18 U.S. embassies, 40 U.S. governors' offices mailed envelopes with white powder

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. embassies in Prague and Tokyo have received envelopes with apparently harmless white powder, bringing the total number of U.S. missions targeted in the case to 18, officials said Thursday.



"Eighteen embassies, US embassies have received envelopes containing white powder. The new ones to the list from (Wednesday) are Prague and Tokyo," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.



The State Department said Wednesday that envelopes with white powder were mailed to U.S. embassies in Berlin, Berne, Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Luxembourg, Madrid, Oslo, Paris, Reykjavik, Riga, Rome, Stockholm, Tallinn and The Hague.



"Thus far the tests, the results that we have received back from all the affected embassies have come back negative for any sort of... harmful pathogens or anything harmful," McCormack said.



The U.S. embassy's consulate building in Bucharest was temporarily closed to the public Tuesday and reopened the same afternoon, while the U.S. embassy's consulate building in Rome was closed Wednesday and Thursday, McCormack said. "I expect that (the consulate in Rome) will reopen for regular business soon," he added.



The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting the investigation into the mailings, said that similar envelopes with white powder were also received at more than 40 U.S. governors' offices.



The contents initially tested negative, but more tests were planned, it said.



The FBI's Dallas office said the letters were all similar, post-marked from Texas, with the earliest sent on December 8.



The FBI said on December 10 that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, and seven other U.S. governors had received letters with a suspicious white powder.



It said the letters were also sent to governors' offices in Rhode Island, Michigan, Mississippi, Alabama, Minnesota, Montana, and Missouri.



"Sending a hoax letter is serious and can have severe consequences. This is a great drain on each city's response teams," according to the FBI statement on Wednesday.



In 2001 letters containing anthrax killed five people and spread panic. Since then, police and fire officers have been called out to investigate suspicious mailings across the country - most of them harmless, the AP reports.