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Oregon Bank Bombing Trial Testimony: 'There, I Got It' Were Trooper's Final Words  (The Oregonian, 9/30/2010)

SALEM, OR -- With no sound to accompany the video taken by surveillance cameras inside a Woodburn West Coast Bank, the images on the afternoon of Dec. 12, 2008, seem almost festive.

Three police officers are crowded around a green metal box in front of the lobby fireplace. Poinsettias, a Christmas tree and other holiday trimmings decorate the bank. A woman watches the group from a short distance away.

The video stops.

If the footage had sound, viewers would hear Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim banging on the box with a hammer, trying to pry open the top of what he believed to be a hoax bomb.

Hakim declared, "There, I got it," recalled Laurie Perkett, an assistant manager at the bank. She was turning away when she heard "just a loud boom."

"Oh my God," she remembered thinking. "There was a bomb."

Perkett, who was several feet away from the police officers, offered her firsthand account Thursday of what happened in the seconds before the bomb detonated. She was testifying in the second day of the aggravated murder trials of Joshua Turnidge and his father, Bruce Turnidge.

The blast occurred as Hakim was dismantling the bomb, with the help of Woodburn police Capt. Tom Tennant and Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell. The explosion killed Hakim and Tennant and severely damaged Russell's legs, forcing the amputation of his right leg.

The Turnidges are accused of planting the bomb as part of a bank robbery attempt. They could face the death penalty if convicted. The joint trials are expected to stretch into December. 

Perkett didn't realize for a while that she was injured, Although her leg hurt, it wasn't until she was talking with a firefighter at the scene that she saw her bloodied pant leg. A piece of shrapnel had cut her leg to the bone. Her positioning behind Russell may have saved her from something worse.

Marion County Deputy District Attorney Matt Kemmy told Perkett: "He sort of caught your bullet.'"

"Yes he did," Perkett responded.

In opening statements, prosecutors said Hakim didn't set off the bomb. Instead, they believe that a passing trucker talking on a CB radio may have caused the detonation.

Branch manager Ferren Taylor was also inside the bank at the time. He had briefly watched the men working on the bomb when he received a phone call from a co-worker and retreated to an office to finish the conversation.

During that three-minute call, he heard "a pop, a very fast pop," Taylor said. "And the person that I was talking to said, 'What's that?' I said words to this effect: 'That thing went off.'"

He walked into the lobby, saw smoke, smelled sulfur and then saw "destruction and body parts." He sat for several minutes in a room just off the lobby. He didn't know if he was in shock, but "I was surely stunned."

The blast sent Woodburn Sgt. Nick Wilson and Sgt. John Mikkola running into the bank. The two had been checking the outside for other suspicious devices when they heard the boom and saw a flash of light. Smoke poured from the building, Wilson testified. Inside, the couches and furniture had been blown out of place and the windows were broken.

Wilson first saw Hakim's body, recognizing it by the pants he had been wearing. It was under a couch or a chair, he recalled, choking up and crying several times during his testimony.

He knew Hakim was dead and continued his search.

Wilson saw another body, but was unsure who it was and headed outside briefly, where he saw Perkett and determined she was all right. Then, he went back in and with Mikkola, they found their police chief on the ground, his right leg nearly shorn off from the blast and his other leg bleeding profusely.

Wilson took off his belt and wrapped it around the chief's left leg. Russell didn't respond for a while, but eventually clenched his fist and tried to sit up. Mikkola prevented him from getting up, as the two tried to assure him that everything would be all right.

Police had been relatively unconcerned about the 20-by-20-inch box when it was  discovered earlier in the day.

They had responded that morning to the Wells Fargo Bank next door to West Coast Bank. Wells Fargo teller Karen Valadez had reported a call from a man, who told her in a calm, deep voice:

"If you value your life and the life of your employees, you need to get out because I am going to kill you," she testified.

Valadez said the man told her that she and the other employees were to go to the garbage area, where they would find a cell phone and he would call with further directions. He also said he would be calling or had called neighboring West Coast Bank.

Valadez waved over her manager, who told her to hang up. Valadez ended the call -- apparently before the caller could make a demand for cash -- and told her manager about the threats. The bank then notified police.

The call was "etched" in her mind, she said. The caller didn't use slang and his choice of words, such as "proceed," made her think he was educated. She added that he didn't have an accent and sounded "older" such as in his late 30s or early to mid-40s.

Police found the metal box outside West Coast Bank's east wall. It looked like a utility box or something that belonged to the bank's landscaper. Bank officials said they would contact their two landscapers to see if it belonged to either of them.

It stayed outside until mid-afternoon. Perkett hadn't heard back from one landscaper and took a look for herself at the box. She got her manager, Taylor, to also look at it. He tipped it on its side and saw the bottom had been hollowed out. Strips of metal had been welded along the bottom. He could see a white motorcycle battery and some wires.

The bank called police again, and after confirming with the other landscaper that the box didn't belong to him, police called in the bomb squad. An X-ray of the box didn't seem to help, perhaps because of the rain, Wilson said.

Hakim, the only bomb technician there, said he was confident that it was a well-done fake and asked the bank manager if he could bring the box inside.

Taylor testified that he hesitated. "I did say, 'Are you sure you want to bring it inside?'" he said. But Hakim told him he needed to dismantle it at the scene, so Taylor agreed.

There were no customers, so Taylor locked the doors and told his staff to go home early. Eventually, just he and Perkett were left, along with the officers inside the bank.

Feds Investigate Threatening Letter Sent to Kindercare  (WDTN, 9/30/2010)

DAYTON, Ohio - A federal investigation was underway, after mysterious letters started showing up at a local day care.

For the second time this month, staff at the Kindercare on North Dixie Drive reported receiving suspicious letters from an angry writer.

Butler Township officials called it a low level threat. The FBI and investigators with the US Postal Service were also involved, because the letters were coming in through the mail.

It wasn't just Kindercare, police said similar letters had gone out to agencies throughout the state.

Authorities were staying quiet over the specific contents of the letter, but they said it had nothing to do with Kindercare.

Police also said the writer did mot make any direct threats toward staff or children at Kindercare, but he did imply that a violent act "should" take place at the daycare.

Police said they did not feel it was necessay to evacuate Kindercare. They felt it was up to each individual parent as to what they wanted to do. But they did want to reassure all parents, that they were taking these letters seriously.

"The writer appears to be frustrated over an event that happened at another location. There's no direct threat of doing any harm to employees and kids you could say it's implied," said Butler Township Police Chief Danny Hobbs.

Police said the person sending the letters could face charges of inducing panic, along with other federal charges.

Right now, they were waiting for evidence to come back from the crime lab.

 ‘Death, Vengeance And Mass Murder’ Aim Of Arizona Bomb Plot: ‘Madman Martyr’ Turney Gets Small Sentence For Big Scheme  (Tucson Citizen, 9/29/2010)

Arizona man Michael Roy Turney, 62, was reportedly bent on “death, vengeance and mass murder” – and he had all the bombs, weapons and plans with which to achieve it, according to a news release from the District of Arizona’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Turney outlined his plan of mass destruction in his “Diary of a Madman Martyr,” the East Valley Tribune reports, a 97-page manifesto of sorts that outlined his scheme to attack a local electrical workers’ union hall for vengeance of his step-daughter’s death.

Turney pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of unregistered destructive devices and was sentenced this week to the statutory maximum sentence.

What’s the maximum sentence for such an alleged grand scheme to kill, kill, kill?

A paltry 10 years.

Perhaps sentencing guidelines need some exceptions for people who pen things called “Diary of a Madman Martyr.”

Turney’s hand-written notes, just one chunk of evidence police found in his house with their 2008 search warrant, put his whole plan down on paper.

He had letters addressed to family members and news outlets, the latter with cover letters explaining, “Inside this envelope you will find my last writings that may give some insight how I got to this point in life that my death, vengeance and mass murder ….”

Turney apparently believed two local union members were responsible for killing his step-daughter, Alissa, who went missing nearly 10 years ago. He claims she is buried in Desert Center, Calif.

His plan was to use his van in an attack on the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ union hall.

Turney allegedly intended to set his van on fire, barrel it into the fenced properly of the union 640 headquarters and shoot off 100 rounds of ammunition “at anyone moving.”

So many explosives were in his home police evacuated 21 nearby residences during the search.

Turney’s collection of mass destruction included 29 explosive devices, consisting of three incendiary devices and 26 pipe bombs.

The smaller pipe bombs were packed with gunpowder and steel shot while the largest of the lot, a pipe 2-feet long with a 6-inch diameter, also contained roofing nails.

An ATF agent, who called Turney’s cache one of the largest pipe bomb seizures in Arizona, said packing the bombs with steel shot and roofing nails “was consistent with someone intending to increase the lethality of the explosive devices and cause death or serious physical injuries to his intended victims.”

All bombs were assembled and set with fuses.

The bombs were in good company with Turney’s collection of 15 weapons. These included an array of handguns, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles, one of the rifles outfitted with a bi-pod and double barrel magazine containing 97 rounds of ammunition.

Two illegal silencers and a ballistic vest rounded out the mix.

The van in the backyard was also set to go. It contained three full propane tanks as well as 5-gallon gas canisters full of gasoline and other flammable liquids.

If the van blew up, its additional liquids of bleach, ammonia and calcium hypochlorite (HTC), “would have been toxic and poisonous for persons within the immediate surrounding atmosphere,” the FBI Laboratory, Hazardous Materials Response Unit warned in the release.

Police found a large brick next to the van’s gas pedal, which would work to keep the van barreling forward as Turney concentrated on firing rounds at the union door and anyone or anything else in his range.

If Turney does serve the full 10-year sentence, he would be 72 when released and possibly still spry enough to carry out mass murder.

Besides, sitting in a cell for a decade may give him time to further enhance his scheme – and build up more anger.

Small sentences for potentially large crimes are reminiscent of the slap on the wrists would-be killers sometimes get in domestic violence cases.

Even if someone threatens to murder his or her significant other, the law often cannot do much until the victim is already dead.

Mum Fears For Family After Racist Hate Mail Campaign in Scotland  (Edinburgh Evening News, 9/29/2010)

Edinburgh, Scotland--POLICE are investigating racist hate mail including death threats sent to a mother-of-four in the Capital during a three-year campaign of abuse.

The 36-year-old mum, who lives in Stenhouse, today told the Evening News she fears for her safety after being sent more than 30 cards and letters racially abusing her two mixed-race children and saying she will end up "6ft under".

Police have collected the letters and are investigating the incidents, but so far the culprit remains at large.

The ex-care worker, who wants to remain anonymous, is currently looking after her newborn daughter, plus her two-year-old daughter, eight-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.

She told how she has been getting a piece of hate mail every couple of months for more than three years.

She said: "At first the cards were just directed at me. The first one I got was a Rest In Peace card that had been bought from the shops.

"But since my two youngest daughters, who are mixed race, were born I've had several letters having a go at them. This person calls my babies 'f****** n******' and says 'I'd better keep my b****** daughter out of the back garden - or else.'

"The father of my two youngest is Gambian and I get cards asking me why I have been f****** n****** and they accuse me of sleeping with monkeys."

The terrified mum described how the racist hate mail nearly always comes in a greetings card, such as a birthday or congratulations card. Sometimes they are scrawled with red and blue ink, while at other times the sender cuts letters from newspaper headlines and pastes them together to form the vile messages.

The ex-care worker has taken a number of steps to try to prevent the threatening mail arriving, including replacing her front door so that it no longer has a letter box.

She sleeps with a fire extinguisher under her bed and has changed bedrooms with her two young daughters so they are away from doors and windows.

The mum said she had "no clue" who was sending the cards.

She said: "I had no idea such vile racism existed in Scotland.

"The police say they are doing what they can and they've sent the letters away for DNA testing, but because it's not a murder investigation there is only so much they can do. It seems my life is worth more if I'm dead."

Her 16-year-old daughter said it had been "heartbreaking" to see how much her mum had changed since the abuse began. She said: "Mum says everything is fine but I know it is eating her up inside. It's so sad that my sister has to go to her grandma's to play outdoors because somebody is watching her here.

My younger brother often stays with his dad, to keep him safe."

Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that they were collecting the hate mail and appealed for anyone with any information to come forward.

A spokesman said: "Officers launched a full inquiry as soon as these incidents, many of which are historic, were reported and are urging anyone with information to come forward."

Congress Declines To Bail Out Postal Service  (Govexec, 9/29/2010)

The U.S. Postal Service has one day to meet a $5.5 billion obligation to its retiree health fund, and Congress' temporary spending bill provides the agency no relief.

In legislation introduced on Tuesday to fund government operations through Dec. 3, lawmakers decided not to grant the Postal Service a $4 billion bailout. Required by a 2006 provision to prefund its retiree health benefits at approximately $5 billion annually, USPS is the only federal agency with that obligation. Congress granted relief from the prefunding requirement for fiscal 2009, and postal officials asked for similar assistance for the fiscal 2010 budget cycle.

With one day left in the fiscal year, the Postal Service is trying to decide how to proceed.

"We're considering our options," said Gerald McKiernan, a USPS spokesman. "The matter is being discussed, and I'm not aware of any resolutions."

According to financial information submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission in August, USPS has lost $7.7 billion this year. The agency has been cutting employee work hours to reduce labor costs and said in August it was on track to eliminate $3.5 billion in costs by the end of fiscal 2010 due to process improvements. Officials, however, warned that the Postal Service could find itself strapped for cash.

"Given current trends, we will not be able to pay all 2011 obligations," said USPS Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett in August. "We can't continue to just keep losses where they are. We have to be profitable."

The Postal Service has attributed its troubles in part to declining mail volume. While the agency delivered 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, as of August it had processed just 156 billion pieces of mail for 2010. According to an inspector general report released on Wednesday, USPS will be financially sustainable until volume dips below 100 billion pieces of mail. The agency can adapt to this decline by correcting overpayments to its pension funds and implementing its 10-year strategic plan, which includes initiatives such as reducing delivery days and increasing workforce flexibility, the report said.

Iowa Man Appeals Conviction For Mailing Bomb to Former Boss  (Leagle, 9/2010)

Transcript of Complaint:  U.S. v. WORMAN

United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

John Worman, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 09-2334, 09-2594

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 16, 2010.

Filed: September 28, 2010.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge, COLLOTON and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

BENTON, Circuit Judge.

John Clark Worman challenges his conviction for mailing, possessing, and transporting a pipe bomb, citing certain inadmissible hearsay testimony and attacking the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. The government cross-appeals, arguing that the district court abused its discretion by granting Worman's motion for a downward variance. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742, this court affirms in part, reverses in part, and remands for resentencing.

I.

On June 29, 2005, someone left a package in the lobby of a rural Iowa post office. It was addressed to Paulette Torkelson, with no return address. The label displayed the name of a local antique shop she frequented. The postal clerk tried to call the shop, but the number on the label was not a working number. She then called Torkelson, who said she was not expecting a package. A postal inspector told the clerk to send the package to Des Moines for investigation. Inspecting the package, the investigator saw what appeared to be an old radio, and called the police. The police determined the package contained a bomb, which they detonated. No fingerprints were recovered from the package, radio, or bomb.

Interviewing Torkelson's coworkers at Winnebago Industries, agents focused on Worman. Torkelson was his supervisor there in the 1990s. Her negative reviews of him led to his 1994 departure after nearly 19 years with Winnebago. Just before he left Winnebago, Worman complained to company officials about Torkelson, but they dismissed his complaints (which he had kept on index cards).

Leaving Winnebago, Worman started his own business, building trailers and metal shipping racks. In 2002, he began manufacturing racks for Stitchcraft, a division of Winnebago. Worman's spouse, Shirley, was an employee of the division, and had recommended her husband to Stitchcraft's manager.

In 2004, Torkelson became a manager at Stitchcraft, supervising Shirley Worman. A year later, Stitchcraft stopped purchasing racks from Worman. One of Worman's good friends, a Stitchcraft employee, told him about rumors that Torkelson cancelled his rack-manufacturing arrangement with Stitchcraft. Two other employees had conversations about Torkelson's role in cancelling the arrangement that were likely overheard by Shirley Worman. The bomb was mailed three months after the arrangement ended.

Days after the bomb's discovery, authorities searched Worman's property. They found postage stamps matching those on the package. They recovered electronic devices, radio components, soldering guns, and drill bits. Material found in one drill bit exhibited similar physical and chemical characteristics to the back of the radio used in the bomb. Agents also seized gunpowder matching that recovered from the bomb and a small notebook with complaints about Torkelson written in 2004.

The label on the package and a self-inking stamp kit used on the package were available at a Staples store in Mason City, Iowa. According to store records, an individual shopped at the store five days before the bomb appeared at the post office, purchasing only the labels and stamp kit. Surveillance cameras showed a white truck with a topper entering the Staples parking lot before the purchase. A large white dog was inside the truck. Worman owned a white dog and large white truck with a topper.

Investigators seized Worman's truck. A fire destroyed his other vehicle the next day. He took the remains of the vehicle to a salvage yard, telling the yard's weighmaster that an electrical short caused the fire. The weighmaster relayed Worman's explanation to another salvage-yard employee. Worman told his son that the fire started after he drained the vehicle of motor oil and ran the engine to test how long the motor would last.

Investigators questioned Worman and his wife for two hours outside his home. He admitted buying labels like the one on the package and taking his dog with him on trips around town. He repeated the explanation he gave his son for the fire, adding he removed the battery and tires after the fire began and then pushed the vehicle on its side before it was engulfed in flames. A neighbor saw the vehicle engulfed in flames while it was upright. Worman also claimed no knowledge of Torkelson's involvement in cancelling his rack-manufacturing arrangement, but did not respond when his wife said that "everything had been going fine in her department until Miss Torkelson came. . . and then the racks ended."

Worman was tried for mailing, possessing, and transporting a pipe bomb, and for possessing it in furtherance of a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 1716; 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), 5845(f), 5871; 18 U.S.C. § 844(d); and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(B)(ii). Over his objections, the court admitted hearsay testimony from Stitchcraft employees that most employees at the company believed that Torkelson caused the cancellation of his agreement. The district court also admitted Shirley Worman's statement to investigators, although the court had previously denied a government request to offer evidence that she blamed Torkelson for the cancellation. Finally, the court admitted testimony by the salvage-yard employee describing Worman's explanation for the vehicle fire to the weighmaster.

The jury convicted Worman on all counts. The district court rejected his motion for a new trial. Worman appeals his conviction. The government challenges the sentence of one-month imprisonment for the first three counts and 360 months for the fourth count of the indictment.

II.

Worman contends that the district court improperly admitted hearsay evidence, and, alternatively, that the admitted testimony was unduly prejudicial. This court reviews de novo the district court's interpretation and application of the rules of evidence, and reviews the factual findings supporting evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. United States v. Barraza, 576 F.3d 798, 804 (8th Cir. 2009). To the extent Worman failed to assert any objections under Rule 403, this court reviews for plain error. United States v. Looking Cloud, 419 F.3d 781, 785 (8th Cir. 2005); United States v. Parker, 364 F.3d 934, 942-43 n.2 (8th Cir. 2004). Under plain error review, Worman must show an error, that is plain, and affects substantial rights. See Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-67 (1997). A plain error will not be corrected unless it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732 (1993).

