Prompted by Khan's intelligence report I've done some looking. Here's a curiosity. On Feb. 28, 2003 4 congresscritters recieved suspicious mail.
This is only reported, as far as I can see, is in the Seattle Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the wires.
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The Seattle Times
March 1, 2003, Saturday Fourth Edition
Gunfire kills 2 at U.S. consulate, Terrorism notebook
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WASHINGTON At least four U.S. Senate and House of Representatives offices received envelopes yesterday postmarked from Seattle that contained suspicious white powder, U.S. Capitol police said.
The powder was tested and police determined it was not anthrax, said Kimberly Ballinger, Capitol Police spokeswoman.
All postage to the Capitol is taken to an outside location by the Postal Service and irradiated. Even if the white powder had contained Anthrax, it would have been harmless by the time the letters were opened, said Ballinger. The letters had a Seattle postmark, but no return address, Ballinger said. A congressional source said the addresses were typed.
"It happens every day here," she said. "We don't consider it an issue unless it (the tests) turn out positive."
The letters were addressed to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; the House majority leader; Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.; Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
A ranking homeland-security official said the FBI would investigate the letters, but it was too early to tell what the four elected officials had in common that would make someone send them, and not others, the letters.
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Coleman's among Senate offices closed by anthrax scare
Rob Hotakainen; Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Police quarantined the Capitol Hill offices of Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and three other Republican lawmakers Friday after an anthrax scare.
"The Capitol Hill police came in with their gas masks and quarantined the office. . . . They shut the place down," said Tom Mason, Coleman's chief of staff, who described the incident as "a false alarm."
Brent Boydston, a staff assistant, said he was opening mail when he encountered "a big puff of white powder" in an envelope. The envelope contained a blank piece of paper and had a Seattle postmark.
Similar letters postmarked in Seattle were sent to the offices of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, and freshmen Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. All the letters tested negative for anthrax, he said.
Mason said no employees were allowed to enter or leave the office, located in the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, while police were present. The substance was sent to a laboratory for testing.
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Might happen all the time, but I thought it was interesting that the powder was describe as a "puff", compared to the oft "pouring out" like sugar hoaxes. Ie, it sounds floaty. Maybe talc does that.
Going through some old stuff, found this, maybe something similar had been posted. I remember the Naples Daily News story mentioning letter"s" addressed to J.Lo.
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Palm Beach Post
August 26, 2002
FBI SET TO RENEW PROBE OF AMI SITE AGENTS HOPE TO FIND ANTHRAX ENVELOPES
By JOHN MURAWSKI Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: BOCA RATON
FBI investigators are returning to the sealed-off scene of the nation's first anthrax attack to search again for envelopes that may have been used to deliver deadly spores, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
The FBI wouldn't say Sunday why it is launching another search of the abandoned headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. One letter, addressed to pop singer Jennifer Lopez, was believed to have been tossed in the trash and incinerated shortly after it arrived. Investigators, however, believe at least two letters were mailed to the publishing house.
Federal authorities said they would provide details of a "renewed FBI evidence-gathering effort" at a news conference today in Boca Raton that will include the FBI and other federal, state and local officials.
The search is expected to begin this week as efforts in Washington gain momentum for the federal purchase of the former publishing house in a tree-lined Boca Raton office park. The three-story building at 5401 N.W. Broken Sound Blvd. has been a sealed crime scene since Oct. 7 when anthrax was detected - a discovery that touched off a national panic.
There was no sign of activity Sunday afternoon at the abandoned building in the Arvida Park of Commerce. Only a Boca Raton police officer kept watch in his car outside.
"The Justice Department approached AMI recently and advised that the FBI would be going back in there as part of its investigation," said AMI spokesman Gerald McKelvey.
McKelvey said he didn't know details about the search. But two sources familiar with the FBI's plans said agents are hoping against the odds to find evidence missed since October when investigators first scoured the building.
During the weeks after AMI's headquarters was shut down last year, federal investigators concluded that at least two envelopes containing anthrax powder had entered the building. That conclusion in part was based on the discovery that two different mail routes in the building were contaminated.
At the time, AMI employees recalled a love letter to Lopez that had arrived Sept. 19 in an envelope that contained powder and a small plastic Star of David. Dismissed as one of many oddball mailings from kooks, the letter and envelope were presumed to have been thrown out.
The Lopez letter is believed to have infected and killed Bob Stevens, 63, a photo editor at The Sun, one of AMI's publications. Mailroom worker Ernesto Blanco nearly died, too, but survived after a lengthy hospital stay. Stevens was the first person in 25 years in the United States to die from the extremely rare and lethal form of the disease.
The search might be the last opportunity for the FBI to turn up more evidence before the agency surrenders control of the crime scene. Florida's congressional delegation is pushing the government to take over the AMI building and purge it of anthrax or use it for scientific research.
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Staff writers Thomas R. Collins and Mary McLachlin contributed to this story.
- john_murawski@pbpost.com
Good catch.
Cabosil does that real well. In fiberglass work it's the tiny and incredibly light little spheres of glass used as filler to lighten a cast or to reduce the amount of resins needed, or both. It's lighter than the same volume of air- at least it seems like it. Very floaty, very soft to the touch, lighter than goose down. You can barely feel it.