Lethal Toxin Was Also Sent to White House

A letter containing a vial of ricin, a potentially deadly toxin, was mailed to the White House in November but was intercepted at a mail facility, FBI sources said Tuesday.

The letter, which federal officials disclosed hours after confirming that they had found traces of ricin in a mail-handling area near the Capitol Hill offices of the Senate majority leader, bore similarities to another letter containing a vial of the poison that was found Oct. 15 at a postal facility in Greenville, S.C., the FBI sources said.

The South Carolina case remains unsolved, and the FBI recently posted a $100,000 reward for information leading to arrests. Officials have said that the letter was written by a person claiming to be the owner of a tank-truck company who was upset with new federal regulations limiting the hours that truck drivers can work.

The Secret Service, which deals with threats to the president, apparently delayed notifying other authorities about the White House letter. No arrests have been made in the case, and the investigation is continuing, the FBI sources said.

The similarities between the White House letter and the South Carolina case raise a new avenue for investigators as they attempt to unravel the most recent mystery surrounding the poison -- namely, how it ended up Monday afternoon on a letter-opening machine in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

“We are definitely going to look into comparisons,” one law enforcement official said. But the official and others stressed that, as of late Tuesday, they had not linked the ricin found in Frist’s office to any specific envelope or package, and thus were not in a position to determine whether all the cases might be related.

Terrance W. Gainer, chief of the Capitol Police, said it was not clear whether the ricin had been mailed or had gotten into the mailroom some other way.

“We have an open mind as to the source of this,” Gainer said at a news conference in the Capitol.

The FBI, the Capitol Police and a anti-terrorism task force were handling the investigation into what was assumed to be a deliberate attack.

While saying it was too early to rule out motives, including the possibility of terrorism, investigators said the chemical makeup of the poison, and its history of use, point elsewhere.

“It doesn’t jump out at me as an Al Qaeda plot. We have enough history of domestic loonies using ricin for us to want to look there first,” said a government scientist familiar with the investigation.

Even amateur chemists can manufacture ricin, which is made from crushed castor beans or from the “mash” left over after producing castor oil.

About two dozen Senate staff members who might have been exposed to the toxin were kept isolated until early Tuesday morning and sent home only after they had stripped, showered in a decontamination tent and dressed in disposable jumpsuits. About a dozen Capitol Hill police also were decontaminated.

Other staffers who had left before the ricin was identified were called at home and told to seal into garbage bags, for collection by hazardous materials teams, everything they were wearing or carrying when they left Capitol Hill.

Well past the usual four to eight hours between exposure to ricin and the development of symptoms, no one had complained of the shortness of breath, coughing, nausea or fever that is typical of exposure to inhaled ricin, according to John Eisold, the Capitol physician.

Nevertheless, public tours of Capitol Hill were canceled. All three Senate office buildings, including the Dirksen Building, where the ricin was discovered, were closed, and hazardous materials teams combed them for signs of more dangerous substances. Senators said they expected the offices to remain closed for the rest of the week. Tours will be canceled again today.

By Tuesday evening, tests of air-conditioning and heating systems were completed, and nothing dangerous was found.

But Capitol Police warned in a letter to lawmakers and their staffs that they should not “move, open or otherwise handle” mail. All mail deliveries were suspended indefinitely, and the Capitol Police said they would confiscate mail that had already been delivered.

In the Capitol about two blocks away, the Senate was able to resume debate of a giant highway bill, and the House conducted business as usual.

Frist and Gainer told reporters that the powdery substance was found in a mail-sorting area next to a stack of recently opened letters. The area is used primarily by Senate staff members.

The substance had not initially been linked to a specific piece of mail, Frist and Gainer said, and officials were trying to determine whether it had been mailed in an envelope to Frist.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Frist told senators that the quality of the ricin and the way that it was processed indicated that the sender was not an amateur. “Somebody knew what they were doing,” Graham said.

The ricin discovery, and the steps taken in its aftermath, reminded lawmakers of how things had changed since anthrax spores were mailed to two senators in October 2001, in an act of bioterrorism that has never been solved. It also underscored the impossibility of completely guarding against such attacks and their capacity for shutting down normal life.

A tired-looking Frist told the news conference that “processes” put in place after the anthrax scare “are working very well.”

“We’ve come a long way since anthrax, the really first bioterror assault in this country, occurred,” he said. “Things are going very well, not perfectly, but very, very well.”

The discovery, however, exposed the limits of elaborate precautions instituted after the anthrax scare to screen Capitol Hill mail before it reaches lawmakers’ offices.

Since 2001, each envelope is irradiated, a corner of it is clipped and it is shaken at an off-site U.S. postal facility before being carried to Capitol Hill mailrooms, one Senate security official said.

But such safeguards cannot render harmless ricin, an inert substance that cannot be “killed” by irradiation, or other similar substances, he said.

“It shows a loophole,” said Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.). “Some nut case was smart enough to figure out they can send one letter to one senator” and disrupt the work of Congress.

This time, Breaux said, “it’s less fear and more aggravation” than during the anthrax scare. He defied orders to stay out of his office, going back to feed his goldfish.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the lack of panic was understandable.

“Been there, done that,” Feinstein said. “All of us since the anthrax attack have known that this could well happen again. You sort of adjust to the reality of the day, unfortunately.”

The episode, she said, had made her more aware of such things as “what you carry with you.” The key to her Capitol hideaway, a private office, was left behind in her off-limits office, Feinstein said.

Some senators complained that they learned of the suspected ricin discovery by watching television Monday night. Senate officials said senators were supposed to have been notified by e-mail messages to their hand-held communications devices, but that the message was delivered by accident only to senior staff.

Lawmakers must consider whether they want to institute even more strict safety measures, such as those used at the White House and the Supreme Court, where all mail is removed from envelopes at an off-site location.

Such a step might be resisted by lawmakers, who see constituent mail as a crucial part of staying in touch with voters. More careful screening would probably slow the flow of input from constituents, lobbyists and political supporters.

Officials in Connecticut said that a granular substance had been found at a Wallingford postal facility in an envelope addressed to the Republican National Committee. Tests were being conducted on the gray powder and results were expected today.

“At this point in time, we do not know what substances the powder may contain, and there is no information at this time to connect this substance to the reports of ricin found in Washington, D.C.,” Dr. J. Robert Galvin, state health commissioner, told Associated Press. Initial tests were negative, officials said.

Times staff writers Janet Hook and Josh Meyer contributed to this report.