Mail Security Training and Services

Investigators are offering up to $50,000 for information that leads to the arrests of the people involved in the heist. Anyone with any information is asked to call the U.S. Postal Inspection Service 24-hour toll free number at 877-876-2455 or the Cambridge police at 617-349-3370.

Officials said if you happened to be in the area of the Fayetteville Post Office Friday night and noticed something suspicious, please contact authorities in Fayette County.

"The vast majority of postal workers are honest, trustworthy people who do their jobs well," Rafael Medina said. "This is an isolated incident. When an employee violates the public trust, the Inspector General's Office is there to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."

Oregon Man Accused of Death Threat Letter To President Obama  (Oregon Statesman Journal, 1/29/2010)

New details about the case emerged Thursday as Anderson awaits trial on a federal charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Peifer declined to provide the Statesman Journal with a copy of the letter or reveal other specifics about the case.

"Those are matters of evidence that I cannot relay to you at this time," he wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. "I can say no one else has been charged in connection with this incident and we do not anticipate any further charges."

Anderson, 27, fled to Utah last summer after he escaped Aug. 15 from a fenced recreation yard at the state mental hospital in Salem. He escaped by slipping through a hole he cut in the fence with bolt cutters smuggled into the psychiatric facility.

Police think Anderson traveled to Utah in a vehicle driven by his girlfriend.

The day after he escaped, police collared Anderson at a relative's residence in Ogden, Utah. Syracuse is about 10 miles southwest of Ogden.

Until recently, Anderson had been incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. He faces a Marion County escape charge stemming from last summer's breakout from the psychiatric hospital.

Anderson was committed to the state hospital in May 2005, when he was found guilty but insane in connection with Douglas County charges of theft, criminal mischief, burglary and a probation violation.

Authorities said Anderson now is being held in federal custody. He made his first federal court appearance this week. His trial date was scheduled for March 30.

A person can be charged with threatening to kill the president without the threat being received by the White House, Peifer said.

The New York Times reported in a December story that there was "a spike of threats against Mr. Obama before his inauguration and in the early months of his presidency, raising deep concerns inside the Secret Service and at the White House.

"The threats have leveled off in recent months, officials said, and Mr. Obama now receives about the same as his two most recent predecessors. But several officials said they took no solace that the volume of reports had receded because it was the nature of the threats that concern them and because the factors behind the increase remain — Mr. Obama's race prime among them."

HazMat Called to Missouri Courthouse When Man Mistakenly Sends Drugs With Taxes  (KTVI, 1/28/2010)

The lockdown on the building has been lifted. No word on any charges being filed in the case.

NY Mail Carrier Charged With $123,000 In Mail Thefts  (Westchester Journal News, 1/28/2010)

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. — A letter carrier who has worked in this town for the past nine years has been charged with stealing cash, gift cards, debit and credit cards from the very mail she was paid to deliver, authorities said Wednesday.

Tensy May Smith, 52, was being held Wednesday in Westchester County jail with bail set at $50,000 after her arrest Monday in a sting operation. The 15-year U.S. Postal Service employee faces a charge of second-degree grand larceny, a felony.

Authorities say they suspect she used stolen debit, credit and gift cards to buy hundreds of items, including clothing, recreational equipment and electronics, online and from stores throughout Westchester County.

If something had value, it was taken, Pound Ridge Police Chief David M. Ryan said.

Police and postal inspectors executed a search warrant at her residence, where they recovered hundreds of these items in addition to a large volume of mail and property taken from Pound Ridge residents and elsewhere in Westchester. Ryan said the value of the theft was $123,693 but estimated it could go as high as $250,000.

After receiving complaints about stolen and opened mail, and missing credit and debit cards, Pound Ridge police and postal inspectors arrested Smith in a sting Monday. Using an address that authorities think she had targeted previously, police and postal inspectors found her in the act of stealing from the mail, Ryan said.

At the time of Smith's arrest, police said, they found her in possession of more than $70,000 in stolen property from that day's mail deliveries alone.

Ryan, who praised the cooperation his department got from the USPS Office of Inspector General and the District Attorney's Office, said police would now try to identify the alleged victims.

"I wonder how many kids didn't get Christmas cards from their grandmothers this year," Ryan said.

New Hampshire Building Will Undergo Anthrax Decontamination  (New Hampshire Union Leader, 1/27/2010)

CONCORD, NH – The state has developed a decontamination plan for the United Campus Ministry Building in Durham linked to the anthrax poisoning of a Strafford County woman.

Five rooms in the building will need to be cleaned by a company trained to do such work before the state will allow the building to be reoccupied, said Jodi Dionne-Odem of the Department of Health and Human Services today.

She said she expects it will take several weeks to clean the building, but did not have a cost estimate, saying several companies are working on bids now. The campus ministry will be responsible for paying for the cleaning, she said.

Dionne-Odem said of the 75 samples taken from the building six tested positive for anthrax, two from African drums used in a drumming circle in December thought to be the source of the woman’s infection, and six low-level environmental samples.

Dionne-Odem said the woman, who remains in a Massachusetts hospital, continues to improve and is now able to answer questions.

She said the woman has been able to confirm what health officials learned from others.

The woman’s infection is the nation’s first case of gastrointestinal anthrax, instead of the more well-known forms that enter through the lungs or open wounds on the skin.

US Called Unready To Counter Major Biological Attack  (Washington Post, 1/27/2010)

WASHINGTON - More than eight years after the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, the United States is still unprepared to respond to a major biological terror attack, a congressionally appointed commission said yesterday.

Overall, the panel’s report gave the federal government mixed grades for protecting Americans from the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

The report, which measured government’s performance in 17 areas, gave the White House and Congress “F’’ grades, saying they have failed to build a rapid-response capability for dealing with bioterror threats or provide adequate oversight over security and intelligence agencies.

The bipartisan panel cited the government’s uneven response to the swine flu epidemic as evidence of a lack of preparedness for a large-scale crisis, adding that the blame for the failures is shared across administrations and branches of government.

“Each of the last three administrations has been slow to recognize and respond to the biothreat,’’ said Bob Graham, a Democrat and former senator from Florida, who cochaired the panel along with Jim Talent, a Republican former senator from Missouri. “But we no longer have the luxury of a slow learning curve when we know Al Qaeda is interested in bioweapons.’’

Within hours of the report’s release, the Obama administration revealed plans to fill gaps in the nation’s public health defenses with a series of initiatives to be announced in tonight’s State of the Union address. The proposals, which administration officials said had been in the works well before the report’s findings were known, will seek to speed up the delivery of medicine in the event of a major attack, addressing one of the principal shortcomings identified by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

The president’s speech will include a “call to action’’ to various government leaders to redesign the way medical countermeasures are mass produced, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. “The goal is a national capability for the rapid, reliable, and affordable production of an array of medical countermeasures against public health threats.’’

In its report, the bipartisan commission did give “A’’ grades for the Obama administration’s reorganization of the National Security Council to better deal with threats related to weapons of mass destruction. It also applauded government programs that secured dangerous viruses and bacteria.

The panel had warned in its initial report 13 months ago that a major attack using weapons of mass destruction somewhere in the world was “more likely than not’’ by 2013, unless significant steps were taken.

The commission released its report card a day after a separate study warned that Al Qaeda has not abandoned its ambition to use weapons of mass destruction against Western targets. The report, by a former senior CIA official who led the agency’s hunt for weapons of mass destruction, portrays Al Qaeda’s leaders as determined and patient, willing to wait years to acquire the kind of weapons that could inflict widespread casualties.

The former official, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, draws on his knowledge of classified case files to argue that Al Qaeda has been far more sophisticated in its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction than is commonly believed, taking parallel paths to acquiring weapons and forging alliances with groups that can offer resources and expertise.

“If Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants had been interested in . . . small-scale attacks, there is little doubt they could have done so now,’’ Mowatt-Larssen writes in the report released by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Mowatt-Larssen, a 23-year CIA veteran, led the agency’s internal task force on Al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later was named director of intelligence and counterintelligence for the Energy Department.

His report warns that bin Laden’s threat to attack the West with weapons of mass destruction is not “empty rhetoric’’ but a top strategic goal for an organization that seeks the economic ruin of the United States and its allies to hasten the overthrow of pro-Western governments in the Islamic world.

He cites patterns in Al Qaeda’s 15-year pursuit of weapons of mass destruction that reflect a deliberateness and sophistication in assembling the needed expertise and equipment. He describes how Al Qaeda’s number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, hired two scientists - a Pakistani microbiologist sympathetic to Al Qaeda and a Malaysian Army captain trained in the United States - to work separately on efforts to build a biological weapons lab and acquire deadly strains of anthrax bacteria. Al Qaeda achieved both goals before September 2001 but apparently had not successfully weaponized the anthrax spores when the US-led invasion of Afghanistan forced the scientists to flee, Mowatt-Larssen said.

“This was far from run-of-the-mill terrorism,’’ he said in an interview. “The program was highly compartmentalized, at the highest level of the organization. It was methodical, and it was professional.’’

White Powder Mailed To Syracuse Area High School  (Post Standard, 1/27/2010)

GEDDES, N.Y. -- "They sealed off the area where the letter was opened..."

No chances were taken. When Bishop Ludden Principal Curtis Czarniak opened a standard white envelope addressed to the school Monday morning, he never expected he would have to call the authorities.

"Our principal received a letter in the mail that upon opening it, contained a suspicious white substance," said Christopher Mominey, Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Syracuse. "At that time, he immediately called upon his assistant principal. They kicked the emergency plan into place. They called the Geddes Police and involved the police immediately."

Geddes Police Investigator Chris Lukins says the letter was handwritten. But what it said can't be revealed at this time. The powder it was covered in, unknown. Mominey says the principal was the only one that came into contact with the envelope and that students were never in danger.

"The ventilation in this particular part of the building was off. Our buildings are all steam heat so there is no ventilation running in the wintertime. There's no forced air. So that's why we knew that students were not in danger," he said.

Once the principal realized the possible danger of the contents, he took no time to alert his vice principal, his staff, the student body and parents.

"We're fortunate to be able to contact our parents immediately with our reverse 911 system, so we called them immediately and let them know what was going on and we feel like it was handled very, very well by the local principal," said Mominey.

Geddes Police are working with postal inspectors and the FBI. They say they don't want to reveal too many details at this time as to avoid the likes of a copy cat.

NY Man Faces Charges After Threatening Postal Workers  (WETM, 1/25/2010)

Elmira, NY- An Elmira man could be facing federal charges after police say he made threats to Elmira postal workers Friday night.

Police identified the man as 50 year old Philip Vancise, of Elmira.

The President of the Postal Union says Vancise made death threats over the phone to employees at the Sullivan Street facility.

Elmira Police are not getting into specifics of those threats.

But they have met with postal inspectors to see if federal charges could be filed.

Vancise was arrested Friday in Elmira and charged with aggravated harassment.

Police say Vancise has a connection with a person who is currently employed at the facility.

But they wouldn't say what that connection was.

Union President John Dahl says he believes workers are mad about losing their jobs.

John Dahl says, "People are rightfully upset because they're not given their choices on where they're going to go. There are some negotiations going on to try to get them into Binghamton, but nothing's been finalized. I can only assume this has to do with nobody knowing what's going on."

Mail processing operations in Elmira are in the process of being transferred to Rochester.

55 employees received notice they would be transferred out of the area.

Vancise was arraigned in Elmira City Court and released on $350 bail.

Canadian Mail Carrier Stashes 28,000 Letters Because of Bad Knees  (UPI, 1/26/2010)

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Canada-- A Canadian mailman in Saskatchewan received a six-month conditional sentence for stashing up to 28,000 letters in his garage because of sore knees.

David Mah, 33, pleaded guilty in July to the charge of mail theft and was sentenced in Saskatoon Monday to the country's largest-ever mail theft, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.

The discovery was made when Mah moved out of his rented house in 2008. When the landlord opened the locked garage, he found it full of bags and boxes of as many as 28,000 pieces of mail sent between 2001 and 2008.

Mah worked as a casual, or fill-in, letter carrier before being hired full-time during that period, the court heard.

He told the court he withheld mail on days when his knees hurt too much to walk.

Among the items postal inspectors found were credit cards, drivers licenses and tax returns, the newspaper said.

Canada Post initially said it would attempt to deliver the letters after sending them to British Columbia to be cleaned. However, because many were covered with mold and some were beginning to rot, they were deemed too hazardous to handle and destroyed, the newspaper said.

Mah's conditional sentence also included an order to perform 100 hours of community service, the judge said.

Postal Employee in Utica, NY Sentenced for Mail Theft  (Empire News, 1/26/2010)

UTICA - U.S. Postal Employee Christa Koagel, 29, of Parish, was sentenced in United States District Court in Utica, to three years probation in connection with her guilty plea to the felony offense of theft of mail by a postal service employee.  As part of her sentence, the defendant is required to pay restitution to the United States Postal Service and sixteen other identified victims of the theft in the amount of $1,121 and a special assessment of $100 to the court.

On September 30, Koagel, who worked at the Central Square post office, pled guilty and admitted that she stole U.S. Currency and gift cards from U.S. mail that she was supposed to deliver. 

The investigation of Koagel began in December of 2008, when Special Agents of the USPSOIG began receiving complaints from customers about undelivered mail.

Former Canada Post Letter Carrier Avoids Jail Time In Massive Mail Theft  (The Star Phoenix, 1/26/2010)

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada-- The largest recorded mail theft in Canada netted a former postal employee a six-month conditional sentence Monday in Saskatoon provincial courtThe largest recorded mail theft in Canada netted a former postal employee a six-month conditional sentence Monday in Saskatoon provincial court.

David Mah, 33, was a relief carrier for Canada Post for most of the period between 2001 and 2008 when he stashed between 17,100 and 22,800 letters in the garage of his rented house, Crown prosecutor Frank Impey said at a sentencing hearing.

"The breach of trust to the employer and the public was unlike any other in the history of Canada. . . . The numbers are staggering," Impey said.

Mah was also ordered to do 100 hours of community service.

Impey gave Judge Bria Huculak photographs of 57 clear plastic boxes, each holding 300 to 400 pieces of addressed mail.

The mail was sent to Vancouver to be cleaned but the process was unsuccessful -- the mouldy mail was deemed a health risk to Canada Post employees and was destroyed, Impey said.

The Crown could not say exactly how many letters went undelivered because many had deteriorated in the damp garage.

Police found six heavy canvas bags of mail, two garbage bags full and nine boxes full. Un-addressed mail, such as flyers and mass mailouts, were thrown away and not counted, making it impossible to say exactly how many pieces of mail went undelivered.

Some of the canvas bags were so rotted, their contents fell out of their envelopes, including numerous plastic cards, such as credit cards, bank cards, health cards, treaty cards, telephone calling cards and shoppers' points cards.

Mah was a part-time, casual letter carrier for Canada Post when he sometimes stashed the bags and bundles in his garage.

His lawyer, Linda Wood, said Mah suffered pain in his knees and stashed the mail on days when the pain was too great to work.

Mah operated a taikwondo school for six years, but Wood said he no longer competes and demonstrated only grappling because of the condition of his knees.

Although Canada Post has an obligation to provide an alternate job to employees who are physically unable to perform their duties, Mah didn't have that protection when he began as a casual employee, Wood said.

