Washington: The FBI says preliminary tests on a letter sent to President Barack Obama indicate the presence of poisonous ricin. The letter is undergoing further testing because preliminary field tests can be unreliable, creating false positives.
The letter was intercepted at a facility away from the White House. It comes the day after officials said a letter sent to Sen Roger Wicker tested positive for poisonous ricin.
That letter to Wicker, a Republican, was intercepted at a Senate mail facility just outside Washington. The FBI says there is no indication of a connection to the bombing at Monday's Boston Marathon.
The letter to Obama arrived Tuesday and was intercepted at a facility away from the White House, said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan. Tensions have been high in Washington and across the country since the deadly bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170.
Sen Claire McCaskill has said authorities have a suspect in mind in that case, though no one has been charged. "The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members," Sen Claire McCaskill, D-Mo, said Tuesday as she emerged from a classified briefing.
Authorities declined to comment on a suspect or any other aspect of the investigation being led by Capitol Police and the FBI. The letter was intercepted at a Senate mail facility in Prince George's County, Md, just outside Washington, said Illinois Sen Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate's Democratic leadership.
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