Oh, god, please no.
Via: londongrumblr.co.uk
Via: londongrumblr.co.uk
Via: forgifs.com
Via: gifbin.com
“You better have a plan and know what you and your family are going to do in the time of more difficult days ahead.” Goldline is a sponsor of Glenn Beck's cable network The Blaze. UPDATE: A source close to the show says, “This is 100% not true.”
Obama declares flags lowered at all federal buildings through April 20.
Via: Evan McMorris-Santoro
"As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts
and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, April 20, 2013. I also direct that the flag shall be flown
at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.
BARACK OBAMA"
The president makes a second address to the nation after the bombings in Boston.
Via: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT
WASHINGTON — President Obama said the bombings in Boston were an act of terrorism in his second address to the nation following the attacks.
"This was a heinous and cowardly act, and given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism," he said. "Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."
Obama stressed that investigators "do not know who carried out this attack or why" or whether a foreign or domestic terror group was behind it.
"It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened," Obama said. "But we will find out. We will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice."
Obama was criticized by some for not calling the attacks "terrorism" Monday. After he spoke his first address to the nation, a White House official said the bombings in Boston were "clearly an act of terror."
The president ordered all American flags flying over federal buildings to be lowered through April 20 in honor of the bombings and said in his Tuesday address that the nation remains "vigilant" after the attack. Heightened security implemented at the White House Monday remained Tuesday morning, with pedestrian traffic banned from the street in front of the executive mansion.
"I've directed my administration to take appropriate security measures to protect the American people," he said.
Obama called the Boston attack "evil," but said the bombings — and the outpouring of support for victims in the aftermath — served to show the resilience and strength of the American people.
"If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil, that's it: selflessly, compassionately, unafraid," Obama said.
“Terror” is a theme.
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Early speculation that militias were behind the bombings are “totally off-base,” says one leader. “This was a target of civilians, which is reprehensible by every measure of what we hold to our values.”
Via: Adrees Latif / Reuters
Right-wing militia groups across the country told BuzzFeed Tuesday that they denounced the deadly attack on the Boston Marathon and rejected premature speculation that antigovernment, pro-gun groups could be behind the twin explosions that killed three and injured dozens at the finish line Monday afternoon.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, some observers have used the fact that the marathon took place on Patriots' Day as a clue that they they could have been propagated by militia members trying to make an antigovernment political statement. Law enforcement officials said Tuesday it's still unclear who is responsible for the bombings.
Both Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the chief actors in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, had ties to the Michigan Militia. Although the two men were reportedly kicked out of meetings, their association with the movement has branded militia groups as violent right-wing extremists.
Although the beliefs and objectives of militia organizations vary by group and location, the majority of members are fierce Second Amendment advocates who treat the federal government, generally, as a threat to constitutional freedom.
Mike Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, not only condemned the Boston Marathon explosions, but said attack on innocent civilians were not in line with the aims of the modern-day militia movement.
"It's totally off-base," said Lackomar, whose Michigan group has more than 200 members. "People like to target us, but what we have here is an attack against civilians. If it's somebody that's pissed off at the government, they're going to look at a government target. And if it's somebody that's pissed off at law enforcement, they're going to look at a law enforcement target."
"This was a target of civilians, which is reprehensible by every measure of what we hold to our values," Lackomar added.
John Livengood, who helps run the Kansas State Militia, said there are three types of militias — only one of which could possibly be responsible for an attack like the one in Boston.
"That's the skinhead type of militia where it's all about race — that's those guys in Montana and Idaho — and they don't like society integrating the way that it has been," said Livengood. "They could have done it very easily."
"The second type of militia is the one that believes that the U.N. will be used to disarm the American population, and the third type of group" — the kind with which Livengood self-identifies — "is organized basically for self-preservation in a scenario of disaster or a global event that would neutralize the electronic advantage of the military. The third group is about protecting your neighborhood and your family," he said.
Of the first type of militia, Livengood said, "Who knows what they're capable of — those guys patrol the Mexican border hoping to see people come across so they can confront them with arms. We're not about that."
One of the cofounders of the Militia of Montana, Dave Trochmann, said the explosions in Boston had "nothing to do with militias — that's a bunch of bullshit. It was probably a raghead."
Indiana Militia Corps senior brigade member William Flatt, when reached by BuzzFeed Tuesday afternoon, hadn't yet heard about the explosions — "I've been a little out of communication here," he said, "with what's headed our way with regards to the economy, I'm just trying to get some duckies lined up" — but when informed about the events, he said he expected the "mainstream media to blame conservative god-fearing Americans" for the bombings.
