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Not Now Turn On<doc-sep>NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday a live explosive device targeting CNN’s offices at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle was “clearly an act of terror.” The building was evacuated after the device was found in the mail room around 9:30 a.m. Other suspicious packages with explosive devices were found near the Clinton family home in Chappaqua, Westchester County and near the Obama family home in Washington, D.C. Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, was targeted with a pair of similar devices discovered hours apart – one at a congressional mail facility in Washington and another at a mail facility in downtown Los Angeles. An additional package was intended for former Attorney General Eric Holder, but that one ended up at a Florida office of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose return address was on each of the packages discovered Wednesday. Wasserman Schultz, who currently serves in the House as U.S. representative for Florida’s 23rd congressional district and is the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. According to the FBI, the packages were mailed in manila envelopes with bubble wrap interior. Investigators say they were lightweight because glass was used as shrapnel. The would-be killer kept the weight down so the devices could be put in a mailbox, authorities believe. Sources tell CBS News the device found at the Time Warner Center was made from PVC pipe and covered with black tape. It contained a small battery, which sources say was similar to a watch battery. Depending on the charge inside, the PVC would fracture and cause additional shrapnel from the pipe, according to sources. Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered extra security at airports, bridges, tunnels, and mass transit systems as a precaution. Cuomo also said his office had also received a suspicious device and “is being handled,” but it turned out to be unrelated and contained computer files about the Proud Boys, a group involved in an altercation outside the Metropolitan Republican Club recently. The device at the Time Warner Center was addressed to “John Brennan c/o CNN,” referring to the former CIA director who had his security clearance removed after criticism of President Donald Trump. Brennan does not work at CNN, and is a contributor at MSNBC. The fire alarm could be heard going off while CNN was on the air and its staff evacuated. CNN continued to broadcast during the evacuation, which took place shortly after 10 a.m. "Chilling": Watch the moment alarms went off while CNN anchors were reporting on suspicious devices — indicating the newsroom had to evacuate, due to a suspicious device. https://t.co/9o4ogw6dS4 pic.twitter.com/8epMVgapsX — CBS News (@CBSNews) October 24, 2018 NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said that an envelope with white powder was also recovered with the device. That powder is being tested and personnel who may have come in contact with it are being decontaminated, authorities said. “We have seen this before. We have seen worse, and we will not be intimidated,” O’Neill said. “We will bring these perpetrators to justice.” “This clearly is an act of terror, attempting to undermine our free press, leaders of this country through acts of violence,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “I want to make it very clear that the people of New York City will not be intimidated. That we’re going to go about our lives undeterred.” “We wouldn’t be at all surprised if more devices show up,” Cuomo said. De Blasio said there were no other credible and specific threats against locations in New York City. “I want to let all New Yorkers know you can go about your daily routine knowing that the NYPD and all these other agencies are here to protect you,” de Blasio said. “We will not let terrorism win. Not today, not ever,” Cuomo added. I’m incredibly proud of the swift & professional response, the precise investigative work, & the relentless follow-up of @NYPDnews members today in #Manhattan — & every day throughout #NYC. New Yorkers, just like their #NYPD cops, have been here before, & will not be intimidated. pic.twitter.com/TyxsH4je2m — Commissioner O'Neill (@NYPDONeill) October 24, 2018 O’Neill urged anyone with any additional information about the incidents to call either 911 or 1-888-NYC-SAFE. Officials said New Yorkers could expect to see a beefed up police presence at various locations, including media outlets, as a precaution. “Clearly this is targeting, I dare say, anti-Trump people,” security expert Manny Gomez told CBS2. “Soros, CNN, Obama, the Clintons, and so it’s not surprising that there is a pattern.” “At a time when there’s a lot of hatred and division, it doesn’t make any sense to exacerbate it,” de Blasio said. “Let’s just say this: To all public officials of all partisan affiliations, don’t encourage violence. Don’t encourage hatred. Don’t encourage attacks on media. You can disagree but you have to show respect for people and air your disagreements peacefully. So unfortunately this atmosphere of hatred is contributing to the choices people are making to turn to violence, there’s no question about it. The way to stop that is to turn back the other way, to bring down the temperature, to end any messages about the use of violence against people that we disagree with. And that has to start at the top.” “We’ve been through many political seasons and we have political differences and that is actually good for democracy. What is not good is overheated rhetoric, extremism that pushes people to violence,” Cuomo said. “At the end of the day, we may have political differences, but this is one country. We’re all Americans – e pluribus unum, out of many, one – and keeping the debate and the dialogue civil is very, very important. And for elected leaders, who in many ways set the tone, it is especially important.” Due to police activity at 10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE, please avoid the Columbus Circle Area. Updates to follow. pic.twitter.com/fvbjYBzPPJ — NYPD Midtown North (@NYPDMTN) October 24, 2018 Initially, only three floors of the Time Warner building were evacuated, but the evacuation was extended to the entire building.