Senator: Police have suspect in ricin mailing

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2009, file photo Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Reid said Tuesday, April 16, 2013, that letter with ricin or another poison was sent to Wicker. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Police have a suspect in mind as they investigate a letter mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker that tested positive for poisonous ricin, a Senate colleague said.

"The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Tuesday as she emerged from a classified briefing.

Authorities declined to comment on a suspect or any other aspect of the investigation being led by Capitol Police and the FBI after tests indicated that a letter mailed to the Mississippi Republican's Washington office contained the potentially deadly toxin. The letter was intercepted at a Senate mail facility in Prince George's County, Md., just outside Washington, said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate's Democratic leadership.

The letter's discovery shook the U.S. Capitol, where several events were canceled Tuesday in response to Monday's Boston bombing that killed three people, injured more than 170 and ignited fresh fears of terrorism. There was no evidence of a connection between the two events.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said initial field tests on the substance produced mixed results and it was undergoing further analysis at a laboratory. Only after that testing could a determination be made about whether the substance was ricin, Bresson said.

Capitol Police spokesman Shennell S. Antrobus said police were notified that the mail facility had received "an envelope containing a white granular substance."

"The envelope was immediately quarantined by the facility's personnel and USCP HAZMAT responded to the scene," Antrobus said. "Preliminary tests indicate the substance found was ricin. The material is being forwarded to an accredited laboratory for further analysis."

One congressional official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation wasn't concluded, said evidence of ricin appeared on two preliminary field tests.

Antrobus said operations at the Capitol complex had not been affected by the investigation.

Terrance Gainer, the Senate's sergeant-at-arms, said the envelope bore a Memphis, Tenn., postmark but had no return address or suspicious markings.

Mail from a broad swath of northern Mississippi, including Tupelo, Oxford and DeSoto County, is processed and postmarked in nearby Memphis, according to a Postal Service map. The Memphis center also processes mail for residents of Western parts of Tennessee and eastern Arkansas.

Gainer told Senate offices there is "no indication that there are other suspect mailings."

But in an email to Senate offices, he urged caution and said the mail facility where the initial tests were performed will be closed for a few days while the investigation continues.

"Our primary concern right now is the safety of our employees, the safety of our customers and the safety of the U.S. mail," Postal Service spokeswoman Patricia Licata said.

She said the agency is working with health and law enforcement officials but didn't answer a question about whether any employee had been exposed to the substance found on the letter.

Among senators there was a mix of apprehension and appreciation that security protocols — put into place after anthrax mail attacks following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — seemed to work.

The 2001 anthrax-laced letters appeared in post offices, newsrooms and the offices of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Two Senate office buildings were closed during that investigation. Overall, five people died and 17 others became ill. The FBI attributed the attack to a government scientist who committed suicide in 2008.

"Luckily, this was discovered at the processing center off premises," Durbin said. He said all mail to senators is "roasted, toasted, sliced and opened" before it ever gets to them.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said it was clear the revised mail screening system had worked as it should.

"It was caught in a way that did no damage, so I'm not obsessively concerned," Levin said.

Sen. Jeff Flake called the letter "a big concern, obviously, for all of us." The Arizona Republican described senators as "very anxious to get more details."

Wicker was appointed to the Senate in 2007 before winning a full term last year. He previously was a House member for 12 years. He is viewed as a solid conservative.

Milt Leitenberg, a University of Maryland bioterrorism expert, said ricin is a poison derived from the same bean that makes castor oil. According to a Homeland Security Department handbook, ricin is deadliest when inhaled. It is not contagious, but there is no known antidote.

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Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew Miga, Seth Borenstein, Eric Tucker, Eileen Sullivan, Pete Yost and Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Emily Wagster Pettus and Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.

Reports: Investigators arrest Boston Marathon bombing suspect

After two seemingly fruitless days, police reportedly may have found a suspect

Two days after improvised explosives rocked the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring at least 170 more, investigatorshave reportedly arrested a suspect in the attack.

CNN, the Boston Globe, and the Associated Press report that a suspect is in custody. However, NBC and CBS maintain that no one has been arrested.

Multiple news reports early Wednesday afternoon said surveillance footage obtained by investigators showed what they believe is the suspected attacker carrying and planting a backpack at the site of the second explosion.