The district court admitted, over objection: (1) the testimony of two Stitchcraft employees about rumors at the company regarding the cancellation of Worman's arrangement; (2) the testimony of the salvage-yard employee who had heard Worman's explanation for the vehicle fire from the weighmaster; and (3) Shirley Worman's out-of-court statements, made to the investigators, about Torkelson.

Hearsay is a statement, other than one made by a declarant testifying at trial, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Fed. R. Evid. 801(c). Hearsay is generally inadmissible unless it falls within an exception. United States v. Eagle, 515 F.3d 794, 801 (8th Cir. 2008).

A.

Worman first challenges the testimony of two employees about rumors of Torkelson's involvement in cancelling the rack-manufacturing arrangement. The government did not offer the testimony to establish Torkelson's actual involvement. Rather, it was introduced to show that Shirley Worman knew of Torkelson's alleged role in the termination (and lay the foundation for testimony by the good friend).[ 1 ] Because the statement was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted, it is not hearsay. See Fed. R. Evid. 801(c).

Worman contends that the testimony was highly prejudicial because it allowed jurors to attribute to him his wife's negative feelings toward Torkelson. Relevant evidence is generally admissible, but may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading of the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needlessly cumulative evidence. Fed. R. Evid. 403. This court gives deference to a district court's Rule 403 determination and reverses only for a clear abuse of discretion. United States v. Nadeau, 598 F.3d 966, 969 (8th Cir. 2010).

Before trial, the district court denied a government motion in limine to admit statements by witnesses that Shirley Worman blamed Torkelson for the termination. The court then reasoned that the statements were substantially more prejudicial than probative because Shirley Worman's thoughts provided little insight into what Worman thought or believed, invited unfair bias against him based on his wife's purported animosity, and distracted jurors from evidence that was more probative of Worman's own mental state and involvement in the offense. The district court erred when it abandoned this logic at trial. See Fed. R. Evid. 403 advisory committee's note ("`Unfair prejudice' . . . means an undue tendency to suggest decision on an improper basis, commonly, though not necessarily, an emotional one.").

Because Worman no longer worked at Winnebago, testimony about rumors there showed only that Winnebago employees, including Shirley Worman, may have believed that Torkelson helped cancel the arrangement with John Worman. The statements unfairly diverted the jury from focusing on Worman's own mental state, intent, motive, or involvement in the crime. See United States v. Adams, 401 F.3d 886, 900 (8th Cir. 2005) (describing unfairly prejudicial evidence as so inflammatory that it diverts the jury from material issues at trial). The district court was persuaded that evidence of the widespread nature of the rumors at Winnebago would serve to reinforce other evidence the government would later present: a friend of Worman's who also worked at Winnebago and heard the rumors later testified that he had shared the rumors with Worman.

However, the introduction of three different Winnebago employees' testimony on the widespread rumors in the workplace is more than cumulative — it leads jurors to infer that Worman heard about the rumors from his wife in addition to the friend, because she was also a Winnebago employee and in closer confidence with Worman than his friend. This natural inference is precisely what the district court had found unfairly prejudicial when originally denying the motion in limine. The multiple statements were, therefore, needlessly cumulative, substantially more prejudicial than probative, and erroneously admitted at trial.

Worman next claims that the district court abused its discretion when it admitted the testimony of a salvage-yard employee who had heard Worman's explanation of the vehicle fire from the weighmaster. The challenged statement was hearsay upon hearsay because the employee relayed what a coworker had told her about what Worman said. The statement is inadmissible unless each level of hearsay falls within an exception to the hearsay rule. See Fed. R. Evid. 805; United States v. Taylor, 462 F.3d 1023, 1026 (8th Cir. 2007).

Worman's statement about the vehicle fire was admissible as an admission by a party opponent. See Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(2)(A); United States v. Heppner, 519 F.3d 744, 751 (8th Cir. 2008) (providing that admission by a party opponent is not hearsay when it is offered against a party and is the party's own statement). At oral argument, the government agreed that the second-level statement, the coworker's description of Worman's explanation, was inadmissible hearsay because it was offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted and did not fall within a recognized hearsay exception.

These two evidentiary errors were, however, harmless. See United States v. Sanchez-Godinez, 444 F.3d 957, 961 (8th Cir. 2006) (discussing harmless-error review following the erroneous admission of hearsay evidence); United States v. Lupino, 301 F.3d 642, 646-47 (8th Cir. 2002) (applying harmless-error review to the erroneous admission of prejudicial testimony). An evidentiary ruling is harmless if the substantial rights of the defendant were unaffected, and the error had no, or only a slight, influence on the verdict. United States v. Crenshaw, 359 F.3d 977, 1003-04 (8th Cir. 2004). In determining harmlessness, this court considers the effect of the erroneously-admitted evidence in the overall context of the government's case. See id. Here, the government presented evidence that a good friend had told Worman about Torkelson's role in the cancellation of his arrangement. The government also offered evidence that Worman's explanation for the fire to investigators and his family was inconsistent with the neighbor's observations. Further, the government provided significant evidence about Worman's acts preceding the delivery of the bomb, his motive to attack Torkelson, and his possession of materials used in the weapon and its package. Given the weight of the evidence, the improperly admitted statements had only a slight effect on the jury's verdict. See Lupino, 301 F.3d at 647. Any error regarding the admission of the challenged statements was harmless.

B.

Worman attacks the district court's admission of Shirley Worman's statement to the investigators that "everything had been going fine in her department until Miss Torkelson came . . . and then the racks ended." Worman's only contemporaneous objection was "Objection, Your Honor. Hearsay." Because the government introduced this statement to establish motive for Shirley Worman's husband to harm Torkelson, the statement is not hearsay because its truth is not at issue. See Fed. R. Evid. 801(c). Whether things were or were not fine at Stitchcraft until Torkelson began working there, Shirley Worman's statements indicate a motive to harm Torkelson.

On appeal, Worman argues this testimony was unduly prejudicial. Because the argument on appeal differs from the contemporaneous objection, this court reviews for plain error. Looking Cloud, 419 F.3d at 785. The district court erred by admitting Shirley Worman's statement because its probative value was substantially outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, and misleading of the jury. See Fed. R. Evid. 403. Because the challenged statement established only Shirley Worman's animosity toward the victim and was not probative of Worman's own mental state, intent, motive, or involvement in the crime, the statement plainly invited the jury to draw an impermissible inference of guilt based on her beliefs and warranted exclusion under Rule 403. See United States v. Dozie, 27 F.3d 95, 98 (4th Cir. 1994) (declining to infer defendant's guilt based solely on a husband-wife relationship).

However, the error did not affect Worman's substantial rights because the statement was cumulative of other government evidence (the friend's testimony) that showed Worman knew of Torkelson's role in the cancellation. Thus, the additional evidence of motive had at most only a slight influence on the verdict. See United States v. Dominguez Benitez, 542 U.S. 74, 81 (2004) (noting that to affect substantial rights, an error must have a "substantial and injurious effect or influence" on the verdict). Accordingly, Worman has failed to meet his burden of proving plain error. See United States v. Pirani, 406 F.3d 543, 550-52 (8th Cir. 2005) (en banc) (explaining that the defendant has the burden of proving plain error, a showing that "should not be too easy" and demands "strenuous exertion to get relief.").

III.

Worman challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. The district court denied his motions for judgment of acquittal and a new trial, finding that the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction.

This court reviews de novo the district court's denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal. United States v. Cannon, 475 F.3d 1013, 1020 (8th Cir. 2007). A conviction will be reversed only if, after viewing the evidence most favorably to the verdict and giving the government the benefit of all reasonable inferences, no construction of the evidence supports the jury's verdict. See United States v. Basile, 109 F.3d 1304, 1310 (8th Cir. 1997). This standard applies even when the conviction rests entirely on circumstantial evidence. United States v. Davis, 103 F.3d 660, 667 (8th Cir. 1996).

Worman asserts that the government lacked evidence linking him to the crime and did not establish his motive to commit it. Worman argues generally that the government failed to offer direct evidence of his involvement, instead producing items of questionable evidentiary value.

At the threshold, there is no requirement that the government produce direct evidence of a defendant's guilt. See id.; United States v. Saddler, 538 F.3d 879, 886 (8th Cir. 2008) ("Both direct and circumstantial evidence can be sufficient to support a conviction."). This court neither weighs the evidence nor assesses the credibility of the witnesses. See United States v. Stroh, 176 F.3d 439, 440 (8th Cir. 1999).

Moreover, the record is replete with the details of Worman's involvement in the offense. The evidence included his possession of mailing materials like those used on the package, his ownership of tools that could have been used to construct the bomb, a surveillance video showing a similar truck traveling to purchase mailing items, his lack of an alibi at the time the package was deposited, and his conduct after learning of the investigation. The government also established Worman's motive to commit the act based on his long-standing conflicts and frustrations with Torkelson. The evidence supported the jury's verdict.

This court next reviews the district court's denial of Worman's motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Dodd, 391 F.3d 930, 934 (8th Cir. 2004). A district court on a defendant's motion may grant a new trial if the interest of justice requires. Fed. R. Crim. P. 33(a). When considering the motion, the court need not view the evidence most favorably to the verdict, but must weigh the evidence and evaluate the credibility of the witnesses. See United States v. Collier, 527 F.3d 695, 701 (8th Cir. 2008). A district court will upset a jury's finding only if it ultimately determines that a miscarriage of justice will occur. See United States v. Campos, 306 F.3d 577, 579 (8th Cir. 2002).

Worman claims that insufficient evidence and the district court's evidentiary errors compel a grant of a new trial. His argument is unpersuasive. Substantial evidence tied Worman to the illegal conduct, providing a sufficient basis for the verdict. The government offered direct and circumstantial evidence indicating a motive, linking Worman to the construction and attempted delivery of the bomb, and describing Worman's efforts to destroy evidence. This court finds no abuse of discretion in the denial of Worman's motion.

IV.

The government cross-appeals, claiming the district court abused its discretion in imposing Worman's sentence. The district court properly calculated an advisory guidelines range of 168 to 210 months for the first three counts (mailing, possessing, and transporting a pipe bomb). The court imposed a sentence of only one month for those three counts, varying downward by 167 months from the bottom of the guidelines range. It imposed the mandatory minimum sentence of 360 months on Count 4 (possessing a pipe bomb in furtherance of a crime of violence).

This court reviews sentences in two steps: first, for significant procedural error; and if there is none, for substantive reasonableness. United States v. O'Connor, 567 F.3d 395, 397 (8th Cir. 2009). Because the government does not allege procedural error, this court reviews for reasonableness under a deferential abuse of discretion standard. Id. A district court may grant a downward variance after considering the factors set out in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). United States v. Foster, 514 F.3d 821, 824 (8th Cir. 2008). An abuse of discretion occurs when: (1) a court fails to consider a relevant factor that should have received significant weight; (2) a court gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor; or (3) a court considers only the appropriate factors but in weighing them commits a clear error of judgment. United States v. Kane, 552 F.3d 748, 752 (8th Cir. 2009). A district court granting a variance from the guidelines range must ensure that its justification is sufficiently compelling to support the degree of the variance. Id.

The government asserts that the district court improperly reduced Worman's sentence to mitigate the length of the mandatory consecutive minimum sentence on Count 4. Mandatory consecutive sentences are to be imposed independently of sentences for other counts. United States v. Guthrie, 557 F.3d 243, 255 (6th Cir. 2009). The severity of a mandatory consecutive sentence is an improper factor that a district court may not consider when sentencing a defendant on related crimes. See United States v. Williams, 599 F.3d 831, 834 (8th Cir. 2010), cert. denied, __ U.S. __, 130 S.Ct. 2134 (2010).

A review of the sentencing transcript shows that the district court improperly tied the variance to the mandatory minimum. The district court began its consideration of Worman's motion for a downward variance by asking the government, "why isn't a sentence of 361 months, 30-year mandatory minimum and a variance on Counts 1, 2, and 3 down to a month so a total sentence of 361 months, why isn't that sufficient but not greater than necessary in this case?" The first reason the district court put on the record in granting the variance was "because I believe a substantial variance is necessary to achieve the overarching sentencing principle of 3553(a) which is to achieve a sentence that is sufficient but not greater than necessary." The court continued, "I think a sentence of 361 months is sufficient but not greater than necessary," and concluded, "I think all of the sentencing purposes are adequately served by a 361-month sentence."

True, the district court detailed alternative reasons for the variance, and stated that the mandatory consecutive minimum sentence was a sentencing factor that weighed in the government's favor. However, taken in context, the various statements lumping all the counts together and focusing on the total sentence demonstrate that the district court used the presence of the § 924(c) mandatory minimum to reduce Worman's sentence on the first three counts, defeating Congress's intent to enhance the punishment for using a weapon in a crime of violence. Accordingly, the case is remanded for resentencing.[ 2 ]

V.

The judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and the case remanded for resentencing.

1. The government's attorney said that "if she [Shirley Worman] was aware of that information, then that gives motive to why he [John Worman] might blame her [Torkelson] for this," and "Our argument obviously is going to be Shirley Worman knew it, and I anticipate I'm going to have a witness who's going to say, `I was also working that front office, and I shared that information with the defendant.'"

2. The government also asserts that the district court abused its discretion by giving excessive weight to Worman's age, length of marriage, lack of criminal history, and hope of release. In light of the disposition here, this court declines to express an opinion on the drastic variance in the original sentence, and the sufficiency of the justifications for it.

Iowa Man Pleads Guilty In Mail Threat  (Quad City Times, 9/28/2010)

Davenport, IA--A Bettendorf man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge that he mailed a letter to the Bettendorf Police Department threatening to injure a detective.

America Haileselassie, 32, who’s been in custody at the Muscatine County Jail since his arrest earlier this year on the charge of mailing threatening communications, was in U.S. District Court, Davenport, on Monday to change his plea.

His trial was set to begin next Monday. Sentencing will be held before Judge John Jarvey on Jan. 28, 2011.

The change of plea hearing, originally scheduled for Sept. 22, had been pushed back to 10:30 a.m. Monday. It was pushed back again to 3 p.m. Monday at the defense attorney’s request.

In a letter sent to the Quad-City Times on Sept. 21, Haileselassie wrote that he wanted to delay the case “so I can get a better understanding of this situation I am in.

“Right now, I won’t get any benefits if I plea guilty except three level reduction for accepting responsibility.”

In a follow-up letter dated Monday, Haileselassie wrote that his plea agreement “looks very attractive for me.”

The plea agreement was not available in court documents this morning.

Haileselassie sent the threatening letter to Bettendorf police on May 12, 2009, court records state.

He’s been in and out of federal prison for threatening to blow up public buildings, including a metro station in Washington in 2004.

Suspicious Envelope Prompts Evacuation Of LAPD Station; Substance Determined Harmless  (KPCC, 9/28/2010)

Los Angeles, CA--An envelope containing white powder prompted a hazardous-materials response at the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Station today, but the substance turned out to be harmless.

The scare was reported shortly before 1 p.m., with about 10 people believed to have been exposed.

Police initially had little to say about the scare, which came in the wake of demonstrations over the officer-involved shooting death of a Guatemalan day laborer, but did send an LAPD spokeswoman to the station at 1401 Sixth St.

An LAPD spokersperson said it was not known whether the envelope was mailed to the station.

Sgt. Mitzi Grasso later confirmed the substance was talcum powder. She said the station was evacuated, but the whole incident was over in about an hour.

The envelope was addressed to the secretary, Grasso said, adding nothing about the envelope was menacing.

"Fortunately, it turned out to be a small incident,'' she said.

Suspicious Package Investigated in Alabama  (WBRC, 9/28/2010)

HOMEWOOD, AL -- Homewood Fire and Rescue reported with the HAZMAT unit to the Alabama Republican Party's office on Independence Drive after dispatch received a call about a suspicious package.

There was a white substance in the package, but it has not been identified. The contents will be mailed to a state lab in Montgomery for analysis.

No injuries have been reported. The occupants of the building, including rescue personnel, underwent decontamination.

The ABI, Homewood Police, and FBI are involved in the investigation.

Eight People Indicted In Alabama On Mail Theft Charges  (The Birmingham News, 9/28/2010)

Birmingham, AL--A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted eight people, including U.S. Postal Service employees, with stealing or interfering with the U.S. mail, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In separate indictments filed in U.S. District Court, the grand jury charged five U.S. Postal employees, two employees of postal contract centers, and one man not affiliated with the Postal Service with stealing, delaying or destroying mail.

"Businesses and citizens, alike, trust and rely on the efficient operation of the mail system. Postal employees and others who abuse this system do the country a great disservice. They will be prosecuted," U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said.

U.S. Postal Service employees indicted are:

Tameka Moore Thomas, 36, of  Homewood, who worked at the Birmingham Downtown Carrier Facility. Moore is charged with stealing mail from May 2008 to March 26, 2009.

Robin Joel Bagley, 45, of Birmingham, who worked as a mail handler in the Birmingham Processing and Distribution Center Annex. Bagley was charged with delaying mail delivery and theft of mail by a U.S. Postal employee between May 28, 2009, and Oct. 8, 2009.

Jana Kay Mustgrove, 31, of Hanceville, who was a mail carrier at the Cullman Post Office. Mustgrove was charged with delaying mail delivery and theft by a postal employee, from December 2008 to June 23, 2009.

Jennifer Smith Jeffreys, 34, of Mount Hope, who worked as a rural carrier associate at the Danville Post Office. Jeffreys was charged with delay and destruction of U.S. mail and theft of mail matter by postal employee from April 10, 2010, to May 29, 2010.

Angela Denise Crummie, 51, of Tuscaloosa, who worked as a postal carrier at the Eastside Station Post Office in Tuscaloosa. Crummie was charged with delay or destruction of mail and theft of mail by a postal employee on March 18, 2010.

Two employees of U.S. Postal contract centers -- businesses that sell postal products -- were indicted. They are:

Brenda Ann Posey, 48, of Hazel Green, who worked contract unit in Huntsville. Posey was charged with theft of U.S. Postal Service funds exceeding $1,000, from Jan. 24, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009.

Carol Poole Ramsey, 51, of Huntsville, who worked at a contract unit in Huntsville. Ramsey was charged with theft of U.S. Postal Service funds exceeding $1,000 between Oct. 28, 2008 to Aug. 26, 2009.

The grand jury also indicted Raymond Earl Petty, 45, of Fairfield, who did not work for the Postal Service or one of its contract centers, on nine counts of possessing personal checks stolen from the mail between Nov. 6, 2008, and April 9, 2009.

Theft of government property is punishable by 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine. Theft of mail by a postal employee, delay and destruction of mail, and possession of stolen mail matter are punishable by a maximum five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias  (Time, 9/30/2010)

Camouflaged and silent, the assault team inched toward a walled stone compound for more than five hours, belly-crawling the last 200 yards. The target was an old state prison in eastern Ohio, and every handpicked member of Red Team 2 knew what was at stake: The year is 2014, and a new breed of neo-Islamic terrorism is rampant in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio ... The current White House Administration is pro-Muslim and has ordered a stand-down against Islamic groups. The mission: Destroy the terrorist command post — or die trying. The fighters must go in "sterile" — without name tags or other identifying insignia — as a deniable covert force. "Anyone who is caught or captured cannot expect extraction," the briefing officer said.

