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FBI Examines White-Powder Letters Sent To D.C. Schools  (Examiner, 5/7/2011)

Washington, DC--District emergency response crews, police, and the FBI's Washington Field Office are investigating suspicious letters containing powder showing up at at least 7 schools in the city.

More than three dozen letters sent to D.C. schools containing a suspicious white powder and references to al Qaeda are being analyzed at the FBI's Virginia lab before officials ship them to Dallas, where a larger investigation is unfolding.

In Quantico, Va., agents are conducting additional tests to identify the powder, which is apparently nonhazardous, that caused several District schools to evacuate or lock down on Thursday and Friday. Forensic analysts will review the 39 letters, postmarked from Dallas, before sending them to Texas.

"We would like to catch him yesterday," said Mark White, a special agent in the FBI's Dallas office. "The investigation here will look at [the letters] for similarities and try to match them up to letters of the same type, and find clues based on what's on the letter itself and on the envelope."

White said the FBI has been working "very closely" with the U.S. Postal Service since the letters first surfaced, but declined to give details.

Last August, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the sender's capture after dozens of envelopes containing white powder and referring to terrorism were mailed to religious organizations and businesses around North Texas. Additional letters turned up in Austin and Lubbock in Texas, and Chicago.

In October, several D.C. schools and dozens in Houston received similar letters.

The Bureau is not sure when the spree began. "If they're associated, we're talking years, not weeks," said White.

Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI Washington Field Office, said D.C. schools are the only recipients the FBI was aware of on Thursday and Friday. No new letters were received Saturday, FBI and D.C. police officials said.

The sender typed the school's addresses onto white seals and affixed them on envelopes with no return address. The letters read "AL AQEDA-FBI" and were coated in roughly two pill capsules worth of white powder, according to individuals who received them.

Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday evening that "there is a plan in place" to keep these letters arriving at schools, but declined to elaborate on details.

After 29 letters sent D.C. emergency squads rushing around the District on Thursday, six more schools received letters on Friday, and the post office intercepted an additional four.

"We do not characterize it as a prank," said James McJunkin, the assistant director for the FBI's Washington office. "What they have done is commit a serious criminal offense."

Pennsylvania Woman Pleads To Threatening Neighbors And Pre-School  (The Mercury, 5/7/2011)

WEST CHESTER, PA — The prosecutor assigned to the case of a West Pikeland woman who sent harassing letters to her former neighbors and who also mailed a bomb threat to a Uwchlan pre-school on Thursday credited the work of a township police officer in solving the unusual, but frightening, case.

Assistant District Attorney Michelle Frei said that were it not for the efforts of Uwchlan Officer Diane Ahern, the identity of the author of the threats might still be unknown and the victims might still live in fear.

Ahern’s dogged police work, Frei told Common Pleas Court Judge Howard F. Riley Jr., “has finally made them feel safe again in their neighborhood.”

Frei made her comments during a brief hearing in Riley’s courtroom at which Susan Meyers, the author of the letters, pleaded guilty to charges of terroristic threats, stalking, and threatening to use weapons of mass destruction. In exchange for her plea, Meyers, 53, was sentenced to four years probation.

None of the people to whom Meyers sent the letters, over a period of two years between February 2008 and August of 2010, attended the hearing, although they were made aware of it and the sentence that Meyers would receive, Frei said.

The prosecutor told Riley said that she had spoken “at length” with all those concerned, but that they told her they “want to have no contact with (Meyers.) They did not even want to see her here today.”

A visibly shaken Meyers said little during the 15-minute proceeding, answering Riley’s questions about her decision to plead guilty in a hushed and choked voice. Trembling and frequently wiping tears from her eyes and sniffling, she was accompanied in court by her attorney, Thomas Ramsay of Lionville, and her husband, Dr. Fred Meyers, a noted Downingtown physician.

Standing at the podium in front of Riley, dressed in a modest tan suit with her dark hair pulled back in a bun, Susan Meyers carried with her a piece of paper from which she intended to read a statement of apology and remorse, but was not given the chance, Ramsay said afterwards.

“She intended to apologize and tell the judge how really bad she feels about what she did to her family, and to the other families involved,” Ramsay said. He noted that Meyers had previously written letters of apology to each of her victims, as part of the diversionary sentencing program she initially was accepted into.

In April, Meyers was approved for entry into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, which allows first offenders to have their criminal records erased if they complete a probationary period and other court supervised requirements. That decision, however, was rescinded by the District Attorney’s Office when the person overseeing such approvals, First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Carmody, was informed of the bomb threat by a reporter.

Carmody said he had not known of the charges involving the bomb scare, and that Meyers would not have been accepted for ARD if he had.

According to the facts as presented by Frei, Meyers mailed a total of 13 anonymous letters to people who she knew from the years she spent living with her husband and two sons in the Century Oaks development in Lionville. The letters contained obscenities and threats, warning the recipients to “watch your back” and telling them, “You deserve what’s coming to you.”

In addition, Meyers sent a letter to the Great Beginnings Christian Pre-School, which her children had attended previously, stating that there was a bomb hidden in the school. The letter was sent to coincide with an anniversary reunion the school celebrated in November 2008, Frei said.

Suspicious Package Containing 'White Powdery Substance' Brought To Massachusetts Police Station Turns Out To Be Herbs And Spices  (The Republican, 5/6/2011)

SPRINGFIELD, MA -- A section of Pearl Street was closed for several hours Friday evening after a woman brought a package she deemed suspicious to Springfield police headquarters.

The contents of the package -- an envelope placed inside a plastic bag -- were not immediately known, but officials later determined that the envelope contained "herbs and spices," Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger said.

As a precaution, a section of Pearl Street -- stretching south from the northern end of the police station parking lot to the corner of Spring Street -- was closed to traffic around 5:30 p.m. Friday. Motorists on Byers Street also were not allowed to enter Pearl Street. The closures remained in effect as of 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Initial reports from the scene indicated the envelope may have contained a white, powdery substance, but those reports turned out to be inaccurate. Several recent incidents in Massachusetts, including a similar scare at the Franklin County Courthouse in Greenfield earlier this week and powdery substances sent to government officials in Boston, have prompted extra vigilance by public safety officials.

Similar to the anthrax-related threats -- perceived or actual -- in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, this week's killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan is apparently sparking similar incidents. The substances mailed in the Massachusetts cases turned out to be benign.

In the case of Friday's incident at Springfield police headquarters, however, a language barrier apparently made it difficult for the woman, a Somali native, to communicate with police. The woman brought the package to police after receiving it in the mail, Leger said.

Somehow, though, the envelope wound up on the sidewalk outside police headquarters, prompting the facility to be closed to the public as members of the Springfield Arson & Bomb Squad took X-ray images of the package.

An initial field test conducted by Team 4 of the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services Hazardous Materials unit determined that the envelope's contents were harmless. The items were expected to be sent to a state laboratory in Boston for further testing, Leger said.

Authorities at the scene had no information about the woman, including her name, age or address.

Luz Rodriguez, 27, of Liberty Street, had planned on filing a police report around 6:30 Friday evening, but red tape declaring, "Danger: hazardous materials, do not enter," prevented her from entering the Pearl Street facility.

"I just don't know what's going on," she said, before leaving without filing the report.

WMD Experts Agree That Bioterror Is Leading Threat To The U.S.  (Bio Prep Watch, 5/6/2011)

When asked what the chief threat facing the United States was, 250 weapons of mass destruction experts agreed it was bioterrorism, according to retired Colonel Randall Larsen, director of The Institute of Homeland Security.

While the killing of Osama bin Laden is dramatic and laudable, Larsen said that bin Laden had many followers and that in a fractured al-Qaeda there are many more leaders, according to TimesHerald.com.

Larsen said that a nuclear attack is not the number one hazard facing the United States. It takes billions of dollars to develop nuclear weapons and the containment process of identifying nuclear material and locking it down has met with considerable success.

