Posted on 06/20/2003 9:22:55 PM PDT by Princeton
Envelopes with white powder determined to be hoaxes, officials said
By Dave Birkland Seattle Times staff reporter
Envelopes containing white powder, some containing anti-war messages, were found at six locations in West Seattle this morning, and all were quickly determined to be hoaxes, officials said.
At mid-morning, no one had taken responsibility, nor were there any suspects, according to Seattle police, whose bomb squad responded to the sites.
All six appeared to be linked. The white powder on each was determined to be wheat flour, according to Helen Fitzpatrick.
It started about 7 a.m., when an employee at the West Seattle Post Office, 4412 California Ave. S.W., found a large envelope containing white powder and an "anti-war message" written on a piece of paper, said Ernie Swanson, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
Twenty eight postal employees were evacuate, but were returned to the building when powder was determined to be flour, Swanson said.
About 9 a.m., an employee at the Westwood Village post office on Southwest Trenton Street found an envelope, also with white powder and an anti-war message. The building was evacuated but everyone was returned when the powder was determined to be harmless.
"They seem to be very similar, and the post offices are only three or four miles apart," Swanson said.
The third site was an auto repair shop at 9201 35th Ave. S.W., where someone slipped an envelope with powder on it inside the mail slot, Fitzpatrick said. About the same time, another such letter was found inside street-side mail box at 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Henderson Street.
The fifth and sixth sites were in the 6000 block of California Avenue Southwest, and then the 2900 block of Southwest Avalon Way. The powder on each letter was determined to be the same, wheat flour, Fitzpatrick said.
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
WHITE POWER - BLACK HEART ?
Saturday June 21, 2003
It has been well over a year and a half since the mailings of the anthrax letters. The Amerithrax investigation into what some have called the first fatal biological attack on American soil appears to have slipped from the back burner and off of the stove.
I say, "appears", as we are not privy to the investigative machinations and, perhaps, that's how it should be, given the prospect of generating copy cat mailings and such.
Nevertheless, white powder "hoaxes' continue to plague communities, terrifying recipients, tying up police, first responders and hazmat teams from Seattle to the Senate to The U.S. Consulate's visa processing office in Rome.
Reporting on these events has, for the most part, been scant of substitutive details, such as how envelopes are addressed or, more importantly, where they were postmarked.
Is it too farfetched to conjecture that at least some of the white powder mailings that occurred since and even before September of 2001 are the handiwork of the anthrax killer?
If one does a news search for “white powder” or even just “powder”, a series of articles emerge describing, just barely mind you, a string of apparent hoax mailings that, once reported, simply disappear from the media radar, especially after tests indicate that the substance in the envelope is not anthrax.
Who is, at the very least, maintaining a data base of these mailings? Where are all of the envelopes? What similarities, if any, exist between the “hoax” mailings and the original anthrax mailings? Are there any clues to be gleaned from the handwriting, the points of origin, the addresses and so on?
Above is an example of one of the rare articles that actually makes an attempt at some detailed disclosure in terms of specific addresses where the hoaxes were received and the message content.
After reading it, does anything at all strike you as a minor but, nevertheless, odd or interesting coincidence?
Read it again and focus on the street address of the Westwood Village post office.
Of course, this is nothing more than an insignificant coincidence - unless the mailer has a Hitchcockian sense of humor.
Nah.
Your Feeb buddies, of course.
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