"But to attack innocent people is anathema to the Constitution and anything that a legitimate militia stands for," said Flatt, who is also a board member on the United American Militia Advisory Council, a national militia group.
"Timothy McVeigh got kicked out of his militia meeting," Flatt added. "Pundits need to withhold judgment and let law enforcement do their jobs."
New Jersey Democrat introduces resolution honoring the late British Prime Minister after days of behind the scenes jockeying with Republicans.
Via: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
WASHINGTON — Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez Tuesday introduced a resolution honoring the life and accomplishments of the late Margaret Thatcher — even as conservatives groused that the New Jersey Democrat was holding up efforts to memorialize the conservative icon.
For days, conservatives have publicly complained that Democrats of placing a hold on the resolution, and privately, a number of Republicans placed the blame on Menendez.
"First of all, Chairman Menendez is not blocking any resolution regarding Ms. Thatcher," a spokesperson for Menendez said Tuesday, arguing that Menendez' "staff believed we had been working in cooperation since last week with [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell's staff on final language of a resolution to commemorate Ms. Thatcher's life and leadership and were surprised to see press accounts to the contrary."
The spokesperson pointed out that his office released a statement recognizing Thatcher's accomplishments following her death and "today submitted a resolution commemorating her historic contributions for unanimous consent of the Senate."
Passing the resolution under unanimous consent would mean it would eliminate the need for a roll call vote and guarantee passage.
The resolution honors Thatcher's work on behalf of "freedom, liberty, and democracy ... [and] expresses admiration for Baroness Margaret Thatcher and her legacy as an inspirational and transformative leader in the United Kingdom and the world."
It is different from the draft resolution Republicans have sought to pass: for instance, it does not include references to several historical episodes, including an attempt on Thatcher's life by the Irish Republican Army in 1984.
"Thatcher was a great woman and it's a shame that Bob Menendez wants to pretend like important parts of her legacy never existed," a senior Republican aide said.
Resolutions honoring the lives of influential political figures like Thatcher are relatively commonplace, and in the United States the late British prime minister is revered as a conservative icon and fierce opponent of communism. She is also credited with bringing the British economy back from the brink of collapse.
But Thatcher's tenure was deeply divisive in the United Kingdom. Coal mining unions were broken under her tenure, and some of her domestic policies were harshly criticized. Thatcher was also accused of turning a blind eye toward the activities of protestant organizations in Northern Ireland targeting Catholic communities.
No clear suspect or motives, but the method is familiar.
Via: Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
WASHINGTON — The nature of the Boston Marathon bombing provides a glimpse at American law enforcement's worst fears in the post-9/11 world: That the kind of low-grade, low-tech, and murderous attacks that have become sadly routine in more troubled parts of the globe will start to appear here.
Bombing attacks carried out in public, crowded places and using improvised explosive devices have become a regular feature of news out of Kabul and Baghdad. But it's been more than a decade since a successful terrorist attack on the scale of yesterday's Boston bombing was carried out in the United States. And while the Boston attack doesn't yet seem to have the same clear political message of the attacks on abortion clinics in recent years or the left-wing terrorism carried out in the 1960 and 1970s, it bears an uncomfortable technical resemblance to the pattern of terror in far-flung, war-torn parts of the world.
The bombs used in the attack were packed with bits of metal, like nails and ball bearings meant to act as shrapnel, and built inside pressure cookers — the same type of bomb used in the Mumbai subway bombing of 2006 and referenced in a Department of Homeland Security memo from 2004. "A technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps is the use/conversion of pressure cookers into IEDs," the DHS memo states about pressure cooker bombs. It cites other instances of use of the pressure cooker, including in Nepal and Algeria.
Another DHS memo from 2010 notes that the pressure cooker method was used in 2010 in an attack in Pakistan in which the bombs were set off by remote control, and in the 2010 car bombing attempt in Times Square.
"Because they are less common in the United States, the presence of a pressure cooker in an unusual location such as a building lobby or busy street corner should be treated as suspicious," the memo notes. (The pressure cookers involved in the Boston attack were placed in bags and put in trash cans).
Doctors compared the wounds inflicted on the Boston victims to those found on victims of bombings in war zones. "The best experience we have with this has been with the improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq," a doctor at Grady Hospital in Atlanta told NBC News.
"This kind of deplorable violence is all too familiar to my fellow Afghans," Afghan ambassador to the U.S. Ahmad Eklil Hakimi said on Tuesday.