At nightfall the raiders launched their attack. Short, sharp bursts from their M-16s cut down the perimeter guards. Once past the rear gate, the raiders fanned out and emptied clip after clip in a barrage of diversionary fire. As defenders rushed to repel the small team, the main assault force struck from the opposite flank. Red Team 1 burst through a chain-link fence, enveloping the defense in lethal cross fire. The shooting was over in minutes. Thick grenade smoke bloomed over the command post. The defenders were routed, headquarters ablaze.

This August weekend of grueling mock combat, which left some of the men prostrate and bloody-booted, capped a yearlong training regimen of the Ohio Defense Force, a private militia that claims 300 active members statewide. The fighters shot blanks, the better to learn to maneuver in squads, but they buy live ammunition in bulk. Their training — no game, they stress — expends thousands of rounds a year from a bring-your-own armory of deer rifles, assault weapons and, when the owner turns up, a belt-fed M-60 machine gun. The militia trains for ambushes, sniper missions, close-quarters battle and other infantry staples.

What distinguishes groups like this one from a shooting club or re-enactment society is the prospect of actual bloodshed, which many Ohio Defense Force members see as real. Their unit seal depicts a man with a musket and tricorn hat, over the motto "Today's Minutemen." The symbol invites a question, Who are today's redcoats? On that point, the group takes no official position, but many of those interviewed over two days of recent training in and around the abandoned Roseville State Prison near Zanesville voiced grim suspicions about President Obama and the federal government in general. (See Obama's troubled first year.)

"I don't know who the redcoats are," says Brian Vandersall, 37, who designed the exercise and tried to tamp down talk of politics among the men. "It could be U.N. troops. It could be federal troops. It could be Blackwater, which was used in Katrina. It could be Mexican troops who are crossing the border."

Or it could be, as it was for this year's exercise, an Islamic army marauding unchecked because a hypothetical pro-Muslim President has ordered U.S. forces to leave them alone. But as the drill played out, the designated opponents bore little resemblance to terrorists. The scenario described them as a platoon-size unit, in uniform, with "military-grade hardware, communications, encryption capability and vehicle support." The militia was training for combat against the spitting image of a tactical force from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), FBI or National Guard. "Whoever they are," Vandersall says, "we have to be ready."

As militias go, the Ohio Defense Force is on the moderate side. Scores of armed antigovernment groups, some of them far more radical, have formed or been revived during the Obama years, according to law-enforcement agencies and outside watchdogs. A six-month TIME investigation reveals that recruiting, planning, training and explicit calls for a shooting war are on the rise, as are criminal investigations by the FBI and state authorities. Readier for bloodshed than at any time since at least the confrontations in the 1990s in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, the radical right has raised the threat level against the President and other government targets. With violence already up on a modest scale, FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and state agencies point to two main dangers of a mass-casualty attack: that a group of armed radicals will strike out in perceived self-defense, or that a lone wolf, trained and indoctrinated for war, will grow tired of waiting. Even the most outspoken militia commanders worry about the latter scenario. Kevin Terrell, a self-described colonel who founded a group of "freedom fighters" in Kentucky and predicts war with "the jackbooted thugs" of Washington within a year, says he has to fend off hotheads who call him a "keyboard commando." Some are ejected from his group, he says, and others are willing to wait a little longer. "You have to have the right fuel-air mixture, the piston has to be in the right position, the spark has to be perfectly timed," he says. "The day will come — sooner than later."

Within a complex web of ideologies, most of today's armed radicals are linked by self-described Patriot beliefs, which emphasize resistance to tyranny by force of arms and reject the idea that elections can fix what ails the country. Among the most common convictions is that the Second Amendment — the right to keep and bear arms — is the Constitution's cornerstone, because only a well-armed populace can enforce its rights. Any form of gun regulation, therefore, is a sure sign of intent to crush other freedoms. The federal government is often said in militia circles to have made wholesale seizures of power, at times by subterfuge. A leading grievance holds that the 16th Amendment, which authorizes the federal income tax, was ratified through fraud

In a reversal of casting, the armed antigovernment movement describes itself as heir to the founders. As they see it, the union that the founders created is now a foreign tyrant. "It's like waking up behind enemy lines," says Terrell. He says he smelled a setup when the FBI arrested nine members of Michigan's Hutaree militia in March and charged them with plotting to kill police. (Their trial is set to begin in February.) Terrell and other leaders put their forces on alert, anticipating a roundup. "There was a lot of citizens out there in the bushes, locked and loaded," he says. "It's only due to miracles I do not understand that civil war did not break out right there."

Some groups, though not many overtly, embrace the white-supremacist legacy of the Posse Comitatus, which invented the modern militia movement in the 1970s. Some are fueled by a violent stream of millennial Christianity. Some believe Washington is a secondary foe, the agent of a dystopian new world order.

A small but growing number of these extremist groups, according to the FBI, ATF and state investigators, are subjects of active criminal investigations. They include militias and other promoters of armed confrontation with government, among them "common-law jurors," who try to make their own arrests and convene their own trials, and "sovereign citizens," who respond with lethal force to routine encounters with the law. In April, for example, Navy veteran Walter Fitzpatrick, acting on behalf of a group called American Grand Jury, barged into a Tennessee courthouse and tried to arrest the real grand-jury foreman on the grounds that he refused to indict Obama for treason. In May, Georgia militia member Darren Huff was arrested by Tennessee state troopers after telling them that he and other armed men intended to "take over the Monroe County courthouse," free Fitzpatrick and "conduct arrests" of other officials, according to Huff's indictment and his own account in an interview posted online. Investigators are keeping a wary eye on a related trend, which has yet to progress beyond words, in which law officers and military service members vow to refuse or resist orders they deem unconstitutional. About a dozen county sheriffs and several candidates for sheriff in the midterm elections have threatened to arrest federal agents in their jurisdictions.

Group distinctions are seldom clear because of overlapping memberships and alliances. The Ohio exercise, for example, included a delegation from the 17th Special Operations Group led by Colonel Dick Wolf, a former Army drill sergeant who previously took a unit to join Arizona militia leader Chris Simcox in armed patrols along the Mexican border. Wolf travels around the country to train other groups in such skills as knife fighting and convoy operations. He does not ask about their philosophies. "That's their business," he says.

The Obama Factor

None of these movements are entirely new, but most were in sharp decline by the late 1990s. Their resurgence now is widely seen among government and academic experts as a reaction to the tectonic shifts in American politics that allowed a black man with a foreign-sounding name and a Muslim-born father to reach the White House.

Obama's ascendancy unhinged the radical right, offering a unified target to competing camps of racial, nativist and religious animus. Even Patriots who had no truck with white supremacy found that they could amplify their antigovernment message by "constructing Obama as an alien, not of this country, insufficiently American," according to Michael Waltman, an authority on hate speech at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Perennial features of extreme-right scare lore — including imagined schemes to declare martial law, abolish private ownership of guns and force dissidents into FEMA concentration camps — became more potent with Obama as the Commander in Chief.

Threats against Obama's life brought him Secret Service protection in May 2007, by far the earliest on record for a presidential candidate. At least four alleged assassination plots between June and December — by militiamen in Pennsylvania, white supremacists in Denver, skinheads in Tennessee and an active-duty Marine lance corporal at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune — led to arrests and criminal charges before Obama was even sworn in.

"We call it somewhat of a perfect storm," says a high-ranking FBI official who declined to speak on the record because of the political sensitivities of the subject. With an economy in free fall and rising anger about illegal immigration, Obama became "a rallying point" for dormant extremists after the 2008 election who "weren't willing to act before but now are susceptible to being recruited and radicalized."

Theirs is not Tea Party anger, which aims at electoral change, even if it often speaks of war. In the world of armed extremists, war is not always a metaphor. Some of them speak with contempt about big talkers who "meet, eat and retreat." History suggests that even the most ferocious, by and large, will never get around to walking the walk. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center observes that "there are huge numbers of people who say, 'We're going to have to go to war to defend the Constitution or defend the white race,' but 'That will be next week, boys.' "

And yet there are exceptions, and law-enforcement officials say domestic terrorists are equally the products of their movements. Those most inclined toward violence sometimes call themselves three percenters, a small vanguard that dares to match deeds to words. Brian Banning, who led local and interagency intelligence units that tracked radical-right-wing violence in Sacramento County, California, says, "The person who's interested in violent revolution may be attracted to a racist group or to a militia or to the Tea Party because he's antigovernment and so are they, but he's looking on the fringe of the crowd for the people who want to take action."

The Supremacist

One such man was James Von Brunn. On June 10, 2009, he pulled up to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, raised a .22-caliber rifle and shot security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns in the chest. Part of Von Brunn's story is now well known, but police, FBI and Secret Service investigators held back a startling epilogue.

Von Brunn was an avowed white supremacist with a history of violence that reached back decades. He had spent six years in prison after an attempt to take hostages at the Federal Reserve in 1981. After finding only disappointment in organized groups, Von Brunn retreated to his website and railed against passive comrades. "The American Right-wing with few exceptions ... does NOTHING BUT TALK," he wrote. At 88 and hospitalized with a gunshot wound he suffered at the museum, Von Brunn did not loom large in the public eye as a figure of menace. He was profiled as a shrunken old man, broke and friendless, who ended another man's life in an empty act of despair. He died seven months later in prison before he could be tried.

What authorities did not disclose was how close the country had come to a seismic political event. Von Brunn, authoritative sources say, had another target in mind: White House senior adviser David Axelrod, a man at the center of Obama's circle. The President was too hard to reach, in Von Brunn's view, but that was of no consequence. "Obama was created by Jews," he wrote. "Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do."

The episode sent a jolt through the FBI and DHS. Von Brunn had demonstrated motive, means and intent to kill one of the President's closest aides. The Secret Service assigned Axelrod a protection detail and took other, undisclosed steps to broaden its coverage. The DHS put out bulletins to state and local law-enforcement agencies on the tactics, warning signs and other lessons of the case. FBI agents need to understand, a senior supervisor says, that "it isn't just the threat from Islamic extremists but also from homegrown or domestic terrorists" with antigovernment agendas — as the bureau had already seen in a small town in Maine.

The Dirty Bomber

The first thing Jeff Trafton noticed at 346 High Street was a "big swastika flag in the living room." Upstairs, where a man lay dead in his bedroom, there were photographs of the victim posed in a black Gestapo trench coat. Any murder was unusual in Belfast, Maine, a town of 7,000 where Trafton is chief of police. This one kept getting stranger.

Who did it was not a mystery. Amber Cummings, then 31, shot her husband James, 29, to death, dropped the Colt .45 revolver and walked to a neighbor's to dial 911. Evidence of her torment at the dead man's hands during years of domestic abuse would later persuade a judge to spare her a prison sentence.

On the day of the shooting, Dec. 9, 2008, the story she told and an initial search of the house brought an FBI forensic team running. James Cummings appeared to have accumulated explosive ingredients and radioactive samples. He had filled out an application to join the National Socialist Movement and declared an ambition to kill the President-elect.

It was hard to tell how seriously to take that threat. On Jan. 19, 2009, WikiLeaks made public the FBI search inventory, which was distributed to security planners for Obama's Inauguration. State police assured reporters, in response, that the Cummings home lab had posed no threat to public safety.

A much more sobering picture emerged from the dead man's handwritten notes and printed records, some of which were recently made available to TIME. Fresh interviews with principals in the case, together with the documents, depict a viciously angry and resourceful man who had procured most of the supplies for a crude radiological dispersal device and made some progress in sketching a workable design. In this he was far ahead of Jose Padilla, the accused al-Qaeda dirty-bomb plotter, and more advanced in his efforts than any previously known domestic threat involving a dirty bomb. Cummings spent many months winning the confidence of online suppliers, using a variety of cover stories, PayPal accounts and shipping addresses. He had a $2 million real estate inheritance and spent it freely on his plot.

"He was very clever," says Amber Cummings, who until now had not spoken publicly about her late husband's preparations. "There's a small amount of radioactive material he can legally buy for research purposes. He'd call those companies, and he had various stories. He'd claim he was working as a professor."

On Nov. 4, 2008 — Election Day — Cummings placed his last two orders for uranium, at a total cost of $626.40, from United Nuclear Scientific Equipment & Supplies. The Michigan-based company, which declined to answer questions, offers uranium for sale online in "medium, high, super high and ultra high radiation" blends. In an ironic twist on customer service, United Nuclear wrote with regret to inform Cummings that one of the samples he ordered that day "was already purchased by Homeland Security for training purposes." By way of apology, the company sent a larger quantity, in two chunks.

A vendor in Colorado sold Cummings radioactive beryllium. Cummings produced a third radiation source at home. From standard references and technical manuals, Cummings learned how to extract thorium from commercially available tungsten electrodes by soaking them in a peroxide bath.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, all three metals — uranium, thorium and beryllium — are highly toxic when ingested and cause cancer if inhaled as fine airborne particles. Cummings had none of them in large quantity, and none had the high output of gamma rays that would make for the most dangerous kind of dirty bomb, but he was looking for more-lethal ingredients. A shopping list, under the heading "best for dirty bombs," named three: cobalt-60, cesium-137 and strontium-90.

Cummings made his best progress on high explosives. He bought large quantities of 3% hydrogen peroxide, which is commonly sold in pharmacies, then concentrated it on his kitchen stove to 35%. With acids on hand, Cummings had a recipe and all the required ingredients for TATP, a hellishly energetic explosive favored by Middle Eastern suicide bombers.

In 2001, when shoe bomber Richard Reid came close to downing American Airlines Flight 63, he had several ounces of TATP in his hiking boots. Cummings had the ingredients to make many times that much, as well as aluminum powder, thermite, thermite igniter and other materials used to detonate the explosive and amplify its effects. Crude designs Cummings sketched on lined paper suggest that he had a lot to learn about efficient dispersal of radioactive particles. Even so, he was aware of the gaps in his knowledge. "His intentions were to construct a dirty bomb and take it to Washington to kill President Obama," Amber Cummings says. "He was planning to hide it in the undercarriage of our motor home." She says her husband had practiced crossing checkpoints with dangerous materials aboard, taking her and their daughter along for an image of innocence.

Maine state police detective Michael McFadden, who participated in the investigation throughout, says he came to believe that James Cummings posed "a legitimate threat" of a major terrorist attack. "When you're cooking thorium and uranium under your kitchen sink, when you have a couple million dollars sitting in the bank and you're hell-bent on doing something, I think at that point you become someone we want to sit up and pay attention to," he says. "If she didn't do what she did, maybe we would know Mr. Cummings a lot better than we do right now."

Who Would They Fight?

The abandoned state prison in Roseville, with its broken cinder-block walls and crumbling stairwells, made a suitably apocalyptic set for the Ohio militia's August exercise. In the officers' ready room, where back issues of Shotgun News and Soldier of Fortune lay on folding tables, an ancient graffito reading "KKK" had been painted over by one of Kenneth Goldsmith's men. "The Klan in this area, they don't like me at all," Goldsmith says. "They came to me a few years ago to join forces ... I told the guy, 'You think you are from a superior race, is that it?' He said yes. I said, 'You don't look so superior to me.' "

Members of militias around the country say, like Goldsmith, that they resent comparison with white supremacists like Cummings and Von Brunn. They complain of being tarred as members of hate groups by watchdogs at the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. "I can't tell you how much I enjoy being lumped in with sociopathic organizations like neo-Nazis, antiabortion extremists and Holocaust-denial groups," says Darren Wilburn, a private detective in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., who trains with a hard-core militia he preferred not to name. He cites his motto, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of anyone who threatens it," as evidence that he is not looking for trouble as long as trouble keeps clear of him.

The same two points — a defensive posture and ill will toward no one — were repeated with sincerity by many of Goldsmith's men. There were layers of meaning beneath those words, which peeled back as the weekend progressed. The Ohio Defense Force charter declares two missions, which may sound the same to outside ears but mean very different things. One is to help state and local law enforcement upon request. The other is to "assist in the protection of local citizens in emergencies."

An example of the first mission, the most recent one Goldsmith could think of, came after flooding struck Columbiana County six years ago. Chief Deputy Sheriff Allen Haueter says the militia helped direct traffic, leaving sheriff's officers free to respond to emergencies. But Haueter did not authorize them — "Oh, no, no," he says — to carry guns. They could as easily have done the job garbed as candy stripers.

Why, then, the paramilitary training that takes up nearly all the militia's time? That question bothers Sheriff Matt Lutz of Muskingum County, where the militia is headquartered. "There is no correlation with them saying they're there to help us in any way and them running around with assault rifles in the woods," he says. "That's what scares people. That just tells me they're preparing for the worst."

As indeed they are. The militia's second mission, protecting local citizens, requires no invitation from the likes of the sheriff. An officer named Ken, who asked that his last name and hometown go unmentioned, says, "You can be a civilized human being and defend yourself without being a bad guy." Against what? "Most likely it will start when the government tries to take our guns," he says.

Craig Wright, 50, a consulting engineer from Mansfield, was one of the face-painted raiders who ambushed the Blue Team's rear-perimeter guards. He learned something important, he says, when he went drinking with fellow members of force Red. "Some of these people are, quite honestly, quite scary," he said. "They might not be well educated, they might not listen to Beethoven, but they can take care of themselves."

And that is what Wright is looking for.

"We're not planning to overthrow the government," he said. "We're planning for what could happen." He proceeded to list, among other scenarios, a pandemic; economic collapse; hunger-driven big-city refugees; a biological, chemical or nuclear terrorist attack; an electromagnetic pulse from the sun that wrecks earthly machinery; invasion by Mexican drug cartels; and an eruption of ash from Yellowstone that "wipes out the breadbasket of the United States." Any one of those would likely give Washington the excuse to declare martial law. If so, Wright and his brothers in arms would fight back. "Hopefully," he said, "if they rule the cities, we'll rule the countryside.

This is a frame of mind that law-enforcement and counterterrorism officials have seen before, and it worries them. "There are a number of militias out there that we call almost defensive in nature, right?" a senior national-security official says. "So they train. They're pulling in arms or pulling in weapons. They're pulling in food. They're preparing bunkers ... They're preparing for confrontation, but they will call it defensive." The official paused as if to play out a scene in his mind's eye. A well-equipped paramilitary force with "a perception of being confronted would strike out and strike out pretty hard," he says. "For a small or even a medium-size law-enforcement agency — anybody, really — there would be some serious, serious issues."

War on the Feds

On the sidelines of the disparate antigovernment movement, its philosophers are edging their followers closer to violence.

Bob Schulz, a leading exponent of the view that the IRS and much of the government it funds are operating illegally, has reached the brink of calling for war. The moment is significant because he is an influential voice among militia groups.

