Mail Security Training and Services

Parcel Bomb Victim Dies in Kuala Lumpur  (The Star/ANN, 8/29/2010)

KUALA LUMPUR-- A home-made parcel explosive placed in front of an apartment unit in Desa Tun Razak, Cheras, exploded Sunday morning, killing a woman and critically injuring a man while causing minor damage to at least 5 other units.

Ng Siew Hong, 51, who suffered 90 per cent burns to her body when she opened the parcel with explosives, was rushed to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital and then transferred to Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

However, she died at 5.15pm.

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said that police investigations showed that the blast was not an act of terrorism.

"My investigating officers have also briefed me that the incident was most likely linked to financial matters and would continue investigating the matter thoroughly," he told The Star.

Acting Cheras OCPD Supt Abd Rahim Hamzah Othman said the 51-year-old owner of the apartment on the 12th floor heard a knock on his door at about 8.30am and found a box with two pomeloes on top placed at his doorstep.

Lim, who declined to give his full name, smelled kerosene fumes and asked his neighbours if anyone had seen anyone placing the box. No one had noticed anything.

He then called his two of his workers, Ng and Goh Yong Seng, 38, from his two businesses on the ground floor to check out the box.

When they opened the box, it exploded.

Goh, who also suffered extensive burns, remains in critical condition.

They were first rushed to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital but were later transferred to Kuala Lumpur Hospital which has a better equipped burns unit.

Supt Abd Rahim said police had not ruled out business rivalry as a motive behind the bomb even though the apartment owner had denied that he had ever received any threat.

The apartment owner runs an internet cafe and a restaurant on the ground.

Initial police investigations revealed that the explosive was filled with cannonball fireworks and kerosene.

Contract Truck Driver For Postal Service Guilty of Stealing Mailed Prescriptions Intended for Vets  (St. Tammany News, 8/29/2010)

New Orleans, LA--A Covington man, who was a contract truck driver for the U.S. Post Office, pled guilty to one count of theft of mail in U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey’s courtroom Thursday.

According to court documents,, Anthony Holcombe, 28, an employee of Pelican Mail Transports, a company that contracts with the USPS, stole a package from his own truck.

Postal inspectors began the investigation in March 2008 when the VA Inspector General’s Office said several veterans complained they were not getting their prescription medicines through the mail.

A postal inspector made up a phony package containing pseudo Hydrocodone and a radio transmitter. The package was addressed to someone in Amite.

The package was picked up by Holcombe March 20, 2008 from the USPS distribution center in New Orleans. Holcombe’s route took him to Amite and several towns in Tangipahoa and Washington parishes.

When Holcomb made his delivery to Amite, he did not drop off the phony package, and using the transmitter, agents tracked the package to Roseland and Tangipahoa post offices. As Holcombe was leaving the Tangipahoa post office, agents stopped the truck and searched it. They found a duffle bag on the front seat of the truck that had the package. At that point, Holcombe admitted to stealing the parcel.

Holcombe will be sentenced by Zainey Nov. 16, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release after his prison term.

30 Years Later | A Look Back At The Extortion Bombing Plot At Harvey's Resort Hotel in Lake Tahoe  (Tahoe Daily Tribune, 8/25/26/27)

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — John Birges had all the makings of an arch-villain from a James Bond movie: He was a brilliant inventor and businessman with a fondness for betting large sums of money at the blackjack tables; he was a ruthless perfectionist who would not tolerate weakness in those around him, even his own family; he even had an authentic Hungarian accent.

And, like an over-the-top movie antagonist, he would construct an unstoppable doomsday weapon that he planned to use as the centerpiece in an overly complicated plot to extort $3 million from Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline.

The plan

No one knows exactly when Birges made the transition from retired landscape contractor and restaurant owner to criminal mastermind, but his plan began to materialize around October of 1979, when he rented a studio apartment, number 76, at the Aspen Grove Apartments in Stateline, just a mile north of Harvey's.

He split his time between the Tahoe apartment and the home he shared with his girlfriend, Ella Joan Williams, at 1590 North Fowler Ave. in Clovis, Calif.

He spent much of the next six months at Tahoe gambling at Harvey's, where he had been known as a “high roller” at the blackjack tables for the past several years. He had long since gone through his retirement savings and the insurance money he had received after his Villa Basque restaurant in Fresno burned down. Toward the end of his stay at Tahoe, he had to borrow money from his 18-year-old son just to pay his rent. During this period, when his plans to get rich playing blackjack failed to work out, he developed a plan to extort money from the casino, and used his time there to observe the operations of the staff, the timing of security shift changes, and he even measured the height of the curb outside the lobby entrance, for when he would someday need to roll a bomb into the hotel.

In the winter of 1980, Birges told his sons, 18-year-old Jim and 19-year-old John Jr., about his plans to build a bomb and extort money from Harvey's, but they did not think he was serious.

It wasn't until the night of June 10, 1980, that his plans began to crystallize into reality. Birges convinced his sons to help him steal about 1,000 pounds of explosives from a construction site at the Helms Power Plant near the Wishon Reservoir in eastern Fresno County. They returned to the house in Clovis and stashed the cases of Hercules Unigel dynamite sticks in the walk-in freezer that Birges had built in his garage.

Birges spent the next two months constructing a bomb, with multiple triggering mechanisms, large enough to contain the stolen explosives. But when the device was finally complete and ready to be delivered to Harvey's, his sons refused to participate in bringing the bomb to the casino, thinking the plan was too dangerous.

So, on Aug. 24, 1980, John Birges called Willis “Bill” Brown, a former employee at his landscaping business who had been looking for work. Brown and his son-in-law, Terry Lee Hall, drove over to Birges' house in Clovis, and they agreed to help him deliver his “machine” to Harvey's, with the promise that they would each receive $2,000 after Birges received the extortion payoff. They drove up to Lake Tahoe that night in the white 1975 Dodge van that Birges had borrowed from his older son, John Jr., with the bomb loaded in the back.

Road trip

When John Birges, Bill Brown, and Terry Hall arrived in South Lake Tahoe in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 1980, they stopped at the Lake Tahoe Airport off of U.S. Highway 50. Birges got out of the van with a briefcase and walked to a pay-phone, then returned a few minutes later. As they drove into the city, the sun was starting to rise and the van's engine was running poorly, so Birges decided that it was too late that day to make the delivery to Harvey's, and they drove back to the airport, where Birges got out again and returned to the van a few minutes later.

They then drove by Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, where Birges showed Brown and Hall the lobby entrance where they would be delivering the “machine.”

They drove back across the state line and had breakfast at a local diner in South Lake Tahoe. Around 11 a.m., they checked in to room 8 of the Balahoe Motel, at 1313 Emerald Bay Road, just a couple blocks north of the Lake Tahoe Airport. Birges gave money to Hall for the registration, and Hall signed in with the false name “Joey Evetto,” but the motel clerk wrote down the California license plate number of the van: 1A65819.

The delivery

John Birges awoke around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 26, 1980, and instructed Bill Brown and Terry Hall to clean up the room, remove any fingerprints they may have left, then drive the van down to the Lake Tahoe Airport and pick him up.

Birges then walked down to the Lake Tahoe Airport with his briefcase. When the van never showed up, he walked back up the hill to the motel, where he found Brown and Hall trying to start the engine, but the battery had died. They had to call a tow truck to jump-start the van.

Once the van was started, they drove to Stateline and pulled into the parking lot behind Harrah's, where they “borrowed” a license plate from another van and fastened it over their own using rubber bands.

They then drove back to the California side of the state line, across the street from Harvey's Resort Hotel, where they unloaded the “machine” from the back of the van, using metal ramps and a rope-and-pulley system that Birges had constructed. They then tied the bomb, on a rolling cart, to the back bumper of the van, and towed it across the street to the parking lot behind Harvey's.

Brown and Hall pushed the cart to the lobby entrance, where the height of the rolling cart matched the height of the curb, while Birges parked the van nearby. At the curb, Brown and Hall rolled the bomb, covered by a cloth with an “IBM” logo, off the cart and into the hotel lobby, where Hall pushed the bomb into the elevator and took it up to the second floor, while Brown went back and picked up the cart, loaded it into the van, and drove the van across the street to the Harrah's parking lot.

Birges met Hall on the second floor, and helped him position the bomb in a corridor near the casino's business offices. Birges then used toothpicks and glue to jam the locks on doors at either end of the corridor, to prevent someone from wandering by and accidentally triggering the bomb.

Birges left a three-page extortion note in an envelope next to the bomb, then he and Hall walked across Highway 50 and met Brown at the van behind Harrah's. After discarding their borrowed license plate, they drove back into California and returned home to Fresno County. Birges slept most of the way as Brown drove, because he was going to be busy the following night.

The evacuation

Shortly before 6 a.m., Robert M. Vinson, the graveyard shift slot manager at Harvey's, walked out of his office on the second floor of the casino and found that someone had closed the doors at either end of the hallway and filled the locks with glue. He also saw a large, metal device in the hallway with an envelope next to it.

Vinson contacted Richard Lawson and William A. Schonfeld at the security desk on the main floor of the casino. After going upstairs to examine the doors on the second floor and the metal device and envelope left in the hallway, Schonfeld had security officers secure the area and they called Simon “Pete” Caban, Jr., the security supervisor, and Bud Briggs, the casino shift manager.

Caban and security officer Wayne Watt, initially thinking the envelope on the floor might be a letter bomb, poked at the letter with broom handles while taking cover behind the large metal device in the hallway.

Once they determined it was just a letter, they opened the envelope and found the extortion note, stating that the metal machine was a bomb, and that it could not be disarmed or moved without setting it off. The letter demanded $3 million in cash, delivered by helicopter, in exchange for instructions to safely disarm and move the bomb. Bob Scrafford, chief of security, was notified, along with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and the Tahoe-Douglas Fire Protection District.

Security shift sergeant Richard Lawson, whose father was a longtime bomb disposal expert for the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, implemented the emergency evacuation plan that his father had helped create for the casino, getting all guests and employees out of the hotel within 50 minutes.

Authorities respond

Fire Chief Bruce D. Kanoff and the Tahoe-Douglas Bomb Squad worked to analyze the improvised explosive device, while Douglas County Sheriff's deputies collected fingerprints and other forensic evidence from the device.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Nevada Highway Patrol, California Highway Patrol, and El Dorado County Sheriff's Office helped to set up a safe perimeter around the casino on both sides of the state line.

Special Agent William Jonkey, of the FBI's Carson City resident agency, soon arrived to oversee the investigation of the extortion case. Since the extortion letter demanded a ransom drop via helicopter, the FBI contacted Special Agent Joe E. Cook, a U.S. Navy veteran who had flown nearly 1,000 hours in a helicopter in Vietnam.

Cook flew an FBI helicopter from Los Angeles up to South Lake Tahoe, where he was directed to go to the Lake Tahoe Airport and await contact from the extortionists, as detailed in the extortion letter.

The payoff

After returning to his Fresno County home in the afternoon of Aug. 26, 1980, John Birges informed his girlfriend, Ella Joan Williams, and his two sons, John and Jim Birges, that he had successfully delivered the bomb to Harvey's, and he would need all of them to help him collect the ransom money to be delivered that night.

They drove in two cars up to El Dorado County. Birges directed Williams to drive her silver Toyota Celica to the Cameron Park Airport, west of Placerville, where she would wait for Birges to land in a helicopter and drive him back home.

Birges and his two sons drove his gold Volvo east on U.S. Highway 50 to the planned ransom drop site off of Ice House Road, north of Highway 50 between Placerville and Kyburz, where they planned to signal the helicopter to land using a strobe light, then hijack the helicopter at gunpoint, but they discovered that they had forgotten to bring an extra battery to power the light, so they drove up the highway to Kyburz, where they tried to steal a battery from an old Volkswagen parked outside a service station.

Hearing intruders outside his business late at night, the owner of the garage, Jesse James Martin, came out yelling and scared them off.

Birges and his sons drove back down Highway 50 to Placerville, where they purchased a new car battery at Colvin's Shell Service Station.

They then drove back up to Ice House Road, and John Birges got out with his younger son, Jim, at a clearing in the mountains. They took with them the strobe light, battery, and three guns: a .303 British, a .22 caliber Remington, and a .357 Magnum.

After dropping off his father and younger brother on Ice House Road, John Birges Jr. drove a few miles west on Highway 50 to Pacific House, where, shortly after midnight the morning of Aug. 27, 1980, he used a pay-phone to call the Lake Tahoe Airport.

He informed the helicopter pilot that instructions for the ransom drop were in a letter taped under a table below the phone, which his father had hidden before delivering the bomb.

John Jr. then drove the Volvo south to a clearing near Ham's Station, on Highway 88 between Kirkwood and Jackson, where he was to await the stolen helicopter that his father would be flying.

His father's plan was to force the pilot out of the helicopter, then fly it himself down to Ham's Station. He would drop off Jim with the ransom money, and the brothers would drive back to Fresno County in the Volvo, while their father would fly the helicopter alone to the Cameron Park Airport, where Ella Joan Williams was waiting to pick him up.

