The threat of terrorism in the U.S. lives beyond Osama bin Laden as almost a dozen suspicious packages were reported across the nation since Sunday.
In this May 2, 2011, file photo, New York City police officers with Operation Hercules arrive at the Armed Forces recruitment center in New York's Times Square. The NYPD has seen a jump in reports of suspicious packages since the president announced the killing of Osama bin Laden, including 62 on Monday, up from 18 a week earlier. All were false alarms, which police officials say have become a frequent but necessary annoyance for authorities laboring to protect a nervous city in the post-9/11 world. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)SPRINGFIELD, MASS. - Following the death of Osama bin Laden in a raid by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan, President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials warned that even if al Qaeda was not poised to launch a major retaliatory attack, an increased threat from "homegrown extremists" exists.
That threat seems to have caught the public's attention with almost a dozen suspicious packages reported across the nation since the news of bin Laden's death was announced late Sunday.
In Massachusetts on Tuesday, there were at least four incidents involving suspicious packages.
An unknown white powder was found in envelopes addressed to Attorney General Martha Coakley and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in downtown Boston, as well as in an envelope addressed to the court clerk at Greenfield District Court. A similar substance was reportedly found in the John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building in Boston.
Preliminary reports all indicated the substances weren't dangerous, but further tests are being conducted at state labs.
The Greenfield incident prompted officials to evacuate and close the Franklin County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon. The courthouse later reopened and it was business as usual on Wednesday, according to court personnel.
In New York City, perhaps the most vigilant municipality in the country, a suspicious package report from Times Square came in just as officials at a news conference held at Ground Zero urged the public to remain calm and vigilant in the face of new threats from terrorist groups across the globe.
With the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 still fresh in the minds of many, Americans are increasingly vigilant about reporting suspicious activity to authorities. The New York Police Department moved in quickly and determined the package was only a bag of garbage. But despite the high volume of such reports since Sunday, officials are playing it safe, carefully investigating each incident and hoping for the best.
According to the Associated Press, there were 62 suspicious package reports in the city on Monday, compared to just 18 a week prior when bin Laden was unknowingly living out his last days in a suburb of Parkistan's capitol city.
More reports mean more running for the police, but NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly urged the public to report anything and everything that looks out of the norm.
"We anticipate that with increased public vigilance comes an increase in false alarms for suspicious packages," Kelly said at the Monday news conference. "This typically happens at times of heightened awareness. But we don't want to discourage the public. If you see something, say something."
A bomb squad officer works on an SUV in New York's Times Square early Sunday morning, May, 2, 2010, after an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb was found inside it. The bomb plotter, Faisal Shahzad, is currently serving a life sentence for the incident.Almost a year ago, on May 1, 2010, a street vendor in Times Square notified police when he saw an SUV parked and suspiciously smoking. The SUV turned out to be a failed car bomb made by Pakistani-born Faisal Shahzad, who later was identified and captured and now is serving a life sentence.
In downtown Augusta, Georgia, on Tuesday, a United Parcel Service driver alerted authorities after discovering a suspicious package addressed to the president in a mailing drop box. Augusta police secured the scene and the package and turned over the investigation and all evidence to the Secret Service a short time later.
There has been no word as of this report about what was inside that package or what was "suspiciously" written on the return address label.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to at least two suspicious package reports on Tuesday, including one that shut down a major train line for three hours. Both incidents turned out to be harmless, but served as a reminder that just because bin Laden is dead, the movement he fathered lives on.
Pakistani officials have reportedly arrested the builder of the compound that Osama bin Laden was living in, presumably the first of many arrests to be associated with the past decade of the deceased al Qaeda leader's life. In other parts of the country, suspicious package reports closed a road in Nashville, created panic in the heart of Philadelphia and caused the evacuation of a busy neighborhood in San Francisco.
A suspicious package report that cleared out an Orlando hotel on Tuesday turned out to be a box of promotional basketballs.
President Obama preached that message in his speech Monday morning, hours after the covert operation left bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in smoldering ruins.
"The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's efforts to defeat al Qaeda," Obama said. "We must and will remain vigilant at home and abroad."
The head of the CIA echoed Obama's sentiments, reminding Americans that the threat is far from over.
"Though bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda is not," said CIA Director Leon Panetta on Monday. "The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must -- and will -- remain vigilant and resolute."