuals on preparation of biological agents were discovered at the group's training camps in Afghanistan after the US invasion in 2001.
"I do not want to scare everybody to say there is going to be a bioterrorist attack. I am simply saying that, dealing with the issue of terrorism, you must deal with the issue of terrorism in its totality, including the possible use of biological agents," Selebi told journalists.
Interpol has a dedicated unit working to raise awareness of the threat.
"Failing in this area is not an option. The consequences of such failure are far to dire to contemplate," said Selebi.
The devastating effects of deliberate use of biological agents to inflict harm manifested itself with the anthrax scare of 2001, in which five people died in the United States after exposure to barely-visible flecks of the bacteria.
Last month, a British court jailed a man with suspected links to al Qaeda on charges of plotting bomb or poison attacks in London.
Elsewhere in the war against terror, more than 4000 potentially lethal "Trojan horse" cargo containers have slipped through America's harbour security net in the past three years, the US Congress will be told today.
The containers, all classified as high risk, went unchecked before they left foreign ports and could have contained nuclear or biological weapons planted by terrorists.
They were among 40,628 containers flagged up by allied countries as possible threats.
An investigative panel found serious flaws in a system which allows 5000 regular importers, operating out of 36 ports from Rotterdam to the Gulf, to make inspections to reduce the burden on US customs.
Robert Bonner, commissioner for customs and border protection, has branded container shipments "the potential Trojan horse of the twenty-first century". More than nine million arrive in US ports every year.
"A 40ft container filled with ammonium nitrate would create a huge blast 10 to 20 times the size of the bomb which devastated Oklahoma City a few years back. But the sum of all fears is a nuke-in-a-box," he added.
His department tried to establish a system under which carriers had to send electronic details of a cargo 24 hours before it left a foreign port.
Importers who signed up to a system to speed the flow of goods were supposed to provide searches and security.
However, investigators found only 597 of the 5000 foreign firms involved had been taking the necessary precautions.
The fate
of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, meanwhile, remained unclear
yesterday after Islamic website statement claimed Abu Musab
al Zarqawi had fled to an unidentified "neighbouring
country" with two Arab doctors treating him for gunshot
wounds to his lung.
There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim.
The statement said al Zarqawi, whose group was responsible for the killing of Ken Bigley, the British hostage, and other militant atrocities in Iraq, was in stable condition.
The Herald 26 May 2005
Italian Police Arrest Anarchist Letter Bomb Suspects
talian police have uncovered a "vast and dangerous" anarchist network responsible for a string of bombings, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said on Thursday, after the arrests of five suspected militants.
The five are accused of organising an overnight bomb attack on a regional court last year.
Police also carried out over 100 raids in several regions as part of a wider probe.
Italy's "most dangerous subversive organisation" was dealt a blow by the raids, Pisanu said in a statement. "The probes carried out recently are revealing a vast and dangerous association that aims to subvert the economic and social order of the state."
The nationwide investigation was started after letter bombs were sent to several political and police offices in 2003.
Since then, there has been a string of similar blasts, mostly small bombs that damaged property.
A bomb exploded at night in front of a court in Viterbo near Rome in January, 2004, smashing glass and knocking out electric entrance controls but causing no casualties.
"All five are accused of being co-authors of the attack on the Viterbo regional court," the police said in a statement.
They said three of the five were accused of being members of the nationwide anarchist network.
On Tuesday, a letter bomb blew up in a police station in the northern city of Turin, slightly injuring a policewoman, while another explosive package was intercepted elsewhere before it could go off.
Reuters 26 May 2005
Bomb Threats Sent in West Virginia Mail
Two Charleston child-care centers, a bank, a hotel, a jail administration office and an arts center.
Charleston detectives are charged with figuring out what they all have in common and why a common person dislikes them all. All six received threatening letters through the mail Monday, saying their buildings would be bombed.
Each of the six got “a letter indicating an explosion, or bomb, would go off on a certain date,” said Detective Aaron James.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. “There’s more than six of them,” said Joe Ciccarelli, resident agent-in-charge of the Charleston FBI office. “We’ve been getting calls since last week.”
