When The War Comes Home - Soldier Against Soldier

[Magda Hassan]

Suspicious note and package found at Fort Benning
(AP) – 5 hours ago
FORT BENNING, Ga. — A Fort Benning spokesman says Army officials are investigating whether a suspicious note and package found at the west Georgia post is a viable threat.
Bob Purtiman says a soldier found the note and package Thursday morning in an outdoor gazebo. The soldier immediately told a supervisor, who called 911.
Purtiman would not say what was in the note or what was in the package.
He said authorities are investigating whether there is a viable threat against Fort Benning. He says security measures have been heightened in the meantime.
Earlier this month, an Army psychiatrist opened fire at Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti...wD9C450N81

Note said Hood-style shooting could happen



By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Nov 21, 2009 14:37:27 EST
A box of hollow-point bullets and an anonymous note threatening an incident like the one at Fort Hood, Texas, were discovered Thursday at Fort Benning, Ga., sparking a criminal investigation and greater police presence, a witness told Army Times.
According to a witness at the scene, a box of 20 hollow-point shells and a handwritten note were found in the motor pool area between 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry, under the 197th Infantry Training Brigade.
“The note said ‘tell the commanding general to call off all charges or there will be a re-enactment of Fort Hood,’ ” the witness told Army Times. He spoke on condition he wouldn’t be identified.
After the discovery, he said, military police arrived with dogs, cordoned off a 20-foot perimeter around the box and began dusting for fingerprints and questioning people.
“They’re talking with anyone with a pending [Uniform Code of Military Justice] charge and people who are getting chaptered out to see if they can find out who it is,” the witness said.
An official at Fort Benning would not comment on the details offered by the witness except to acknowledge “an ongoing investigation into a general threat at Fort Benning.”
“A suspicious package and note were found,” post spokeswoman Elsie Jackson said. “The soldier notified a noncommissioned officer, who alerted 911. The area was secured as is normal in these types of incidents.”
The witness said soldiers in the unit were asked to step forward and were nervous about the possibility of a copycat crime like the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, in which 13 people were killed while waiting for medical appointments.
The suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, has been charged with 13 counts of murder.
Jackson said “appropriate force protection measures are in place while an investigation is underway to determine if this is a viable threat.”
The witness said he has seen an increase in MP patrols on post and that the Kelley Hill area of Fort Benning had been placed on a lockdown status for part of the day Friday.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/ar...x_112009w/