The man charged last week with sending threatening letters to John McCain campaign offices also mailed a letter to one of Barack Obama's offices, according to a federal official familiar with the investigation, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information. The suspect—a Colorado inmate named Marc Harold Ramsey—told investigators about the missive when questioned last week; it was intercepted at the post office.
Ramsey was already known to the Secret Service for similar activities in the past, and he took little care to hide his identity. In the McCain letter, which contrary to initial accounts did not contain a harmful powder, he listed the Araphoe County detention facility in suburban Denver as a return address and included his inmate ID number. Ramsey complained to investigators that his father had served in Vietnam at the same time as McCain, but that while the government took care of McCain, they neglected his father, who suffers from from exposure to Agent Orange. The Obama letter did not contain any threatening language.
According to the federal official, no less than 62 different law-enforcement agencies are participating in convention security operations. Last week the Homeland Security Department announced that eight of its agencies, including the Secret Service, FEMA, Transportation Security Administration, its intelligence bureau and "Domestic Nuclear Detection Office" (which buys scanners that are supposed to spot nuclear and dirty bombs) are all involved in Denver. But Russ Knocke, spokesman for the department, says that "There is no specific or credible information at this time to suggest a terrorist threat to the DNC."
The Obama campaign declined to comment.