Feds didn't report ricin for 5 days

By Toni Locy and Kevin Johnson, 
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service said Wednesday that it failed to notify law enforcement and public health officials for five days last year that the poison ricin had been found at the White House mail-processing center.

The Secret Service, the agency that protects the president, acknowledged the lapse in November as FBI agents searched for the source of Monday's ricin attack on the U.S. Senate.

"In hindsight, we recognize the importance of timely notifications to our partners in law enforcement and public health," Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman said.

The admission comes as the FBI is investigating whether the ricin found in a Senate office is connected to the White House letter in November and a previous incident in Greenville, S.C., where a letter containing a vial of ricin was left in a post office Oct. 15.

Ricin is a poison that can kill if ingested. There is no antidote. Officials said Wednesday that no one had become ill. The Senate was expected today to begin reopening three buildings closed since Monday.

FBI agents suspect the White House and Greenville letters are linked because of the poor quality of ricin and the messages signed by "Fallen Angel." The sender demanded the repeal of rules limiting truckers' driving hours, or "I will start dumping" ricin. (Related story: Who is 'Fallen Angel'?)

Ricin was discovered Monday on a letter-opening machine in the office of Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. Frist said Wednesday that the ricin was sent through the mail. But FBI agents had not determined how it got there, said two federal law enforcement officials close to the case. 

The White House ricin letter was sent through the mail and was intercepted by the Secret Service Nov. 6 at an off-site mail-processing center. It contained a vial of a powdery substance and a letter to the Department of Transportation. A test proved negative.

On Nov. 7, ricin was first detected at the mail facility from tests on equipment.  By Nov. 10, the Secret Service knew a retest of the letter was "probable for ricin." But the White House, FBI and other agencies were not notified until Nov. 12. 

"There was no plan to keep this from anybody," said Charles Bopp, a Secret Service spokesman. "It was ... making sure of what we had before anything was done."

Contributing: Mimi Hall andAndrea Stone 

Truckers Look in Their Ranks for 'Fallen Angel' Writer

By ANDREW JACOBS
The New York Times

SPARTANBURG, S.C., Feb. 4 — The letter was brief and to the point. 

"I'm a fleet owner of a tanker company," it said. "I have access to castor pulp," a reference to the raw material to make the deadly compound ricin. "If my demand is dismissed, I am capable of making Ricin."

The note, attached to a metal vial containing the powder and addressed to the Transportation Department, was dropped off in October at a mail-sorting office at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. A similar letter appeared in November at a mail-processing center that serves the White House. Both notes were signed "Fallen Angel," law enforcement officials said. 

As investigators explore possible links between the parcels and the presence of ricin in a Senate mailroom, trucking executives and the drivers who haul the nation's goods wondered whether one of their own might have used bioterrorism to publicize opposition to trucking rules that took effect last month. The regulations, which aim to reduce accidents by reducing how long drivers can stay on the road, have roiled the industry, which is already reeling from a recessionary drop in freight and higher fuel costs.

The president of the South Carolina Trucking Association, Rick Todd, said if the person responsible for the ricin contamination was a trucker "it is certainly awful for the image of our industry, especially for the millions of hard-working truck drivers across America." 

"It's hard to imagine anyone could be this upset about these changes," Mr. Todd said. 

Among the road-rattled drivers who were filling their fuel tanks at a truck stop near here, passions ran high, especially among independents, drivers who own their rigs and who say the regulations lead to longer hours and less money. 

"This guy must be a kook, but at least folks are going to listen to what he's saying," said Joe Thompson, who has been driving his 18-wheeler for 10 years. "The feds are killing us with their bureaucracy." 

After the letter was found here, Daniel Somerson, an advocate for owner-operators whose homemade Web site criticizes the rules, said F.B.I. agents had interviewed him and his wife. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Columbia, Tom O'Neill, would not comment on the investigation but said agents were looking into the possibility that a disgruntled trucker was responsible for the parcels. 

Federal transportation officials say the rules, which took effect on Jan. 4 and have a 60-day grace period, would save 75 lives and prevent 1,300 fatigue-related accidents a year by establishing a routine for truck drivers that they say more closely mirrors natural work and sleep rhythms. 

Officials say the changes are the most far-reaching for the industry in 65 years, reducing daily driving time, to 10 hours from 11. 

The most contentious change involves calculating workdays. Drivers can be on duty only for 14 hours a day, meaning that if a driver spends 6 hours awaiting goods at a factory, a delay that truckers say is not uncommon, the driver can stay on the road for just 8 more hours.

Time spent stopped for fueling, napping or eating is not counted as rest time. Some drivers say that keeps them behind the wheel for longer uninterrupted periods. In some cases, drivers say, the rules make them drive faster. 

"We've got to get the same work done in less time, and that makes the job more stressful," said Bob Williams, a "tanker yanker," a hauler of hazardous chemicals. "Listen, we're adults, and we know when it's time to rest. If we didn't, we'd be in a graveyard already." 

Coming on the tail of higher fuel costs and a three-year recession in the industry, trucking companies and owner-operators say the rules will lead to higher costs, which will ultimately be passed on to consumers.

"This is not good for the economy," Mr. Williams said at the counter of the Travel Centers of America truck stop as other truckers nodded assent. "The government just threw this in our lap. Understandably, we're not very happy."

Not everyone is displeased over the new rules, especially those that mandate a 10-hour break after every 14 hours. Fleet drivers who receive steady salaries or hourly wages are the biggest winners. But for owner-operators who are paid by the mile, less driving time means less money and more time away from home.

"These new regs are going to put us under," said Rodney Snyder, a driver for 14 years. "I'm thinking of getting out of the business." 

Greenville Letter And White House Letter Have Similarities

POSTED: 9:37 AM EST February 5, 2004
UPDATED: 10:06 AM EST February 5, 2004
TheCarolinaChannel.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Investigators say they have determined no link between the deadly poison ricin delivered to a U.S. Senate mailroom and an earlier incident at a Greenville County postal facility.

The FBI and the Capitol Police Department are investigating whether the person who sent ricin-laced mail to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also made threats in letters sent to the Upstate post office and a postal facility that serves the White House.

In October 2003, a package containing ricin (shown, [below]) was sent to a Greenville County postal facility that serves the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.

A letter with the package was signed "Fallen Angel" and included a threat to use the poison as a weapon unless new trucking regulations are rolled back.

The note read as follows:

to the department of transportation: I'm a fleet owner of a tanker company.

I have easy access to castor pulp. If my demand is dismissed I'm capable of making Ricin.

My demand is simple, January 4 2004 starts the new hours of service for trucks which include a ridiculous ten hours in the sleeper berth. Keep at eight or I will start dumping.

You have been warned this is the only letter that will be sent by me.

Fallen Angel

The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in this case. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-866-839-6241

Mysterious 'Fallen Angel' letters focus of ricin investigation
CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A thorough search of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's personal mailroom has turned up no additional traces of ricin and no threatening letters or messages, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Hazardous materials teams from the FBI, Capitol Police Department and Postal Service finished examination and testing of all the mail that had been isolated after ricin was found on a mail-opening machine on Monday.

Nothing suspicious was found, including no message from a mysterious "Fallen Angel" who has sent two threatening letters containing ricin to government agencies, said two federal law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

Still, they said, the possibility that the ricin had arrived in the mail has not been ruled out.

The earlier typewritten "Fallen Angel" letters, addressed to the White House and Transportation Department, warned that more ricin would be used unless some trucking regulations that went into effect Jan. 4 were scrapped.

Three Senate buildings were closed for a second day Wednesday, but one was being reopened Thursday, one Friday and the Dirksen building - where the ricin was found - is scheduled to reopen on Monday.

Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said investigators have found "no obvious direct connection" between the Frist case and the letters signed by "Fallen Angel." Those letters were discovered in mail facilities that serve the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina and the White House.

They were found Oct. 15 and Nov. 6, respectively, but the existence of the White House letter was not disclosed by the Bush administration until Tuesday.

The letters, described as nearly identical, claimed that the author owned a tanker truck fleet company and demanded that rules governing the numbers of hours truckers can drive remain unchanged, according to the FBI.

The FBI said the South Carolina letter was in an envelope with a typewritten warning "Caution RICIN POISON." The letter included claims that the author could make much more ricin and would "start dumping" if the new regulations weren't abolished. There was no delivery address and no postmark.

