Mail-bomb scare widens
Suspicious packages addressed to former VP Biden, actor De Niro intercepted
The mail-bomb scare widened Thursday as law enforcement officials seized three more suspicious packages — two addressed to former VicePresident Joe Biden and one to actor Robert De Niro — as part of a sprawling investigation into a plot that appears to be aimed at targets of conservative anger.
The new devices were described as similar to crude pipe bombs sent to former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and CNN. They brought to at least 10 the number of suspicious packages intercepted by authorities this week. Each was addressed to a prominent critic of President Donald Trump.
Much was publicly unknown about the devices, including how they were delivered and why none had exploded. Authorities have said nothing about possible motives or suspects. Details suggest only a broad pattern— that the items were packaged in manila envelopes and addressed to prominent Democrats. Some were discovered in mail processing facilities.
The packages heightened nationwide tensions and fears two weeks before major congressional midterm elections. Even with the sender still unknown, politicians from both parties used the moment to decry a toxic political climate and lay blame.
“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,” Trump said in a morning Tweet.
“It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media
must clean up its act, FAST!”
Former CIA Director John Brennan, the target of one package sent to CNN, fired back.
“Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror,” Brennan tweeted. “Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act .... try to act Presidential.”
The list of bombing targets spread from New York, Delaware and Washington, D.C., to Florida and California.
The explosive devices were packed in envelopes with bubble-wrap interiors bearing six stamps and the return address of Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee who was accused by Clinton rivals of secretly helping the party’s eventual presidential nominee.
The bombs seized
Wednesday, each with a small battery, were about six inches long and packed with powder and broken glass, according to a law enforcement official who viewed X-ray images. The official said the devices were made from PVC pipe and covered with black tape.
The packages discovered Thursday set off a new wave of alarm.
Two officials told The Associated Press that a person working at De Niro’s Manhattan office called police after seeing images of a package bomb sent to CNN and recalling a similar package addressed to the actor.
De Niro’s office is located in the TriBeCa Film Center in lower Manhattan, and also includes an upscale restaurant and private screening room.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the packages were
“clearly an effort to terrorize people politically, to choose people for political purposes and attack them because of their beliefs.”
The packages addressed to Biden were intercepted at Delaware mail facilities in New Castle and Wilmington, according to a law enforcement official who, like others, wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Like earlier targets, both Biden and De Niro have been sharply critical of Trump.
The actor dropped an expletive insult at Trump at this year’s Tony Awards and also apologized to Canadians for the “idiotic behaviour of my president.”
Biden said last week that the president may not “know what he’s doing” and coddles dictators.