After more than a decade of conventional legal battles, Schulz and a network of allies organized by the We the People Foundation began filing hundreds of petitions for redress of grievances. Schulz had come to believe that the First Amendment's petition clause required governors, legislatures and federal agencies to provide specific and satisfactory answers to accusations of wrongdoing. He filled government dockets with thousands of questions — one petition, for instance, asked the IRS to "admit or deny" 116 allegations of fraud in the 1913 debate that ratified the 16th Amendment. When his petitions went ignored and the Supreme Court declined to hear his case in 2007, he wrote a formal brief accusing the court of "committing treason to the Constitution." The IRS, meanwhile, revoked his foundation's tax-exempt status, alleging that he used it to promote an illegal "tax termination plan" and bringing tax-evasion charges against some of the people who followed Schulz's advice.

Last year Schulz convened hundreds of delegates to a second Continental Congress in St. Charles, Ill., drafting Articles of Freedom with "instructions" that state and federal governments halt unlawful operations. Refusal to comply would be "an act of WAR," the delegates wrote, and "the People and their Militias have the Right and Duty to repel it." Several militia leaders are among the authors.

Then, in November and March, Schulz staged vigils at the White House in which he and some of his followers dressed in the mask of the menacing "V" from the film V for Vendetta. (In the movie's final scene, the oppressive seat of government erupts in spectacular flames to the swelling strains of the 1812 Overture.) "If the First Amendment doesn't work," Schulz says, "the Second Amendment would." He asks, "What does a free man do" when all other avenues are closed? "I am struggling with my conscience."

Regardless of what conscience tells them, what chance do would-be armed rebels possibly have of prevailing against the armed might of the U.S.?

One answer comes from former Alabama militia leader Mike Vanderboegh, who wrote an essay that is among the most widely republished on antigovernment extremist sites today. In "What Good Is a Handgun Against an Army?" Vanderboegh says the tactical question is easy: Kill the enemy one soldier at a time. A patriot needs only a "cheap little pistol and the guts to use it," he writes, to shoot a soldier in the head and take his rifle; with a friend, such a man will soon have "a truck full of arms and ammunition." Vanderboegh is hardly a man of action himself, living these days on government disability checks. Even so, when he wrote a blog post in March urging followers to protest the health care bill by breaking windows at Democratic Party offices, they did so across the country.

Another answer comes from Richard Mack, who is holding constitutional seminars for county sheriffs from coast to coast, urging them to resist what he describes as federal tyranny by force. In his presentations, he shows movie clips to illustrate his point, like a scene from The Patriot in which Mel Gibson says, with fire in his eyes, "You will obey my command, or I will have you shot."

Citing a long list of antecedents, beginning in 11th century England, Mack asserts that each of the nation's county sheriffs is the supreme constitutional authority in his or her jurisdiction. A sheriff has the power to arrest and, if necessary, use lethal force against federal officers who come uninvited, and he may "call out the militia to support his efforts to keep the peace in the county."

In his term as sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, Mack became famous for fighting and winning a legal battle against a provision of the Brady Bill that required him to enforce federal gun-control laws. He now says he wishes he had stayed out of court and simply drawn a line in the sand with the ATF. "I pray for the day when the first county sheriff has the guts to arrest the real enemy," he says. Among the enemy, he numbers "America's gestapo," the IRS. Steve Kendley, a Lake County, Montana, deputy sheriff who is running for the top office there on Mack's platform, says he expects federal agents to back off when threatened with arrest, but he is prepared for "a violent conflict" if "they are doing something I believe is unconstitutional."

The nearest antecedent to Mack's argument, and the only one known to scholars interviewed for this story, is the Blue Book of the Posse Comitatus, by white-supremacist militia leader Henry Lamont Beach, whose organization disintegrated after leading members were convicted of felonies or killed in 1983 during shoot-outs in Arkansas and North Dakota with federal marshals and uncooperative sheriffs. Beach used nearly identical language, saying the county is "the highest authority of government in our Republic" and the sheriff "the only legal law-enforcement office." After TIME emailed Mack extracts of Beach's book, he replied that it "sounds exactly like Jefferson."

Beware the Lone Wolf

Federal law-enforcement agencies want no part of a conversation about angry antigovernment extremists and refused in virtually every case to speak on the record. A few injudicious passages from career analysts at the DHS in an April 2009 report titled "Rightwing Extremism" — which could be misread to suggest danger from ordinary antigovernment opinions or military veterans in general — brought a ferocious backlash. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano distanced herself from the report and forbade further public discussion of the subject. Shortly afterward, the National Security Council staff canceled plans for a working-group meeting on the surge of violent threats against members of Congress.

Yet the months that followed brought fresh support for the study's central finding, that rising "rightwing radicalization and recruitment" raised the risk that lone wolves would emerge from within the groups to commit "violent acts targeting government facilities, law-enforcement officers, banks and infrastructure sectors."

Within 90 days came the Von Brunn shooting; a triple murder of police officers in Pittsburgh by white supremacist Richard Andrew Poplawski; and a double murder of sheriff's deputies in Florida by a National Guardsman, Joshua Cartwright, who attributed his rage to Obama's election.

The specter of the lone-wolf terrorist is what most worries law-enforcement officials, who return again and again to the searing example of Timothy McVeigh. Before destroying the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, McVeigh cycled through several white-supremacist groups and militias. In the end he decided to act alone, abetted by his friend Terry Nichols.

A top FBI counterterrorism official says the bureau's "biggest concern" is "the individual who has done the training, has the capability but is disenchanted with the group's action — or in many cases, inaction — and decides he's going to act alone." A high-ranking DHS official added that "it's almost impossible to find that needle in a haystack," even if the FBI has an informant in the group. James Cavanaugh, who recently retired from a senior post at the ATF and took part in some of the bloodiest confrontations with the radical right in the 1990s, says the creation of monsters in their midst is the greatest danger posed by organized groups.

The ceaseless talk of federal aggression — and regular training to repel it — "becomes a hysteria where you constantly, constantly practice and nothing happens," he says. "Now most of them wouldn't go out offensively, O.K.? But generally why they're dangerous is that some people can't stand that rhetoric and just wait for it to happen. And they go off the rails, à la McVeigh."

Danish Mohammed Cartoons Paper Was Target Of Plot, Agencies Say  (Monsters and Critics, 9/28/2010)

Oslo/Copenhagen - The Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed five years ago was the target of an alleged terrorist plot recently uncovered by Norwegian agents, the Danish intelligence service said Tuesday.

The Danish security police PET said it was cooperating with Norway where three men were arrested in July over an alleged terrorist plot. According to previous reports the trio had tried to order chemicals used in bomb-making from a pharmacy.

One of the three, a 37-year-old Kurdish Iraqi man, said the Jyllands-Posten newspaper had been the target during questioning by Norwegian security police, Norwegian media reported Tuesday.

His lawyer Brynjar Meling told Oslo daily VG that his client has not admitted to any ties with the terrorist network al-Qaeda and was not a member of a known terrorist cell.

The other suspects were a 39-year-old Norwegian national of Uighur ethnic background, and a 31-year-old ethnic Uzbek refugee.

The Danish newspaper has been the target of several plots, suggesting it was 'a priority target among militant Islamists,' the Danish security police said.

Earlier this month, a man from Chechnya was arrested in the Danish capital Copenhagen after a blast in a central hotel. Investigators have said they believed he had planned to send a parcel bomb to the newspaper.

PET head Jakob Scharf said Tuesday that Denmark has not raised threat levels.

Jyllands-Posten editor-in-chief Jorn Mikkelsen said he had not been aware that the newspaper had been the target of the Norwegian- based plot but was confident in the measures taken by the police.

San Diego School Evacuated by Suspicious Delivery to a Student  (6 News, 9/27/2010)

SPRING VALLEY, CA - The delivery of a package that seemed out of place to administrators at an East County high school  Monday prompted a campus lockdown while a bomb squad examined the box, which turned out to contain an innocent shipment of party supplies.

Staffers at Steele Canyon High School in Spring Valley made an emergency call shortly after 10 a.m. to report receiving the parcel, sheriff's Lt. Jim Duffy said. It was unclear why they decided that the package, which was addressed to a student, seemed suspicious.

School officials evacuated the office/counseling building where the box had arrived and directed all students to remain in their classrooms until the situation was resolved.

Roadways leading onto the Campo Road campus were closed.

By 2:30 p.m., bomb-arson investigators had determined that the package contained party decorations and utensils, sheriff's officials said. Deputies gave an all-clear a short time later and reopened traffic lanes in the area.

Mother, Son Ordered Imprisoned For Mail Theft in Illinois  (AP, 9/27/2010)

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. —A southwestern Illinois mother and son who investigators say followed mail carriers and then looted mail boxes in hopes of finding cash in greeting cards have been sentenced to federal prison.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that 42-year-old Felicia Johnson of Cahokia was ordered to spend two years in prison while her son, 25-year-old Marquan Johnson, got a one-year term. Each also was sentenced to three years of post-prison supervised release.

Both pleaded guilty June 1 to charges of mail theft and possession of stolen mail.

The Johnsons have been in custody since March, when they were arrested by Highland police after a resident there reported someone took his mail.

Gambling Debts May Have Motivated Parcel Bomber in Malaysia  (Malay Mail, 9/24/2010)

KUALA LUMPUR: The suspected Cheras bomber who delivered a home-made explosive to an apartment unit in Desa Tun Razak, which killed two people last month has been arrested.

City police chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk Muhammad Sabtu Osman said the 45-year-old man was arrested in Sungei Buloh yesterday.

He said the arrest was made at 6 am following a tip-off from the public.

The suspect is believed to be a contractor who suffered heavy gambling losses at the Internet cafe owned by the employer of the two deceased, Goh Weng Sing, 38, and a woman Ng Siew Hong, 51.

He was believed to have been in debt with the Internet cafe owner.

Police had been hunting the suspect after he was identified as the "bomber" from CCTV footage obtained from the cybercafé.

On Aug 29 at 8.30 am, the cybercafé owner was awakened from his sleep at 8.30am when he heard a knock on his apartment door on the 12th floor.

He found a cardboard box with two pomeloes placed on top in front of his door

He smelt kerosene, felt suspicious and asked Goh and Ng to check the parcel.

The parcel, which contained a home-made bomb, exploded when opened, causing the duo to suffer extensive burns. Ng died hours later while Goh died two days later.

Powder in Suspicious Mail in New Zealand Identified as Flour  (NZPA, 9/24/2010)

New Zealand--The white powder found inside an envelope at a data processing business in the Upper Hutt suburb of Wallaceville has been confirmed as flour.

Emergency services were called to the Lane St building around 9.15am yesterday after a staff member discovered the package.

After testing overnight the powder had been confirmed as white flour, Senior Sergeant Dave Rose said today.

Twenty staff were decontaminated during the alert.

Mr Rose said police were still continuing to make inquiries to identify the offender responsible for the scare.

Feds: Connecticut Man Sent More Than 50 Anthrax Hoax, Bomb Threat Letters  (CNN, 9/23/2010)

A Connecticut man is charged with sending more than 50 anthrax hoax and bomb threat letters to recipients including government officials and buildings, federal authorities said.

A complaint charging Roland Prejean, 43, of Thomaston and Morris, Connecticut, was unsealed Wednesday, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Prejean has been in custody since he surrendered to authorities in North Dakota on September 7. He appeared Wednesday in federal court in North Dakota, where he agreed to be returned to Connecticut.

"This defendant is alleged to have sent more than 50 letters nationwide, in which he threatened to kill numerous victims, by shooting them, bombing the buildings in which they work or exposing them to a substance that he claimed was, but was not, anthrax," David Fein, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, said in the statement.

The letters resulted in the evacuation of a post office, a town hall and a public school, Fein said.

Prejean, 43, is charged with mailing threatening communications and with making threats through the mail to kill, injure or intimidate a person, or to damage or destroy any building by means of an explosive, authorities said. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on each charge.

According to the complaint, cited in the statement, Prejean began writing the letters on or about September 3. Recipients included a private individual, a Connecticut probation officer and a Connecticut Superior Court judge, authorities said. In the letters, Prejean allegedly threatened to kill people including a postal carrier; judges in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Middletown, Connecticut; several people at a Connecticut hospital; and a former roommate, the statement said.

He also mailed a threatening letter to the Thomaston Post Office, the Department of Justice said. In that letter, received September 7, he allegedly threatened to kill a particular postal carrier along with everyone else in the post office. The post office was evacuated, along with the Thomaston Town Hall and a Thomaston school nearby. Bomb technicians searched the post office for explosive devices but found nothing, authorities said.

Others received the letters dated September 3, the statement said. For instance, in a letter to the probation officer, Prejean allegedly threatened to kill numerous employees at the Connecticut Valley Hospital. And a letter postmarked September 4 to a Connecticut Superior Court judge included a substance the letter writer called "liquid anthrax," according to the Justice Department.

The complaint alleges that Prejean mailed the letters while on a cross-country drive from Connecticut to North Dakota, according to the statement.

"In some of the letters, he placed a white powder that he represented to be anthrax, but which was, in fact, baby or talcum powder," the Department of Justice said.

Thirty-four letters and 17 postcards Prejean allegedly attempted to mail from North Dakota were intercepted before delivery, authorities said. Six of the letters contained a powder inside the envelope, and "one contained some sort of paste," the statement said. Testing has so far shown that the substances are not a biological or chemical agent, the Justice Department said.

Ventura County To Restrict Inmates' Mail to Postcards Only (LA Times, 9/23/2010)

Ventura, CA--As of Oct. 4, inmates can send and receive only postcards. Officials say the policy will cut costs and staff burdens, as well as the risk of contraband weapons, drugs and coded messages sneaking into the jails.

Behind bars, you have to be strong, you have to be tough — and now, in Ventura County, you have to be brief.

Following a national trend in jail mail, authorities are requiring that inmates send and receive only postcards.

Over the years, contraband of all kinds has made its way into the facility in "innocent-looking letters," jail officials said. Razor blades, drugs and coded messages from gangs have been sneaked in between the sheets.

"We have to take the stamps off envelopes because they'll put drugs on the back that inmates will then be able to lick," said Cmdr. Brent Morris, who runs one of the county's two jails. "It gets very cumbersome."

As of Oct. 4, letters other than those from lawyers will be marked "return to sender." The same goes for postcards with racist references, obscenities, nudity, gang symbols and, under the new rules, "any perceived biohazard (i.e. lipstick, gloss, scents, etc.)."

Cash-strapped local officials in at least seven states have instituted similar postcard-only policies, in part to cut down on the staff time required to open sealed envelopes. One of the first was Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-styled "toughest sheriff in America" who runs a famously spartan jail in Phoenix.

An inmate representing himself sued Arpaio over the restrictions and lost. But American Civil Liberties Union lawsuits filed over the last two months in Florida and Colorado have yet to reach court.

"There's no question that this is a serious abridgement of the 1st Amendment rights both of detainees and people on the outside who want to correspond with them," said David Fathi, the Washington, D.C.-based director of ACLU's National Prison Project.

In a lawsuit filed against officials in Boulder County, Colo., ACLU attorneys pointed to a number of inmates whose freedom of expression would be "chilled" by the mail restrictions. There was a man who wanted to discuss a sensitive medical condition in a letter to his former doctor, and another who didn't want his children to see private messages intended for his wife. Others didn't want to draw attention to their stints in the slammer. That's particularly tricky for Colorado Springs inmates, who must use jail-issue postcards that feature a color photo of the jail.

"Most people in jail are pretrial detainees who haven't been convicted of anything," Fathi said. If they had been able to make bail, he said, they'd be at home — still charged with a crime but able to send all the letters they want.

In Boulder County, the switch to postcards was prompted by two sex offenders who were seeking pen-pal friendships with young girls. But in Ventura County, no single incident triggered the change.

Morris said that jail officials followed the emerging policy elsewhere through professional associations. They saw it as a way of both cutting security risks and freeing up staff. Two employees now spend most of their shifts sorting through mail flowing to and from 1,500 inmates.

"When you balance it with the challenge of budget and staffing, it seemed like a prudent thing to institute," he said.

But for Los Angeles County, the tradeoff isn't worth it, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

"We believe the mail coming to inmates is as important as their phone calls," he said. "If we were to limit the mail, we believe we would see a rise in mental challenges, maybe even violence."

Norwegian Embassy In Israel Receives Anthrax Hoax Letter  (Bio Prep Watch, 9/24/2010)

The Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, received a suspicious envelope containing an unidentified white powder and a threatening letter.

According to MiddleEastMonitor.org.UK, this is the fifth embassy in Tel Aviv where such an incident has occurred in the last two weeks. The Turkish embassy received a similar envelope earlier this week. Last week, suspicious envelopes were sent to the U.S., Swiss and Spanish embassies in Tel Aviv.

Reports indicated that the some of the letters have contained threats against a number of high ranking officials and have contained the Nazi swastika, according to MiddleEastMonitor.org.UK.

Officials said the envelope and its contents were sent by the Israeli police to a biological lab for testing and identification, So far, no injuries have been reported. In the previous Tel Aviv cases, the white powder was deemed to be harmless.

Anti-Turkish sentiment has been on the rise in Israel and ties have deteriorated between the two countries after the government in Ankara launched criticism of Israel over the deadly 22 day offensive on Gaza that ended in January 2009. This was further aggravated when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists during a May 31 raid.

Letters containing a white powder have been considered a potential deadly threat since five people were killed in the U.S. when anthrax spores were mailed to news media offices and U.S. senators in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

CAIR: Hate Packages Sent to U.S. Mosques  (US Newswire, 9/22/2010)

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on officials of American Muslim institutions to report any suspicious mail they may receive through the United States Postal Service (USPS).

The United States Postal Inspection Service told CAIR that at least four packages containing harassing messages and bacon were sent to American mosques from Denver, Colo.

[NOTE: Muslims are prohibited from eating pork products and such items are frequently used by anti-Muslim bigots as a means to cause the maximum offense.]

"We ask local, state and federal authorities to treat these mailings as a form of religious intimidation and to use all relevant hate crime laws and postal regulations in apprehending and prosecuting those involved," said CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin.

Rubin said mosques nationwide have recently been targeted by hate incidents and vocal opposition based on anti-Islam views.

Judge In Arizona Mailbomb Case Asked To Toss Wiretaps  (Arizona Republic, 9/23/2010)

Phoenix, AZ--Attorneys for the twin brothers charged in the 2004 mail bombing that seriously injured Scottsdale's former diversity director are asking a federal judge to disallow wiretap evidence obtained from a confidential informant.

The informant took the stand in U.S. District Judge David Campbell's courtroom Wednesday to answer questions about her contact with Dennis and Daniel Mahon. The judge is expected to rule this week on the motion to suppress the evidence.

The men are scheduled to stand trial next year in the bombing that badly injured Don Logan, who ran Scottsdale's diversity office at the time. He recovered and now works for Glendale.

The Mahon brothers, 60, are avowed White supremacists with ties to White Aryan Resistance, a neo-Nazi supremacist organization, authorities said.