No one has fallen ill in any of the incidents.

There is no known antidote for ricin, a strong toxin which is relatively easy to make from castor beans. Ricin is considered a less effective weapon for causing mass casualties than anthrax, which was mailed to Senate offices in late 2001, because it is more difficult to make airborne and requires inhalation of large quantities to be fatal.

The FBI focused on ricin in its weekly intelligence bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. The confidential bulletin, obtained by The Associated Press, said no threat of any kind had been received in the Frist case. It concentrated mostly on the dangers of ricin and how police should respond to potential contamination.

The trucking industry has been working with the FBI and Transportation Department inspector general's office on the investigation. The American Trucking Association has sent bulletins to its members urging them to be aware of people "displaying aggressive behavior" or engaging in suspicious activity.

One association bulletin asked that members "be alert for either a potential disgruntled trucking company, trucking company employee or person purporting to be from the trucking industry" who has made threats in the past against government agencies.

The regulations at the heart of the "Fallen Angel" letters were four years in the making and drew some 53,000 comments when first proposed, trucking association spokesman Mike Russell said. Many truckers and companies worried about lost pay and productivity because of stricter rest requirements.

"It was controversial," Russell said.

While the South Carolina letter's existence was made public shortly after it was found, the Bush administration delayed acknowledgment of the White House letter by nearly three months. It was intercepted Nov. 6 by the Secret Service at an offsite mail facility.

Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman said the FBI and other agencies were notified after the letter tested probable for ricin on Nov. 12. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Homeland Security officials held a Nov. 13 conference call with the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Postal Service and other agencies to discuss what to do.

Ultimately, the ricin in that letter was deemed to be of a low grade and not a threat to public health, so no announcement was made. President Bush was not immediately informed, McClellan said.

"We share information appropriately, if there is a public health risk," McClellan told reporters.

The al-Qaida terror group has threatened to use ricin, but officials have found no indication that the two "Fallen Angel" letters or the Frist incident are connected to international terrorism.

The FBI has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the "Fallen Angel" case.

U.S.: Ricin letters not foreign terror attack

By Seth Borenstein and Sumana Chatterjee
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The ricin sent to top government agencies — including the White House — probably is coming from inside the United States and from a homegrown criminal rather than foreign terrorists, investigators and outside experts say. 

"It does not bear the mark of an international terrorist attack," a Department of Homeland Security official said yesterday on the condition of anonymity. "This is a criminal issue.  It is not a weapon of mass destruction."

Meanwhile, the investigation has broadened beyond Washington to Chattanooga, Tenn. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said yesterday that tests are being conducted at a Chattanooga postal facility for the presence of ricin. He declined to elaborate. Others, who wouldn't be quoted by name, hinted of fears of possible contamination from processing one of the letters. 

The Postal Service said all tests for ricin at its District of Columbia facility that processes congressional mail were negative. The station, closed as a precaution, reopened last night. 

Ricin-tainted letters sent in the fall were signed by "Fallen Angel," who described himself as a U.S. business owner who had a gripe against a Department of Transportation rule that increased the amount of sleep required for truckers. Investigators now are trying to determine if ricin found Monday in Frist's mailroom is connected to those earlier letters. 

The fact that no letter or package that contained the powdery ricin has been found is hampering the investigation. 

"There's been no smoking-letter information that helps tie this thing together," U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said. 

White House spokesman Scott McClellan acknowledged yesterday that a ricin-laced letter was sent to the White House but intercepted in an off-site mail facility in November. 

"The letter was deemed by public-health officials not to be a public-health threat," he said, so the White House kept its existence a secret to aid investigators. 

The first "Fallen Angel" letter was addressed to the Department of Transportation and found in a Greenville, S.C., post office Oct. 15. The author threatened to start "dumping" the poison if the trucking rule, which went into effect Jan. 4, wasn't stopped.

Ricin, a toxin that causes cell and organ failure, is made from easy-to-find castor beans, but experts say that, unlike anthrax, it can't cause mass casualties. "It's not a big threat.  It's the equivalent of mailing rat poison to somebody," said Randall Larsen, founder of Homeland Security Associates, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Va. "This fits in the category of kook rather than terrorist." 

The FBI, which handles criminal cases, is the lead agency investigating all three letters. 

Senators and their staffs will be allowed to return today to the Russell office building. The Hart office building will open tomorrow. The Dirksen office building, where the ricin was discovered, is scheduled to reopen Monday. 

The reopening of the D.C. postal facility and Gainer's comment were reported by The Associated Press.

Secret Service investigated ricin quietly

By Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Hardly a day goes by without someone phoning or mailing a threat against the president to the White House. But the public seldom finds out. The Secret Service investigates quietly.  Threats rarely become public unless an arrest is made or public safety is endangered.

Federal officials say that's why there was no disclosure for three months after a letter containing a small amount of low-grade ricin, a poison, turned up at a screening center for White House mail on Nov. 6. (Related story:Feds didn't report ricin for five days)

The mail-processing center is at an undisclosed location several miles from the White House.

When ricin was discovered Monday in a letter in the Capitol Hill mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., authorities revealed that a similar letter addressed to the White House had been discovered Nov. 6. It tested positive for ricin Nov. 7. 

After the White House letter became known, reporters peppered White House press secretary Scott McClellan at his daily briefing Wednesday with questions about how threats against the president are handled and what the procedures are for informing law enforcement agencies, health officials, mail handlers, other government workers, congressional leaders and the public. 

McClellan said the Nov. 6 letter was not made public because an FBI investigation was underway and the quantity of poison was too small to be a health hazard. He added, "Unfortunately, there are some people in this world that are seeking to either carry out pranks or make some serious threats. And we appreciate the work of the Secret Service that they do to address each and every one of these matters." 

McClellan and a spokeswoman for the Secret Service declined to outline specific procedures or guidelines. 

As it turned out, five days passed between the first positive test for ricin and notification by the Secret Service to the White House.

The White House then informed the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Postal Service and other agencies.

President Bush was not informed at that time. 

"The president is notified if there is a public health risk, and in this particular case, there was no public health risk," McClellan said. "Certainly he has been briefed on the ongoing investigation into this matter." 

Postal workers were not informed because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined they were not in danger, according to Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan. 

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said, "Those who needed to know about it and needed to act upon it were aware of it."

An administration official familiar with the investigation said that if the poison had been the far more dangerous anthrax, more extensive precautions would have been taken.

The Secret Service attributed the delay to the time between receipt of the suspicious letter and notification of the White House and other agencies to a need to do more thorough tests and an intervening weekend and Veterans Day holiday. 

The Secret Service took responsibility for the delay.

"We recognize now the need, and we have made changes in our protocols to ensure in the future that prompt notifications are made to our law enforcement and public health partners," spokeswoman Ann Roman said. 

Contributing: Mimi Hall and Toni Locy 

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer 
Thu, Feb 05, 2004

WASHINGTON - Investigators expanded their search Thursday for the source of ricin discovered on Capitol Hill after intensive testing of a Senate office mailroom failed to turn up the deadly poison's origin. 

The ricin was discovered in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office. Law enforcement officials say no letter or note has been found indicating how it got there, who was behind it and whether the Tennessee Republican was the target. 

"We're not at the point in time where we can say how it was delivered," said Michael Mason, assistant FBI director in charge of the Washington field office. "We have not found a hot letter." 

Mail has been the primary focus of the probe since Monday, when an intern found a small amount of ricin on a mail-sorting machine in Frist's office. But no further ricin or other evidence was in the stacks of letters nearby.

Because no answers have come from mail or items in the mailroom, investigators now must consider if the ricin was placed on the machine by someone or if it had spilled out of an older letter and been there for a long time. If so, investigators would have to trace the paths of these older letters, some of which may have been destroyed. 

"We are taking a look at every possible angle," Mason said.

The discovery prompted the closure of three Senate office buildings, one of which reopened Thursday, and decontamination procedures for staff and Capitol police officers who were at the scene. Ricin is a highly toxic substance with no known antidote. It can easily be made from castor beans. 

Although no one has become ill from the ricin, nine staffers in Frist's office have been asked to submit two blood samples to Navy medical researchers, Frist spokesman Nick Smith said. The aides were told it was to see if they had developed antibodies to the ricin, which might aid in development of an antidote. 

