The Bishop: The Next Stage in the Threat Cycle (Special Update on "The Bishop" )

Federal authorities have been stepping up their efforts to locate a “person of interest,” who calls himself “The Bishop,” since he mailed incomplete explosive devices to financial services companies in the United States several weeks ago. A forensic investigation has been under way since early February, and offers of a reward (up to $100,000) for information leading to The Bishop’s arrest and conviction were followed recently by the release a sketch, showing what federal authorities believe “The Bishop” might look like...

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/bishop.php

http://www.stratfor.com/PDF/Bishop_Reward.pdf"

Mass media attention to the case also has grown dramatically in the past month, following the Feb. 7 publication of a Stratfor analysis questioning whether the Bishop -- whose threats and tactics are evolving -- could be on his way to becoming the next “Unabomber.” The analysis identified several shifts in The Bishop’s behavior over time -- each to a more sinister threshold than before -- since he first appeared on the radar in October 2005. In our view, the time is ripe for yet another shift, as public awareness of the threat in the mailrooms of financial institutions blunts the effectiveness of tactics used to date.

If “The Bishop” follows patterns established by other mail-bombers he appears to have studied and activist groups, the next phase of the cycle could take him away from focusing on corporate offices and toward zeroing in more personally on his chosen victims -- targeting them at their homes.

The behavioral patterns and clues left by The Bishop to date have established him as a threat to be taken seriously, even though he appears to be delusional in some respects. Since 2005, he has been demanding that various financial services firm take action to move specific stocks to a certain price -- frequently $6.66.

There is a clearly discernible trend in The Bishop’s communications: In his first letters, he made no specific threats but appeared to be rambling in a menacing way, with allusions to the Unabomber and the abductions of children. For instance, one of his early letters, he mused that “possibly the worst thing that can happen to someone is to have a child or grandchild go missing. Kids are snatched all the time and the poor parents are tormented for years not knowing what happened to their angel do you really want to be responsible for that.” By mid-2006, however, as it was becoming obvious that his demands were being ignored, his threats grew more specific -- focusing on the use of package bombs. The next shift came in late January 2007, when packages containing incomplete explosive devices -- conglomerations of PVC pipe, exposed wires, smokeless powder and buckshot -- were mailed to the offices of American Century Investments in Kansas City, Mo. and Janus Capital Group in Denver, Colo.

While this is of particular interest to the financial services community, Stratfor is sending this recent report to all its readers as a public service.

TheBishop

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