In a motion filed Sept. 7, Deborah Williams, Dennis Mahon's attorney, wrote that in February 2005, a confidential informant working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, "launched an emotional assault on Mr. Mahon that was both outrageous and 'shocking to the universal sense of justice.' "

The motion contends the tactic violated Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. The motion claims the confidential informant coerced Dennis Mahon to incriminate himself based on the sexual nature of their friendship.

The informant, Rebecca Williams, said in court that ATF agents recruited her in 2005 to get information on the Mahons.

"I'm a girl, and they're guys," she said. "Guys like to talk to pretty girls."

Williams was paid for every contact she made with the Mahons. She testified that she was promised $100,000 if the men were convicted.

Williams met the Mahons in January 2005 at a campground in Oklahoma. She would engage them in conversations inside vehicles that were wired to record the conversations, she said.

Williams said she told the Mahons a story about a child molester she knew in California and that the Mahons agreed to help her build a bomb to send to the person.

In January 2008, Williams visited the Mahons again in Rockford, Ill. Williams was staying in a motel also wired to pick up their conversations, with ATF agents in a room next door. Dennis Mahon spent the night with her in her room. Federal agents arrested the brothers in Illinois in June 2009 after years of investigation.

White Powder Scare Sparks Evacuation in New Zealand  (TVNZ, 9/23/2010)

New Zealand--A white powder scare sparked the evacuation of a commercial building in Upper Hutt this morning.

Staff at the building on Lane St in Wallaceville were evacuated about 9.15am after an envelope containing white powder was found.

Between 20 and 40 people were decontaminated, although no one showed any sign of illness, Senior Sergeant Anita Dixon said.

The package was been removed by fire service staff and was being examined by Environment Science and Research to determine what the substance was.

Staff were allowed back into the building about 11am.

Suspicious Package Prompts Evacuation at USC  (Daily Trojan, 9/21/2010)

A building at USC has been evacuated after a suspicious package was reported to authorities, University officials said in an alert to students. Students were warned to stay away from the The Hedco Neuro Sciences at Watt and Downey Way. Campus security and LAPD were taping portions of campus off, including up to 34th Street and Trousdale. Update: The suspicious package, which is a paper envelope, was reported at 1:14 p.m., said to LAPD Officer Gregory Baek. Update #2, 2:58 p.m: USC officials say the situation has been cleared and the suspicious packaged "checked OK."

Suspicious Powder Delivered To Embassy In Tel Aviv  (JTA, 9/22/2010)

JERUSALEM -- An envelope containing an unknown white powder was delivered to the Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The envelope which arrived Tuesday came a day after a similar envelope was delivered to the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, and a week after envelopes containing white powder arrived at the Tel Aviv embassies of the United States, Spain and Sweden.

The white powder was tested in each case and is not believed to be a danger, according to reports.

Bomb Threat Letter Triggers Evacuation at Toronto Transit Commission  (National Post, 9/21/2010)

Toronto, Canada--Rattled TTC employees were evacuated from one of the Commission’s downtown offices on Tuesday after a letter arrived indicating the presence of a bomb on the premises.

The Toronto Police Emergency Response Team was called in to search the building, located at 1138 Bathurst St., but no explosive device was found. Police say the TTC has received similar letters at the same location.

“Calls like this are obviously taken very seriously,” said police spokesman Constable Tony Vella. “People are scared and it’s a huge inconvenience for everyone involved.” He said it’s not clear if the letters were sent by the same person, but a criminal investigation is underway to determine where they came from.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1304, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS, or online at www.222tips.com.

Death Threat Letter Sent to Indo-Canadian Radio Host in Vancouver  (Globe and Mail, 9/21/2010)

Vancouver, BC, Canada —Tensions within Metro Vancouver’s bustling Indo-Canadian community are escalating, with a talk-show host at a Punjabi-language radio station receiving a death threat hours after a drive-by shooting at the home of the station manager.

Gurpreet Singh, who opens the phone lines to listeners of Radio India six mornings a week, received the threat Monday in the mail. In the two-page letter, written in Punjabi, the writers threaten to shoot Mr. Singh in broad daylight.

“We won’t rest now … we are waiting for an opportunity,” the letter writers say.

Mr. Singh is accused in the letter of being “a traitor” to Sikhs. “We treat you as an enemy,” the letter writers say. “We pray to the almighty when we get a chance and we confront each other.”

The letter writers also threaten to kill station manager Maninder Gill. Around 10 shots were fired at Mr. Gill’s home shortly after midnight Monday. No one was injured.

Ujjal Dosanjh, who was viciously attacked in the 1980s by members of the Indo-Canadian community critical of his views, urged the community to remain calm. “There already has been too much violence in the [Indo-Canadian] community over the years, and now this,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Dosanjh considered the threats on Mr. Gill and Mr. Singh to be threats against freedom of expression, similar to those against him more than 25 years ago. “It’s the idea that journalists in the 21st century in Canada are being threatened,” he said. “That is absolutely unacceptable.”

“I urge everyone to just calm down, let police do the work, let the courts pronounce on whatever happens before the court. Ultimately, violence does not do any good to anyone,” Mr. Dosanjh said.

Acrimony in the community flared up following a controversial radio broadcast in May. Three community members – Jaspal Atwal, Harkirat Kular and Harjit Atwal – subsequently filed a defamation case against Radio India, the radio’s manager Mr. Gill and several journalists as a result of the program. A few weeks after the lawsuit began, Harjit Atwal was shot in the leg following an argument at a wedding. Mr. Gill was charged with aggravated assault and discharging a weapon.

Mr. Singh, 40, has worked as a journalist for 15 years, writing for mainstream English-language newspapers in India before coming to Canada in 2001. He currently freelances for Vancouver’s Georgia Straight and Hindustan Times, a national paper in India, in addition to hosting Radio India programs.

Mr. Singh said he was not involved in the programming that led to the defamation lawsuit. His listeners on many occasions have been angry with positions he has taken in his radio editorials, but they call and let him know, he said. “Never, ever have I received a threat letter that uses these kinds of words. It’s the first time,” he said.

He felt he could not take the threat lightly, especially after the drive-by shooting at Mr. Gill’s house, but he did not intend to change his show. “Nothing can stop me from writing or speaking my mind,” Mr. Singh said.

Constable Peter Neily of the Surrey RCMP said police are interviewing witnesses, reviewing the evidence and attempting to identify a suspect. A safety plan has been drawn up for Mr. Singh.

It was premature to say whether the threat was related to the drive-by shooting, Constable Neily said.

Red River Army Depot Evacuated For Suspicious Powder  (KTBS, 9/20/2010)

HOOKS, Texas -- A suspicious bag with powder forced a temporary evacuation of Red River Army Depot in Hooks, Texas, on Monday.

Depot officials said the bag was found in a production area around 11:30 a.m.

Nearly 300 people working at the facility were evacuated while authorities checked the powdery substance.

The all-clear was given about an hour later and the employees returned to work.

Authorities did not say what they substance was.

The depot modifies vehicles for military use.

UN Official Calls For Stepped-Up Measures To Deal With Biological And Chemical Threats  (UN News Centre, 9/20/2010)

While United Nations Member States have a well-developed system established for preventing or responding to potential nuclear or radiological emergencies, similar measures are not in place for chemical and biological attacks and disasters, a senior UN anti-terrorism official has warned.

Geoffrey Shaw, the chair of the UN Working Group on Preventing and Responding to Weapons of Mass Destruction Attacks, said it was time for countries to examine ways to ensure that the international community can respond quickly and effectively in the event of a major incident involving chemical or biological weapons or materials.

He told the UN News Centre that a review by the world body’s Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) released last week indicated that a strong system existed to deal with radiation or nuclear emergencies.

That system is implemented through the IAEA. Countries have given the IAEA a central coordinating role for any response and inter-agency mechanisms are in place to alert all the necessary segments of the UN which can assist with any response.

But many Member States and civil society organizations lack awareness about the system, the report found, and it made several recommendations to enhance understanding, including strengthening the IAEA’s role as the global focal point in public information coordination in the wake of an emergency.

Dr. Shaw said many of the measures to deal with nuclear or radiological attacks had been created following the accident at the Chernobyl reactor in April 1986.

A database monitors the illicit trafficking of nuclear materials and lines of communication exist between agencies and between countries to allow rapid responses.

“Chernobyl had everyone’s minds focused,” Dr. Shaw said. “Effective communication was seen as far more important.”

The official said one of the reasons for the slower development of measures to protect against chemical or biological attacks was that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – which verifies that countries are adhering to the Chemical Weapons Convention – only came into effect in 1997.

No similar mechanism exists yet for dealing with biological weapons and materials.

“If there was a biological attack by terrorists, what would be expected of the UN system? These are the kinds of questions we need to answer to ensure we can respond if needed.”

Dr. Shaw said the “phenomenal expansion” of the biotechnology industry in recent years posed difficult questions for policy-makers.

“There’s a hell of a lot of material out there – how do you protect that? You could try to establish verification protocols… but it could be impossible to verify. There are lots of questions that have to be looked at.”

White Powdery Substance Found in Mail At Federal Prison in Kentucky  (WSAZ, 9/20/2010)

ASHLAND, Ky.-- Hazmat crews were called to the Federal Corrections Institute in Ashland today after a white powdery substance was found in the mail room.

Public Information Officer William Wallace tells WSAZ.com that substance was found around 12:45 Monday afternoon in a sealed envelope.

He says protocol was followed and hazmat was contacted.

He says employees and inmates are safe and this happened in an isolated area. Wallace says there is no need for public concern.

They are still testing the substance to find out what it is.

Suspicious Powder In Envelope Sent To Turkish Embassy In Tel Aviv  (Xinhua, 9/20/2010)

JERUSALEM-- Israeli officials said on Monday that they are examining an envelope containing unidentified white powder that was sent to the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, according to Israeli Army Radio.

Police, firefighters and a hazmat (hazardous materials) team were called to the embassy, and an investigation has started to identify the powder and the sender, the radio said.

Similar letters, including what officials described as threats and drawn swastikas were sent to the U.S., Spanish and Swedish embassies last week.

Two employees from the U.S. embassy who handled the envelope underwent an emergency outdoor shower.

There were no injuries in any of those incidents.

Explosion Injures Letter-Bomb Suspect in Denmark  (AP, 9/18/2010)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A one-legged Chechen boxer injured in an explosion at a Copenhagen hotel was preparing a letter bomb, likely intended for a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, police said Friday.

The device went off as the man was assembling it in a hotel bathroom on Sept. 10, said Svend Foldager, a police spokesman. The suspect received cuts to his face and no one else was injured.

"We're dealing with a letter bomb. The bomb was completed. Apparently it was of a low-technology type, with a highly explosive substance inside," Foldager told reporters in Copenhagen. "It was filled with small steel pellets to cause injuries."

He said the device contained triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which served as a detonator for the bombs used by terrorists in the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people.

"We consider it likely that it was Jyllands-Posten in Aarhus that was the target," Foldager said, referring to the Danish daily whose 12 cartoons of Muhammad sparked fiery riots in Muslim countries in 2006.

The suspect was arrested in a park near the hotel shortly after the small blast. Police said he refused to reveal his identity, and had even scratched the serial number off his prosthetic right leg, but investigators believe he is a Chechen-born amateur boxer living in Belgium.

'False Alarm' Over US Embassy Bomb Scare In Sweden  (The Local, 9/17/2010)

Stockholm, Sweden--US ambassador to Sweden, Matthew Barzan, praised Swedish police for their professionalism in a statement confirming that the suspect package found at the embassy this morning was determined to pose no threat.

“I want to thank the Stockholm police for their quick response and professionalism in dealing with this incident. We are relieved that there was no actual threat, and pleased that the excellent cooperation between the Embassy security team and the Stockholm police functioned perfectly," the ambassador said.

Swedish police had earlier established that the incident concerned a regular package and did not contain explosives.

"We didn't even need to destroy it," Ulf Lindgren at Stockholm police confirmed to news agency TT.

Embassy staff sounded the alarm to police shortly after 10am on Friday that a suspicious package had been found at the embassy, with embassy security staff concluding that it contained an explosive.

The police bomb squad was sent to the US embassy in Stockholm on Friday morning after the suspicious package was delivered. It as yet unclear what the package in fact contains, but it has been declared safe.

The embassy has confirmed that it contacted the police in accordance with standard procedure.

"The Embassy was not evacuated and has returned to normal operations," the embassy statement confirmed.

Embassy spokesperson Chris Dunnett had previously confirmed that all embassy personnel had been moved to safety for the duration of the incident.

An area around the embassy, which is located on Dag Hammarskjölds väg in the eastern parts of central Stockholm, was cordoned off by police for a time on Friday morning. The cordon has now been lifted.

Police: Newspaper Was Target Of Danish Hotel Bomber  (Monsters and Critics, 9/17/2010)

Copenhagen - A Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was the target of a man arrested a week ago after a blast in a Copenhagen hotel,police said Friday.

Lead investigator Svend Foldager told reporters that a 24-year-old suspect from Chechnya held in connection with the blast had been trying to make a parcel bomb that was to be sent to the Jyllands- Posten newspaper in the city of Arhus.

One of the 12 cartoons Jyllands-Posten published in 2005 depicted the prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. A few months later the images provoked riots across the Muslim world.

The suspect had tried to use triacetone triperoxide, also known as TATP, Foldager said, adding that the parcel was filled with steel balls and when ready would have had 'the explosive force of a hand grenade'.

Foldager said full confirmation of the man's identity was still pending but police were confident he was their suspect.

Earlier this week it emerged the man had lived in Belgium for about five years. Although his right leg was amputated below the knee, he had trained at a boxing club in the city of Liege.

The man has declined to cooperate with police, and had apparently removed the identification number from the prosthetic leg he had been wearing.

The Danes were cooperating with Belgian police, and investigators were trying to piece together information about the suspect's 'background, religion, friends and trips.'

The suspect was arrested in a Copenhagen park shortly after the explosion in a toilet at the Hotel Jorgensen. Bomb disposal experts summoned to the park removed a suspected suicide belt fastened to his body.

The man is being held in custody until October 4, pending further legal action.

Suspicious White Powder Closes Police Station’s Front Desk in UK   (News Shopper, 9/17/2010)

BROMLEY, England--The police station's front desk had to be shut down earlier today after receiving a suspicious letter containing white powder.

The package was initially sent to RBS Insurance in Churchill Court who handed it into police across the road in Bromley High Street.

The London Fire Brigade's hazardous materials team were called who found the powder to be harmless.

A Bromley police spokesman confirmed the station had since reopened.

White Collar Criminal Gets Prison Sentence for Sending Threat Mail and Powder to Manhattan Prosecutor  (DNA Info, 9/17/2010)

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A white collar criminal who confessed to sending a package of suspicious powder to a Manhattan prosecutor while on bail was sentenced to prison on Friday.

After Jack Chang, 55, was arrested in April 2009 for scamming more than $100,000 from clients he helped prepare taxes, he began to send threatening notes to Assistant District Attorney Gilda Mariani at her office and home.

“I finally got my 9 mil gun and I am insane, you are responsible for my insanity and I will make sure that you get at least one for each and every year I spent incarcerated,” read an ominous June 9, 2009 note that was accompanied by a package of powder, later determined to be corn starch.

"You will be captured and before you are sent to hell you will taste hell on earth," read another note from Chang sent to Mariani's office.

As a prosecutor, Mariani handled two grand larceny cases against Chang. He was first convicted in 1995 for scamming money from clients he prepared taxes for. She then oversaw the case against him filed last year in her role as chief of the money laundering and tax crimes unit.

He served four months in jail for the first conviction and pleaded guilty to grand larceny the second time around, along with placing a false bomb or hazardous substance. Both are felony charges.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Roger Hayes sentenced Chang to 3 to 6 years in prison.

"Particularly since 9/11, what you did causes great fear to someone who receives a substance and threats of the type that you made," Hayes said.

Chang was also ordered to pay $116, 578 in restitution to the city's department of finance.

Outside the courtroom, his attorney Robert Reuland said Chang was "profoundly regretful" for threatening the prosecutor.

Mail Theft Defendant in Alaska Pleads Guilty  (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 9/17/2010)

FAIRBANKS — After nearly two years of investigation and court hearings, the eighth and final defendant in a mail theft ring that targeted the Fairbanks area has been sentenced.

Daryn Thompson, 33, pleaded guilty Friday to felony counts of second-degree theft and second-degree forgery as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors who agreed to drop a half-dozen other felony charges in exchange for the plea.

Superior Court Judge Michael McConahy approved the agreement, which calls for a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended and three years on probation. Thompson will also have to pay more than $3,000 in restitution and enter a drug treatment program. He must report to jail by Oct. 15.

One of Thompson’s three attorneys, public defender Michael Biderman, noted that Thompson has not had any trouble with the law while he has been free on bail for about a year.

Thompson was one of eight people who reportedly stole hundreds of pieces of mail from neighborhoods outside of the city limits in late 2008.

Cases ranged in severity from displaced mail being found at the side of the road to stolen checks and credit cards being used to purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of items from local businesses. Authorities estimated losses in the range of tens of thousands of dollars. Drugs, specifically methamphetamine, were the main motive for the thefts.

All eight defendants settled their cases with plea agreements, with sentences ranging from one to five years in jail.

Extortion Threat Letter Sent to Real Estate Company in India  (Express News Service, 9/17/2010)

BANGALORE: A leading real estate company has reportedly received a letter from underworld don Ravi Prakash Surya Pujary (Ravi Pujary) demanding Rs 50 lakh as ransom.

The vice-president of Vakil Housing Development Corporation Private Limited, Sanjay Mukharjee, has filed a complaint with the Koramangala police station.

The letter from Surya Pujary (alias Ravi Pujary) was received through post from Mumbai General Post Office. It is written in Hindi using Roman alphabets.

In intimidating words, the letter mentioned that "Bhai" would ask only once and if the person did not pay up, he would not be seen anymore.

The letter also threatened that the receiver should not inform the police nor act smart, otherwise the incident that happened in Mangalore would be repeated again.

The letter has given one month to the recipient to arrange the money and send it to him.

The letter has also mentioned an email ID from which further communication could be obtained.

Connecticut Man Who Sent Bomb and Anthrax Threats to Post Office, Judges, and Officials Plans To Defend Himself In Court  (Thomaston Express, 9/16/2010)

THOMASTON, CT — The Connecticut man who threatened a Middletown judge and officials at Connecticut Valley Hospital, then sent a bomb threat to a Thomaston post office, apparently mailed 75 letters on his trip to North Dakota, where he turned himself in to police.

Roland Prejean, 43, formerly known as Gary Gravelle, is on probation on several cases and was reported missing this weekend.

Last Tuesday, he called police in Bismarck, N.D., to turn himself in, after gambling at a casino in that state. He appeared in South Central District Court as a fugitive of justice last Wednesday, where he said he would represent himself because he has some informal training as a paralegal, according to the Bismarck Tribune. Prejean also said he would fight extradition.

FBI Special Agent Steve Warfield told the Bismarck Tribune that Prejean sent approximately 75 signed letters during his trip to various public officials, including federal judges. Some letters included bomb threats and threats to kill people, while some contained baby powder which was referred to in the letters as anthrax. Law enforcement officials do not believe Prejean is a threat, the Bismarck Tribune reports.