Investigators are interviewing people who visited the buildings before the ricin's discovery, as well as employees. They described everyone so far as cooperative. 

One Senate aide who was questioned and spoke on condition of anonymity said he had not been contacted for a second round and knew of no other staffers who were being questioned again. 

The intern who found the ricin, described as a college-age woman, was credited by U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer with taking quick, decisive action when she found the substance. 

"The young intern knew enough about precautions and to be wary to sound the alarm," Gainer said. 

As the investigation progressed, life began returning to normal on Capitol Hill. 

The Russell Senate Office Building, the oldest and closest to the Capitol, reopened shortly after noon Thursday. Hill workers waited in lines dozens deep in the winter chill to return to return to their desks. 

"I'm anxious to get back to work because it's been so disorienting being out of my office," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who has been working out of a Capitol office since Monday. 

The other two office buildings are to reopen by Monday morning, though Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said all buildings could open Friday. 

The ricin investigation is not limited to Capitol Hill. Authorities are examining whether there is any link between the toxin found in Frist's office and that mailed in two letters by a self-styled "Fallen Angel" angered by new federal rules requiring greater rest periods for truck drivers. 

Those letters were found Oct. 15 at a mail facility in Greenville, S.C., and Nov. 6 at an offsite location where mail is processed for the White House. The "Fallen Angel" author, claiming to be a tanker fleet owner, threatens in both letters to "start dumping" more ricin if the new rules are not repealed. 

Gainer said investigators are not aware of any other communication from anyone called "Fallen Angel." But he added: "We are examining anything ricin-related." 

FBI agents have interviewed truckers and owners of trucking companies. 
                     ___ 

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Brad Foss and Nancy Zuckerbrod contributed to this story. 

Associated Press
Fri, Feb 06, 2004 

WASHINGTON - Searches of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's offices in Tennessee have uncovered no ricin or other evidence that might explain how the poison wound up in his Capitol Hill mailroom, officials said Friday. 

The senator's six offices in Tennessee reopened Thursday after being closed for two days while the FBI and other investigators checked the mail and searched for other evidence. Nothing was found, said a federal law enforcement source speaking on condition of anonymity. 

The inability to locate a piece of mail connected to the Senate ricin scare has led investigators to expand their probe to include the possibility that someone placed the poison in the mailroom in Frist's Washington office or that it arrived in an envelope or package that moved through the office before the poison was discovered Monday afternoon.

"We are taking a look at every possible angle," said Michael Mason, chief of the FBI's Washington field office. 

Mail has been the primary focus of the probe since an intern found a small amount of ricin on a mail-sorting machine in Frist's office. But no further ricin or other evidence was in the stacks of letters nearby. 

Investigators now must consider if the ricin was placed on the machine by someone or if it had spilled out of an older letter and been there for a long time. If so, investigators would have to trace the paths of these older letters, some of which may have been destroyed. 

The discovery of the poison prompted the closure of three Senate office buildings, two of which reopened Thursday, and decontamination procedures for staff and Capitol police officers who were at the scene.  Ricin is a highly toxic substance with no known antidote. It can easily be made from castor beans.

Although no one has become ill from the ricin, nine staffers in Frist's office were asked to submit two blood samples to Navy medical researchers, Frist spokesman Nick Smith said. The aides were told it was to see if they had developed antibodies to the ricin, which might aid in development of an antidote. 

Investigators are interviewing people who visited the buildings before the ricin's discovery, as well as employees. They described everyone so far as cooperative. 

One Senate aide who was questioned and spoke on condition of anonymity said he had not been contacted for a second round and knew of no other staffers who were being questioned again. 

As the investigation progressed, life began returning to normal on Capitol Hill. 

The Russell and Hart buildings opened Thursday. Frist said Friday an announcement would be made later in the day on when the third building, the Dirksen building where the ricin was found, was to reopen. 

The ricin investigation is not limited to Capitol Hill. Authorities are examining whether there is any link between the toxin found in Frist's office and that mailed in two letters by a self-styled "Fallen Angel" angered by new federal rules requiring longer rest periods for truck drivers. 

Those letters were found Oct. 15 at a mail facility in Greenville, S.C., and Nov. 6 at an offsite location where mail is processed for the White House. The "Fallen Angel" author, claiming to be a tanker fleet owner, threatens in both letters to "start dumping" more ricin if the new rules are not repealed. 

WASHINGTON
U.S. asks truckers for help in ricin investigation

The investigation of a deadly poison found in a Senate mailroom extended to Tennessee, and truckers are being asked for useful clues.

BY CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The ricin investigation has expanded to Tennessee and trucker radio shows, but investigators still had no clues about the origin of the poison found in a Senate office, officials said Friday.

Searches of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's six offices in his home state, plus those in the Capitol complex, were completed Thursday. Investigators have not found the letter or package the ricin may have spilled from, and no new traces of ricin have been discovered, said FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman.

All of Frist's offices are now reopened.

Investigators are trying to determine how a small amount of powdery ricin wound up on a mail-opening machine in Frist's office.  Discovery of the deadly toxin led the Senate to close down three office buildings this week. Ricin is a poison made from castor beans and has no known antidote.

The machine and all the letters from Frist's mailroom were taken to the Naval Medical Research Center in Maryland for further testing, Weierman said.

The Russell and Hart buildings reopened Thursday, with the Dirksen building where the ricin was found set to reopen Monday.

Frist told reporters Friday that the mail being opened just before the ricin was found was mostly from states other than Tennessee.  He said staffers had been opening the mail ''over the course of several hours'' before an intern found the ricin powder.

Frist also said he held a 30-minute conference call with 40 staffers who had been in closest proximity to the ricin. ''Everybody's OK,'' he said.

The ricin investigation has other connections to Tennessee. A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a letter containing a small vial of ricin and addressed to the White House, which was intercepted Nov. 6 by the Secret Service, bore a postmark from Chattanooga, Tenn.

That letter was nearly identical to one found at a mail-sorting facility in Greenville, S.C., on Oct. 15. The letters, signed ''Fallen Angel,'' complain about new rules requiring more rest for truckers and threaten use of more ricin if the rules are not repealed.

Tom O'Neill, spokesman for the FBI in Columbia, S.C., said federal agents have persuaded two popular trucker radio programs -- 'Truckin' Bozo'' and ''Satellite Cowboy'' -- to publicize the case and the $100,000 reward being offered by the FBI, Transportation Department and Postal Inspection Service.

The agencies also have been following trucker-oriented Internet sites and putting information about the mailings out on some of them, officials said. The ''Fallen Angel'' letters identify the author as the owner of a tanker fleet.

By KARY BOOHER
The Jackson (TN) Sun
kbooher@jacksonsun.com
Feb 7 2004

Jim Humphreys, the local field representative for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, isn't too worried now about the possibility of ricin being found in Frist's downtown Jackson office.

The handling of delivered mail is another matter. "I think we're reviewing all of our policies," Humphreys said Friday after the Associated Press reported that federal officials have expanded their ricin investigation into Tennessee.

The Tennessee Republican's downtown Jackson office, located at 200 E. Main St., was closed Tuesday and Wednesday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation from Memphis and local HAZMAT crews combed through the office mail, Humphreys said. 

However, samples that were taken did not test positive for ricin, which is a toxin made from castor beans that has no known antidote, said George Bold, media coordinator for the FBI's Memphis office. Bold said several areas of the local office, including tables and places where mail had been processed, were touched with swab pads to retrieve samples.

Investigators are trying to determine how a small amount of powdery ricin wound up on a mail-opening machine in Frist's office in Washington, D.C. Discovery of the deadly toxin led the Senate to close down three office buildings at the Capitol this week.

Searches of Frist's six offices in his home state, plus those in the Capitol complex, were completed Thursday. Investigators have not found the letter or package the ricin may have spilled from, and no new traces of ricin have been discovered, said FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman. All of Frist's offices - in Kingsport, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, Jackson and Memphis, and at the Capitol - are now reopened.

Humphreys said he spent Tuesday and Wednesday using a laptop computer from home and also was on the road. On Tuesday afternoon, workers whose offices share the first floor of the downtown building with Frist's office said they were not overly concerned about ricin. A worn note taped to the office door read, "Please leave packages by the door."

