ricin allegedly sent to us senator

[Michchamp]

breaking story. not naming the senator yet.

if its elizabeth warren guess we can safely conclude wall street is behind all this?

 

[turok]

"An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was told the letter was addressed to the office of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi. After the envelope tested positive in a first routine test, it was retested two more times, each time coming up positive"

Envelope tests positive for ricin at Washington mail facility

When I worked for the USPS, they had installed extremely sensitive air sampling equipment over the high-speed mail-sorting machinery, that could detect anthrax spores if any escaped envelopes or packages containing it, and would immediately sound alarms, both visual and audible. Dunno if they could also detect ricin, but if not, most likely they soon will be after this incident.

Of course the detection equipment would not help a mail-carrier in his or her vehicle, if he or she happened to come in contact with, or breathe in the spores after collecting the tainted mail (or package) to take to his or her PO for eventual shipment to a mail processing facility. Postal management let us wear cheap paper-filter face-masks on the job, soon after the anthrax scare of '01, but they were already known to be completely useless in filtering out the microscopic spores.

 

[kalinecountry]

"An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was told the letter was addressed to the office of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi. After the envelope tested positive in a first routine test, it was retested two more times, each time coming up positive"

Envelope tests positive for ricin at Washington mail facility

When I worked for the USPS, they had installed extremely sensitive air sampling equipment over the high-speed mail-sorting machinery, that could detect anthrax spores if any escaped envelopes or packages containing it, and would immediately sound alarms, both visual and audible. Dunno if they could also detect ricin, but if not, most likely they soon will be after this incident.

Of course the detection equipment would not help a mail-carrier in his or her vehicle, if he or she happened to come in contact with, or breathe in the spores after collecting the tainted mail (or package) to take to his or her PO for eventual shipment to a mail processing facility. Postal management let us wear cheap paper-filter face-masks on the job, soon after the anthrax scare of '01, but they were already known to be completely useless in filtering out the microscopic spores.

Remember that Doug during 911. We were told to wear those special gloves and masks while setting up the routes, and not to accept any mail on the street during deliveries unless we knew the person. iirc we had to keep the A/C off in the station as well.

 

[Michchamp]

weird senator to target; nationally at least, he's not very high profile. I wonder if he's the only one?

 

[turok]

weird senator to target; nationally at least, he's not very high profile. I wonder if he's the only one?

No. but he is likely being grilled about who might have a (personal) vendetta against him for whatever nefarious reason(s). Sending a US senator ricin might mean a failed business deal involving large sums of money, or perhaps he failed to act on a piece of legislation that was of great importance to the person or persons involved. Looks like the good senator just might have been involved in some shady scenario, at any rate. The fact that he is not high-profile might mean that the sender(s) might have ties to organized crime.

Committee Assignments, 112th Congress

• Senate Committee on Armed Services
  • United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland
  • United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
  • United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower (Ranking Member)
• Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Economic Policy
  • Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
  • Subcommittee Securities, Insurance, and Investment
• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
  • Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Science and Space
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security (Ranking Member)

• Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs

• Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

None of the above assignments look to be involving anything potentially volatile or extremely sensitive to national security.

 

[Michchamp]

No. but he is likely being grilled about who might have a (personal) vendetta against him for whatever nefarious reason(s). Sending a US senator ricin might mean a failed business deal involving large sums of money, or perhaps he failed to act on a piece of legislation that was of great importance to the person or persons involved. Looks like the good senator just might have been involved in some shady scenario, at any rate. The fact that he is not high-profile might mean that the sender(s) might have ties to organized crime.

could also just be some loony who felt like the senator owed him something.

I remember being in then-Senator Obama's office in DC. His staff would post some of the crazier letters they received from constituents... and these were really out there. real tin foil hat stuff. you figure most of these people are harmless, but maybe one of them takes a failure to respond, or something like that personal.

 

[turok]

could also just be some loony who felt like the senator owed him something.

I remember being in then-Senator Obama's office in DC. His staff would post some of the crazier letters they received from constituents... and these were really out there. real tin foil hat stuff. you figure most of these people are harmless, but maybe one of them takes a failure to respond, or something like that personal.