Once they all got back home, John Birges planned to fly to Europe and launder the $3 million in cash, and Harvey's would receive the instructions on how to safely disarm and move the bomb out of the casino. Birges would be a wealthy man once again, and Harvey's could get back to business as usual.

What could possibly go wrong?

The extortion note

TO THE MANAGEMENT:

STERN WARNING TO THE MANAGEMENT AND BOMB SQUAD:

Do not move or tilt this bomb, because the mechanism controlling the detonators in it will set it off at a movement of less than .01 of the open end Richter scale. Don't try to flood or gas the bomb. There is a float switch and an atmospheric pressure switch set at 26.00-33.00. Both are attached to detonators. Do not try to take it apart. The flathead screws are also attached to triggers and as much as 1/4 to 3/4 of a turn will cause an explosion. In other words this bomb is so sensitive that the slightest movement either inside or outside will cause it to explode.

This bomb can never be dismantled or disarmed without causing an explosion. Not even by the creator. Only by proper instruction can it be moved to a safe place where it can be deliberately exploded, or where the third automatic timer can be allowed to detonate it. There are three automatic timers each set for three different explosion times. Only if you comply with the instructions in this letter will you be given instructions on how to disconnect the first two automatic timers and how to move the bomb to a place where it can be exploded safely.

WARNING:

I repeat do not try to move, disarm, or enter this bomb. It will explode.

If exploded this bomb contains enough TNT to severely damage Harrah's across the street. This should give you some idea of the amount of TNT contained within this box. It is full of TNT. It is our advice to cordon off a minimum of twelve hundred feet radius and remove all people from that area.

DEMANDS:

We demand three million dollars in used one hundred dollar bills. They must be unmarked, unbugged and chemically untreated. If we find anything wrong with the money we will stop all instructions for moving the bomb.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DELIVERY:

The money is to be delivered by helicopter. The helicopter pilot is to park at 2300 hours as close as possible to the LTA building by the light at the Lake Tahoe Airport. It is to face the east. The pilot has to be alone, and unarmed. The pilot is to get out and stand by the chain link fence gate. He is to wait for further instructions which will be delivered by a taxi that will be hired. The driver will know nothing. They may also be delivered by a private individual or through the nearby public phone at exactly 0010 hours. At 0010 hours the pilot will receive instructions about where to do and what to do. Before the pilot enters the helicopter he has to take a strong flashlight and shine it around the inside of the helicopter so that it will light up the entire inside. We must be able to see it from a distance with binoculars. We want to be able to see everything that is inside the helicopter so that we can be sure there is no one hiding inside and that there is no contraband inside.

CONDITIONS OF THE BUSINESS TRANSACTION:

These conditions must be followed to the letter. Any deviation from these conditions will leave your casino in a shambles. Also remember that even a very small earthquake will detonate the bomb so do not try to delay the delivery of the money.

(1) All news media, local or nationwide will be kept ignorant of the transactions between us and the casino management until the bomb is removed from the building.

(2) The helicopter will be manned only by the pilot. He must be unarmed and unbugged. We do not want any misunderstanding which might cause us to have to take lives unnecessarily.

(3) Fill the helicopter up completely with gas.

(4) The helicopter pilot after he receives the first instructions cannot communicate with anyone except the necessary instructions given and taken by the tower. All channels from 11.30 to 17.00 will be monitored.

The designer of this bomb will not participate in the exchange so it will be completely useless to apprehend any person making the exchange because they will not know how it works. They perform their duty for reward. And again if you don't want to be stuck with a thousand pounds of TNT do not allow any investigation by local agencies, FBI or any other investigative agency action before the bomb is removed. If the instructions are violated in any way by any authority the secret of the handling of the bomb will definitely not be revealed. If the money is received without any problems six sets of instructions regarding the removal of the bomb will be given to you at different times. The pilot will receive the first set of instructions. He can carry it back with him. If the money is sold to the buyer without complications you may receive the remaining five sets of instructions one by one via the Kingsbury Post Office by general delivery, or you may receive them all at once. The extent of your co-operation will make the difference. If you co-operate fully it will insure a very speedy exchange. We don't want to burden your business opportunities or cause more loss of money than is necessary.

ATTENTION:

There will be no extension or renegotiation. Demands are firm regardless. The transaction has to take place within 24 hours. If you do not comply we will not contact you again and we will not answer any attempts to contact us. In the event of a double-cross there will be another time sometime in the future when another attempt will be made. We have the ways and means to get another bomb in.

TO THE PILOT:

The helicopter has to be filled up with gas. Do not come armed with any weapon. Do not bring a shot-gun rider. All radio channels will be monitored. You are to have no communication with anyone after you reach the airport. Do not try to be a hero, Arlington is full of them and they can't even smell the flowers. Follow the orders strictly. You will make five stops, none of which will be at an airfield. You will have ample lighting for landing. All sites are fairly level. One has about two degrees pitch. There will be a clearance of more than two hundred feet radius. We don't want any trouble but we won't run away if you bring it.

Happy landing.

Missed Signals Lead To Explosive Ending

By the time Special Agent Joe Cook landed his FBI helicopter in the Heavenly Valley parking lot, around 11 p.m. on Aug. 26, 1980, it had already been more than 17 hours since a 1,000-pound bomb was found with an extortion note on the second floor of Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline.

Special Agent Nicholas V. O'Hara arrived with three canvas bags from Harvey's Inn, filled with stacks of paper cut in the shape of money and topped with a few $100 bills supplied by Harvey's management. The bags were loaded into the helicopter and Cook was directed to go to the Lake Tahoe Airport, fill the helicopter with fuel, and wait at a public telephone to be contacted by the extortionists, who were offering to supply instructions on how to move the bomb safely in exchange for $3 million in cash.

Shortly after midnight on Aug. 27, 1980, Cook got a call from a young man who told him, “Your instructions are located beneath the table in front of you. You have three minutes,” then hung up.

Cook looked around the area, and finally found a metal plate taped below the pay-phone, concealing a letter that instructed him to follow U.S. Highway 50 at least 15 miles west from the airport.

Cook took off and flew along the winding course of Highway 50 over Echo Summit, to what he estimated to be 15 miles, but he could not find the strobe light that the letter said would be his signal to land. He continued to circle the area for more than an hour, then returned to the Lake Tahoe Airport and waited by the phone again for 45 minutes, in case the extortionists would call back. But they never did.

The FBI contacted Nevada Gov. Robert F. List, who made a public appeal around 2:30 a.m. for the extortionists to contact authorities again. Using cryptic language that the extortionists might understand, Gov. List requested a “clarifying message due to failure to enlighten, and in confusion in following the previous directions.”

The long night

Meanwhile, about 25 miles west of the Lake Tahoe Airport, John Birges, the mastermind of the extortion plot, waited in a clearing off of Ice House Road with his 18-year-old son, Jim.

The mountain air was getting cold in the hours after midnight, and it became increasingly apparent that something had gone wrong and the helicopter with the $3 million in ransom money would not arrive. They began removing bullets from the guns they had brought with them, using the powder to start a fire to keep warm.

About 20 miles to the south, John Birges Jr. was parked in his father's Volvo in a clearing near Ham's Station on Highway 88, waiting for his father to fly overhead in the stolen helicopter and drop off the ransom money when John Jr. signaled him with a strobe light connected to the car's battery.

By 5 a.m., he realized that the helicopter wasn't coming, so John Birges Jr. drove back up to the Cameron Park Airport, where his father's girlfriend, Ella Joan Williams, had been parked since the previous evening, waiting for the helicopter to land. On the way there, he struck a deer, denting the left front fender of his father's car.

When John Jr. arrived in Cameron Park, Williams told him she had heard a message from the Nevada governor on the radio, asking them to make contact again. Williams then followed John Jr. in her Toyota Celica back to the site where he had dropped off his father and brother the night before.

As John Jr. careened up the winding Ice House Road, he barely made it around a hairpin turn. Williams did not make it, smashing her Celica into the side of the mountain. John Jr. picked up Williams, then met his father and brother, who were walking down the road from the clearing.

After going back to pick up the strobe light and guns they had left behind, they drove Williams to Marshall Hospital in Placerville, to be treated for facial contusions and a bloody nose she sustained in the crash.

At 6:43 a.m., after leaving Williams at the hospital, they stopped at a nearby Beacon gas station, where John Jr., at his father's direction, used a pay-phone to call the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Stateline. He told sheriff's dispatcher Kathleen Jo Cook to flip switch No. 5 on the bomb's bank of switches, then await further instructions.

The switch would not actually do anything; they just needed to stall for time until they could arrange another ransom drop.

Around 7 a.m., John Jr. was speeding down Highway 50 to get back home to Fresno County, where he was supposed to be at work that day. West of Shingle Springs, CHP officer James C. Bergenholtz pulled over the Volvo and issued the 19-year-old a citation. Bergenholtz noted on the citation that there were two male passengers in the Volvo in addition to the driver.

When they got back home to Clovis, Calif., John Jr. went to work, and Jim used his red Toyota pickup to drive his father back to pick up Williams at the hospital.

The big bang

On their way to Placerville, they stopped at 3:51 p.m. at a pay-phone in front of Antonio's Restaurant in Ione, Calif., where Jim Birges made another call, at his father's direction, to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, telling them to await further instructions.

This might buy them some time to arrange another ransom drop. After their string of bad luck that morning, they might still be able to salvage the plan and get the $3 million.

A few minutes later, the hourly news came on the truck's radio, and John and Jim Birges heard the report that the bomb at Harvey's had just been detonated in an attempt to disarm it.

Depressed, John Birges told his son that he had nothing to live for any more.

They arrived at the hospital to pick up Williams, and they saw a replay of the explosion on television. As they contacted the CHP to file an accident report, and arranged to have Williams' smashed Celica towed from Ice House Road, John Birges could at least take comfort in the knowledge that his bomb-making skills were now legendary, and there was no way the authorities could trace the bomb back to him.

He would have all the time in the world to steal some more explosives, build another bomb, and try the whole scheme again.

Or so he thought.

Trail Of Clues Led Authorities To Harvey's Casino Bombers

The assembled bomb experts were running out of options more than 24 hours after the improvised explosive device had been found on the second floor of Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline.

The extortion letter that accompanied the 1,000-pound bomb warned that moving or tilting the device would set it off. A toilet float switch inside would detonate it if they tried to flood it. Wires attached to the screws would detonate it if they tried to dismantle it. The top box of the bomb had 28 toggle switches on one side, but only the creator of the bomb knew what they were for.

Tahoe Douglas Bomb Squad captains Frank C. “Danny” Danihel, Carl Paulson and Larry Chapman had been on the scene since the morning of Aug. 26, 1980, when the device was first found. Through the day, they had been joined by bomb experts from around the nation, including U.S. Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal personnel Lt. Fulman and Sgt. McNeal, the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, and Nevada State Fire Marshal Tom J. Huddleston. The experts examined X-rays taken by the bomb squad and discussed a number of possible “render-safe” procedures.

After a failed ransom delivery attempt by the FBI in the early morning hours of Aug. 27, 1980, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office received a phone call at 6:43 a.m. The caller told them to flip switch No. 5 and await further instructions. After the call, the bomb squad rigged a lanyard with a series of pulleys, and was prepared to remotely flick switch No. 5, but they decided against that plan, since they did not know what flipping the switch would do.

Leonard Wolfson, from the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland, had proposed using a Monroe-effect shaped charge, an explosive device that would focus a flat jet of energy and cut through the bomb like a knife in less than a millisecond. This might sever all wires leading from the triggering mechanisms in the top box to the explosives in the bottom box.

Having exhausted all other ideas, the bomb experts decided to go with this plan, since, after 30 hours, leaving the bomb alone was becoming increasingly dangerous — they had no idea when it would go off on its own.

Dimensions were calculated for the linear shaped charge, and the metal case for it was manufactured by defense contractor EG&G in Las Vegas and flown up to Lake Tahoe. The case was filled with C4 plastic explosive and it was primed with a No. 8 military electric blasting cap in each end.

Next door, in a suite at the Sahara-Tahoe Casino overlooking his own evacuated hotel, Harvey A. Gross met with FBI Special Agent William Jonkey, Special Agent in Charge Joseph Yablonsky, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Herbert Hawkins, Tahoe-Douglas Fire Chief Bruce D. Kanoff, and Nevada State Fire Marshal Tom Huddleston. They informed Gross of the bomb squad's render-safe plan with the shaped charge, and that it had a high possibility of failure.

Gross walked to the window and looked across the parking lot at his hotel. He told Special Agent Jonkey he didn't mind what happened to the building, but he would be very distressed that an explosion would put hundreds of his employees out of work.

By 3:43 p.m., the surrounding area had been evacuated, and the bomb experts remotely detonated the shaped charge. A fraction of a second later, the entire bomb was triggered, blasting a five-story hole through the hotel and scattering dust, glass and debris across both sides of the state line.

The investigation

The FBI immediately started collecting debris and possible evidence around the casino, spending weeks sifting through the rubble and looking for any bomb components or clues to its origin.

Special Agent Bill Jonkey and others followed up on numerous clues and leads, responding to hundreds of phone calls from possible witnesses.

