Poison letter sent to Barack Obama

PanARMENIAN.Net - A suspicious letter addressed to President Barack Obama and similar to ricin-laced ones sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been intercepted by a White House mail screening facility, the secret service has said, according to Belfast Telegraph.

The letter has been turned over to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday, May 30 that Obama was aware of the letter addressed to him. New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the letters apparently all came from the same machine.

The letters sent to Bloomberg contained an oily pinkish-orange substance. It was not clear if the missive to Obama contained the same substance.

The body of the letter was addressed to "you" and referenced the gun law debate. Kelly said the letters say, in so many words: "Anyone who comes for my guns will be shot in the face." He refused to quote directly from the letters, saying he did not want to do the author's bidding.

Two threatening letters postmarked in Louisiana and containing traces of the deadly poison ricin were sent to Bloomberg in New York and to his gun-control group in Washington, officials said.

Kelly would not comment on the origin of the letter. The postal workers' union, citing information it got in a Postal Service briefing, said the letters bore a Shreveport, Louisiana, postmark.

Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Julie Lewis said state authorities have deferred to the FBI and have not opened an investigation.