He sometimes sorted through the mail and delivered letters he deemed to be important. Envelopes from Canada Revenue Agency were among those that were not delivered.

Mah had already been stashing mail sporadically for five years by the time he was hired as a full-time carrier in 2006. After a year with Canada Post he was moved to an inside job because of his bad knees, court heard.

There were never any complaints about missing mail, possibly because Mah was not the regular carrier, Impey said.

When he moved out of the house in 2008, the landlord broke a lock off the garage door and discovered the stolen mail.

"The integrity of the Canadian postal system depends of the honesty of its employees," Impey said.

Mah was immediately fired.

In a pre-sentence report, Mah was asked what he would do in the future to avoid committing such a crime, to which he responded, "Not be so lazy in the future."

Mah always intended to finish delivering the letters and never used the mail for his personal benefit, Wood said.

Huculak noted Mah did benefit because he got paid for work he didn't do.

He was under tremendous stress and the fact his father is a proud postal employee added to his shame, Wood said. Mah had no criminal record and pleaded guilty and saved the Crown the cost of a trial, she said.

Wood asked for a conditional discharge for Mah, but Huculak said that would be inappropriate.

Reward Offered In University of California “Black Death” Threat Letter Investigation  (Orange County Register, 1/25/2010)

Irvine, CA--The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says it will give a $10,000 reward “for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for mailing threatening letters” to five UC Irvine employees in early January.

Each of the letters contained a suspicious white powder and the words “Black Death.” Investigators determined that the powder was harmless, and no employees were injured.

Postal inspectors said in announcing the reward that, “The letters were mailed from Idaho around Dec. 21.” There were comparatively few people on campus at the time and the letters were not opened until the winter quarter resumed in January.

The USPIS said today, “Anyone with information, is urged to contact the United States Postal Inspection Service 24-hour National Law Enforcement Communication Center at 877-876-2455, select option 2. Callers may remain anonymous.

“The Postal Inspection Service, the University of California Irvine Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have joined forces in the investigation and continue to follow-up on leads provided by the public.

“Sending threats and hoaxes through the U.S. Mail is a federal offense. Individuals responsible for mailing threatening communications may be fined and imprisoned up to 20 years (Title 18 USC 876.) Individuals responsible for conveying false or misleading information or hoaxes may be fined or imprisoned five years (Title 18 USC 1038.)

“Postal Inspectors have the expertise to trace items sent through the mail and 200 years experience in this type of investigation. Postal Inspectors trained as Dangerous Mail Investigations Specialists use state-of-the-art screening equipment to respond to reports of suspicious substances in the mail to determine whether the substances are hazardous and could pose a threat to the public.

“Postal Inspectors advise you follow these steps if you encounter a suspicious letter or package:

• Isolate suspicious items and secure the immediate area.

• Note any writing or markings on the outside of the item, without disturbing it.

• Contact Postal Inspectors and, if anyone is having medical problems or if smoke or vapors are present, also call 911.

“If you have information about anyone using the U.S. Mail to commit a crime, call U.S. Postal Inspectors at 1-877-876-2455, select option 2.”

Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece Says 2001 Anthrax Attacks Remain Unsolved  (Wall St. Journal, 1/24/2010)

The FBI has disproved its main theory about how the anthrax spores were weaponized during the anthrax attacks of 2001.

The investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks ended as far as the public knew on July 29, 2008, with the death of Bruce Ivins, a senior biodefense researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Md. The cause of death was an overdose of the painkiller Tylenol. No autopsy was performed, and there was no suicide note.

Less than a week after his apparent suicide, the FBI declared Ivins to have been the sole perpetrator of the 2001 Anthrax attacks, and the person who mailed deadly anthrax spores to NBC, the New York Post, and Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. These attacks killed five people, closed down a Senate office building, caused a national panic, and nearly paralyzed the postal system.

The FBI's six-year investigation was the largest inquest in its history, involving 9,000 interviews, 6,000 subpoenas, and the examination of tens of thousands of photocopiers, typewriters, computers and mailboxes. Yet it failed to find a shred of evidence that identified the anthrax killer—or even a witness to the mailings. With the help of a task force of scientists, it found a flask of anthrax that closely matched—through its genetic markers—the anthrax used in the attack.

This flask had been in the custody of Ivins, who had published no fewer than 44 scientific papers over three decades as a microbiologist and who was working on developing vaccines against anthrax. As custodian, he provided samples of it to other scientists at Fort Detrick, the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and other facilities involved in anthrax research.

According to the FBI's reckoning, over 100 scientists had been given access to it. Any of these scientists (or their co-workers) could have stolen a minute quantity of this anthrax and, by mixing it into a media of water and nutrients, used it to grow enough spores to launch the anthrax attacks.

Consequently, Ivins, who was assisting the FBI with its investigation, as well as all the scientists who had access to the anthrax, became suspects in the investigation. They were intensely questioned, given polygraph examinations, and played off against one another in variations of the prisoner's dilemma game. Their labs, computers, phones, homes and personal effects were scrutinized for possible clues.

As the so-called Amerithrax investigation proceeded, the FBI ran into frustrating dead ends, such as its relentless five-year pursuit of Steven Hatfill, which ended with an apology in 2007 and Mr. Hatfill receiving a $5.8 million settlement from the U.S. government as compensation. Another scientist, Perry Mikesell, became so stressed by the FBI's games that he began to drink heavily and died of a heart attack in October 2002.

Eventually, the FBI zeroed in on Ivins. Not only did he have access to the anthrax, but FBI agents suspected he had subtly misled them into their Hatfill fiasco. A search of his email turned up pornography and bizarre emails which, though unrelated to anthrax, suggested that he was a deeply disturbed individual.

The FBI turned the pressure up on him, isolating him at work and forcing him to spend what little money he had on lawyers to defend himself. He became increasingly stressed. His therapist reported that Ivins seemed obsessed with the notion of revenge and even homicide. Then came his suicide (which, as Eric Nadler and Bob Coen show in their documentary "The Anthrax War," was one of four suicides among American and British biowarfare researchers in past years). Since Ivins's odd behavior closely fit the FBI's profile of the mad scientist it had been hunting, his suicide provided an opportunity to close the case. So it held a congressional briefing in which it all but pronounced Ivins the anthrax killer.

But there was still a vexing problem—silicon.

Silicon was used in the 1960s to weaponize anthrax. Through an elaborate process, anthrax spores were coated with the substance to prevent them from clinging together so as to create a lethal aerosol. But since weaponization was banned by international treaties, research anthrax no longer contains silicon, and the flask at Fort Detrick contained none.

Yet the anthrax grown from it had silicon, according to the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. This silicon explained why, when the letters to Sens. Leahy and Daschle were opened, the anthrax vaporized into an aerosol. If so, then somehow silicon was added to the anthrax. But Ivins, no matter how weird he may have been, had neither the set of skills nor the means to attach silicon to anthrax spores.

At a minimum, such a process would require highly specialized equipment that did not exist in Ivins's lab—or, for that matter, anywhere at the Fort Detrick facility. As Richard Spertzel, a former biodefense scientist who worked with Ivins, explained in a private briefing on Jan. 7, 2009, the lab didn't even deal with anthrax in powdered form, adding, "I don't think there's anyone there who would have the foggiest idea how to do it." So while Ivins's death provided a convenient fall guy, the silicon content still needed to be explained.

The FBI's answer was that the anthrax contained only traces of silicon, and those, it theorized, could have been accidently absorbed by the spores from the water and nutrient in which they were grown. No such nutrients were ever found in Ivins's lab, nor, for that matter, did anyone ever see Ivins attempt to produce any unauthorized anthrax (a process which would have involved him using scores of flasks.) But since no one knew what nutrients had been used to grow the attack anthrax, it was at least possible that they had traces of silicon in them that accidently contaminated the anthrax.

Natural contamination was an elegant theory that ran into problems after Congressman Jerry Nadler pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller in September 2008 to provide the House Judiciary Committee with a missing piece of data: the precise percentage of silicon contained in the anthrax used in the attacks.

The answer came seven months later on April 17, 2009. According to the FBI lab, 1.4% of the powder in the Leahy letter was silicon. "This is a shockingly high proportion," explained Stuart Jacobson, an expert in small particle chemistry. "It is a number one would expect from the deliberate weaponization of anthrax, but not from any conceivable accidental contamination."

Nevertheless, in an attempt to back up its theory, the FBI contracted scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Labs in California to conduct experiments in which anthrax is accidently absorbed from a media heavily laced with silicon. When the results were revealed to the National Academy Of Science in September 2009, they effectively blew the FBI's theory out of the water.

The Livermore scientists had tried 56 times to replicate the high silicon content without any success. Even though they added increasingly high amounts of silicon to the media, they never even came close to the 1.4% in the attack anthrax. Most results were an order of magnitude lower, with some as low as .001%.

What these tests inadvertently demonstrated is that the anthrax spores could not have been accidently contaminated by the nutrients in the media. "If there is that much silicon, it had to have been added," Jeffrey Adamovicz, who supervised Ivins's work at Fort Detrick, wrote to me last month. He added that the silicon in the attack anthrax could have been added via a large fermentor—which Battelle and other labs use" but "we did not use a fermentor to grow anthrax at USAMRIID [and] We did not have the capability to add silicon compounds to anthrax spores."

If Ivins had neither the equipment or skills to weaponize anthrax with silicon, then some other party with access to the anthrax must have done it. Even before these startling results, Sen. Leahy had told Director Mueller, "I do not believe in any way, shape, or manner that [Ivins] is the only person involved in this attack on Congress."

When I asked a FBI spokesman this month about the Livermore findings, he said the FBI was not commenting on any specifics of the case, other than those discussed in the 2008 briefing (which was about a year before Livermore disclosed its results). He stated: "The Justice Department and the FBI continue working to conclude the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks. We anticipate closing the case in the near future."

So, even though the public may be under the impression that the anthrax case had been closed in 2008, the FBI investigation is still open—and, unless it can refute the Livermore findings on the silicon, it is back to square one.

Indian Embassy In Italy Gets IED in Mail  (Times of India, 1/25/2010)

In an intriguing incident, Indian embassy in Italy received an IED in a postage packet prompting stepping up of security at the mission.

The packet which had the sender’s name as LTTE from Italy, was received at the on January 20, ambassador Arif Khan said.

External affairs minister S M Krishna described the incident as “a very serious development”.

Feds Seek Culprit Who Sent 'Black Death' Letters To UC Irvine Faculty  (AP, 1/25/2010)

IRVINE, CA— Postal inspectors are trying to determine who mailed a series of threatening letters to faculty members at the University of California, Irvine.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said today up to $10,000 would be rewarded for tips leading to the conviction of the sender.

The letters were mailed from Idaho around Dec. 21 to five faculty members. Each contained white powder with words "Black Death" on the letter. Officials have not publicly identified the powder but say it was harmless.

Postal Inspection spokeswoman Renee Focht declined to provide any additional information.

Sending threats and hoaxes through the mail is a federal offense.

Commentary: Scares Caused By Suspicious Letters Exaggerate Dangers  (Sphere, 1/22/2010)

'Suspicious' FedEx Package Causing Evacuation Was A Bicycle Light  (The Times-Standard, 1/22/2010)

Arcata, CA--The suspicious package that led to the evacuation of several homes and businesses in downtown Arcata turned out to be a bicycle light being returned to the place it was purchased, the Arcata Police Department said this afternoon.

Arcata Police Sgt. Ron Sligh said security from FexEx, the store that called in the package as suspicious, was able to locate the man who dropped it off through his prepaid information. An employee at the FedEx Office store made the initial call to police on Wednesday, saying the parcel had a strong chemical odor.

Through the investigation, officers found out that the device was a rechargeable bicycle light called a “Downlow Glow,” and that the customer was returning it to the Berkeley business from which it was purchased. Online pictures of the “Downlow Glow” show two cylindrical neon lights attached to a battery, wires, a battery charger and some fastening devices.

One of the factors that raised suspicions about the package was the fake street on the return address.

The sender told investigators that the fake street was the default address that came up while paying for the postage online. The sender said he just didn't change it.

From about 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday the even side of the 1600 block G Street was evacuated while authorities dealt with the package. A bomb-handling robot from the Humboldt County Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team was called in and put the package in a metal box on a

trailer.

It was then driven to private property in the hills and exploded.

Florida Postal Worker Sentenced for Stealing Mail  (WCTV, 1/21/2010)

Tallahassee--A postal carrier accused of stealing gift cards out of the mail was sentenced in federal court today.

April Taylor plead guilty to three counts of mail theft and today was sentenced to three years probation and six months of house arrest.

The now-fired mail carrier from Sopchoppy was indicted for stealing three gift cards from mail on her route.

"She apologized to the court for the ... what she's caused other people and she's lost her job which is tough in these economic times. She's struggling," said Taylor's attorney, William Clark.

Taylor had no comment as she left the federal courthouse this morning.

The judge ordered her to pay restitution, undergo drug counseling and continue working toward her G-E-D.

California Authorities Investigate FedEx Package Containing “Suspicious Mechanical Device”  (The Times Standard, 1/22/2010)

Arcata, CA--The Arcata Police Department on Thursday said it is continuing the investigation into a suspicious package that led to the evacuation of residents and businesses in North Town a day earlier, describing it as containing a “suspicious mechanical device” and asking for help in identifying the man who dropped it off at the FedEx Office store.

A surveillance photo from the G Street store shows a white male with long hair and a beard dropping off the shoe box-sized parcel sometime before 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, when an employee called police, saying the package had a strong chemical odor.

”It was some sort of device,” said Arcata Police Sgt. Ron Sligh after the remnants were returned to the department by a Humboldt County Sheriff's Office bomb technician on Thursday. Sligh and others will analyze what remains to determine if it was a bomb.

He said other details about what was found in the package were not going to be released due to the ongoing investigation. Sligh said it did not contain marijuana. The Humboldt County Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team detonated it on private property east of Arcata on Wednesday night.

The APD said an officer responded to the store after the call and found that a FedEx store employee had placed the parcel in a plastic bag and removed it from the store. Due to its suspicious nature, the package was placed in the alley behind the business and a one-square-block perimeter in the area of G and 16th streets was set up.

The package was prepaid, had a return address with a nonexistent street and number and was addressed to the Berkeley area. Authorities did not release the addresses.

The Arcata fire department responded, along with personnel from the Eureka Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team and the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team.

The team's bomb technicians used a robot to X-ray the package. The X-ray showed that the package contained a suspicious looking mechanical device.

A bomb robot was then used to move the package to a bomb trailer and the device was transported out of the city.

Just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, the streets were opened back up.

January 22^nd--On This Day: Unabomber Ted Kaczynski Pleads Guilty, Receives Life Sentence  (Dulcinea, 1/22/2010)

On Jan. 22, 1998, Ted Kaczynski—aka the Unabomber—evaded the death penalty on a plea bargain.Kaczynski Agrees to Life in Prison.

Ted Kaczynski sent his first mail bomb in 1978 to a university professor in Chicago, injuring a security guard who opened it. Between 1978 and 1995, he would send out 16 mail bombs to universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring 24. The FBI formed a task force in 1979 code-named “UNABOM,” beginning a 17-year search for the known as the “Unabomber.”

