Agents search Florida mail centre
Pipe bomb investigation widens
MIAMI: Federal agents were searching a US mail facility near Miami yesterday, racing to find who sent 10 pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and critics of United States President Donald Trump as leads pointed to Florida as the packages’ origin.
Investigators were treating the devices as ‘‘live’’ explosives, not a hoax, New York City police commissioner James O’Neill said. Two of the parcels have surfaced in New York since the bomb scare began with a device addressed to billionaire Democratic Party donor George Soros.
A federal law enforcement source said the devices were thought to have been fashioned from bombmaking designs widely available on the internet.
Investigators believe the packages, which were intercepted before reaching their intended recipients, all went through the US Postal Service at some point. None detonated and noone has been hurt.
Authorities have branded the parcel bombs an act of terrorism.
The episode sparked an outcry from Trump’s critics who said his frequent expressions of inflammatory rhetoric against perceived enemies among Democrats and the press was stoking a climate ripe for politically motivated violence.
After first calling for ‘‘unity’’ and civil discourse on Thursday, Trump lashed out again yesterday at the ‘‘hateful’’ media.
A police bomb squad and dog units joined federal investigators yesterday examining a US mail distribution centre at Opa Locka, northwest of Miami, MiamiDade County police said.
The sprawling warehouse, where authorities believe several of the parcels were processed, appeared to remain in operation during the search, with tractortrailer traffic continuing to and from the facility as police were seen walking around the loading docks.
On Thursday, two days after the first package arrived at Soros’ home, the FBI identified five more targets — former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorneygeneral Eric Holder, former CIA director John Brennan and California Representative Maxine Waters.
Brennan’s package was sent in care of the Manhattan bureau of CNN, where he has appeared as an onair analyst.
Yesterday, the investigation widened with the discovery of three additional packages — two intended for former vicepresident Joe Biden in his home state of Delaware and one for Hollywood actor Robert De Niro in Manhattan.
‘‘It does remain possible that further packages have been or could be mailed,’’ William Sweeney, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said.
The FBI said at least five of the packages bore a return address for the Florida office of US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who formerly chaired the Democratic National Committee.
Noone has claimed responsibility for the bombs, and the public was asked to report any tips.
The parcels each consisted of a manila envelope with a bubblewrap interior containing ‘‘potentially destructive devices,’’ the FBI said.
Sweeney said all of the devices were being sent to the FBI’s crime lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis.
Most of the intended recipients were highprofile Democrats and all were known to be outspoken critics of Trump, foils for his political rhetoric or both.
Trump long questioned Obama’s US citizenship and referred to Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 presidential race, as ‘‘crooked Hillary.’’ He has derided Waters publicly as ‘‘lowIQ Maxine’’.
The president revoked Brennan’s security clearance after the exCIA chief, a veteran intelligence official in Democratic and Republican administrations, lambasted Trump’s Russia summit performance as ‘‘nothing short of treasonous.’’
Biden once said he would have fought Trump if they were in high school, while De Niro received a loud ovation when he hurled an obscenity at Trump at the Tony Awards in June. — Reuters