On the other hand, the costs of preparing a biological attack can be relatively low, between $50,000 and $100,000, TimesHerald.com reports. Likewise, the expertise needed to produce them can be gained in a couple of years of graduate school.

Larsen said that biological weapons can be produced in America with no need to smuggle in dangerous and necessary parts and equipment. Massive damage could be caused with little more than a pickup truck and a $400 sprayer. Two to five pounds of anthrax could expose 380,000 people.

Stopping such an attack would be so difficult that many observers operate under the impression that it is only a matter of time before the United States suffers an attack, TimesHerald.com reports.

To Larsen, the key to defending against such an operation is a quick ability to diagnose victims, the provision of safe and effective vaccines, and a national capacity to take care of many people in a short amount of time.

An estimate of the nation’s readiness conducted last year was not optimistic, and the cost to prepare against such a threat, or even a naturally occurring pandemic, would be high. But, according to Larsen, doing so is more central to the United States’ protection in the future than in building expensive nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

White Powder Letters Spook Washington As Anthrax Attack Recalled  (International Business Times,  5/6/2011)

Nearly 30 schools in Washington DC have received envelopes containing a mysterious white powder and with ‘AL AQEDA-FBI’ written on them, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday. Preliminary testing has proved that the powder was not harmful, the FBI has said.

Though recent incidents of letters with mysterious powder have passed without harming anyone the modus operandi is powerful enough to spook people who witnessed the 2001 deadly anthrax mailing attacks. The anthrax attack had killed five people close on the heels of the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda.

The Star-Telegram reported that stamps on the letters were cancelled on May 2, triggering speculation if the incident was prompted by the killing of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center said in a release that at least six letters were postmarked from Dallas. They contain a white powder which is similar to the content of letters sent to schools in District of Columbia in October 2010.

The head of the FBI's Washington field office said addresses on the envelopes were typed out. The letters were addressed to the schools, not individuals. The report also quotes an official as saying that the white powder had the consistency of cornstarch.

Envelopes containing mysterious white powder had been sent to the governors of Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Rhode Island in 2008. An FBI investigation found that the suspicious material was not hazardous.

Also in November 2008, a temple in Los Angeles, which was at the site of a gay rights protest, received a white powder envelope. A clerk, on whose hands the powder spilled while opening the letter had reported no signs of illness in that incident.

Oklahoma Man Pleads Guilty To False Hoax After Mailing White Powder To District Attorney   (AP, 5/6/2011)

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma man has pleaded guilty after officials say he mailed white power to the district attorney in Comanche County.

The U.S. attorney for the western district of Oklahoma says 41-old Lloyd Alan Cooper, of Lawton, pleaded guilty this week to conveying a false hoax threat to the Comanche County District Attorney's office.

An indictment alleges that Cooper mailed white powder to the district attorney in November along a note that read, "GOD HELP US."

Cooper faces up to five years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines. He could also be required to pay restitution.

His sentencing hearing will be set in about 90 days.

A spokesman for U.S. attorney Sanford Coats says Cooper is in custody. Cooper's attorney, Susan Otto, declined to comment.

More Suspicious Letters Retrieved From D.C. Schools  (Washington Times, 5/6/2011)

The FBI is investigating six additional letters containing a white powdery substance that were sent to D.C. schools and received Friday morning, after at least 29 similar letters were recovered on Thursday.

Investigators from the Washington Field Office are working with D.C. police and fire officials and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to look into the letters. No hazardous substances were found in the mailings and no one has been harmed, officials said.

Schools began reporting that they had received the letters around midday Thursday. The addresses were printed, not handwritten, and addressed to a school and not an individual, the FBI said.

The FBI said each item will be analyzed by an approved regional lab before it is transported to the FBI’s Laboratory at Quantico, Va.

“Experts there will perform a variety of tests in an effort to determine who sent the letters and whether the letters are linked to any other pending investigation,” the bureau said in a statement.

Authorities think the letters were sent from the Dallas area and “are similar in style and content to other suspicious letters under investigation by Dallas FBI and U.S. Postal Inspectors.” The materials are also similar to letters received at D.C.-area schools in October 2010, according to the FBI.

There has been no indication the suspicious letters are connected to word of Osama bin Laden’s death, as the letters were already in the mail at the time of the announcement, an FBI spokesman said.

Schools that received letters on Friday morning are: Bancroft Elementary School and Dunbar High School in Northwest, Anacostia Senior High School in Southeast and Drew Elementary School, Prospect Learning Center and the Choice Academy at Brentwood Parkway in Northeast.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray has called the mailings “a dastardly act.”

Letters With White Powder Sent To D.C. Schools; Substance Not Thought To Be Toxic  (Washington Post, 5/5/2011)

Washington, DC--The FBI, police and paramedics scrambled throughout the District on Thursday afternoon chasing reports of letters containing a suspicious white powder and mailed to 29 D.C. public schools in all quadrants of the city, authorities said.

Initial tests found no toxic substance in the items that arrived in office areas and mailrooms, and “no students have been in danger at any point,” said Pete Piringer, a spokesman for the D.C. Fire and EMS Department. Piringer said that as of late Thursday afternoon, nobody at the locations had to be treated or taken to a hospital.

He said that officials at one of the schools, having heard about incidents elsewhere, saw a similar letter in the incoming mail but did not bring it inside the building.

D.C. officials said Thursday evening that the schools that received the letters will open on time Friday.

The FBI was collecting letters from the scenes, according to spokesman Andrew Ames. Ames also said that the powder did not appear to be dangerous but could not say what it was.

The envelopes, which were mailed from Dallas, had typewritten labels with the addresses of each school and a letter containing the words “AL AQEDA-FBI,” according to an alert the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center sent to D.C. agencies.

The letters are identical to ones D.C. schools received in October 2010, the center said.

The letter sent to M.C. Terrell Elementary School in Southeast Washington appears to have been mailed Monday afternoon, according to a photo of the envelope appearing in the alert.

At a Northwest Washington school, the suspicious letter arrived in a white business envelope that contained a single sheet of typing paper and was delivered to the school along with other Postal Service mail, said an administrator.

Another letter, sent to School Without Walls in Northwest Washington, also arrived in the U.S. mail yesterday, said Linwood Jolly, the school’s PTA president, who was in a meeting with Principal Richard Trogisch when the letter was opened about 2:15 p.m.

Jolly said the letter contained about a pill capsule’s worth of white powder.

Suspicious Package Causes Evacuation Of Spokane Newspaper Offices (Spokesman-Review, 5/5/2011)

Spokane, WA--Hundreds of The Spokesman-Review’s employees were evacuated this afternoon after someone brought a suspicious package into the lobby of the downtown building.

The Explosive Disposal Unit responded and determined the package was not a threat.

According to newspaper officials, the incident occurred at approximately 2:50. A woman entered the front door and placed the package the size of an empty toilet paper roll on the front desk. She said someone outside told her to give the package to an unnamed reporter, then she ran out of the building. The package was wrapped in a blue business envelope.

The guard who received the package took it to the building’s loading dock, following the company’s protocol.

Update: 37 D.C. Schools Receive Letters With White Powder  (Examiner, 5/5/2011)

Washington, DC--The number of D.C. schools receiving letters containing a powdery substance and referencing al Qaeda has increased to 37, the FBI said Friday.

Several District schools evacuated on Thursday when 29 of the letters bearing a Dallas postmark were opened in school mail rooms or administrative offices. "This morning, we've collected eight more letters," said Andrew Ames, an FBI spokesman.

Earlier Story: The FBI has started an investigation into letters containing a white powder with references to al Qaeda that were received by at least 25 Washington schools -- causing several of them to evacuate their students.

Although no one was harmed, the bureau said the matter was being treated as a "serious criminal offense." The letters are believed to be linked to similar mailings to schools across the nation in recent weeks, and the FBI is concerned the threat is escalating.