Humphreys said Frist's office will reconsider the way it receives incoming mail, adding that police who work on Capitol Hill in Washington performed a security assessment of his office and will offer suggestions.

"It just makes us wonder if we need to be alert for anything," Humphreys said. "I wouldn't say I'm overly concerned. I'm just going to play closer attention."

Meanwhile, more tests are being conducted on the samples taken from the Jackson office, Bold said. However, those are being done as more of a second precautionary measure, he said.

The ricin investigation has other connections to Tennessee. A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a letter containing a small vial of ricin and addressed to the White House, which was intercepted Nov. 6 by the Secret Service, bore a postmark from Chattanooga, Tenn.

That letter was nearly identical to one found at a mail-sorting facility in Greenville, S.C., on Oct. 15. The letters, signed "Fallen Angel,'' complain about new rules requiring more rest for truckers and threaten use of more ricin if they are not repealed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 - Kary Booher, (731) 425-9680

FBI Uses DNA Analysis to Pinpoint Ricin Source
From Times Wire Reports

Using DNA analysis, federal authorities are trying to glean clues about the source of ricin found in a Senate mailroom and in two earlier letter mailings, including where castor plants used to make the poisons were grown. 

Lee Browning, a researcher with a Texas seed company who has consulted with the FBI about ricin production, said a DNA analysis will show "if it's coming from South Carolina, Georgia, Florida or Texas." 

Authorities have not found the source of ricin discovered in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), or of samples found last year in postal facilities serving the White House.

Homegrown Terror
A potent poison. A Senate mail room. Echoes of the unsolved anthrax attacks—with a dash of angry truckers
By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

After anthrax-tainted letters began showing up in the wake of 9/11, authorities quickly suggested that this was probably a case of homegrown terrorism rather than Round 2 of al-Qaeda's assault on the U.S. The likely perpetrator, many still believe, was a malevolent nerd with chemistry-lab expertise and a grudge against the government. But when traces of the biological toxin ricin showed up in Senator Bill Frist's mail room last week, the FBI and other agencies declared there was no evidence pointing to either a foreign culprit or a mad scientist. One possibility under examination: a good ole boy who knows his way around 18-wheelers, weigh stations and CB radios.

That would be consistent with two unsolved ricin-in-the-mail incidents that occurred last fall. They didn't create much of a panic, and despite the evacuation of three Senate office buildings last week, neither did the ricin found under a mail-opening machine on Capitol Hill. Ricin is a potent enough poison, and terrorist groups from al-Qaeda to the Iraq-based Ansar al-Islam have reportedly produced it for use as a biological weapon. So, evidently, did Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War. 

But ricin isn't especially good as a weapon of mass destruction. It's easy to make, using a recipe you can get off the Internet. It comes from the castor bean, which is used around the world in products ranging from laxatives to brake fluid to nylon, and also grows wild in the southwestern U.S., so there's no shortage of raw material. But unlike anthrax, ricin is tough to aerosolize and inhale; the easiest way to deliver a fatal dose is injection or ingestion, and you need a lot for the latter. Ricin is powerful, but it's a retail, not a wholesale, poison. 

That's why ricin once enjoyed a certain cachet among international men of mystery. Every spywatcher knows about Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov, who was assassinated in London in 1978 in a ploy that James Bond or Austin Powers would appreciate: a shadowy stalker jabbed Markov in the leg with an umbrella rigged to inject a pellet of ricin under his skin (the killer was never found, but the KGB and the Bulgarian secret service were prime suspects). 

More recently, the handful of ricin cases pursued by the FBI have involved domestic hotheads, not international spies. In 1995, for example, two Minnesota men associated with a tax-protest group called the Patriots Council were convicted for possessing ricin with the intent of using it as a weapon. And in 1993, Canadian customs agents found ricin along with four guns, 20,000 rounds of ammunition and some neo-Nazi literature in the car of an Arkansas survivalist crossing into Canada.

Then last October someone hand-delivered a package to a mail-sorting center near Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina. Inside the package, which was addressed to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), was a metal vial filled with ricin. A label read, "Caution ricin poison enclosed in sealed container. Do not open without proper protection," and a letter demanded repeal of federal rules mandating 10 hours of rest in every 24 for long-haul truckers. Otherwise the sender, who signed the letter "Fallen Angel" and claimed to be "a fleet owner of a tanker company," would pour ricin into the local water supply. "Keep at eight [hours] or I will start dumping," said the note. 

The FBI gave polygraph tests to the mail facility's 36 employees and to local truck drivers, and in early November asked the American Trucking Association to notify members to look out for anyone acting aggressively or suspiciously. But even as the word was going out, another letter containing a vial of ricin turned up on Nov. 6 at a White House mail-handling facility at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. Postmarked Chattanooga, Tenn., it too was addressed to the DOT, via the White House. And like the first letter, it carried a warning label and a demand from Fallen Angel to ease trucking rules. That incident was never made public. Nearly a week passed before the Secret Service, which had intercepted the letter, notified the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security—a delay that rankled those agencies. The Secret Service has promised to revise its protocols. But it's also important to remember, says a law-enforcement source, that "ricin is not a living, flesh-eating bacteria, like anthrax, so our response is much different." 

Beyond that, investigators tell TIME that the powder found in Frist's mail room was mostly paper dust, with traces of ricin so minute, they can't even be evaluated for particle size or purity. No envelope or note has been found, and no other piece of mail from the Senate has even a trace of ricin on it. Neither do any door sills, doorknobs, railings or surfaces anywhere in the building. Same goes for air filters, which should catch floating particles. 

That leads to a couple of theories. Perhaps an envelope in Frist's mail room contained a letter that was forwarded to the DOT, where Fallen Angel's grudge is aimed. Or maybe the letter was simply sent by someone who had previously handled ricin. "Let's say he didn't send us any product," says an investigator. "He's just sloppy. It's on his fingers, on his hands, or he's using the same envelopes, same paper. That may be why we don't have anything." 

Still, it's worrisome to know that anyone is sending lethal substances through the U.S. mail - and getting away with it. The FBI has spent 251,000 man-hours on the anthrax case, conducted 15 searches, interviewed 5,000 people and served 4,000 subpoenas - without an arrest. (Steven Hatfill, a former government bioweapons expert once described by Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "person of interest" in the case, is suing the U.S. government for violating both his constitutional rights and internal Justice Department rules against leaks. He has strongly denied accusations that he is behind the mailings.) 

Now officials have another bioweapons correspondent to worry about—or maybe more than one. Without a note or an envelope, it's unclear whether this is related to the Fallen Angel incidents. If there was what the media are calling a "smoking letter," it may have long since gone out with the trash. Without even that much of a clue, the best that authorities can do is look for forwarded letters, reinterview Frist staff members, examine suspicious mail the Senator has got over the years—and hope that a tip or a slipup puts the latest mad mailer out of circulation. 

Reported by Elisabeth Kauffman/Nashville and Viveca Novak and Elaine Shannon/Washington

Reporter: Associated Press
2/13/2004 9:04:49 AM

FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday that anthrax and ricin attacks on Washington offices will be solved and the country is a safer place since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks thanks in part to local vigilance.

"I wouldn't give up," Mueller said when asked about the 2001 anthrax attack on government and news media offices in Washington and the more recent discovery of ricin in the mailroom of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

"The investigations are still going and I am confident that we will have success in each of those investigations," Mueller told reporters after touring the FBI's East Tennessee regional offices in Knoxville.

Five people died and 17 others were sickened when anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed in the fall of 2001 to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy, both Democrats.

Last week, a small amount of the powdery poison ricin was found on the mail-opening machine in the Capitol office of Frist, now Senate majority leader. No one became ill, but three office buildings were closed for nearly a week.

Since then, it has been reported that the Secret Service intercepted a letter Nov. 6 addressed to the White House that contained a small vial of ricin. The letter, complaining about new rules requiring more rest for truckers, bore a Chattanooga postmark.

"That report I have not heard and I am not certain is accurate," Mueller said when asked about the Chattanooga postmark. "I will tell you the investigation in Washington is ongoing."

The FBI director suggested this is new territory for the agency.

"It is a little bit different with the biological attacks such as anthrax or ricin in the sense that you don't have fingerprints. You don't have bullets. You don't have some of the forensics that you will see in other crimes.