J.M. Berger, a security expert and proprietor of the popular @intelwire Twitter account, noted in an interview that IEDs are not actually new to these shores: They've been in use at least since a 1920 anarchist attack on Wall Street.
"There were reports of ball bearings and nails, screws, etc., which are included in IEDs to create shrapnel that will maim and disfigure people," Berger said. "This is relatively common in IEDs and pipe bombs and the like, so it doesn't point us in any particular direction."
The government has shown no sign of having a clear sense of who could have been behind the attacks. A Saudi man taken in for questioning yesterday appears, according to more recent reports, simply to be a witness, and the authorities say they will be relying heavily on photos and video taken by bystanders to lead them to a suspect. The information void does little to comfort a frightened public, and the atmosphere of tension has led to increased security measures around the country: A terminal at LaGuardia Airport was evacuated on Tuesday because of a suspicious package, and so was the Rayburn House Office Building cafeteria on Capitol Hill in Washington. The incidents prompted Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg to compare the situation to Israel: "America has now definitively entered the Era of the Suspicious Package," Goldberg wrote on Twitter. "Ask an Israeli what this means for daily life."
"The thirst for a quick and easy explanation leads everyone astray," Juliette Kayyem, former Homeland Security adviser to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, wrote in a Boston Globe column on Tuesday. "Foreign terrorists are much less organized than they used to be, so the apparent lack of sophistication of the incendiary devices doesn't necessarily point to a domestic attacker. But the explosions happened during a particularly local celebration, suggesting a fair amount of preplanning, and the devices were targeted at areas with high volumes of people."
Regardless of who did it, the Boston bombing has the potential to create a sense of fear familiar in "war-torn contexts," said Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama and author of a book on the psychology of mass killers and suicide bombers.
"Part of the point of IEDs is you don't need to be a professional to construct them. Anybody with access to the internet and murderous intent can get a book from the library on what the Unabomber did, get the Anarchist Cookbook, go on YouTube," he said.
"If these things start to happen regularly, that sense of fear will be pervasive in America much like it is in some cities abroad," Lankford said.
If past investigations into bombings in the United States are any indication, it could be a while.
Timothy McVeigh was arrested within 90 minutes of the bombing by an Oklahoma state trooper and was charged in connection with the bombing two days later. His co-conspirator Terry Nichols was arrested on May 10.
Source: i.huffpost.com / via: webcitation.org
Investigators looking through rubble in the aftermath of the bombing found a critical clue when they identified the van used in the explosion. This led them to a man who reported it stolen, Mohammad Salameh, who was quickly arrested and charged. Ramzi Yousef, one of the the other main perpetrators, was arrested in Pakistan in 1995. The other co-conspirators in the bombing were also eventually caught, with the exception of Abdul Yasin, who has not been heard from since a 2002 interview in Iraq.
Source: wcvb.com / via: articles.latimes.com
It wasn't until the publication of Ted Kaczynski's "Manifesto" that federal investigators were able to pinpoint him as the source, thanks to a tip from his brother identifying his writing style.
Source: evilmonito.com / via: washingtonpost.com
After the media misidentified Richard Jewell as a suspect in 1996, the FBI had few leads in the bombing. That was until 1997, when a similar bomb at an abortion clinic bombing provided a link between the two bombings. The FBI identified Eric Rudolph as a suspect in 1998, and he was caught in 2003.
Source: cdn.c.photoshelter.com
“It’s something that I face all the time, certainly as a Muslim but also as an African-American,” Rep. Andre Carson said.
Via: Michael Conroy / AP
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers Tuesday said they worry Monday's terrorist bombing in Boston will unleash a fresh round of attacks on Muslims, Arabs and other minorities across the country — though there hasn't been any evidence of a violent backlash so far.
Law enforcement officials still don't know whether the attack, which left three dead and more than 100 injured, was committed by domestic or foreign terrorists. But that hasn't stopped some from lashing out at the Muslim community and other minorities — including Arabs, Persians and Sikhs.
"I'm always concerned," said Rep. Andre Carson, one of two Muslim members of the House.
"First and foremost, as a former law enforcement officer, we want to make sure that those who perpetrated this horrendous crime are brought to justice and dealt with immediately, swiftly and effectively. But at the same time we have to be careful not to put certain groups of people into a box," Carson said.
"It's something that I face all the time, certainly as a Muslim but also as an African-American," Carson added.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who's home state of Michigan is home to one of the nation's largest Muslim communities and Arab communities, agreed. "It's something we always face unfortunately. It certainly is concerning," the Michigan Democrat said.
