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The febrile security mood in Washington rose another notch on Tuesday as it emerged that an envelope sent to Senate offices had tested positive for a poison thought to be ricin.
The envelope was addressed to the offices of Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, but is understood to have been intercepted before reaching Capitol Hill.
Since anthrax attacks in the post caused Congress to shut down in 2001, all mail has been diverted to an off-site facility for testing before delivery.
CNN reported that the envelope had tested positive in a first routine test, before being retested two more times, each time coming up positive. The package was then sent to a Maryland lab for further testing, according to the law enforcement source. CNN said Wicker was now being given extra security protection.
Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said: “This time the system worked … it tested positive but the letter did not reach Senator Wicker’s office.”
He said there was no evidence that the ricin incident was linked to the attack in Boston.
“Ricin is very targeted, almost assassin-like, it does not cause mass casualties so would be inconsistent with the terrorist philosophy,” McCaul told CNN. “A lot of members of Congress have threats and this is one to be taken seriously. Roger is a very nice guy and I don’t know why anyone would want to do this to him.”
The website Politico reported that lawmakers had been told that the letter sent to Wicker’s office came from an individual who frequently writes to politicians and have been told what to look for if there are more letters containing the toxic substance.
Neither US Capitol police nor Wicker’s office could…SEE– http://alien-ufo-community.ning.com/group/news-reports/forum/topics/envelope-tainted-with-poison-thought-to-be-ricin-sent-to-gop-sena
All our congressmen are traitors. Either mexico-firsters or israel-firsters or both.