"Nonetheless, since the anthrax attacks we and other agencies have learned a tremendous amount about the genetic makeup of these substances. So we are much better prepared today to identify ... the possible processes used to manufacture these substances than we were before."

Mueller said the capture of al-Qaida planners abroad, the removal of their training camps in Afghanistan and a more vigilant domestic effort involving state and local law enforcement are bearing results in the war on terrorism.

"For those reasons, the country as a whole, but East Tennessee as well, is a safer place from the threat of terrorism than it was prior to Sept. 11," he said.

John Sterling, East Tennessee coordinator for the state Office of Homeland Security, said Thursday there are "no known terrorist cells operating in Tennessee."

"Now we are trying to make sure that Tennessee is as safe a place as we can make it. That's why we are working with federal, state and local partners to build district counter-terror capabilities," he said.

"The bottom line is we are trying to make Tennessee as unattractive as we can. That is what we are working diligently to promote," Sterling said.

Mueller said because of the FBI's new emphasis on terrorism, it may be less involved in bank robbery cases that don't cross county lines or drug cases. But he said the FBI will continue to support state and local law enforcement in fighting gang activity.

"When it comes to crime in our communities ... to the extent we can help, we will," he said.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 17

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- 

The chairman of a company that trucks mail between postal centers says the FBI has reviewed his firm's employee records as part of an investigation into ricin found at a Greenville mail center.

Federal agents wanted the records of workers and truckers who had access to the mail center where the deadly poison was left in October, said James R. Malone, chairman and CEO of Mail Contractors of America.

The FBI didn't tell Malone why they wanted to see the records.

"Clearly, we would be very willing and enthusiastic about helping with the investigation in any manner, shape or form," Malone said. "Obviously, we want whoever it is to be caught as quickly as possible."

The FBI field office in Columbia did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

A letter accompanying the ricin found at the mail center and a similar letter containing ricin intercepted before it reached its intended destination at the White House complain about new federal trucking regulations.

"I don't want to think one of our truckers did this," Malone said.

A small amount of ricin also was discovered on a mail-opening machine in the Washington offices of U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., two weeks ago, but investigators have not been able to trace that ricin to any letter or envelope.

Mail Contractors, based in Little Rock, Ark., has about 1,400 employees, most of them truckers, he said. The company has been carrying U.S. mail for more than 40 years.

Malone said his company no longer runs the route involving the airport postal center.

Information from: The Greenville News

Scare Closed Three Senate Buildings

POSTED: 4:29 pm EST February 18, 2004
UPDATED: 4:39 pm EST February 18, 2004

WASHINGTON -- There is a new theory emerging tonight about the ricin scare two weeks ago.

NBC News reports that investigators are looking into the possibility that there was no ricin attack in the first place.

The poison was discovered on a machine used to open envelopes in the Dirksen Senate office building.

Dirksen and two other buildings were closed for several days.

There are several reasons for the new theory. Investigators haven't been able to determine an apparent source of the ricin, and the amounts found were extremely small.

Also, since ricin comes from the castor bean, and some nontoxic parts of the plant are used to make paper, it might be possible that the tests found traces of the plant, but not ricin.

Investigators said there are no solid leads and this is just one of several theories.

The Tennessean
Associated Press
Friday, 02/20/04

CHATTANOOGA — Letters containing deadly ricin intercepted by postal workers and the Secret Service prompted a mailing of reward leaflets in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia, an FBI agent said this week.

''We had a letter that was located here in Greenville (S.C.) and another letter that was processed through the Chattanooga area,'' said Ann Middleton, a supervisor in the bureau's field office in Greenville.

A federal law enforcement official, who asked not to be identified, previously told The Associated Press that a letter with a small vial of ricin and addressed to the White House bore a Chattanooga postmark. The Secret Service intercepted the letter Nov. 6.

That letter was nearly identical to the one found at the South Carolina mail-sorting facility Oct. 15. The letters, signed ''Fallen Angel,'' complain about new rules requiring more rest for truck drivers.

Ricin is a toxin made from castor beans and has no known antidote. No one was injured by the mailings, authorities said.

Middleton said the leaflets promote a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the ricin mailings.

''We have a tip line here, and we are trying to find out who may have information,'' she said. The toll-free number is 866-839-6241.

''We are just trying to send it to an area where we thought there may have been some activity,'' Middleton said.

The leaflets also contain a portion of a note that accompanied the South Carolina letter that contained ricin. ''To the Department of Transportation,'' the note says. ''I have easy access to castor pulp. If my demand is dismissed, I'm capable of making ricin. … You have been warned.''

''We have received a request from the FBI to distribute the reward posters,'' Chattanooga Postal Inspector Mike Owens said. He said thousands of the mailings were delivered.

In Ringgold, Ga., Julia Graham said she and her Massengale Road neighbors had received the flier and that said she was alarmed by its contents. ''It's kind of frightening to think there's somebody out there who's that sick,'' she told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

The two ricin mailings have not been linked to ricin discovered Jan. 2 in the mail room of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Middleton said.

By Matthew Cella and Guy Taylor
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 23, 2004

The FBI official in charge of the probe into the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings said the investigation still has top priority among the bureau's unsolved cases, but he acknowledged the anthrax sender may never be caught.

"Despite our very, very, very best efforts, we still might not be able to bring it home," said Assistant Director Michael A. Mason, who heads the FBI's Washington field office, which is investigating the case. 

"This would not be the first case in the FBI's history that remained unsolved," he said. "It simply happens to be the first case that has received this level of publicity that has not yet been solved."

Mr. Mason said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III continues to receive weekly briefings on the probe 28 months after the mailings. "I would say the anthrax case is the director's number one priority," he said. "This is a case the director feels we must solve — period."

In a meeting Friday with reporters from The Washington Times, Mr. Mason discussed the anthrax probe as well as the investigation into this month's discovery of poisonous ricin in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican.

Investigators continue to sort through letters from Mr. Frist's mailroom, he said. He dismissed reports that the substance had not been ricin but rather a harmless paper byproduct.

"That's not the case," Mr. Mason said, adding that he had received confirmation from the chief FBI scientist Friday that the substance was ricin.  "We did not shut down the whole of government for envelope droppings."

Although the ricin case "remains a mystery," Mr. Mason said, there was "no apparent linkage" to the anthrax attacks, in which deadly spores of the bacteria were mailed to senators on Capitol Hill and to news outlets in Florida and New York in the weeks after the September 11 hijackings.

Mr. Mason has said leaks to reporters about the anthrax case were damaging. He spoke cautiously about the investigation into the poisoned letters, which caused five deaths in October and November 2001. 

"We have strict instructions as far as what not to talk about as far as anthrax goes," said Mr. Mason, who took over the investigation last year after Van A. Harp retired as head of the Washington field office. 

Mr. Mason said he couldn't discuss an anonymous letter received by the FBI in the weeks before the anthrax attacks, which accused an Egyptian-born scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency of plotting biological warfare against the United States.

The Times reported last week that the FBI recently had questioned at least one other EPA scientist about the anonymous letter, which accused EPA toxicologist Ayaad Assaad of being a religious fanatic with the means to use bioterrorism weapons.

Asked whether the FBI was investigating any connection between the anthrax mailings and the anonymous letter, Mr. Mason told The Times: "I just can't talk about that. I can't talk about that letter." 

Pressed about the significance of the anonymous letter, given to the FBI after it had been sent to police in Quantico, Va., in October 2001, Mr. Mason said flatly that "the letter is not a priority."

Mr. Assaad developed a ricin vaccine at Fort Detrick, Md., and is regarded as one of the top U.S. authorities on ricin.  Mr. Mason said the leading theory in the ricin probe is that the toxin — which is derived from the castor bean plant — was mailed to Mr. Frist's office, although investigators have yet to identify an envelope in which it might have been mailed.

He said FBI agents working jointly with U.S. Capitol Police still are searching for any connection between the ricin found in the Senate leader's office and other letters containing ricin discovered last year, one at a Greenville, S.C., postal facility in October and another sent to the White House in November. 

Those letters were signed by "Fallen Angel," who said he was angry about new federal laws regulating truckers' driving hours. 