"Just because we have no [dangerous substance] so far, the concern is that that would change," said James McJunkin, an FBI field office chief.

Calls poured in to the police beginning at noon Thursday, when M.C. Terrell Elementary School staff opened a letter containing the powdery substance. The envelopes bore a Dallas postmark, and the schools' addresses were typed and affixed on labels.

"AL-QAEDA-FBI" was typed in the center of a plain white sheet of paper covered in the white powder.

Linwood Jolly, president of School Without Walls parent association, was meeting with the principal at 2:15 p.m. when the Northwest school's secretary opened the letter. Jolly said the envelope contained "maybe two large medicine capsules' " worth of powder, which got all over the desk. The words "AL-QAEDA-FBI" were typed in the center of the white page.

Students were evacuated and the secretary was evaluated on-site, Jolly said.

Pete Piringer, spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said they determined the substance does not pose "an immediate safety hazard" and that no students were harmed or transported for treatment. The letters were contained to mail rooms and administrative offices.

The FBI is collecting the letters and analyzing the powder; officials say they have been investigating similar letters arriving at schools nationwide.

Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said "there is a plan in place" to prevent any more of these letters from arriving in schools, but declined to elaborate.

Mayor Vincent Gray said he is "sure there will be efforts now to try to intercept mail before it gets to the schools." He called the mailings "a dastardly act."

Eve Stubsman, a teacher at Southeast's Ballou Senior High School, said the school went into lockdown about 3:05 p.m., shortly before the final bell, and that students were released about 10 minutes past schedule. "We looked outside the classroom window and there were hazmat teams," she said.

Lafayette Elementary was on lockdown from about 2:30 to 3 p.m., when officials deemed the coast clear. "Who knows why anyone does these things," said Dan Aladjem, co-president of the Northwest school's parent organization. "I guess some people find it funny. ... It's really not funny."

Hazmat Responds To White Powder At Michigan Prison  (WNEM TV5, 5/5/2011)

FREELAND, Mich. -- TV5 has gathered details on why hazardous-materials crews and the Michigan State Police were called to the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland.

A white powder and threatening letter were found in the facility's mail room Thursday afternoon, forcing it to be evacuated.

Officials are now saying the powder wasn't hazardous, but they're not saying whom it was addressed to.

Mysterious Powder Sparks Evacuation At Utah Federal Building  (Standard-Examiner, 5/5/2011)

OGDEN, UT-- The James V. Hansen Federal Building was evacuated Thursday after an envelope addressed to the IRS was found to contain an unknown powder.

Approximately 200 employees were evacuated from the building at 324 25th St. and sent home. A handful were kept in the building and decontaminated by hazardous materials teams wearing hazmat suits with air tanks.

The FBI is in charge of the investigation.

Debbie Dujanovic Bertram, spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City FBI office, said in an email Thursday evening that a field test of the substance by the Ogden Fire Department was "negative for any radiological substances." Biological testing is being conducted at a lab, and no one in the area where the substance was found has experienced any symptoms.

The incident is the second of its kind in the area in a week. On Friday, a white powdery substance was found at an IRS building in Farr West. The substance turned out to be harmless.

Chad Porter, of the Forest Service office on the third floor, said an email advised workers the white powdery substance was on the sixth floor in an IRS office and gave employees the option of leaving.

Then an alarm sounded and the building was evacuated, he said, with everyone sent home on administrative leave.

Bertram said all of the employees who were quarantined inside the federal building had been or were in the process of being released from the scene and sent home as of 4:30 p.m. The incident was reported at 12:27 p.m.

Suspicious Letters Mailed To DC Schools From Dallas Address  (WFAA, 5/5/2011)

DALLAS, TX - More than 20 letters that contained a white, powdery substance delivered to District of Columbia schools on Thursday are similar to those mailed to schools elsewhere in the U.S. over the last several weeks, the FBI said.

The letters were mailed from a North Texas post office, so now the Dallas-Fort Worth office of the U.S. Postal inspection Service is part of the investigation.

"At this point, they are still at the lab for testing," said Amanda McMurrey, U.S. Postal Service Inspection. "So, the presumptive has been negative. They are screened on sight. At this point, there is no sign of any hazardous material, but to followup that presumptive test it will go to the lab and that will take up to three days."

The letters included the words "FBI,"  "al-Qaida" and "U.S.A.," which makes them similar to letters mailed in 2008 to Gov. Rick Perry and several other governors. Those case remain unsolved. It is too early to say if those letters share the same source that led to alarm Thursday. Mailing such letters is a felony offense and there is a major reward for anyone who can help solve the case.

"This is generally considered an act of terrorism or hoax terrorism," McMurrey said. "There are a variety of charges the United States attorney could bring, and they bring  five to ten years per charge."

Law enforcement sources told ABC7 News that all the letters appear to contain the same contents. One of the officials said it had the look and consistency of cornstarch. No one was injured by the powder. Authorities don't know if the packages came from the same sender.

The envelope at the School Without Walls contained white powder in a folded sheet of paper. It stated "al quaida, fbi, usa" and was from North Dallas, Texas.

Michigan Police Say Saginaw Correctional Facility Prisoner Attempted To Mail 'Suspicious White Powder' With A Threatening Letter  (The Saginaw News, 5/5/2011)

TITTABAWASSEE TWP., Michigan — The mysterious white powder and “threatening letter” that led to the evacuation of the Saginaw Correctional Facility mailroom in Tittabawassee Township about 9 a.m. Wednesday came from an inmate, state police investigators say.

“Alert prison officials intercepted the letter which had not yet been circulated beyond the prison grounds,” state police officials said in a Wednesday evening press release.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Hazardous Materials Response Unit and teams from five municipal fire departments said preliminary analysis of the substance indicates it “did not contain any known hazardous materials or pose immediate danger.”

A state police detective is investigating the matter and was not available Thursday.

It is unknown who the package was addressed to and what the threatening nature of the letter was.

The Saginaw Correctional Facility, located at 9625 Pierce in Tittabawassee Township, houses over 1,200 level I, II and IV prisoners.

Chechen Charged With Terrorism For Letter Bomb  (AP, 5/4/2011)

COPENHAGEN– A Chechen-born man was charged with terrorism by Danish prosecutors Tuesday for allegedly preparing a letter bomb that had likely been intended for a newspaper known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Denmark's top prosecutor Joergen Steen Soerensen said Lors Doukayev had wanted to “seriously frighten the population” and destabilize the country.

The explosive device went off as Doukayev was assembling it in a Copenhagen hotel last September. It was filled with steel pellets and contained triacetone tripe oxide, or TATP, which terrorists used in bombs that killed 52 people in London in 2005.

Doukayev, a boxer born in the Russian republic of Chechnya and currently a resident of Belgium, received cuts on his face. No one else was injured.

Doukayev was arrested in a park near the hotel shortly after the small blast.

If found guilty he faces a life sentence, though generally this is reduced in Denmark to 16 years in prison. A trial is set to start May 16.

Denmark's intelligence service has said that Doukayev was likely operating alone and was not part of a wider network.

Four men were arrested in Copenhagen on Dec. 29 on suspicion of planning a shooting spree inside the Copenhagen offices of the Jyllands-Posten.

Some Not Surprised By Powder Scare In Massachusetts  (WWLP, 5/3/2011)

GREENFIELD,MA-- Some say a scare like the white powdered envelopes found around the state is not surprising after a big terrorism news story.

Three envelopes found around the state were tested on Tuesday after suspicious material was found on them.

The offices of Sen. Scott Brown and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley each received a letter with white powder.

A third was found at the Franklin County Court House just before noon.

All three tested negative for hazardous materials.

The FBI, state police, and a state hazardous materials team contributed to the investigation.

Lawyer Timothy Flynn says that he was told to evacuate the Franklin County Courthouse just before noon.

