Letters containing 'suspicious substances' sent to politicians

Local and federal law enforcement officials are not taking any chances with security. Now an investigation is underway into suspicious letters sent to senators as well as election offices, which often have less sophisticated screening. The disclosure came from the Associated Press, which obtained a message from the Senate Sergeant at Arms warning that some letters may reach their destinations. The FBI says the Bureau and the Postal Inspection Service are investigating a series of suspicious mailings sent to addresses nationwide, including Secretary of State offices and their election offices. Some contained an unknown substance currently being analyzed. Senate mail has strict screening protocols, but that may not be the case at other offices, says retired FBI Special Agent Richard Kalko. A couple of things going on. Ever since the anthrax attacks back in 2001, a long list of protocols and policies were put into place for mail that was received at the Capitol those are still in effect and they're very easy to put into place but now we're talking about some election offices and some of the policies there they will not be as stringent so the possibility of a letter getting through their mail security process is a little bit more likely so people in charge of security are really going to have to be on their toes the AP is reporting that this week suspicious packages containing a powdery substance led to the evacuation of election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Maryland, Mississippi and South Dakota officials say their offices were targeted, but the letters were intercepted by the post office.