<doc-sep>Two suspicious packages found Thursday addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and another that was sent to Robert De Niro at his office New York City are similar to the pipe bombs that have been sent to other political and media figures in the past few days, according to the FBI. Investigators were looking into whether some of the packages — which were also sent to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. — were sent from a mail facility in Opa-Locka, north of Miami, senior law enforcement officials told NBC News. The facility, the largest in South Florida, handles only packages — not letters — that are being sent into and out of South Florida from and to all parts of the country. One package addressed to Biden was discovered Thursday at a postal facility in New Castle, Delaware, and another was found at a postal facility in Wilmington, Delaware, officials said. They had suspected Wednesday that a package addressed to Biden was somewhere within the postal system. Speaking Thursday night at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Biden cautioned: "Folks, we don't have all the facts yet." The he added: "My hope is this recent spate of who knows what they were, pipe bombs being mailed, might wake everybody in my business up a little bit and we will begin to put this nation back together again." The package sent to De Niro was found at 375 Greenwich St., the site of the restaurant Tribeca Grill, which he co-owns, and the offices of De Niro's Tribeca Productions. There was no need to evacuate because the building was empty, police said. An employee of De Niro's called authorities at around 4 a.m. Thursday after he realized that a package he had seen earlier in the week looked like the others, officials said. An X-ray image obtained by NBC News of one of the bombs that was sent in the past few days. NBC News The employee, a retired New York police detective, "was awake and watching the news and saw the image of the packaging that has been common to most of these devices as they have turned up at various locations," said John Miller, the New York Police Department's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. "It struck him that they looked very much like a package he had seen on Tuesday in mail he was to screen for Robert De Niro Productions at their offices on Greenwich Street," Miller said. The package was addressed to De Niro, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, said officials, who said the envelope was similar to the ones that were found Wednesday, including a return address for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. The CNN package arrived by mail at a screening facility in Midtown Manhattan before it was delivered by courier to CNN's offices, an official said. The package wasn't screened because it was relatively small. The devices were poorly made, and some couldn't have exploded, but it's unclear whether that was intentional or whether they were just badly constructed, officials said. They said that some of the bombs had substantial flaws, that some had subtle flaws and that some had yet to be examined. Mail bombing targets: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Former President Barack Obama Former CIA Director John Brennan Billionaire George Soros Former Attorney General Eric Holder Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. (two ) Actor Robert De Niro Former Vice President Joe Biden (two) Even if some of these explosives were defective, New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill said, investigators "are treating them as live devices." Officials said that they weren't aware of any new devices' having been discovered but that they were still concerned that there could be more, and they cautioned anyone who comes across a similar package to treat it as dangerous. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called the packages "clearly an effort to terrorize people politically, to choose people for political purposes and attack them because of their beliefs." "That is the kind of thing we have seen before in this city, and we reject and we will not be intimidated by it," he said. Trump tweeted Thursday morning that a "very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News." The president's remark came after he called for unity and civility before a bill signing event at the White House on Wednesday afternoon as the packages were being discovered. He said at an event Wednesday night that Americans "should stop treating political opponents as morally defective," not "compare political opponents to historical villains" and "not mob people in public." Bill Bratton, a senior law enforcement analyst for MSNBC who led the police departments in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, said on MSNBC that because the FBI was working with so many bombs that it would be easier to determine where they came from and what their purpose was. A package that was addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden. NBC Philadelphia "There's the potential for a slip-up," he said. O'Neill also said he was confident that "we will identify and arrest a person or people responsible for these acts."