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Thursday, October 25, 2018

Pipe bombs targeted top Democrats. Feds say there may be more suspicious packages

Live updates: Suspicious packages sent to Time Warner Center, Clinton and Obama
Authorities found bombs this week intended for at least seven officials, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters. Law enforcement officials are trying to track down another suspicious package sent to former Vice President Joe Biden, and the FBI says it's possible additional packages were mailed to other locations.
None of the bombs detonated and no one was injured. Here's a breakdown of what we know:

The packages had a similar return address

The pipe bombs were sent to a mix of offices and residential addresses, and appeared to target some of the people President Donald Trump mostly criticizes. The five packages discovered Wednesday all had a similar address: That of Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but with her name misspelled. There is no information to suggest she sent the packages.
Barack Obama: The package sent to Obama was intercepted in Washington, DC, during routine mail screening procedures, the Secret Service said.
Hillary Clinton: The package was addressed to her residence in Chappaqua, New York, and was intercepted Tuesday night by the Secret Service during routine mail inspection.
Eric Holder: The package was addressed to the former attorney general, but sent to the Florida office of Schultz, whose return address was on the package.
Maxine Waters: One package was sent to the Democratic congresswoman's office in DC and a second package addressed to her was found at a postal facility in Los Angeles. It matches the description of those sent to the other officials.
John Brennan: The "live explosive device" was delivered by courier to CNN offices in New York. The former CIA director frequently appears on CNN. The NYPD said an envelope containing white powder was found as part of the device's original packaging.
Joe Biden: Authorities are trying to track down a package addressed to the former vice president, two law enforcement sources told CNN on Wednesday night. The package, now considered suspicious because of similarities to others, was misaddressed and returned to sender. It's unclear if the return address was Wasserman Schultz's. US Postal inspectors are working to locate the package.
George Soros: A suspicious package found Monday appeared to be an explosive device targeting the billionaire investor and philanthropist. It was rendered safe in Bedford, New York, a law enforcement source told CNN.

They came in similar packaging

The devices appeared to be pipe bombs, said Bryan Paamann, FBI special agent in charge of the counterterrorism division in New York.
Cops used a big white sphere to move an apparent bomb from CNN's office building in New York
An initial examination shows they are are rudimentary but functional, and have similar construction. At least one contained projectiles, including shards of glass, a law enforcement official told CNN. The bombs were unstable and could have been set off just by handling, sources said.
Packages sent to all but Biden are in manila envelopes with bubble wrap interior, the FBI said. Each package had six Forever stamps on the envelope as well.

What the bombs say about the maker

The bombs were likely meant to be found and create panic, explosives experts say.
The devices had suspicious-looking packaging, at least one had a timer easily bought for a few dollars online and easily detected when mailed or delivered.
The images of two devices -- one found Monday at the home Soros and one sent to CNN's New York office on Wednesday -- had the appearance of real devices that would cause serious bodily injury or death, said Ryan Morris, founder of Tripwire Operations Group, a company that provides explosives training to law enforcement and military officials.
"Whoever is doing this is just trying to elicit a fear or disrupt something," Morris said. "There are a multitude of more sophisticated methodologies that would have worked if they really wanted this to work."

Trump blamed his opponents

Despite a chaotic day of an attempted large-scale attack on prominent Democratic figures, Trump pointed the finger Wednesday night at his opponents and the news media for the turbulent national political environment.
"Any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself. No nation can succeed that tolerates violence or the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, corrosion or control, we all know that. Such conduct much be fiercely opposed and firmly prosecuted," he said.
He said it's the news media's responsibility to set the national political tone. Then he resumed his attacks on Democrats, falsely claiming they are "encouraging caravan after caravan of illegal aliens to violate our laws and break into our country." He claimed a 10% tax cut for the middle class is coming "soon" -- a pledge that comes less than two weeks from the midterm elections, but has never been proposed as a bill in Congress.
After criticizing Democrats on taxes and regulations, Trump touted how "nice" he was being.

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