Letter sent to obama tested positive for ricin.

[powderman]

Letter sent to Obama tests positive for ricin, FBI says  Published April 17, 2013
FoxNews.com   

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The FBI has confirmed that a letter addressed to President Obama has "preliminarily tested positive" for ricin, a day after lawmakers said another letter sent to the Capitol Hill office of Sen. Roger Wicker tested positive for the same substance.
The warnings come amid a flurry of reports on suspicious packages. Fox News has learned of several suspicious packages or envelopes in various Capitol Hill office buildings. Capitol Police say three packages that were flagged have been removed and the areas have been cleared.
 
Separately, the office of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., reported a "suspicious-looking letter" at one of the senator's Michigan offices; and a spokesman for Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., reported a "suspicious letter" was intercepted at Flake's Phoenix office. Authorities were also called to the Dallas office of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, over what was described only as "a piece of mail."
 
The package alerts compounded security concerns in the wake of the letter incidents and the Boston bombing, which the FBI has said do not appear to be related. 
Both of the initial suspicious letters were apparently intercepted on Tuesday. They never reached the Hill or the White House.
An FBI bulletin obtained by Fox News said the letter sent to Obama is still being screened, though it initially tested positive. 
 
The bulletin said both letters included the phrase: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance."
Both were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."
The letter to the Mississippi Republican was intercepted at an off-site mail screening facility.
Authorities declined to comment on a suspect or any other aspect of the investigation being led by Capitol Police, but Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told the Associated Press police have a suspect in mind.
 
"The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members," McCaskill said as she emerged from a classified briefing.
Testing is apparently still underway. The letter tested positive for ricin in a field test, but the FBI released a statement Wednesday saying tests have shown "inconsistent results" and the substance is being further analyzed.
According to a Homeland Security Department handbook, ricin is deadliest when inhaled. It is not contagious, but there is no antidote.
 
Wicker thanked law enforcement officials in a statement for "their hard work and diligence in keeping" those who work in the Capitol safe, adding that the matter is part of an ongoing investigation by Capitol Police and the FBI. "Gayle and I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers," he said.
 
As of Tuesday night, mail delivery had only been stopped to the Senate, not the House.
"It is of concern," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said after learning about the incident in a briefing with other senators late Tuesday.
The envelope had a Tennessee postmark and no return address.
The letter inside included an implied threat to effect of: "You haven’t listen to me before. Now you will, even if people have to die," Politico also reported.
Sources say officials are familiar with the person believed to have sent the letter as the person has sent other letters before.
 
FBI Director Robert Mueller and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a scheduled talk about cyber security. But that briefing morphed into talks about Boston, after the bombings Monday.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer conducted a separate briefing for senators specifically on ricin.
 
It's unclear whether the letter had any connection to the Boston attack.
The mail-screening system was established after the Anthrax attacks of 2001 that closed the Hart Senate Office Building.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Mike Levine and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/17/envelope-containing-ricin-sent-to-sen-wicker-lawmakers-say/#ixzz2QkbReRJX

[Flash]

Its been on CNN all day

[Bigeasy]

Did a little reading, and I was amazed to find you could make it at home using Lima Beans...Though apparently it's a lot more difficult to make it in the strength needed to kill someone.
 
Larry

[Spirithawk]

Well crap! Now along with guns he'll want a ban on the US Mail!

[powderman]

Well crap! Now along with guns he'll want a ban on the US Mail!

 
And lima beans. POWDERMAN. 

[Dixie Dude]

10 lbs of potatoes have enough cyanide to kill a person.  Don't know anyone who can eat 10 lbs at a time.

[dakotashooter2]

Pointless............. The devil eats poison for breakfast...............

[powderman]

Feds arrest suspect in ricin-positive letters sent to Obama, senator    Federal agents on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the mailing of letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator that initially tested positive for the poison ricin.

The suspect was identified as Kenneth Curtis of Tupelo, Miss., federal officials told NBC News.

Both letters carried an identical closing statement, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by NBC News on Wednesday.

According to the FBI bulletin, both letters, postmarked April 8, 2013 out of Memphis, Tenn., included an identical phrase, "to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance."

In addition, both letters are signed: "I am KC and I approve this message."

The letter to Obama was intercepted at an off-site White House mail facility and was being tested further, the FBI said. A federal law enforcement official said that the letter was “very similar” to one addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

Two federal officials said late Wednesday that an initial laboratory test on the material in the letters was inconclusive. The test shows some level of ricin, they said, but the potency is uncertain. They cannot tell whether the material is actually harmful or not. So more tests have been ordered.

The sender of the letters, one official said, "may have stumbled onto something," but it's unknown if he actually made full-blown ricin toxin.

Ricin is made from castor beans and can kill within 36 hours. There is no antidote. Some threatening letters simply contain ground castor beans, resulting in a positive field test for ricin without the concentrated poison. Results from full laboratory tests are expected in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Filters at a second government mail screening facility also tested positive for ricin in preliminary screening Wednesday.

An FBI official told NBC News that the agency did not initially believe the letters were related to the attack on the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Authorities also for a time cleared the atrium of a Senate office building Wednesday, removing suspicious envelopes and a package, before reopening the offices. Capitol police were also investigating a suspicious package at the office of Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. Shelby’s staff had not been evacuated.

The Wicker letter had no return address. The FBI confirmed the preliminary positive test on it Tuesday. That letter was intercepted at a postal facility in Maryland that screens mail sent to Congress, and never reached Wicker’s office.

Other senators were made aware of the Wicker letter during a briefing Tuesday evening on the bombing in Boston. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that the person who sent Wicker the letter writes often to elected officials.

People can be exposed to ricin by touching a ricin-laced letter or by inhaling particles that enter the air when the envelope is opened. Touching ricin can cause a rash but is not usually fatal. Inhaling it can cause trouble breathing, fever and other symptoms, and can be fatal.

At a hearing Wednesday on the Postal Service’s finances, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said that while there have been ricin scares in the past, the recent discoveries were unprecedented.

“There's never been any actually proved that have gone through the system,” Donahoe said. “But we've got a process that we make sure that our employees know -- We can actually track the mail back through the system to double check from an employee health standpoint."

Field tests are conducted anytime suspicious powder is found in a mail facility, and the FBI cautioned that field tests and other preliminary tests can produce inconsistent results. When tests show the possibility of a biological agent, the material is sent to a laboratory for full analysis.




http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...a-senator?lite