The Secret Service confirmed today that they intercepted a suspicious letter addressed to President Obama that appears to have been written by the same lunatic who sent ricin-laced missives to Mayor Bloomberg.
The letter was being tested this afternoon for the poison and other dangerous materials, the agency said in a statement.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly also revealed today that the violent gun nut who sent poisoned letters to Hizzoner and his gun-control advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns headquarters in DC threatened to shoot anyone who tries to take his firearms in the face.
“Well I don’t want to republish the letter, that would be doing the bidding of the person who sent it,” Kelly said. “But the letter, in essence, complains about gun control and one line says that ‘anyone who comes for my guns will be shot in the face.'”
2 THREATENING ‘GUN RIGHTS’ LETTERS TO MAYOR TEST POSITIVE FOR RICIN
The disturbing correspondence to the president was picked up at an off-site White House mail sorting location.
NBC reported that the contents of the letter sent to Obama were identical to those sent to Hizzoner and included the line that “what’s in this letter is nothing compared to what I’ve got planned for you.”
“US Secret Service can confirm that the White House mail screening facility intercepted a letter addressed to the White House that were similar to letters previously addressed to Mayor Bloomberg in New York,” the agency said in a statement. “This letter has been turned over to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation.”
An agency source said they are on heightened alert for suspicious packages in the wake of the Bloomberg letters.
Meanwhile, a blood-smeared letter addressed to mayoral candidate Bill DiBlasio was discovered at a downtown municipal building on Centre Street, cops said. Sent from the Bronx and written in both Spanish and English, the incoherent correspondence did not test positive for poison and is likely not related to the ricin letters. The same sender addressed a second letter to DiBlasio that was not blood covered that is being investigated, cops said.
The rash of odd deliveries also included the discovery of white powder outside of an Environmental Protection Agency staffer’s office on Broadway last night, cops said. A janitor cleaned up the unidentified substance last night and decided to alert cops today after learning of the ricin letters.
Officials cleared several floors of the EPA building and are still investigating, police said..
The Bloomberg notes and mayors letters were both sent from Shreveport, La., and dated May 20. NBC reported that the Obama package was sent from the same location.
Neither letter reached Hizzoner, but three Emergency Service Unit cops who came into contact with one of the notes experienced “minor symptoms of ricin exposure” that went away on their own, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
“You’re not going to take my guns. You’ll have to kill me before you take my guns. If you take my guns, you should see what I’m going to do to you,” read the letters, which were typed on a computer, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
The author also made a reference to his Second Amendment rights, saying that he had a “constitutional and God given right and I will exercise that right til I die,” the law-enforcement sources said.
Bloomberg paid a surprise visit to staffers at the mail sorting facility that fielded the frightening letters and reassured them that they were safe. Workers can place suspicious looking items in a special chemical containment box.
If swallowed or inhaled, a dose of ricin the size of a few grains of salt can be fatal.
The first was opened Friday at the City Hall mail facility at 100 Gold St. in lower Manhattan. When opened, there was a “pink/orange oily substance” inside, Browne said.
Ricin is made from castor beans, which can be orange colored.
Two tests were conducted in New York City — one was negative for ricin, the other positive.
Then, a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force took the letter to the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland, the top US facility for detecting evidence of bioterrorism.
The substance officially tested positive for ricin yesterday.
Civilians who handled it didn’t have any symptoms.
The second letter was opened on Sunday in Washington by Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
He was not harmed, but that letter was sent for testing and it, too, was found to contain ricin.
“I know I speak for all of the close to 1,000 mayors in the mayors coalition against guns, this is a scourge on the country that we just have to make sure that we get under control and eliminate,” Bloomberg said .
“No, I’m not angry. There are people who I would argue do things that may be irrational, do things that are wrong, but it is a very complex world out there and we just have to deal with that.”
The three Emergency Service Unit cops apparently poisoned by ricin suffered symptoms such as diarrhea and “a strong smell to their urine,” a law-enforcement source said.
The case is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the NYPD Intelligence Division, which is responsible for the mayor’s protection.
A spokesperson for Gov. Cuomo yesterday called the incident “extreme and reprehensible” and said those responsible should be “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Bloomberg, who has long been an outspoken supporter of stronger gun controls, became even more of a target when he intensified his crusade following the Newtown school massacre.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Rebeca Rosenberg and David Seifman