This was in a central Connecticut newspaper.
Walt WA4QXT
NEWINGTON -- An inflammatory letter sent to the American Radio Relay League
headquarters brought in the state police emergency services unit and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation Wednesday, officials said.
Contained in the daily load of mail employees of the Newington-based radio
operators' association picked up at the post office Wednesday morning was a
letter, the text of which threatened government officials and implied a
coming anthrax attack, Newington police Lt. Stephen Clark said.
Despite the threats, officials said no foreign substances were found in the
envelope. Postal inspector Hal Stevens said precautionary tests of the
letter at the state lab in Meriden came up negative for anthrax. With the
negative result, officials said there's no need to test the two ARRL
employees who handled the day's mail, nor the postal workers who may have
come into contact with the letter.
The medium-sized envelope had no return address but was postmarked "San
Antonio, Tex." ARRL vice president Dave Sumner said the envelope was
generically addressed to "American radio," and the typed, unsigned letter
inside it was addressed to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. Sumner
said
the letter appeared to be a mass-produced copy meant for wide distribution.
The letter's typed text contained "threatening remarks toward the
government," Clark said, and contained the phrase "Allah is Great" a number
of times.
At one point the text read, "Your next breath could contain spores."
Although it was clear the letter produced no danger, no one is taking any
chances in the current climate.
"There was absolutely no indications that it contained any substances that
might be harmful, but it was worded in such a way that we thought we should
tell the authorities," Sumner said.
The fire department, state postal inspectors, the state police
chemical-biological response unit, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
were on scene Wednesday afternoon. Officers there contained employees in an
area of the parking lot as a precaution while they disposed of the letter.
Clark said the letter met the warning criteria for suspicious packages put
out by the post office after the anthrax cases began appearing.
With the thousands of letters ARRL receives everyday from all over the
world, however, the task to identify those parcels is daunting.
"This particular one was just one in the pile," Sumner said. "No one
noticed
anything unusual about it. We'll try to be a little more attentive to
prescreening.
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