You may be correct, since it is very unlikely now that any congressmen or women would be the first to open any letters, flats, parcels, or packages addressed to them, much less within the same location. Special precautions are probably taken for non-government/business-related mail from private citizens, especially for those that are red-flagged due to having a misshapen, bulky, and/or reused appearance, and/or have smeared, marred, misspelled, false, or missing return addresses.

 

[spockmaster]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/04/201341715282529139.html


apparently one has possibly sent to Obama as well.

 

[Michchamp]

yeah, and they already have a suspect, and it's apparently some nutjob who's been spamming them with mail for a long time. presumably they made a handwriting ID on it (?)

 

[spockmaster]

where did you see that? the most ive seen so far somewhere was that both letters had a memphis postmark.

 

[turok]

yeah, and they already have a suspect, and it's apparently some nutjob who's been spamming them with mail for a long time. presumably they made a handwriting ID on it (?)

Dunno how reliable that the Daily Mail's information is, but apparently a letter was also sent to Senator Levin's office in Lansing, and a suspicious package also reported at Sen. Shelby's Washington office Wednesday, causing part of Senate office to be evacuated...the "letter" to Levin may have been a package however..sheesh.



"A third suspicious letter has been reported by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, who said a package arrived this morning at his Saginaw, Michigan offices." :hmm:

​

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sted-positive-poison-addressed-president.html
​

 

[redandguilty]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...5dadd2-a820-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_story.html

The suspect impersonates a variety of musicians, including Kid Rock.

 

[TheVictors]

I'd posted that in the Boston Terrorists thread, related to the Obama development


.....pissed off white dude, Elvis impersonator. Classic terrorist profile.

 

[tinselwolverine]

I'd posted that in the Boston Terrorists thread, related to the Obama development


.....pissed off white dude, Elvis impersonator. Classic terrorist profile.

I did an Elvis act once.

This woman I worked with, her daughter was graduating from middle school (they have middle school graduations in LAUSD, 'cuz no one knows for sure how much further anyone might go) and she asked me if I knew an Elvis impersonator.

Now, I was a high achieving singer and a stage performer for years; I had never impersonated Elvis - well, not for people; I had sung like him, like everyone has, for fun - but I knew I could pull it off.

So I volunteered.

She offered to pay me, and I refused, so she appropriately got me some cool gifts - a bottle of good tequila, some movie tickets, a few other things.

Afterwards, lots and lots of people told me I should do it professionally.

And I replied that I would rather pick lettuce in Merced.

 

[redandguilty]

I did an Elvis act once.

Does playing the role of Pharaoh in a middle school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat count?

 

[turok]

Does playing the role of Pharaoh in a middle school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat count?

Not if portraying the "King of Mice" as a pre-teen in a lakeshore congregational assembly's summer production of "The Nutcracker Suite" wouldn't. I even had to suffer the indignity of being hit repeatedly with a shoe by one of the "Sugarplum Fairies" not only during rehearsals, but also in front of the audience on my opening night acting debut.

Unlike Dubya, I wasn't permitted to duck down or away from the hurled footwear. IIRC, the actress also was uncannily accurate and put some decent mustard on her throws. The title of the production quite befit the area of my anatomy that she often aimed for.

 

[Thumb]

I wanna know how the fuck he got Ricin to begin with.

 

[redandguilty]

I wanna know how the fuck he got Ricin to begin with.

He probably made it himself. NPR had a specialist calling it the "poor terrorists anthrax". It's not that hard to make, but it's also not as dangerous as other potential bioweapons.

 

[Thumb]

He probably made it himself. NPR had a specialist calling it the "poor terrorists anthrax". It's not that hard to make, but it's also not as dangerous as other potential bioweapons.

Well I assumed he made it himself, I guess my question should have been how common are Castor Beans?

I would have assumed they would be difficult to get a hold of, or can one just walk down to the farmers market and buy a big bag of them?

 

[redandguilty]

Well I assumed he made it himself, I guess my question should have been how common are Castor Beans?

I would have assumed they would be difficult to get a hold of, or can one just walk down to the farmers market and buy a big bag of them?

I googled. There are plenty of sources of seeds.