"At first we were just told we had to leave the first floor, they blocked everything off and eventually took everyone's name and number and said that there was a white powder found in the clerks office," said Flynn.

However some expected these kind of scares around the country.

"I expect that all the cuckoo's are going to come out of the woodwork with the news we just got about Osama Bin Laden," said Jisele Thompson who works around the corner from the courthouse in Greenfield.

The first white powder scares began after 9/11.

Other big news events like the shooting at Virginia Tech also brought fake scares, and bomb threats.

Deputy Chief Strahan says they see more calls after a tragic or terrorist based news event, but not always because there are more incidents.

"We see an increase in what we call an awareness calls," said Strahan. "People being more aware of their surroundings, and reporting suspicious activities, after 9-11 with the white powder scare we received several white powder scares."

He says they have to take every threat seriously.

The substances found at the three locations were sent to a lab for more testing.

Cash4Gold Customers Told Gold 'Lost In Mail'  (WPTV, 5/3/2011)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - When you put something in the mail, you trust it will get to its destination. But that’s not always the case.

My investigation uncovered dozens of claims of lost or stolen mail sent to one Florida post office that delivers jewelry mailed to the popular gold buying company Cash4Gold, based in Pompano Beach.

If you’re unfamiliar with Cash4Gold, they claim on their website to be the world’s #1 buyer of precious metals direct from consumers.

They ran an ad in the Super Bowl a few years ago featuring M.C. Hammer and the late Ed McMahon.

But some remember Cash4Gold for a different reason.

“I saw the commercials and the spokesperson was Ed McMahon and M.C. Hammer, so I felt trustworthy with this company,” said Audrey Paulus of Chino Valley, Arizona.

Audrey says she sent about $1,000 worth of gold jewelry to Cash4Gold. But she says when her check never arrived, she got worried and called the company.

“They said it never reached their facility,” Paulus said.

Cash4Gold claims to have thousands of satisfied customers. But an investigation found Audrey wasn’t alone in her claim. Klaron Grigsby, who works in sales in Fort Lauderdale, says she was told the same thing.

“The gentleman told me, “Oh, we haven’t received that,” Grigsby said.

And there’s more.

“They indicated that it was probably lost or damaged by the United States Postal Service,” said Susan Bruck, a farm worker in rural New York.

“I absolutely believe it was stolen. There’s no question about it,” said Bill Nichols, a trailer salesman in Modesto, California.

My investigation uncovered 94 Cash4Gold customers across the country who were all told their jewelry was lost in the mail, and no one seems to know where the gold went.

“Somewhere along the line, something’s going wrong here,” said John Zajac of the Better Business Bureau.

Zajac said it’s rare to see so many complaints of stolen or lost mail involving one company.

“They don’t care who’s responsible. The customers just want to be paid for their gold,” Zajac said.

But I wanted to find out who’s responsible.

I packaged up six pieces of gold jewelry and put it in the envelope provided by Cash4Gold. After mailing it, every phone call placed to the company ended with the same answer: that the package was still in transit.

After several weeks and several calls to both Cash4Gold and the post office, it was clear that our envelope- and the jewelry inside- had vanished, too.

Online tracking of the package shows it reached a post office in Miami and a mail processing center in Pembroke Pines, but it never actually reached Cash4Gold in Pompano Beach.

Some customers who lost their jewelry weren’t surprised.

“The envelopes are very, very visible. I would imagine that the temptation is very strong when that’s passing through a postal worker’s hands that they’re going to open that envelope,” said Klaron Grigsby.

All the jewelry sent to Cash4Gold ends up at a post office box at the post office in Pompano Beach. The U.S. Postal Service says it is investigating accusations of mail theft relating to Cash4Gold. USPS wouldn’t answer questions on camera because the investigation is still open.

In a statement, Sam Montalvo of the USPS’ Office of the Inspector General said, “The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General has yet to identify a postal service employee committing the alleged thefts."

The story doesn’t end there. In addition to the post office investigation, I uncovered an online posting by a fired Cash4Gold employee. Cash4Gold sued her to get the post removed, claiming her statement was false and her intention was to get revenge on the company.

In the post, detailed in court documents, former employee Michele Liberis wrote, “There have been times when we have received your package and misplaced or lost it at the facility. We claim to not have received the items and even try to convince you that it was lost in the hands of the USPS."

Cash4Gold did not respond to numerous efforts to hear their side of the story. They referred us to a public relations company which declined to comment. But their commercials say they are safe and reliable.

At Cash4Gold’s processing center in Pompano Beach, there are no windows or even signs showing what business is housed inside. The company’s website says there are armed guards and metal detectors inside to prevent theft.

It’s not clear where the missing gold is, and who is responsible. “It was either somebody in the postal system or somebody at Cash4Gold,” said Bill Nichols.

What is clear is that close to 100 Cash4Gold customers still feel victimized. “I lost hope. I know I’m not going to get anything,” said Audrey Paulus.

Cash4Gold offers some customers $100 if their gold is lost. Most of the victims say that doesn’t come close to covering the price of their gold. The company says any customer can pay for additional insurance for their gold.

The US Postal Service is still investigating the missing gold. They claim they have taken action which has reduced the problem, but won’t say what the action is.

Hoboken Police Respond To Beeping Sound Coming From Mailbox  (The Jersey Journal, 5/3/2011)

Hoboken, NJ--Police said they responded to a beeping sound coming from a mailbox on Washington Street last night.

The beeping caused a brief bomb scare and the Jersey City bomb squad was called last night to investigate, police said.

The beeping came from a package that contained a Blackberry. An alarm reminder on the phone went off, police said.

The squad used a robot to open the mailbox and retrieve the package, said Juan Melli, a spokesman from Mayor Dawn Zimmer's office.

Police said they did not know who mailed the package.

White Powder at Illinois Court Sends 28 People to Hospital  (Fox News, 5/3/2011)

ELGIN, Ill. -- Illinois authorities were investigating Tuesday after nearly 30 people were sent to the hospital when a mysterious white powder fell out of an envelope at a courthouse outside Chicago.

Twenty-eight people were sent to the hospital as precaution following Monday's incident in Elgin, Ill., about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Chicago.

The powder was accompanied by a letter claiming that the substance was anthrax and was aimed at killing judges, The Chicago Tribune reported. It was sent by an inmate at a local prison.

"As I was brushing it, I saw what the gentleman had wrote and just froze and said, 'Um, guys, I have an interesting letter,'" employee Jennifer Gonzalez told the paper.

All 28 of the people sent to the hospital were in the courthouse at the time, but none exhibited any symptoms, the report said.

Police do not think the incident was connected to the killing of  Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden early Monday morning in Pakistan.

Powder-Filled Letter Sent to Illinois Court Came From Downstate Prisoner  (Chicago Courier News, 5/4/2011)

ELGIN — A threatening letter filled with white powder that turned much of Elgin’s Civic Center in knots Monday apparently came from a prison inmate, police announced Tuesday.

But all signs pointed to it being harmless, even though it prompted authorities to shut down the 2nd District Appellate Court building downtown and require people who had been inside to go through a decontamination process.

The letter was opened by a clerk in the appellate court at 55 Symphony Way about 11:20 a.m. Monday. Within an hour, streets in the area had been cordoned off and jammed with ambulances and fire department hazardous-materials equipment from 15 fire departments. TV news helicopters from Chicago circled overhead.

Thirty people — 25 courthouse employees plus two police officers and three firefighters who may have been exposed to the powder — were held in quarantine for hours. They then were stripped of their clothing, scrubbed with decontaminating sprays, and taken for examination to Sherman and Provena Saint Joseph hospitals in Elgin and St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

Elgin police spokeswoman Sue Olafson said medical personnel determined that none of the 30 people had been harmed and that all were sent home by evenings’s end after being checked over.