"They're business leaders, they're educators … I think it would be very, very unfortunate for someone to jump to some conclusion based on lack of information and somehow stigmatize very important leaders in Michigan and other places."
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs and other minorities were targeted by vigilantes in communities across the country. Although former President George Bush and other leaders denounced the attacks, they left deep scars in communities.
Shortly after Monday's attack, a Saudi Arabian student in the United States was reported to be under investigation: it turned out he was one of the injured spectators of at the race. Within hours, social media was already ablaze with attacks on Arabs and Muslims.
With time running out for a deal, proponents hope extra time granted by attack will tilt the scales in their favor.
Via: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Gun control groups are hoping the pause in the legislative battle over new gun laws this week will give them time to round up the votes they need to win in the Senate.
In the hours leading up to news of the Boston attack, Washington was consumed with counting votes for the compromise background check bill proposed by Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Even after the tragedy gripped the attention of the city and the nation, advocates on both sides of the issue were checking to see who had the edge. By the end of the day, it appeared the National Rifle Association and its allies did: Politico reported that the Toomey-Manchin deal was all but dead ahead of final votes scheduled for later this week.
The Boston attacks led gun control advocates to pause their public activities planned for Tuesday. But they also gave proponents extra time to sell the Toomey-Manchin bill to reticent conservatives. The National Rifle Association and some of its allies have opposed the Toomey-Manchin package and, proponents insist, are spinning false information about it to scare off Senators who might otherwise support it.
One person involved in pushing background check legislation told BuzzFeed that the political pause granted by Boston opened the door for gun control advocates to push back on NRA's spin — time, the person said, gun control groups can use for behind-the-scenes conversations they hope can turn the tide in their favor.
Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a leader of a new SuperPAC set up to provide political cover for politicians who support gun control, told reporters Tuesday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor that if gun control proponents are going to win the short game in the Senate over the next few days, private conversations between lawmakers and policy advocates will be how it's done.
"Phone calls and meetings. A lot of them," Kelly told BuzzFeed when asked how the current predictions about the Senate bill will change. "I think the one-on-one meetings with the members, with Gabby, with me, especially with the Newtown families are critical to getting this passed. When you meet face to face with somebody who recently lost their six or seven year-old child from a man who unloaded 150 rounds in less than five minutes, it's difficult to look that person in the face and say, 'yeah we're not going to do anything about that.'"
Gun control supporters are quick to say they're not exploiting the events in Boston.
"That's just not where our heads are at," said Ladd Everitt, spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "When something this horrific happens, the world should come to a stop for awhile. I suspect in the next few days you will see many victims and survivors of gun violence (including those on our staff) reaching out to the survivors of this tragedy to offer them comfort and support."
Publicly, they've dialed back events. Everitt was scheduled to speak at rally planned for Tuesday in DC that featured the delivery of child coffins to NRA lobbyists. Organizers postponed that event, citing Boston as the reason.
Meanwhile, several prominent senators remain undecided. At a press conference Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid said there's still plenty of momentum for background checks, though he acknowledged the sales job is not yet done.
"Am I saying it's all over with, done, we got the votes? No, but we certainly feel we have the wind at our back," Reid said.
“As far as I can tell, they're doing everything that needs to be done,” McCain says of White House.
Via: Jeannie Nuss / AP
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain praised President Obama's response to the attacks in Boston Tuesday.
"As far as I can tell, they're doing everything that needs to be done," the Arizona Republican said. Asked to weigh in on how the government has handled things after the Boston bombings so far, McCain said "the response from both state and federal and local as well FBI involvement is certainly adequate."
McCain and New York Sen. Charles Schumer stopped by the White House to talk about their comprehensive immigration reform bill, which they say they'll formally debut Tuesday night. A planned Tuesday press conference on the proposal was delayed "out of respect" for the Boston victims, Schumer said.
McCain said the Boston attacks should give more impetus to passing immigration reform.
"If we enacted this legislation, part of our bill is exit and entry required documentation and, in fact would make it harder for people to enter and leave this country that we don't want in this country," he said. "We have tamper-proof documents for people who go to get a job that would overtime create a kind of e-verify system where we could have better tracking of who's in our country and who isn't so I would argue that passage of comprehensive immigration reform will enhance our ability to keep our country secure."
Asked if that comment was an indication he believed foreigners were behind the Boston attack, McCain said it wasn't.
The bombings in Boston made the front page around the world.
