|
| A Prince George's County, Md. firefighter dressed in a protective suit walks into a government mail screening facility in Hyattsville, Md., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Police swept across the U.S. Capitol complex to chase a flurry of reports of suspicious packages and envelopes Wednesday after preliminary tests indicated poisonous ricin in two letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator. |
OXFORD, Miss.
(AP) -- A Mississippi man was arrested Wednesday, accused of sending
letters to President Barack Obama and a senator that tested positive for
poisonous ricin and set the nation's capital on edge a day after the
Boston Marathon bombings.
Paul Kevin Curtis,
45, was arrested at 5:15 p.m. at his apartment in Corinth, near the
Tennessee state line about 100 miles east of Memphis, said FBI Special
Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen. It wasn't immediately known where he
was being held.
Authorities still waited for
definitive tests on the letters to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Preliminary field tests can often show false positives for ricin. The
letters were intercepted before reaching the White House or Senate.
Ricin is derived from the castor plant that makes castor oil. There is
no antidote and it is at its deadliest when inhaled.
An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press said the two letters were postmarked Memphis, Tenn.
Both
letters said: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent
partner to its continuance." Both were signed, "I am KC and I approve
this message."
As authorities scurried to
investigate three questionable packages discovered in Senate office
buildings, reports of suspicious items also came in from at least three
senators' offices in their home states.
Sen.
Carl Levin said a staff member at his Saginaw, Mich., office would spend
the night in a hospital as a precaution after discovering a suspicious
letter. The staff member had no symptoms, Levin said in a statement. He
expected to learn preliminary results of tests on the letter by
Thursday.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said
suspicious letters at his Phoenix office had been cleared with nothing
dangerous found. A package at Sen. John Cornyn's Dallas-area office also
was declared harmless.
All three packages in the Capitol complex turned out to be safe, Capitol police spokeswoman Makema Turner said late Wednesday.
Senate
Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer said that an individual who was
responsible for the suspicious packages in the Hart and Russell Senate
office buildings on Tuesday was detained and released on Wednesday. The
packages were not hazardous.
Gainer said the man was "not particularly harmful, although terribly disruptive."
All
the activity came as tensions were high in Washington and across the
country following Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed
three people and injured more than 170. The FBI said there was no
indication of a connection between the letters and the bombing. The
letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8, before the
marathon.
Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney,
said mail sent to the White House is screened at a remote site for the
safety of the recipients and the general public. He declined to comment
on the significance of the preliminary ricin result, referring questions
to the FBI.
Capitol Police swiftly ramped up
security, and lawmakers and staff were cautioned away from some parts of
the Hill complex. After hours of jangled nerves, officials signaled it
was safe to move throughout the area and people settled back to normal,
if watchful, activity.
At a House hearing,
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe noted there had been ricin alerts
since the notorious 2001 anthrax mailings and procedures are in place to
protect postal employees and help track down culprits.
"Over
the course of years we've had some situations where there have been
ricin scares," Donahoe said.
"Until this date, there's never been any
actually proved that have gone through the system."
Wicker
in a written statement thanked the FBI and U.S. Capitol Police for
"their professionalism and decisive action in keeping our family and
staff safe from harm."
Even during the flurry
of concern, normal business continued across most of the Capitol and its
office buildings, with tour groups passing through and visitors
streaming in and out of Wicker's office.
Amy
Keough of Stow, Mass., and her family were searching for an open
entrance to the Russell Senate Office building and walked by a U.S.
Capitol Police hazardous materials vehicle. The Keoughs had been
visiting Washington for several days, but Monday's marathon bombing was
on their minds.
"We don't know really what it
is that's going on," Keough said. "We're from Massachusetts, so right
now anything is possible, with all the events in Boston."