“We don’t know why he landed in North Dakota,” Warfield told the Bismarck Tribune. “He says that he’s trying to get himself arrested, and it worked.”

If he is to successfully fight extradition, Prejean would have to prove that paperwork was not in order or that he is not, in fact, the person for whom Connecticut authorities are searching.

If his fight against extradition is unsuccessful, authorities in Connecticut would have 10 days to retrieve him from North Dakota to face charges in Connecticut.

The Thomaston Police have issued an active arrest warrant for Prejean on charges of three counts of first-degree threatening, one count of second-degree threatening and one count of second-degree breach of peace.

Prejean went missing on Sept. 3 after dropping a friend off at work in Thomaston. According to Connecticut State Police Sgt. Gregory Kenney, Prejean was located and taken into custody by authorities in North Dakota after a gambling spree.

“He was at the casino and ran out of money,” Kenney said.

Prejean was previously sentenced to nine months in jail in Middletown Superior Court after sending threatening letters to state officials. Prejean, then known as Gary J. Gravelle, pled guilty to second-degree threatening after mailing a handwritten letter to a doctor at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown, where he had been a patient. The letter — written while Prejean was a patient at the hospital — demanded that Prejean be released or he would have the doctor’s family “exterminated.”

Prejean also admitted to writing threatening letters to the Department of Consumer Protection, Department of Criminal Justice in Rocky Hill, the Middletown Press and Mystic Seaport. Judge Elpedio Vitale ordered Gravelle to take his prescribed medications and not to contact any of the letters’ recipients.

At the time, Prejean was also sentenced to two years probation, a mental health evaluation, and also a ban on possessing firearms.

Suspicious Powder Mailed to Police Triggers Evacuation in Wales  (Wales Online, 9/16/2010)

Treforest, Wales, UK--A SUSPICIOUS powder sent to police staff has been deemed harmless following an examination.

Staff at the South Wales Police central ticket office, which issues speeding fines, have now been allowed to return to their desks after being evacuated this morning.

An envelope containing a powder-like substance was opened in the office in Forest Grove, Treforest, office shortly after 9am.

A South Wales Police spokeswoman said: "Staff were removed from the scene as a precaution. The envelope has now been examined by a specialist officer and deemed harmless, and of no risk to staff."

No Bond For NC Man Charged in Abortion Clinic Plot  (AP, 9/13/2010)

GREENSBORO, N.C.-- A North Carolina man accused of describing how to make explosives to bomb an abortion clinic is being held without bond.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Lynne Klauer says the detention of Justin Carl Moose of Concord was ordered by a Greensboro federal court on Monday.

The next step will be the presentation of evidence to a federal grand jury.

An FBI agent said in court documents last week that Moose was arrested after he collaborated with a confidential informant to help plan the bombing of a North Carolina abortion clinic.

The FBI affidavit says the 26-year-old posted instructions on his Facebook page about how to make an explosive.

An attorney for Moose did not return a call seeking comment.

London Police Warn Banks To Be Alert For IRA Mail Bombs  (City A.M., 9/16/2010)

London--CITY banks yesterday received a stark warning from the City of London Police that the threat of terrorism is “real and ever-present”, after the Real IRA warned it had made banks and their staff a potential target for attack.

The force said that the official terrorist threat level had not been raised because of the Real IRA’s warning, though it reiterated calls for vigilance on the part of the public as “one of the best ways of preventing and detecting crime”.

Its guidelines for City workers include informing the police of anything suspicious, however seemingly insignificant, as well as keeping alert to the threat of postal bombs – including unusual-smelling or heavy packages, or those which are addressed incorrectly, bear too many stamps for the weight or have grease stains on the envelope or wrapping.

A source at one large firm said the organization had made sure to make staff aware of the threat, adding that most of the UK’s biggest banks kept up a regular dialogue with the security services over potential threats.

Leaders of the republican terrorist group told the Guardian newspaper that the “role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain’s colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed”.

However, the Real IRA – which has around 100 activists – does not have the same firepower as the Provisional IRA, which repeatedly targeted London’s financial community in the 1990s.

In April 1993, a bomb planted in Bishopsgate exploded, killing one person and injuring dozens more, while Canary Wharf was also targeted by the terror group a few years later.

Threats Mailed To KinderCare Centers in Ohio  (WHIO TV News, 9/15/2010)

BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Security guards are standing watch outside a local child care center, after officials said someone threatened a terrorist attack.

The threat came in the mail to the KinderCare on North Dixie Drive in Butler Township.

On Wednesday everyone was on alert after the threat came in Tuesday's mail.

Parent Jonathan Scott said, " I think it's pretty crazy that people would do something like that."

Scott was among many parents who decided to keep their children at school Wednesday despite the threat.

Staff notified parents on Tuesday that the letter referenced children dying in a 9-11 style attack.

This was the second letter of its kind to arrive at an Ohio KinderCare in the past week. The first note was addressed to a Kindercare in Fairfield Township on Friday.

At the local KinderCare, a security guard was posted outside the door on Wednesday.

Teachers would not comment on the threat. However, corporate officials confirmed that the letters to both the Fairfield Township and Butler Township schools were very similar.

"We do believe the letters were sent around the same time and while KinderCare was not named specifically in the letters, there was enough threatening language towards children that we took it very seriously," said corporate spokesperson John Fread.

In addition to the security, KinderCare also changed their door locks.

Other sister schools have been put on alert.

Butler Township police confirmed there is an ongoing investigation but would not comment on the details. The offense report however, lists the case as an inducing panic investigation.

Fread said, "We have these security measures in place and if there's any reason that we need to change or adapt it, then by all means we will do that."

Johnathan Scott is just relieved that authorities are taking an urgent approach to the case. Scott said, "That puts a smile on my face to let me know that somebody cares out there."

Unabomber's Victims Fear He Could Post Writings  (AOL News, 9/15/2010)

It has been nearly 15 years since the arrest of Ted Kaczynski, aka the "Unabomber," and yet his ability to terrorize the public persists.

Now, survivors of his mail-bomb attacks and victims' families are haunted by the fear that the Harvard-educated mathematician might upload 40,000 pages of his writings and other documents to the Internet.

"My primary concern is privacy for everybody," Gary Wright, a victim of one of Kaczynski's terrorist attacks, told AOL News. "Nobody's personal information [should go] out there."

The controversy surrounding the release of the documents began in August 2006, when U.S. District Court Judge Garland Burrell ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to auction off Kaczynski's personal property, including redacted writings, typewriters, jackets and several other items. Burrell ordered all proceeds of the auction to go to the victims of Kaczynski's 17-year reign of terror.

Kaczynski was unhappy with the ruling and filed suit to try to stop the sale of his possessions, but in 2009, the decision was affirmed by an appeals court. Burrell directed prosecutors to provide Kaczynski with an unredacted copy of his documents in advance of their sale, The Smoking Gun reported.

Ever since that ruling, the FBI has been painstakingly scanning all of the 40,000 pages of documents for Kaczynski.

The decision to provide Kaczynski with unredacted copies of his writings has upset many of his victims, who are afraid he will have the documents uploaded to the Internet.

"Giving Kaczynski an electronic copy will thoroughly undermine the purpose of the court's redaction plan, as it will allow Kaczynski, in a manner of minutes, to upload to the Internet a complete and unredacted set of his writings, rife with details of the victims' identities and injuries and his systematic efforts to harm them," says a recent court filing by an attorney representing a group of the victims.

The attorney is requesting that Kaczynski be provided with "physical copies" of the documents, rather than electronic versions.

A number of the victims are also opposed to a motion Kaczynski has filed requesting the auction be postponed until federal officials provide him with his copy of the documents.

"I was one of the victims that had applied for restitution through the court," Wright said. "There was a number of victims that had applied and a number who did not. In my personal case, insurance didn't pay for any injuries. I fully believe in restitution, so I say maximize it for whatever it is worth. If it's worth nothing, great, but if [there is] monetary value there, I would love to be compensated for the expenses I had to incur."

Wright was walking through the parking lot of his Salt Lake City computer store on Feb. 20, 1987, when he noticed something out of place.

"It looked like two 2-by-4s that were nailed together, like when you are extending a piece of wood at a construction site," Wright said. "It looked about 13 inches long and had four nails sticking out of it."

When Wright bent down and picked up the wood, he unknowingly triggered a homemade bomb that had been hidden inside of it. The blast severed the nerves in his left arm and propelled hundreds of pieces of shrapnel into his body.

"There is still some permanent [damage] and I don't [have any feeling] in my pinkie or ring finger, but what am I going to complain about?" Wright said. "It [did] not kill me. I just find different ways to do things."

For years after the blast, Wright says he was constantly vigilant, always looking over his shoulder. He wondered if the person who had tried to kill him was going to return to finish the job. That fear finally ended on April 3, 1996, when Kaczynski was arrested in a remote cabin outside of Lincoln, Mont.

Authorities accused Kaczynski of being the domestic terrorist responsible for more than a dozen bomb attacks in multiple states between 1978 and 1995 that killed three people and injured 23 others. The attacker, who called for the "destruction of the worldwide industrial system," was dubbed the Unabomber because many of his early targets worked at universities and airlines.

Investigators zeroed in on Kaczynski after his brother, David Kaczynski, contacted the FBI and informed them that a manifesto attributed to the Unabomber appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post was similar to papers his brother had written.

"The whole thing is an enormous tragedy, but what my wife and I did really had to be done," David Kaczynski told AOL News. "You know you can't let a family member hurt people."

Ted Kaczynski was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"I [spoke] directly at him at the sentencing hearing," Wright said. "[This] is just paraphrasing, but I said, 'Ted, I don't hate you. I forgave you a long time ago because if I hadn't, I would have just been kindling to your cause no matter what that was. ... How many people was it going to take to get the end result you were looking for?' When I said that, it was really kind of remarkable. He just ... looked up at me. We locked [eyes for] several seconds and for me it was just the transference of ownership. There was nothing else that needed to be said."

Whether or not Wright or any of the other victims receive any compensation for their injuries is yet to be seen. It all depends on whether anyone purchases the items and how much money they bring. But, according to one expert, they should fetch a pretty penny.

"Any items owned by [Kaczynski] or created by him will be the items bidders will be looking for," said Texas-based crime-victim advocate Andy Kahan. "To collectors of those items, he is a big kahuna -- a prized entity. Any items they can secure from him would be like owning a Rembrandt to art dealers."

Jessica Gein, co-owner of Serial Killers Ink, one of the top-selling murderabilia outlets on the Internet, says her company would be highly interested in picking up items belonging to the Unabomber.

"[We don't] currently have any Kaczynski items for sale," Gein told AOL News. "This would be the perfect opportunity to obtain some of his things."

Kahan and Gein are well known to each other and have been on opposite sides of the fence for nearly a decade. Gein and her husband, Eric, are both advocates for the freedom to sell items that once belonged to some of the world's most notorious killers. Kahan, on the other hand, is one of the staunchest opponents of crime memorabilia and has been working diligently to pass federal legislation to quash the sale of items owned by convicted murderers, serial killers and other criminals.

This time, however, neither opponent is against the sale of Kaczynski's personal effects.

"If any monies are to be made of the sale of so-called murderabilia, than it should go to the victims' families," Kahan said. "It's a catch-22, because from some perspectives it's going to be looked at as blood money and from others it will be looked at as restitution."

Kahan added: "My only concern is that whoever is the winning bidder of such items does not turn around and try to peddle it through murderabilia dealers."

Gein's take is somewhat similar, although she says she finds it odd that the families are not bothered by the sale of the items.

"We don't have a problem with the courts attempting to sell Ted Kaczynski's writings. It would be kind of hypocritical to say it's OK for us to do, but not OK for them," Gein said. "The victims' families are the ones that take offense to websites like ours housing these items. I'm not quite sure why they aren't bothered by the courts selling [them] when they have no idea who could end up with them."

For now, it remains unclear when the auction will be held. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in California, the FBI is still redacting the documents. "As far as I know, it's still pending," spokeswoman Lauren Horwood told AOL News.

The FBI office in Washington, the division responsible for redacting the documents, did not return calls or e-mails requesting comment.

According to a May 10 status report filed in U.S. District Court that was obtained by The Smoking Gun, the FBI's Civil Discovery Review Unit has spent more than 600 hours reviewing the documents and has gone through 12,199 pages.

In an effort to avoid any liability, the FBI decided to remove information pertaining to the victims, their families and bomb-making techniques by manually cutting out those references with an X-Acto knife. The process was expected to take several months to complete.

Kaczynski himself has yet to comment on the latest developments in the case. According to his brother, he won't respond to any of his letters.

"Mom and I continue to write to him," David Kaczynski said. "[Our] mother is 93 now. There really has never been a response since the arrest, so the way we look at it, he really is in two prisons. One, of course, the physical prison where he will be for the rest of his life, but the other is a prison of mental illness."

Despite his own personal heartache, Wright agrees with David Kaczynski. The two have become close friends in recent years.

"[Ted Kaczynski] is an interesting cat," Wright said. "It's like I tell people, it is really too bad [his] mind ... got messed up with schizophrenia and all the bad mental health stuff. ... I guess [it's] like they say, 'Sometimes there is just such a fine line between brilliance and insanity.' "

Suspicious Substance Causes Evacuation At St. Petersburg Police Headquarters  (Scripps Media, 9/15/2010)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - One floor of the St. Petersburg Police headquarter building was evacuated Wednesday evening after officers discovered a suspicious substance inside an envelope.

St. Petersburg Fire Department Hazmat personnel were dispatched to the 2nd floor at 1300 First Avenue North in downtown St. Petersburg to investigate. They conducted a series of test on the substance which they found to be harmless.

The envelope had been delivered via the U.S. Postal Service and was accompanied by a threatening note.

The 2nd floor section of the building was evacuated as a precaution, and police say the evacuation did not cause any disruption of police service at any point.

Hate Mail Follows Burnt Quran at Chicago Mosque  (WBEZ News, 9/15/2010)

Chicago, IL--The weekend discovery of a partially-burnt Quran outside a Chicago mosque was followed yesterday by the discovery of hate mail. That's according to leaders of the Muslim Community Center on the city's North Side.

MCC Board member Dr. Mohammed Kaiseruddin says the author of the letter signed off as "The Catholic Man." Kaiseruddin doesn't know if it was left by the same person that deposited the burnt Quran outside the Mosque’s north entrance.

“In the letter he says ’I have decided a long time ago to burn the unholy Quran,’” Kaiseruddin read.

The letter was found in the same place as the desecrated Quran.

MCC leaders have turned over both items to the police.

The MCC has historically enjoyed good relations with its city neighbors. But Kaiseruddin says a recent controversy over a proposed Quran burning in Florida may have inspired local copycats.

GAO To Review FBI’s Work in Anthrax Letters Case  (Wall St. Journal, 9/15/2010)

The investigative arm of Congress will take another look at the science the FBI used to determine who mailed deadly anthrax-laced letters in 2001.

The Government Accountability Office has notified Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, that the agency will review the science behind the FBI’s conclusions that Army scientist Bruce Ivins sent the letters that killed five people.

The letters were mailed from a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., which is in Holt’s district. The congressman has long maintained that the FBI’s work on the case was shoddy and full of holes. The FBI concluded Dr. Ivins was a disturbed man who sent the letters while his laboratory faced the prospect of losing support for its anthrax vaccine program.

The National Academy of Sciences is in the midst of a two-year-review of the scientific work that led the FBI to finger Dr. Ivins after spending years chasing other suspects. Dr. Ivins took a fatal overdose of pills in 2008 as a federal grand jury prepared to indict him for the anthrax mailings.

In a letter to Holt, GAO officials said they would conduct their review once the NAS reaches its conclusions, which is expected later this year.

Suspicious Powder Sent To Three Embassies In Tel Aviv  (Bio Prep Watch, 9/15/2010)

Suspicious envelopes containing white powder were sent to three embassies in Tel Aviv this week, prompting fears of an anthrax attack.

The envelopes, which also contained notes, were sent to the United States, Spanish and Swedish embassies, police told AFP.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that three separate envelopes were sent to three separate embassies and, at each, were opened by embassy staff who found a suspicious white powder.

Rosenfeld said that no one at any of the embassies appeared to have been harmed, but that the matter was still under investigation and the white powdery substance was still being analyzed by authorities. No details were provided on the content of the notes or who might be behind the incident.

“A suspicious envelope was found and our security is working with the local police to sort it out,” U.S. embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer told AFP, without providing further details.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, letters containing anthrax spores were sent to several news media outlets and the offices of U.S. senators. Five people were killed.

The FBI closed its investigation of those attacks following the 2008 suicide of the main suspect, who was a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Chemical Terror Attack Called Likely in Coming Years  (Global Security Newswire, 9/15/2010)

An Israeli expert said Monday that nations must ready themselves for the increasing threat of acts of chemical terrorism in the years ahead, the Jerusalem Post.

"The most immediate threat is chemical terrorism," said Boaz Ganor, executive director of the Israel-based nonprofit International Institute for Counterterrorism. "We know that today, terrorists can download cookbooks from the Internet. They have primitive labs to prepare IEDs (improvised explosive devices), and can use the labs to prepare toxins rather than IEDs."

"Modern nonconventional terror is knocking on our door," Ganor said in remarks at the Tenth Annual World Summit on Counterterrorism.

Brig. Gen. Nitzan Nuriel, who leads the Israeli National Security Council's Counterterrorism Bureau, at the summit in Herzliya accused the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center of providing weapons to the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

"The international community must send a signal that next time the institute supports terrorism, it will be demolished," Nuriel said.

The United States in 2005 said the institute was involved in preparing missiles and biological and chemical weapons, the Post reported. The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said the center was developing biological weapons that would incorporate the lethal toxin ricin.

Danish Police: Hotel Blast Suspect Is Chechen Boxer  (AP, 9/15/2010)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Danish police on Wednesday identified the man suspected of setting off a small explosion in a Copenhagen hotel as a one-legged Chechen-born boxer living in Belgium.

The suspect, who was arrested Friday following a small explosion in a bathroom at a Copenhagen hotel, has declined to reveal his name to investigators. No one was injured in the blast except the suspect, who received cuts to his face.

Investigators won't say whether the explosion was related to terrorism and have refused to comment on speculation in Danish media that the man was trying to assemble a letter bomb when it blew up in his face.

Police spokesman Svend Foldager said Wednesday that police were "almost certain" they had identified the man after releasing close-up photographs to the media, showing his face covered with cuts and scratches. He also appeared to have a broken nose., common among boxers.

The Danish newspaper B.T. took the photos to boxing clubs in Belgium and found a coach who recognized him.

Foldager said the newspaper report helped investigators identify the man as a Belgium-based amateur boxer born in Chechnya in 1986. They were working with Belgian authorities to confirm the man's identity, he said.

"He has not denied that the identity we have here could be his. In other words, he has not said it was his name. But we believe it is," Foldager said.

The suspect's lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.

The man had a forged Belgian identity card and used two other false identities in Denmark. He gave no clues about his identity and had scratched the serial number off his prosthetic right leg, police said.