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
Source: webmedia.newseum.org
President to lend support to bombing victims.
Via: Handout / Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Obama will travel to Boston Thursday to comfort victims of the bombing there, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Tuesday.
The White House confirmed the trip in a statement and said the Obama will cancel his planned trip to Kansas Friday.
Obama will participate in an interfaith service vigil at Cathedral of Holy Cross in South End at 11 AM ET.
In December, the president spoke at an interfaith vigil in Newtown, Conn., two days after the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Patrick said he welcomed the president's participation in the Boston vigil.
"I'm very pleased that the president will join us for that to help us all heal," he said.
Jessica Testa contributed.
“She dies too early to oppose Parliament's inevitable acceptance of same–gender marriage,” McKellen writes of Thatcher, who supported a measure to ban promoting homosexuality as prime minister. He's thankful she made him a knight, though.
Via: Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters
Although Sir Ian McKellen was recommended for his knighthood by Baroness Margaret Thatcher at the end of her tenure as the United Kingdom's prime minster, he took sharp aim Monday at coverage of Thatcher's death in a blistering post focused on slights both of policy and personality.
Primarily, he wrote about the absence of discussion of Section 28, the prohibition on promoting homosexuality that was made law by Thatcher's government and only repealed in 2003, in coverage. Of the provision, he wrote:
With regard to the divisive effect of her reign, one omission was significant and glaring: Section 28.
Lest we forget, this nasty, brutish and short measure of the third Thatcher administration, was designed to slander homosexuality, by prohibiting state schools from discussing positively gay people and our "pretended family relations". Opposition to Section 28 galvanised a new generation of activists who joined with long-time campaigners for equality. Stonewall UK was founded, to repeal Section 28 and pluck older rotten anti-gay legislation from the constitutional tree. This has taken two decades to achieve.
Pathetically, in her dotage, Baroness Thatcher was led by her supporters into the House of Lords to vote against Section 28's repeal: her final contribution to UK politics. She dies too early to oppose Parliament's inevitable acceptance of same–gender marriage.
Section 28's consideration and passage is also a very personal moment for McKellen, who came out publicly as a gay man as part of his opposition to the measure.
In a July 17, 1987 file photo, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom, left, makes remarks after visiting United States President Ronald Reagan, right, at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Via: DPA, Howard L. Sachs, File / AP
Later, he also took aim at Thatcher's personal demeanor:
Her womanliness was a weapon, we are told, in cabinet. At the end of a Downing Street reception, I was the last to leave, alone with Mr and Mrs Thatcher. In that low voice, trained to sooth, she said flirtatiously: "Mr McKellen, I like your suit. Where did you get it?" "It's Japanese, Prime Minister." She grimaced like a nanny: "Naughty, naughty!" and closed the double doors in my face.
The former Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security has been giving lots of interviews over the last 24 hours. “Last week I received two top secret briefings…”
Last week I received two top secret briefings as a member of the Homeland Security Committee and the Intelligence Communnity about possible threats against the US and nothing came up against Boston."
"I'm leaning toward thinking this an Al Qaeda affiliate or Al Qaeda supporter but wouldn't be surprised if it was a white supremacist."
"Usually in the past, when this has been carried out in conjunction with an overseas operation or an overseas partner responsibility has been claimed. Which could mean it was done by a lone wolf operating her in the United States. By a strictly domestic organization, it could be jihadist it could be white supremacist. We really don't know.
"My understand is that his name doesn't appear on any watch list and his name has not been looked at before." (on the Saudi national who was questioned and clear)
Letter sent to Wicker was postmarked from Memphis.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Via: J. Scott Applewhite, File / AP
WASHINGTON — In the wake of an envelope reportedly tainted with ricin being sent to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker's office, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms is warning Capitol Hill offices to be vigilant and advising them that mail is being stopped for two to three days in a communication obtained by BuzzFeed. A Postal Sentry device is also being made available to Senate offices to make the opening of mail safer. And the letter turns out to have been postmarked from Memphis, Tennessee:
The Senate Mail Handling Facility that services Members' D.C. offices has received mail that tested positive for ricin. The United States Capitol Police, the FBI and other agencies are involved in the investigation of this mailing.
While we have no indication that there are other suspect mailings, it is imperative to follow all mail handling protocols, including the use of Postal Sentry in state offices. The Senate off-site mail facility will be closed for the next two to three days while testing and the law enforcement investigation continues.
The exterior markings on the envelope in this case were not outwardly suspicious, but it was postmarked from Memphis, Tennessee and had no return address. Even with these identifiers, Senate employees should be vigilant in their mail handling processes for ALL mailings.