One call was from Gerald De Minico, who owned the Balahoe Motel on Emerald Bay Road in South Lake Tahoe. He and his wife remembered a couple of men with a white van staying at the motel the night before the bomb was delivered, and they rang his intercom asking for jumper cables around 4 a.m. the morning the bomb was placed in Harvey's. His wife had written down the van's license plate number.

The FBI traced the van to a 20-year-old John Waldo Birges in Fresno County, Calif., who did not have a good explanation for why his van was seen in the Tahoe area the morning the bomb was delivered. Birges made up a story that he was scouting the area for a place to plant marijuana, and his van's battery had died, so he had left it there and hitchhiked back to Fresno.

Within a few months, the FBI agents had set up an office in Fresno and made it their full-time job to observe and investigate Birges and his family. A federal grand jury was convened in Reno, and Birges was called to testify about his van and about his knowledge of the bombing. After he repeated his marijuana story under oath, the FBI arrested Birges on Aug. 15, 1981, nearly a year after the bombing.

The FBI agents knew that the 20-year-old was not the mastermind who built the bomb, so they threatened to send him to federal prison on perjury charges unless he would testify against his father, John Birges Sr., and the others involved in the plot. Birges confessed and gave them all the details, and agents brought in his younger brother, Jim Birges, and made him the same offer: testify against his father and the other suspects, in exchange for leniency from the U.S. Attorney.

Their father and his girlfriend, Ella Joan Williams, were arrested that day, and Willis Brown and Terry Lee Hall, who had helped deliver the bomb to Harvey's, were arrested the next day.

Jim Birges also led the FBI to a dry creek bed where he had helped his father bury a second batch of stolen explosives, to be used in another extortion attempt.

John Birges Sr. and Terry Lee Hall were tried together at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas the following year, in October of 1982, and were convicted on several counts related to the bombing and extortion.

Willis Brown pleaded guilty for a reduced sentence, and Ella Joan Williams was convicted on three federal extortion and conspiracy charges in 1983. The Birges sons were sentenced to probation and received no time in federal prison.

In 1985, the suspects faced state charges in Douglas County, Nev., and all but John Birges Sr. eventually reached plea bargains. Birges was convicted on numerous counts by a Douglas County jury and sentenced to at least 20 years in state prison, once he completed his federal prison sentence.

Birges would have been eligible for parole in 2011, but he died of liver cancer in the Southern Nevada Correctional Center infirmary on August 27, 1996, exactly 16 years after the bombing.

Dallas Man Arrested For White Powder Hoax  (KERA News, 8/27/2010)

DALLAS, TX -- A 51 year old Dallas man is under arrest for mailing envelopes with white powder in them to the IRS and Social Security.  KERA's BJ Austin reports.

Investigators say Michael Wayne Patterson's handwriting was a match to both envelopes. One was opened by an IRS employee in Austin. The building was evacuated. The powder turned out to be baking soda.

A postal worker in Dallas discovered the other letter, addressed to the Social Security Administration, when it began leaking white powder. Again, baking soda.

Federal officials say Patterson is NOT believed to be the source of the "Governors" or "Embassy" letters mailed last year with white powder in them; or the white powder mailings to businesses that began in North Texas two weeks ago.

Patterson has a hearing in federal court on Monday.

Authorities Respond To Suspicious-Looking Package At Missouri Residence  (News Leader, 8/27/2010)

Springfield, MO--A family living on the 1200 block of Burntwood in northern Greene County received a suspicious-looking package, prompting the Greene County Sheriff office, the Ebenezer Fire Department, the HAZMAT team to respond.

The residents called 911 around 5 p.m. Friday. About two hours later, officials were able to determine the package was safe, said Lt. Jeremy Lynn of the Greene County Sheriff’s office.

“It wasn’t labeled as to what it was, and it didn’t have a return address they were familiar with,” said Lynn. “It felt like it might have contained some kind of powder.”

Lynn didn’t say what was ultimately in the package, but when it was opened the people who received it said it actually was something they were expecting.

No one was hurt. The scene was cleared after about two hours.

Suspicious Powder With Letter to Political Office Triggers Evacuation and Decontamination  in Copenhagen  (Copenhagen Post, 8/27/2010)

Copenhagen, Denmark--A letter sent to a Copenhagen area branch office of the Social Democrats contained a white powder that forced the building to be cordoned off, reported public broadcaster DR.

Shortly after discovery of the letter, which also contained a copy of an article from an Iranian expat newspaper based in Austria, police were called and the office on Danasvej street in the city enclave of Frederiksberg was closed off. Twenty-one people were chemically cleaned while officials from the Centre for Biological Defence started an investigation that should be finished later this morning. Until then, the office remains closed.

The article in the letter was from Austrian newspaper Hambastegi, which is the voice for Iranians in exile in the country. Copenhagen Police said that the letter does not appear to be a threat against Denmark or against the Social Democrat party, and was in fact about Austria and the Austrian authorities.

Police added that they do not yet have the article's full translation and have no clue as to who the sender was or why a letter containing the article and white powder was sent to the office.

Suspicious Powder Triggers Evacuation of Emblem Health Building in Manhattan  (DNA Info, 8/26/2010)

MIDTOWN Manhattan — Hazardous-material teams evacuated 75 people from the midtown offices of one of the city’s largest health insurers Thursday after a woman discovered suspicious white powder inside an envelope, witnesses and fire officials said.

Employees on the third floor of 441 Ninth Ave., the offices of Emblem Health, were evacuated from the building after 11:30 a.m., when a mailroom staffer came into contact with the mysterious powder, fire officials said. Emblem Health is the umbrella company that oversees insurance plans including the Health Plan of New York (HIP) and Group Health Incorporated (GHI).

A fire department spokesman confirmed Haz-Mat decontaminated one patient before transporting them to Bellevue Hospital in good condition. The 75 people evacuated from the building did not come into contact with the substance, the spokesman said.

The white powder was determined to be “harmless,” according to Emblem Health spokeswoman Ilene Margolin. Employees were cleared to re-enter the third floor after 1:30 p.m.

“I guess it’s just more of a precaution. They want to make sure that we’re safe,” said Gilbert Torres, 34, who works on the third floor.

Coworkers identified the woman taken to the hospital as Madeleine Sierra, and said she had worked for the company for more than two decades.

Employees also said the same floor had to be evacuated this time last year, after an employee discovered an envelope filled with white powder. They said they were not given any information about who sent that prior envelope.

“This has happened before,” said Willie Fiallo, 58 a chief steward for Local Union 153, OPIU. “I don’t know if this is anthrax or not, but it’s not a joke, it’s dangerous, if it is,” said Willie Fiallo, 58, chief union steward for Local 153, OPIU.

An Emblem Health spokeswoman said she was not aware of a prior incident.

Colorado Man Pleads Guilty In Obama Anthrax Hoax  (AP, 8/27/2010)

DENVER — A man from the Denver area has pleaded guilty to sending letters containing white powder to President Barack Obama, members of Congress from Colorado and Alabama, and to Argentine consulates.

Jay DeVaughn pleaded guilty Thursday to 13 federal counts of mailing threatening communications. DeVaughn, also known as Jay Paige Ewards, mailed a letter to Obama that was intercepted Sept. 10, 2009.

The white powder in the letters was harmless.

The 40-year-old DeVaughn mailed letters criticizing the federal health care reform to members of Colorado's congressional delegation last year and this year. He sent letters to Alabama congressional members in January.

He will be sentenced Nov. 19, when he will face about two years to nearly five years in prison.

Mailed Powder Causes Scare In Public Defender’s Office in Virginia  (Gazette Virginian, 8/26/2010)

Halifax, VA--Law enforcement officers evacuated the public defender’s office on Edmunds Boulevard in Halifax on Wednesday afternoon after an employee opened an envelope addressed to Commonwealth’s Attorney Kim White that contained a suspicious powdery substance.

White said an employee in the public defender’s office was opening mail Wednesday afternoon around 1:30 and opened two envelopes addressed to White but delivered to the public defender’s office. One of the envelopes contained a suspicious powder, she said.

White said her office was notified, and she then contacted the state police. Authorities closed down the public defender’s office while law enforcement officers investigated the incident, she added.

Virginia State Police Special Agent Troy LaRue said the state police CCI (Counter Terrorism and Criminal Interdiction) team and investigators with the U.S. Postal Service were called to the scene shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday.

“They collected two letters and sent them to the lab in Richmond for examination,” LaRue said.

Both White and LaRue confirmed Thursday the state lab determined the substance to be non-hazardous.

Damaged Envelope Causes HazMat Scare at Canada Post  (CBC, 8/27/2010)

Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada--Emergency crews evacuated a Winnipeg postal sorting plant after discovering a package with a substance spilling from it Friday, but they soon found it contained crushed vitamins.

Employees were allowed to re-enter the Canada Post plant in the 200 block of Graham Avenue just after noon Friday after a hazardous materials crew learned the package's contents.

Canada Post spokeswoman Kathi Neal said a U.S. company tried to mail a sample to a customer in Canada using a regular envelope, and the vitamins were crushed into a white powder by the sorting machine.

The powder leaked out and a worker who inhaled some of it became ill.

Not taking any chances, Canada Post evacuated the building around 8 a.m. Two workers who were exposed to the powder were sent to hospital as a precaution.

One of the workers has since been released and the other is still being checked out, Neal said.

The incident is a good example of why anything being sent through the mail needs to be packaged properly, she said.

Smith Street was closed between Graham Avenue and St. Mary Avenue, beside the Millennium Library, for about four hours as the incident was under investigation.

White Powder Triggers Hazmat Scare and Evacuation at Arizona Business  (Verde Independent, 8/27/2010)

COTTONWOOD, AZ -- Nutri-Health Supplements, on Justin Drive, received a scare early Tuesday afternoon when the business received a piece of mail containing a suspicious white powdery substance. Employees at the business notified the Cottonwood Police Department. Police and fire crews evacuated the building as a precaution and closed off the area inside the building until further tests could be done.

The Camp Verde Fire Department's Hazardous Material Crew responded to secure and test the substance. After several tests, they were reasonably sure the substance was not harmful and may in fact have been a common household product. A sample was sent to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for a definitive answer.

The Phoenix crime lab has determined the powder did not contain toxins or anthrax but additional tests are under way and the shipping dock was returned to routine operation.

"As with any suspicious substance or package, you want to take the necessary precautions to help ensure the safety of the public, until we know what we're dealing with," said Cottonwood Police Department spokesperson, Sgt. Gareth Braxton-Johnson.

At this point in time, officers and employee of the business were unaware of who sent or delivered this envelope or where in fact it originated.

The investigation has been turned over to the Cottonwood Police Department for further investigation. No injuries have been reported.

Florida Woman Admits Stealing Identity Information from Mailed College Application to Raise $20K For Breast Implants  (Sun Sentinel, 8/27/2010)

A Tamarac, Florida woman told a judge she stole someone's identity and spent nearly $20,000 in ill-gotten funds, largely because she needed to replace defective breast implants and furnish her condo.

Shatarka Nuby, 29, offered that explanation to U.S. District Judge William Zloch on Thursday as she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to use unauthorized devices, or credit cards, and one count of aggravated identity theft. Nuby faces up to seven years in prison when she is sentenced Nov. 16.

"I feel bad for doing this," Nuby said. "I felt if it was someone in my family [victimized by identity theft], I would be upset."

Wearing an olive-green jumpsuit and shackles on her wrists and ankles, Nuby said she needed money to replace breast implants that gave her breathing problems, and to furnish the condo she recently moved into. She said she had been addicted to Ecstasy and suffered from depression.

"While I was incarcerated, I had a lot of time to think," she said. "I really learned my lesson this time."

Zloch asked Nuby "if she had any idea" the hardships ID theft victims face in restoring their credit.

"No, your honor," Nuby replied.

"You didn't care about that as long as you were having a good time?" Zloch asked.

"Yes, your honor."

Nuby was arrested in May after the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated a mail theft that had enabled Nuby to get her victim's personal information.

The victim's college application, containing many personal details, was placed in a mailbox outside the Tamarac post office, but it never arrived at the school. The victim discovered five credit cards had been opened in her name and $19,550 in charges racked up, federal court records show.

The victim learned one of the cards was used at Pinnella Cosmetic Surgery in Fort Lauderdale.

U.S. Postal Inspector Brian McCarthy went to the plastic surgery center and discovered the charges were for Nuby replacing her existing breast implants with larger ones and for liposuction on her arms, court documents show.

Nuby told office staff that her cousin was paying for the procedures. The woman identified as her cousin had a driver's license in the name of the identity theft victim, court records show.

The accomplice took the fraudulent credit card out of the original mailing envelope, pulled the card off a piece of paper and gave it to office staff, McCarthy wrote.

The case against Nuby's alleged accomplice, April Tukela Brown, is pending, officials said.

On Thursday Nuby said she wasn't the one who stole the victim's mail, but that she paid another friend about $1,000 for the victim's information.

McCarthy said an investigation into the alleged accomplice's actions is under way.

Nuby intially faced an additional five counts of conspiracy to use unauthorized devices, but those charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement, officials said.

Louisiana Man Pleads Guilty In Veterans' Medication Sting  (Times-Picayune, 8/26/2010)

New Orleans, LA--A Covington man contracted to deliver U.S. Postal Service mail admitted in federal court to stealing a marked parcel that he believed contained 180 tablets of hydrocodone.

