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The earlier typewritten letters addressed to the White House and Transportation Department warned that more ricin would be used unless new federal trucking regulations were scrapped. The change in 60-year-old rules governing how often truck drivers must rest went into effect Jan. 4.
Three senior federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI and Capitol Police Department were investigating the possibility that the same person or persons sent ricin-laced mail to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Hazardous materials teams from the FBI and Capitol police still searching for a letter or parcel that might have carried the ricin powder, which was found Monday in a mail-sorting room in Frist's personal office. A preliminary examination did not locate such a letter, Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said. The ricin appeared limited to Frist's office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Although three Senate buildings were closed for a second day Wednesday, Frist announced that they would begin opening on Thursday and the Dirksen building on Monday.
The FBI also focused on ricin in its weekly intelligence bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. The confidential bulletin, obtained by The Associated Press, said no threat letter had been found or other type of threat received in the Capitol case. It concentrated mostly on the dangers of ricin and how police should respond to potential contamination.
Gainer said investigators found "no obvious direct connection" between the Frist incident and the letters signed "Fallen Angel." Those letters were discovered in mail facilities that serve the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina and the White House. They were found Oct. 15 and Nov. 12, respectively.
The letters, described as nearly identical, claimed that the author owned a tanker truck fleet company and demanded that hours of service rules for drivers remain unchanged, according to the FBI.
The FBI said the author "claimed to have the ability to make large quantities of ricin and to use this poison," possibly to contaminate water supplies, if the regulations were not repealed prior to Jan. 4. The South Carolina letter had a typewritten warning on the envelope: "Caution RICIN POISON enclosed in sealed container. Do not open without proper protection."
The envelope contained no delivery address and no postmark.
No one has fallen ill as a result of any of the letters. Ricin is a highly toxic substance that is relatively easy to make from castor beans. There is no known antidote but ricin is considered a less effective weapon for causing mass casualties than anthrax, which was mailed to Senate offices in late 2001, because it is more difficult to make airborne and requires inhalation of large quantities to be fatal.
The trucking industry has been working with the FBI and Transportation Department inspector general's office on the investigation. The American Trucking Association has sent several bulletins to its members urging them to be on the lookout for people "displaying aggressive behavior" or engaging in suspicious activity.
One association bulletin asked that members "be alert for either a potential disgruntled trucking company, trucking company employee or person purporting to be from the trucking industry" who has made threats in the past against government agencies.
The regulations at the heart of the "Fallen Angel" letters were four years in the making and drew some 53,000 comments when first proposed, trucking association spokesman Mike Russell said. Many truckers and companies were concerned about lost pay and productivity because of stricter rest requirements.
"It was controversial," Russell said.
While the South Carolina letter's existence was made public shortly after it was found, it wasn't until Tuesday that officials disclosed the existence of the one addressed to the White House. It was intercepted at an offsite mail facility by the Secret Service.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday that a few hours after its discovery, Bush administration Homeland Security officials held a Nov. 13 conference call with the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Postal Service and other agencies to discuss what to do.
Ultimately, the ricin in that letter was deemed to be of a low grade and not a threat to public health, so no announcement was made. President Bush was not immediately informed, McClellan said.
"We share information appropriately, if there is a public health risk," McClellan told reporters.
The al-Qaida terror group has threatened to use ricin, but officials have found no indication that the two "Fallen Angel" letters or the Frist incident are connected to international terrorism.
The FBI has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the "Fallen Angel" case.
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On the Net:
FBI: http://www.fbi.gov
American Trucking Association: http://www.truckline.com