These incidents are reminders that we need to remain vigilant in handling mail, recognizing suspicious items, and knowing what immediate actions to employ if faced with suspicious mail in the office. Attached to this Notice are hand-outs that provide valuable information on how to identify a suspicious package or letter, hazardous mail protocol for D.C. offices (red border), and hazardous mail protocol for state offices (black border). These hand-outs provide staff with an understanding of what a suspicious item looks like and specific actions to take if a suspicious mail item is discovered in the office.
The Senate Post Office offers the Postal Sentry mail processing system for Senate state offices to contain potentially harmful agents that may be delivered via the mail. The Postal Sentry is really the only defense available in state offices for this type of threat. The Postal Sentry is a lightweight desktop device that provides sufficient airflow and filtration to reduce the release of potentially harmful particles while opening mail in an office setting. Senate state offices that are using the Postal Sentry have found the device's operation intuitive, easy to set up, and quick to master.
The Postal Sentry is available to all Senate state offices at no cost. The shipment includes the Postal Sentry (36"w x 20" h x 18" d), a setup and instruction manual, one box of non-latex gloves, one N-100 respirator, one 8 x 11 "Suspicious Mail Poster" and one 8 x 11 poster on "How to Respond to Hazardous Substances in the Mail Area." If needed, training can be provided via phone or video teleconferencing, where available.
Update: A spokesperson for the United States Postal Service said the agency was "working diligently" to figure out the incident in an email to BuzzFeed on Tuesday:
The U.S. Postal Service is working diligently with authorities to determine if there was in fact a hazardous substance inside an envelope addressed to a U.S. Senator, and if so, what type of substance was present.
The Postal Inspection Service is working with appropriate Health and Law Enforcement agencies on this incident. We have no reports of other such letters in the mail.
Our primary concern right now is the safety of our employees, the safety of our customers and the safety of the US Mail.
More information will be shared when it becomes available.
(8:47 p.m.)
Update: An FBI spokesperson released a statement saying that the materials are currently being tested:
Anytime suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, field tests are conducted. The field and other preliminary tests in this instance produced inconsistent results. The material has been sent to an accredited laboratory for further analysis. Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin. Those tests are in the process of being conducted and generally take from 24 to 48 hours.
(10:43 p.m.)
“It still saddens me just to see them.”
Via: Charles Dharapak, File / AP
WASHINGTON — Rand Paul Wednesday accused President Obama and congressional Democrats of using the families of victims from Newtown, Connecticut, as political props.
"I'm a parent, and I have three boys, and I hate to see them using people, I think, as props and politicizing tragedy," Paul said when asked about gun control during a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
Some of the families of the children killed in the Newtown mass shooting have become active on Capitol Hill, forming a group called Sandy Hook Promise and lobbying lawmakers for tighter gun control legislation. Most recently, they've requested a meeting with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and they have joined the president on Air Force One.
"When I see the father and the mothers testifying, I know they're coming voluntarily and they want to come and be part of this debate, but it still saddens me just to see them," Paul said. "And I think in some cases the president has used them as props, and that disappoints me."
"I do look at it as a little bit in the sense of the tragedy, how could we have prevented the tragedy?" Paul said. "That's really where I come down on not being for any of the proposals, because not one of them would have addressed the tragedy."
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) local 103 chapter put this sign on an electronic billboard in Boston Tuesday.
Source: @workngear
One day after the ricin scare. (Update: the all-clear has been given for both buildings.)
U.S. Capitol Police order people to leave the lobby of the Senate Hart Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Via: J. Scott Applewhite / AP
WASHINGTON — Two Senate office buildings are being locked down or evacuated one day after a letter that tested positive for ricin was sent to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker.
The AP is also reporting that a suspicious letter had attempted to be sent to the White House. The U.S. Secret Service said it intercepted a letter addressed to President Obama that contained a "suspicious substance."
"The U.S. Capitol Police are responding to a suspicious envelope on the third floor of the Russell Senate Office Building," reads an email sent out to Senate staff. "All staff and other personnel are directed to avoid this area until further notice."
Staffers and officials in the Hart Senate office building, meanwhile, have been told to stay in their offices and a bomb squad has been sent to the scene. According to a Senate staffer, the third floor of that building has been told to stay in their offices.
CNN is reporting that a suspicious package was sent to Alabama Senator Richard Shelby's office, which is in the Russell building.
Two threats have been identified, according to internal Senate emails:
