'Fallen Angel' links Greenville, D.C. ricin cases

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Ed Cogswell, a spokesman for the FBI's national office, confirmed that the letter sent to the White House carried similar threats and protests over a new federal trucking rule found in a letter delivered to the mail center serving the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.

The letter to the White House was postmarked in Chattanooga, according to a law enforcement official who did not want to be identified. The letter found in Greenville did not have a postmark, officials have said.

Officials said it is possible someone delivered the envelope to the postal center in Greenville, which is a sorting facility for mail going to and from the airport and not open to the public.

The FBI has administered polygraph tests to postal workers and truckers who have used the facility, the president of the local postal workers union told The Greenville News last year. Authorities did not disclose the Greenville ricin, which is more deadly than nerve gas, to the public for a week after the envelope was found, The News reported in October.

The substance was inside a metal vial and the envelope carried warnings of poison inside and a typewritten letter threatening to use large quantities of the poison if a new federal rule requiring more rest for truckers was not repealed. The rule went into effect Jan. 4.

Postal authorities did not contact law enforcement in the Greenville case for 11 hours. And they waited five days before sending the vial to a federal agency in Atlanta to be tested, The News reported. Postal officials kept the facility open, continuing to process as many as 20,000 pieces of mail a day for nationwide distribution. They closed it a week later after tests confirmed the vial contained ricin.

Similarly, federal authorities in November decided not to tell the public about the ricin found at the White House.

Cogswell said the letter addressed to the White House, intercepted off-site, was not publicly disclosed until this week for investigative reasons.

"At that time it didn't pose a health risk," he said. "Secondly, the general information we were looking at in order to identify the suspect was already out there so there was no benefit in putting this information out there at that time."

Following disclosures by The News, lawmakers said they weren't satisfied with the way the Greenville incidents were handled. In December, the paper reported that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said it was clear some of the officials involved in the handling of the substance at the postal center did not understand guidelines for responding to potential acts of bio-terrorism. He said officials with the Office of Homeland Security assured him the response procedures would be changed as a result.

When the substance was found Monday in the office of U.S. Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, police responded immediately by testing the substance, closing the floor and decontaminating workers. Officials later that night closed the postal facility responsible for processing the Capitol's mail. Three Senate office buildings were closed as well.

Though there have been no arrests, Cogswell said the investigation is "active, thriving." In recent weeks the FBI has offered a $100,000 reward and distributed fliers in the Greenville area.

"When a person attempts to conceal their identity and also make these threats, it's difficult," he said. "How many millions of people are in this country? It takes some time for investigators to identify and provide enough information in order to prosecute the individual. "

Ricin, derived from the castor bean plant, has been identified as a tool for terrorists because it can be lethal if inhaled, ingested or injected. There is no known antidote.

Investigators have not yet determined the source of the ricin found in the mailroom of Frist, Cogswell said. The discovery resulted the decontamination of at least 16 people. No one has been reported ill as a result of the powder, which was found on a mail-opening machine.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday that on Nov. 13, the day after the White House letter was intercepted at the mail-sorting facility used for the president's mail, federal Homeland Security officials held a conference call with the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Postal Service and other agencies to discuss what to do.

Ultimately, he said, the ricin in that letter was deemed to be of a low potency and not a threat to public health, so no public disclosure was made. President Bush was not immediately told, McClellan said, according to a transcript of the briefing.

"We obviously take public health risk very seriously," he told reporters. "And if there's information that needs to be shared, we share it appropriately. I think you see that by what we have done to act on other threats that we face. There are a number of threats that we face in this day and age. They are from criminal acts to terrorist acts."

Graham said he was not aware until Wednesday that a ricin-laced letter similar to the Greenville note had been sent to the White House. He said keeping such an incident from the public is consistent with the Secret Service's policy not to disclose threats against the president.

He said while he believes the White House and Greenville incidents are tied, he doesn't believe police will find a link with either to the Senate ricin.

"I think the likelihood of the Fallen Angel being the same person is great," he said. "The likelihood those two episodes are related to a disgruntled, disturbed person is great. I'm not so sure you can connect the two events with what happened here in the Senate."

Graham said the ricin discovery has been an inconvenience but has not distracted lawmakers from fighting terrorism.

"People feel frustrated," he said. "But it's a pretty resolved group here. We know it's a part of modern life in terms of what we'll have to deal with for the foreseeable future."

U.S. 4th District Rep. Jim DeMint of Greenville said a link between the ricin incidents could offer some comfort. "We don't want it to be another group of persons," he said. "If it's just one person, it's a more limited threat and hopefully by catching that one person we can shut the whole problem down."

DeMint said while lawmakers want to re-examine their mail system as a result of the ricin discovery, many view it more as a nuisance than a danger.

"It's business as usual," he said. "I've been with people all day and ricin hasn't come up one time." One of the closed Senate buildings is expected to open today, another Friday and the third - where the poison was discovered - on Monday.

Police are collecting all unopened mail in the Capitol to check for ricin. Cogswell said the agency is not aware of any other ricin letters or threats related to the trucking rule.