Anthony Holcombe, 28, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to mail theft, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervision following release.

U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey is scheduled to sentence him on Nov. 16.

Holcombe's arrest was the product of a sting on March 20, 2008, in which Postal Service Special Agent Chris Nugent prepared a packaged that purported to be from the New Orleans Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to the factual basis that Holcombe signed as part of his plea.

After complaints from veterans that they were not receiving their prescribed medications, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General contacted the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General and the two began a joint investigation into the matters, the factual basis states.

They soon narrowed their scope.

The package Nugent prepared was labeled from "7968 Essen Park Avenue, Pharmacy Service 119, Baton Rouge, LA 70809" and contained an electronic transmitter to track it, along with 180 fake hydrocodone tablets, the factual basis states.

Holcombe was a highway contract route driver for Pelican Mail Transport, a company contracted by the Postal Service. He was responsible for transporting mail from the New Orleans Processing and Distribution Plant, 701 Loyola Ave., to post offices in Amite, Roseland, Fluker, Tangipahoa and Kentwood, the court records state.

On March 20, 2008, after Holcombe failed to deliver the parcel to its specified address in Amite, investigators located it via the transmitter and pulled Holcombe over, court records state.

Investigators found a gray and black duffle bag in the middle of the front seat, observed the package inside and arrested him.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Loan "Mimi" Nguyen.

Judge Bars Ricin Evidence From Washington State Man's Assault Trial  (Herald, 8/24/2010)

EVERETT, WA -- A Snohomish County jury won't hear about the ricin discovered inside the house of an Everett man accused of beating his wife with a two-pound barbell and holding her captive for several hours.

A judge Monday said that he didn't want jurors to speculate whether or not Jeffery Marble tried to poison his wife with the deadly toxin. Marble isn't charged with poisoning his wife. Any testimony about the ricin would be prejudicial to the defendant, Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight said.

"This is not a ricin case. This is going to be a clear-cut assault by barbell (case)," Knight said Monday before a jury was selected.

Marble, 49, may still face possible federal charges in connection with the toxin. It's against federal law to possess or manufacture ricin. FBI agents and federal prosecutors continue to investigate.

Trace amounts of ricin were found in Marble's house and his wife's urine. He allegedly told police he'd looked up recipes to turn castor seeds into ricin. He used a mortar and pestle to grind up the seeds in the family home, according to court papers.

Federal authorities were in the courtroom Monday as lawyers gave their opening statements.

Marble allegedly told investigators he blacked out and didn't remember what happened on June 1, 2009.

His attorney, Philip Sayles, said Monday that the case isn't clear cut. He told jurors to focus on inconsistencies in the statements that the woman gave to police. He also called into question the woman's allegations that she was hit some 30 times, pointing out to jurors that she didn't stay overnight in the hospital.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Valerie Shapiro told jurors that Marble was a "ticking time bomb." The family's finances were in shambles. Marble had kept the problems secret, but two days before the attack a bank official came to their home and informed his wife that their house was in foreclosure and scheduled to be sold at auction.

Marble told her that the bank had made a mistake. The woman had been sick for more than a year and turned bill-paying duties over to her husband. She was shocked that they were in such debt, she said.

The woman told jurors she was attacked as she was leaving to go to the bank to sort out their finances.

She said she was first struck in the head with a pink barbell. More blows followed. She said her husband smashed her head against a slate floor and shoved her body into a metal railing. She eventually convinced him to let her go to the bathroom. She tried to escape out a window but her husband pulled her down and continued to hit her, the woman said.

Shapiro showed jurors the bloodied and cracked barbell and pointed out hair still wrapped around the rubber-coated weight.

Jurors were shown pictures of the woman taken about a week after the assault. Her arms were covered in bruises. She also had bruising on her face, legs and back. The woman required stitches to her scalp and forehead.

Marble refused to let his wife leave their home for five hours, Shapiro told jurors.

"She begged her husband of 20 years to let her go before their son came home and found her dead," Shapiro said.

The attack only ended when the couple's 16-year-old son returned home from school. The teen and his mother fled the house and a neighbor summoned help.

The discovery of castor seeds in the home prompted a hazardous materials incident and brought federal officials to the neighborhood.

Testimony is expected to continue today.

Drugs Found at Little Rock Post Office  (KATV, 8/25/2010)

Little Rock, Arkansas--Hazmat crews were called Tuesday to a Little Rock Post Office after drug dogs found contraband.

The postal inspector and a K9 drug officer found the package during a routine inspection at the post office on Lindsey Road.

Police say they found a brick of marijuana wrapped in a package of white powder.  When the drug dog sniffed it, he got sick but officers say he later recovered.

The powder was identified as sodium sulphinate.

Officials say many substances are used to try to hide drugs from K9 officers.

Organized Criminal Group Tip Over Canada Post Collection Boxes to Steal Mail  (The Barrie Advance, 8/25/2010)

BARRIE, Ontario, Canada - A GTA organized criminal group may have made its way into Barrie. Police are investigating after two separate mail theft complaints.

In the middle of the night, culprits turn over Canada Post red boxes and take the mail inside.

The culprits are specifically looking for business cheques, which they then cash.

The fraud unit and the Canada Post Inspectors Office are investigating the incidents, which may be connected to the GTA criminal group.

Police suggest companies and residents take any valuable mail directly to Canada Post locations instead of the street boxes while the matter is investigated.

Workers Evacuated After Suspicious Looking Package Arrives at Michigan Workforce Development Office  (9&10 News, 8/23/2010)

Cadillac, MI--A suspicious looking package caused so much concern that a bomb squad came and this Wexford County building was evacuated.

Police say the package was addressed to one of the employees at the governmental building. The employee thought the package looked unusual, so they called police.

Police were called to the building on 401 N. Lake Street around 10:00 a.m. Monday.  Responding officers thought the package was suspicious in nature as well and the building was evacuated.  The Michigan State Police Bomb Squad from the Grayling Crime Lab was called in to help.

The bomb squad checked out the package, only to discover it was full of donations for Michigan Works!  Employees were allowed to return to work within the building.

Federal Court Rules That Death Threats Addressed to Corporations Aren’t Illegal  (Wired News, 8/23/2010)

An Arizona man who plotted a massacre outside the 2008 Super Bowl had his conviction overturned Monday by a federal appeals court because his snailmailed death threats went to no specific targets.

The case concerned Kurt William Havelock, who drove to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, with a newly purchased assault rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition with the intent to kill. “It will be swift and bloody,” he wrote media outlets in packages mailed a half hour before he got cold feet and abandoned his plan. “I will sacrifice your children upon the altar of your excess.”

With the prodding of his father, he turned himself in to local police. Federal authorities charged him with six counts of mailing threatening letters. The defendant was convicted on all charges and sentenced to a year in prison.

During the trial and on appeal, the 40-year-old, who was disgruntled that he was denied a liquor permit to open a bar, argued that he committed no crime at all. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in a 2-1 decision.

Under the threatening-letters statute, “the ‘person’ to whom the mail is addressed must be an individual person, not an institution or corporation,” wrote Judge William Canby, who was joined by Judge Betty Fletcher. Havelock’s communications were mailed to media outlets, not named individuals, the majority noted.

In dissent, Judge Susan Graber wrote, “The result of the majority’s interpretation is that the statute prohibits sending a threatening communication only if the outside of the envelope or package explicitly directs delivery to a natural person.”

Havelock sent the threatening letters addressed to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Phoenix New Times, The Associated Press and the websites theshizz.org and azpunk.com. “I will slay your children. I will shed the blood of the innocent,” he wrote.

The law, the San Francisco-based appeals court wrote, “does indeed require that the mailed item containing the threat is addressed to an individual person, as reflected in the address on the mailed item. Because Havelock’s communications were not so addressed to individual persons, we reverse his convictions.”

Havelock was not immediately reachable. Neither his attorney nor federal prosecutors responded for comment.

Here is the federal statute in question:

    Whoever knowingly so deposits or causes to be delivered [by the Postal Service according to the direction thereon], any communication with or without a name or designating mark subscribed thereto, addressed to any other person and containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of the addressee or of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Judge Graber argued that the conviction should stand. Congress, she wrote, adopted the law “to protect individuals from mailed threats of kidnapping, ransom demands, threats of bodily injury or death, and certain other serious threats.”

Graber said the appeals court “should interpret the word ‘person’ in a statute as including corporations and several other types of entities unless the context shows otherwise.”

'Stalker' Charged Over Doorstep Bomb Scare in Australia  (Brisbane Times, 8/23/2010)

Queensland, AU--An alleged stalker has been charged after he placed a homemade bomb at the doorstep of a house in central Queensland last week.

The 41-year-old man allegedly placed the suspicious device on the doorstep of the of the Maddison Avenue house about 9pm last Thursday night.

Houses in The Olive Estate needed to be evacuated after specialist police were called in to detonate the device.

The area was not declared safe until 10.40pm.

The man was charged with a range of offences including attempting to injure others with an explosive substance and stalking.

He is due to face the Rockhampton Magistrate’s Court on August 27.

California Man Gets 20-Year Sentence In Anthrax Hoax  (AP, 8/23/2010)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Northern California man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sending hoax anthrax letters to President Barack Obama and others.

Timothy Cloud, who is from the Sacramento area, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in May to sending the letters that threatened the president. He also pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender.

The 63-year-old admitted sending letters containing a white powder to Obama and to Social Security Administration offices in Baltimore; Kansas City, Mo.; and New York City.

The New York office was evacuated and four employees quarantined as a result.

Cloud, who is a transient, previously had been convicted of a sex offense in Texas but failed to register as a sex offender in California.

County Administrative Office Building in West Virginia Evacuated After Powder 'Hoax'  (Herald-Mail, 8/20/2010)

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Berkeley County’s administrative office building in Martinsburg was evacuated Friday morning after an employee discovered white powder, later determined to be a sweetener, in an envelope, according to police and county officials.

Berkeley County Fire Board office administrator Donna Cross said she told the staff member who opened the envelope in the office at 400 W. Stephen St. to lay it on the desk and go wash her hands.

“It was a little scary this morning,” Cross said.

Officers from the Martinsburg Police Department, Martinsburg Fire Department, and Berkeley County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management responded (OHSEM) at 7:53 a.m., police and fire officials said.

The building was evacuated for about an hour until the substance was removed, and preliminary tests revealed the substance was believed to a dextrose-based sweetener, police and emergency officials said.

Martinsburg Police Department said in a news release that the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service had been contacted to help investigate what Berkeley County Commissioner William L. “Bill” Stubblefield described as a “very, very bad hoax.”

“Obviously, the lady that opened the envelope was very nervous,” Stubblefield said.

Cross said she and other Fire Board administrative staff members have been coming in early to open mail during the office’s “busy season.”

Last month, the Fire Board sent out about 36,000 fire fee bills to property owners, Cross said.

Given the timing of the discovery, Cross said the disruption to other county offices on the second floor of the Dunn building and to faculty, staff and students of Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, which leases first-floor space from the county, was less significant.

“I hope they do find who did it, I really do,” Cross said.

Stubblefield, who arrived shortly after the building was evacuated, said people appeared to remain calm and listened to the directions of Martinsburg Police Department officers.

“Everybody was doing what they were supposed to do,” Stubblefield said.

Stubblefield said he understood the envelope in question was business-size and contained another handmade envelope, which contained the powder.

Members of the county’s hazardous materials team — donning protective clothing, boots and gloves — entered the evacuated building, took a sample of the powder and analyzed it with a Raman-technology equipped spectrometer, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Stephen S. Allen said.

Dextrose-based sweeteners include products such as Sweet’N Low or Splenda, Allen said.

The sample analyzed was turned over to police, Allen said.

Stubblefield said it would be difficult to implement a mail security plan for the county building given the fact that so many of the envelopes received there contain money. The Dunn building houses the Sheriff’s tax office, Assessor’s office, Emergency Ambulance Authority and the county’s Land Use, Planning and Engineering department, among other agencies.

Stubblefield, while hopeful the incident is isolated, said he recognizes the need to do everything possible to protect county employees from exposure to future danger.

Suspicious Envelope Triggers Bomb Scare Evacuation At Chattanooga City Hall  (Chattanooga Times Free Press, 8/20/2010)

Chattanooga, TN--A suspicious package delivered to the Chattanooga City Hall Annex today did not contain a bomb, police said.

As a precaution, City Hall, the annex and some surrounding buildings were evacuated about 1:30 p.m.

Bomb squad technicians from the Chattanooga Police Department took X-rays of the manila envelope and discovered that it only contained paper, said Officer Rebecca Royval, spokeswoman for police.

The envelope was not addressed to anyone in particular at the annex, she said, but was deemed suspicious because the writing on it was "in another language or scribbled" and the return address was unreadable.

Police cars, fire engines and ambulances surrounded the area while the bomb techs were examining the package and 11th Street was blocked off.

Whiteout: Suspicious Powder Shuts Down Fire Board Office in West Virginia  (Journal, 8/21/2010)

MARTINSBURG, WV - The Dunn Building was evacuated for a little more than an hour Friday morning after a county employee found a white powdery substance in an envelope addressed to the Berkeley County Fire Board.