Quick chemical tests done at the scene showed the powder did not contain anthrax germs, botulism poison or Ricin poison. However, the identity of some of the substances in the powder remained a mystery even as of Tuesday night and probably will not be known until an FBI lab finishes testing the powder by Thursday evening, Olafson said.

Until those final tests are finished, the courthouse will remain closed as a precaution, she said.

Olafson confirmed that the letter arrived at the courthouse via the U.S. Postal Service and had been sent from what she described as “a correctional institution in southern Illinois.” According to one report, Appellate Court Clerk Bob Mangan said the letter came from Tamms Correctional Center and said its writer wished death for all judges.

Tamms includes a “super max” wing built in 1995 to house the state’s toughest, most dangerous prisoners. “Offenders approved for placement at the Tamms C-Max have demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to conform to the requirements of a general population facility,” the Illinois Department of Corrections website states.

Olafson would not confirm that Tamms was the source and would not reveal what the letter said. But she did say that fire, police and FBI officials on Monday concluded the message represented a “credible threat.”

Prosecutors: Prison For Man Who Faked Mail Bomb Murder Attempt, Threatened Fraud Victims  (Seattle Post Intelligencer, 5/4/2011)

Seattle, WA--When investigators arrived at Kevin Williams’ Chehalis home in 2007, they didn’t quite know what to make of the man who’d miraculously survived an attempt on his life.

Williams, an unemployed logger and self-styled private investigator, said he’d been standing next to his mailbox when it exploded.

The bomb sent chunks of mailbox more than 100 feet, and Williams knew why it was planted. He’d learned too much about an eight-figure Ponzi scheme, and those behind it were out to get him.

The truth was, a federal jury found four years later, that Williams’ story was complete nonsense.

He’d planted the bomb in a desperate effort to scam victims of the Ponzi scheme out of more money. He threatened them, and, federal prosecutors contend, was prepared to carry out those threats.

“In his odyssey from marijuana-smoking and methamphetamine-using unemployed logger to fraudster and extortionist, Williams threatened to kill, injure, destroy or harm” dozens of people, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Reese Jennings told the court.

Williams’ attorney described him as a delusional man, one in the thralls of drug abuse who posed no threat to anyone but himself. Williams, the attorney told the court, promised to solve the D.B. Cooper disappearance – a long-unsolved skyjacking that occurred in Washington – if he couldn’t crack the Ponzi scheme.

For his part, Williams, 46, has since apologized, in a way, for his actions, offering his “deepest apologies to each and every individual directly and/or indirectly involved with this case.”

On Friday, a federal judge in Tacoma will decide how long Williams should spend in prison. Prosecutors have asked for 10 years; his attorney has suggested one year in custody would be sufficient.

'It was all a lie'

Following a jury trial, Williams was convicted on nine counts, including three counts of wire fraud and possession of a pipe bomb.

In the summer of 2007, Williams was unemployed and logging a Chehalis property he’d promised to buy when he became obsessed with a massive, Atlanta, Ga.,-based pyramid scheme that was coming apart.

The International Management Associates scheme led by one Kirk Sean Wright targeted the wealthy and professional athletes, as well as smaller-time investors. Among the latter were Williams’ brother-in-law and stepmother.

All told, Wright’s scheme is thought to have cost his victims $90 million, Jennings told the court. Wright killed himself in 2008, hanging himself on an improvised rope in his jail cell.

According to the prosecution’s version of events, Williams decided he could, and should, make some money off the International Management Associates prosecution.

Williams contacted fraud victims, attorneys handling the hedge fund’s bankruptcy and the FBI demanding money in exchange for information that supposedly “solved” the case, Jennings told the court.

“The truth, it turned out, was that Williams had nothing to offer,” Jennings told the court. “It was all a lie.”

Speaking with Wright’s victims, Williams said the FBI, bankruptcy trustees and their attorneys were trying to fleece them as Wright had. He did so, the prosecutor said, in the hope that they would pay him the money he believed he was owed for his work on the case.

Williams went so far as to recast himself as a private investigation – he changed his business license from firewood sales to the Eye for and Eye Foundation. His answering machine message, which reflected his new profession, ended with “the right people love us, the right people respect us, and the right people fear us.”

“Williams lied about who he was, what he had done, his expenses, and made other false, inflated, and wild claims to his victims,” Jennings continued.

A few of Wright’s victims turned to Williams, who turned on any who expressed disbelief in his claims. Per the prosecutor’s description, Williams “browbeat” the desperate people and called them names.

What he didn’t find, though, was anyone willing to pay him upfront for the information he claimed to hold on International Management Associates’ hidden assets.

His finances in trouble, Williams was unable to pay for the Chehalis property were he was living and was in danger of being kicked off the land. His solution – described by Jennings as “delusional, desperate, and dangerous – was to stage an assassination attempt.

“Williams hoped that, by staging the assassination, the FBI and others would be convinced that the information he offered for sale was so powerful that members of a shadowy conspiracy to kill him rather than allow him to sell the information,” Jennings told the court.

With an assist from others living on the Chandler Road property, Williams contrived to detonate a pipe bomb on the property and then report it as a failed hit on Williams. His friends would support his statements to police; in return, he’d take them to Atlanta to pickup the payment that would be forthcoming after the assassination attempted established his bona fides as a tipster.

If the fraud victims still wouldn’t pay, Williams planned to acquire a cane gun – a single-shot pistol concealed in a cane – dress as a priest and kill one in a restaurant, Jennings told the court.

Williams also instructed one of his conspirators to kill his brother-in-law, the prosecutor said, as Williams was convinced he was standing in the way of his payday. They would all then flee to Belize.

On Oct. 21, 2007, Williams lit off the pipe bomb in a mailbox in front of his home.

Story unravels

Lewis County deputies and U.S. Postal Service inspectors responded to the scene; by then, Williams had cleaned up the bomb parts. According to prosecutors, Williams friends initially stuck to the story that Williams had been the victim of a bombing; a TV news crew arrived and recorded Williams posing with an assault rifle while spinning fiction of an attack on him.

Three days later, investigators arrived at Williams’ home and, believing he had been the victim of an attack, set about searching the area as well as his home. Agents found a “zip” gun – an illegal, single-shot weapon that is essentially a firing chamber and short length of tube – and confiscated it.

Agents grew suspicious in the weeks that followed after Williams threatened to shoot down a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office airplane and pointed a rifle at a process server, Jennings told the court.

Analysis of Williams’ clothing failed to support his claim that he’d been blown back when his mailbox exploded. More tellingly, investigators determined that the explosion would have killed or injured Williams if it had occurred when he was standing at the mailbox.

At trial, prosecutors successfully argued Williams also continued trying to shake down victims of the hedge fund fraud without success. Frustrated, Williams sent increasingly threatening messages to the fraud victims.

“Believe me gentlemen, I won’t wait for karma to come to you, I’ll bring (it) to you myself immediately,” Williams wrote, according to prosecutors’ statements. “So you all better start paying attention to everything around you because hell is soon to be in full session.”

In April 2008, Williams was arrested in Atlanta with guns and bomb-making supplies, Jennings told the court. There, he attended Wright’s trial for several days until he was arrested and subsequently charged with federal firearms crimes.

Williams was subsequently convicted on the gun charges and sentenced to probation as the prosecution was launched in Washington.

A 'paranoid drug user' or a threat?

Convicted at trial earlier this year of three counts of wire fraud, various firearms crimes and an extortion-related offense, prosecutors have asked that Williams be sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

“The United States submits Williams is a dangerous man, a danger to the community, and someone who has no respect for the law,” Jennings told the court.

“Williams’ scheme was real, and it was undeniably violent,” the prosecutor continued. “Williams built a bomb, blew up his mailbox, lied to law enforcement, accused innocent people of committing a crime he himself committed, and then tricked law enforcement into conducting an extensive investigation.”

