U.S. nerves frayed amid Boston bombing, ricin letters sent to White House

WASHINGTON – Despite reports investigators were closing in on a Boston bombing suspect, America’s frayed nerves found little in the way of relief Wednesday as news emerged of a poison-laced letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama.

The FBI said there was nothing to suggest any link between the letter, which tested positive for the deadly poison ricin, and the bombings that killed three people and injured nearly 180 others Monday at the Boston Marathon.

But in an indication of the public appetite in the U.S. for a break in the bombing investigation, which involves hundreds of law enforcement officials and various federal, state and local agencies, information was being leaked to various media outlets at a furious pace.

At one point mid-afternoon, The Associated Press cited anonymous law enforcement officals as saying investigators had a suspect in their sights and an arrest was imminent. Other officials immediately shot down that report.

A handful of news outlets said investigators had identified a suspect from a surveillance video provided to them by a Lord and Taylor store located between the sites of the two explosions that rocked Boston two days ago.

CBS News, meantime, reported that the bomber was on the phone when he dropped off a second backpack containing a bomb near the finish line. Citing law enforcement officials, the network reported cellphone records resulted in the suspect’s identification.

It was all sickly familiar to the tense, nerve-wracking atmosphere in the United States in the days following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when traumatized Americans grappled with the aftermath of the worst such attack on U.S. soil.

At the same time, political offices in Washington found themselves on the receiving end of deliveries that contained anthrax spores. The perpetrator was later discovered to be unrelated to the 9-11 culprits.

The bombings, about 10 seconds and 90 metres apart, showered bystanders with nails, ball bearings and other shards of metal that had been packed into at least one kitchen pressure cooker and detonated at the finish line.

The blasts tore the limbs off some victims and left a downtown Boston street soaked with blood.

The explosions propelled shrapnel so far that police were collecting fragments from rooftops along the marathon’s route on Wednesday. The lid of a pressure cooker was reportedly among the rooftop debris recovered on Tuesday.

In a jittery U.S. capital, meantime, authorities revealed that Obama is the second politician to be sent ricin in a letter postmarked Memphis. A Republican senator from Mississippi was also sent a letter, which was intercepted at an off-site Capitol Hill mail facility.

The newest letters touched off a scare in the U.S. capital. They read, in part, “to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” The letters were signed “KC, and I approve this message.”

Reports of suspicious packages and envelopes were also made in two Senate office buildings late Wednesday morning.

Police cleared out the first floor of one Senate building for more than an hour and questioned a man carrying a backpack with sealed envelopes. He didn’t end up being taken into custody.