In the mid-90s, Kaczynski promised to cease his terror campaign in exchange for the publication of his 35,000-word manifesto, a polemic against the post-industrial world. The Washington Post, with the help of The New York Times, agreed to do so in 1995.

It was the printing of the manifesto that led to Kaczynski’s capture, as his brother David Kaczynski and his wife recognized his writing and alerted the authorities. The FBI tracked Kaczynski to a remote shack in the woods of Montana. FBI agents arrested him on April 3, 1996 and found his shack full of bomb-making materials and anti-technology writings.

Federal psychiatrist Dr. Sally Johnson diagnosed Kaczynski with paranoid schizophrenia, promoting the decision to sentence him to life rather than have him executed. Kaczynski continued to claim he was of sound mind and asked to defend himself in court.

On Jan. 22, the defense agreed that Kaczynski was fit to stand trial. However, U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell denied Kaczynski’s appeal to represent himself. Later that day, the defense reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors for Kaczynski to receive life in prison without parole. “The Unabomber's career is over,” declared prosecutor Robert Cleary.

Theodore Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942, and raised in a normal middle-class household in suburban Chicago. A gifted student, Kaczynski graduated high school at age 16 and attended Harvard. A social loner, he became increasingly distant during his time at Harvard and later Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. at age 25.

Unable to form meaningful relationships with women, he questioned his sexuality and even considered a sex change. In 1971, he and his brother bought a plot of land in Lincoln, Mont., where he would build a shack by hand and live there for much of the next three decades. It was in this shack that Kaczynski wrote his manifesto and built bombs.

“His writings describe him thinking seriously about planning to murder a scientist in 1971,” wrote Dr. Johnson in her psychological evaluation. “During the later 1970's, he began experimenting to create explosive devices that could succeed in killing individuals. He also describes thoughts of harming people whom he felt had humiliated him.”

Kaczynski is currently serving his sentence in AZX Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado that also holds Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols and Olympic Park bomber Eric Randolph. In an Oct. 18, 1999, prison interview with Time columnist Stephen J. Dubner, he claimed that he is not insane, and said of his brother David, “I think his sense of guilt is outweighed by his satisfaction at having finally gotten revenge on big brother.”

Dubner wrote, “Speaking with him, one is struck not by the burning anger that characterized his Una-bomber campaign but by a satisfaction that the world, at long last, is treating him like a valuable human being.”

Bomb Scare in Northern California: Portions Of Arcata's North Town Evacuated  (The Times-Standard, 1/20/2010)

ARCATA, CA -- A suspicious package -- just a little bigger than a shoebox -- that was dropped off at Kinko's this afternoon and led to evacuations throughout North Town, is now in the hands of the Humboldt County bomb squad, which will take the package to a disposal site to determine if it is an explosive device.

The one-square-block portion of downtown Arcata has been reopened so that residents and business owners and employees can return to their properties. Authorities have X-rayed the parcel, and still believe it to be suspicious, according to officials on scene at about 4:30 p.m. The affected area was on F and G streets in Arcata, between 16th and 17th streets.

The bomb squad was deployed there late this afternoon. After examining the package, they too determined it suspicious and widened the safety perimeter, officials with the Arcata Fire Protection District said.

Impacted businesses included Hey Juan Burritos, Hutchins Grocery and Wildflower Café, among others.

The first call came in to the AFPD at around 1:17 p.m.

The package is marked with a fictitious return address and was apparently destined for the Berkeley area. Officials say they have surveillance footage of the person who dropped the package off.

Seven Dead, 14 Hospitalised... Who Is Infecting Scotland’s Heroin With Anthrax?  (Herald, 1/17/2010)

Glasgow,Scotland--It is a health scare which has seen seven people die in Scotland so far with another 14 hospitalised, yet there is no panic in the streets, few headlines and little fearful talk in homes or in offices.

The reason for the silence? The victims are all drug addicts, a faceless heroin-injecting underclass, who few care about. In the last month, anthrax-infected heroin has killed four people in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, two in Tayside and one in the Forth Valley.

Although it’s likely that the heroin was infected with anthrax somewhere en route from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, there is no way that police and medics can rule out that the drug was deliberately infected once it arrived in the UK.

The big problem facing police and doctors struggling to deal with the anthrax scare is that they just don’t know how, where, when, why or at whose hands the heroin became contaminated.

Was it as a result of the heroin accidentally coming into contact with infected farm material while being stored or in transit from the Middle East to Britain? Was it because a middle man unwittingly used a contaminated bulking agent? Was it done maliciously? And if so, by whom? A callous dealer? Someone targeting Glasgow’s junkies? Even the most far-fetched theories can’t be ruled out.

Users are concerned, but not concerned enough to stop using Patricia Tracey

The country’s leading microbiologist, Professor Hugh Pennington, points to the distinct possibility of the anthrax coming into contact with the heroin in the country of origin, yet he also believes that it is possible that the anthrax could have been maliciously added to the heroin inside Britain.

“In the UK there used to be problem with anthrax-infected imports, particularly wool from areas east of Turkey,” he said. “It is no great surprise that it would be prevalent around the areas in Afghanistan where heroin is processed. You can’t completely rule out maliciousness as theoretically – people would be able to get hold of anthrax in the UK, although you’d need a specialist microbiological knowledge to do so.”

Police are investigating the labyrinthine heroin supply chain, hoping that if they identify the source of the infection, they will be able to stop further deaths. Find the supplier, the theory goes, and you find and therefore save the customers. But the shadowy drug routes from Afghanistan to Scotland are difficult to trace and health officials are braced for more anthrax cases.

Some of the main theories about how anthrax spores came to contaminate the heroin, include the possibility that bonemeal, which is sometimes used to cut – ie, bulk up – heroin batches came from diseased animals.

Another theory suggests that the equipment used to manufacture the drug was contaminated. Some peasant producers mix raw opium with water and chemicals in an oil barrel before heating the mixture over a large fire. These barrels may have previously been used to carry diseased meat, cattle feed or even manure.

Professor Graeme Pearson is a former director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), the country’s leading crime-fighting unit, and is now with Glasgow University’s Unit for the Study of Serious Organised Crime. He has investigated the heroin production process and says he is surprised infections are so rare.

He said: “I’ve seen videos of heroin production and it’s a horrible and unhygienic process. It’s surprising that this doesn’t happen more often.”

Anthrax exists as small, hardy spores that can lay dormant for up to 100 years. If these spores are breathed in, eaten or come into contact with skin, they cause an infection.

Dr Colin Ramsay, consultant eEpidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland, has been following the anthrax infections ever since the first victim was identified.

He said: “The current hypothesis remains that the anthrax cases are linked to contamination of either heroin or a cutting agent.”

While the police and medics remain temporarily at a loss, it may be thought that Scotland’s addicts themselves might be doing something to save themselves from infection. Sadly, that is far from the case.

Heroin addicts, experts warn, are too in thrall to their next fix to heed the risks of shooting up with anthrax-infected heroin.

Patricia Tracey, from Glasgow Drug Crisis Centre, claimed that it was “unrealistic” to expect addicts to listen to public health warnings. “Users are concerned, but not concerned enough to stop using,” she warned.

The recent deaths have exposed the flaws in the Scottish Government’s drugs policy, Jolene Crawford, the head of pressure group Transform Drug Policy Foundation Scotland, claimed.

She said: “If it was contaminated beer that was killing these people there would be uproar. But there is no outrage.

“It is accepted that some heroin will be lethal because by prohibiting it we gift control to criminals. Were opium and heroin to be legally available via regulated pharmacies and doctors’ surgeries, we would not have to see our children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters die unnecessarily in this way.”

University of California-Irvine Gives Out Baggies For Suspicious Mail  (Orange County Register,  1/6/2010)

Irvine, CA--UC Irvine today distributed 1,000 Ziploc bags to 225 mail stations so that staff, faculty and students would have something to put suspicious mail in if any more is discovered on campus. Since Monday, four UCI employees received envelopes containing an unidentified white powder and the words ‘Black Death.” Authorities tested all of the powder and determined that is harmless. But UCI Police and other authorities are investigating why someone has been sending threatening mail to employees, all four of whom are women from different parts of the main campus. The letters were mailed from an undisclosed location in Idaho. (Background story.)

UCI receives about 600,000 pieces of mail a year, ranging from routine letters to packages containing crickets, fruit flies and other small insects and animals used in research. The volume has dropped from about 10 million pieces of mail a year in the early 1990s due to the rise of email and other ways of electronically distributing documents.

The university received about 1,800 pieces of mail today, two of which arrived without a return address. (Neither were threatening items.) UCI routinely opens such mail in a reverse filter device that is designed to capture such things as powder and other unknown materials. The university has been doing this since late 2001, when anthrax was mailed to lawmakers and news organizations after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The anthrax killed five people and made almost 20 other people sick.

“If we get a suspicious letter campus police will come examine it, then the letter would be put into the filter,” says Penny White, director of  UCI’s Distribution and Document Center. “We also can X-ray small packages.”

Suspicious Letter At Boston Rehab Center Cleared by Bomb Squad  (West Roxbury Transcript, 1/19/2010)

Roslindale, MA --On January 15, around 9 a.m., police received a call for a suspicious letter at 1200 Centre St. Upon arrival, police spoke with security for the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, who said that a suspicious letter had been brought outside of the building and left for police to investigate.

It was a brown-colored envelope, which the bomb squad came to investigate. The bomb squad determined the letter was not harmful after it was X-rayed.

The envelope had been sent from a Dorchester address and contained holiday greeting cards. The envelope was brought back into Hebrew Rehab.

Bomb Squad Investigates Suspicious Package at New Jersey Governor’s Office  (Cherry Hill Courier Post, 1/15/2010)

West Deptford, NJ--Bomb investigators have determined a suspicious package delivered to acting Gov. Stephen Sweeney's West Deptford legislative office is nonthreatening, police said.

"The package has been determined to be not dangerous," state police spokesman Stephen Jones said.

Jones did not identify the contents of the package and said investigation into the threat was continuing.

Police were called to the 3rd District legislative office at Forest Parkway and Kings Highway after a man delivered the package to the building around 9 a.m., Jones said.

Jones said the man spoke with staffers when he delivered the package. The workers placed the package outside the building and called police.

Police have not released what the man told the staffers when delivering the package.

The area of Kings Highway surrounding the building was closed off around 11:30 a.m., according to West Deptford Police.

Sweeney is currently acting as governor while Gov. Jon Corzine is on vacation. Assemblyman John Burzichelli and Assemblywoman Celeste Riley also have offices in the Kings Highway building.

FBI File Discusses Mailed DeathThreats Against LDS Leader  (The Salt Lake Tribune, 1/15/2010)

Salt Lake City, UT--The envelope was post marked Jan. 8, 1990, and addressed to "First Presidency You Devils."

The handwritten letter inside discussed someone by name: Gordon B. Hinckley.

"You will never become president because I will kill you first," the letter read. Those last three words were written in large letters in the center of the page.

The death threat is recounted as part of a 432-page FBI file discussing the late LDS President Hinckley. The Salt Lake Tribune requested the file under the Freedom of Information Act after Hinckley's death almost two years ago. The FBI released it this month.

The documents also detail how in 1997 a Seattle man sent threatening letters to Hinckley and the University of Utah. The man wanted the university to forgive his $24,000 in student loans and demanded help from Hinckley.

LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter on Thursday acknowledged "occasional threats" against church leaders over the years.

"When they occur they are referred to law enforcement officials for proper follow-up," Trotter said in a statement. He declined further comment.

No arrest was made in the 1990 death threat. At the time, Hinckley was first counselor to LDS President Ezra Taft Benson.

The envelope, with its inflammatory recipient line, was post marked in Salt Lake City but did not have a return address, according to a photocopy included in the FBI file. It was mailed to church offices on South Temple.

The letter opens with, "You damn old Devils." Then the sender wrote "Hinkley" and a second name. The FBI redacted the second name, citing privacy concerns, but FBI documents say the second person also was a member of the LDS First Presidency.

That matches the description of Thomas S. Monson, who in 1990 was second counselor to Benson and today is the church's president.

Below the death threat, the sender wrote: "Shouldn't of cheated & etc / I GET YOU."

Church security contacted the FBI. An FBI report on the threat said agents in Salt Lake City, "felt strongly about this, and they would like to go to trial on this matter."

First the FBI had to arrest someone. Documents show church security suspected then-30-year-old Joseph Bressman, who harassed people at Brigham Young University-Hawaii and church offices in that state.

Bressman in 1988 and 1989 also had preached on Temple Square, claimed to be a prophet and distributed a manifesto there, according to a church security log given to the FBI. The log shows Salt Lake City police were called on multiple occasions to remove Bressman from the square and church facilities.

Three months after the threat, the FBI found Bressman in a jail in San Bruno, Calif., where Bressman was being held on suspicion of a strongarm robbery.

Bressman told FBI agents he did not send the letters. He repeated that denial last week in a telephone interview with The Tribune .

"I don't even know who that guy [Hinckley] is," Bressman told the newspaper. He also called the agents' interview with him an "unbelievably absurd" waste of taxpayer money.

The FBI file shows agents took handwriting samples from Bressman but an FBI technician was unable to match those samples to the threatening letter. Neither Bressman nor anyone else was charged with the threat. Bressman was convicted of the robbery charge in a California court.

Bressman said he had a drinking and cocaine problem during the time of his preaching and the robbery arrest.

Bressman said he is a Midwest native who came to Utah in the late 1980s because he heard it was called "the kingdom of Heaven." He began preaching on Temple Square, Bressman said, because he had questions after reading the Book of Mormon.

"I was just, 'Are you sure about this?' " Bressman said. "That was my whole attitude with the church."

Bressman still lives in California and installs window panes.

In the 1997 episode, Hinckley received a 21-page letter dated June 30, 1997. The sender, David Jay Hess, wanted Hinckley to lean on the U. to forgive his student loans.

"I am not making a threat. It is a promise," Hess wrote in a letter he did not sign. "We will take our frustration out of the head of Missionaries overseas. Eyes for an eye. That is in the bible.

"Call the police in Utah and tell them to back off. Once and for ever. I mean it. Back off."

Hess also made references to bombs detonating at General Conference and during the 2002 Olympics. According to the FBI documents, when he was arrested by federal agents in Seattle for the 1997 letters, Hess said one solution for his problems was to hold a classroom full of U. students hostage and kill each one.

Hess has a lengthy history of mental illness and sending threatening letters. An FBI background report on Hess said the Secret Service investigated him for threatening the president in 1983. He also was investigated by the FBI in Salt Lake City as a Unibomber suspect but was cleared. In 1988, Hess was arrested in Washington on suspicion of threatening a judge, but he was found incompetent to stand trial.

In the Hinckley case, a federal judge in Utah found Hess competent. Hess pleaded guilty to one count of sending a threat by mail and received a 32-month prison sentence.

Hess has a case pending in federal court in Utah again accusing him of sending threats through the mail. In that case, Hess is accused of mailing threats to a magistrate judge.

Hess currently is undergoing a psychological evaluation at a prison hospital in Missouri. His attorney did not return messages seeking comment.

