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Ricin Tainted Letter Sent to Senator and Possibly the President

Posted by Unknown on from the meant-to-use-sugar dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A letter addressed to Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) was tested and found to contain ricin, a highly toxic, inexpensive, and easily produced substance derived from castor beans. The letter was intercepted at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility and nobody has been injured. The letter was postmarked Memphis, Tennessee, but listed no return address. Sen. Claire McCaskill told reporters that a suspect has been identified." And, this morning, a letter addressed to the President was discovered containing a suspicious substance. Update: 04/17 16:25 GMT by U L : And the substance is ricin. Apparently, air filters at another facility have also tested positive for ricin.

4 of 461 comments (clear)

  1. Profile of attacker already available.. by nweaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its someone stupid enough to think a Senator opens his own mail. (Shamelessly stolen from Twitter)

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    Test your net with Netalyzr
  2. Re:Wow ... by cffrost · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I imagine he gets these every single day. It goes with the job.

    Oh, wait, we have to take advantage of the bombings! We're still at war with Eastasia, remember!

    This whole every-aspect-of-our-lives-must-be-in-the-context-of-1984 conspiracy stuff has really gotten out of hand ...

    Has it? I think the actual government-using-1984-as-an-instruction-manual stuff has gotten far more out of hand than your particular gripe.

    --
    Thank you, Edward Snowden.

    "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
  3. Re:There is only one option. by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That... is really not true. A pretty decent chunk of business matters get handled via snail mail (not all or even most by any means, but enough to make it non-negligible). And also, people do still send personal mail (letters and such), as not everyone has internet nor wants to. Call them foolish if you want, but they are still using the service for non-spam reasons.

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    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  4. Re:Here we go again by thomasw_lrd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm truly curious what background check will keep someone from stealing another person's legally obtained weapon?

    Are you suggesting that if you have a family member with issues (I wanted to type "crazy", but that's derogatory IMO) then you shouldn't be able to pass a background check? Where does this kind of logic end and what personal liberties are you willing to forgo to allow a database of this size to happen?

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    21st Century Renaissance Man