Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 2018)
Page 10A NATION East Oregonian Saturday, October 27, 2018 Florida man, 56, charged after weeklong bomb-package scare AP Photo/Manuel Valdes By MICHAEL BALSAMO, ERIC TUCKER AND COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON — A Florida man with a long criminal history was charged Friday in the nationwide mail-bomb scare targeting prominent Democrats who traded criticism with Pres- ident Donald Trump, a sig- nificant break in a case that seized the national conversa- tion and spread fear of elec- tion-season violence with lit- tle precedent in the U.S. Justice Department offi- cials announced five federal charges against Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Florida, and revealed that DNA and a fin- gerprint found on a package helped them identify the sus- pect after a five-day inves- tigation that heightened unease with each additional explosive discovery. None of the bombs exploded, but FBI Direc- tor Chris Wray said Fri- day, “These are not hoax devices.” Sayoc, an amateur body builder who 16 years earlier was on probation for a bomb threat charge, has social media accounts that vilify Democrats and praise the president. Misspellings from his online posts matched mistakes found on the packages, according to an 11-page criminal complaint. He registered as a Repub- lican in Florida in March 2016, before the election that sent Trump to the White House, and voted early in subsequent elections, according to officials. Friday’s arrest capped a nationwide manhunt for the sender of at least 13 explo- sive devices addressed to prominent Democrats including former President Barack Obama, former Vice In this file photo from Tuesday, May 9, 2017, signs are posted by the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland, Wash. U.S. says no radiation released in steam leak at Hanford nuclear site ington. About 9,000 work- ers on the site are involved in cleaning up the nation’s largest collection of radio- active waste left over from the production of nuclear weapons. A different tunnel at Hanford partially collapsed last year and workers were ordered to stay inside for several hours. There was no airborne release of radi- ation, and no workers were injured in that incident. Work to fill that tunnel with grout was completed last November. An analysis found that the tunnel from which steam emerged Friday did not meet structural integrity codes, prompting the deci- sion to fill it completely with a cement-like substance. A federal contractor has been pumping in the grout since Oct. 1. It was about one-quarter full of grout when the steam leaked Fri- day, and the work will resume in coming days, the Energy Department said. The tunnel was com- pleted in 1964, is about 1,700 feet long and has 28 rail cars filled with nuclear waste. It was closed in 1996. Hanford was created during the Manhattan Proj- ect in World War II and made most of the nation’s plutonium, including the plutonium for the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. — No airborne radiation was detected after steam escaped Friday from a tun- nel containing radioactive waste at a former nuclear weapons production site in Washington state, U.S. offi- cials said, the second prob- lem with aging tunnels at the Hanford Nuclear Reser- vation in a year. Workers who had been ordered to stay inside build- ings were released about five hours later, the U.S. Department of Energy said. There were no reports of injuries. The agency said cam- eras revealed that the steam resulted from the drying of a cement-like grout that was recently pumped into the 54-year-old tunnel to sta- bilize it. The tunnel stores nuclear waste in railroad cars left over from the Cold War, and it’s in danger of collapsing. “The curing process gen- erates heat and moisture,” the agency said in a press release. “When the warm moist air left the tunnel and interacted with the cool early morning atmosphere, steam was visible.” Most of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arse- nal was created at Hanford, located along the Colum- bia River in eastern Wash- WPLG-TV via AP This frame grab from video provided by WPLG-TV shows FBI agents covering a van after the tarp fell off as it was transported from Plantation, Fla., on Friday. Federal agents and police officers have been examining the van in connection with package bombs that were sent to high-profile critics of President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden and Hil- lary Clinton. The case continued wid- ening Friday with new pack- ages addressed to New Jer- sey Sen. Cory Booker and former National Intelligence Director James Clapper — both similar to those contain- ing pipe bombs sent to other Trump critics. Even as Sayoc was detained, investigators in California scrutinized a package sent to Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, her office said. Trump, after Sayoc was apprehended, declared that “we must never allow polit- ical violence (to) take root in America” and that Amer- icans “must unify.” That marked a change in tone from his Twitter post earlier Friday complaining that “this ‘bomb’ stuff” was taking attention away from the upcoming election and that critics were wrongly blaming him and his heated rhetoric for stoking violence. In his remarks after the arrest, as in his com- ments throughout the week, Trump did not mention that the package recipients were all Democrats or officials in Obama’s administration, in addition to CNN, a news network he criticizes almost daily. Sayoc was arrested near an auto parts store in Plan- tation, Florida, north of Miami. Across the street, Thomas Fiori, a former fed- eral law enforcement officer, said he heard a small explo- sion — possibly a “flash- bang” device police use as a distraction — and saw about 50 armed officers swarm a man standing outside a white van. They ordered Sayoc to the ground, Fiori said, and he did not resist. “He had that look of, ‘I’m done, I surrender,’” Fiori said. Officers were later seen examining the van, its win- dows covered with stick- ers. The stickers included images of Trump, Ameri- can flags and what appeared to be logos of the Republi- can National Committee and CNN, though the writing surrounding those images was unclear. Law enforcement officials told the AP that the devices, containing timers and bat- teries, were not rigged to explode upon opening. But they were uncertain whether the devices were poorly designed or never intended to cause physical harm. Authorities noted that they included “energetic material.” FBI Special Agent David Brown said in a foot- note to the charging doc- ument that such explosive material “gives off heat and energy through a rapid exo- thermic reaction when ini- tiated by heat, shock or friction.” Investigators believe the mailings were staggered rather than sent all at once. Officials were working to make sure they hadn’t over- looked others. NEW 2018 RAV4 LE 287 $ /MO Up to 36 months. On approved credit. $0 DOWN! Stk# 18h1027. New 2018 Toyota Rav4 LE. MSRP $27,544. Sale $26,365. $2400 Toyota Financial Service Rebate. GFV $14,598. 3 year/12k mile per year lease with $0 Down = $287/mo up to 36 months. On approved credit. Plus tax, title and $75 doc fee. See dealer for details. Offer expires 10/31/18. NEW 2018 HIGHLANDER LE 383 $ Up to 36 months. On approved credit. W N! ! $ 0 DOWN Stk# 18h1010. New 2018 Toyota Highlander LE. MSRP $38,414. Sale $35,949. $1000 Toyota Financial Service Rebate. GFV $22,664. 3 year/12k mile per year lease with $0 Down = $383/mo up to 36 months. On approved credit. Plus tax, title and $75 doc fee. See dealer for details. Offer expires 10/31/18. /MO NEW 2018 CAMRY LE 292 $ ed credit. Up to 36 months. On approved $ DOW N! ! $0 Stk# 18h727. New 2018 Toyota Highlander r LE. MSRP $27,244. Sale $25,468. $1500 Toyota Financial Service Rebate. GFV $14,439. 3 year/12k mile per year lease with $0 Down = $292/mo up to 36 months. . On approved credit. Plus tax, title and $75 doc fee. See dealer for details. Offer expires 10/31/18. /MO
