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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, October 26, 2018 3A
Investigators dig for bomb motive
ABC NEWS I Associated Press
This image obtained Wednesday, Oct. 24, and provided by ABC News shows a package addressed to former
CIA head John Brennan and an explosive device that was sent to CNN’s New York office. The mail-bomb scare
widened Thursday as law enforcement officials seized more suspicious packages.
BY MICHAEL BALSAMO,
COLLEEN LONG
AND ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Investiga
tors searched coast-to-coast Thurs
day for the culprit and mysterious
motives behind the bizarre mail-
bomb plot aimed at critics of the
president, analyzing the innards
of the crude devices to reveal
whether they were intended to det
onate or simply sow fear two weeks
before Election Day.
Three more devices were linked
to the plot — two addressed to
former Vice President Joe Biden
and one to actor Robert De Niro
— bringing the total to 10 in an out
break of politically loaded menace
with little if any precedent. Author
ities warned there might well be
more.
Law enforcement officials told
The Associated Press that the
devices, containing timers and bat
teries, were not rigged like booby-
trapped package bombs that would
explode upon opening. But they
were still uncertain whether the
devices were poorly designed or
never intended to cause physical
harm. A search of a postal database
suggested at least some may have
been mailed from Florida, one offi
cial said. Investigators are homing
in on a postal facility in Opa-locka,
Florida, where they believe some
of the packages originated, another
official said.
The officials spoke on condition
of anonymity because they were
not authorized to discuss the ongo
ing investigation by name.
New details about the devices
came as the four-day mail-bomb
scare spread nationwide, drawing
investigators from dozens of fed
eral, state and local agencies in
the effort to identify one or more
perpetrators.
The targets have included for
mer President Barack Obama, Hill
ary Clinton, CNN and Rep. Maxine
Waters of California. The common
thread among them was obvious:
Critical words for Donald Trump
and frequent, harsher criticism in
return.
At a press conference Thursday,
officials in New York would not dis
cuss possible motives, or details on
how the packages found their way
into the U.S. postal system. Nor
would they say why none of the
packages had detonated, but they
stressed they were still treating
them as “live devices.”
“As far as a hoax device, we’re
not treating it that way, ’’said Police
Commissioner James O’Neill.
Details suggested a pattern —
that the items were packaged
in manila envelopes, addressed
to prominent Trump critics and
carried U.S. postage stamps. The
devices were being examined by
technicians at the FBI’s forensic
lab in Quantico, Virginia.
The packages stoked nation
wide tensions and fears as voters
prepared to vote Nov. 6 to deter
mine partisan control of Congress
— a campaign both parties have
described in near-apocalyptic
terms. Even with the sender still
unknown, politicians from both
parties used the threats to decry
a toxic political climate and lay
blame.
“A very big part of the Anger we
see today in our society is caused
by the purposely false and inaccu
rate reporting of the Mainstream
Media that I refer to as Fake
News,” Trump said on Twitter. “It
has gotten so bad and hateful that it
is beyond description. Mainstream
Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
Former CIA Director John Bren
nan, the target of a package sent to
CNN, fired back.
“Stop blaming others. Look in the
mirror,” Brennan tweeted. “Your
inflammatory rhetoric, insults,
lies, & encouragement of physical
violence are disgraceful. Clean up
your act.... try to act Presidential.”
The list of bombing targets
spread from New York, Delaware
and Washington, D.C., to Florida
and California.
The explosive devices were
packed in envelopes with bubble-
wrap interiors bearing six Ameri
can flag stamps and the return
address of Florida Rep. Debbie
Wasserman Schultz, the former
chairwoman of the Democratic
National Committee.
The bombs seized Wednesday
were about six inches long and
packed with powder and broken
glass, according to a law enforce
ment official who viewed X-ray
images. The official said the
devices were made from PVC pipe
and covered with black tape. At
the New York briefing, authorities
confirmed that at least some of the
packages were distributed through
the U.S. mail, and cautioned that
there could be additional devices in
the postal system. They said inves
tigators searching for more suspi
cious parcels had not found any
during the previous eight hours.
David Chipman, a retired fed
eral ATF agent and now senior
policy adviser for the Giffords
Center, said the details revealed
telltale signs that could help guide
investigators.
The tape on the pipe is “an inves
tigator’s dream,” he said, recalling
a case in Texas that was solved
because the fibers on the tape were
traced to the bomber’s dog. He said
bombers tend to plot methodically.
