Last week I noted how the media had been silent on a package sent to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) that contained an anti-Semitic rant and a bloody pig's foot.
The Associated Press broke the story on Monday, April 4.
In a new development, Politico's Jennifer Epstein reported this afternoon that a Muslim woman from Georgia has claimed responsibility and Capitol police are investigating the claim:
A Muslim woman has admitted to mailing a bloody pig’s foot and a threatening letter to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), as well as another bizarre package to a New York state senator.
The woman, Jameela Barnette, of Marietta, Ga., says she sent the package to King earlier this month to voice her dismay with the hearing he held last month on what he calls the “radicalization” of American Muslims.
“I thought the letters explain themselves,” she told the New York Post, speaking not only of the anti-Semitic note to King, but the one she says she sent to state Sen. Greg Ball, a Republican who has held his own hearings on Muslims and hosted King at the most recent hearing last week.
Just after the package to King was intercepted at a Maryland mail facility earlier this month, a congressional source told POLITICO the accompanying letter was “a rambling type” of message that referred to the congressman as a “Jew,” though he is Catholic.
King told POLITICO on Thursday that Barnette “obviously has problems” and “appears to be a disturbed person who seems to be getting carried away with herself.”
He wouldn’t speculate about what might come next, saying only: “I’ll let the police know how serious this is.” Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They said earlier this month that the investigation was ongoing.
The package sent to Ball included a Curious George stuffed animal with two Stars of David taped to it and a note that said, “FINAL DESTINATION: AUSCHWITZ.” Barnette told The Journal News that she sent the monkey because “I knew the Jews were behind the hearings. A monkey is a representation of who the Jews are.” The “Curious George” series of children’s books were written by Holocaust survivors.
If this woman's claims bear out and she was responsible, the folks at CAIR may have to eat their words.
From a CBSNews.com story from the evening of April 4:
Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations - a target of King's hearings - said he found the situation confusing. He said his organization regularly receives pig-themed hate messages, including letters smeared with bacon.
"My guess is it was an anti-Muslim bigot, and bigots not being brain surgeons they probably got their signals crossed," he said.