Suspicious Letter and Powder Sent to Oregon Housing Authority  (Newberg Graphic, 1/15/2010)

McMINNVILLE, OR — The state Health Department gave an all-clear Wednesday after an envelope containing powder prompted fears of terrorism arrived at a Yamhill County agency.

   The envelope was sent to the Yamhill County Housing Authority, 135 N.E. Dunn Place. Employees called in a hazardous materials report to the McMinnville police and fire departments after the envelope was opened shortly before 11 a.m.

   Capt. Matt Scales, public information officer for the McMinnville police department, reported Wednesday that preliminary tests on the powder indicated it was not biologically active, but it will be observed in the lab for an additional 48 hours for complete confirmation.

   In 2001, letters containing spores of anthrax (a virulent bacteria) were mailed to several news media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others in what was believed to be an act of terror.

   Since that date, however, numerous hoaxes have been reported around the nation using common household substances.

   Employees of the housing authority have been allowed to return to work and police are continuing the investigation.

Pennsylvania Court Closed by Suspicious Powder Sent to Terrorize Judge  (Times Herald, 1/16/2010)

LIMERICK, PA — A Royersford man authorities allege intended to terrorize Walter F. Gadzicki’s court by sending an envelope containing an unknown white powdery substance to the court was arrested for terroristic threats Thursday.

William Diana, 47, of the 400 block of Walnut Street, was taken into police custody Thursday afternoon after a court clerk opened the letter containing the unknown substance and alerted police.

“Shortly after 1 p.m., a court employee was opening the correspondence when she opened the letter from (Diana), and a white granular substance fell from the envelope,” Limerick Police Chief William Albany said.

The court employee immediately took precautions, not knowing whether the substance could be dangerous or toxic, Albany said. The employee washed her hands, cleared the area where the substance was located and called police.

Albany said the court was closed to the public and Limerick Fire Company and the Montgomery County Hazardous Materials Response Team responded to the court office, located on West Ridge Pike. Officials conducted an examination of the substance and it was “found to be man-made and not a biological agent such as anthrax,” Albany said.

Although the investigation into the identity of the substance indicated it was not a danger to the person who opened the letter, or to anyone who came in contact with it, Albany said whether the substance was actually harmful was not the issue.

“It’s the same thing as yelling fire in a movie theater, even when there’s no fire,” Albany said. “Even if you put a harmless white powder in an envelope, your intent is to terrorize the person who opens that envelope.”

Albany said if the substance was found to be harmful, additional charges could follow.

Albany said Diana had prior dealings with the court, some of which police were “looking into.” Court records show charges against Diana were filed in Gadzicki’s court in May 2009 for harassment. Albany did not say whether police knew what may have instigated the mailing of the letter.

The letter, Albany said, rambled on; however, police had not immediately had the opportunity to read the letter in its entirety because it was covered in the white powdery substance.

Albany said police cleared the scene Thursday afternoon; however, there were no hearings scheduled that day and it was decided the court would remain closed for the rest of the day.

Albany said the court staff was “understandably shaken” following the incident.

Bomb Scare Prompts Evacuation At Connecticut Secretary Of State's Office  (Hartford Courant, 1/16/2010)

HARTFORD, CT —The secretary of the state's office at 30Trinity St. in Hartford was evacuated briefly Friday due to a bomb scare. After the bomb squad arrived, it was determined that the package contained a teddy bear and a note, said Av Harris, a spokesman for the office.

The package had been sent by a person who has mailed packages to the office in the past. The mail was addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton--who does not work in Hartford. Nothing was directed at Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. The secretary of the state's office in the state Capitol--across the street from where the package arrived--was not evacuated.

"The package was deemed suspicious'' because it came from a person who has sent about six letters in the past, Harris said. The state police had been contacted about the previous letters. The bomb squad arrived and investigated the package, and state police confiscated the package and the previous letters.

Source Of 1981 Anthrax Attack In Scotland Revealed  (Bioprepwatch, 1/15/2010)

Newly uncovered secret files have revealed that the culprits of a 1981 anthrax attack in Scotland were a shadowy group known as the Scottish Civilian Army.

During the attacks, soil laced with anthrax from the island of Gruinard was dumped at key sites throughout the nation, including the Scottish Office in Edinburgh, Porton Down chemical research lab and the Blackpool hotel, which was holding the Conservative Party conference.

The island of Gruinard, which is located off of the west coast of Scotland, was originally infected by the army in 1941 with anthrax to test the spread of anthrax spores. The test was carried out as fears rose that Hitler would use anthrax as part of the war.

At the time, it was not known if the soil dumped throughout Scotland was actually contaminated with anthrax spores. Files released yesterday, however, revealed that samples of the soil tested positive for the deadly disease.

The Scottish Health Department, in a letter to the deputy chief constable of Northern Constabulary, said that the samples were, "confirmed as containing anthrax spores," news.scotsman.com reported.

At the time of the attack, a group that went by the name Operation Dark Harvest took credit for the soil dumping as part of a terrorist campaign.

Minnesota Woman Sentenced For Mailing Bomb Threats to Post Offices  (Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch, 1/13/2010)

Sleepy Eye, Minn. -A 39-year-old Faribault woman was sentenced in federal court Thursday, Jan. 7 for making bomb threats against eight United States post offices in southern Minnesota. In Minneapolis, United States District Court Judge John Tunheim sentenced Christina Anne Reineke to 54 months in prison and three years of supervised release on one count of sending a threatening communication. Reineke was indicted on April 21, 2009, and pleaded guilty on Sept. 9, 2009.

In her plea agreement, Reineke admitted mailing threatening letters to the post offices in Mankato, North Mankato, Lake Crystal, Madelia, New Ulm, Sleepy Eye, St. James and LeCenter on Feb. 4, 2009. The letters indicated that the post offices would be bombed, and postal employees and customers would die. The letters also stated, “Everyone deserves to die. May all of you blow up in smoke.”

“Our investigation into the crimes committed by Ms. Reineke continues to demonstrate the high priority our agency places on the safety and security of United States Postal Service employees and customers,” said Postal Inspector J.D. Long, public information officer for the Postal Inspection Service’s St. Paul Field Office.

According to a USPIS affidavit, the letters received by the post offices did not disclose when or how the bombings would occur. Moreover, the letters, which were postmarked from Mankato, failed to display return addresses, although postal inspectors determined they were most likely mailed from New Ulm.

Reineke moved to New Ulm from Faribault after being released from Minnesota state prison in November 2008. She had been serving a 27-month sentence for making terroristic threats against Minnesota State Representative Jeanne Poppe, Minnesota State Senator Dan Sparks and Austin mayor, Tom Stiehm. She was living in New Ulm when the bomb threats were sent to the post offices.

A March 27, 2009, search of Reineke’s residence by law enforcement officials yielded notebook paper that matched the paper used to write the bomb threats. It also led to the discovery of a planner listing the addresses of the targeted post offices as well as an envelope containing three newspaper articles about the threats.

This case was the result of an investigation by the USPIS, with assistance from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and the Faribault Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Clifford B. Wardlaw.

Calgary Professor Receives Death Threats in Mail  (Cochrane Eagle, 1/13/2010)

Calgary, Alberta, Canada--The messy scrawl of writing, punctuated by different coloured words or targeted faces in newspaper clippings, is not hard to distinguish.

The message is clear: “watch your back,” “death to homosexuals,” and “death to Darren Lund.”

It is a message Lund, an education professor at the University of Calgary, doesn’t enjoy receiving in the mail.

And the letters are posted from Cochrane, Alberta.

Lund’s name first made headlines in 2002 when Rev. Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate newspaper that said gay people are just “as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.”

Boissoin went on to say that society should rid them of their wickedness by any steps necessary.

“This is what you say when you want to make people afraid and hateful,” Lund said .

The Human Rights Commission heard testimony  that shortly after the letter appeared in the paper, a young gay male was beaten in Red Deer.

“You don’t have to agree with someone’s lifestyle, but living free of violence would be a great start,” said Lund.

Lund, a high school teacher in Red Deer at the time, complained to the human rights commission that the letter was spreading a message of hate towards homosexuals, and won the case in 2007.

But Boissoin appealed the ruling through the Court of Queen’s Bench, and won in 2009. The presiding judge said it was mostly due to legal errors made by the Human Rights commission.

But while all of this was going on, the hate mail towards Lund started to pour in.

“In a way it shows how ignorant they are,” said Lund, who happens to be a father of two teenage kids with his wife.  “Standing up for the rights of a homosexual must mean you are a homosexual.”

He also finds it ironic that most people sending him hate mail claim to be Christians.

“I was raised in a traditional Lutheran church, and the message from Jesus was accepting all those that society rejects — the lepers and prostitutes,” he said. “The message was all about love and kindness.”

It’s not the first time Lund has been threatened.

“(The letters) remind me that I’m on the right track,” he said. “I am reminded of the importance and that more people should do this work.”

He has heard from many people that disagreed with him standing up for human rights, but has a small group of serious stalkers who have decided to take things farther.

“It’s pretty distressing,” said Lund as he displays the latest letter posted from Cochrane.

It came back from the Calgary Police with a distinguished fingerprint lifted from the paper.

“You expect some resistance and healthy debate on these issues. People aren’t all going to agree on sexual orientation. . . . But they are trying to use methods to intimidate and silence me.”

One man from Edmonton even drove three hours to Calgary to distribute by hand to several neighbourhoods “pornographic flyers” of Lund superimposed on another image.

Another “fan” was stalking him, and continually phoning, so Lund approached a judge to ask for something to be done.

Before the court, the man agreed to stop contacting Lund, but when the university professor lost the appeal in December 2009 the man couldn’t resist and phoned right before Christmas to gloat. So Lund got a restraining order.

“It was a minor success in terms of limiting the type of hate these people are expressing.”

Lund said he knows there are negative aspects for standing up for what is right, but plans to keep doing it.

He is glad to see younger people doing better at living with diversity.

Currently, he is debating whether he wants to appeal the December ‘09 ruling.

But for right now he is working closely with the Calgary Police to find some leads on the people who have been sending him hateful and threatening letters.

“I would just like to be left alone . . . but I’m not the first person to get a threat for human right work,” he said.

Ex-Canada Post Accused Of Mail Theft Over Past 16 Years  (Edmonton Sun, 1/14/2010)

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada--Countless Edmonton and St. Albert residents will soon be receiving mail that’s up to 16 years old.

“Thousands” of pieces of mail have been recovered during a joint police investigation, said St. Albert RCMP Const. Janice Schoepp.

And an ex-Canada Post letter carrier, whose various routes covered Edmonton and St. Albert, is accused of stealing the undelivered mail.

“Initially, he was a relief letter carrier, so he did various routes in the first number of years of his career,” Schoepp said, adding the accused had worked for Canada Post since 1993.

Canada Post apologized in a statement issued yesterday from Ottawa and promised to deliver all the recovered mail that had been stolen within the past 16 years.

“A number of people in the Edmonton area will receive mail dating back, in some instances, as far as 1993,” reads the statement. “The mail will be sent with a letter of apology from Canada Post.”

St. Albert RCMP and Edmonton police began investigating in late November after they were contacted by postal inspectors.

Much of the stolen mail that was recovered is unsolicited advertising mail. And most of the advertising mail is unaddressed and will be returned to the commercial mailers, said Canada Post, which vowed to “continue to improve our approach (to security) to avoid similar situations in the future.”

Police didn’t release a motive for the thefts.

The accused had no previous involvement with police, Schoepp said.

This isn’t the only recent case of mail theft.

Last April, a 24-year-old former Calgary postie was sentenced to six years in prison for stealing $12,500 in traveller’s cheques and cashing them in January 2007 to finance a gambling addiction.

John Kobitowich, 39, formerly of St. Albert and now of no fixed address, is charged with theft of mail, possession of mail that is known to be stolen, uttering a forged document, personation with criminal intent and one count of criminal breach of trust.

Kobitowich is scheduled to appear Jan. 18 in St. Albert court.

Former Postal Worker in Oklahoma Sentenced To Probation In Mail Theft (KTUL, 1/15/2010)

Muskogee, OK - A former postal worker who pleaded guilty to stealing mail has been sentenced to two years probation.

Federal authorities say 41-year-old Bobby Charles Rucker of Durant was handed the sentence Friday and was ordered to pay $275 in restitution.

Rucker was caught by investigators in May taking a pair of test letters from the collection area of the post office. A beeper inside one of the test letters sounded, indicating it had been opened at which point, Rucker was confronted by agents

Investigators determined that Rucker had stolen mail at least two dozen times or more.

Rucker was indicted on theft of mail charges in July and pleaded guilty a month later. Rucker resigned from his position following his arrest.

Royal Mail Manager Jailed For Stealing From Cards  (BBC News, 1/15/2010)

UK--A Plymouth mail worker who stole money from birthday and Christmas cards has been jailed for six months.

David Baker set aside brightly coloured greetings cards and searched them for money, the city's crown court heard.

Royal Mail manager Baker, 47, was found guilty of two counts of interfering with mail and three of theft which netted him thousands of pounds.

He was caught on film at the Plymouth sorting office stuffing notes and coins into his pockets.

Royal Mail bosses became suspicious after a series of complaints from people who said money was missing from their post.

They set up video surveillance which filmed Baker taking money.

The court heard Baker, of Rocky Park Road, Plymouth, earned £35,000 a year, but in the past few years had been able to pay off his mortgage, purchase a buy-to-let property and buy two new cars.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC told him: "You had no need for this crime.

"These are serious offences, in your case made more serious by the fact you were in a managerial position."

Royal Mail welcomed the sentence.

A spokesman said: "Royal Mail has a zero tolerance approach to any dishonesty and that stance is shared by the overwhelming majority of our staff, who are honest and hardworking.

"We always seek to prosecute the tiny minority of people who abuse their position of trust."

“Suspicious” Powder Forces Evacuation Of South Carolina Attorney General’s Office  (The State, 1/14/2010)

A mailroom clerk working in South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster mailroom discovered a letter that had some type of powder inside Thursday morning. The letter was sent by an inmate, according to Mark Plowden with the AG’s Office. After the powder was determined to be “suspicious”, the 6th floor of the office building was evacuated by Capitol Police. The evacuation impacted about 75 people. SLED later determined the powder to be “non-hazardous”.

It was business as usual for Attorney General Henry McMaster and the rest of his staff; no one else in the building was evacuated, but no one was allowed in or out of the building while the investigation continued.

The letter was sent to the Rembert Dennis Building, one of several office buildings in the Capitol complex. Police evacuated some staffers from the office before locking down the building.

The State Law Enforcement Division announced shortly after 1:30 p.m. that tests determined the powder was not hazardous, but the lockdown forced the cancellation of a scheduled Board of Economic Advisors meeting.

The attorney general's office occupies three floors of the Dennis building. Several hundred state employees of the Department of Natural Resources, the Office of Research and Statistics and Legislative Counsel work in the building.

This is not the first time law enforcement has investigated a suspicious letter. In December 2008, a letter containing power was sent to Gov. Mark Sanford's correspondence office in the Wade Hampton Building.

The letter to Sanford was one of a handful sent to governors around the country the same week. All eventually were deemed harmless.

Florida Police Station Evacuated After Officer Brings In Suspicious Powder From Incident  (AP, 1/15/2010)

LIGHTHOUSE POINT, Fla. -- A South Florida police station was evacuated after an officer brought in a suspicious white powder.

