Letter containing Ricin sent to President Trump but was intercepted.

 

A stock photo of the White House. BBC/Getty.

A letter containing the poison Ricin was sent to President Trump, but was intercepted. BBC. The letter was found at a screening center for White House mail. The FBI is investigating where the envelope came from and if there are any other ones out in circulation. The New York Times reports that the letter was sent from Canada. Ricin has been used in the past to attack the White House, once during the Obama administration and once previously during the Trump administration. Ricin is a deadly poison and when ground up and placed in a letter it could cause sickness and death. 

My Comment:

Once again, thank God for stupid terrorists. This attack had zero chance to hurt President Trump. At worst they could have maybe hurt one of his workers at the mail processing stations but even that is unlikely. The US Postal Service is very experienced with this threat and wouldn't ever let a letter like this go anywhere near the President. 

Indeed, I don't remember any of these Ricin attacks resulting in a death. The Wikipedia list doesn't show any deaths other then the professional hit job by the KGB. None of these attacks involving using the mail haven't killed anyone and I doubt they will in the future. In theory the method could kill someone, if they weren't a public figure like the President with screened mail, but it still isn't likely. 

I do wonder if the Times report that this attack came from Canada is true. If so it makes very little sense. Why would a Canadian care so much about President Trump to try and attack him? It's not like Trump has that much to do with Canada. It makes me think that this attack was likely ideological in nature, not some lone nutjob looking for attention.

So what kind of nutjob would it be? It could be anything at this point, including Islamic terrorism. Islamic terrorism isn't much of  a threat these days, but there are still people out there that follow the ideology and are willing to conduct attacks. 

But my guess is that it is likely left-wing violence. Canada is a major left wing state with many radicals that hate anyone conservative. Antifa is very active there and so is Black Lives Matter. A people with beliefs aligning with those groups could certainly have pulled off this attack, but I doubt it was more organized then that. 

Of course, for all we know that report that the attack came from Canada is false or misleading. And any speculation about motive is just that, speculation. Indeed, it could be almost anything at this point and it might just turn out to be someone with no real motive at all.