Report: Occupy Portland Sympathizer Behind Series of Anthrax Hoaxes

The FBI believes an Occupy Portland / Occupy Wall Street / Anonymous sympathizer is behind a rash of white powder --faux anthrax--attacks on US Senators' offices and other targets around the country and may be their man on several other faux anthrax attacks on Portland area targets. 

Under the bizarre, beside the point headline,

 Willamette Week does eventually come to the blockbuster point in the 7th paragraph of the story:

Now, previously unreported documents in the case against Carlson reveal new details about his alleged crimes: He may be among the first accused domestic terrorists to claim sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street movement and the hacker group Anonymous.

Here's another gobsmacker: A federal judge has seen fit to conditionally release the perp, Christopher Lee Carlson, a 39 year old man from Vancouver, Washington, until his trial on 12 counts of domestic terrorism. Vancouver is next door to Portland.

On May 14, a federal magistrate in Portland ordered the conditional release of Christopher Lee Carlson, 39, the Vancouver, Wash., man charged with 12 felony counts of mail threats in connection to the hoax. Carlson had been held in the Multnomah County Detention Center since his March 30 arrest. U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart released him to a halfway house, ordered him not to drink alcohol and to keep appointments with his psychiatrist.

I wonder if Carlson has one of those Portland area GITMO attorneys?


Portland's other recently accused domestic terrorist (8 terrorists, 9 years, one mosque!), Mohammad Mohammud, sits in the federal lock up for plotting to blow up Portland's "Tree Lighting" ceremony (for you new people the religious cleansers have scrubbed the words 'Holiday' and 'Christmas' from the civic lexicon).

Carlson's aim apparently was to create chaos and expend the resources of law enforcement trying to keep up with him and his kooky anthrax antics. He said so in his letters. From Willamette Week:

"...[L]etters taunted the futility of official security measures: “You know how much this little hoax cost me to put on? About 60 bucks. How much will it cost the government? What if a lot of other people start getting ideas like this and implementing them? We can’t afford that, can we?”

Willamette Week then adds, although they don't offer quotes from the accused terrorist's letters:

He also declared common cause with Anonymous and Occupy, but said he wasn’t affiliated with either group.

Recently, the Occupy Portlanders joked about sending me white powder. 

Occupy Portland has been one of the most "active" of the Occupy groups. A collection of anarchists, Animal Liberation Front activists, and the usual Friday-at-4pm-Time-for-a-Protest Professionals populated the encampment and energize the basest instincts of the Occupiers. That Carlson found affinity with these people is not surprising. To get an idea of how Occupy Portland has conducted itself please check out these post samplings  here,  here,  here,  here, here, here.