Envelope Sent To Senator's Office Tests Positive For Ricin Poison Washington (CNN) -- An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was told the letter was addressed to the office of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi. After the envelope tested positive in a first routine test, it was retested two more times, each time coming up positive, the law enforcement source said. The package was then sent to a Maryland lab for further testing. Sen. Claire McCaskill told reporters after a briefing for lawmakers that a suspect has already been identified in the incident. Members will be warning their home-state offices to look out for similar letters, she said. Wicker, the junior senator from Mississippi, has been assigned a protective detail, according to a law enforcement source. Postal workers started handling mail at a site off Capitol Hill after the 2001 anthrax attacks that targeted then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, among others. Senators were told those offices would be temporarily shut down "to make sure they get everything squared away," McCaskill, D-Missouri, said Tuesday afternoon. "The bottom line is, the process we have in place worked," she said. A previous ricin scare hit the Capitol in 2004, when tests identified a letter in a Senate mailroom that served then-Majority Leader Bill Frist's office. The discovery forced 16 employees to go through decontamination procedures, but no one reported any ill effects afterward, Frist said. Ricin is a highly toxic substance derived from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. There is no specific test for exposure and no antidote once exposed. It can be produced easily and cheaply, and authorities in several countries have investigated links between suspect extremists and ricin. But experts say it is more effective on individuals than as a weapon of mass destruction. Ricin was used in the 1978 assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov. The author, who had defected nine years earlier, was jabbed by the tip of an umbrella while waiting for a bus in London and died four days later. Wicker, 61, was first appointed by former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour to the U.S. Senate in December 2007 after the resignation of then-Sen. Trent Lott. He was then elected to the seat in 2008 and won re-election in 2012 to a second term. Before joining the Senate, he held elected office as a U.S. representative in the House from 1995 to 2007. Before that, he served in the Mississippi Senate.
Didn't anthrax get mailed to some member of Congress coinciding with the attack on WT Center? It only gets mailed after one of these incidents. What's up with that?
A letter sent to Obama was being tested for a "suspicious substance". It turned out the letter contained - the US constitution. The letter was promptly discarded.
Overheard at a D.C. area dive bar... Loud drunk guy: "Do you know who I am? Doesn't <b>anybody</b> here at least recognize my fucking face? No?! I'm Tom Daschle Goddamnit, and people used to mail <b>ME</b> envelopes full of poison! Seriously, I used to be someone. Fucking google it if you don't believe me!"
All hands on deck at MSNBC. Suspect is a democrat and a christian. How do we spin this? In terms of his ideology, he writes this under the "Political Views" section of Facebook: "Is facebook.com REALLY a place to advertise our political views? Really...throw me a frickin bone here someone!" But he also posted a picture of himself with his thumb up in front of a bumper sticker reading "Christian and a Democrat." But he is an Elvis impersonator, so maybe they can start there. So, who is Kevin Curtis? To begin with, he "might be better known to some as a celebrity impersonator," says the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger. Curtis, 45 and a resident of Corinth, impersonates 70 celebrity singers, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jon Bon Jovi, Prince, and Kenny Chesney â using the stage name KC. According to his profile on Reverb Nation, Curtis has been performing in Elvis competitions since age 10. And on the entertainment-booking site GigSalad, Curtis says he has a impressive three-octave range and is a seven-time World Finalist at the Memphis-area Elvis impersonation contest "Images of the King."