Homeland Security Director Steve Allen said the substance was tested and found to be a dextrose-based sweetener, similar to a commercial brand like Sweet'N Low.

It posed no hazard to the employee who handled the envelope, Allen said.

Samples of the substance have been forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for additional analysis "to verify what we found in our field test," he said.

In addition to talking to FBI representatives, Allen said he also spoke with a postal inspector for the state, which was necessary since the problematic envelope was delivered through the mail.

Engine 90 hazardous material technicians used West Virginia Regional Response Team equipment to test the substance, Allen said.

Martinsburg City Police also were on the scene and participated in the investigation, which is ongoing.

County Commissioner Bill Stubblefield said the building was evacuated from about 8:10 to 9:30 a.m.

At the time the problem was discovered, the building's ventilation system was shut down to prevent the spread of any possible airborne contaminants, Stubblefield said.

Evacuating the building - even as a precautionary measure - was the right thing to do, according to Stubblefield, who also praised the Fire Board employee's action.

"After they saw the white powder, they contacted law enforcement - and that was also good thinking," he said.

All of the county's facilities - except the assessor and tax offices - were open when the building was shut down, Stubblefield said.

Some Blue Ridge Community and Technical College students also were present at the time of the incident because the new school year begins soon, he said.

"Overall, it was a very efficient and rapid response to what could have possibly been a much worse situation. But fortunately that didn't materialize," Stubblefield said.

Post Office in Georgia Shut Down To Investigate Suspicious Package  (Rome News Tribune, 8/19/2010)

Calhoun, GA--Police were called to the Calhoun Post Office on Thursday after a man set a box in a corner and then quickly left.

A bomb-sniffing dog and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation bomb disposal unit were called to the scene, but officers determined the box was empty.

“Any time we have something like this, for obvious reasons, it’s better to let the dog check it out as opposed to just grabbing it,” said Lt. Tony Pyle of Calhoun Police Department.

Pyle said witnesses indicated the man ran out of the building after leaving the package, worrying postal workers.

“Of course we have to take whatever procedures possible for their safety,” he said.

The police department received the call around noon and the post office reopened by mid-afternoon.

Officers got a partial license plate number for the man and were still looking him Thursday afternoon. Pyle said charges could include disorderly conduct or terroristic threats.

Arizona Post Office Evacuated After Suspicious Package Received  (KOLD, 8/19/2010)

TUCSON, AZ-- A post office located at 4700 W. Valencia Road was evacuated due to a suspicious package, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

The incident began at about 2:00 p.m. on August 19.

A victim reported receiving a suspicious package, Pima County Sheriff's Department spokesman Officer Jason Ogan said.

Pima Regional Bomb Squad responded to the scene and determined no dangerous materials were inside the package.

Powder Threat Letter Causes Hazmat Scare At New Jersey Office  (Star Ledger, 8/19/2010)

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The Somerset County Hazardous Materials Team was dispatched to an office complex on Amwell Road Wednesday afternoon after a business received a threatening letter containing a white powdery substance, police said today.

Police said a business at 390 Amwell Road received an envelope containing a letter threatening one of its employees shortly before 6 p.m., and two employees felt minor discomfort after being exposed to the powdery substance contained inside.

The employees were transported to Somerset Medical Center for evaluation while the Somerset Hazardous Materials Team and the Hillsborough Office of Emergency Management responded to the scene. The employees were later released from the hospital, and results of the medical examination and information from the business complex showed no evidence that the powdery substance was hazardous.

The investigation was ongoing, according to authorities.

FBI Investigating Anthrax Scare At Pennsylvania Home  (Pocono Record, 8/19/2010)

Stroudsburg, PA--The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing a suspicious package delivered to a Blue Mountain Lake Estates home on Wednesday.

The Stroud Area Regional Police were dispatched to 22 Witness Tree Circle at 2 p.m. when an envelope that arrived in the mail and containing a white powdery substance was opened by a woman at the home.

Police cordoned off a one-block area in the residential neighborhood. The Stroud Township Volunteer Fire Company set up decontamination equipment. Two ambulances were on scene, along with the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management. A special infectious disease room was prepared at the Pocono Medical Center.

Scranton-based Postal Inspector Dave Conklin tested the material using a mobile spectrometer with a built-in database of substances.

"It has been determined it's not likely a hazardous material," said Bruce Henry, deputy director of the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management.

The field tests, he said, were 95 to 96 percent accurate. The material was taken to a lab for further testing.

It was the first "white powder" incident for the county in the past four or five years, Henry said.

That's a far cry from the post 9/11 months when the county had 83 calls in a matter of weeks.

"Anyone who spilled Coffee-mate in the office, we were called in," Henry said.

At least two dozen responders turned the quiet neighborhood of new homes into a scene from a disaster movie.

It's not known what the substance was, but the response followed the county's standard operating procedure. "It could be anything from talcum powder to anthrax," Henry said. "There's no way of knowing."

The county's hazardous materials unit would inspect the home more thoroughly, Henry said.

The homeowner declined to identify herself and speak with the Pocono Record.

Michigan Postal Workers Practice Their Bioterrorism Attack Response  (Lansing State Journal, 8/19/2010)

Lansing, MI--Postal workers walked out of Lansing's mail processing center and into an inflatable decontamination station wearing protective white coverall suits, yellow boots and green gloves.

The employees weren't in any danger - they were completing a bioterrorism attack drill on Wednesday afternoon, practicing their response in case they ever come in contact with anthrax.

Anthrax is a disease caused by the spore-forming bacteria Bacillus anthracis. In October 2001, five people, including two Washington, D.C., postal workers, died after being exposed to anthrax sent through the mail as an act of bioterrorism.

Since then, the U.S. Postal Service has taken more measures to protect workers, such as the drills.

The last such exercise at the Lansing post office and processing center was in 2007, Postal Service spokeswoman Sabrina Todd said.

"It just gives us all an opportunity to get together, look at our processes ... and make sure everything works in an orderly fashion," she said.

The Lansing police and fire departments and the Ingham County Health Department also took part in the drill at Lansing's main post office, 4800 Collins Road.

Drills such as these help officials find and fix problems in their response plans and practice working with other agencies, said Marcus Cheatham, assistant deputy health officer at the Health Department.

"Before 9/11 and before we started doing these drills, we never partnered with the post office or the Fire Department or the sheriff on things like this, and now we're doing stuff jointly all the time," he said.

Alaska Couple Compiled Letter Bomb Materials and Hit List with 20 Names, Say Feds  (CBS News, 8/19/2010)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska--Paul and Nadia Rockwood, a rural Alaska couple compiled a hit list of 20 targets, including members of the military and media, and had moved to the operational phase of their plan, according to documents filed in federal court Monday.

The Rockwoods of King Salmon have pleaded guilty to lying about the list and making false statements to the FBI in May.

Under a plea agreement, Paul Rockwood will serve eight years in prison and three years probation while his pregnant wife will serve probation. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 23 in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

Paul Rockwood's public defender claims her client was lonely in King Salmon and befriended an undercover Alaska State Trooper while attending mosque during trips to Anchorage.

"The relationship clearly was fed by the trooper's interest in Mr. Rockwood and the drama created by their conversations," his attorney, Sue Ellen Tatter, wrote in her sentencing memo.

"All of Mr. Rockwood's behavior with the state trooper was talk or paperwork. None of Mr. Rockwood's close associates, including his father, his wife and friends in King Salmon, believed he was capable of planned violence," Tatter wrote.

Prosecutors alleged that Paul Rockwood, also known as "Bilal," converted to Islam about a decade ago and began studying the teachings of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has professed hatred for the United States and supports acts of terrorism. The couple then moved to King Salmon, where he worked for the National Weather Service.

"While in Alaska, Rockwood researched and discussed methods of execution often at great length and in significant detail, components for mail bombs were purchased, the targets had been selected and a loose time line was established," assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Skrocki and Bryan Schroder wrote in their sentencing memo.

Prosecutors said he gave the list of targets to his wife in April, and she carried it with her on a trip to Anchorage, where the FBI obtained it.

The court documents didn't disclose any names, only a summary of those on the list. It included a publishing company executive, a media personality, seven members of the military, seven other individuals, two religious organizations and two publishing companies.

Federal authorities also claim Paul Rockwood began researching ways to kill them.

"With some, this included discussing the use of mail bombs and the possibility of killing targets by gunshot to the head," federal attorneys said.

Tatter counters that Rockwood was lonely, suffering from an inner ear disease that can cause dizziness, nausea and hearing loss, and that he was addicted to opiate painkillers and was in treatment during his relationship with the trooper.

She said he quit his job, and the family was moving from King Salmon to Boston on the first leg of a journey to England when they were intercepted May 19 by the FBI.

"When federal agents showed him the list - which they obviously obtained from the undercover trooper - Mr. Rockwood stated: 'I'm surprised he (the Trooper Sgt.) compiled this ...' Mr. Rockwood did not admit that he himself compiled the list," Tatter wrote.

She characterized Rockwood as "unsophisticated mechanically" and said he has never been committed to a plan of action. She said he was "soft-hearted and extremely committed to his family."

King Salmon is a small community of a few hundred people on the Alaska Peninsula.

Anthrax Scare At Spokane City Hall Causes Legal Furor  (Bio Prep Watch, 8/18/2010)

Spokane, WA--An anthrax scare that closed the Spokane City Hall may have caused a city council meeting being held there to be illegal under state law.

The city council of Spokane, Wash., met on Monday after the city hall was closed to the public due to an anthrax scare. Spokane City Council meetings must be open to the public, according to state law, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reports.

Police and firefighters were called to Spokane City Hall after an employee found a white powdery substance in a package of office supplies in the city’s planning department. City employees in the area, including the mayor and city administrator, were told to stay away until the all clear was given.

Others were told to keep working, but the public were asked to leave and kept out of the building, ostensibly to control traffic flow, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Firefighters entered the building in hazmat suits and tested the material, which turned out to be 93 percent cornstarch, Battalion Chief Bob Green of the Spokane Fire Department told the Spokane Spokesman-Review. Cornstarch is often used to prevent envelopes from sticking together. he said.

City spokeswoman Marlene Feist sent out a news release five minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin. It stated that the meeting would go on despite the closure. The meeting ended around the same time firefighters gave the all clear, about an hour later.

City Councilman Steve Corker told the Spokesman-Review that he was advised by the city’s legal staff that the meeting could continue as long as the vote on routine items was postponed until the council’s evening session.

“We weren’t sure if people were allowed in or not,” Assistant City Attorney Mike Piccolo told the Spokesman-Review, claiming it was unclear how responders were dealing with the situation right before the meeting began.

Feist noted that the city cable station carried the meeting live and that there was no public testimony scheduled.

Greg Overstreet, a private lawyer and former open government ombudsman in the state attorney general’s office., told the Statesman-Review that state law only prohibits public attendance during an executive session or in cases of disorderly conduct. Even if no votes are held, the meetings are required to be open.

“It would be a terrible precedent if local governments could lock the doors and tell people to just watch it on TV,” Overstreet told the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Reward Offered After Mail Collection Box Stolen In North Phoenix  (AZ Family, 8/17/2010)

PHOENIX -- A blue mail collection box in Phoenix was stolen late Monday or early Tuesday and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering a reward to help find the person responsible.

The collection box was located near Seventh Avenue and Melinda Lane, which is south of Deer Valley Road.

The Postal Service last collected mail from the box at approximately 3:15 p.m. on Monday. The empty collection box was recovered early Tuesday morning near Interstate 17 and Acoma Drive.

The Postal Service is installing a replacement collection box at the location.

Customers depositing mail after the last known collection time on Monday should call 1-877-876-2455.

The Postal Inspection Service is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the theft.

Mail theft carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison.

Home-Made Bomb Inside Mattress Injures A Georgia Man  (Chattanooga Times Free Press, 8/18/2010)

RANGER, Ga. — Eddie Franklin rushed outside Monday night when a loud blast in his backyard made his entire trailer shudder.

Out on the stoop, soon surrounded by six live-in family members who also were panicked by the explosion, Franklin watched Andrew Durley, his niece’s husband, stumble out of a metal shed across the lawn, blood dripping from his nose, his arm singed.

Durley’s brother, Adam, had given him a mattress set that Durley carried from his truck to the shed. Once inside about 7:30 p.m., Durley began to tinker with something planted inside the box spring, family members said.

“He got the bomb out thinking it was a light because it had an electrical cord on it,” Franklin said. “When he plugged it up, that’s when it exploded.”

On Tuesday, the family remained confused and upset about why a small bomb was placed inside the box spring given to Durley, 23, and wondered who it was intended to hurt.

Remains from the bomb, made with gunpowder and red copper wire, remain lodged in the wall of the shed, which remained standing, Franklin said.

Yellow police tape draped around the property in Ranger as investigators from the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office combed the residence for answers. Several people are being interviewed but there were no suspects or arrests as of Tuesday afternoon, said Gordon County Chief Deputy Robert Paris.

“I’ve seen homemade bombs in my career, but not in several years,” Paris said. “It’s rare.”

