Suspicious Package (Stuffed Animal?) Outside Senate Buildings Causes Evacuation

Tuesday, February 3, 2004 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

Local Channel 5 in D.C. is reporting the Capitol Police have ordered the streets around the Senate office buildings evacuated after a suspicious package was found. The item is reported to be a stuffed toy animal.

[mtbopfuyn]

FNC - near sgt at arms office and Lee's office inside Capital - confirmed to be riacine - conflicting conclusion so more testing.

[mtbopfuyn]

FNC - Another incident in KY of white powder.

[kristinn]

After the situation was cleared, a local TV station showed footage of the 'suspicious item' being carried away in a large green lawn bag. The bag was full, so the stuffed animal, if that's what it was, was a big carnival prize sized one. I did note that the officers carrying it away were not dressed in hazmat or bomb gear.

[mewzilla]

Is that a new find or last nights? If the latter, are they still waiting on Detrick?

[mewzilla]

Thanks. Even if harmless, wonder who'd be caught walking around that Capitol with that?

[Frank_Discussion]

At the VERY least, someone was trying to jerk some chains with that.

[armymarinemom]

Has anyone been watching this clock?

What time zone is that supposed to be?

[mtbopfuyn]

Dunno, FNC just said "another" and cut to break.

[mewzilla]

They ought to just assign these things a number, in the interest of clarity.

[The Turbanator]

It's a count down clock, no time zone. Like in tick, tick tick.Boom!

[Quilla]

I know it's not funny, but your post cracked me up. ;-)

[af_vet_1981]

Lundgren was killed by cross-contamination.

How exactly ?
With what or whom did she come in contact ?

[mewzilla]

You mean the prospect of some suit roaming the halls with his plush cuddly toy?

[meanie monster]

This ain't sounding good. If it is in the mail again it will cause panic.

[Crew Chief]

Ricin intoxication can accord thru ingestion , inhalation or trans-dermal absorption .
Signs and Symptoms of inhalation ricin intoxication include weakness , fever cough , pulmonary edema with in 8 hours followed by severe respiratory distress from hypoxemia in 36 to 72 hours .
When ingested Ricin causes severe gastrointestinal system followed by vascular collapse and death with in 72 hours .
It is not hard to spread ricin thru air but it is hard to make enough to use it as a weapon of mass destruction .

[Quilla]

That too, but I was thinking of the notion of having to assign numbers to today's incidents. The reporting is sporatic at best. The ususal suspects don't want to stop the non-stop Kerry Koverage/Bush Bashing.

[kristinn]

Linda Vester reporting Justice Department sources say they are ready to announce positive test results for yesterday's ricin scare. A press conference is expected at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

[Denver Ditdat]

It's just that a truck driver complainting about regulations doesn't scare the bejezzes out of me. Jihadists do.

Even if the truck driver uses poison to make his point?

To be fair, truck drivers as a group don't pose a security threat to the nation. Militant Islam does. Despite that, the individual responsible for each act is still a terrorist.

[Denver Ditdat]

That countdown clock certainly gives one the creeps. Along those same lines, I ran across this picture recently at littlegreenfootballs.com. It was discovered on a website (with arabic text) called know-islam and is captioned - the beauty of destruction.

The people posting those pictures and messages probably don't have any more power to make that happen than the "NUKE MECCA!" folks here do.

[Voss]

So I'm assuming (hoping) that "lockdown" means a tour of the Capitol is out of the question today? I don't want to sound like a ninny, but my husband is on a business trip and called last night to say a staffer acquaintance was going to take them on a tour today. Thanks for any info you can offer. Oh, and I hope you're feeling better today.