Writing the court, defense attorney Phil Brennan noted that Williams had lived a relatively uneventful life prior the summer of 2007, when he began using drugs heavily.

The resulting paranoia and delusions prompted him to concoct an outlandish scheme, Brennan continued. In seven months, Williams changed from a “good citizen” into a “paranoid drug user.”

Brennan noted that Williams demanded the FBI give him a new motorcycle if he solved the hedge fund fraud. If he failed to do so, he would provide investigators with help solving the D.B. Cooper case.

The attorney noted that Williams’ has led an “exemplary” life since he was convicted on firearms offenses in Atlanta. While on probation, his attorney told the court, Williams has not run afoul of the conditions set out by the court.

“He presents no danger to the public and warrants a sentence that involves minimal jail time, to be followed by the same type of supervision that he has proven himself capable of satisfying,” Brennan told the court.

Writing on his own behalf, Williams apologized for the trouble caused by the prosecution and portrayed himself as a person who was once an upstanding member of his community.

“I will forever be ashamed and embarrassed by the crimes that I was charges with,” Williams told the court.

“I offer my deepest apologies to each and every individual directly and/or indirectly involved with this case,” he continued. “I apologize for any purposeful disrespect or unpurposeful disrespect that was directed at anyone involved with this case.”

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced Friday morning by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan. He is not currently jailed.

Suspicious Letters With Powder Sent To Massachusetts Attorney General and Senator’s Offices (Bostonist, May 4, 2011)

Boston, MA--Police and hazmat teams were busy yesterday as two suspicious letters were delivered to the offices of Attorney General Martha Coakley and Senator Scott Brown. Both letters were enclosed in envelopes with a "white powdery substance" within an hour of each other. The substances, in both cases, were harmless.

Coakley's office, located at the John W. McCormack Building One Ashburton Place, got the first envelope and authorities arrived around 11:20 a.m. An hour later, Brown's office at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building.

The letters were similar. “Looks like the same type of handwriting, so it’s probably the same scribble inside with whatever threat,” said Dist. Chief Dennis Costin of the Boston Fire Department.

A third envelope with suspicious powder on it was found at the clerk's office in Franklin County Court House in Greenfield. It, too, tested negative for hazardous materials.

Reports of this kind are common after significant terror-related events. "I expect that all the cuckoo's are going to come out of the woodwork with the news we just got about Osama Bin Laden," said Jisele Thompson of Greenfield.

U.S. Official Warns Of Bio Terror Despite Bin Laden Death  (Xinhua, 5/5/2011)

WASHINGTON-- Terror kingpin Osama bin Laden was dead already, but the threat remains that extremists could still launch biological attacks on the public, a U.S. official told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"There is no doubt that al Qaida will continue to pursue attacks against us," said Ambassador Laura Kennedy, U.S. special representative for biological and toxin weapons convention issues.

In spite of bin Laden's death, Kennedy said the United States must continue to remain vigilant across the spectrum of possible methods that extremists might use to wreak havoc.

Among those are bio weapons, which can be constructed with little specialized knowledge and without costly facilities and infrastructure, she said.

"You can develop bio agents using very simple laboratories," she said. "So you don't require a huge elaborate infrastructure, as you would to develop a nuclear weapon."

"Very simple capabilities will do, that are available around the world. So indeed bio terrorism is a real threat and one that we take very seriously," she said.

Ricin, for example, is a toxin derived from the readily available castor bean, and extremists have attempted to use it in the past. In the early 1990s, for example, members of the Minnesota Patriots Council acquired the substance and allegedly planned to use it against federal officials.

DANGEROUS AGENTS, BUT CAN THEY BE DELIVERED?

Some experts, however, said that while bio weapons may be fairly simple to construct, disbursing them is no easy task.

Global intelligence company Stratfor said on its website that although it is possible for non-state actors to develop and deploy biological agents and toxins, they are more likely to employ relatively simple and proven methods of attack --such as firearms and explosives --than some exotic weapon.

Moreover, manufacture of biological agents using low technology most often yields small amounts and minimally potent products. Truly weaponized biological agents produced and prepared in quantities great enough for deployment as a weapon of mass destruction require much more sophisticated labs and weaponization facilities than most non-state actors or lone wolves can ever create in their garages or storage sheds, Stratfor argued.

Kennedy, however, contended that a bio attack could take many forms. It could be relatively low tech and result in a limited number of casualties. Or it could be a sophisticated operation that produces tens of thousands of deaths.

But since a terrorist's objective is to terrify the public for the purpose of garnering political concessions, even an attack resulting in limited casualties could be damaging.

It could, for example, have harsh economic consequences, such as those that followed the 2001 anthrax attacks, Kennedy said. Some figures showed the damage to be in the billions of U.S. dollars.

AUTHORITIES FACED WITH TOUGH TASK

For authorities, the challenge is how to thwart bio attacks when the materials needed for deadly biological weapons are readily available worldwide, even in high school laboratories.

"There's been an explosion of knowledge and development in the bio area, so it's very hard to keep track of," Kennedy said."You may think you have a handle on it, but then new things are engineered and new techniques are developed at quite a dizzying pace."

And given the massive movement of people and goods around the world, there will be a greater need to deal with pandemics and bio threats wherever they occur, she said.

One of the most successful bio weapons attacks in the United States was conducted by the Bhagwan Shri Rashneesh cult in Oregon in 1984. Members put salmonella bacteria in grocery store produce and in local salad bars and restaurants. The operation left more than 700 people sick and was meant to prevent voters from getting to the polls in an election in which one of the group's followers was running.

BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

Kennedy also said the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is one forum that aims to take on the issue through international cooperation on a number of fronts. The next BWC meeting is slated to take place in Geneva in December.

Hazmat Teams Respond to Suspicious Mail at Senator Scott Brown’s Office  (Boston Herald, 5/4/2011)

Boston, MA--A hazmat team responded to the Boston office of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown yesterday afternoon after a white substance was found in an envelope.

Preliminary test results show the substance not to be a threat, yet further testing will be conducted, according to Boston police.

The discovery was made at 12:30 p.m. The room at the 15 Sudbury St. office where the substance was found was secured and the office was not evacuated, said Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. The hazmat team was on scene about an hour.

Earlier in the day, a receptionist in Attorney General Martha Coakley’s 20th floor office at One Ashburton Place also opened an envelope containing a white powder, Driscoll said. The substance did not pose a threat, she said.

“(Yesterday) morning, our office received through standard mail a letter that contained a white, powdery substance,” Coakley said. “Initial field tests have been conducted and the results do not indicate that the substance poses a risk. In an abundance of caution, additional testing will be conducted.”

Hazmat Situation at County Courthouse in Massachusetts Triggered by Suspicious Substance  (CBS 3 Springfield, 5/3/2011)

Greenfield, MA--The State Hazmat team and the FBI are on the scene of a hazmat situation at the Franklin County Courthouse in Greenfield. Mayor William Martin says an unknown substance was found inside the courthouse this afternoon. The state Hazmat team is on-scene trying to determine what exactly that substance is.

The courthouse has been placed on lockdown. Anyone inside the building is not allowed to leave and only a restricted few are being allowed to enter the building.

FBI and Mass state police are on scene coordinating statewide activities and efforts. Local police and fire are coordinating the scene.

Canada Post Building Evacuated After Workers Complain of Sickness  (AM1150 Newswire, 5/3/2011)

Kelowna, BC, Canada--Canada Post is not expecting any delay to mail service in Kelowna because of Tuesday mornings incident.

Kelowna Assistant Fire Chief Jason Brolund says they got a call about a number of people complaining of sickness.

From there a Hazmat team was sent in to investigate the Canada Post building on Baillie Avenue.

"We came to learn that the postal carriers are routinely issued animal spray, as a part of their work. It's our suspicion that some of the spray may have been discharged inside the building."

Brolund says the risk was considered low but they always treat incidents like this very seriously.

