Ricin Probe Links White House, S.C. Mail

WASHINGTON - A new link is emerging between letters containing the poison ricin found in mail facilities that serve the White House and a South Carolina airport as federal investigators seek to identify the letter or parcel that may have carried ricin into a Senate mailroom.

A senior law enforcement official, speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity, said investigators had established strong links between the South Carolina and White House letters. What remained unclear, the official said, was whether those letters were connected to the substance found in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

The letter found in October at a postal facility serving the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport was signed by someone who called himself "Fallen Angel," as was a letter found in November at a facility that processes mail for the White House, a law enforcement official said. Both letters complained about new regulations requiring certain amounts of rest for truck drivers. Both also contained ricin.

Investigators said Tuesday they had not identified the letter or package that might have carried ricin into Frist's office. An initial check found no extortion, threat or complaint letter in the office, said a second law enforcement source also speaking on condition of anonymity.

There were no indications of involvement by foreign terrorists such as al-Qaida, which the FBI (news - web sites) has said is interested in using ricin in an attack.

The powdery white substance was found on a machine that opens mail in Frist's office, authorities said. The area in the Tennessee senator's office was quarantined and stacks of mail were to be checked.

"We have an open mind about the source of this," said Terrance Gainer, chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, which is conducting the probe along with the FBI and the multi-agency joint terrorism task force based at the FBI's Washington field office.

Gainer said authorities were interviewing members of Frist's staff and others who had access to the mailroom. Although it was considered remotely possible that the ricin was physically planted in Frist's office, investigators were concentrating on mail as the likely source.

The package found in a South Carolina mail facility had a letter claiming the author could make more ricin and a threat to "start dumping" large quantities if his demands to stop the new trucking regulations were not met. The FBI offered a $100,000 reward in that case but no arrests have been made.

The White House letter, intercepted in November, contained nearly identical language but such weak amounts of ricin that it was not deemed a major health threat, said another law enforcement official. That letter's existence was not publicly disclosed before Tuesday.

At the Capitol, an FBI hazardous materials team was helping police isolate and examine the mail in Frist's office and will in the coming days collect other unopened mail in the Capitol complex, said FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman. The FBI also will do forensic analysis at its laboratory in Quantico, Va., checking evidence for fingerprints, fibers, hair and the like.

The latest discovery comes as the FBI continues its 28-month-old investigation into the fall 2001 mailings of anthrax-laced letters to Senate and news media offices. Five people died and 17 were injured in that attack.

The anthrax investigation is ongoing, FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell said. Twenty-eight FBI agents and 12 postal inspectors are assigned full-time to the anthrax case, which has involved some 5,000 interviews and issuance of 4,000 subpoenas.

The FBI has focused recently on an intensive scientific effort to determine how the spores were made and narrow the possibilities in terms of who had the means to make them. Authorities have many theories on who might be responsible, ranging from al-Qaida terrorists to a disgruntled scientist to an expert who sought to expose U.S. vulnerabilities to bioweapons attacks.

The one man named a "person of interest" by authorities, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, says he has nothing to do with the attacks and has sued the government for publicly identifying him. Hatfill is a former government scientist and bioweapons expert who once worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.

Per an earlier discussion, it's pretty clear why FR was spectacularly uninterested in the South Carolina Ricin incident, even though it was in the news.

But the question is why the national news media was so spectacularly uninterested; I think it's because of the mind-bogglingly MUNDANE nature of the "Fallen Angel" letter and his demands; there's no "hook" or "angle." If the Fallen Angel letter had been filled with rants against Israel and a promise to kill infidels, the SC incident would have been huge news. If it had been filled with rants against blacks and the demand was the elimination of gun control laws, the media would have gone nuts over it.

But when the complaint is against restricting the hours of truck drivers, it's hard to sell that as a big story or make it into a big scare.

Let's call this what it was; an attempt to decapitate our leadership via assassination. So where's the outrage? Even "liberals" should be outraged that someone is attacking our nation again. And only fools would think that the prime suspects are domestic nut balls. The geopolitical implications are immense.

And only fools would think that the prime suspects are domestic nut balls.

Umm....you are capable of, say, reading articles and such, aren't you?

We've had two recent Ricin mailings, the second to the white house, by a guy claiming to own a trucking company who is upset about regulations restricting the hours a driver can drive.

You think that's Al Queda or Iran or something?

The only thing interesting about the ricin in Frist's office is that they haven't found the original container. The SC and White House (crude) ricin were supposedly sent in metal vials, and the one in SC was well-marked with warnings.

It sounds like the Frist stuff may be a copy-cat, an inside job or evidence of gross stupidity by someone in the mail-handling chain. If it's the latter, and -- after all the anthrax hysteria -- someone nonchalantly opened a vial or package containing powder, and then threw the container away, all the expensive detection equipment or pre-screening in the world won't save the Congress from terminal stupidity.

And only fools would think that the prime suspects are domestic nut balls.

We've had two recent Ricin mailings, the second to the white house, by a guy claiming to own a trucking company who is upset about regulations restricting the hours a driver can drive.

I think his point is that we cannot afford to assume that these attacks are purely domestic. And just because the mailing is domestic, doesn't mean that the actual source is too. Even some Americans can be bought.

I think that I were responsible for a nation-state sponsored attack, I would lay a false trail. Deception 101.

Err, just like the Anthrax attacks...oops, wait, because those seemed to be from Muslim terrorists, you're not allowed to question at all if the notes were "real."

However, any note connected to terrorism that DOESN'T have a connection to Islam or an Islamic country is fake? Gotcha.

And the reality of Ricin is that there are probably 50 million people in the country who have the intelligence and financial wherewithal to make Ricin. It's probably easier than building a Meth lab, and tens of thousands of dumbass white trash tweakers have done that in their trailers.

Boy, the irony is rich on this one.

Anyone posting "we cannot afford to assume this attack was from Muslim terrorists" in regard to the Anthrax mailings, despite the letters connected to the attacks, they'd get flamed viciously.

Anyone posting "we cannot afford to assume this attack was from Muslim terrorists" in regard to the Anthrax mailings, despite the letters connected to the attacks, they'd get flamed viciously.

Well, that argument has in fact been made both here and by the FBI, and validly so (without flames). A domestic terrorist wanting to cover his tracks would obviously try to throw off investigators with a poorly written (with respect to the English language) letter included with the toxin.

Please note that I said "we cannot afford to assume that these attacks are purely domestic." It just means that we should not assume that just because there is an apparent trail to S.C., because it may not be what we think.

So, can you at least be open to the possibility that the perp is not some [stupid] angry white man? We cannot tell definitively whether the attack is by enemies domestic or foreign. That said, anyone who attacks my President with intent to assassinate him is an automatic sworn enemy of me and my country. There is *my* outrage.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.