Ricin scare rattles Washington
updated 12:58 PM EDT, Wed April 17, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- A letter sent to Obama contained a "suspicious substance," Secret Service says
- Another envelope was addressed to Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi
- Initial tests on that envelope detected the deadly poison ricin; additional tests under way
- Suspicious package scares at Senate office buildings Wednesday
White House mail handlers
identified a "suspicious substance" Tuesday in a letter addressed to
President Barack Obama that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, the
FBI said. The same day, a similar letter addressed to Sen. Roger
Wicker, R-Mississippi, tested positive for ricin -- a toxin with no
known antidote, officials said.
But the FBI said initial tests can be "inconsistent," and the envelopes have been sent off for additional tests.
Meanwhile, Sen. Carl
Levin, D-Michigan, says one of his home-state offices received a
"suspicious-looking" letter and alerted authorities. "We do not know yet
if the mail presented a threat," said Levin, the chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
Filters at a government
mail-screening facility preliminarily tested positive for ricin
Wednesday morning, an FBI statement said, and mail from that site is
being tested.
Mail for members of
Congress and the White House has been handled at off-site postal
facilities since the 2001 anthrax attacks. But Capitol Police were
checking out reports of suspicious packages or letters in two Senate
office buildings and evacuated the first floor of one those buildings
Wednesday afternoon.
Police questioned a man
in the area who had a backpack containing sealed envelopes, but a
federal law enforcement official told CNN that authorities do not
believe the man was connected to the letters found Tuesday.
In a statement issued
Wednesday, the FBI said it has no indication of a connection between the
tainted letters and Monday's bombings at the finish line of the Boston
Marathon. But the discoveries further heightened security concerns at a
time when Congress is considering politically volatile legislation to
toughen gun laws and reform the immigration system.
"Monday's attack in
Boston reminded us that terrorism can still strike anywhere at any
time," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. "And as
yesterday's news of an attempt to send ricin to the Capitol reminds us,
it is as important as ever to take the steps necessary to protect
Americans from those who would do us harm."
The letter sent to
Wicker had a Memphis, Tennessee, postmark and no return address, Senate
Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer wrote in an e-mail to senators and
aides.
A laboratory in Maryland
confirmed the presence of ricin on the letter addressed to Wicker after
initial field tests also indicated the poison was present, according to
Gainer. However, the FBI said additional testing was needed because
field and preliminary tests produce inconsistent results.
"Only a full analysis
performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a
biological agent such as ricin," according to the bureau. "Those tests
are in the process of being conducted and generally take from 24 to 48
hours."
In a statement late
Tuesday, the U.S. Capitol Police said further tests would be conducted
at the Army's biomedical research laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Sen. Claire McCaskill,
D-Missouri, told reporters after a briefing for lawmakers that a suspect
has already been identified in the incident, but a knowledgeable source
said no one was in custody Tuesday night.
Wicker has been assigned a protective detail, according to a law enforcement source.
Postal workers started
handling mail at a site off Capitol Hill after the 2001 anthrax attacks
that targeted then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, and Sen.
Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, among others.
Senators were told
Tuesday that the mail facility would be temporarily shut down "to make
sure they get everything squared away," McCaskill said Tuesday
afternoon.
"The bottom line is, the
process we have in place worked," she said, adding that members of
Congress will be warning their home-state offices to look out for
similar letters.
McConnell, R-Kentucky,
also praised the postal workers and law enforcement officers for
"preventing this threat before it even reached the Capitol."
"They proved that the proactive measures we put in place do in fact work," he said.
Ricin is a highly toxic
substance derived from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms -- an
amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. There is no
specific test for exposure and no antidote once exposed.
It can be produced
easily and cheaply, and authorities in several countries have
investigated links between suspect extremists and ricin. But experts say
it is more effective on individuals than as a weapon of mass
destruction.
Ricin was used in the
1978 assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov. The author, who
had defected nine years earlier, was jabbed by the tip of an umbrella
while waiting for a bus in London and died four days later.
A previous ricin scare
hit the Capitol in 2004, when tests identified a letter in a Senate
mailroom that served then-Majority Leader Bill Frist's office. The
discovery forced 16 employees to go through decontamination procedures,
but no one reported any ill effects afterward, Frist said.
Wicker, 61, was first
appointed by former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour to the U.S. Senate in
December 2007 after the resignation of then-Sen. Trent Lott. He was then
elected to the seat in 2008 and won re-election in 2012 to a second
term.
Before joining the
Senate, he was a U.S. representative in the House from 1995 to 2007.
Before that, he served in the Mississippi Senate.
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