Bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and Trump critics

 

Bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and Trump critics

By
Patrick Martin

25 October 2018

Six mail bombs were sent to prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump, it was reported on Wednesday. None of the devices exploded and no one was injured, but the attacks dominated the US media and caused widespread alarm, including redoubled screening of mail to all political and corporate offices and a vast mobilization of police and security forces in New York City, Washington and elsewhere.

Whatever the source of the mail bombs, which, as of this writing, remains uncertain, the attack on top Democratic Party leaders and CNN’s New York offices only two weeks before the midterm elections is a sharp warning of the explosive political tensions in the United States, which will only escalate as the economic and social crisis deepens and mass struggles of the working class develop.

The alert over alleged terrorism also led to the first live-action use of the emergency takeover of cell phone text messaging by the police authorities, under a program tested for the first time only last month. Warnings to stay away from the Time Warner building in midtown Manhattan, the home of CNN’s New York center, were blasted out to cell phones within a certain GPS radius of the building, followed some hours later by a second text giving an all-clear.

The first mailed bomb was delivered Monday to the home of billionaire George Soros in the town of Bedford, New York, in suburban Westchester County. Soros was not at home and the aide who collected the mail thought the package suspicious, placed it in a wooded area and called the police. The bomb squad detonated the package, which apparently contained a pipe bomb filled with explosive black powder.

Late Tuesday and early Wednesday, suspicious…

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