City detectives have touched the letters as little as possible in order to preserve any potential evidence, James said, so he hasn’t actually read the letters. The same goes for Ciccarelli.
“We’ll send them off to our lab and see what they come up with,” Ciccarelli said.
Charleston police said those who reported receiving the threats were the state Regional Jail and Correctional Facility administrative offices at 1325 Virginia St; the Clay Center at 1 Clay Center; Connects, a child-care facility located at 910 Quarrier St.; St. Anthony Church’s child-care center at 1027 Sixth Ave.; and the Charleston House Holiday Inn, 600 Kanawha Blvd.
“They didn’t all say the same thing,” James said of the letters, adding they were not form letters.
“I think they generally center on the same language,” Ciccarelli said.
He said most are inside Charleston, but a few have been just outside the city. He would not disclose others who had received the letters. “There’s probably more than a dozen that I’m aware of,” he said.
All have been hand-written, though neither James nor Ciccarelli could say yet if they were mailed from the same place. “It appears they’re coming from the same source,” Ciccarelli said.
He also believes there are probably others that have either already been delivered or are in the mail. The FBI asks that anyone receiving such a letter contact the Charleston office at 346-3232.
“Somebody spent a lot of money on postage,” Ciccarelli said.
And, the letters have not just been sent to governmental entities and businesses. Ciccarelli said individuals have also received them. “It’s just a smattering of everything,” he said.
James said the letters stated most of the facilities would be blown up on Sept. 11, but Steve Canterbury, Regional Jail and Correctional Facility executive director, said the one his office received did not. “Ours didn’t give a date,” he said.
Ciccarelli would not divulge such information.
Jail employees called city police and handed over their letter, but Canterbury said no one seemed too excited about it. He called the hand-written letter “lame” and said it was “not considered very seriously.”
“We’ve gotten similar type things in the past,” he said, though most threats are usually aimed at the jails or a particular person.
“It really hasn’t amounted to much yet,” James conceded.
But for investigating agencies, any type threat must be taken seriously. James expects federal investigators to take the investigation over. “It sounds like the it’s probably going to go to the FBI exclusively,” he said.
A Charleston detective has been assigned to work with that agency during the investigation.
With the six Monday letters arriving the same day, James said he is “assuming” that those were “all mailed at the same time.”
Charleston Gazette 25 May 2005
Suspect Powder Causes Alarm at Royal Mail Sorting Office
A suspect package caused alarm at a Royal Mail sorting office today.
An envelope, filled with a suspicious white powder, was discovered by workers at Peterborough Mail Centre, in Papyrus Road, Werrington.
Police were called to the sorting office at about 1am after reports that an envelope had split, and white powder had leaked on to a conveyor belt.
The workers were isolated while tests were carried out.
A fire service chemical advisor tested the substance and found it to be harmless "barium meal" – on its way to Peterborough District Hospital to be used for enemas.
James Taylor, spokesman for Royal Mail, said: "There was a security incident, described as a suspect package, at Peterborough Mail Centre, at 1am.
"We have very well rehearsed safety procedures in such cases, and the area was isolated.
"There were 170 staff on duty and all of them are fine. We were forced to shut down some of the machines until the all-clear was given after about an hour.
"This may cause short delays for some customers in the area today."
Kate Aldridge, spokeswoman for Peterborough police, said: "I can confirm we were called at around 1.05am to reports of a suspect package at Peterborough Mail Centre, on Papyrus Road.
"Officers attended the scene and the building was contained. No one touched the powder, and it was found to be harmless."
Evening Telegraph 25 May 2005
Two Powder Threats Sent to Pennsylvania Courthouse
Two letters sent to separate offices at the Bradford County Courthouse Tuesday are being considered a threat, according to Bradford County Sheriff Steve Evans.
Evans declined to discuss the nature of the letters, which arrived in the regular mail at the courthouse early Tuesday both contained a powdered substance, which was later found to be non-hazardous according to a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson, and was actually baking powder.
Evans would also not disclose who the letters had been sent to or where they had been sent from, but he did say there are "several leads" currently being pursued by law enforcement.
