Wednesday 17 April 2013

Early test on letter sent to Obama indicates poisonous ricin

The FBI says preliminary tests on a letter sent to President Barack Obama indicate the presence of poisonous ricin. The letter is undergoing further testing because preliminary field tests can be unreliable, creating false positives. The letter was intercepted at a facility away from the White House. It comes the day after officials said a letter sent to a US  senator contained poisonous ricin. That letter was intercepted at a Senate mail facility just outside Washington.

The FBI says there is no indication of a connection to the bombing at Monday's Boston Marathon.
The FBI says the letters sent to President Barack Obama and a US senator are related and are both postmarked out of Memphis, Tennessee, dated April 8.
In an intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI says the letters both say: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both letters are signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."
The FBI says the substance in both letters have preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a potentially fatal poison.
Both the letters to Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican, and to Obama were intercepted at off-site mail facilities.
The FBI says it is pursuing investigative leads to determine who sent the letters.
A letter addressed to President Barack Obama is being checked for a "suspicious substance," a day after a letter addressed to a US senator tested positive for poisonous ricin, the U.S. Secret Service says.
The letter to Obama arrived Tuesday and was intercepted at a facility away from the White House, said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan.
Word of the letter comes a day after lawmakers disclosed that a letter mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker tested positive for poisonous ricin. That letter to Wicker, a Republican, was intercepted at a Senate mail facility just outside Washington.
Tensions have been high in Washington and across the country since the deadly bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170.
Senator Claire McCaskill has said authorities have a suspect in mind in Wicker case, though no one has been charged.
"The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members," she said Tuesday as she emerged from a classified briefing.

Authorities declined to comment on a suspect or any other aspect of the investigation being led by Capitol Police and the FBI.

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