Two Georgia Bureau of Investigation bomb squad trucks were called to help the sheriff’s deputies scrutinize the property, Paris said. Since the explosion is still being investigated, he said he couldn’t comment on whether any evidence was discovered.

When the police arrived at the home Monday night, the entire family was whisked from the trailer and taken to the Motel 6 on state Highway 53, said Durley’s aunt Diane Hite.

Durley was airlifted to Erlanger hospital and treated for his burns. He was released Tuesday morning, hospital officials say, but couldn’t comment on the extent of his wounds or his condition.

But his family members said they are worried he will be blinded in one eye permanently.

Suspicious Powder In Mailroom At St. Paul Federal Courthouse Prompts Investigation  (WNMT, 8/17/2010)

St. Paul, MN--An investigation is underway into the discovery of a suspicious, white powder substance found at the St. Paul Federal Courthouse yesterday afternoon.  A Federal Court employee reportedly was opening some mail items in the courthouse mailroom, when the employee noticed the powder on him or her.  An evacuation of the building was ordered and three employees were taken to a hospital, as a precaution.  Everything is expected to resume as normal today.

Texas Anthrax Hoax Letters Rise To 30  (Bio Prep Watch, 8/17/2010)

Whoever sent 30 letters containing a cryptic message and suspicious white powder to churches, mosques and businesses in three states since August 5 is believed to be the same person or persons who sent white powder to government buildings in 2008.

Officials from the FBI say their suspect has sent a total of more than 250 letters since December 2008, when he targeted U.S. embassies and governors’ offices, according to Time.

In recent weeks, 25 of the letters were sent to addresses in the Dallas area and a further five were sent to Lubbock and Austin, Texas, Chicago and Waltham, Mass. The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service recently confirmed that the white powder inside the letters was harmless and that all of the letters shared postmarks from North Texas.

"The letters all have the same postmarks, the same content and similar return addresses that lead us to believe they are coming from the same person or persons," Special Agent Mark White told the Associated Press.

White did not elaborate on the contents of the message, but said it was typed, one line long and mentioned the terror group Al-Qaeda.

"Nobody understands what they're trying to say," White said, according to the AP. "The message itself is unclear. But by taking that extra step and putting that white powdery substance in there, yes it's considered a threat."

There is now a reward of up to $100,000 for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

St. Paul Courthouse Open After White Powder Scare  (FOX 9 News, 8/17/2010)

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Part of the Federal Courthouse in St. Paul is expected to reopen Tuesday after white powder was found in the mail yesterday, forcing an evacuation and FBI investigation.

A woman in the clerk of courts office found the white powder on her hands after opening some mail. The employee called the U.S. Marshals, who began evacuating the first floor of the building. Three employees were taken to Regions Hospital as a precaution.

St. Paul fire hazmat units brought the white powder to the Minnesota Department of Health lab in St. Paul, where the FBI will analyze the substance. The results of lab tests will help define the scope of the investigation, the FBI said Monday. It’s unknown when those results will be available.

Spokane City Council Meeting During Anthrax Scare May Have Violated State Law  (Spokesman-Review, 8/16/2010)

Spokane, WA--The Spokane City Council on Monday likely violated state law by meeting during an anthrax scare which closed City Hall to the public.

Firefighters and police were called to City Hall just prior to the council meeting’s scheduled 3:30 p.m. start after an employee found white powder in a package of office supplies. City spokeswoman Marlene Feist sent a news release at 3:25 p.m. that said the session would go on even though the public was no longer allowed to enter City Hall.

The building reopened about an hour later, after firefighters determined the power to be corn starch. The council meeting ended about the same time.

State law stipulates that City Council meetings be open to the public.

Feist noted that there was no public testimony scheduled and that the meeting was carried live on the city’s cable station.

Greg Overstreet, former open government ombudsman in the state attorney general’s office, said state law allows members of the public to be barred from a council meeting only for an executive session or for unruly behavior. Monday’s meeting wasn’t an executive session, during which council members could meet privately to discuss certain matters like the purchase of real estate. Even if no votes are held, meetings must be open, he said.

“It would be a terrible precedent if local governments could lock the doors and tell people to just watch it on TV,” said Overstreet, a private attorney who focuses on public access issues.

Feist said the powder was discovered when a package of office supplies was opened in the city’s planning department on the third floor. Employees who were in the area were told not to leave. Among those who had to stay put until firefighters gave the all clear: Mayor Mary Verner and City Administrator Ted Danek, Feist said.

Workers in other areas were told to keep working.

Meanwhile, firefighters set up a hazardous material tent outside and some firefighters who entered the building wore green protective suits. Battalion Chief Bob Green said a mass spectrometer determined that the powder was 93 percent corn starch. Corn starch is sometimes used in office material to prevent unused envelopes from sticking together, he said.

While the public was not allowed to enter the building, Councilman Jon Snyder, who was running late for the meeting, was escorted inside by Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer. City Council President Joe Shogan, who was returning from vacation, was absent. The meeting was led by City Councilman Steve Corker.

Schaeffer said the building was closed to the public to control traffic flow.

Corker said he was advised by the city’s legal staff that the meeting could go on as long as the scheduled vote on routine items was moved to the council’s evening session.

Assistant City Attorney Mike Piccolo said the closure occurred right before the start of the meeting and it was unclear how responders were dealing with the situation.

“We weren’t sure if people were allowed in or not,” he said.

Anthrax Threat Letters Containing White Powder Sent To Raytheon HQ In Massachusetts  (Daily News, 8/16/2010)

WALTHAM, MA —Investigators don't know why two letters containing a white, nontoxic powder were sent to Raytheon Company's Waltham headquarters, said Jon Kasle, director of media relations.

At least 30 letters were sent to locations in Texas and Illinois, said FBI Special Agent Mark White, based in Dallas.

The Dallas FBI branch is leading the investigation.

The letters, postmarked from northern Texas, were sent last Friday, Aug. 6, to the company's 870 Winter St. location, Raytheon's global headquarters, Kasle said.

Federal officials said the same person who sent the letters to Raytheon also sent 28 others to churches, mosques and businesses in Texas and Illinois.

The FBI believes this person or group was the same responsible for sending threatening letters containing suspicious white powder to several U.S. embassies and governors' offices two years ago.

The most recent batch of envelopes contained the white powder and a single typewritten sentence in English which is unclear in its meaning, but references al Qaeda, said White.

He said the message does not make sense, but declined to specify what the letter said.

"The sender is obviously committed to getting the message out, and I'm sure it's clear in his mind what the message is," White said.

"Nobody understands what they're trying to say. The message itself is unclear. But by taking that extra step and putting that white powdery substance in there, yes, it's considered a threat," said White.

Twenty-five of the letters were sent to addresses in the Dallas area, and the other five were sent to locations in Waltham (two to Raytheon), Austin, Lubbock, Texas, and Chicago, according to the FBI and postal inspectors.

"The letters all have the same postmarks, the same content and similar return addresses that lead us to believe they are coming from the same person or persons," White said.

If the person or group had sent letters with toxic material, they almost certainly would have been caught by the postal service, which has equipment that scans for biological substances, White said.

There hasn't been a letter with toxic material that has gone through the mail since the anthrax mailings in 2001, because of the new scanning equipment, he said.

"These types of things can cause a lot of concern, especially for the person who opens the letters and white powder falls out on their desk, (but) there is a safety mechanism in place to catch it," White said.

People started receiving the letters on Aug. 5, with reports of additional letters coming in every weekday since, White said.

FBI investigators believe the same person has sent more than 250 letters since December 2008. It also believes the person also sent letters sporadically between the two larger batches this month and in 2008, White said.

Officials say they have no idea what precipitated the latest round of letters, White said.

Businesses receiving the letters all seem to be in the aeronautics or tech industries, he said.

Also on Friday, an Internal Revenue Service office in Philadelphia was briefly evacuated after a suspicious envelope was found. Police said the envelope contained a vial with a plastic bag over it, but tests showed no harmful materials were inside. The office reopened a few hours later, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear if this envelope was related to the 30 others. "They're facing a lot of years in jail, and a significant monetary fine," said White of the sender.

Authorities are offering up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

The penalties for sending white powder through the mail include up five years in prison per letter, regardless of whether the substance is toxic, White said.

The person or group may also be responsible for restitution for hazmat responses costs, he said.

Anyone with information can call the FBI's Dallas field office at 972-559-5000.

FBI Offers Reward To Catch Texas White Powder Letter Sender  (Herald Democrat, 8/15/2010)

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI are offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who has been sending letters containing a powdery substance to various churches, mosques, and businesses in North Texas.

Randall C. Till, Inspector In Charge, U.S Postal Inspection Service, and Robert E. Casey Jr., FBI Special Agent In Charge, said in a press release that the reward could be as high as $100,000.

The letters began arriving Aug. 5 and as of Friday, the FBI had been made aware of 25 similar letters sent to entities in Allen, Arlington, Carrollton, Dallas, DeSoto, Fort Worth, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, McKinney and Richardson.

Casey said that HazMat teams or the Postal Inspectors have field-screened each package, and none of them tested to have been toxic. Those substances are now in a forensic lab for further analysis.

Each of the white-powder letters were postmarked from North Texas, leading investigators to believe the person responsible may live in the North Texas area, Casey said. In addition to the letters received in North Texas, more letters have been received in Austin and Lubbock, Texas; Chicago, Ill.; and Waltham, Mass. These letters are similar in postmark and content to the letters received in North Texas, but Casey did not say if they, too, had been postmarked from North Texas.

Investigation has also determined the recent white-powder letters are similar in postmark and content to the letters sent to U.S. Embassies and U.S. Governors' offices in December 2008.

All letters have referenced Al Qaeda, but the meaning of the message is unknown. The sender appears to be committed to getting a message out, but has not clearly articulated what the message may be.

Although mail is screened for toxic substances prior to delivery, the public is reminded to take the following precautions should they receive mail with a powdery substance in it.

1. Leave the immediate area where the powder was spilled. Do not attempt to clean up the powder. Isolate the area.

2. Wash hands immediately.

3. Call 911 about receiving the mail.

Remember, Casey said, all instances of white powder in this matter have tested negative for a toxic substance, so taking proper precautions are important, but there is no need for panic.

Anyone with information concerning these letters should contact the Dallas FBI Office at 972-559-5000 or the Fort Worth U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 817-359-2719.

White Powder Letter Sent to Senator Lindsey Graham  (FITS News, 8/16/2010)

Greenville, SC--State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agents in South Carolina are testing a white, powdery substance that was found last week inside a letter sent to one of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s six Palmetto state offices.  Graham was not in the office when the letter was opened, and no one on his staff was injured.

The letter arrived at Graham’s Greenville, S.C. office on Thursday, and while authorities don’t think the powder is dangerous – they aren’t taking any chances.

Seven years ago, employees at a mail-sorting facility in Greenville, S.C. found a threatening letter containing a vial of ricin.  Similar threatening letters were sent to the White House and the office of former U.S. Senator Bill Frist.  Prior to that, five people were killed in 2001 when seven letters containing anthrax were mailed to a number of media outlets and the offices of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

The prime suspect in that attack, former U.S. Army biodefense analyst Bruce Edward Ivins, committed suicide in 2008.

There have been numerous “white powder” scares across the country over the past decade.  In December of 2008, fake anthrax letters containing bleached flour were sent to numerous U.S. governors – including S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford.

'Suspicious Envelope' Goes To U.S. Representative Perriello's Rival  (The Hill, 8/14/2010)

An investigation has been launched into why an envelope of white powder was sent to the office of Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-Va.) Republican opponent.

State Sen. Robert Hurt (R) received a suspicious envelope at his Chatham office Friday. When he opened it, he saw the powder, according to Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor. The Postal Service is now examining the incident.

Investigators are testing samples and should know the results early next week, Taylor said. "It is a criminal offense to mail a suspicious material, even if it is nontoxic."

Hurt’s camp issued a statement saying his main concern is "his staff and the workers who may have handled this mail at the post office."

Perriello, a freshman, is a top Republican target. His district has already been the scene of political mischief this cycle.

During the lead up to the final healthcare vote in March, a Tea Party member posted Perriello's brother's Charlottesville address online, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the following day at the house a gas line to an outdoor grill was cut. Police called it "a deliberate act of vandalism."

County Building in Montana Shut Down After White Powder Is Sent to Dept. of Motor Vehicles  (Flathead Beacon, 8/13/2010)

Kalispell, MT--Flathead County's Earl Bennett building was shut down Thursday after an envelope containing an unknown white powder was opened at the Department of Motor Vehicles. However, certain offices will reopen Friday at noon after authorities determined the powder did not pose a credible threat.

According to the Flathead City-County Health Department, the Earl Bennett building was still closed off at 8 a.m. on Friday morning. The building currently houses the county's DMV, treasurer, property tax, health department and planning and zoning offices. The health department and planning offices are scheduled to reopen at noon on Friday, but the DMV, property tax and treasurer's offices will remain closed.

The white powder fell out of the envelope just after 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. The building was evacuated and secured until a credible threat could be evaluated.The powdery substance was sent to the public health laboratory at the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

According to the Kalispell Fire Department, no credible threat was found. Further testing at the state lab on items associated with the powder also confirmed no credible threats. There have been no reported injuries or illness, and the powder does not appear to have been malicious, the report said. Authorities will continue their investigation.