Monday February 23, 2004 6:46 PM

By CURT ANDERSON 

Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - A letter containing ricin sent last year to the White House threatened to turn Washington into a ``ghost town'' if new trucking safety regulations went into effect, according to a copy of the letter released Monday by the FBI. 

The letter, one of two intercepted last year that were signed``Fallen Angel,'' bore an Oct. 17 postmark from Chattanooga, Tenn. It was addressed to the White House and was discovered by the Secret Service at a Washington offsite mail processing facility in early November. 

The White House letter was typewritten on what appears to be yellow legal paper. Although it was addressed to the White House, the letter begins with ``department of transportation'' and then says: 

``If you change the hours of service on January 4, 2004, I will turn D.C. into a ghost town. The powder on the letter is RICIN.  Have a nice day. Fallen Angel.'' 

A similar ricin-laced letter was found Oct. 15 at a mail processing facility in Greenville, S.C. In both cases, the author complained about new regulations that mandate more periods of rest for long-haul truckers. 

Many truckers and companies have raised concerns about lost pay and productivity because of stricter rest requirements. 

The South Carolina letter also claimed that the author was the owner of a tanker fleet company and had access to large amounts of pulp from castor plants, which are the source of the poison ricin. 

Investigators are also trying to determine the source of a small amount of ricin found earlier this month on a mail-opening machine in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.  No envelope or threatening letter has been found in that case. 

No one has been sickened in any of the cases, but on Capitol Hill three Senate office buildings were closed for several days after the ricin was discovered there.

The FBI, Postal Inspection Service and Transportation Department are offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the author of the threatening letters. The FBI is also operating a toll-free tipline in the case at 1-866-839-6241.

Union: Postal workers weren't told of ricin

By Leigh Strope 
The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON — Postal Service workers weren't told they had been exposed to the deadly poison ricin found last year in a letter intercepted before reaching the White House, the head of the largest postal union said yesterday, accusing the government of a double standard that favors politicians.

Workers "will not be treated like a canary in the mining industry," said William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 366,000 clerks, maintenance employees, motor-vehicle operators and other workers. 

Burrus was testifying at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the future of the Postal Service and its work force. 

The letter, released Monday by the FBI, was signed "Fallen Angel" and had an Oct. 17 postmark from Chattanooga, Tenn. It was addressed to the White House and was intercepted Nov. 6 by the Secret Service at an offsite mail processing facility in Washington. 

The Postal Service referred questions about Burrus' criticism to the Secret Service.

Ann Roman, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said it had notified the FBI, the Postal Service and other government agencies Nov. 12 that the letter tested probable for the presence of ricin. It was up to other agencies to decide whether and how the information would be released, she said. 

White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said that Homeland Security officials held a Nov. 13 conference call with the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Postal Service and other agencies to discuss what to do. 

Ultimately, the ricin in that letter was deemed to be of a low grade and not a threat to public health, so no announcement was made, McClellan has said. 

Burrus asked why postal workers who had probably handled the letter were not informed. 

"In the anthrax attacks, we rationalized the disparate treatment of postal employees as compared to the occupants of Senate office buildings, but the ricin attacks expose the fact that there is a double standard," he said.

Two postal workers in Washington were among five people who died from anthrax exposure in 2001 after letters laced with the lethal bacteria were sent to two senators. 

Burrus said the union and its members did not know about the incident last fall until another ricin discovery earlier this month, this one on a mail-opening machine in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. 

The union was notified of the Feb. 2 discovery, said spokeswoman Sally Davidow. Three Senate office buildings were closed for several days afterward. 

Investigators have not found the letter or package from which the ricin may have spilled, and no new traces of ricin have been discovered.

Investigators Struggle With Ricin Probe

CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The investigation into how ricin made its way to a Capitol Hill mailroom has yet to turn up a suspect, a source for the deadly poison or a link to two earlier ricin-laced letters.

Investigators hope scientists can provide a forensic fingerprint to help crack the case. Five government labs have been analyzing the poison to try to determine how it was made and where it came from.

Michael A. Mason, chief of the FBI's Washington field office and head of the investigation, said the goal is to find distinguishing characteristics that allow scientists to match the poison to some previously discovered ricin.

"It's way too early to conclude that we've reached a dead end or a crossroads," he said.

The small amount of ricin was discovered Feb. 2 on a mail-opening machine in the office suite of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. The discovery led to a shutdown of three Senate office buildings for several days, and about two dozen staffers and Capitol police officers underwent decontamination.

The incident followed the Oct. 15 discovery of an envelope in a Greenville, S.C., postal center containing a vial of ricin and a threatening letter addressed to the federal Transportation Department. The letter, signed "Fallen Angel," objected to new rules for longhaul truckers. A similar letter, postmarked Oct. 17 in Chattanooga, Tenn., and addressed to the White House, was intercepted by the Secret Service at a government mail facility in the nation's capital.

No connections have been established between the Capitol Hill incident and the two "Fallen Angel" letters.

Ricin can be fatal if ingested, inhaled or injected. There is no antidote. However, no one has been hurt in any of the incidents.

Investigators in the Frist case initially suspected the poison arrived in a letter but found nothing, even after searching through some 5,000 pieces of mail on Capitol Hill and thousands of others in his Tennessee offices.

"We're still working to determine how it came in," Mason said.

Lab tests have determined that the material in Frist's office suite was ricin - which is made from common castor beans - and not a false positive caused by castor pulp that is sometimes used to make paper for envelopes. Some investigators had floated that theory because of the lack of other evidence.

Without a letter or envelope, forensic specialists are focusing on analyzing the ricin itself for any distinguishing characteristics, such as an additive that makes it easier to inhale, said Lawrence Kobilinsky, professor of forensic sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

There also could be trace materials found with the ricin that would provide clues about its origin, such as metals or dust specific to a certain geographic location, he said.

"It's a very tough situation," Kobilinsky said. "They might want to compare the ricin from the previous attacks to this, to see if there is some peculiarity, some trace material that's in the powder itself that could mean it's from the same batch, or a different batch."

Yet another complication is the relative ease with which a person could make ricin. Unlike anthrax spores, ricin requires little scientific training to engineer and is not nearly as dangerous to handle.

Investigators have focused on truckers and trucking companies in the "Fallen Angel" case, searching for someone disgruntled enough by the new regulations to have taken a drastic step.  Tom O'Neill, spokesman for the FBI's field office in Columbia, S.C., said authorities are hoping a $100,000 reward will help.

The ricin cases have some parallels with the investigation into anthrax-laced letters sent to government and media offices in the fall of 2001. Five people died and 17 were sickened. That case also remains unsolved.

FBI OK'd ricin-case shipment

By The Associated Press

A seed-company employee in New York says the FBI told her to ship an unusually large order of castor seeds, which can be used to make ricin, to a Kirkland man, who subsequently was arrested and charged with possessing the deadly toxin.

Office manager Kristina Damico, of Sheffield's Seed in Locke, N.Y., said she called a federal terrorism hotline in November about the suspiciously big order for castor seeds, the key ingredient in ricin.

An FBI agent told her in December to send the seeds, Damico said in a telephone interview Wednesday. On April 8, another FBI agent contacted her, asked some questions and requested that the documents concerning the order be faxed to him, she said.

The next day in Kirkland, FBI agents allegedly found ricin in the apartment of Robert M. Alberg, 37. He was arrested and charged with one count of possession of a biological agent or toxin.

Alberg, described in court documents as autistic, was held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.

Alberg's attorneys yesterday asked a federal magistrate for an extension in asking that he be released pending trial.

Alberg, whose family has said he has "medical and psychological conditions," is expected to undergo a psychological exam.

FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette in New York said yesterday that he would check into the matter but added that the Seattle FBI office was coordinating the case. The FBI in Seattle did not immediately return a phone call yesterday.

Damico said she called the terrorist hotline in New York City on Nov. 4 about the castor-seed order. A typical order would be one or two packets of the seeds, used by gardeners to grow ornamental plants, she said. A 5-pound order would be 430 packets with 12 seeds in a packet, or more than 5,000 seeds. Any order that big would cause her to call the FBI, she said.

An FBI agent contacted her within a few days and asked about the name of the person, type of order and his address, she said.

On Dec. 2, she called the agent again, asking whether she should process the order. He called back Dec. 3 or 4 and told her to send it, she said.