A source inside the courthouse reported the letters were sent to the offices of Evans and president judge Jeffrey Smith, but Evans did not confirm this.
The origin of the letters are being investigated by the sheriff's department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Evans. The discovery of the letters caused restricted access to portions of the courthouse and to the general public throughout Tuesday.
The incident did not disrupt the routine operations of the courthouse, Evans said.
This is the second recent threat related to county government.
Last week, Sayre resident John Fallenstein was charged with terroristic threats after he allegedly threatened to shoot the Bradford County Commissioners. Fallenstein faces a June preliminary hearing. Fallenstein's threat was allegedly made during a call to the Bradford County Emergency Management Office.
From the outside, the scene at the courthouse Tuesday was calm and unassuming. A sheriff's deputy and probation officer stood at each entrance, asking members of the public to conduct their business at the courthouse on another day.
In the back parking lot, a TEEM Environmental Services van from Lewisburg pulled in and parked quietly and technicians entered without fanfare. The arrival of two FBI agents also occurred silently and calmly.
"(After the discovery) we contacted federal authorities for assistance and U.S. postal inspectors from Scranton and Philadelphia arrived at the courthouse," said Evans.
The area around the discovered substance was contained, according to the sheriff department's "policies on these issues," the sheriff said.
"There is still a pending, ongoing investigation into this matter and there are limitations to what I can say on this matter," he said.
The courthouse will be open for regular hours today.
Evans would not discuss how security may be increased, but did say the mail would be screened carefully before it is distributed in the courthouse.
The commissioners have been pursuing restricted access through side and back entrances of the courthouse and metal detectors at the front entrance.
While increased physical security may not have helped in Tuesday's situation, the metal detector and restricted access is still needed, Bradford County Commissioner Nancy Schrader said Tuesday.
The commissioners were out of town on business at the time of the incident.
Sayre
Evening News 25 May 2005
Letter Bomb Scare at IRS Office in Florida
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office bomb squad division was called out Tuesday to the IRS office in the Bennett Federal Building at 400 West Bay St., where a suspicious letter was found. The letter was deemed suspicious because the return address was labeled "Iraq War."
"What our process is is to go in and try to X-ray this particular envelope, just to see if there's any type of potential hazard or danger within that envelope that might cause someone to get hurt or possibly killed," JSO spokesman Ken Jefferson said.
After the bomb squad finished X-raying the letter and found no explosive devices inside, it was taken to the health department to be tested for hazardous materials. Those tests came back negative.
The building was not evacuated, although some employees elected to leave on their own recourse.
News4Jax 25 May 2005
UK Hardliners 'Still Fighting Terror Campaign'
Hardline republican terror groups opposed to the peace process are still trying to mount a more effective terror campaign, the British and Irish Governments were warned today.
Ministers were told in the latest report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) that the Continuity IRA had reorganised its leadership structure and was training new members in the use of rifles and explosives.
The commissioners also said the Real IRA (RIRA), which was responsible for the 1998 Omagh bomb, was still recruiting and training new members in how to use weapons.
The Real IRA had also targeted police officers.
The IMC said the Continuity IRA (CIRA) was sporadically active in paramilitarism and other crime, threatening members of local policing committees and forcing a taxi in January to carry a bomb to a Belfast police station.
“It has monitored the security force reaction to hoax bombs to help it make future attacks,” the report noted.
“It has undertaken both assaults and shootings ... CIRA has undertaken some reorganization, particularly in the command structure.
“We believe this may indicate an intention to increase its level of activity.
“It is taking on new members, has continued to train, including in the use of rifles and explosives, and it makes efforts to improve its engineering capacity (particularly in relation to explosives) and its access to weapons.
“It has produced homemade explosives and has moved munitions. As before, we believe it is a dangerous organization capable of serious, if sporadic, attacks.
“It has no interest in ceasefire and we believe that it plans to continue to engage in terrorism and other crimes, possibly more than in the recent past.”
The commission said the Real IRA contained two factions which were still involved in terrorism and organized crime.
The organization remained the most active dissident republican group and was behind a number of brutal attacks and robberies, sending postal bombs to members of District Policing Partnerships last September, and in January and February.
The Real IRA mounted gun attacks on police stations in September, October and December, carried out assaults, exiled a person it had previously shot and in the run-up to Christmas was behind a campaign of hoax and genuine firebombs at commercial premises in different parts of Northern Ireland.
In January, the organisation carried out an arson attack on a store in Strabane and in February petrol-bombed a person’s home.
“It has continued efforts to improve its capacity in the use of explosives,” the IMC said.
“We believe this is the work of an organization which is ruthless and committed to terrorism.
“There have been some arrests of RIRA members in Northern Ireland and the South and three people are currently awaiting trial in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin. The organization remains a threat.”
The report said the Irish National Liberation Army was still a significant terrorist group involved in violence and organized crime such as the drugs trade.
Although it had not shot or assaulted people as it had in previous six-month periods, the IMC said members of the organization remained very actively involved in crime.
The commission said it believed the INLA was involved in the theft of £100,000-worth of goods last October from the department store Debenham’s in Belfast and stole a similar sum from the Ulster Bank in Strabane, threatening a bank official’s family.
“The threat of the organization’s more active re-engagement remains,” the report said.
24 May 2005
Letter Bomb Explodes in Italy, Another Stopped
A letter bomb blew up in a police station in Turin Tuesday, slightly injuring a policewoman, and a second explosive device was intercepted in a residence for immigrants, also in northern Italy, police said.
Investigators said a note inside the package which did not explode suggested it had been sent by anarchist militants to the immigration center in the city of Modena.
The device which did go off was wrapped in an envelope filled with bolts.
"The agent realized something was odd, quickly tossed the envelope away from her and it exploded with a burst of flame that blackened the wall," a Turin police official said.
Last week police arrested a group of suspected anarchist militants whom they accuse of similar explosive attacks in several Italian cities.
Small bombs exploded in Milan, Turin and other cities in March, damaging cars and buildings but causing no casualties. They had mostly been placed in rubbish bins and containers, going off at night.
Reuters 24 May 2005
Small Bomb Explodes in Spain, Another Stopped
A small bomb exploded early Sunday in the town of Zarauz on Spain's northeast coast, damaging a wall, but a second device was safely deactivated, police said. No one was injured.
There was no warning or claim of responsibility, but a local politician accused the Basque separatist group ETA of planting the devices.
A suspicious package was reported to police at 3 a.m. (0100GMT) and defused in a park near the edge of town, police said. The area had been cordoned off when a second device exploded two hours later, damaging a dividing wall near a local industrialist's home, police said.
The defused device consisted of 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of a chlorine-based explosive, a timer and a detonator, reinforced by some plastic explosive, the Spanish news agency EFE said.
A local Socialist Party leader, Miguel Buen, condemned the attack, saying it was an attempt to scare local businessmen into paying protection money.
"ETA must know that despite blackmail, threats and attacks, businessmen will continue to work to secure the future of businesses and workers," Buen said.
ETA has been fighting since the late 1960s for an independent Basque homeland in the Basque region straddling northern Spain and southwest France. ETA has claimed responsibility for more than 800 killings since then.
Ap Worldstream 22 May 2005
New Mexico Capitol Evacuated for Powder and Threat Letter
The state Capitol was evacuated Friday after the governor's office received a package containing an unknown white powder and a threatening letter.
"It's most likely a hoax, but we're taking every necessary precaution," Gov. Bill Richardson, one of those evacuated, said at a news conference outside the Capitol.
The package was removed from the building Friday evening and transported to a laboratory in Albuquerque, after epidemiologists from the New Mexico Health Department did a preliminary assessment of the powder on site.
"Initial elimination tests show that we're 85 percent sure that it's not anthrax, but there is still a 15 percent chance that it could be," said Peter Olson, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
The preliminary tests also showed the substance was not radiological and not explosive, Olson said.
The threat was aimed at Richardson, said Department of Public Safety Secretary John Denko. He would not describe the letter or its contents other than to say, "It was a threat, and it was a bit nasty."
Richardson said he will not be intimidated.
"Whoever is playing this game is not going to shut state government down," he said.
Anthrax hoaxes have increased around the nation since the still-unsolved mailings of anthrax-tainted letters in October 2001 that killed five people and sickened 17.
The letter was opened Friday afternoon by Brian Grace, the governor's director of mail operations, whose office is a few doors from Richardson's.
"Once they saw what they had, they dropped it and moved out," Denko said.
He said Grace underwent decontamination on the spot -- which involved stripping and washing down with water and bleach. Everyone else on the fourth floor, including Richardson, was advised to take a shower. Richardson did so at the governor's mansion.
Last September, Grace intercepted an envelope intended for Richardson and rigged to ignite when opened. That letter, which was not opened, was similar to ones received by 19 other governors about the same time.
In January 2004, the Capitol was evacuated after what Denko called a "suspicious package" was found in the building's basement parking garage. Richardson was not in the building at the time. The substance in the package turned out to be mostly cement.
AP 22 May 2005
Suspicious Substance Closes Mail Room in Oregon Prison
A suspicious substance found Friday morning in a package in the mail room at the Oregon State Penitentiary appeared to be a bodily fluid, according to Oregon State Police.
A Salem Fire Department hazardous materials team responded to the prison at 9:26 a.m. after mail-room employees found a liquid inside a rubber or latex glove in a package. The mail room is in a house that was turned into office space for employees on the prison grounds at 2605 State St.
The HazMat team cordoned off the area.
Prison spokeswoman Perrin Damon said the incident was contained to that area. All prison mail is inspected for contraband.
The substance, which had not spilled from the glove, was turned over to Oregon State Police. Police determined the package was being mailed from someone inside the prison and opted not to test the substance after determining that it was a bodily fluid.
Statesman Journal 21 May 2005
NJ Bank Locked Down After Suspicious Package Found
A Mercer County bank has been locked down after the discovery of a suspicious package Saturday morning.
Six employees at First Washington Bank in Washington Township were being kept inside the building as a hazmat team investigated a package leaking white powder.
The six employees said they were feeling fine.
Police said the substance was undergoing extensive testing after being brought out by hazmat workers in biohazard suits.
Workers found the package around 11 a.m.
It is believed to be from India and was part of the bank's mail picked up by workers at a local post office.
AP, 20 May 2005
FBI and ATF Say Animal Rights Extremists and Eco-terrorists Serious Domestic Threats
Violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation, top federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel of their growing concern over these groups.
Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF.
In the same period violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and anti-abortion extremists have declined, Lewis said.
The ELF has been linked to fires set at sport utility vehicle dealerships and construction sites in various states, while the ALF has been blamed for arson and bombings against animal research labs and the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry.
No deaths have been blamed on attacks by those groups so far, but the attacks have increased in frequency and size, said Lewis.
"Plainly, I think we're lucky. Once you set one of these fires they can go way out of control," Lewis said.
ATF Deputy Assistant Director Carson Carroll agreed with Lewis' assessment.
"The most worrisome trend to law enforcement and private industry alike has been the increase in willingness by these movements to resort to the use of incendiary and explosive devices," he said.
The FBI also identified a British-based group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, as a U.S. terror threat. The group targets Britain's Huntingdon Life Sciences Laboratory, which has an American facility in East Millstone, New Jersey.
Last year a federal grand jury indicted seven people identified as members of the group on charges they vandalized company property and harassed lab employees and customers.
Senate Environment Committee Chairman James Inhofe estimated the cost of damages from militant environmental and animal rights supporters at more than $110 million in the past decade.
"Just like al Qaeda or any other terrorist movement, ELF and ALF cannot accomplish their goals without money, membership, and the media," the Republican senator from Oklahoma said.
Inhofe said there was "a growing network of support for extremists like ELF and ALF," and he singled out People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for giving money to members of both groups.
PETA claims more than 800,000 members. Its president, Ingrid Newkirk, declined to appear at the hearing, but general counsel Jeffrey Kerr denied Inhofe's allegation in a written statement.
"PETA has no involvement with alleged ALF or ELF actions. PETA does not support terrorism. PETA does not support violence," Kerr said.
"In fact PETA exists to fight the terrorism and violence inflicted on billions of animals annually in the meat, dairy, experimentation, tobacco, fur, leather, and circus industries."
Some committee members have expressed skepticism over the high level of concern toward environmental and animal rights extremists.
"The Department of Homeland Security spends over $40 billion a year to protect the home front," Sen. Frank Lautenberg said. After listing al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, the Democrat from New Jersey wanted to know who else the law enforcement agencies considered terrorists: "Right to Life? Sierra Club?"
Lautenberg declared himself "a tree hugger."
And Sen. James Jeffords also issued a statement expressing doubt about the target of concern.
"Congress can't do much about individual extremists committing crimes in the name of ELF or ALF, but we can act to significantly enhance the safety of communities across the nation," the independent from Vermont wrote.
"ELF and ALF may threaten dozens of people each year, but an incident at a chemical, nuclear or wastewater facility would threaten tens of thousands."
Vermont University Receives Powder Hoax Threat in Mail
A letter containing a white powdery substance that was sent to Norwich University Wednesday turned out to be a hoax.
While separating the daily mail, a mailroom employee handled a first class envelope that was leaking the substance, which turned out to be table salt.
Local and state police and fire and rescue officials were called to the student center at Harmon Hall around 10 a.m. and evacuated the building. Officials subsequently called in the Vermont Hazardous Materials Response Team and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
"The hazmat team went in and determined it was table salt. We got the call at about 10:30 and the whole thing was wrapped up by 1 p.m.," said Chris Herrick, chief of the state hazmat team.
U.S. Postal Service Inspector Mark Cavic said officials were able to call the person who sent the letter and confirm that the substance was table salt. Hazmat lab tests also revealed that the substance was salt and not anthrax. Cavic said the letter was mailed by someone who lives out of state, but said that he couldn't comment on the sender's motive or what sort of charges he or she might face. He also refused to identify the person who sent the letter.
Cavic said he will be meeting with the U.S. attorney's office in Burlington about the incident, which will continue to be investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
"We get a fair amount of (letter scares) across the state; from St. Johnsbury to Bennington and everywhere in between. We treat them seriously, but a lot of them turn out to be hoax mailings," Cavic said. He said the substances in hoax letters vary.
The Times Argus received a suspicious letter on December 28, 2004, when the deputy editor opened a letter that contained a white powder. It, too, turned out to be salt. The entire staff was quarantined for several hours while the Vermont hazmat team and fire and rescue crews secured the building. The Federal Bureau of Investigation handled that incident, and no one has been charged in that case.
Norwich University was relatively empty Wednesday, which worked to the advantage of the investigators. The school's graduation was held Sunday, so cadets are on summer break.
"On a normal day, if the cafeteria were open, we'd have anywhere from 100 to 300 people in Harmon Hall," said Anthony Venti, the school's director of public affairs. At the time of the evacuation, there were only two employees in the mailroom and several employees on the third floor.
Venti said that ever since Sept. 11, the school has had a contingency plan for mail scares. Norwich mail workers are supposed to leave suspicious packages alone and report them directly to supervisors.
"Had Norwich not had a plan, the state hazmat team would have been there all day," Venti said. In this case, police quarantined the mailroom quickly and avoided potential contamination to other areas of the building.
Venti said Norwich has not had a similar scare that he recalls.
"Things are back to normal. No one was harmed. We're thankful for a swift and speedy resolution on behalf of the authorities," he said.
Times Argus 21 May 2005
Denmark's NATO Mission Receives Suspicious Letter with Powder
A letter an unidentified powder addressed to Denmark's mission to NATO headquarters was intercepted Wednesday by the alliance's security department, the Foreign Ministry said.
It was the latest in a string of anthrax scares at Danish missions abroad. All have turned out to be hoaxes.
The letter was handed over to Belgian authorities for analysis, the Foreign Ministry said.
Last week, the Danish embassies in Stockholm and Vienna and the consulate in New York received letters with powder that turned out to be harmless.
On Tuesday, a Danish opposition lawmaker got a similar letter with death threats scribbled on the envelope.
Danish police have not arrested any suspects, and have not said whether the incidents are related.