The substance turned out to be cocaine.

The officer, who wasn't named, responded late Wednesday to a home in Lighthouse Point where someone left in a mailbox a mysterious package containing white powder.

In those cases, protocol is to bring in hazardous materials specialists to test the material.

This time, the officer collected it and returned to the station - prompting a two-hour evacuation. He could be reprimanded, depending on the results of an internal investigation.

Pathogen Security Rules Could be Revised According to White House Report   (Epoch Times, 1/14/2010)

Regulations on some of the world's most deadly pathogens could be revised with the help of a federal report to the White House released on Jan. 8. The report of the Working Group on Strengthening the Biosecurity of the United States outlines several gaps in the current system and offers suggestions for improvement.

Biological pathogens and toxins, (sometimes called BSAT), whose use, possession, and transportation are regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services and other government branches.

The toxins "have the potential to pose a severe threat to public, animal, or plant health, or to animal or plant products," the biosecurity group’s report says, adding that, "Many BSAT cause severe disease for which there is no treatment and/or vaccine."

There have been issues in the past regarding biological attacks. The anthrax mail attacks that killed five people in 2001 were among the most well known such attacks.

Before 1996 there was no list of restrictions on etiologic agents or toxins for storage or transportation. There were also no licensing programs or need for registration to possess or transport the materials.

This changed however, after white supremacist Larry Wayne Harris ordered strains of a plague from a supplier in May 1996 and after the Oklahoma City Bombing in April 1995 shone a spotlight on the issue.

Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in 1996, with one section establishing a list of BSAT with potential threats to public health and safety. The HHS Select Agent Program (SAR) was formed shortly after.

After the 2001 anthrax attacks, Congress also passed the Bioterrorism Response Act which expanded the SAR to cover substances that threaten plant and animal health. The final rules of SAR were published on March 18, 2005.

Closing the Gaps

The recent report suggests a reassessment of the agents on the list, since not all of the 82 agents and toxins "pose the same level of risk to public health."

It says there should be a risk assessment for each item on the list, based on public health and criteria for biodefense and biosecurity.

There are also suggestions that improvements are made in how individuals are screened before and after they are granted access to BSAT. Among them are random drug testing and "continuous monitoring" measures of those who have BSAT access.

Currently, there is no minimum prescriptive standard for physical security at facilities that handle, store, or transport BSAT. The report recommends that a minimum standard be created with options for additional security measures when needed.

Dangerous Materials

According to the report, the SAR has "strengthened the biosecurity of the United States since its implementation." However, there are still gaps in the system.

In 2004, three researchers at Boston University were infected with Francisella tularensis that causes tularemia, in two different incidents after the researchers were sent the bacterium.

A similar incident took place at a Texas A&M University laboratory in 2006 when a laboratory worker was infected with Brucella while cleaning a safety hood. An investigation later found that the university violated dozens of the SAR rules.

Bioterrorism is also a concern since the agents are easy to obtain, they naturally spread once a person or organism is infected, and "some biological weapons are relatively inexpensive to produce," says the report.

In addition, "Unlike research on nuclear materials, the vast majority of BSAT research is unclassified, and conducted in support of a wide variety of basic research and public health needs beyond biodefense, including cancer treatments and medical countermeasures for naturally occurring disease outbreaks," the report says.

Mail, Gift Cards Stolen From Florida Post Office  (WFTV News, 1/12/2010)

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- Someone's been turning mail into cash and they're breaking federal laws to do it. Nearly two dozen recent cases of mail theft in Maitland and near Windermere share similarities.

The thieves stole mail, gift cards, checks and, in one case, someone's identity.

On a typical day, dozens of people drop off their mail at the postal service mailbox in Maitland, people like Leanna Oliver, who says she drives to the post office every day because it gives her peace of mind.

“I come here because we have a problem with our own mail. I bring it here because I feel secure,” Oliver said.

But her confidence is now shaken. Federal agents are now investigation a rash of mail thefts.

A dozen complaints were filed after thieves stole mail out of the Maitland collection box in December. Postal inspector Ed Moffit believes the culprits made a device that allowed them to fish out of the mailbox cash, gift cards and checks.

“They'll actually retrieve mail out of the box, then they'll do what’s called check washing and then they will change the payee and actually try to cash it,” Moffit said.

Maitland wasn't the only area targeted. Investigators also received nearly a dozen complaints in the Windermere area where thieves targeted mailbox kiosks and stole packages.

Many times, the postmaster will leave a key inside someone's mail box so they can pick up their package, but then when the resident goes to pick up their packages they realize that it’s gone.

Moffit says his office is currently looking to see if the crimes are connected. Investigators are working with banks and credit companies to try to track down leads and suspects. So far there have been no arrests.

It's a federal crime to steal mail and people who are prosecuted face a fine and up to five years in prison.

Federal Panel Recommends Tighter Scrutiny Of Those Who Handle Deadly Pathogens  (AP, 1/11/2010)

HAGERSTOWN, MD — A federal panel has recommended that researchers who work with the world's deadliest pathogens undergo more frequent security screening.

The Working Group on Strengthening the Biosecurity of the United States also suggested random drug tests and closer monitoring of the physical and mental health of those with access to dangerous pathogens.

And it recommended tighter scrutiny of foreign nationals who work in U.S. labs.

President George W. Bush's administration ordered the report after the FBI concluded an Army scientist was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people. Its recommendations will be considered by lawmakers and federal regulators seeking to improve the safety of labs that handle dangerous germs and toxins.

The report was published Friday.

The panel, co-chaired by federal defense and health officials, wrote that the anthrax-filled envelopes allegedly mailed by Army anthrax researcher Bruce E. Ivins were "the most visible manifestation" of an insider threat.

Investigators say Ivins, who committed suicide in 2008 before he could be charged, had been prescribed antidepressants, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs between 2000 and 2006. Yet it wasn't until November 2007, after the FBI raided his home, that his laboratory access was revoked.

The panel recommended that those who work with dangerous pathogens undergo a security risk assessment every three years instead of every five, the current standard. The assessment should include certain mental health indicators that the FBI currently is prohibited from using in such reviews, the panel said.

Jean L. Patterson, chairwoman of the Department of Virology & Immunology at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas, said Monday that some of the recommendations could deter talented, responsible scientists from U.S. lab work and dull the nation's competitive edge.

"We need people doing countermeasures work in this country and if they find that it's too onerous and the rules aren't clear-cut, people might be reluctant to do it," Patterson said.

Former Canada Post Letter Carrier Charged With Not Delivering Mail Dating Back To 1993  (CP, 1/11/2010)

EDMONTON — Still waiting for a piece of mail that hasn't arrived at your Edmonton-area home 16 years after it was dropped in the box?

The reason may be because a large volume of mail dating as far back as 1993 apparently wasn't being delivered.

Authorities say a former Canada Post employee is facing a long list of charges including theft after police found a large quantity of undelivered mail.

John Kobitowich, 39, is to appear in court Jan. 18 after being charged with theft of mail, possession of stolen mail, forgery and breach of trust.

He was charged after a joint investigation by Edmonton police, RCMP and Canada Post investigators.

Canada Post is notifying affected customers on several routes in Edmonton and St. Albert.

Missouri Survivalist Arrested In White Supremacists Postal Bomb Investigation Convicted On 2 Weapons Charges  (AP, 1/12/2010)

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A former Eagle Scout and U.S. Air Force Academy cadet was convicted Tuesday on federal weapons charges after being caught up in an undercover sweep of white supremacists who claimed they used his 200-acre Ozarks spread for survival training.

Robert N. Joos Jr., 57, was arrested at his home in rural McDonald County in June, when brothers Daniel and Dennis Mahon were taken into custody in Illinois and charged in a 2004 mail bombing that injured a black city official in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Joos was not charged in the bombing, but the Mahons told investigators members of the "movement" used Joos' isolated home for training. They described Joos as a "longtime white supremacist associate and an expert on weapons, explosives, bomb making and general survival skills."

Joos has acknowledged in the past giving survivalist tips but said they involved identifying plants that could be use for food or medicine. He testified Tuesday that he "is not a terrorist" and "absolutely not" a white supremacist.

"I don't condone any of that crap," he testified.

In an interview with the Associated Press before his trial, however, he said he believes in keeping the races separate.

Joos did not react when the verdict was read about a half hour after the jury left to deliberate. His lawyer, Darryl Johnson, said Joos would appeal.

Johnson had advised Joos not to testify and said after the trial that he felt Joos' testimony hurt his case because of its "vagueness" and "because he changed his mind when I asked him direct questions."

Jim Kelleher, assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said after the verdict that he could not comment.

Joos faces up to 10 years in prison on each of charge of being a felon in possession of firearms and a felon in possession of explosives. Sentencing has not yet been set. Joos has previous convictions for unlawful use of a weapon and driving without a license.

The government's case stemmed from three recent visits undercover agents made to the property outside Pineville where Joos has lived for more than 20 years. During those visits, undercover agents said they saw weapons and ammunition and Joos told them he had "rifles loaded with armor piercing ammunition" and caves for storing food, weapons and ammunition "to avoid capture or attack by the government or other adversaries," according to an affidavit filed after his arrest.

During the trial, Kelleher repeatedly referred to the 19,000 rounds of ammunition confiscated from Joos' home.

"That's the amount of ammunition Bass Pro might have here in their showroom," he said, referring to the outdoor outfitter.

Several rifles, shotguns and handguns taken from the property were also submitted as evidence.

Joos testified he didn't know who owned the weapons and ammunition and ticked off the names of several people who had access to the rooms where they were found.

He described himself as a "Christian Isrealite" and said he's been a pastor in a small branch of a church called the Sacerdotal Order of the David, which has a handful of followers. A wiry man with graying hair and beard that falls past his chest, Joos said the government has been after him since he started studying for the ministry.

But Kelleher accused Joos of using the church as a cover and characterized him as a weapons expert, who learned a great deal while studying for two and a half years at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Joos left the academy in January 1974 after refusing to retake a test he failed.

Before the Air Force Academy, Joos attended Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School in suburban St. Louis, where he graduated third in his class in 1971 and was a highly decorated Eagle Scout, according to his testimony.

"He probably has a higher IQ than all the attorneys in here," Johnson said after the trial. "He had a lot of potential."

Federal Judges Face Increase In Threats  (Connecticut Law Tribune, 1/11/2010)

At 8 a.m. of the first business day of the New Year, a disgruntled former pro se plaintiff opened fire at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas. A court security officer was killed and a deputy U.S. marshal was seriously injured.

The gunman, Johnny Lee Wicks, who was shot and killed, was reportedly unhappy with the court system’s handling of a racial discrimination suit he filed in 2008 after the Social Security Administration reduced his benefits.

Wicks apparently isn’t the only person upset with a judge or lawyer.

On the very same day as the Las Vegas tragedy, the U.S. Justice Department issued a report that reported problems with the protection of federal judges and prosecutors, despite a rise in threats in recent years.

The report, issued by the Office of the Inspector General, found that judges and prosecutors do not consistently and promptly report threats, hindering the ability of the U.S. Marshals Service to investigate and protect.

In Connecticut, one Hartford-based federal judge believes that safety has remained a priority among his colleagues, but he explained that it’s often hard to tell when someone writing an angry letter is dangerous or not.

“The concern is making sure the judges size up a communication properly,” said U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney. “It’s very difficult at times to figure out if the person is venting and letting off steam or if it constitutes a threat. It’s not so much that we let it go for another day. It’s determining if it is serious enough to let the marshals know about it.”

Droney chairs a security committee that meets every other month with representatives of other federal agencies in Connecticut, including the U.S Attorney’s Office, federal defenders, probation officers, court clerks, and law enforcement agencies.

This week the committee will meet to discuss the Las Vegas shootings and Justice Department report. Droney isn’t sure the report’s findings of insufficient interaction between judges and marshals accurately represents the situation in Connecticut.

“I have to say I’m very pleased with the threat assessment and response of the marshal service here,” said Droney. “I think that we’re well protected here.”

Droney said if any judges receive threats, or one is brought to their attention, he or she contacts the marshals, who in turn coordinate with the FBI and state and local police “to assess the threat and deal with it in an appropriate way.”

Droney said that most threats, after law enforcement authorities look into them, do not result in criminal sanctions.

Security Buttons

Federal Defender Thomas Dennis said marshals have installed security buttons in the public defenders’ offices, as well as in the offices of judges and prosecutors. When pressed, the button immediately sends an alarm to the marshals and local police.

Neither Droney nor Dennis has ever had to use the button. They said the marshals do come around from time to time to ensure the button is functioning properly.

There are also surveillance cameras in each courtroom that marshals monitor.

Droney said in his dozen years as a federal judge, he’s noticed the amount of threats increase, especially in the past five or six years. That’s consistent with findings in the national study.

“That is disturbing,” said Droney. “My experience has been that most of the difficult situations come from pro se plaintiffs in civil cases rather than [defendants in] criminal cases. That’s reflected in what happened in Las Vegas. [Wicks] was a civil litigator. That’s usually the case in most of my cases…

“That’s the area that’s most difficult for us —sizing up mail and phone calls we get from pro se litigants,” continued Droney. “Many litigants are dissatisfied with the system, but it’s very hard to determine when that line [between simple anger and a threat] is crossed sometimes.”

Droney said the rise in threats could be a result of tough times and the poor economy.

Unreported Threats

The Office of the Inspector General investigators, who surveyed federal judges and prosecutors from a handful of judicial districts nationwide, said as many as 25 percent of all threats were not reported to law enforcement. In about 25 percent of the threats reported in 2007 and 2008, two or more days lapsed between when the threat was made and when it was reported.

Even when threats are reported, the Marshals Service “does not consistently provide an appropriate response to the risk level posed by the threat,” according to the OIG report. The report also questioned the lack of coordination among the Marshals Service, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys.

No federal judges or prosecutors were killed or seriously injured during the reporting period. But there was a dramatic rise in threats and inappropriate communications toward judges and prosecutors — from nearly 600 in 2003 to 5,744 in 2008.

“We found critical deficiencies in the [Justice] Department’s threat response program,” DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine said in a statement. “We believe the Department must promptly address these deficiencies to ensure the safety of federal judges, U.S. Attorneys…and other federal court officials.”

The OIG report made 14 recommendations. These include improving the guidance given to judges and prosecutors on the need for prompt reporting of threats, and ensuring better coordination between investigative agencies.

Andrew Tingley, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal in Hartford, said “most of those concerns that were in that report do not apply to our situation.” He agreed with the study in that threats have gone up in recent years but said his office constantly provides training and shares advice with the judges and lawyers.

“The particulars I’d rather not go into,” said Tingley. “But we adapt to changes in the security environment. Everything in this building is constantly reviewed. It’s really the communication between all entities involved that helps us out a lot. Everybody here takes security as a high priority.”

At the same time, said Dennis, the federal defender, there’s a balance keeping courthouses safe and making litigants feel welcome.

“I’m not going to have my office look like Fort Knox with big heavy locks,” said Dennis. “It just gives a wrong impression to people that come in. We try to create the image we’re like any other law firm. We shouldn’t create the image we’re afraid of the people walking in our office.” •

Federal Trial Begins In 2004 Arizona Mail Bombing Case  (News-Leader, 1/12/2010)

Springfield, MO--An undercover agent testified Monday that Robert Joos, a 56-year-old man on trial for federal weapons charges, often talked about a violent end to the U.S. government.