Assisting the fire department, which also serves as the Northwest Regional Hazardous Materials Team, were the Kalispell Police Department, the county health department and other state, county and federal entities.

Vial Sent To Philly IRS Office Leads To Evacuation  (AP, 8/13/2010)

PHILADELPHIA — Authorities are testing a suspicious package that an Internal Revenue Office in Philadelphia received.

Police say workers evacuated shortly before noon Friday after the office received an envelope with a vial and a plastic bag attached to it.

Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, says the building is still partially evacuated. He says authorities don't know yet whether the package contained anything harmful.

The FBI had no comment.

Suspicious Powder Found at Sen. Hurt’s Office  (ABC 13 News, 8/13/2010)

Chatham, VA - The FBI and the U.S. Postal service are now investigating the mysterious package sent to Senator Robert Hurt's Office on Friday.  Police say someone sent a package to the office that contained a mysterious powder.

Authorities say the incident occured 11:00 a.m. Sheriff Mike Taylor says when the police department got there they felt the need to call in higher authorities.

He says although Hurt is running for a political campaign he says they treat all cases the same.

No one was hurt. The powder has been sent off for testing and they will know what it is in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello issued this statement about the incident on Saturday:

"If this was meant to be a threat, and particularly if it was in any way politically motivated, I hope the cowards behind this will be caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Perriello said his thoughts are with Robert Hurt and his staff during this scary time.

Alabama Woman Decontaminated After Mail Scare  (Huntsville Times, 8/13/2010)

MONROVIA, AL. - Local emergency officials answered a 911 call Thursday afternoon in the Monrovia community after a woman said she experienced a burning sensation on her arms and hands when she opened a piece of mail.

The woman, whose name was not immediately available, was transferred by HEMSI to Huntsville Hospital for evaluation, said Don Webster, chief of operations for HEMSI. In her early 40s, the woman called from a residence in the 100 block of Raymon Circle in Phillips Creek subdivision.

Madison County Commissioner Dale Strong confirmed the incident was not related to a biohazard. The material tested negative for anthrax, a biological agent and was not radioactive, Strong said.

"We are not exactly sure what it was, but again, it's not a biohazard incident," Strong said. "It's not a threat, but she was taken to the hospital so she could be evaluated."

Huntsville Fire and Rescue's HAZMAT unit, Monrovia Volunteer Fire and Rescue, the Sheriff's Department and the FBI all responded to secure the scene. Postal officials were also notified.

As a precaution, Strong added, the principals of Monrovia Elementary and Monrovia Middle schools were notified of the situation, but the schools were not placed on lockdown. School officials were told to keep students inside during the investigation.

Both schools were later told by emergency officials they could resume normal activities, Strong said.

The investigation is continuing. 

2 Years For DC Postal Worker Working With Check-Stealing Ring (Washington Post, 8/12/2010)

Washington, DC--A former U.S. Postal Service employee was sentenced Thursday to 25 months in prison and ordered to repay $134,417 in U.S. and District treasury checks that she stole over nearly two years from more than 50 Northeast Washington residents and businesses, authorities said Thursday.

Shareen Wilson, 42, pleaded guilty June 2 to one count of mail theft and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud as part of a ring that relied on her to steal federal income tax refund, Social Security and payroll checks as well as District payments to foster parents.

Wilson stole checks mailed to recipients on her route and other carriers’ working out of the postal service’s River Terrace Carrier Annex from May 2008 through Feb. 2010, according to authorities.

In announcing the sentence by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates of the District, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said Wilson worked with a co-conspirator who recruited at least eight check cashers to cash checks, usually at local liquor stores, using fake identification documents obtained from a man known as “ID Dude.”

Wilson was paid $200 to $850 per check, according to authorities.

Radio Towers Felled By Earth Liberation Vandals Being Rebuilt  (Seattle Times, 8/13/2010)

Washington State--Two radio towers felled by vandals last year are being rebuilt in the Snohomish River Valley, according to The Snohomish County Tribune.

Work started late last month to reinstall the two towers -- one that will be 349 feet tall and a second at 199 feet -- to help restore the power of KRKO-AM (1380), The Tribune in reporting.

Last September, vandals broke through a chain-link fence and stole a track loader, which was then used to knock the towers to the ground. Officers found the station's taller main tower lying on the ground in the 13400 block of Shorts School Road. The smaller tower was also toppled and found nearby. Two other towers weren't damaged.

The crime has not been solved.

A banner attached to a fence surrounding the towers indicated that the early-morning attack was the work of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a loosely organized group of clandestine cells that seeks to inflict economic damage on facilities and projects it considers environmentally damaging.

The transmission towers for the AM station has been the subject of a nine-year legal battle and were opposed by some local residents because of health concerns, the impact on wildlife and aesthetics, and impaired views of the river valley and surrounding mountains.

Andy Skotdal, general manager of the family-owned sports-radio station, told The Seattle Times last year he wasn't convinced ELF was responsible, even though ELF claimed responsibility. He said he suspected disgruntled locals who have long opposed the siting of the towers on 40 acres of farmland may have taken matters into their own hands.

The Skotdal family also owns CAAM Partnership, another broadcasting company that wants to add two more towers to the site to start a second AM station, according to The Tribune.

Unknown White Substance Forces Evacuation Of Digital Scanning Company in Vermont  (Rutland Herald,  8/13/2010)

Chester, VT--An unknown white powdery substance on an old newspaper was the cause of an emergency evacuation at the Readex Newsbank Inc., operation center in Chester on Thursday morning.

The Chester Fire Department arrived at the company, which makes electronic archives of documents, at 397 Main St. at about 10:30 a.m., in response to a report of a hazardous condition, according to Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Wilson.

Michael Walker, Newsbank’s chief operating officer, said he called in the emergency based on what he saw and what some of his roughly 100 employees were telling him.

“They reported that when they were filming, there was a white substance on a document ... an old newspaper,” Walker said in a phone interview late Thursday.

Two employees, in a small team of people working in a specific part of the building, became sick with minor symptoms and the building was evacuated, according to Wilson and Walker.

Walker refused to elaborate on the symptoms but said none of the employees were seriously injured.

Tests on the unknown substance were inconclusive and there are no known threats to the business, according to Wilson.

“It was a little hectic for most of the day, but it appears we don’t have anything,” Walker said.

He said in 50 years, it was the first incident of its kind at Readex, a division of the web-based information provider Newsbank.

Walker said employees in the Chester location are tasked with converting scholarly materials into digital form for posting on the Internet.

Those materials include journals, newspapers and books dating back to the 1600s, from repositories “all over the country,” Walker said.

During the emergency response, some 90 other employees were quarantined and tested by the Vermont hazmat team.

Two people were decontaminated using a trailer with specialized equipment for such work and were sent to the hospital.

Responders used the Vermont Emergency Management System to call for mutual aid. The state hazmat team, Chester Police Department and Springfield Fire Department responded.

Wilson could not be reached at press time for more information.

The Chester Police Department said it didn’t have any further details on the incident.

The building was later turned back over to the company.

Walker said whatever the substance was, it was a very small amount and he said would be surprised if investigators determined what it was.

Suspicious Package and Powder Sent to Premier Shuts Down Government Office in Australia  (AAP, 8/11/2010)

Three mail-room workers in a Sydney building containing the offices of the NSW premier had to be quarantined after discovering an envelope containing white powder.

Emergency services were called to the Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney's CBD at 11.30am (AEST) on Wednesday, after the package was found in the 15th floor mail room, police said.

Three workers were quarantined and the mail room sealed while Hazmat crews inspected the package.

The trio were checked by paramedics but showed no ill effects of their exposure to the powder, authorities said.

Ambulances and a fire truck were on standby at the office block, which is used by the NSW government, including NSW Premier Kristina Keneally.

Hazmat has now left the building, while police conduct inquiries into the source of the white substance.

The mail-room incident comes just two days after Ms Keneally and Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell were evacuated from the Hilton Hotel because of a bomb scare.

A spokesman for Ms Keneally could not say who the package was addressed to, but did confirm it was not addressed to the premier.

Ms Keneally spent Monday morning near Newcastle, north of Sydney, announcing the commencement of construction of the Hunter Valley Expressway.

Bullet Sent in Mail to Malaysia Political Leader  (Free Malaysia Today, 8/12/2010)

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia: DAP leader Tony Pua, who received a death threat, has dismissed it as an act of cowardice which would turn Malaysia into an international laughing stock.

Speaking to FMT, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP said he believes the threat was related to his call for Bumiputera discounts on luxury homes and commercial properties to be removed.

The death threat which was sealed together with a live bullet in an envelope was posted to his office in Damansara Utama. It was opened by his assistant at about 4.30pm yesterday.

The stamp on the envelope showed that it came from Tangkak, Johor.

The letter warned Pua to watch his every step and the writer had alleged that he knew all details about his family, office vehicle and the location of his house.

“You’re very brave. Be careful of where you walk to now, you will have to look around you, I know all your personal details, beware,” read the letter, penned in Malay.

Pua’s assistant lodged a police report with the Damansara Utama police station at about 6:30pm accompanied by Pua as well as lawyer and Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng.

Police have confirmed that the bullet was a local made M16 bullet.

'Love' letter a cowardly act

PKR's strategic director Tian Chua said he was not shocked by the death threat to Pua and accused Barisan Nasional of being behind it.

“They're resorting to a stunt like this because the battlefield is getting closer. It's no longer a long distance war. But this close range fight also makes it easy for us to expose their scandals,” the Batu MP told FMT.

In a tweet, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had expressed support for Pua, despite his wing filing a litany of police reports against the DAP leader over his “remove discounts” comment.

Also calling it an act of cowardice, he said: “Heard about the ‘love’ letter. I hope you are alright and have made the necessary (police) reports. This is not the politics I signed up for. Take it easy.”

Last week, the Oxford-trained Pua had lambasted Umno Youth and its Oxford-trained chief Khairy over the police reports, saying he would not be cowed by them.

Prior to that Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan had warned the DAP leader “not to play with fire” by questioning the special privileges of the Malays and Bumiputeras.

Umno's Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan also condemned the death threat.

“I hope the culprits who sent the bullets will be caught and given the maximum punsihment. Malaysia has no place for this kind of things,” he said in a twitter posting.

In 2008 and 2009, DAP chairman and Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh received similar death threats with live bullets for questioning the rights of the Malays and the Malay rulers.

Exploding Tamales Prompt Evacuation At Post Office in California  (Ventura County Star, 8/11/2010)

Oxnard, CA--The Oxnard Police ordered the evacuation of the post office on North C Street late Wednesday afternoon after a package expanded and made two large booms.

Nearly two hours later, after the Oxnard police and fire departments and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad had responded, it was determined the large cardboard box contained dry ice and tamales, which had expanded.

Donna Bryant, a postal clerk who handled the package, said a ticking sound could clearly be heard coming from the package.

That was followed by the sound of an explosion, Bryant said. The package had expanded after the explosion, but the detonation was not strong enough to tear the package open, she said.

Bryant immediately notified a supervisor of what had happened. She said as she was doing so, a second explosion could be heard coming from the package.

The building was evacuated about 5:15 p.m. and the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad was called to the scene. The bomb squad arrived about an hour later after being delayed by traffic.

Meanwhile, dozens of postal workers, many of whom were coming back after an afternoon of delivering mail, gathered in a parking lot across the street from the post office as police cordoned off the area, including the 1900 block of North C Street where the post office is located.

“Fortunately this doesn’t happen that often,” said Mario Gutierrez, a postal carrier with more than 20 years of service with the post office.

“The last time something like this happened was during all of the anthrax scares after 9/11,” Gutierrez said, recalling how the post office was also evacuated after some white powder was discovered in an envelope. The powder turned out to be harmless.

Gutierrez predicted Wednesday’s scare would also have a similar end.

Passersby stood and watched behind police yellow tape as Oxnard police investigators interviewed some of the postal employees who work at the site.

The post office was open at the time of the incident, but no one was reported injured in Wednesday’s incident.

Authorities reopened the building about 7 p.m.

Dozens of postal workers quickly made their way inside to put away their work-related gear before heading home for the night.

“We take these incidents very seriously, in part because post offices have been targeted for attacks in the past,” David Keith, a spokesman for the Oxnard Police Department, told a group of reporters.

Gains in Bioscience Cause Terror Fears  (Wall St. Journal, 8/11/2010)

Rapid advances in bioscience are raising alarms among terrorism experts that amateur scientists will soon be able to gin up deadly pathogens for nefarious uses.

Fears of bioterror have been on the rise since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, stoking tens of billions of dollars of government spending on defenses, and the White House and Congress continue to push for new measures.

But the fear of a mass-casualty terrorist attack using bioweapons has always been tempered by a single fact: Of the scores of plots uncovered during the past decade, none have featured biological weapons. Indeed, many experts doubt terrorists even have the technical capability to acquire and weaponize deadly bugs.

The new fear, though, is that scientific advances that enable amateur scientists to carry out once-exotic experiments, such as DNA cloning, could be put to criminal use. Many well-known figures are sounding the alarm over the revolution in biological science, which amounts to a proliferation of know-how—if not the actual pathogens.