Damico said she mailed the seeds to Alberg in Kirkland on Dec. 5.

On April 8, another agent contacted her, asking for the documents about the sale to be faxed to him, she said. Alberg was arrested April 9.

FBI agents have said ricin was found in Alberg's apartment on a relative's property.

Ricin can be fatal if swallowed, inhaled or injected. There is no antidote. Ricin is relatively easy to make and requires little scientific training to engineer.

Alberg's father, Tom Alberg, is managing director of Madrona Venture Group, a Pacific Northwest venture-capital firm, and a board member and early investor in Amazon.com.

Seattle Times reporter Maureen O'Hagan contributed to this report.

Ricin case took 4 months to get off the ground

Friday, April 16, 2004

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

Four months lapsed between the time a seed company worker alerted the FBI that a Kirkland man had bought unusually large amounts of the key ingredient for the deadly poison ricin and federal agents made an arrest.

FBI agents arrested Robert Alberg, 37, of Kirkland earlier this month. Yesterday at a brief court hearing, he was ordered to remain in federal detention.

The case began last fall.

Office manager Kristina Damico of Sheffield's Seed Co. in Locke, N.Y., told The Associated Press that she called a federal terrorist hot line in November about a 5-pound order for castor seeds, which is needed for making ricin.

An FBI agent told her in December to go ahead and send the seeds, Damico said.

Federal criminal justice sources told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that seed company personnel originally reported in November that only 5 grams of seeds were sold.

When agents followed up by questioning seed company personnel, they were told that Alberg had later made an order for almost 5 pounds, but that Sheffield had never honored the request. Because of the size of the 5-gram sale and the fact that the seeds are legal to possess, agents were not concerned, the sources said.

Attempts to reach Damico for clarification last night were unsuccessful. It is not known whether Sheffield personnel gave agents incorrect information, agents misunderstood them or if there was a communications breakdown between FBI agents in New York and their colleagues in Seattle.

In late March, Seattle FBI agents discovered that Sheffield had sent a 4.7-pound shipment of castor seeds in December to Alberg. Within a few days, biotoxin and hazardous-materials experts had flown to Seattle from FBI headquarters and raided Alberg's Kirkland apartment.

Special Agent in Charge Pat Adams of the FBI's Seattle office said yesterday, "Because this is a pending investigation, the FBI is severely limited as to the extent to which we can discuss the details of this investigation. What we should keep in mind is that charges were filed against Robert Alberg and that no harm resulted from his purchase of the castor beans."

There was no indication that Alberg planned to use the ricin, federal criminal justice sources said earlier this week.

Sources said the FBI is working closely with the family, which has cooperated in the investigation and was grateful for the way agents and prosecutors are dealing with their mentally disturbed son.

Both defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed yesterday to keep Alberg in custody at the federal prison at SeaTac because an appropriate residential placement could not be found. Alberg will be isolated from the general population at the prison, according to a lawyer familiar with the case.

Court documents and the Alberg family stated that Robert Alberg suffers from autism, a mental disorder marked by profound impairment in social interactions and which can include strange or abnormally intense preoccupations.

Damico said she called the terrorist hot line in New York City on Nov. 4 about the order she received for 5 pounds of castor seeds.

Damico said a typical order would be one or two packets of the seeds, used by gardeners to grow ornamental plants, she said. A 5-pound order would be 430 packets with 12 seeds in a packet, or more than 5,000 seeds. Any order that big would cause her to call the FBI, she said.

An FBI agent contacted her within a few days and asked about the name of the person, type of order and his address, she said.

On Dec. 2, she called the agent again, asking whether she should process the order or not. He called back on Dec. 3 or 4 and told her to send it, she said.

On April 8, another agent contacted her, asked for all the information and requested that the documents be faxed, she said. Alberg was arrested April 9.

"I don't know if they were working behind the scenes, you never know what the FBI is doing," Damico said Wednesday about the four-month delay.

FBI agents have said ricin was found in Alberg's apartment on a relative's property.

Ricin can be fatal if swallowed, inhaled or injected. There is no antidote.

Weapons, ammunition and suspicious chemicals -- including the precursor to the toxic agent ricin -- were found Sunday in the home of Steven Aubrey, who is suspected of killing his wife last week before killing himself.

The FBI is investigating the presence of castor beans, from which the deadly poison ricin is made, at the Aurora townhouse, said Frank Bochte, an FBI spokesman.

There is no evidence that ricin was produced at the townhouse, and people in the area are not in any danger, he said. Castor beans by themselves are not illegal and have legitimate uses.

The FBI's hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction teams are investigating anything in the house that could be used to produce ricin, Bochte said.

Aurora police went to the house on Hillsboro Avenue in Aurora about 10:45 a.m. Sunday to execute a search warrant, Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said.

When they saw the suspicious chemicals, they backed out and called the DuPage County bomb squad to investigate.

About 20 houses in the neighborhood were evacuated until about 7 p.m. Sunday.

The materials that police could identify and were not harmful were destroyed by the bomb squad, Ferrelli said. The other materials were sent to the FBI for testing.

Everyone at the crime scene was decontaminated, which is normal for an instance involving suspicious chemicals, Ferrelli said.

Police won't fully investigate the scene until the FBI results come back, so Ferrelli said he couldn't comment on the number or nature of the stockpile found or what the chemicals might be.

"We do not definitively know what the substances were that were taken from that townhome, and until we get the results back from the FBI, it's just not appropriate to comment," Ferrelli said. "It's all speculation."

Aubrey on Thursday consented to a search as police questioned him about the disappearance of his 25-year-old wife, Erica Marie Aubrey. Police only had the voluntary waiver from Aubrey to search the townhouse and he cut officers off before they could complete it, Ferrelli said.

Police did confirm Aubrey's gun collection included handguns, automatic weapons, assault rifles and ammunition.

Court documents from Aubrey's 2002 divorce state that he had a gun collection worth $3,000. Teresa Paku, Aubrey's ex-wife, said his collection included an AR-15, AK-47, 9mm handgun, shotgun and a "sniper rifle."

The discovery of the cache of weapons and chemicals followed a week that saw a missing persons case become a carjacking, gunfight and, eventually, a murder-suicide, according to authorities.

Police believe that Aubrey killed his wife and later killed himself after a shootout with police.

Police found the body of Erica Marie Aubrey on Friday in a shallow grave near a house the couple owned near Marseilles in LaSalle County. The cause of death was strangulation, a coroner's report said.

The couple lived at the house until April, when a fire occurred there. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Serena Fire Protection District officials said.

Erica Marie Aubrey was reported missing Thursday after she didn't show up for work at the post office in Newark, near Marseilles.

Police questioned Aubrey, a 35-year-old former Yorkville High School student, on Thursday morning, but when they returned Thursday afternoon he was gone. Later, police heard that a man who fit Aubrey's description had carjacked a 1993 Buick Regal in LaSalle County.

That car was found at a Kendall County nursery near routes 34 and 30. Aubrey fled into a cornfield and at some point exchanged gunfire with police.

Aubrey's body was found about 3 a.m. Friday. He had suffered several gunshot wounds on his hands from police fire, authorities said, but an autopsy determined that the shot to the head that killed him was self-inflicted.

The couple's 2-year-old son was unharmed and is staying with relatives, police said.

• Daily Herald staff writer Adam Kovac contributed to this report.

WISTV.com (Columbia, SC)

(Greenville-AP) Sept. 2, 2004 - The FBI is looking for possible links to a package containing ricin found at a Greenville mail center last year and the death of a trucker in Illinois last week.

Police investigating the death of 34-year-old Steven Aubrey in Aurora, Illinois, found castor beans and castor residue in his home. Castor beans can be used to make ricin.

The poison was found in a small vial last October 15th in a Greenville mail center with a note threatening to dump large quantities into water supplies if federal officials didn't repeal a trucking rule.

Officials would not say to whom the envelope was addressed or where it was postmarked. No one was hurt by the poison.

Police think the person who signed the note "Fallen Angel" in the Greenville incident was a trucker.

Aurora police say Aubrey shot himself August 26th after an exchange of gunfire with police. Aubrey had worked as a driver for mail-hauling company.

In January the the FBI announced a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ricin is made from the waste left over from processing castor beans. The CDC says people can breathe in ricin mist or powder and be poisoned.

