WASHINGTON, April 17 (RIA Novosti) – The US capital was on high alert Wednesday after law enforcement authorities said a letter sent to US President Barack Obama has preliminarily tested positive for the deadly poison ricin and that suspicious packages had been removed from the US Senate.
The letter to Obama was intercepted by the US Secret Service at an off-site White House mail facility Tuesday and contained “a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin,” the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told a news conference Wednesday that Obama had been briefed on the development.
The announcements came a day after officials said a letter to US Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, had tested positive for ricin as well and rattled a country already on edge after the deadly blasts at the Boston Marathon on Monday that killed three people and wounded 183 others.
Ricin is made from castor beans and can kill within 36 hours.
The FBI said there is “no indication” that the letters are connected to the Boston bombings, which authorities are investigating as an act of terrorism.
Carney referred questions about the suspicious letters to the FBI. He added that all letters to the US president are screened at an offsite facility to mitigate the risk of a harmful substance reaching the White House.
Sen. Claire McCaskill was quoted by US media as saying that senators were told the letter to Wicker was sent by an individual who “writes to a lot” to federal lawmakers. It was unclear whether the individual was being questioned Wednesday.
The US Capitol police, meanwhile, evacuated people from the Hart Senate Office Building after two suspicious packages were reportedly discovered there.
The individual who delivered the packages to at least two Senate offices was being questioned Wednesday, The Associated Press cited Senate security official Terence Gainer as saying.
US Sen. Carl Levin said Wednesday that staff at his headquarters in his home state of Michigan had also been evacuated after receiving a suspicious letter.
“The letter was not opened, and the staffer followed the proper protocols for the situation, including alerting the authorities, who are now investigating,” Levin said in the statement.
In 2004, the US Senate building was shut down for several days after ricin was discovered in a letter sent to a senator from Tennessee, and shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, letters containing anthrax spores were sent to media outlets and two senators.
Mail for members of Congress and the White House has been handled at off-site facilities since the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Ricin was used in the 1978 murder of Bulgarian dissident and author Georgi Markov. He was jabbed by the tip of an umbrella while waiting for a bus in London and died four days later.