In January, the Danish parliament was evacuated after clerks opened an incoming letter containing white powder. The perpetrator, a mentally disturbed 35-year-old woman, turned herself in and was sentenced to 27 days in jail.
Woman Charged with Anthrax Threat Against Bush
A 21-year-old Pekin woman has been indicted for allegedly threatening President George Bush by telling him in a letter she put anthrax in the note.
The letter, according to court records, included: "(Y)our time is up. Yes, that's right. That's a threat. I have enclosed some anthrax and I hope it is enough to kill you and if it's not, I can send someone to shoot you or something. You are not safe."
Jessica A. Moyer appeared in U.S. District Court in Peoria Thursday on charges of threatening the president and mailing a threatening communication March 5. A sealed indictment was entered April 20 and a summons was issued April 21. The summons was initially returned unserved April 26.
The letter did not contain any anthrax, officials said.
Court records did not say how authorities found the letter or if it reached the White House.
Moyer's lawyer, Bill Anderson, said after Thursday's hearing that his client is "a very nice young girl, and I am very confident she did not intend to hurt anyone."
Moyer, who was released on a personal recognizance bond, faces up to 10 years in federal prison, $500,000 in fine and six years of supervised release, if convicted.
Her trial was set for July 5. A pretrial conference is scheduled for June 6.
In 2001, anthrax attacks killed five people and infected 18 others when letters containing the deadly spores were sent through a postal processing facility in New Jersey to news media and government offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and Florida.
AP 13 May 2005
Woman
Charged with Sending Powder Hoax to Tony Blair
A woman accused of sending a hoax powder to Prime Minister
Tony Blair will appear in court on Friday charged under the
country's anti-terrorism laws, police said.
Heather Kennaby, from Cambridgeshire, was arrested on Thursday after a package containing medicated talcum powder was intercepted in the postal system, London police said in a statement.
She was charged with sending a substance "intending to induce a belief that it was likely to be a noxious substance". Police released no more details of the alleged incident.
Kennaby was due to appear at Peterborough Magistrates' Court later on Friday.
Britain has stepped up security in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
As a close supporter of the United States' invasion and occupation of Iraq, Britain is widely regarded as a potential target for attack.
Reuters 13 May 2005
Kashmir
Parcel Bomb Kills 3
A Muslim man, his daughter and son were killed in an overnight
bomb explosion after they received a ”gift” parcel
at their home in Indian Kashmir, a police spokesman said on
Friday.
He said the explosion took place inside the house of Mohammed Sayeed in the southern Kashmir town of Bijbehara.
“Sayeed and his two children died on the spot, while his wife was seriously injured,” the spokesman said.
The children were named as 20-year-old Rafiq Ahmed and 22-year-old Dilshada Bano.
An unidentified person had delivered a wrapped gift to the family earlier in the day. “Late in the evening when they started opening it there was an explosion,” the police official said.
On Thursday two women were killed and 50 people injured, many of them school children in a grenade attack near a missionary school in the Himalayan state’s summer capital Srinagar.
The previous day two people died and 34 were injured in a car-bomb explosion in a commercial district of Srinagar.
Thousands have died since an insurgency began against Indian rule in the region in 1989.
AFP 15 May 2005
Danish Embassy Evacuated During Anthrax Mail Scare
Denmark's embassy in Sweden was evacuated today after it received a letter containing an unknown substance, Sweden's national news agency TT said.
Embassy personnel were decontaminated in a tent outside the embassy in central Stockholm and a police spokesman said: "We reacted according to our routine as if it was anthrax".
No other details were immediately available.
Denmark has troops in Iraq and its embassy has been attacked several times in protest.
Danish
media quoted a Danish Foreign Ministry official as saying
the ministry had not been able to reach personnel at the embassy
because their mobile telephones had been taken away by Swedish
police as they might be contaminated.
Reuters 11 May 2005
Militant Animal Liberation Front Escalate Attacks
Early one recent morning, the wife of a pharmaceutical executive was followed to her workplace, her car was broken into and her credit cards stolen; later $20,000 in unauthorized charitable donations were billed on the cards.
