THIRD EU LETTER BOMB

SkyNews ^ | 12-29-03

[Indy Pendance]

A letter bomb has been intercepted and defused at the Dutch headquarters of the European Union's police agency, Europol.

It is the third letter bomb sent to prominent EU figures or bodies in as many days.

A government official in The Hague said staff at Europol alerted the bomb squad after they became suspicious about the package.

Police are investigating the incident.

Europol handles criminal intelligence and assists EU states in fighting organised crime.

Earlier on Monday, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet was sent a suspected letter bomb and on Saturday a parcel exploded in European Commission President Romano Prodi's hands.

The letter addressed to Mr Trichet was apparently sent from the Italian city of Bologna where Prodi lives, a police spokesman said.

It was discovered in the post room at the Frankfurt-based bank mid-morning on Monday, he said.

Prodi, a former Italian prime minister, said he opened the parcel very carefully on Saturday after "recent warnings".

Two small home-made bombs exploded in rubbish bins near his home on December 22.

[prairiebreeze]

ping. I read the article about the second letter bomb a day or so ago

Prairie

[Ramius]

Europol? where have I been? I hadn't heard of them yet. Is this some reincarnation of Interpol?

[Peach]

Thanks for the ping, Prairie. Hard to tell how many catastrophe's have been averted but this thing just keeps getting ratcheted up, by the day, it seems.

[Mo1]

Thanks for the ping Prairie .. I hadn't heard about this .. it almost sounds like the unibomber

[Cicero]

In a way, it's surprising that there haven't been more protests and violence against the abusive and dictatorial behavior of the Eurocrats. They have repeatedly micromanaged affairs in the member countries in ways that are extremely offensive.

Some of it sounds comical, like the directive that all pig farmers must provide their pigs with toys to keep them from eating each others' tails, or the arrest of farmers in England for selling produce in pounds instead of kilos, but that's exactly the kind of thing that ordinary people are likely to resent most.