According to the Boston Globe, citing an official familiar with the investigation, investigators believe they are "very close" to cracking the case. That official added that authorities may announce their findings as soon as this afternoon.

A press conference is already scheduled for 5 p.m. tonight.

According to CNN, surveillance footage obtained by police led to the reported breakthrough. FromCNN's Tom Watkins:

The breakthrough came from analysis of video from a department store near the site of the second explosion. Video from a Boston television station also contributed to the progress, said the source, who declined to be more specific but called it a significant development.

On Tuesday, investigators revealed that they believed the improvised explosives used in the attack were shrapnel-laden pressure cookers stuffed into backpacks.

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What It Means to Call It 'Terrorism'

President Obama

The word "terrorism" is now officially attached to the Boston Marathon bombing, afterPresident Obama used the word Tuesday morning in his address from the White House.

"This was a heinous and cowardly act. And given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism," Obama said. "Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror. What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why."

It was the first time Obama had used that language about the boming.

On Monday, when he addressed the nation for the first time after two bombs exploded in Boston, Obama spoke in measured, deliberate tones about his conversations with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, and he sternly vowed justice for whoever was responsible, but he didn't use the word "terrorism."

Soon after, a White House official told ABC News that any bombing of this kind would be considered an act of terrorism. Senators on the Homeland Security Committee said the attacks bore the hallmarks of terrorism, and Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told ABC News: "It is a terrorist incident."

Following the president's lead, Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., shied away from the "T" word, saying on the House floor before a moment of silence that "Whatever it was, it was a terrible tragedy … no matter how you measure it."

Regardless of why Obama waited a day to call the attacks "terrorism," what makes something a terrorist event?

According to David Gomez, a former FBI counterterrorism official, Justice Department protocol automatically classifies bombings of this nature as terrorism cases, partly for jurisdictional purposes: Until deemed otherwise, the FBI (and not Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) handles bombings as terrorism investigations.

"There's a number of different definitions for 'terrorism.' There's the academic definition, and there are the legal definitions, and then there's the one that's used by the FBI, which kind of straddles both," Gomez told ABC News. "The FBI uses a definition that talks about coercing the civilian population or the government … through violence. … It's an attempt to change their minds about certain things."

A former senior assistant special agent-in-charge for counter-terrorism and intelligence at the FBI's Seattle Field Office, Gomez said the word "terrorism" carries political connotations about a perpetrator's motive. Newtown, Conn., shooter Adam Lanza, for instance, was not a terrorist because he wasn't trying to communicate a message to the public or the government.

"He was sending a message, but it wasn't about politics. It was about his own mental illness," Gomez said.

Under Gomez's definition, the Boston attacks will be aptly deemed "terrorism" if the assumed motives of public intimidation are found to be correct.

"For example, what if the guy who [placed] the bomb was trying to murder a specific person in the race?" Gomez asked. "That's not terrorism - he was not trying to send a message or influence policy."

Forensic investigators don't think about the word, Gomez told ABC.

"The guys at the crime scene don't care what label you put on it," Gomez said. "They're concerned with solving a specific crime, and that's bombing and murder."

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Iraq executes 21 men convicted of terrorism

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq has executed 21 prisoners convicted on terrorism charges and links to al-Qaida, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday, setting off fresh criticism from a human rights expert over Baghdad's insistence on enforcing capital punishment.

The prisoners were executed by hanging in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website. All the convicts were Iraqi al-Qaida operatives who were involved in bombings, car bomb attacks and assassinations, the statement said.

The hangings brought the number of prisoners executed in Iraq so far this year to 50, according to Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim. The latest group was the biggest this year, Ibrahim added.

According to the London-based Amnesty International, Iraq ranked fourth among the top five executioners in the world in 2011, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Last year Iraq executed 129 people, triggering concerns among rights groups over whether defendants had received fair trials.

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, coalition officials suspended Iraq's death penalty, but it was reinstated in 2004 by Iraq's transitional government. Since 2005, Iraq's government has executed 422 people, including women and foreigners convicted on terrorism charges.

Erin Evers, a Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the number of those executed and the timing of the latest announcement were cause for concern. On Saturday, Iraqis vote in local elections, the country's first vote since the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces in December 2011.