"Certain areas of biotechnology are getting more accessible to people with malign intent," said Jonathan Tucker, an expert on biological and chemical weapons at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

Geneticist Craig Venter said last month at the first meeting of a presidential commission on bioethics, "If students can order any [genetic sequences] online, somebody could try to make the Ebola virus."

Mr. Venter is a pioneer in the field whose creation of a synthetic organism this spring helped push the debate about the risks and rewards of bioscience from scientific journals to the corridors of power in Washington. "We are limited more by our imagination now than any technological limitations," Mr. Venter said.

Scientists have the ability to manipulate genetic material more quickly and more cheaply all the time. Just as "Moore's Law" describes the accelerating pace of advances in computer science, advances in biology are becoming more potent and accessible every year, experts note.

As recently as a decade ago, the tools and techniques for such fiddling were confined to a handful of laboratories like those at leading research universities. Today, do-it-yourself biology clubs have sprung up where part-timers share tips on how to build high-speed centrifuges, isolate genetic material, and the like. The movement has been aided by gear that can turn a backyard shed into a microbiology lab.

That has prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to reach out to amateur biologists, teaching them proper security measures and asking them to be vigilant of unscrupulous scientists.

"The risk we're seeing now is that these procedures are becoming easier to do," said Edward You, who heads the outreach program at the FBI's Directorate for Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Biological weapons date back millennia. Rotting and plague-stricken corpses once were catapulted over besieged city walls. Wells were routinely poisoned.

More recently, fears that terrorist groups such as al Qaeda might deploy weapons of mass destruction have kindled fears of bioterrorism. Those fears reached fever pitch in the months after the World Trade Center was downed, when anthrax-filled mail killed five people and prompted panic. That's when Washington started boosting spending on biodefense, improving security at laboratories that work with dangerous pathogens and stockpiling antidotes.

Last fall, President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a bioethics commission, and the group spent much of its first meeting parsing the threat of biological terrorism. He also issued an executive order earlier this month to beef up security for the most dangerous pathogens, which include anthrax, ebola, tularensis, smallpox and the reconstructed 1918 Spanish flu bug.

Both houses of Congress have legislation in the works to strengthen the country's ability to detect, prevent and, if necessary, recover from large-scale attacks using bioweapons.

All the government attention comes despite the absence of known terrorist plots involving biological weapons. According to U.S. counterterrorism officials, al Qaeda last actively tried to work with bioweapons—specifically anthrax—before the 2001 invasion of that uprooted its leadership from Afghanistan.

While terrorists have on occasion used chemical weapons—such as chlorine and sarin gas—none have yet employed a biological agent, counterterrorism officials and bioweapons researchers say. The U.S. anthrax attacks were ultimately blamed on a U.S. scientist with access to military bioweapons programs.

That's why many experts caution that, despite scientific advances, it is still exceedingly tough for terrorists to isolate or create, mass produce and deploy deadly bugs. Tens of thousands of Soviet scientists spent decades trying to weaponize pathogens, with mixed results. Though science has advanced greatly since the Cold War, many of the same challenges remain.

"I don't think the threat is growing, but quite the opposite," said Milton Leitenberg, a biological-weapons expert at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland. Advances in biological science and the proliferation of knowledge are a given, he said, but there has been no indication they are being used by terrorists.

"The idea that four guys in a cave are going to create bioweapons from scratch—that will be never, ever, ever," he said.

Possible Bomb Found In Mailbox in Washington State  (KXLY4, 8/10/2010)

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA -- The Spokane Valley Police Department is investigating at least two sparkler bomb discoveries in the last week, and now a third victim has come forward.

For the last 30 years, Faye has lived with her husband in a rural community in the Spokane Valley. Year after year, she has walked down her driveway to check the mail without much excitement, until July 2.

"I started to reach for the mail and then I spotted it and of course backed up and thought hmm, this doesn't look good," Faye explains.

The device looked like a bomb and was covered by letters. Faye backed away, immediately went to tell her husband and then called 911.

"It was probably about 10 inches long, maybe two inches in diameter, wrapped in black tape," says Faye.

According to the Valley homeowner, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad removed the explosive device.

Then this week, more reports of sparkler bombs being discovered in the area alarmed Faye.

"Its kind of hard to believe, you know. I'm more frightened about it now that I'm hearing about a second and a third case," said Faye.

Investigators won't say if the sparkler bomb found Monday morning near Lynden Road and Trent Avenue is connected to the one left outside the Rock Bar and Lounge in the Spokane Valley last week, but they did say the devices can be deadly.

"They can kill you, they have a considerable amount of energy in a sparkler and when you wrap several hundred of them together, and contain them, there's not place for that energy to go. They explode with tremendous force," says Lt. Matt Lyons with the Spokane Valley Police Department.

Both cases are under investigation.

Faye still doesn't know who left the device in her mailbox, or if the incident is connected to recent findings but she hopes the person responsible is caught.

"It’s just unnerving, even if nobody gets hurt, it’s just not a fun thing. Children might find it. School is still out," says Faye.

Package With Suspicious White Powder Forces Canadian Family to Evacuate Home  (Windsor Star, 8/10/2010)

Windsor, On, Canada--A suspicious package that forced the evacuation of a family from their west end home Monday was to be analyzed in Toronto this morning.

Police responded to a suspicious package at 821 Randolph Ave., a home in the Clarence Williams Townhouse complex, at about 2 p.m. Monday.

"It was a package with some white substance in it and the hazmat team was called in," said Acting Staff Sgt. Al Adams. He said there are no health concerns because of the package and people who came into contact with it were decontaminated. The package is being taken to Toronto to be tested this morning, Adams said, and until it's known what the substance is a police cruiser will be "protecting the scene."

Adams said it's standard procedure to get hazmat involved and have those who came into contact with a suspicious substance decontaminated because of potential health risks.

"We all know the history of white powder, going a few years back with anthrax," he said.

A woman near the scene Monday night said she's the person who found the package and took it inside her house. The woman, who does not want to be named, said she and her 11-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter aren't allowed back in the house.

"I don't know anything until tomorrow," she said Monday night. "I want my stuff."

She said she checked her mail at about 1:30 p.m. and took the package inside when she noticed a suspicious powder.

The family is staying with a friend a few houses away. The entrance to the home is blocked by emergency tape. The woman said she had not been able to pick up her clothes or any of her belongings.

In May, a suspicious package was found nearby in the 2500 block of College Avenue after a Canada Post employee came in contact with a powder. The powder was deemed harmless, but memories of the incident have left some residents worried.

Shearee Ogonski, who also lives in the townhouse complex and saw people in white suits, said it feels like the neighbourhood is being "targeted."

"Nobody is saying anything," she said, referring to her and other residents' unanswered questions.

Newspaper Columnist Gets A Pile Of Poop in the Mail  (Mediabistro, 10/9/2010)

Wow, there's hate mail and then there's hate mail. And OC Weekly columnist Gustavo Arellano just got some serious hate mail.

“I get a lot of snail mail from ustedes--praise and scorn, books and lewd photos, rants and raves. But it wasn't until earlier this week that someone sent me an honest-to-goodness bag of shit.” Said Arellano.

Luckily, Arellano didn't have to deal with the doody himself. That task was left to the staff of the Eugene Weekly--which carries his column--where the poop was sent.

All we can say is that while we're disturbed by the disgusting nature of the letter, we're impressed by its author's obviously healthy diet.

FBI Investigating Powder-Filled Letters In Texas  (Bio Prep Watch, 10/9/2010)

Dallas, TX--Officials with the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspectors reported that they are investigating the the delivery of 13 suspicious letters containing white powder in north Texas.

The first of the letters were discovered on August 5, when six letters filled with white powder were delivered to locations across the north Texas metro area.

Five additional letters were received in the area on the morning of August 6, CBS11TV.com reports, with that number rising to a total of 13 letters received by the end of the day.

Letters were sent to a company in Arlington, to Raytheon in Garland, to an aerospace company in Grand Prairie, to a Raytheon plant on the property of Texas Instruments in Dallas and to Rocket Air Supply company in Arlington.

Suspicious letters were also discovered at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Richardson, the mail room at Microsoft's offices in Irving, the Dallas Love Field Airport and Spenro Industrial Supply Company in Grand Prairie.

It was later discovered that that two letters were also found at a Raytheon office in the Boston area, CBS11TV.com reports.

Ramona Layne, a spokesperson with the Raytheon Company, issued a statement regarding the incidents.

“The safety and security of our employees is paramount,” Layne told CBS11TV.com. “Raytheon contacted Dallas emergency services immediately upon discovery of unknown powder substance at two sites, North Dallas and Garland facilities. Employees at both sites are safe and were unharmed.”

The powder in all of the letters found  tested as non-hazardous. Officials said, however, that the powder would be further tested.

Investigators reported that the powder found in some of the letters on Thursday was corn starch.

Investigators have not clarified whether the letters were all sent from one person or location, but said they are investigating the possibility, according to the CBS11TV.com report.

Texas Pastor Is 14th Victim Of Bioterror Hoax  (Dallas Morning News, 10/9/2010)

Dallas, TX--A Richardson pastor opened his church's mail Saturday and became the 14th local victim of a bioterror hoax in the last week.

"It looked like standard business mail," said the Rev. Jay Matthews of St. Stephen's Anglican Catholic Church.

There was a sheet of paper inside the envelope, but Matthews wouldn't say if there was a message.

The envelope was letter size and addressed to the church, and it bore an unfamiliar return address. Both addresses looked computer-generated.

Thirteen similar envelopes showed up late last week at businesses, Catholic and Protestant churches, a mosque, Dallas Love Field and high-tech companies in Dallas, Arlington, Carrollton, Garland, Grand Prairie and Richardson.

Preliminary tests found the powder to be harmless in each case.

Local police and fire departments have responded in full hazardous materials mode to each call.

U.S. Postal Inspector Amanda McMurrey said last week that it was too early to say whether the incidents were connected.

Postal inspectors and FBI agents aren't saying whether they think the culprit might have been behind similar incidents over the last two years.

In June, authorities quarantined the mayor's suite at Dallas City Hall after staff opened a mailed envelope to find white powder.

In April, school officials evacuated two Garland elementary schools under similar circumstances.

In November 2009, someone sent letters containing suspicious but benign white powder with Dallas-area postmarks to five foreign missions at the U.N. in New York. All the missions represented countries with troops in Iraq.

In December 2008, the FBI's Dallas field office took the lead in a national investigation of hoax-powder letters with local postmarks that were sent to the governors of Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Rhode Island and Texas.

Postal inspectors said then that the postmarks indicated the letters were sent from either Dallas or "North Texas," meaning any of several ZIP codes beginning with 750 and routed through the Postal Service's plant in Coppell.

The return addresses were for FBI offices in Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso, though some were outdated and incorrect, and the mailer misspelled "El Paso."

Mailed anthrax killed five people, including two postal workers, about a month after 9/11 in what President George W. Bush called a "second wave of terrorist attacks." In October 2001, someone mailed the tainted letters to newspapers and television networks and to government buildings in Washington.

The unsolved attacks sparked a national panic, with local first responders swamped with calls about suspicious packages.

Federal agents did not return calls seeking comment on the current investigation.

Asked for advice for anyone else who comes across one of the envelopes, Matthews recommended being alert to anything suspect in the addresses or the appearance of mail items and using common sense.

"If you're suspicious of something, call the police and don't open it yourself," he said.

Two Men Held In UK Over Parcel Bombs Sent To No10 Downing Street And MI6 HQ (Daily Mail, 8/1/2010)

London--Two men have been arrested after parcel bombs were sent to 10 Downing Street and MI6's HQ.

One reached the MI6 building in Vauxhall, South London, but the other was intercepted at a sorting office.

Police said neither bomb went off or had to be destroyed in a controlled explosion.

But Tory MP Patrick Mercer said last night he was 'shocked' that a suspect package had reached MI6 and would write to Foreign Secretary William Hague to ask why it was not intercepted.

The two men, aged 52 and 21 and believed to be of Pakistani origin, were arrested by Scotland Yard at separate addresses in Caernarfon, North Wales, on Friday.

Last night they were still being questioned at the maximum security Paddington Green police station in Central London.

The second bomb was found after staff at a sorting office in Lambeth, South London, notified police on Thursday.

'If the bombs had gone off, they would have had the potential to cause injury but they were very amateurish,' said a police source.

In 1982, a letter bomb sent by animal rights activists exploded in No 10, slightly burning one of Margaret Thatcher's staff.

2 Arrested After Explosives Sent To British Spy HQ  (AP, 8/1/2010)

LONDON — British police are questioning two men after a homemade parcel bomb was sent to the headquarters of the MI6 spy agency, and another was found at a London postal depot.

The men, aged 52 and 21, were arrested in Wales on explosives charges and being held Sunday at a London police station. They have not been charged.

The Metropolitan Police said a suspect package was found Wednesday "at a premises on Albert Embankment" — the location of Britain's foreign intelligence agency. Another device was intercepted at a postal sorting office.

The force said the packages had the potential to cause injury, but no one was hurt.

MI6's fortress-like headquarters is a London landmark. In 2000, it was slightly damaged in a rocket attack by Irish Republican Army dissidents.