Postal Unit Warns Finance Firms

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is alerting financial firms of potential danger from a would-be letter bomber after companies in Kansas City, Mo., and Denver were targeted with explosive devices and threatening notes, an agency spokeswoman said Monday.

Working with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the inspection service is trying to obtain contact information for thousands of financial companies to warn them of the threats, spokeswoman Wanda Shipp said.

“The events may be linked, and the recipients were probably not selected at random,” a postal advisory reads.

The government action comes after Stratfor, a global intelligence firm, last week issued a statement warning that pipe bombs addressed to American Century Investment Management Inc. in Kansas City and Janus Capital Group in Denver appeared linked to someone known as “the Bishop,” who has threatened at least six financial firms since 2005.

Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton said the person behind the threats appeared to be on a path to becoming the “next Unabomber,” a reference to Theodore Kaczynski, who killed three people and injured 23 in a 17-year mail-bombing campaign before his arrest in 1996.

Burton said he knew of at least six threats made to financial firms. Others may have been made but not reported, he said.

American Century spokesman Chris Doyle said his company had enhanced security in response to the threat and was considering additional measures.