The suspect asked for Christian, Muslim and Jewish scriptures to read while in custody, a request police believe was meant to confuse them.

Margaux Donckier, a spokeswoman for the Belgian Interior Ministry, said she could not comment because the investigation was still being conducted.

Officials in Alabama Tally Costs of City Hall Evacuation After Biohazard Hoax Threat  (WAFF, 9/14/2010)

DECATUR, AL-- After Monday's bio-hazard scare, there were some questions raised about how much it cost the city.

While the white powder found in city hall was only baby formula, city officials didn't take any chances and evacuated the building Monday afternoon.

Decatur Mayor Don Stanford said that safety will trump costs any day of the week.

"That cost is minimum to what it would be for our employees here if it had been something serious," said Mayor Stanford.

The costs aren't as much as one would think. Lt. Jonathan Green, spokesperson for the Decatur Police Department said that only four or five officers were working on overtime.

"[That] puts us in the range of four to five hundred dollars," said Lt. Green.

Decatur Fire Marshall Darwin Clark said his first figures come out to be minimal for the fire department.

"We estimate we spent between $250 and a thousand dollars. Most of that was on disposable supplies that we can't reuse on additional calls," said Clark.

"We had employees who went home early but I didn't do anything until after 4 o'clock," added Mayor Stanford. "The building department gets off at 4 o'clock. So those folks went out on time. Maybe 30 to 45 minutes of the other people's time that went home."

The bottom line for every department is that costs were minimal. Officials were taking safety over dollars.

Bomb Scare At Louisiana Post Office Caused By iPhone Mailed For Repairs  (Houston Chronicle, 9/15/2010)

SWARTZ, La. — Ouachita Parish deputies closed a post office in Swartz after a customer told workers he heard something ticking in an outside mailbox and deputies confirmed something was ticking or beeping.

Maj. James Purvis tells The News-Star that it turned out to be an Apple iPhone being returned to the manufacturer.

He says the FBI and the Monroe Police Bomb Squad were called out, X-rayed the box, and opened it after finding an electronic device inside. He says the beeps apparently were from a dying battery.

He says the post office about seven miles northeast of Monroe was closed for two hours and Louisiana Highway 139 for about 10 minutes.

Purvis says, "In this day and age you can't take any chances."

Homemade Bomb Taken From Florida Veteran  (Florida Times Union, 9/15/2010)

Jacksonville, FL--A 49-year-old retired Marine was arrested Monday after the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s bomb squad removed a device packed with firecrackers and homemade napalm from a home in the 7500 block of Wilder Avenue.

Carl Wesley Moulton was arrested at 5 p.m. and booked into the Duval County jail on $155,000 bail, according to jail records.

Police said they were called to a neighbor’s home on Wilder Avenue after he had taken an explosive device from Moulton earlier. The neighbor said Moulton was “drunk, hating life” and was having family problems, so he had made a bomb and was going to “blow it up,” according to the police report.

The neighbor tried to disassemble the device to render it safe, then called police.

The bomb squad, joined by the fire department’s hazardous materials team and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, found the device packed with M-80 firecrackers, shotgun shells, gunpowder, BB pellets, bullets, gasoline, detergent and cardboard in an ammunition can. It had holes for ventilation and a fuse, the arrest report said.

Police said Moulton told them he had been trained in the Marines to make explosive devices and knew it would have exploded.

Threatening Letters With White Powder Found At U.S., Spanish, Swedish Embassies In Israel  (Xinhua, 9/14/2010)

JERUSALEM-- Police, firefighters and hazmat (hazardous materials) teams were called to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel Tuesday afternoon after officials found an envelope containing unidentified white powder, and a threatening letter with a swastika drawn on it.

A hazmat team erected a portable shower where they washed off two employees, one of them a female, who handled the envelope.

The two were placed in isolation.

"At this point we have no indication as to whether or not the material is hazardous," a hazmat official said, according to the Ynet news site.

The woman did not complain of any after effects from touching the powder, according to an Israeli Army radio report.

Emergency services are also investigating similar incidences at the Spanish and Swedish embassies in the city.

Officials did not reveal what language the letters were written in.

The personnel at both facilities were evacuated from the buildings, and crews collected the material for police forensic analysis.

There are no reports of injuries in the incident.

Powder Scare Shuts Australia Post Depot  (News Mail, 9/15/2010)

Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia--AUSTRALIA Post's Enterprise Street depot was isolated yesterday after staff noticed a powder substance on an overseas parcel.

Affected areas were cordoned off and depot staff were decontaminated before ambulance officers gave the all-clear.

Tests were taken and Brisbane's Scientific Unit confirmed the fine powder was a mild pesticide, which presented no danger.

Bundaberg Queensland Fire and Rescue station officer Vicki Shailer said she did not think the substance had been sent to cause fear.

“It was not on the inside of the package, only the outside,” she said.

This is the second suspicious powder scare this month, with a package containing baking powder causing a shutdown of a Rosedale Road business and the Bundaberg Police Station.

Australia Post reported only minimal impact to customers and mail delivery.

White Powder Closes House Of Representatives Chamber  (Bio Prep Watch, 9/14/2010)

Washington, DC--As a precaution after finding a suspicious white powder on its floor, the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives was cleared by U.S. Capitol Police on September 13.

The powder later proved to be entirely harmless, according to the AFP. Capital Police let people back into the building later in the afternoon.

“Just before noon, we discovered a powdery substance on the floor of the House," Sergeant Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police told the AFP. “The only people that were in there were a few House pages, who were evacuated out of an abundance of caution, and the immediate area was secured while the powder was tested.”

By around 1 p.m., Schneider said that nothing hazardous was found and that the all clear could be given.

Extra caution has been given with regards to such incidents since the weeks following September 11, 2001, when envelopes that contained anthrax spores were sent to the offices of two Democratic senators as well as several major media outlets.

Since that time, white powder scares have proliferated across the country. The most recent major scare took place in North Texas, where 25 envelopes filled with white powder were delivered to schools, churches, a mosque and several high-tech companies.

Sacramento Woman Part of Mail Theft Ring That Targeted USPS Delivery Trucks  (KXTV News, 9/13/2010)

SACRAMENTO, CA - A Sacramento woman faces the possibility of a very lengthy prison sentence after she pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, to multiple charges of mail theft and wire fraud.

Traci Marie Linzmeier, 37, admitted in court records to being the getaway driver who, along with others, would follow U.S. Postal Service delivery trucks and vehicles earlier this year and steal mail trays while postal carriers were delivering mail. Linzmeier confessed to then sorting and opening the mail to glean financial information to make purchases over the Internet.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Lauren Horwood said Linzmeier faces up to 20 years behind bars for each wire fraud conviction and up to five years for each mail theft conviction. She may also be ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines, plus restitution, as well as be sentenced to three years of parole following prison.

Anthrax Threat Letter Sent From California Man to His Brother Closes California Sheriff's Office For Two Hours  (Santa Cruz Sentinel, 9/13/2010)

APTOS, CA - The Sheriff's Office Aptos substation was closed for two hours Monday afternoon because a Mid-County man brought an envelope containing a suspicious white powder to the office in the Rancho del Mar shopping center on Soquel Drive, according to deputies.

The powder turned out to be sugar, a hazardous materials crew determined. There was no threat to sheriff's deputies or anyone else in the vicinity, according to sheriff's Sgt. Jeremy Verinsky.

The man who brought in the envelope said he and his brother are in an ongoing dispute. His brother has been sending him threatening letters, including Monday's powder-filled envelope, according to Verinsky.

The letter-writing brother could be charged with making terrorist threats, Verinsky said. The investigation is continuing and no arrests had been made Monday afternoon.

New Jersey Post Office Shut Down As Police Probe Bomb Scare  (Asbury Park Press, 9/13/2010)

OCEAN TOWNSHIP, NJ — A New Jersey State Police bomb squad and hazardous materials teams are on the scene at the Wanamassa Post Office on the report of a suspicious package found there, according to police spokesman Lt. Steven R. Peters.

Township police have closed the post office and Fairmount Avenue as a precaution while the state police teams investigate, Peters said.

No further details were available.

Sydney Airport Baggage Handler 'Made To Search Bomb Threat Bag'  (ABC News, 9/13/2010)

Sydney, Australia--The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says baggage handlers should not be forced to retrieve and screen luggage which has been the subject of bomb threats.

The union says last Wednesday a baggage handler at Sydney Airport was asked by Qantas management to investigate a suspect bag which came in on an Air China flight.

TWU National Secretary, Tony Sheldon, says it is an appalling incident.

"What's particularly disturbing is that the federal police haven't been called in," he said.

"No-one has been arrested for saying there is a bomb in their bag, there's been no effective investigation, there's been very little feedback to the workforce.

"Right on the eve of the 11th of September and this is the sort of way they're still handling what are critical national security issues. It’s appalling."

Qantas says it’s investigating the incident.

A Qantas spokeswoman says it is clear some of its procedures were not followed, and that appropriate disciplinary action has been taken against an employee.

Staff at Nevada Courthouse To Receive Training On How To Handle Suspicious Mail  (Reno Gazette Journal, 9/10/20010)

As a result of the closure of the Lyon County Courthouse on Aug. 26 due to a fear an envelope delivered there might pose a threat, interim Lyon County Manager Jeff Page said staff training is planned to better deal with such situations.

After the suspicious envelope was delivered to the District Attorney's office, it was decided to evacuate the courthouse building, and it remained closed for 3-1/2 hours.

Speaking on the incident at the Sept. 2 Lyon County Commission meeting, Page said he is planning training for how better to handle mail and about "what to be concerned about and not concerned about."

He said the objective would be to that if another similar event occurred, county personnel would know how to handle it better and more smoothly.

Page said the training would be coordinated with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which had recommended closure of the county building in the Aug. 26 incident.

He said that what a "suspicious letter" entails would be different for each county department, and the training would include that information, including higher profile offices like the Sheriff's and DA's offices being handled with a different level of scrutiny than the Recorder's Office, for example.

Page said an after-action meeting on the incident has been scheduled for Sept. 17 and will include law enforcement, county officials and fire department personnel.

The courthouse was closed until the NAS Fallon Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team arrived at the scene to check out the envelope and determined it was safe.

Pro-Life Group Condemns Alleged Clinic Bomb-Making Advice  (WSOC TV News, 9/9/2010)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A pro-life organization in Charlotte said Thursday night it does not condone the use of violence to stop abortions, including the kind outlined in a federal complaint against a man from Concord.

Justin Moose, 26, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on federal charges that he provided information on how to make an explosive to a person who, federal prosecutors say, Moose believed was planning to bomb a women's health clinic.

Federal agents say Moose is a self-proclaimed radical who used social networking sites like Facebook to project his anti-abortion views. Agents found messages like, "Save a life. Shoot an abortionist."

Moose also described himself as the "Christian counterpart of Osama Bin Laden," according to federal documents.

Moose's Facebook page claims he attends Royal Oaks Baptist Church in Kannapolis. An Eyewitness News crew went by the church Thursday, but no one was there. A member of Moose's family said Moose is not a monster but a Christian with strong views.

David Hains with the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, which is pro-life, condemned the violence that the FBI said Moose was advocating.

"You cannot be pro-life and then, at the same time, advocate violence against another person," said Hains. "It's incompatible from a logical standpoint, and it's incompatible from religious standpoint."

Agents said they found another message from Moose's Web pages that read, "To all the feds watching me: You can't stop what is in motion."

Hains said he hopes this arrest will foil any plans. "There is never any call for violence whatsoever against someone you disagree with," Hains said.

Eyewitness News also contacted the pro-choice group Planned Parenthood. In a statement, spokesperson Melissa Reed said, "Planned Parenthood is grateful to law enforcement officials for acting swiftly in this situation."

Justin Moose is being held at the Alamance County jail and will appear in federal court again on Monday.

Man Indicted For Mailing Suspicious Powder To Dow Jones  (AHN, 9/10/2010)

St. Paul, MN-- A middle-aged man spurred to send white powder to Dow Jones & Co. after receiving junk mail from the firm has been indicted for the biological weapons hoax.

Prosecutors say Richard Valentine Kozak, 69, sent the substance to the company's mail facility in Massachusetts. He is believed to have received unsolicited mail from the Dow Jones, a subsidiary of News Corp. that has the Wall Street Journal as its flagship publication.

Kozak's return mail included a note with obscenities and a request to be removed from the firm's mailing list. His note was opened by an employee and the mail facility was partially evacuated. A hazmat team was deployed to find out if the powder was anthrax or some other biological threat, but determined it was baking flour.

The indictment charges Kozak with one count of false information and hoaxes. If convicted, he faces as much as five years in prison.

The FBI says a number of people nationwide have been investigated and charged with biological-weapons hoaxes and threats since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In 2001, several letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to U.S. news organizations and two Democratic U.S. senators. The crime killed five people, infected 17 others and forced the postal service to shut down.

It was solved in 2008, when federal authorities said Bruce Ivins, a scientist at the government's biodefense institute in Maryland who committed suicide as the investigation focused on him, had sent the anthrax-laced letters.

Minnesota Man Charged For Mailing White Powder  (WNMT, 9/9/2010)

Minneapolis, MN --  A Long Lake man faces federal charges for mailing a suspicious white powder to Dow Jones and Company last May.  The indictment alleges 69-year-old Richard Kozak sent an obscene note and a quantity of a white powder in response to a magazine offer he received.  The Dow Jones mail facility in Massachussetts was evacuated and a haz-mat team was called in to determine if the powder was anthrax or posed a biological threat.  It was later found to be baking flour.  If convicted, Kozak could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in federal prison.

North Carolina Man Arrested For Providing Bomb-Making Advice  (WCCB, 9/9/2010)

GREENSBORO, NC - John W. Stone, Jr., Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, announced today that Justin Carl Moose, 26, of Concord, North Carolina was arrested on September 7, 2010 on charges of providing information related to the making, use or manufacture of an explosive, destructive device or weapon of mass destruction to a person Moose believed was planning to bomb a women’s health clinic in North Carolina.

The Criminal Complaint alleges that Moose utilized a social networking website as a platform to advocate violence against women’s healthcare clinics, specifically locations where abortions are performed, and the healthcare professionals employed at these facilities. Furthermore, the Complaint alleges that during the week immediately preceding his arrest, Moose spoke and met with a confidential source and provided detailed information and instruction about various explosives or incendiary methods for the purpose of enabling the source to destroy an abortion clinic in North Carolina.

The Criminal Complaint charges Moose with violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 842(p)(2)(B), Distribution of Information Relating to Explosives, Destructive Devices, and Weapons of Mass Destruction. If convicted, Moose faces up to twenty years in prison and a $250,000.00 fine.

Moose had an initial appearance in Greensboro on the day of his arrest. He is scheduled for a detention hearing in Greensboro at 2:30 p.m. on September 13, 2010. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A Criminal Complaint is a probable cause charging document. Every defendant accused of committing a federal crime has a Constitutional right to be indicted by a federal grand jury. The charges are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty.

Texas Dept. of Transportation Office Evacuated After Powder Found in Letter  (KBTX, 9/9/2010)

Bryan, TX--A white powdery substance was found inside a letter Thursday afternoon at the Texas Department of Transportation Office in Bryan.

The Director of TxDOT's Bryan District, Bob Appleton, received the questionable letter, according to TxDOT spokesperson, Bob Colwell.

No injuries were reported. The Bryan Police Department, Fire and a HAZMAT crew were called to the scene.

The building was evacuated until about 6p.m.

Bryan Fire Chief MIke Donoho told News 3 the letter was deemed "non-hazardous" and was handed over to the FBI. He said the letter was sent without a return address.

The southbound lanes of Texas Avenue in Bryan were closed down for a few hours. Traffic was rerouted to the turn lane and urged to proceed with caution.

Animal Rights Activists Admit Blackmail  (UKPA, 9/8/2010)

London, England--Four animal rights activists, including a man from north London, have pleaded guilty to interfering and blackmailing companies linked to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in an attempt to close the animal testing lab down.

Jason Mullan, 32, from Holloway Road, London, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harm HLS from 2005 to 2008 under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 by interfering with companies supplying them.

He was joined by Nicola Tapping, 29, from Clarence Road, Gosport, and Alfie Fitzpatrick, 20, from Knowle Road, Solihull, West Midlands, who admitted the same charge.

Thomas Harris, 27, from Clarence Road, Gosport, Hampshire, admitted conspiracy to blackmail companies and suppliers linked to the Cambridge-based company between 2001 and 2008.

The four, who were members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court on the eve of their trial.

Two other members of SHAC, Sarah Whitehead, 53, from Thorncroft Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, and Nicole Vosper, 22, from Bay View Terrace, Newquay, Cornwall, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail at an earlier hearing.

The six waged an international campaign of intimidation against a host of companies to force the closure of HLS.

Homes of staff from the supply firms were targeted with abusive telephone calls and criminal damage and threats of violence were also used to force companies to cut links with HLS.

The Recorder of Winchester, Judge Keith Cutler, adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports. A two-day sentencing hearing will take place at Winchester Crown Court on October 21.

The maximum jail term for conspiracy to blackmail is 14 years and the conspiracy under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 is five years.

Minnesota Man, 69, Accused Of Mailing White Powder, Obscene Note to Dow Jones  (Star Tribune, 9/8/2010)

Minneapolis, MN--A 69-year-old Twin Cities man has been charged in connection with mailing a suspicious white powder along with an obscene note to Dow Jones & Co. in response to a magazine offer he received from the company.

Richard V. Kozak, of Long Lake, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Minneapolis with false information and hoaxes for allegedly sending the note and the powder, which turned out to be baking flour.

Soon after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and infecting many others.

Since then federal agencies have investigated and charged numerous people nationwide with biological-weapon hoaxes and threats. Many of those hoaxes involve what was presented as anthrax, a white, powdery substance.

According to the indictment against Kozak:

On May 10, Kozak mailed an obscene note and white powder to a Dow Jones mail facility in Massachusetts. The mailing was in response to a magazine offer he had received from the company. His return note requested, among other things, that he be removed from the company's mailing list.

When a mail facility employee opened the note and discovered the powder, a portion of the facility was evacuated.A local hazardous-materials team was summoned to determine whether the powder posed a biological threat.

White Powder Scare At Transport Depot in Australia  (Courier Mail, 9/8/2010)

A TRANSPORT company depot in Cairns has gone into lockdown after white powder was found in a package this morning.

A Department of Community Safety spokeswoman said emergency services were called to the warehouse on Lyons St in Portsmith around 8.50am.

She said the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service were investigating and the Queensland Ambulance Service was on standby.

“There are no patients at this stage,” she said.

“The QFRS are working on determining what the white powder is.”

Six Post Office Uniforms Stolen In South Carolina  (The Herald, 9/9/2010)

ROCK HILL, SC --Beware of impostor postal carriers. That’s the warning issued by the U. S. Postal Inspectors after six post office uniforms were stolen in Rock Hill last weekend, according to a press release.

Someone broke into storage units rented by a postal employee over the holiday weekend and made off with six uniforms and one jacket, all of which had USPS logos on them.

