-By Warner Todd Huston
On Friday morning, April 12, a package suspected of containing an explosive device was addressed to the offices of the Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriffs offices of Joe Arpaio, known as “America’s toughest sheriff.”
The package was intercepted by postal authorities in Flagstaff and was submitted to an X-ray scan that showed what looked like an explosive device hidden inside.
Postal authorities said that the package was flagged by a “very astute” carrier who thought the thing was suspicious.
The bomb squad was quickly called and the suspicious package was destroyed.
Tom Mangan, a spokesman in Phoenix for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told reporters that the box was damaged in transit and was leaking gun powder.
Sheriff Arpaio shrugged off the possible attempt on his life saying, “That’s the nature of the business. I’m getting many threats. This isn’t the first time.”
The newly re-elected Arpaio is fighting a recall effort that is getting increasingly vicious.
The Arizona-based Conservative Business League, a group leading an effort to defeat the recall of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, has said the incident was “disturbing.”
“We are disturbed to learn about the threat on the lives of Sheriff Joe and his staff today, but today is not a day to discuss politics. There is an ongoing investigation, and we want to let law enforcement do their jobs and get to the bottom of it and work to remove the public threat. We will reserve comment until we know more. But we are certainly grateful no one was hurt,” the CBL said in a statement released to Breitbart.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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