SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30, 2008
Man Arrested For Hoax Anthrax Mailings
FBI Warns Some Packages Labeled "Anthrax Sample" Could Still Be In Mail To Media Companies
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A package labeled "anthrax" sits on a counter at the photo desk of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Oct. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
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Breaking news editor Candace Heckman speaks on the phone as she holds a package labeled "anthrax" at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, Oct. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
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Timeline Anthrax In The Mail Key dates in the investigation of the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks
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Interactive Anthrax Follow the search for the anthrax attacker, learn about the bacteria's use as a bio-weapon and find out how you can get infected and what it does to your body.
Marc M. Keyser, 66, sent more than 120 envelopes containing a compact disc that had a packet of sugar labeled "Anthrax Sample" along with a biohazard symbol, the FBI said Wednesday in a news release. The CD was titled "Anthrax: Shock & Awe Terror."
Keyser was taken into custody without incident at his home in Sacramento on three counts of sending a hoax letter, the FBI said. At least some of the packages had Keyser's return address on them, said FBI agent Steve Dupre.
Keyser is being held at the Sacramento County jail and is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday. It wasn't known Wednesday evening whether he had a lawyer.
None of the packets has so far tested positive for a hazardous material, the agency said. Authorities did not say what was on the CD.
More mailings will probably be received over the next few days; recipients should contact their local FBI office, Dupre said.
The investigation began after The Atlantic magazine received a letter Monday, Dupre said. The Charlotte Observer newspaper in North Carolina received an envelope Tuesday.
The letters were received Wednesday by at least one Sacramento television station, The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper and the office of Republican Congressman George Radanovich in Modesto. A McDonald's restaurant in Sacramento also received a package.
Radanovich's office was evacuated early Wednesday after a staffer opened the mailing. Some employees went to a hospital for precautionary examinations and were released with a clean bill of health.
Radanovich spokesman Spencer Pederson said the congressman was at a meeting in Fresno when the package was opened. Pederson said later Wednesday that the office had been cleaned as if the substance were anthrax.
One entrance to the Union-Tribune was closed for part of the afternoon after a large envelope labeled "anthrax" was opened in the newsroom.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newsroom was evacuated briefly Wednesday after an editor opened a package that the FBI says appears to be connected to the other mailings. The Seattle Times reported it received a similar package.
At the Union-Tribune, members of a hazardous materials team, all wearing full protective suits, went into the building to test the package. The Associated Press office in San Diego is also in the building but did not receive a threatening mailing.
Dupre said the arrest is not connected to another series of bogus mailings containing a white powder that were sent to financial institutions and announced by the FBI last week.
Anthrax mailed to congressional offices and others in 2001 killed five people and sickened 17.
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- Is this the same anthrax hoax in which letters were mailed from Amarillo?
- Reply to this comment
- Posted by autumn987 at 10:06 AM : Oct 30, 2008
This poster appears to be a porno/pedophile with delusions of poetic grandeur.
"dances and songs of war babys tortured always turn me on,"
"hike naked dance dressed hike dressed dance naked porn songs,"
"the soldiet girls and soldiet boys of war"
Instead of doing run-on sentences and spamming page after page of commentary with the same stuff day after day, Just speak his/her/its piece and be done with it. I despise show-offs that attempt to confuse or mock their observers for they have neither enlightened nor informed the target audience.
anything published under the following names are from the same source.
"autumn987, brdliky6, leafsntrees, oakishpines" - Reply to this comment
- The dead giveaway for anthrax is that sugar is too..well, BIG to be anthrax. If you look back to the original anthrax (non-hoax) mailings, you''ll see a worker tapping an envelope containing the virus. You can plainly see a white plume puffing out THROUGH the paper with each tap.
- Reply to this comment
- At least some of the packages had Keyser''s return address on them, said FBI agent Steve Dupre.
Smart. very smart! - Reply to this comment
- "I wonder what the motive was?"
Insanity is usually the culprit. - Reply to this comment
- I wonder what the motive was?
- Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
