Clearly, terrorism (undetermined yet if it’s domestic, foreign or now a mixture of both) has returned to centerstage in the United States: a poison letter has been sent to President Barack Obama:
Authorities have intercepted a letter to the White House that tested positive for ricin poison, according to multiple media reports.
The Secret Service has acknowledged the letter addressed to President Obama contained a suspicious substance but has not stated it was ricin, a deadly poison.
On Tuesday, lawmakers revealed that a letter addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) had tested positive for the poison.
The Secret Service said the letter was sent to Obama on April 16 and was discovered at an remote White House mail screening facility.
“This facility routinely identifies letters or parcels that require secondary screening or scientific testing before delivery,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “The Secret Service White House mail screening facility is a remote facility, not located near the White House complex, that all White House mail goes through.”
And there is reportedly a sense of deja vu about this letter:
Fox News reported that like the letter to Wicker, the letter to Obama was sent from Memphis, Tenn. Fox News said the letters to Obama and Wicker contained similar language and are signed identically.
News of the letters comes just days after two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in a terrorist attack that killed three people and injured more than 170. Government officials have not linked the two events.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.