Kathi Neal, a communications Manager with Canada Post says they were fortunate that the situation was handled so well.

"Luckily the emergency responders came on site so quickly and did a thorough investigation. So we felt comfortable to allow our employees back in a round 10am Tuesday morning. Now they did lose some work time, however we really are not expecting any delays of mail at this time."

Neal says two letter carriers were taken to hospital but both have been discharged and no one was hurt.

2 Suspicious Letters Delivered To Boston Buildings  (WHDH, 5/3/2011)

BOSTON, MA -- Crews responded to two different office buildings in Boston after reports of suspicious letters - one where Attorney General Martha Coakley's office is and the other where Senator Scott Brown's is.

Late Tuesday morning around 11:20, police and hazmat crews responded to the John W. McCormack Building One Ashburton Place.

Authorities saying a letter containing a white powdery substance arrived at Coakley’s office.

About an hour later just a few streets away there was the same story. This time, the letter with the white powder was delivered to Senator Scott Brown’s office on the 24th floor on the John F. Kennedy Federal Building.

“Looks like the same type of handwriting, so it’s probably the same scribble inside with whatever threat,” said Dist. Chief Dennis Costin of the Boston Fire Department.

In both cases the powder tested to be harmless. Authorities say though, with the recent killing of Osama bin Laden, this is not a surprise.

The public seems to agree, but people are certainly frustrated.

“That is despicable to use the events of 9/11 or bin Laden to make good on some sort of grudge,” said Chuck Mather.

“I don’t think it necessarily draws out terrorists, it draws out crazy people,” said Marc Dobrusin.

At both locations no one was evacuated or needed medical treatment. But certainly people felt uneasy, and emergency resources were held up for what appears to be a hoax.

“Obviously state and federal agencies are going to have to be extra vigilant at this time,” said Edward Farwell.

The powder has been sent to the state lab for further testing. Officials are saying that they will not be surprised if this kind of thing happens again.

Mysterious Powder Closes Illinois Courthouse  (Sun-Times, 5/3/2011)

ELGIN, IL — The FBI will test a mysterious white powder that resulted in 28 people being held first inside a downtown Elgin building for hours Monday afternoon, then stripped of their clothing, washed down and sent to local hospitals to be examined.

No one was known to have been injured or sickened by the powder, authorities said.

The incident began about 11:20 a.m. when a clerk inside the 2nd District Appellate Court building, at 55 Symphony Way, opened an incoming envelope that turned out to be filled with a white powder. Court officials summoned the Elgin fire and police departments, who cordoned off the area, called in more hazardous-materials equipment and personnel from as far away as Aurora, and summoned a fleet of ambulances from fire departments all over the area.

City public safety spokeswoman Sue Olafson confirmed that the envelope had been delivered by the U.S. Postal Service and contained a letter stating what Fire Chief John Fahy described as a “credible threat.”

Olafson said initial testing by Elgin’s hazmat (hazardous materials) team judged that the powder did not include anthrax germs, Ricin poison or botulism poison. However, the FBI lab requires 72 hours to test such material completely, so as a precautionary measure, the courthouse will be closed for the next three days.

By late afternoon, the 28 people who had been inside the building were decontaminated by a series of washes. Then they were dressed in a material resembling green garbage bags and taken by the fleet of ambulances to Sherman and Provena Saint Joseph hospitals in Elgin and St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates to be checked out “just as a precaution,” Olafson said.

None showed signs of illness, she said.

Fahy said that during the preliminary testing, the test for at least one substance came back as inconclusive, which made the aggressive response necessary. He said the detection equipment tests for 80,000 different substances.

“I am hoping it is coffee creamer,” Fahy said.

Fahy said the incident fell under FBI jurisdiction because “this is a weapons of mass destruction” incident due to the inability to determine what one of the substances is.

Three people at a time were taken from the building and walked to a MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) hazmat decontamination truck, where they turned over all the clothes they had been wearing and were given fresh clothes.

All emergency responders who went into the building also were decontaminated in outdoor showers.

At Provena Saint Joseph Hospital, spokeswoman Heather Gates said 10 patients arrived. “They all will go through our detoxification protocol and then will be placed in a separate room and kept separate from the general patient population” so that if they were contaminated with some poison or germ, it would not spread, she said. However, Gates said Monday evening that none showed symptoms of illness and that the last patients transported there were being released about 7 p.m.

It was a similar story at Sherman Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Priester said 14 to 18 patients had been expected.

“They basically arrived wearing garbage bags, so the first thing we did was to change then into hospital scrubs, which are a little more comfortable,” Priester said. “Then they’re being given something to eat and drink.

“They seem like a lively crowd. No one seems to be ill, and they will probably be released after doctors and nurses check them out,” Priester said early Monday evening.

She said the Sherman patients were being treated in the emergency room, but were being separated from other patients by a curtain.

Hazardous material situations stemming from powder-filled letters are nothing new to Elgin. Fahy said firefighters respond to the JPMorgan Chase credit card facility on Randall Road for similar instances several times a year. The difference between those events and the one Monday was that the courthouse substance was not immediately identified.

Elgin also responded to a hazmat situation in February when residents of an apartment building at 1131 Ash Drive, on the city’s far-east side, complained of a chemical odor in the building. That was determined to be cayenne peppers that, when cooked, became a choking aerosol.

The closure of Symphony Way and Grove Avenue the downtown caused some problems for the nearby Hemmens Cultural Center and The Centre of Elgin. According to Hemmens director Butch Wilhelmi, he was expecting a few hundred children and parents for a dance recital rehearsal about 4 p.m. Those people were directed to the city parking lot at Highland and Douglas avenues, or to the city parking garage.

Olafson said it is unlikely the incident had any connection with the death of terror leader Osama bin Laden, since any envelope delivered by the postal service Monday morning must have been mailed before bin Laden’s death was announced Sunday night.

Suspicious Powder Sent To Australian Tax Office  (Canberra Times, 5/2/2011)

Canberra, AU--The Australian Taxation Office has faced three ''white powder'' scares in six months but defends its approach to mail security.

About 700 workers were evacuated from the Penrith office after an envelope containing suspicious powder arrived in October.

The same office was targeted in February, with staff forced to leave the building for about three hours after an unidentified white powder was found in an envelope.

The third incident occurred a few weeks ago when a packet containing white powder was discovered among tax papers sent to the Albury office.

A spokesman said, ''The ATO has been using specialised mail opening and processing services for several years,'' he said.

''These services have processes in place to deal with suspicious mail items. These processes were developed and are implemented under the guidance of the relevant emergency and law enforcement authorities. All recent incidents were identified and managed using these processes under the supervision of the relevant emergency and law enforcement authorities. We review these processes continuously to identify ways to reduce any risks to people and to minimise disruptions.''

Meanwhile, the Australian Crime Commission and Civil Aviation Safety Authority are looking to outsource mail security screening, preparing to spend up to $600,000. ''Agencies are responsible for the health and safety of employees at work,'' according to tender documents. ''This responsibility extends to situations where employees are under threat of violence because of their duties.'' The commission requires services for its Adelaide and Canberra offices, while the authority needs screening for its Canberra building.

1919 May Day Mail Bomb Plot Helped Spur 1920's Deadly Wall St. Blast  (NY Daily News, 5/1/2011)

New York City--On April 27, 1919, postal clerk Charles Caplan discovered that 16 small identically wrapped parcels were short of postage. So he set them aside, to be returned to sender, which, according to the labels, was "Novelty Samples, Gimbel Bros. 32nd St. and Broadway, New York City."

Caplan didn't think much more about them, until April 30, around 2. a.m., when he was on his subway ride home, reading the newspaper.

One story jolted him out of his seat. It told of a package delivered a day earlier to the Atlanta home of former U.S. Sen. Thomas Hardwick, of Georgia.

A maid had unwrapped the package and unleashed an explosion that shattered almost everything in the room. The survival of the maid and Hardwick's wife was considered a miracle.