The country has seen intensifying violence in recent weeks, some of it directly related to the elections, in an apparent attempt by insurgent to derail the voting. On Monday, at least 55 people were killed in a wave of bombings and other killings across the country.

"The fact that this they announced this huge number (of executions) just after the attacks and just before elections is raising questions about what their motives are," Evers told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Nine people were killed and 32 were wounded in four separate attacks in Iraq on Wednesday.

In one attack, gunmen in two SUVs opened fire early in the morning on a military checkpoint in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing two soldiers and wounding five, a police officer said. Another police officer said a parked car bomb went off shortly afterward in another part of Abu Ghraib, killing two civilians and wounding six people.

Around noon, a parked car bomb exploded in a commercial area in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Jihad, killing three civilians and wounding 12. In a Baghdad southeastern suburb, a Sunni lawmaker escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy. Three of his guards were wounded.

In the western Anbar province, police said a bomb attached to a car exploded in a parking lot near the main Sunni protest area on a highway near the provincial capital, Ramadi, killing two people and wounding six others.

Members of Iraq's Sunni minority have been staging weekly rallies to protest perceived second class treatment by the Shiite-led government.

After sunset, police said gunmen assassinated a judge, Maarouf Ahmed, in a drive-by shooting in the western city of Fallujah.

Medical officials confirmed the causalities in Wednesday's attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

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Why do we know so little about what happened in Boston?

The FBI says "the range of suspects and motives remains wide open"

For a crime that was so well-documented, we know very little about what actually happened at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. "At this time there are no claims of responsibility," FBI officials told a press conference on Tuesday, according to Fox News. "The range of suspects and motives remains wide open."

In his Monday address to the nation, President Obama listed everything we don't know about the attacks:

What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual... We do not know who did them. We do not know whether this was an act of an organization or an individual or individuals. We don't have a sense of motive yet. So everything else at this point is speculation. [White House]

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Such a wealth of digital information, provided by smartphone-wielding citizens, didn't exist a decade ago. Yet, as CNN's Holly Yan and Matt Smith point out, we had a much better grasp of things in the aftermath of tragic events that happened in the pre-iPhone age: "Within a day of the Oklahoma City bombing, officials had named their suspect: Timothy McVeigh. Within two days of the 9/11 attacks, investigators had zeroed in on al Qaeda as the perpetrator."

What is the holdup?

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One problem is that the bombs used were so simple, made with pressure cookers filled with metal shards, ball bearings, and nails. These kinds of bombs have been used all over the world, from the 2006 Mumbai train attacks to the foiled bomb attack in Times Square in 2010. Instructions for how to build them can be found easily online.

The ease of making a pressure-cooker bomb makes the job of forensics teams that much more difficult. The fact that almost all of the ingredients used to make the explosives are, on their own, hardly worth remembering, make it less likely that they can be traced back to a seller.

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Combing through the debris from the explosions will also be difficult. According to Boston police commissioner Edward F. Davis, investigators are dealing with "the most complex crime scene we've dealt with in the history of our depart­ment." As Maria Sacchetti notes in The Boston Globe, thousands of people were streaming through that stretch of Boylston Street — one of the city's busiest thoroughfares even when it isn't doubling as the finish line of the Boston Marathon — before the explosions took place.

Right now, the FBI is asking people to email them any potentially helpful photos or video. Obtaining footage will be easy. Sorting through it will be the hard part.

SEE MORE: The Boston Marathon tragedy: Honoring the three people killed

A similar process took place in Vancouver when fans rioted after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup in 2010. It took 42 people two weeks to sift through 5,000 hours of collected footage to finger the people responsible for the destruction. "Considering the size of the Boston Marathon and the growing prevalence of smartphone video cameras, the raw volume of footage after this tragedy could be much larger," writes Matt Stroud of The Verge.

Grant Fredericks, a former coordinator of the Vancouver Police Department's forensic video unit, tells Bloomberg, "I can guarantee this: There is a lot of video of the person or persons who planted those bombs."

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That footage, paired with remnants of the bombs and the bags that carried them, could be the key to discovering who detonated the explosives that killed three people and injured at least 176 more.

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