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The long trail of mail bombs sent to the top echelon of current and former Democratic Party officials has federal authorities scrambling to find the would-be killer or killers before they strike again. The FBI says more bombs could be lurking out there and that the “investigation is of the highest priority” for the bureau. So what do the feds do next? The Daily Beast spoke to former intelligence and law enforcement officials to sketch out how that investigation will play out and what the available evidence shows already.
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Head start: The fact that the feds were able to recover the bombs without having to blow them up—the standard practice for neutering such weapons—gives investigators a break. “It’s really important that they have some of these devices still intact. They will be able to get DNA from the packaging and other parts of the device,” said John Cohen, a former acting undersecretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security. “If this is an inexperienced bomb maker, there will be forensic evidence on the device.”
Began with a tweet? Cohen also said that social media, an increasingly important factor in a number of high-profile cases, could play an important role in any investigation. “The hard part for law enforcement will be if this is someone who is not on the radar who has not made any threats in writing or on the social media but is simply responding to what they are seeing on TV—that is a very difficult person to identify,” he said.
Mail cops: The bomb-sender used the U.S. Postal Service. So law enforcement personnel from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) will likely be major players in the hunt for the would-be bomber. The USPIS, referred to by insiders as the “silent service” for its low profile, is an often overlooked but important federal law enforcement tool that has participated in a number of high-profile cases and terrorism investigations, including the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Return to sender: Many of the packages sent on Wednesday listed Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the controversial former Democratic National Committee chief and congresswoman, on the return address. Using Schultz, a prominent former Democratic leader known for her connections to the Clintons, on a return address could be an attempt to pass the package off as legitimate and ensure it was opened by the recipients. “He wants the people to feel comfortable opening whatever he’s sending,” said Michael Casadei, a retired postal inspector who worked on numerous mail bomb investigations.
A tactic seen before: “In my career, one guy was a Maserati fanatic. So somebody put a Maserati return address on it as if it’s something coming from Maserati. He feels comfortable opening it. Well, it’s a pipe bomb that blows up on him.”
Weight of evidence: Casadei said he was particularly interested in the weight of the devices because it could yield insights into the bomb-maker’s skill level.
In the wake of the Unabomber attacks, the U.S. Postal Service changed its rules and forced anyone looking to mail packages weighing more than 16 ounces—since changed to 13—to send their package from inside a U.S. postal facility. The Postal Service made the move in order to cut down on the anonymity mail bombers enjoyed from dropping their devices off in anonymous pickup boxes and to deter mail bombs. Now when dropping off heavier packages, the mailer gets a few moments of face time with a postal clerk and mail receives a meter strip that notes the time, date, and location it was sent—all of which would come in handy in an investigation and make potential attackers think twice.
The rule change had an immediate impact by raising the skill bar for would-be bombers looking to post anonymously. “[Mail bombings] dropped off dramatically because you can’t very easily build a bomb that’s a good bomb and have it weigh less than 16 ounces and stick it in a mailbox,” said Casadei.
Stupid like a fox: Pictures of the device sent to CNN published by ABC, NBC, and CNN show misspellings of both John Brennan’s name and the state of Florida. “My guess is that that would be something done intentionally to try and throw us off. You think that you have an uneducated person making a mail device when most of the time they’re highly educated and highly technical. They’re very bright people that send bombs,” said Casadei. Many of those he arrested for mailing explosives had engineering degrees and combined both brains and cowardice, he said. “They don’t want to be seen. They don’t want anything to do with actually seeing somebody die or get hurt.”
Bombers will often try to use other tricks to throw off investigators, like mailing packages from places far away from home. The Unabomber, the most famous mail bomber in American history, went to extraordinary lengths to post bombs around the country and never once posted a bomb from his home state of Montana.
Profile of a mail bomber: Many mail bombers often choose their targets based on more personal grudges. “I had a dentist who built one because he was pissed off at another dentist,” said Casadei. “Many of these involve a very personal feeling that somebody is wronged. So much of the time they’re domestic where husbands are trying to get rid of wives or business partners trying to get rid of other business partners. Just people that intensely hate somebody else and they don’t have the courage to confront them.”
But in this case, the target selection suggests a different, more political motive. “Based on the recipients it seems that this was someone inspired by some of the rhetoric put out there as of late by the president and as part of the political process,” said Cohen.
Ain’t over: The FBI warned Americans in a statement on Wednesday that the spate of bombings may not be done quite yet. “It is possible that additional packages were mailed to other locations. The FBI advises the public to remain vigilant and not touch, move or handle any suspicious or unknown packages.”
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