What grabbed Caplan was the description of the bomb. It matched the 16 postage-due packages he had set aside. He got off the train and rushed back to the post office.

Unwittingly, Caplan foiled what would become known as the May Day Red terror plot.

Among the 36 total mail-bomb targets were J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Investigators examined the "infernal machines," and found them to be the work of sophisticated craftsmen. Seven inches long by three wide, they held a wooden tube filled with acid, which served as a detonator, and dynamite.

Targets, timing, and the construction of the bombs all pointed to the radical menace - anarchists, Bolsheviks, communists, socialists, labor groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World, popularly known as the "Wobblies."

The day itself, May 1, was significant, since for many it is an international celebration for workers. The bombs appeared to have been timed to reach their targets on that date.

"Reds planned May Day Murders," boomed headlines.

Revolution had been in the air for months, snowballing since the end of World War I. Subversives lived in the shadows, and seemed to be everywhere, from the Seattle steelyards, to the Pennsylvania coal fields, even in the drawing rooms of Park Ave. "parlor Reds." Their goal was the violent overthrow of the American way of life.

"We will dynamite you!" shrieked anarchist posters, just one of the frequent, scattered threats that had been coming through 1919. But the May Day bombs were the first sign of an organized assault on the nation and they sparked a panic, wrote Robert Murray in "Red Scare: A study in national hysteria, 1919-1920."

American leaders resolved to root out the Reds, wherever they might be.

Raids started that first day in May when about 400 soldiers and sailors crashed a party to celebrate the opening of offices for the New York Call, a socialist paper. They wrecked the office and sent a few of the revelers to the hospital. In Cleveland, riots sparked by a May Day parade claimed the life of one marcher and injured dozens.

Riots, strikes and more bombs followed. A month later, in Washington, an explosion rocked the home of U.S. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, who had been on the May Day bomb list. Palmer and his family were inside at the time of the blast, and were unhurt.

Police speculated that the bomber had tripped on the stairs leading to the house, prematurely setting off his deadly cargo. But there was really no way to confirm this, since all that was left was a hat, some bits of flesh, and a pair of mangled legs.

Similar devices, aimed at judges and politicians who were hard on Reds or organized labor, exploded in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Boston, without casualties.

One June 2, in New York, a bomb detonated at the home of Judge Charles Cooper Nott Jr., at E. 61st St., killing two people, a night watchman and a woman passerby. The explosion was unbelievably powerful. Even veterans of World War I in the nearby soldier's club said it was the loudest blast they had ever heard.

After the June round of attacks, Palmer ordered more raids, arrests and deportations of such loud-mouthed agitators as Emma Goldman, along with hundreds of dimmer Red lights. The task of compiling the list of dangerous characters went to a young attorney named J. Edgar Hoover.

In his zeal, Palmer trampled the civil liberties of ordinary citizens who just happened to express an unpatriotic thought, or whose ethnicity fell into a group deemed undesirable.

Despite the crackdown, months passed with no clues to the identity of the springtime bombers. The summer of 1920 was marked by squabbles, strikes and riots, but the worst was to come.

On the morning of Sept. 16, 1920, someone parked a horse-drawn wagon on Wall St., in front of the offices of J.P. Morgan & Co., and about 200 feet from the Stock Exchange.

It exploded at noon, killing 30 people, injuring hundreds, wrecking offices and shattering windows for blocks. In "Only Yesterday," historian Frederick Lewis Allen noted that, in the panic after the explosion, William Remick, president of the Stock exchange, calmly said, "I guess it's about time to ring the gong," and he did so, ending trading for the day.

Investigators examined every shard, splinter and fragment found in the street, and interviewed hundreds of witnesses, but came up with nothing. The most concrete clue came from the carcass of the poor horse, whose shoe was traced to a local blacksmith, but he could not recall the name of the owner.

One theory of the motive was that it was a protest against the murder conviction of Massachusetts anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. But, despite dragnets and fevered investigations, no one ever found the Wall Street bomber.

Oddly, after this most deadly explosion, the Red terror began to cool, and, in time, the country moved on. Capitalism hummed along. The morning after the bombing, the stock exchange opened as usual, and prices rose steadily through the trading day.

Previous Page 12 Next PageRiots, strikes and more bombs followed. A month later, in Washington, an explosion rocked the home of U.S. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, who had been on the May Day bomb list. Palmer and his family were inside at the time of the blast, and were unhurt.

Police speculated that the bomber had tripped on the stairs leading to the house, prematurely setting off his deadly cargo. But there was really no way to confirm this, since all that was left was a hat, some bits of flesh, and a pair of mangled legs.

Similar devices, aimed at judges and politicians who were hard on Reds or organized labor, exploded in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Boston, without casualties.

One June 2, in New York, a bomb detonated at the home of Judge Charles Cooper Nott Jr., at E. 61st St., killing two people, a night watchman and a woman passerby. The explosion was unbelievably powerful. Even veterans of World War I in the nearby soldier's club said it was the loudest blast they had ever heard.

After the June round of attacks, Palmer ordered more raids, arrests and deportations of such loud-mouthed agitators as Emma Goldman, along with hundreds of dimmer Red lights. The task of compiling the list of dangerous characters went to a young attorney named J. Edgar Hoover.

In his zeal, Palmer trampled the civil liberties of ordinary citizens who just happened to express an unpatriotic thought, or whose ethnicity fell into a group deemed undesirable.

Despite the crackdown, months passed with no clues to the identity of the springtime bombers. The summer of 1920 was marked by squabbles, strikes and riots, but the worst was to come.

On the morning of Sept. 16, 1920, someone parked a horse-drawn wagon on Wall St., in front of the offices of J.P. Morgan & Co., and about 200 feet from the Stock Exchange.

It exploded at noon, killing 30 people, injuring hundreds, wrecking offices and shattering windows for blocks. In "Only Yesterday," historian Frederick Lewis Allen noted that, in the panic after the explosion, William Remick, president of the Stock exchange, calmly said, "I guess it's about time to ring the gong," and he did so, ending trading for the day.

Investigators examined every shard, splinter and fragment found in the street, and interviewed hundreds of witnesses, but came up with nothing. The most concrete clue came from the carcass of the poor horse, whose shoe was traced to a local blacksmith, but he could not recall the name of the owner.

One theory of the motive was that it was a protest against the murder conviction of Massachusetts anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. But, despite dragnets and fevered investigations, no one ever found the Wall Street bomber.

Oddly, after this most deadly explosion, the Red terror began to cool, and, in time, the country moved on. Capitalism hummed along. The morning after the bombing, the stock exchange opened as usual, and prices rose steadily through the trading day.

White Powdery Substance On Envelope Causes Alarm For New Jersey State Office Workers  (Times of Trenton, 5/1/2011)

HAMILTON, NJ -- A worker with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services' office in Quakerbridge Plaza found a white powdery substance, later identified as a mixture of powdered sugar and cream of wheat, on an envelope Friday.

The discovery led to the office being quarantined while officials with the Hamilton and West Windsor hazardous materials squads went to the office, off Quakerbridge Road, to analyze the substance.

The call came to Hamilton police at about 12:50 p.m., said Walt Bronek, the township's office of emergency management coordinator.

"We secluded the envelope and called for a hazmat team to come out to the scene," he said. "We isolated everyone in the building until we could make a determination."

It took authorities about two hours to isolate the substance and test it with their equipment.

"It came up as a cream of wheat type of oatmeal product," Bronek said. "A second envelope that was tested came up as a Pillsbury product. It could've been from a cookie, anything with a Pillsbury label and a flour base," Bronek said.

Despite the relative harmlessness of the product, Bronek said the state workers did the right thing by calling police.

"It raised a concern with the employees because they're used to receiving envelopes without any marks or stains," he said. The state advises employees to notify the local authorities in such cases.