“This is someone sitting down
and spending time thinking about
what they’re going to do to someone
else. And some people like to relish
that,” he said.
Amid bomb scare, call for unity shelved for political barbs
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
AND KEN THOMAS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — It
didn’t last.
With the country on edge
over a widening pipe-bomb
scare, talk of national unity
quickly gave way to fin
ger-pointing on Thursday.
President Donald Trump
cast blame on the media
for fomenting anger in soci
ety while candidates across
the country traded partisan
broadsides.
“A very big part of the
Anger we see today in our
society is caused by the pur
posely false and inaccurate
reporting of the Mainstream
Media that I refer to as Fake
News,” Trump wrote. “It has
gotten so bad and hateful
that it is beyond description.
Mainstream Media must
clean up its act, FAST!”
With that, Trump fol
lowed a familiar pattern: In a
moment of national trial, he
will briefly stick to a message
of healing before returning to
more divisive rhetoric.
As he did after deadly
hurricanes and the racial
violence of Charlottesville,
Virginia, Trump stood in the
White House on Wednes
day and decried the threat
of political violence. He
largely continued that tone
later in the day at a rally in
Wisconsin, saying, “We want
all sides to come together in
peace and harmony,” though
he also called on the media to
end its “endless hostility.”
But even as he delivered
somber remarks, he seemed
to wink to his rally audi
ence that he was aware this
was out of character for a
president who has repeat
edly blasted his political
opponents as criminals
and argued that they will
destroy the country if they
win control of Congress in the
midterms.
“By the way, do you see
how nice I’m behav
ing tonight?” Trump
told the crowd.
“Have you ever seen
this?”
Trump on Thurs
day had yet to call
former President
Barack Obama
or Hillary Clinton
about the packages
sent their way, but he had
spoken to Democratic Gov.
Andrew Cuomo of New York,
the state where many of the
packages were delivered.
Law enforcement authori
ties have ascribed no motive
to the crimes. Still, news of
the bombs prompted imme
diate debate over whether
increasingly personal and
hard-edged rhetoric has con
tributed to a potentially dan
gerous political climate.
Aides at the national
Democratic and Republican
Senate campaign arms said
they were seeing nothing
to suggest candidates were
adjusting their messages or
schedules because of the
explosives scare. But many
candidates were beginning
to move into their closing
election messages, which are
typically more positive.
Indiana Republican Sen
ate candidate Mike
Braun was airing
a new ad equating
Democratic Sen. Joe
Donnelly to one of
the inflatable danc
ing devices used to
attract attention at
car dealerships, and
describing him as a
“say-anything, do-
nothing senator.”
Other candidates, such as
Wisconsin’s Republican Sen
ate candidate Leah Vukmir
and the Democratic senator
she’s trying to unseat, Tammy
Baldwin, were plowing ahead
as well. Vukmir linked Bald
win to Clinton on Wednesday
to chants of “Lock her up!” at
an evening rally with Trump.
Baldwin was planning to go
ahead with an event Friday
with Obama in Milwaukee.
Some Trump critics have
blamed him for setting a
harsh tone and not taking
responsibility for contribut
ing to the poisonous political
atmosphere.
“Nobody else is being
as divisive and inciteful as
Donald Trump and so to sug
gest otherwise is completely
wrong,” said former Hous
ing and Urban Development
Secretary Julian Castro, who
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is considering a 2020 Demo
cratic presidential campaign.
“We wouldn’t even be having
this conversation with any
other president, Republican
or Democrat, because they
would be big enough to avoid
this kind of hateful and incite
ful rhetoric.”
Trump has insisted that
those on the right have been
victims of harassment as
well, pointing to high-profile
incidents in which conserva
tives have been accosted in
restaurants and public spaces
by political critics.
A number of his allies,
including his eldest son,
Donald Jr., and conservative
commentator Lou Dobbs,
have used social media to
promote the idea that the
bombs may be a Democrat-
run hoax.
Republican Sen. Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina
tweeted in Trump’s defense:
“I didn’t blame Bernie Sand
ers when a Bernie supporter
shot Congressman Steve
Scalise. And I’m not going to
blame President (grealDon-
aldTrump for this nut job. ”
That was a reference to
the 2017 shooting that badly
injured Rep. Steve Scalise
and others. The gunman,
James Hodgkinson, had
posted social media mes
sages suggesting he targeted
Republicans.
FRI.,
OCT. 26
from 6-10 pm
SAT.,
OCT. 27
from
8 am-noon
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