"(He thought) it would all come down to who had the guns," said Tristan Moreland, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Moreland testified he had seen much of Joos' more than 200 acre compound in rural McDonald County after a cooperating individual -- or civilian aide -- was able to gain the trust of two men with connections to Joos.

Joos was arrested in late June as part of an investigation into a 2004 mail bombing in Scottsdale, Ariz., that injured a black city official. His federal trial got under way Monday at the federal courthouse in Springfield.

Dennis and Daniel Mahon are in jail and awaiting trial in the bombing of that Arizona diversity office. Federal agents were able to locate phone records showing the first calls they made -- after allegedly mailing the bomb -- were to Joos.

Federal agents started attempting to make contact with Joos after they learned the brothers reportedly spoke of Joos' southwest Missouri property as a training facility.

Moreland was one of two undercover agents and the civilian aide who visited to compound twice in early 2009 to pose as allies to Joos. Moreland was undercover as a weapons dealer.

"We generally just talked about anti-government belief and sometimes racial belief," he said.

Moreland described seeing guns thinly veiled under sheets during his visits. He was also taken to at least 20 caves that Joos reportedly told him would serve as hideouts in case of attack.

There were other caves, Moreland said, that Joos would not take the group to see -- specifically his own.

"He said that it was his cave and it was where his main stockpile was," he testified.

When the defense asked why the agent didn't poke around and try to find out more information, Moreland said, "It's disrespectful and a way to get yourself killed."

A search warrant executed in June resulted in 15 guns being taken from the building assumed to be Joos' residence. It also yielded more than 19,000 ammunition rounds.

Most of the guns taken from the property were long hunting rifles or shotguns. Most were loaded.

Bomb-making substances, like fuses and blasting caps, were also found on the property. There was a file folder labeled "explosives" found in a filing cabinet containing pamphlets and instructions on bomb-making, officials testified Monday.

Joos is charged with being a felon in possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives -- another felony. He has two prior felony convictions, one for unlawful use of a weapon and the other for driving without a license.

At the time he was convicted for driving without a license, he contended that his religious beliefs did not permit him to have a driver's license.

His religious beliefs also kept him from wearing civilian clothing in the courtroom Monday. He appeared in court in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit.

Joos had not requested that his clothes -- which have fringe along the seams in what he said was accordance with biblical law -- be sent to the courtroom because he didn't think there would be a trial.

Joos is an ordained minister and his church, the Sacerdotal Church of David, reportedly has been linked with the white supremacy movement.

However -- prior to jury selection Monday -- Joos requested a gag order for the media, contending that any mention of ties to white supremacy would hurt his chances for a fair trial.

Judge Richard Dorr did not grant a gag order but he asked potential jurors if they'd seen a local TV news report that called Joos a white supremacist.

The trial began Monday with the defendant retracting his motion to replace his public defender. If granted, it would have been the second time Joos had requested a new attorney.

He retained Darryl Johnson after the judge informed Joos that he would not grant another continuance. Two continuances have already been granted in the case.

Joos said he wanted to represent himself with the defense that his prior convictions were a result of more than 30 years of government persecution. "I believe (the convictions) are false and I can prove it," he said.

Dorr told Joos those convictions would have to be appealed. Joos answered that he already had and lost those appeals.

Joos also wanted to call three witnesses for his defense. However, Johnson told the court that one of the men was dead, and the other two hadn't seen Joos in years.

"In my strategy, that wouldn't add to the defense of Mr. Joos," he said.

The prosecution presented seven witnesses Monday, most of whom were ATF agents. They testified to finding the guns in Joos' ownership, to his prior felony convictions and that the guns were the result of interstate commerce.

The prosecution is expected to bring two more witnesses today.

When U.S. attorney James Kelleher said he assumed the defense would not be presenting any witnesses since a witness list had not been presented, Johnson countered: "Don't assume anything."

Johnson said he expected to be done presenting the defense by noon today.

Anthrax Response Went Well In Hoax Incident at Alabama Rep’s Office  (Mobile Press Register, 1/11/2010)

FOLEY, Ala. -- While last week's anthrax scare at U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner's Baldwin County office turned out to be a hoax, the event was a real test for emergency response procedures at a local, regional and state level, officials said Friday.

At about 10 a.m. Jan. 4, a letter opened in Bonner's Foley office was found to contain an unknown white powder. Two of Bonner's staff members were isolated in the office for almost four hours while Foley police and firefighters evacuated the complex on Ala. 59 and started procedures to deal with possible anthrax contamination.

Congressional offices in Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery and Anniston received similar letters, according to officials.

The local response included bringing in regional hazardous materials units and working with officials around the state dealing with threats in other areas, said Leigh Ann Ryals, Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency director.

"The closest regional haz-mat team is in Mobile County, in Saraland. They have the equipment to deal with this and to do a field test," she said. "We called on them and that went very, very well. They were able to determine within minutes what it was and also what it wasn't. At the same time, we were talking to EMAs in other counties where things were going on to find out what was going on there and what we had here."

The Saraland Fire Department's hazardous materials unit has a testing device that told emergency officials within 10 minutes that the white powder was not anthrax, Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby said.

Without the unit, the staffers would have had to be decontaminated at the scene, including being washed down in cold outside temperatures, and then quarantined, Darby said. The office would have had to be sealed until the substance was shipped to an outside lab for testing.

 Darby said no one in Baldwin County has such a unit, which costs more than $80,000.

"Everybody can't afford that, so we have to do this on a regional level," he said.

Until the site could be tested, police closed off the office complex and set up an emergency response perimeter.

With many of Foley's emergency personnel working at the site, firefighters and trucks from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach were sent to the city to provide backup in case of calls in other areas. Darby said. "Gulf Shores actually went on a call for us while we were out there," Darby said.

Local hospitals were also notified that officials were dealing with potential anthrax contamination, he said.

"All in all, if nothing else, it was an excellent exercise for us and a chance for us to work with neighboring agencies," Darby said.

Ryals said the situation Jan. 4 was different in some ways from the last time Baldwin County authorities had to deal with an anthrax threat.

In 2001, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a letter containing white powder was received at the Baldwin County Courthouse, she said.

With no way to test the substance at the scene, the material was isolated and sent to an outside lab and officials had to wait to learn that the material was harmless, Ryals said.

Today, not only has technology improved, but so has coordination between agencies.

Most departments cannot afford to buy and maintain all the equipment needed to deal with every threat, she said. Instead, they rely on mutual aid agreements to help each other and share resources.

Foley City Administrator Perry Wilbourne, who was on the scene Jan. 4, said city police and firefighters and other emergency personnel at the complex did a good job and worked well together.

"They did a magnificent job," Wilbourne told City Council members at a regularly scheduled meeting that night. "We should be proud of the job the police and fire did in what could have been deadly serious."

Arrest Made In British Columbia Pipeline Bombings  (Canwest, 1/8/2010)

HYTHE, Alberta, Canada —Police have made an arrest in a string of bombings that have targeted EnCana Corp. pipelines and wellheads in northeastern British Columbia.

They issued a statement Friday, but did not identify the person who had been arrested. RCMP said they were searching a large rural property located near Hythe, Alta. Town officials confirmed a raid was taking place, but gave no other information.

The arrest follows a 15-month investigation into six bomb attacks that targeted remote EnCana pipelines and wellheads.

The attacks came after an anonymous letter was sent to local papers warning the energy giant to cease its operations in the area south of Dawson Creek.

Dawson Creek is about 600 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

A second letter sent in mid-July said the oil and gas company had three months to persuade residents it would cease its local operations or "things get a lot worse."

­The bombings, which RCMP have called "domestic terrorism," have exposed the ongoing resentment some area residents feel toward the oil and gas development taking place near their communities.

The investigation itself has been controversial, with some residents claiming they've been harassed by RCMP investigators and police suggesting some locals are holding back information about the bomber's identity.

In September, convicted oilpatch bomber Wiebo Ludwig entered the fray, writing an open letter to the EnCana bomber that urged a peaceful solution to the situation, but nonetheless expressed admiration for his or her actions.

Ludwig is a longtime activist who claimed sour-gas wells adversely affected human health, including that of his family members. He was released from prison in 2001 after serving two-thirds of a 28-month sentence for five charges related to oilpatch bombing and vandalism.

EnCana offered a $1-million reward for information about the bomber, but no arrests have been made.

The reward was the highest in Canada since a $1 million sum was offered in connection with the Air India bombing that killed 329 people in 1985.

California Resident Reports Burning From Suspicious Powder in Mail  (Orange County Register, 1/8/2010)

MISSION VIEJO, CA – A white powder that a woman reported gave her a burning sensation after opening an envelope this morning turned out to be sugar, authorities said.

Hazmat units, deputies with the sheriff's department and agents with the FBI responded to the residential neighborhood this morning after the envelope with powder was discovered. The substance, which was inside an advertisement from an Orange-based store, was in fact residue from candy that was put inside, said Capt. Greg McKeown of the Orange County Fire Authority.

The female resident told authorities she felt a "burning" sensation after opening the letter and washed her hands to get the material off, McKeown said. She was not treated for injuries

Authorities were quick to point out that the incident does not appear to be related to a series of suspicious envelopes that have been sent to professors at UC Irvine, where five letters with the words, "Black Death" have been received in the last week. University police said they are not sure what the motive is behind the letters and the powder, which has been found to not be harmful. Police are working with the FBI to investigate the incident.

Today's incident was reported at the 24000 block of Artemia Avenue at 10:22 a.m., McKeown said. The resident opened the letter and found a candy wrapper and the white substance. The letter was opened by the caretaker of an elderly resident at the home.

When she felt a burning sensation in her hands, she washed her hands and contacted authorities.

Strange Odor From Mail Leads To SSA Building Evacuation in Maryland  (WBAL, 1/8/2010)

WOODLAWN, Md. -- The Social Security Administration building in Woodlawn was evacuated for a brief time Friday afternoon after workers started feeling ill due to a strange odor.

Baltimore County hazmat crews were called to the building at about 4 p.m. after reports described an unknown fluid and odor coming from the mailroom.

County Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost said eight to 10 people were evaluated after feeling sick but were OK.

Crews discovered that the problem was caused by a broken sprinkler pipe.

Hazmat crews searched the building and found no other problems.Copyright 2010 by wbaltv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published

Fifth Black Death Threat Envelope Found at University of California  (BioPrep Watch, 1/8/2010)

Irvine, CA--A fifth envelope has been discover at University of California - Irvine containing white powder and a message with the words "black death."

The fifth envelope has the same return address as four others that had previously been discovered.

Two envelopes carrying the "black death" message were discovered on Monday and a third was discovered Tuesday morning. Following their discovery, the buildings they were found in were evacuated and a HAZMAT team was called to the scene.

Field tests performed by the FBI showed that the powder in the three envelopes was not a biological hazard like anthrax.

One of the letters was addressed to a counselor, one to a sociology professor and one to an engineering professor.

A fourth envelope was found Tuesday morning addressed to an assistant dean of biological sciences and sent to the campus' Natural Sciences II building.

The assistant dean's office was closed by authorities who then conducted tests for hazardous materials.

The fifth envelope was discovered on Wednesday afternoon.

All of the envelopes, in addition to carrying the "black death" note, had a return address in Idaho.

No motive, including terrorism, has yet been determined or ruled out by UC-Irvine police or the FBI. The campus mail room has begun scanning incoming mail for any suspicious letters but officials believe that the envelopes had arrived during winter break and been distributed on Monday.

The fifth envelope has the same return address as four others that had previously been discovered.

Two envelopes carrying the "black death" message were discovered on Monday and a third was discovered Tuesday morning. Following their discovery, the buildings they were found in were evacuated and a HAZMAT team was called to the scene.

Field tests performed by the FBI showed that the powder in the three envelopes was not a biological hazard like anthrax.

One of the letters was addressed to a counselor, one to a sociology professor and one to an engineering professor.

A fourth envelope was found Tuesday morning addressed to an assistant dean of biological sciences and sent to the campus' Natural Sciences II building.

The assistant dean's office was closed by authorities who then conducted tests for hazardous materials.

The fifth envelope was discovered on Wednesday afternoon.

All of the envelopes, in addition to carrying the "black death" note, had a return address in Idaho.

No motive, including terrorism, has yet been determined or ruled out by UC-Irvine police or the FBI. The campus mail room has begun scanning incoming mail for any suspicious letters but officials believe that the envelopes had arrived during winter break and been distributed on Monday.

Number Of Hoax Anthrax Letters In Alabama Now At 11 (Birmingham News, 1/6/2010)

Birmingham, AL--The number of hoax anthrax letters sent to government offices around Alabama this week now stands at 11 after U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's office received another letter at his Mobile office on Tuesday afternoon, an FBI spokesman said this morning.

The letter, as did the others, did not contain the sometimes deadly anthrax, said Paul Daymond, spokesman for the FBI in Birmingham. Testing so far has shown that all the letters contained "sugar substitutes or something like that," he said.

All of the letters, except one, were sent to the offices of four Alabama congressmen _ Shelby, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, and U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner. Another letter  received at the municipal court in Montgomery on Tuesday is not believed to be related to the other letters, Daymond said.

Letters have been received in congressional offices in Birmingham, Anniston, Montgomery, Mobile and Foley.

Incoming Mail Scrutinized After 5th Suspicious 'White Powder' Letter Sent To UC Irvine  (Daily Breeze, 1/7/2010)

IRVINE, CA - A fifth suspicious letter with an Idaho return address was received at UC Irvine today, but it was unclear if it contained a white powder and was marked "black death" like the others.

The latest find was sent to an associate professor of the arts -- the first male recipient -- but was received by a female assistant who decided not to open it when she felt a "granular substance" inside about 3:15 p.m., university spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said.

The fifth letter was not opened and was sent to a laboratory tonight, UCI spokesman Tom Vasich said. Officials won't know whether the envelope's contents are hazardous until Thursday, Vasich added.

Authorities secured the building where the letter was found and preliminary tests did not indicate any biological hazards in the office, said Capt. Greg McKeown of the Orange County Fire Authority. The letter will be opened and tested Thursday, McKeown said.

According to broadcast reports, the white powder found in the other envelopes was a harmless form of sugar.

Campus police and a hazardous materials team were examining the letter, Lawhon said. Students, faculty and other campus employees were told to be cautious after suspicious letters started being received Monday.

Starting today, all campus mail was distributed with plastic bags and special instructions for handling items that appear suspicious, UC Irvine police Chief Paul Henisey said.

"We believe these letters were received by the campus during the December closure," Henisey said earlier. "Distribution and Document Management is now screening incoming mail for suspicious envelopes."

Henisey warned people not to open any mail with an Idaho postmark from someone they do not recognize. Instead, campus police should be called at (949) 824-5223.

The screening procedure will delay delivery of mail "by no more than 24 hours," Henisey said.

Two letters addressed to professors were received on Monday and the third and fourth letters, received Tuesday, were addressed to an undergraduate counselor in the School of Information and Computer Sciences and the assistant dean of biological sciences in the Natural Sciences 2 Building, UC Irvine spokesman Tom Vasich said.

