Is the Ricin Case Coming Apart?
JOSH MARSHALL APRIL 23, 2013, 9:58 AM
If last week was the week from hell, with barbaric crime and a horrific industrial accident, the ricin letters sent to President Obama and Sen. Wicker (R-MS) turned out to be the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the tragic proceedings — evil, bizarre but eventually harmless. But before we get any deeper into the morning, I wanted to flag to your attention that there now seems to be a non-trivial chance that the feds got the wrong guy.
So, if you remember, the feds zeroed in a bipolar Elvis impersonator down in Tupelo and Corinth, Mississippi who actually signed the letters with his own initials and a catchphrase he’s used widely across the internet. He also has a weird obsession and conspiracy theory tied to the sale of body parts at a facility he used to work at, which may or may not be a paranoid fantasy.
But here’s the problem. In the initial court hearing yesterday, the government conceded that in their initial search they found no evidence of ricin or the production of ricin. And a search of Curtis’s computers similarly found no evidence of trying to find information about ricin or anything else clearly related to the case.
Now, they’re still looking for evidence and maybe they’ll find it. And perhaps he just covered his tracks well. But that’s a level of tradecraft that seems somewhat beyond the interest level and abilities of someone who seems rather hapless in general and actually signed his name to the letters.
Full article:
http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/04/if_last_week_was_the.php?ref=fpblg