Depending on the type of exposure, such as injection, the CDC says as little as 500 micrograms of ricin could be enough to kill an adult. That dose would be about the size of the head of a pin.

Ricin is twice as deadly as cobra venom. It can cause fever, cough and chest tightness within eight hours after being ingested or inhaled. Death can come between 36 and 72 hours after exposure. There is no antidote.

The Trucker
Sept. 7, 2004

CHICAGO -- An FBI spokesman said federal investigators found "no evidence of ricin" at the home of a trucker who allegedly strangled his wife before taking his own life in a shootout with police Sept. 1.

Special Agent Ross Rice, an FBI spokesman based in Chicago, said the agency dispatched a hazmat team to the Aurora, Ill., home of Steven Aubrey, a truck driver who also worked as an exotic dancer. Hazmat crew members "found a couple of castor beans, but no evidence of ricin or any evidence it was being made" at Aubrey's home, Rice said.

Once that determination was made, the FBI withdrew from the investigation, Rice added. Aurora police reported finding castor beans inside Aubrey's residence following the fatal shootout.

The Associated Press reported that Erica, 25, was a postal worker at Newark, Ill. She apparently had been strangled and buried prior to the shootout, police said, adding that her body was found in a shallow grave on the couple's property.

Authorities said there is no connection with the Aurora incident or one in which ricin was found at a Greenville mail center in October. Nor, they said, is there a link between the Aubrey investigation and the so-called "Fallen Angel" case.

--By Jerry Breeden

The Trucker Staff

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 23, 2004

A $120,000 reward is being offered by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI and the Transportation Department for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for mailing letters last year containing the deadly poison ricin and a ricin derivative.

A letter containing a small vial of ricin was found Oct. 15, 2003, at a mail processing facility in Greenville, S.C., signed by someone who identified himself as "Fallen Angel." The letter was addressed to the Transportation Department and complained about new trucking regulations that mandated additional rest periods for long-haul truckers. 

Although ricin can be fatal if ingested, inhaled, or injected and there is no known antidote, no was sickened in the incident.

A letter addressed to the White House, intercepted Nov. 6, 2003, contained a small vial of ricin. Bearing a Chattanooga, Tenn., postmark, the letter, like the one from Greenville, was signed by "Fallen Angel."

The White House letter, which threatened to turn the nation's capital "into a ghost town" if the new trucking regulations were not repealed, was discovered by the U.S. Secret Service at an off-site mail processing facility in the District.

A small amount of ricin also was found in February on a mail-opening machine in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican. No envelope or threatening letter was found in that case. The ricin in Mr. Frist's office was described by the FBI as "trace amounts mixed in with paper dust." Forty-three letters eventually were tested for ricin, but proved negative.

The Postal Inspection Service, FBI and Transportation Department initially had offered a $100,000 reward in the case, but recently increased the amount.

Postal inspection authorities said those responsible for the letters may be connected to the trucking or transportation industry, but that any potential leads should be reported. Several truckers and trucking companies questioned the new regulations, saying they resulted in lost wages and reduced productivity because of stricter rest requirements.

The authorities said that on the exterior of the Greenville envelope was a typewritten warning: "Caution RICIN POISON enclosed in sealed container. Do not open without proper protection."

The authorities said the letter identified the sender as "a fleet owner of a tanker company" who had easy access to castor pulp, the source of the ricin. They said the sender warned that if his demand were dismissed, he was capable of making ricin.

"My demand is simple, January 4, 2004, starts the new hours of service for trucks which include a ridiculous ten hours in the sleeper berth. Keep at eight or I will start dumping. You have been warned this is the only letter that will be sent by me."

The authorities said anyone with information should call 866/839-6241.

Ricin is made from processed castor beans and, investigators said, would require a deliberate act to make and use it as a poison.

Authorities also seize pistols and assault weapons from the Ocala waiter, 22.

By Martin E. Comas and Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
Sentinel Staff Writers
The Orlando Sentinel

January 14, 2005

OCALA -- A 22-year-old unemployed waiter appeared before a federal judge Thursday to face charges he manufactured and illegally possessed the deadly biological agent ricin.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones delayed Steven Ekberg's bond hearing until Tuesday to give Ekberg's mother, Theresa Ekberg, time to hire an attorney. Steven Ekberg was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday evening at her home.

In court, Ekberg said he graduated from Forest High School in 2000 and studied at Central Florida Community College in Ocala for a career in law enforcement or as a security guard. State records show he has a concealed-weapons permit.

Ekberg said he is taking anti-depressant medication, including Xanax and Paxil, and receives psychiatric care and counseling.

"Do I feel he's a terrorist? No," said Ekberg's mother said as she left the federal courthouse. "There's no sinister motive behind this."

She said her son enjoys collecting "different and strange things. That's all."

Acting on a tip received by Marion County deputy sheriffs Jan. 1, federal, state and local agents began trailing Ekberg.

On Jan. 7, two undercover agents met Ekberg at the Croc Club lounge in Ocala.

According to sheriff's reports, Ekberg told the agents he usually carries three weapons with him. Ekberg lifted his left pant leg and showed them a .357-caliber Glock handgun in a holster strapped to his ankle.

Ekberg then told them he keeps another gun in his truck. Undercover agents walked outside with Ekberg and arrested him on charges of illegally possessing weapons inside a bar.

Agents also found .45-caliber handgun in his back pocket along with a small amount of cocaine inside a pill box, authorities said. Inside a backpack, agents found several live rounds for the weapons and a notebook with a recipe to manufacture an explosive, according to the sheriff's report.

Ekberg was charged with possession of cocaine, a felony, and a violation of a concealed-weapons permit, a misdemeanor, because he carried a gun into a bar, authorities said.

Later that night, agents searched the home on Southwest 10th Street, where they found several assault weapons, including an AK-47 rifle and an Uzi. All the weapons were seized.

Agents with the Marion County Fire Department's hazardous-materials team found a white powder inside a box at the residence. On Wednesday, a state lab in Jacksonville confirmed the substance was ricin.

At a news conference Thursday, federal agents and sheriff's officials said Ekberg appears to have acted alone.

"We do not feel Mr. Ekberg is associated with any terrorist organization or entity," said Chris Bonner, a senior FBI agent.

Bonner said manufacturing ricin is extremely dangerous if it is inhaled or ingested and can kill a person within hours.

Ricin is a poison that can be extracted from castor beans when castor oil is made. It gave Washington authorities a scare in 2004 when it was found in correspondence mailed to a U.S. senator, and in 2003 to the White House and the federal Department of Transportation.

If convicted, the maximum penalty Ekberg faces is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is being held at the Marion County Jail.

Martin E. Comas can be reached at mcomas@orlandosentinel.comor 352-742-5927. Pedro Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at 407-420-5620 or pruz@orlandosentinel.com.

Friday, January 14, 2005 Posted: 6:48 AM EST (1148 GMT) 

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- An Ocala, Florida, man was arrested by the FBI after they found the biotoxin ricin in his possession in the home he shares with his mother.

Steven Michael Ekberg, 22, had at least 83 castor beans and other byproducts consistent with the manufacture of ricin in his possession, the FBI said.

Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste from processing castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The former waiter also had several weapons, including an AK-47 and an Uzi, the FBI said.

Ekberg was taken into custody Wednesday night.

He is being charged with possession of a biological weapon.

"We are still investigating and are trying to determine what his intentions were, but we have no information that he released it to anyone," said FBI spokesman Jeff Westcott.

"We believe that he acquired the materials over the Internet, but we are still investigating," he said.

In their affidavit, FBI officials said they found a number of seeds in packaging that describes the material as "very poisonous."

They said they also found, in a cardboard box in Ekberg's room, glass vials containing white granules suspected of being husk-less, chopped castor beans, a byproduct of the manufacture of ricin.

The FBI said Ekberg has no known ties to terrorists or extremists.

A hazardous-materials team took the substance to the Florida Health Department laboratory in Jacksonville, where it was confirmed to be ricin, the FBI said.

FBI biohazard teams swept the house to ensure that no one in the neighborhood could become contaminated.

Ekberg was arrested on an unrelated weapons and narcotics charge last weekend by the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

According to the FBI affidavit, an anonymous source now acting as a confidential source called t