The letters may be a prank or a hoax, but authorities have treated them as worst-case scenarios, calling in hazardous materials teams and evacuating some parts of some campus buildings each time a suspicious letter surfaced.

No one has claimed responsibility for sending the letters.

Vasich said he has noticed "a heightened state of awareness" on campus this week.

"These incidents are a serious crime and are being investigated in cooperation with federal authorities," Henisey said. "Individuals responsible will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

White Powder at Hawthorne Military Base Not Harmful  (KOLO TV, 1/6/2010)

HAWTHORNE, NV - Everything is back to normal at the Hawthorne Army Depot. For much of Wednesday, security was tightened at the depot because of a package that contained a suspicious white substance.

An explosives team from Fallon Naval Air Station examined the substance and decided it isn’t harmful. However, they were unable to identify it.

The package was sent via the mail. Investigators say they do not know who sent it.

Alabama Court's Powder Scare Unrelated To Prior Mailings  (Montgomery Advertiser, 1/6/2010)

Montgomery, AL--The Montgomery Municipal Courthouse shut down for several hours Tuesday after an envelope containing a white, powdery substance was found.

The substance -- which turned out to be mostly baking soda -- was in an envelope that also contained a traffic ticket and payment of the fine.

Authorities plan to question the person who was issued the ticket, but no charges had been filed Tuesday.

There were no threats or any other messages included in the envelope.

The incident came one day after a statewide anthrax scare in which envelopes containing white powder were mailed to Alabama congressional offices across Alabama.

The FBI said Tuesday that the letter at Montgomery's municipal court building was not related to the other suspicious letters. Investigators made the determination as yet another letter containing white powder was found Tuesday at U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's office in Mobile.

FBI spokeswoman Angela Tobon said that while the Montgomery letter was not connected to the nine found Sunday and Monday at congressional offices, the one found at Shelby's Mobile office was linked to them. The powder found in the nine earlier letters turned out to be a common household sweetener.

Chief William Davis said the Montgomery Fire Department will pursue charges against the person responsible for sending the letter to the Montgomery courthouse.

"We do not take this lightly," he said.

Authorities, however, are not jumping to conclusions about who was responsible for the scare at the city courthouse, Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense to carry out a terrorist act and leave a signature," Strange said.

Strange said Tuesday night that the white substance was 97 percent baking soda and 3 percent bird seed.

Davis said the Montgomery Fire Department will be working with the police department in Panama City, Fla., to interview the person whose name was on the speeding ticket, which was issued Nov. 22.

If it's determined that individual sent the tainted mail to the Montgomery Municipal Court, he or she could face a Class C felony charge, Davis said.

The investigation also must conclude that the substances were included intentionally, he said.

The six city employees who came into contact with the envelope were placed in isolation until the powder was determined to be harmless. A hazardous materials tent was set up on Jefferson Street next to the courthouse in case the employees had to be decontaminated.

It only took about 20 minutes to determine that the substance, which was tested by Alabama National Guard troops, was harmless. FBI officials also were on the scene.

Jefferson Street was closed for several hours but reopened Tuesday afternoon.

All of the afternoon court cases were canceled, but ticket windows and other courthouse functions returned to operation.

There were 48 cases on the docket that will need to be rescheduled.

A police officer stationed outside continually turned away people who approached the courthouse before it reopened Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's Mobile Office Received Powder-Filled Envelope; 10th In State  (AP, 1/6/2010)

MOBILE, Ala. -- U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's Mobile office received an envelope containing a threatening letter and white powder Tuesday, the 10th such mailing to members of Alabama's congressional delegation since Sunday.

Shelby's office in the federal courthouse in downtown Mobile also received an envelope with white powder on Monday. Other letters forced evacuations in offices in downtown Mobile, Foley, Birmingham and Montgomery on Sunday and Monday.

The letters claimed the powder was anthrax, but an FBI agent in Birmingham said it was artificial sweetener.

Shelby's office in downtown Mobile never had to evacuate because U.S. Marshals intercepted the letters before they got inside the building, said Edward Eversman, a deputy U.S. Marshal.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jack T. Camp sent jurors out of the building's side door instead of the main lobby at the end of the day Tuesday because of the scare.

The Mobile Fire-Rescue Department sent experts in hazardous materials to the office, and they determined there was no threat, said Steve Huffman, the agency's spokesman.

"Same thing, different day is all," he said.

The 10 letters -- sent to the offices of Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa; U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile; U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile; and U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, R-Saks -- are all related, said Special Agent Angela Tobon, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in Mobile.

Another anthrax scare occurred Tuesday at Montgomery's municipal court building, but FBI agents say it is unrelated to the other 10.

Tuesday's envelope and letter were both handwritten, just like the other nine, Tobon said. The envelope was postmarked in Montgomery.

The FBI's Birmingham office is heading the investigation. A spokesman there, Special Agent Paul Daymond, said there were no new updates Tuesday. 

The FBI's Congressional Affairs Office in Washington, D.C., has contacted the state's congressmen and senators and made them aware of the situation, Daymond said.

Mail Safeguards On Capitol Hill Don't Extend To Politicians' District Offices  (Press Register, 1/6/2010)

WASHINGTON -- Ever since a 2001 anthrax scare, all mail sent to congressional offices on Capitol Hill is zapped with radiation to kill spores and other potentially lethal bugs before delivery.

No such precaution is in place for letters addressed to lawmakers' district and state offices, U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Peter Rendina confirmed Tuesday.

In recent days, 10 suspicious envelopes have been directed to Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, and three other members of Congress at various sites around Alabama. A white powder in the envelopes turned out to be harmless and Rendina said biological detection systems now in all postal distribution centers would have uncovered anthrax before the letters reached their destinations.

But in the post-9/11 era, the episode again raised hard-to-answer questions about the tradeoff between security and the public's ability to reach government officials.

"We want to be accessible," Bonner spokesman Mike Lewis said.

Because screening required for mail sent to Bonner's Washington office delays delivery by weeks, for example, constituents with urgent problems are instead encouraged to send paperwork to his district offices in Mobile and Foley, Lewis said.

Congressional expert Norman Ornstein questioned how seriously lawmakers take their own safety.

"For whatever set of reasons, Congress has collectively put its head in the sand with issues of that sort," said Ornstein, who works at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

As a federal probe continued Tuesday, the Postal Inspection Service is offering up to a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for the letters, which went to Republican congressional offices in Mobile, Foley, Montgomery, Birmingham and Anniston.

In addition to Bonner, the letters were addressed to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks.

Spokespersons for the three either declined comment or could not be reached Tuesday.

The Postal Service began irradiating mail sent to Capitol Hill, the White House and federal agencies in November 2001 after anthrax spores were found in letters sent to congressional leaders. No lawmakers were killed, but 22 people were infected and five died in other incidents on the East Coast.

Based on the results of a threat assessment and various safety measures, postal officials have concluded that there is "no problem" with how mail is processed and delivered to lawmakers' offices outside the nation's capital, Rendina said.

4 UCI Women Get Threatening Letters  (Orange County Register, 1/5/2010)

IRVINE, CA – The number of UC Irvine employees receiving envelopes containing a mysterious white powder and the words 'Black Death' rose to four late today, leading the university to wonder why it is being targeted and why all the letters were sent to women.

All four letters came from Idaho, and the powder the envelopes contained has been examined and determined to be harmless, said Tom Vasich, a university spokesman. UCI will hand out plastic bags on Wednesday so that employees and students can quickly seal any suspicious looking mail they get.

The university also is closely screening all mail sent to UCI. Campus officials believe all four envelopes arrived over the Christmas holiday.

The latest victim was Benedicte Shipley, an assistant dean in the School of Biological Sciences. She received a letter with the mysterious powder at 4:30 p.m., leading fire, hazmat, public health and law enforcement officials to return to campus. The envelope arrived on the fifth floor of Natural Sciences II, a research building that is less than a five minute walk from the Information and Computer Sciences building, where Diana Tien, an undergraduate counselor, received one of the letters at 9:30 a.m. today.

"We don't know why this is happening; it's a mystery," said Cathy Lawhon, UCI's media director. "Police are looking to see if there is a connection between the four people, all of whom are women."

On Monday, sociologist Cynthia Feliciano and chemical engineer Nancy Da Silva, received the first two menacing letters.

UCI turned off the air and heating system to the ICS building, and later cordoned off Natural Science II, which houses researchers who work in the biosciences and chemistry.

At least 10 people were exposed to the letter received today at ICS, said Greg McKeown, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

Officials at Cal State Fullerton and Chapman University in Orange say their campuses have not received such letters.

UCI has instituted a new policy for handling mail, urging employees to call campus police if they receive an unexpected letter from Idaho. Employees are being asked to return other, less suspicious letters to Distribution and Document Management inside plastic bags that will be distributed Wednesday.

The university will be screening all new mail, but mail that came in during the holiday break has already been distributed, Henisey said.

Neither Feliciano nor Da Silva has responded to emails requesting comments about the incident, which wasn't disclosed to the campus community at large until almost 5 hours after the first envelope arrived.

The first incident began about 11:30 a.m. on Monday when Feliciano opened a standard-sized envelope and discovered a small amount of an unidentified white substance, Lawhon said. That set off a chain reaction in which parts of two major buildings were evacuated, the structure's air and heating systems were turned off, health and safety workers were called in, the FBI began an investigation, and students and staff were told not to open mail that seemed unusual in nature.

By 8:30 p.m. Monday, the Orange County Public Health Department had determined that the powder in an envelope sent to Feliciano, an expert on race and immigration was not a biological or chemical agent, and that it did not appear to be harmful. The department apparently made the same determination about an envelope sent to Da Silva, who specializes in molecular biotechnology, especially the areas of pharmacology and biofuels.

The university says it does not know why either professor was targeted on the first day of the winter quarter. And it's unclear whether the UCI incident was related to the distribution of similar envelopes to lawmakers in Alabama. Experts determined that the powder in the Alabama letters was harmless.

About 4:30 p.m. Monday, UCI sent out an email alert (read text) that said, "Today two faculty members located in Social Sciences Plaza B and Engineering Tower received envelopes through campus mail containing unidentified white powder and messages including the words 'Black Death.'

"UCI Police, Environmental Health and Safety, OC Fire Authority Hazardous Materials Services, federal authorities and Orange County Health Department responded. No one was harmed and the material is currently being analyzed. We expect result shortly."

When asked why UCI waited almost five hours to send out the advisory, Lawhon said, "Probably because the first envelope was thought to be an isolated incident. The second envelope wasn't opened until about 2 p.m., and then it was determined that this might be something the campus needed to worry about."

Students were instructed to avoid emergency vehicles while the Orange County Fire Authority and other agencies worked at the two buildings to determine what had happened.

Feliciano, who is married to UCI criminologist Geoff Ward, said on her Facebook page Monday afternoon that she ""is quarantined after opening an envelope containing some white powder and the word's 'Black Death.' Not a great start to the quarter.' "

It's also unclear whether this is a prank related to the Feb. 26th release of the movie, "Black Death." The Internet Movie Database sums up the movie's plot by saying, "Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village."

No one has come forward to claim responsibility for the incident, which began in late morning, shortly before a small group of students was about to stage a protest of recent increase in student fees. There has been growing student unrest at Irvine and other UC campuses over the fee hikes, which has forced some students to take fewer classes, delay graduation, and/or take out more student loans to pay for their education.

Second Suspicious Letter Received At Federal Courthouse in Alabama (WKRG, 1/5/2010)

MOBILE, Alabama - Hazmat crews responded to the federal courthouse in downtown Mobile for a second straight. Another suspicious letter with white powder was mailed there.

Like the one on Monday, the letter was addressed to Senator Richard Shelby. The FBI says the white powder is not anything dangerous.

A letter with white powder was also opened Tuesday at Montgomery's municipal court today. The FBI says it's not connected to similar letters found across the state the past two days.

Nine letters containing white powder were discovered Sunday and Monday at congressional offices in five Alabama cities, including Congressman Jo Bonner's offices in Mobile and Foley. Sources tell us the white powder in those letters was Sweet 'N Low.

Multiple Anthrax Scares In Alabama  (Bioprep Watch, 1/5/2010)

Anthrax scares were set off in five Alabama cities following the delivery of envelopes containing white powder.

The envelopes resulted in two federal courthouses shutting down and one congressman becoming trapped in his office while authorities tested the white powder. No one was injured during the scare.

Authorities believe that at least five of the letters, which were sent to the offices of senators or congressmen, were from the same source.

The letters were sent to the Mobile and Foley offices of Republican Rep. Jo Bonner, who, along with her staffers, was required to remain in her Mobile office while the white substance was tested.

"Each letter contained a small bag with a white powdery substance, and neither of these bags were opened," Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Bonner, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The letter sent to Bonner's office was found to contain a common household product, though officials would not elaborate.

"From what we are hearing that's consistent with some of the other cases," Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Letters were also sent to the offices of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers and U.S. Senators Jeff Sessions in east Montgomery and Richard Shelby in the downtown Montgomery federal courthouse.

The FBI was informed by employees of the suspicious letters at around noon on Monday and initial tests have shown the substance is not anthrax.

The federal courthouse in Anniston and the federal courthouse in Birmingham also received letters containing the substance.

Hoax Anthrax Threat Sent to Attorney in Tennessee Just One of Thousands Since 2001  (Columbia Daily Herald, 1/5/2010)

Columbia, TN--A suspicious powder that shut down Columbia’s town square for hours Wednesday is only the latest in thousands of hoaxes that have followed the 9/11 terror attacks.

Peter Rendina, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said there have been more than 33,000 reports of suspicious powders and liquids in the mail since the 2001 terror attacks and an anthrax scare that followed.

The public and postal workers have been much more vigilant about reporting suspicious substances found in the mail since the attacks, leading to a spike in the number of cases, Rendina said.

“Because of the times we live in, we have to check on everything,” he said.

Anthrax is a dormant spore that can be used as a biological weapon, sickening and killing those exposed to it.

Most of the incidents have been simple misunderstandings, such as mints being crushed in the mail or sand placed in an invitation for a wedding on the beach.

But often powder is sent to intimidate and threaten, a matter federal officials say they take seriously.

“We’ve had people who have gone into shock, because they are scared it is something dangerous when in fact it is a household product like baby powder,” Rendina said.

Officials say anthrax hoaxes also cost law enforcement time, money and can be extremely disruptive. Since 2001, targets have included financial institutions, governors’ offices, news organizations, day cares, a sheriff’s office and U.S. embassies.

During the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years, U.S. postal inspectors reported more than 5,500 instances of suspicious powders and liquids. Only a few dozen cases resulted in arrests, according to the agency’s last two annual reports.

On Wednesday, a suspicious powder found in a letter mailed to a law office in Columbia shut down the town square and resulted in more than a dozen people being quarantined for the better of part of the day.

Mark Blackwood, director of the Maury County Office of Emergency Management, said Wednesday’s scare will likely cost tens of thousands of dollars in extra man-hours and other expenses.

An analysis performed at a state lab confirmed Monday the results of preliminary tests that showed the substance was nontoxic. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now handling the case, agency spokesman Joel Siskovic said.

He said the powder has not been identified.

