FBI: Early Test Shows Ricin in Obama Letter
April 17, 2013 12:30 PM
Reporter's Gallery News As We Saw It
WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — The FBI says the letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker are related and are both postmarked out of Memphis, Tenn., 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. The letters are undergoing further testing because preliminary field tests can be unreliable, creating false positives.
Both the letters to Wicker, R-Miss., and to Obama were intercepted at off-site mail facilities.
The FBI says it is pursuing investigative leads to determine who sent the letters.
The FBI says there is no indication of a connection to the bombing at Monday’s Boston Marathon.
The letters were received at separate facilities that sort mail addressed to the White House and Capitol Hill. The mail facilities are not located on the main White House and Capitol Hill complexes.
Word of the suspicious letters comes amid already heightened tensions 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.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the letter to Obama was intercepted Tuesday, the same day congressional officials alerted the public to the letter sent to Wicker. Secret Service is working with the FBI, as well as U.S. Capitol Police, on the investigation, Donovan said.
On Tuesday, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said authorities had a suspect in mind for the Wicker mailing.
“The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members,” she said.
Law enforcement officials also say a second letter sent to the U.S. Senate has been intercepted and is being tested for poisonous ricin.
Two officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the letter was being treated in the same manner as a separate one sent to Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and was undergoing field tests.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
The letter to Wicker, a Republican, was intercepted at a Senate mail facility just outside Washington and has tested positive for ricin. Sen. Claire McCaskill has said authorities have a suspect in mind in that case, though no one has been charged.
It was not immediately clear which senator the second letter was addressed to.
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/04/17/report-poison-laced-letter-addressed-to-obama-intercepted/
Subject: Letter addressed to President Barack Obama contained 'suspicious substance,' Secret Service says 
Wed Apr 17, 2013 12:08 pm
