Barack Obama tileWASHINGTON – Letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator that tested positive for poisonous ricin are related and both are postmarked Memphis, Tenn., the FBI said Wednesday. A senator said police have a suspect in mind. Several other reports of suspicious mail to government officials were being checked.
In an intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI says that letters to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., both say: “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” Both letters are signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”
The activity came as tensions were high in Washington and across the country following the deadly bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170. The FBI said there is no indication of a connection between the letters and the bombing. The letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8, before the marathon.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that police suspect a person who “writes a lot of letters to members.” She made the comment Tuesday as she emerged from a briefing by law enforcement on the Boston bombing. Authorities declined to comment on a suspect.
In addition to the letters, U.S. Capitol police were investigating the discovery of at least three suspicious packages in Senate office buildings.