Even benign substances sent in a threatening manner can be prosecuted as a criminal offense, Siskovic said. Officials have not revealed the substance of the letter, but Bill Wade, who works in the building and was quarantined, described the letter’s contents as belligerent.

Local law enforcement officials say they have responded to powder scares since 2001 that have turned out to be everything from baby powder to powdered sugar.

Rendina said postal inspectors have dealt with hoaxes, threats and poison being sent through the mail for hundreds of years, but the 9/11 attacks brought a new level of awareness to the threat.

In the months following the 9/11 attacks, five people were killed and more than a dozen sickened by anthrax spores sent through the U.S. mail to two U.S. Democratic senators and several news media offices.

In 2003, the U.S. Postal Service installed biohazard detection equipment at 271 mail distribution centers. The devices have not yielded a positive result, Rendina said.

“We know that the mail is safe,” he said. “Unfortunately, people either want to scare someone, intimidate or make a practical joke.”

Local capabilities were also boosted in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks with the creation of the Maury County Office of Emergency Management.

Maury County Mayor Jim Bailey said one of his first tasks after taking the post in 2002 was to strengthen the county’s response to emergencies. He said the reaction to Wednesday’s scare went off well and said “he has never been prouder” of the county’s emergency officials.

“If it turns out to be nothing, it shows that we have the capability if it had been anthrax,” Bailey said.

2 UC Irvine Professors Get Letters With White Powder  (AP, 1/4/2010)

IRVINE, Calif.—Two University of California, Irvine, campus buildings were evacuated Monday after two professors who work in the buildings received envelopes containing an unidentified white powder and the words "Black Death" written on them, school officials said.

University spokesman Tom Vasich said neither professor was harmed but investigators don't know what the powder is.

Initial field tests of the substance were negative for biological hazards, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

The Orange County Fire Department's hazardous materials team is analyzing the powder and should have results back early Tuesday, Vasich said. Several agencies are investigating the incident, including the FBI, he said.

One of the professors is a sociologist and the other teaches engineering, but Vasich would not identify them.

University officials sent an e-mail alert to students, faculty and employees, warning them to be cautious of opening suspicious mail.

Vasich said the building evacuations were precautionary.

When asked if the incident was being investigated as a terrorist act, university spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon told the Orange County Register, "Authorities haven't ruled anything out."

Suspicious Powder Mailed To Alabama Offices  (WFSA, 1/4/2010)

MONTGOMERY, AL- Reminiscent of the 2001 anthrax scare, several envelopes containing white powder launched a full scale investigation in Alabama Monday. The FBI reports the envelopes showed up at federal buildings and congressional offices across the state.

The first envelope was discovered Sunday at Birmingham's federal courthouse where a haz-mat team was called in to investigate.

On Tuesday, a second letter was found at the federal building in Anniston. Authorities there evacuated government employees.

"Until we find out differently, we treat this as a bad product that could hurt people," said the Anniston fire department's David Collins.

In all, nine letters were delivered in four cities -- Birmingham, Anniston, Mobile and Montgomery.

In Montgomery, the federal courthouse and the Montgomery office of Senator Richard Shelby were targeted. Congressman Bobby Bright's office did NOT receive a letter as previously reported by the FBI.

"We are investigating, along with our Birmingham office, the receipt of a series of alleged threatening letters that allegedly contained a biological agent," said FBI Special Agent in Mobile, Timothy Fuhrman.

An envelope received by Congressman Jo Bonner's office in Mobile included a Montgomery post mark.

Testing is underway by the state health department to determine the identity of the powder. But the FBI says it's not Anthrax and is not dangerous to the public.

Preliminary tests indicate it may something as benign as artificial sweetener.

"Fortunately, our field testing has indicated that the item is not a biological agent," Agent Fuhrman said.

If you know who may have sent the letters, you're asked to contact the FBI office in Mobile at (251) 438-3674.

The U.S. Postal Service is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information that catches who's responsible

Federal Offices in Alabama Remain Closed After Anthrax Scare  (WBRC, 1/4/2010)

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Several federal buildings, including locations in Birmingham and Anniston, remain closed tonight after 9 threatening letters containing a suspicious powder were sent to several Congressmen and Senators around the state.

The FBI says the powder tested negative for anthrax or any other biological agent but they are still treating the situation as a domestic terror incident.

 FBI official say the powder inside those threatening letters was a fructose sugar substance.

No Congressmen or Senators were in contact with those envelopes. But there are still several unanswered questions as this investigation continues.

"We've seen this around the FBI and the U.S. and we take it seriously," said Charles E. Regan, assistant special agent in charge of the Birmingham field office. "We assume it's somebody who's got a vendetta against someone for whatever reason, so that's how we address these."  

The FBI says the 9 letters had different postmarks, but were all postmarked in the state of Alabama and investigators now believe the sugar-filled mailings came from the same source.

Senators Shelby and Sessions, along with Representatives Bobby Bright, Jo Bonner, and Mike Rogers all received letters. It was one of 3 addressed to Sen. Shelby that was discovered in the Vance Federal Building in Birmingham Sunday.

The rest were found Monday, including 2 addressed to Rogers that were discovered at the federal courthouse in Anniston.

"Until we find out differently, we treat this as a bad product," said Anniston's assistant fire chief David Collins. "Nobody was ever in any danger."

FBI agents say even though the letters now appear harmless, it's a reminder of the need for federal buildings to keep security tight.

"You gotta take certain precautions with what comes in this building and other federal buildings and you train that their mail should be handled in a certain way, but sometimes we get lax and forget about those security protocols that we should be doing," Regan said.

The FBI office in Birmingham will take the lead on this investigation and says it does have leads it is pursuing to find who sent these letters.

White Powder Found In Detonated Package In New Zealand  (Xinhua, 1/5/2010) 

    WELLINGTON,NZ -- A suspicious package that was detonated at New Zealand South Island's Christchurch District Court on Tuesday morning was full of white powder and was being treated as a hazardous chemical, police said.

    Army experts detonated the suspicious package, which led to the evacuation of the court and surrounding buildings.

    The package, wrapped up in duct tape and with wires coming from it, was found on level two of the court building about 11 a.m.

    About 60 people were ordered to leave the building while bomb experts traveled from Burnham Military Camp.

    The area and surrounding streets remained cordoned off on Tuesday afternoon.

    Environmental Science and Research (ESR) had been contacted and would be analyzing the powder to determine what it was, a southern police communications spokesman said.

Powder Mailed To UCI Professors Harmless  (Orange County Register, 1/4/2010)

Irvine, CA--The  mysterious white powder that was mailed to two UC Irvine professors on Monday, along with the words ‘Black Death,’ was a harmless, though still unidentified, substance, campus officials said today.

The powder sent to sociologist Cynthia Feliciano and chemical engineer Nancy Da Silva turned up negative for biological, chemical and hazardous agents during testing, said Cathy Lawhon, UCI’s media director.

“They were not able to determine exactly what the powder was, but did determine that there were no toxins,” Lawhon said.

Authorities must now figure out “why the letters went to these two professors, what the motive was, and who sent them,” Lawhon said.

Neither professor has responded to emails requesting comments about the incident, which wasn’t disclosed to the campus community at large until almost 5 hours after the first envelope arrived.

UCI is open today, and there has been no next about additional letters, Lawhon says.

The incident began about 11:30 a.m. on Monday when Feliciano opened a standard-sized envelope and discovered a small amount of  an unidentified white substance, Lawhon said. That set off a chain reaction in which parts of two major buildings were evacuated, the structure’s air and heating systems were turned off, health and safety workers were called in, the FBI began an investigation, and students and staff were told not to open mail that seemed unusual in nature.

By 8:30 p.m. Monday, the Orange County Public Health Department had determined that the powder in an envelope sent to Feliciano, an expert on race and immigration, was not a biological or chemical agent, and that it did not appear to be harmful. The department apparently made the same determination about an envelope sent to Da Silva, who specializes in molecular biotechnology, especially the areas of pharmacology and biofuels.

The university says it does not know why either professor was targeted on the first day of the winter quarter. And it’s unclear whether the UCI incident was related to the distribution of similar envelopes to lawmakers in Alabama. Experts determined that the powder in the Alabama letters was harmless.

About 4:30 p.m. Monday, UCI sent out an email alert (read text) that said, “Today two faculty members located in Social Sciences Plaza B and Engineering Tower received envelopes through campus mail containing unidentified white powder and messages including the words ‘Black Death.’

“UCI Police, Environmental Health and Safety, OC Fire Authority Hazardous Materials Services, federal authorities and Orange County Health Department responded. No one was harmed and the material is currently being analyzed. We expect result shortly.”

When asked why UCI waited almost five hours to send out the advisory, Lawhon said, “Probably because the first envelope was thought to be an isolated incident. The second envelope wasn’t opened until about 2 p.m., and then it was determined that this might be something the campus needed to worry about.”

Students were instructed to avoid emergency vehicles while the Orange County Fire Authority and other agencies worked at the two buildings to determine what had happened.

Feliciano,who is married to UCI criminologist Geoff Ward, said on her Facebook page Monday afternoon that she “”is quarantined after opening an envelope containing some white powder and the word’s ‘Black Death.’ Not a great start to the quarter.’ “

It’s also unclear whether this is a prank related to the Feb. 26th release of the movie, “Black Death.” The Internet Movie Database sums up the movie’s plot by saying,  “Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village.”

No one has come forward to claim responsibility for the incident, which began in late morning, shortly before a small group of students was about to stage a protest of recent increase in student fees. There has been growing student unrest at Irvine and other UC campuses over the fee hikes, which has forced some students to take fewer classes, delay graduation, and/or take out more student loans to pay for their education.

Letters Prompt Anthrax Scares Across Alabama  (AP, 1/4/2010)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Envelopes containing white powder set off anthrax scares in five Alabama cities, shutting down two federal courthouses Monday and trapping a congressman in his office as authorities tested the substance.

No one was injured, and investigators said at least five of the letters — all sent to the offices of senators or congressmen — were believed to be from the same source.

None of the letters tested positive for anthrax or other hazardous substances, but officials didn't immediately say what they contained.

Authorities said letters containing white powder were sent to the Mobile and Foley offices of Republican Rep. Jo Bonner, who was forced to remain with staffers in the Mobile office while officials tested the substance.

"Each letter contained a small bag with a white powdery substance, and neither of these bags were opened," said Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Bonner.

The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service said letters also were sent to the offices of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers and U.S. Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby in Montgomery. FBI spokeswoman Angela Tobon said all the letters sent to the lawmakers' offices appeared to be from a common source.

Two more letters were sent to the federal courthouse in Anniston, and another letter was found at a federal courthouse in Birmingham, where an employee doing extra work found the first envelope Sunday at the Robert Vance Federal Building.

"It wasn't anything that was dangerous," said Dr. Donald Williamson, head of the Alabama Department of Public Health.

With the Vance building already closed through Wednesday as a precaution, authorities were called to the federal courthouse in Anniston on Monday morning after mysterious powder was found in an office there, prompting another shutdown.

"We did sample it and test it, and it came back negative for a hazardous material," said Anniston Fire Chief Bill Fincher.

Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby said the letter found at Bonner's office there tested positive for "a very common household product," but he wouldn't elaborate. The letter apparently was delivered last Thursday and sat unopened during the long New Year's holiday weekend.

"From what we are hearing that's consistent with some of the other cases," he said.

Williamson said tests would be conducted to determine the exact nature of the powder. Five people who were exposed to the powder in Birmingham were given antibiotics as a precaution.

Postal inspector Tony Robinson said the agency was offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Anniston is about 65 miles east of Birmingham in northern Alabama; Montgomery is in the central part of the state; and Mobile and Foley are on the coast.

Letters Prompt 7 Anthrax Scares At Alabama Courthouses, Offices Of Senators And Congressmen  (AP, 1/4/2010)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— Envelopes containing white powder have prompted at least seven anthrax scares across Alabama.

The FBI said Monday that five letters were sent to the offices of senators or congressmen. One was sent to U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner's office in Mobile, and another to his office in Foley. Letters were also sent to the offices of U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright of Montgomery, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions and U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby.

The federal courthouses in Anniston and Birmingham also were closed following the discovery of powder in envelopes or letters there.

Tests have shown the powder wasn't anthrax, though officials haven't said what it was.

An FBI spokeswoman in Mobile, Angela Tobon, says the letters delivered to offices in Montgomery, Mobile and Foley are believed to have come from the same source.

Robert S. Vance Federal Courthouse Closed After Anthrax Scare  (WBRC, 1/4/2010)

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Business at the Robert S. Vance Federal Courthouse in Birmingham is on hold for the next two days.

Police say an employee catching up on paperwork Sunday found an envelope containing a powdery substance.

Authorities blocked off streets in downtown Birmingham as firefighters in protective suits searched the building.

The building will be closed today and tomorrow while the substance is tested.

ESPN Analyst and Son Receive Death Threats from Texas Tech Fans  (Gather, 1/3/2010)

In a scenario of fandom gone wrong, Texas Tech fans have become would-be terrorists.

Craig James, a respected ESPN sports analyst has sought police protection after he and his son, Adam, received death threats.

The threats came from the controversial firing of Texas Tech (Red Raider) head coach, Mike Leach.  Allegedly, Coach Leach confined Adam James in an electrical shed after he complained of suffering a concussion.

James was a wide receiver for Texas Tech.  Apparently, he became a sore subject of Leach who called his football play "lazy".  He also said that James' father lobbied for his son to receive more playing time.

Leach also commented that Adam criticized his coaches.  And, his firing was a result of the player "getting back at him".  In an exclusive ESPN interview, Leach accused the elder James of using his celebrity to curry favors for his son.

Since his dismissal, Coach Leach supporters emerged from every nook and cranny.  A "Team Leach" contingent included over 41,000 members.  Many of them attended last night's Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio (TX).  They booed and cursed Adam while he participated in practice drills with his team.  Adam was flanked by bodyguards the entire night.

So far, the James family received phone harassment, hate mail sent to their residence and vile, death threats by alleged "Team Leach" extremists.

There has been no word yet on if Adam James planned to leave Texas Tech.

Woman Charged With Mail and Voice Threats Against Wyoming Representative  (The Hill, 1/1/2010)

A woman who threatened to kill Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R) in a voice mail message last year could face up to 15 years in prison.

A U.S. District Court charged local resident Jennifer L. Casebolt with three felonies on Wednesday, one of which stems from a series of harassing phone calls she made to Lummis' office throughout 2009.

According to court documents, first reported Thursday by the Casper Star-Tribune, Lummis allegedly left one message in particular threatening the congresswoman's life.

"You want the f*** same old mother f*** story. I'll get it to you right after I f*** murder you!" Casebolt allegedly said in the message, according to court documents.

Casebolt also faces two other charges, stemming from accusations she mailed a letter containing a suspicious white powder to a local judge last year. The substance was later determined to be harmless.

Bomb Squad Called To California Post Office  (KGO, 1/2/2010)

EL SOBRANTE, CA -- An East Bay post office was shut down for more than three hours Saturday following a report of a suspicious package.

The El Sobrante post office was evacuated at 9:15 after someone noticed a box with no return address and no postage, left outside the door.

The bomb squad was called in. They scanned the box and found out it was harmless.

The post office was reopened at around 12:30 Saturday.