<doc-sep>Bart Jansen and Kevin Johnson USA TODAY Federal investigators are increasingly focusing on Florida as a transit point for a number of the 10 suspected explosive devices recovered so far in a chilling terror campaign aimed at top Democratic Party leaders and supporters, a law enforcement official said Thursday. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said among the locations that have drawn investigative interest has been the postal distribution center in Opa Locka, Florida, where several of the packages may have passed through. Miami-Dade police bomb-squad and K-9 officers were called out to the center Thursday evening as federal authorities continued their investigation at the facility. Attention turned to Florida on Thursday largely because the device addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder was recovered when it was routed back to the return address of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., in Sunrise, according to two law enforcement officials. Schultz has nothing to do with the mail campaign. The two officials, who are not authorized to comment publicly, said authorities had not identified a suspect. Three new potentially explosive devices found Thursday were nearly identical in design to the seven seized earlier in the week, a law enforcement official said Thursday. One of the latest was sent to actor Robert De Niro at offices in New York, and two were sent to former Vice President Joe Biden and intercepted at postal facilities in Delaware. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the devices were assembled with pieces of plastic PVC pipe containing black powder and shards of shrapnel that appeared to be glass. The pipes were wrapped in tape and a timing-like mechanism was attached. New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill said Thursday that the devices were not being treated as hoaxes, but he stopped short of calling them “live” devices. “I would say it’s a suspected explosive device,” O’Neill told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “We are treating them as suspected explosive devices.” The powder found in packaging in New York wasn’t a biological weapon, but further testing is being done, O’Neill said. The devices were being examined at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. “We are discovering things by the hour," he said. FBI Assistant Director Bill Sweeney said the investigation is nationwide and still in its early stages. He declined to provide details about the devices to avoid disclosing significant information. “It does remain possible that further packages have been or could be mailed,” he said. “These devices should be considered dangerous.” Kevin Barry, a former member of New York Police Department's bomb squad and a former director of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, expected the FBI analyses to be focused on both the design and recovery of physical evidence. Testing would gauge the functionality of the devices, check the type of pipe used and examine the powder to determine whether it is high explosive, low explosive or a chemical substance intended to be dispersed when the devices were triggered, Barry said. If the tests found a fingerprint on the devices or their packaging, the FBI would run that evidence through a criminal database seeking a match. Investigators would likely be able to identify a suspect within days from a matching fingerprint, Barry said. Philip Bartlett, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's inspector in charge of the New York division, said 600,000 postal employees have been scanning packages for more devices. “We have found nothing in the last eight hours,” he said. Although the two devices addressed to Biden were recovered Thursday, investigators were chasing the possibility late Monday that Biden could be targeted, sorting through the public mail streams in search of the familiar heavily stamped manila envelope. Biden is no longer under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service. Other packages found this week were sent to former officials and high-profile people, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan at CNN. As the FBI, Secret Service and local police track down who built and mailed the devices, the concern remains how many more might be out there – and whether more disruption is planned. If all the explosives were sent to one party or political affiliation, that could provide clues about the sender, said Anthony Roman, president of Roman & Associates, a risk-management and commercial-investigation firm in Uniondale, N.Y. More:More bomb-like devices found, 1 near Robert De Niro's offices in NYC and 2 addressed to Joe Biden in Delaware More:What we know about the 10 potential pipe bombs sent to De Niro, Biden, Clinton, Obama The attacks also could be a precursor to bombings of public areas such as subways or iconic buildings – or to disruptions at polling places for the Nov. 6 election, Roman said. “For police and federal officials and intelligence authorities not to consider that would be irresponsible,” Roman said. “I’m sure that is a scenario that is being considered and will be protected against.” New York City police were stationed outside media locations and offices of elected officials, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “You’re going to see a lot of police presence," he said. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said her department and the Secret Service are coordinating closely with the FBI and have heightened the security at federal facilities around the country. "I condemn these cowardly acts in the strongest possible terms," Nielsen said. "Americans will not tolerate these types of threats, and we will not be intimidated.” The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in a statement Thursday that the agency has a comprehensive approach to protecting the mail through specialized technology, screening and employee training. Inspectors in the service's Dangerous Mail Investigations Program "are trained to recognize the common characteristics of suspicious mail and are highly proficient in the use of state-of-the-art equipment to include portable X-ray machines," the agency said. "Any reports of suspicious mailings are taken very seriously, as they may impact the safety of postal employees and disrupt the processing of mail." The service declined to publicly describe its investigative procedures or operational protocols.<doc-sep>
Updates throughout The suspicious device found in CNN’s Time Warner Center mailroom this morning – delivered by courier – was “live” and contained a white powder, New York police officials confirmed today, prompting New York mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo to unofficially call the mailings acts of terror. Law enforcement and government officials have not yet officially deemed the mailings as terrorist acts. Though the devices were deemed “live” earlier today by NYC Police Commissioner James O’Neill, their functionality was still being discussed by late afternoon. “Rudimentary but functional” was the chosen phrase of the afternoon on cable news. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about the device’s functionality, de Blasio said “unquestionably it was a legitimate device and thank God it didn’t go off…the fact that something didn’t go off is not the way to grade it.” Related Story CNN Parts Ways With Contributor Rick Santorum After Furor Over Comments About Native Americans The CNN device (see it above), addressed to Former CIA Director John Brennan via the news network and one of at least five such packages discovered this week, prompted the evacuation of the tourist-popular Time Warner Center in New York City, where CNN has its New York bureau. In addition to the CNN/Brennan package, suspicious devices have been found since last night addressed to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and, according to breaking reports, Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters. A pipe bomb was found in the mailbox of billionaire George Soros Monday. At a press conference this afternoon, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his Manhattan office had received a suspicious package; the package was later deemed benign and apparently not part of the wave of threatening mailings. The evacuation of the Time Warner Center – which also includes a Whole Foods, a shopping mall and office space – continued well into the afternoon. (CNN staffers were allowed to return to their offices shortly before 4 pm ET). CNN’s Jim Sciutto and Poppy Harlow continued to report from outside the Columbus Circle building well past 2 pm ET. The Midtown vicinity is under heavy police presence, and some adjacent buildings also were evacuated. In one of a series of memos to CNN staffers, CNN president Jeff Zucker said the company would “remain vigilant regarding security concerns across all of our global locations.” Earlier reports that a suspicious device was intercepted at the White House proved false. Brennan, a strong critic of President Donald Trump, does not work for CNN. He is a frequent contributor to NBC and MSNBC. The Florida office of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was evacuated earlier today after a suspicious package was found there, addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder but, like the other packages, carrying a return address of Wasserman Schultz’s office. (The package intended for Holder included an incorrect address and so was returned to the Wasserman Schultz return address). At a press conference this afternoon, during which New York’s mayor, governor and commissioner of police spoke, the device at CNN was confirmed as a live functional explosive device containing a suspicious white powder. Speaking at a previously planned rally in Florida, Hillary Clinton thanked the Secret Service for keeping her family safe. “Every day we are grateful for their service and their commitment,” she said, adding that we live in “a troubling time” of “deep division.” The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the situation. Vice President Mike Pence issued the following statement: “These cowardly actions ares despicable and have no place in this country. Those responsible will be brought to justice,” which Trump retweeted with the comment, “I agree wholeheartedly!” The device at CNN was discovered in the network’s mailroom. Sciutto and Harlow, on air, were among the CNN staffers ordered to leave the building; the two continued reporting on the situation outside the building, initially using Harlow’s iPhone. Just before 11:40 am ET, the bomb device was removed from the Time Warner Center, likely for off-site detonation at an NYPD training facility in The Bronx. CNN cited an NYPD source describing the device sent to Time Warner Center as constructed with a pipe and wires. 58th street East of 9th Ave is closed off. pic.twitter.com/F3TYZWOzVX — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 24, 2018 The incident at CNN follows the interception earlier today and last night of suspicious packages resembling homemade bombs addressed to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Secret Service confirmed earlier.