“Both postal employees and customers should be aware and call local authorities if someone acts suspiciously,” Postal Inspection Service Public Information Officer Justin Crooks said in the release. “Anyone who is suspicious of a Postal employee should ask for a U. S. Postal Service picture ID. If the person cannot produce identification, you should notify authorities.”

This theft is a misdemeanor, but using the uniforms to perpetrate a crime would be a federal offense, Crooks said.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

'Bombs' In Mail Raise Alarm At Carleton University in Ottawa  (The Ottawa Citizen, 9/8/2010)

Ottawa, Canada--Ottawa police, firefighters and paramedics cleared Carleton University campus after investigating a couple of suspicious packages sent in the mail to Robertson Hall Tuesday afternoon. The call came in at about 2 p.m. from campus security after staff alerted them to two suspicious envelopes, one with 'Bomb' written on it and the other leaking an oily substance, fire spokesman Marc Messier said. Firefighters were immediately dispatched along with a HAZMAT team that arrived later, police said. Campus security personnel had moved the package to a safe location, Messier said. Police said the two packages were received by office mail. Robertson Hall was evacuated and a perimeter was set up with a command post of emergency personnel, police said. Emergency crews were cleared from the scene at 5:30 p.m., police said. Some Twitter users were quick to suspect the incident was a frosh prank.

Soldiers Exposed To Parcel With White Powder Released From Quarantine in Turkey  (Bio Prep Watch, 9/8/2010)

Istanbul--Six U.S. soldiers and a Turk who had been quarantined after discovering a parcel with suspicious white powder at Ataturk Airport have now been released.

Officials with the Turkish Health Ministry told TopNews.us that when the parcel was found, one of the soldiers opened it, revealing a white powder inside. This soldier, officials said, had been assigned to bring the parcel from the Ataturk Airport.

The seven men were quarantined because health officials initially feared the white powder was anthrax. Subsequent examination of the powder showed it to be harmless, as no biological agents were found.

“The analysis established that the suspicious powder did not contain a biological agent," the Turkish Health Ministry told TopNews.us.

Health officials told TopNews.us that the seven men were supervised at a hospital in Istanbul and that the area where the package had been opened had also been decontaminated.

U. S. Embassy Spokeswoman Deborah Guido told TopNews.us that final laboratory results were still pending, but that the matter would be considered cleared once this occurred.

Health officials said the men have been released. Turkish Health Ministry officials are still working with the U.S. embassy on the investigation.

Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by bacteria called Bacillus anthracis. Infection in humans most often involves the skin, the gastrointestinal tract or the lungs. Symptoms of gastrointestinal anthrax usually develop within one week and can affect the mouth, esophagus, intestines and colon.

Hazmat Incident at Florida Jewish Center Sends One to the Hospital  (First Coast News, 9/7/2010)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The sheriff's office didn't find anything in the envelope that caused a hazmat scare at the Jacksonville Jewish Center, but the investigation is continuing.

According to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, an employee opening the mail became sick this afternoon after opening an envelope.

She has been taken to a local hospital for evaluation following treatment at the scene, and police said she is stable.

Several other people, employees at the JCC, fire fighters and sheriff's officers were decontaminated at the scene.

Lt. Tom Francis with JFRD said the situation is "low risk" as investigators continue working.

The envelope has been sent to the health department for more thorough testing.

There were no evacuations at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, which is part of the complex, and parents have picked up their children.

The timing of the situation has raised extra concern, as the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks is this weekend and Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and one of the biggest Jewish holidays of the year, begins at sundown Wednesday.

Man Cited After Suspicious Package Left Outside Montana Police Department  (Missoulian, 9/7/2010)

Missoula, MN--A suspicious box placed outside Missoula City Hall on Monday turned out to contain nothing more than a Mason jar filled with iced tea, but the stunt led to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge and a psychiatric evaluation for a 24-year-old man.

Missoula police say the cardboard box was scrawled with threatening messages about a bomb and hazardous chemicals inside, and prompted full responses by the city-county explosive ordnance disposal team and the Missoula Fire Department's hazmat team.

The box was reported to authorities shortly after 2 p.m. Monday and emergency crews worked for several hours before determining the threat was a hoax, according to Missoula Police Sgt. Bob Bouchee.

"There were markings on the box indicating there were hazardous materials or a bomb inside, and that's why the officers took the precautions they did," Bouchee said.

After members of the bomb squad determined the package was not explosive, the hazmat team began working to identify the fluid inside and eventually removed the box from the area.

Surveillance video showed a suspect on a bicycle place the box on the sidewalk on the south side of City Hall.

During the response, the 24-year-old man, Brian Kitts, returned to the scene and was cited for disorderly conduct. He was taken to St. Patrick Hospital for a mental evaluation, Bouchee said.

Bomb Threat Evacuates SD Offices Building  (KDLT, 8/7/2010)

Sioux Falls, SD--A bomb threat at the South Dakota State Offices building shuts down business for several hours and forces the evacuation of more than 200 employees.

KDLT does not usually report on bomb threats, but because this impacted so many people, we are bringing you the details to this story.

The call came in to police just before 8 o clock Tuesday morning.

Police say the South Dakota Offices building became the target of a bomb threat, after an employee found a letter inside the mailbox.

"There was reason to believe something may happen in the building at a certain time, so we took precautions to make sure everybody was safe," said Lieutenent Toby Benson, with the Sioux Falls Police Department.

The parking lot was transformed into a crime scene.  At least a dozen officers responded to the call, blocking off every entrance.  Yellow police tape secured the area.

But the Department of Labor administrator says, it was the safety procedure already in place that provided the most security for everyone inside.

"With any emergency, we want to respond accordingly.  Safety comes first for our employees and our customers, so having those emergency procedures really allows us to respond in a practiced way," said Greg Johnson with the Dept. of Labor.

This is the first bomb threat the department has ever received, but it didn't take long for administrators to start taking action.

According to officials, there were several customers inside doing business when the letter surfaced, but they were allowed to leave.  Employees were taken across the street, to the Labor Tempel.

After searching the entire building, police did not find anything suspicious inside but say evacuating the building was the right thing to do.

After more than 3 hours, nearly 200 employees were let back in and even though it was just a scare, it was a tense situation for everyone involved.

"We tried to keep everybody as calm as possible, given the situation," said Lt. Benson.

"Thank goodness we practice and have that routine down because it resulted in everybody being safe today," said Johnson.

While the plan proved to work this time, everyone involved says, they don't have to practice in a real setting ever again.

Police say the investigation is still ongoing.  They will try to trace exactly where the threat came from.

Charges Dropped Against Navy Officer For Anthrax Scare  (Bio Prep Watch, 9/7/2010)

Charges have been dropped against a U.S. Navy petty officer accused in an anthrax scare.

Petty officer Phong Huu Nguyen was charged in July 2009 with making criminal threats in Newport Beach, California. After being evicted from his apartment, he was found to have left behind a series of disturbing messages written on his walls, as well several powder-filled jars that were labeled as “anthrax,” according to OCWeekly.com.

A school and neighborhoods surrounding Nguyen’s former apartment complex were evacuated after the messages and jars were discovered. A Hazmat team, the Newport Beach Fire Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad were called to investigate, OCWeekly.com reports.

Law enforcement found the numbers “666” painted across Nguyen’s walls and discovered the “anthrax” jars, which tests revealed actually contained nothing more serious than corn starch.

Nguyen, a 29-year-old administrative assistant in a military recruiting office, was arrested that same night in Los Angeles. He pleaded no contest to the charges against him in April 2010, but those charges were recently, and quietly, dropped.

He had been ordered to pay $4,400 to the authorities that responded to the scare and nearly $1,000 to the owner of the apartment complex, OCWeekly.com reports. He was also instructed to stay out of local crime blotters through his final hearing on August 31.

Suspicious Powder Triggers Quarantine at University in Florida  (WSVN, 9/7/2010)

DAVIE, Fla. -- An administrative office at Nova Southeastern University has been evacuated and scores of people quarantined while crews investigate the presence of a possible hazardous material.

Tuesday morning, officials said, they received calls regarding some kind of white powder located inside the university's office, located at 3434 South University Drive. Braulio Rosa of Davie Fire Rescue said his team is working to verify whether the material is white powder or something else. "Our crews came in, I know that there are calls that went out that way, until we can actually get in there and sample whatever material it is," he said.

In the meantime, for 40 or more people evacuated since this morning, the investigation has proved quite an ordeal, as they have been quarantined inside buses until tests reveal what mystery substance was found in the office.

Rosa said, those sitting inside the Nova shuttle buses might have to be there for a while. "It's an unknown substance/material that they gathered from inside. Then we need to send it to a lab to test. It's going to take a few hours to test," he said.

Nearing the anniversary of Sept. 11, these scares are taken very seriously by authorities. "We always have to take it as a credible threat and send in our crews to investigate," said Rosa.

Estelle Bitkower is a local resident said she understands the precaution the authorities have taken with this situation. "It should be taken seriously because you never, ever know what some kook is going to do," she said. "This will probably cost every town a fortune, but if it's really not a hoax, and it saves lives, it's worth it."

Though hazardous materials crews, firefighters, and police from three agencies have been tied up there all day, officials said, this incident is not affecting the entire university. They expect to have the situation by the end of the day, but until then, everything is staying in place on campus.

Homemade Bomb Kills Elderly Man and Damages Senior Citizen Apartment Building in Alabama  (Huntsville Times, 9/7/2010)

DECATUR, AL -- An explosion at a senior citizen apartment building Monday night killed one man and left other residents without a home, police said.

Larry Gene Thurman, 82, was killed as a result of the explosion at Summer Manor Apartments at 300 Wilson St. NE around 9:30 p.m., police said. After the initial investigation, police said the explosion had been contained to one apartment on the third floor.

Police said they believe the explosion was the result of a "homemade incendiary device." During the investigation Monday night, police recovered several other homemade bombs from the room that had been constructed and designed to cause significant damage.

Investigators say the detonation of the bomb appeared to be intentional.

The Decatur Police Department's bomb squad cleared the apartment of the other devices. The explosion activated the building's sprinkler system, helping stop the fire from spreading, but the water caused additional damage to other apartments, police said.

All the residents in the apartment -- owned by the Decatur Housing Authority -- were evacuated safely and are being temporarily housed at a different location, police said.

Decatur police, the Decatur fire marshal's office and the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are still investigating the apartment explosion and fire.

Cream Of Wheat Prompts Lock-Down At DHS Office in Michigan  (Newschannel 3, 9/3/2010)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A scare at a Grand Rapids DHS office has turned out to be a hoax.

On Friday police say a white powdery substance was found inside an envelope at the DHS office. Authorities say that substance turned out to be Cream of Wheat.

Hazmat crews were called and no one was let in or out of the building.

The investigation into who sent the breakfast cereal continues.

Dive-Bombing Hawk Attacks Stop Mail Delivery In Calgary Neighborhood  (Calgary Herald, 9/3/2010)

Calgary, AL, Canada--A pair of protective parents have halted mail delivery in a southwest neighbourhood.

While some residents have welcomed the Swainson's hawks that have nested in a tree in Bayview for at least two summers, the birds' instinct to guard their young forced Canada Post to pull the plug after a letter carrier was struck by a dive-bombing raptor.

"Unfortunately, wildlife isn't always sociable," said Canada Post spokeswoman Teresa Williams.

The letter carrier continued delivering the mail after the hawk began to bother her back in June, eventually resorting to wearing a helmet.

Then, "it attacked with such force, it broke her bicycle helmet," Williams said.

Mail delivery was suspended two weeks ago to 150 customers, and will resume when the hawks start their winter migration. Fish and Wildlife officer Ed Pirogowicz said typically the hawks would already be en route to Argentina at this point. But cold, wet weather has delayed things this year.

"They're probably anxious to get going," he said.

Hawks are quick to protect their young, particularly as they make their first attempts to fly.

"They like to attack from behind. The intent is to scare you from the nesting area," Pirogowicz said.

Residents said they have watched the birds swooping low, but only the letter carrier appears to have been attacked.

Bayview resident Maria Kipp has had a perfect view of the hawk family for the past two summers as they nested in a tree across the street. She said they have felt privileged to have the hawks so close.

"We're blessed by it," she said. "The neighborhood in general is quite thrilled."

From her home office, Kathryn Chan would watch them come and go, the adults bearing food in their beaks for the young. "I enjoyed it but I feel bad for (the carrier) and the 150 homes (not getting mail)," she said.

Scientist Behind Miami Airport Evacuation Charged with Smuggling Plague in 2003 (ABC News, 9/3/2010)

The scientist who prompted an evacuation of Miami International Airport for carrying what screeners believed was a pipe bomb is known to federal authorities and was charged in 2003 for illegally transporting 30 vials of the deadly bubonic plague.

Officials said Dr. Thomas Butler, 70, a U.S. citizen, who teaches in the Caribbean and Saudi Arabia, was released after questioning. Authorities said the metal canister in his luggage tested negative for dangerous materials and was related to a legitimate experiment.

Butler, a renowned infectious disease expert who spent more than 20 years working on cures for cholera and bubonic plague at Texas Tech, lost his job after he was found guilty of exporting the vials, lying to federal officials, and embezzling research funds. He was charged with 47 counts smuggling biohazard materials. He spent two years in prison but was later acquitted of smuggling plague pathogens.

Bubonic plague, an ancient disease that causes victims' glands to painfully swell before causing death, is one of several viruses and bacteria that anti-terror experts fear could be used as a terror weapon. Some antibiotics have proved useful in treating plague, and Butler reportedly was reportedly working on a new cure while at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Officials said Butler, whose name they have yet to release publicly, was cooperative and permitted to continue his trip after questioning. At a press conference today, FBI agent Michael Leverock called him "very cooperative."

Butler was reportedly travelling from Saudi Arabia. He changed planes in London and was switch planes in Miami before ending in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Officials said Butler is a professor at Ross University in the Caribbean and was on teaching assignment in Saudi Arabia.

Most of the airport was shut down for several hours late Thursday night after officials found the metal canister in Butler's luggage.

Authorities initially suspected it was a possible pipe bomb and evacuated the airport.

Passengers from four of the airport's six concourses were evacuated as the bomb squad scoured the airport.

The airport reopened early today.

The Miami airport incident was the second terror scare in recent days that turned out to be unfounded. Last week two Yemeni men was taken into custody in Amsterday and suspected of being on a "dry run" for a terror attack. They were later released and found to have no connection to terror.

Discovery Channel Hostage Drama and Five Other Attacks on Hollywood  (E!News, 9/1/2010)

Scary day at Discovery Channel headquarters in Maryland today, where an armed man held hostages before being shot dead by police. Suspect James Lee, who was killed by police, had a history of run-ins and rants against the cable giant.

Here are five other times Hollywood institutions came under frightening attack:

1. The Post-9/11 Anthrax Scare. Just days after the 2001 terror attacks, the Manhattan offices of ABC, NBC and CBS were jolted anew by the discovery of letters laced with the potentially deadly toxin. Those infected included the infant child of an ABC News staffer. An apparently unrelated anthrax threat rattled A-list types in 2008.

2. The Pat Robertson Letter Bomb. In 1990, a letter bomb addressed to the televangelist exploded in the mailroom of his Christian Broadcasting Network. One person, a network security guard, was injured.

3. The CBS Gunman.  In 2002, the network's famed Television City complex in Los Angeles was evacuated, and taping on The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful halted, after an armed man barged into the mailroom. A police standoff ensued, and ended only when the suspect shot himself.

4. The CNBC Blackout. In 1998, the business network went dark for about 90 minutes after its New Jersey studio was cleared due to a bomb threat. No explosive devices were found.

5. The Planet Hollywood Explosion. In 1998, a terror group targeted the Cape Town, South Africa, outpost of the Bruce Willis-, Arnold Schwarzenegger- and Sylvester Stallone-founded restaurant chain. One person was killed in the blast.

Former Postal Carrier in San Diego Found Guilty Of Mail Theft  (Union Tribune, 9/1/2010)

San Diego, CA--A federal jury on Wednesday found a former U.S. postal carrier guilty of stealing mail, including a gift card that had been sent as a Christmas present to a San Diego man.

The verdicts against Bao Q Truong followed a 2 1/2 day trial before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller, said U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy. Truong is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3. He was found guilty of three of four counts of mail theft.

In January 2009, a San Diego resident made a complaint to the U.S. Postal Consumer Affairs Office, stating that a Christmas card from his mother in Kentucky had never arrived. It contained VISA gift cards worth $250.

A federal investigation showed that the cards were used at a GameStop store on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26, 2008. On the latter date, the defendant’s wife, Damaris Truong, used her personal Washington Mutual credit card to complete the purchase, according to documents filed in the case.

On May 29, 2009, a federal agent mailed a greeting card with a Target gift card to the same address on 35th Street. The agent saw Truong handle the letter, although he should have returned it because he was not delivering mail to the route that day.

On Aug. 10, 2009, the agent sent a greeting card with $40 cash to another address on 35th Street. It was not delivered to the address. Truong was followed home the same day and federal agents searched his car. They found the letter in a mail satchel, along with a letter sent to another address on 35th Street, according to court documents.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

Maryland Postmaster Pleads Guilty of Stealing Nearly $60,000 in Postage Stamps  (Bay Net, 9/1/2010)

CHARLES COUNTY, MD--Gilbert Ennis, age 56, of Lanham, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to stealing $59,958.21 in postal stamps from the Marbury Post Office in Charles County where he was the postmaster.  As part of his plea agreement, Ennis has agreed to resign from the U.S. Postal Service and pay restitution of $59,958.21 from his federal retirement account.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge Joanne Yarbrough of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General and Charles County Sheriff Rex Coffey.

“Theft of postal funds is a serious crime. Most postal employees would never think of taking a dime from the Postal Service. But when an individual steals money from the Postal Service, OIG Special Agents work quickly to bring an end to the criminal activity,” said Special Agent in Charge Joanne Yarbrough.

According to Ennis’ plea agreement, on November 23, 2009, Ennis called the Charles County Sheriff's Office and reported that he had been alone in the postal office that afternoon when a man carrying a gun entered the building, demanded that he open the safe and then ordered Ennis to get into the bathroom and close the door.  Ennis told the sheriff and the postal inspector that a green box in the safe containing over $50,000 in postal stamp stock was stolen.   A postal audit concluded that the amount of stamp stock stolen from the safe was $57,989.40.

Investigators began to doubt Ennis’ robbery report, however, when they found a green box identical to the one reported stolen in Ennis’ car.  Further investigation revealed that Ennis could not have seen the robbers leaving the parking lot, as he reported, from the bathroom where he said he was; and the door Ennis said the robber entered from was dead bolted and could not be opened from the outside without a key.  Investigators also found Postal Service money orders in the box in Ennis’ car; confirmed that $50,000 of stamp stock could not have fit inside the box that Ennis claimed was stolen; and determined that $1,968.81 in stamps were missing from Ennis’ drawer.

Ennis faces a  maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus has scheduled sentencing for December 6, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General and the Charles County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Hollis Raphael Weisman, who is prosecuting the case.