It was the latest in a series of attacks by the Animal Liberation Front on the Long Island family. The militants, who have claimed responsibility, once scrawled "Puppy Killer" in red paint on the executive's house and have posted the couple's phone, license plate and bank account numbers on the Internet, along with this threat: "If we find a dime of that money granted to those charities was taken back we will strip you bare."
The Animal Liberation Front has targeted the executive's employer, Forest Laboratories Inc., as part of a six-year campaign against one of the company's contractors, Huntingdon Life Sciences. A British-based firm, Huntingdon uses animals to test household products and medication.
"Anybody who does business with this company, they become a legitimate target for the campaign," Jerry Vlasak, an ALF spokesman and a physician in Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview.
The FBI and at least two New York police departments have launched an investigation into attacks on some 30 Forest Laboratories employees in the New York metropolitan area. Investigators say that in the past six months animal rights militants have escalated their attacks, moving from protests at the homes of targets to vandalism to theft and threats.
"You feel powerless against what's going on around you," said the executive's wife, who asked that her name not be printed while the investigation continues. "We are victims; we are innocent. These people have no clue what they do."
In New Jersey, seven animal rights activists face trial on federal terrorism charges for allegedly inciting activists to harass and threaten employees of other companies connected with Huntingdon Life Sciences. The trial is scheduled to start in June.
"We've been seeing it steadily increase over a couple of years - the number of incidences, the costs and the change in the rhetoric," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino. "They see themselves in an asymmetrical war, that's what we're seeing on the hard left."
FBI officials estimate that in the past decade, ALF supporters have committed 700 criminal acts and caused $112 million in damage. In the United States, the number of incidents attributed to ALF decreased slightly last year, but their attacks have grown in size and cost.
Federal and New York officials acknowledge they have made only a handful of arrests. The challenge, they say, is cracking an amorphous movement. The ALF has no leader or organizational chart and the activists are methodical and careful, only attacking after extensive surveillance.
"They aren't street criminals," said Detective Lt. James T. Rooney with the Suffolk County Police on Long Island. "A lot of them are college educated and they are aware of the limits of what they can do. You're dealing with intelligent people."
Vlasak, a former animal researcher, claims not to know the identity of the animal rights activists, saying he receives information from anonymous communiques sent to the press office and Internet postings. He said the movement does not condone violence against people.
"The above-ground campaign writes letters and it's the underground actions that capture the interest," said Vlasak.
Founded in England in the 1970s, the ALF took root in the American West a decade later, the FBI said. The organization gained notoriety for "animal liberation" in which activists broke into university and biomedical labs to free rabbits and mice. In the past decade ALF activists spread to the East Coast, their activism growing in the biomedical field which often relies on testing animals.
The FBI says American animal rights activists have not committed violence against people. In England, however, three ALF activists used a pickax to beat the managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences outside his home. A British court convicted David Blenkinsop of the attack.
Huntingdon Life Sciences has lost investors, banking support and insurers in Europe, after it became the target of harassment, including death threats.
In New Jersey, federal prosecutors say members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, a group affiliated with the Animal Liberation Front, used the Internet to incite 20 attacks, including threats, vandalism -- slashing car tires and breaking windows -- and detonating a smoke bomb in Seattle, according to the indictment against the seven animal rights activists.
The New Jersey members, similar to ALF activists, post personal information on "targets" along with suggested "direct actions." "We'll be at their offices, at their doorsteps, on their phones or in their computers," read one SHAC announcement, according to the indictment. "There will be no rest for the wicked."
Defense attorneys say employee information is publicly available and covered by the First Amendment. But in Pennsylvania, a state court granted a temporary injunction to another pharmaceutical company, ruling the New Jersey militants had set up a Web site that incited and encouraged violence.
On Long Island, the pharmaceutical executive and his wife live cautiously but refuse to change their lives following the attacks. Their nameplate marks the entrance to the planned community where they live. Letters arrive at the mail box planted on the main road and they still rely on local police to patrol the area.
"We
all have things we believe in, but do we set bombs and light
cars on fire?" asked the executive's wife. "We live
in a country where people shouldn't live like that."
Washington
Post 5 May 2005
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
