Man charged over threats sent to Bush

AN engineer at a nuclear power plant has been charged with sending threatening letters containing a powdery substance to a country club where US President George W Bush was scheduled to appear yesterday for a Republican campaign event.

Michael Lee Braun, 51, appeared in court on Monday on two federal charges of sending threats through the mail. The FBI said he also is a suspect in mailing dozens of similar threats shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The charges are connected to two letters prosecutors said Braun mailed on Thursday to the Serrano Country Club and Serrano Visitors Center in El Dorado Hills, a community in the foothills east of Sacramento. Mr Bush appeared in the club yesterday afternoon in a campaign event for US representative John Doolittle.

The letters contained threats to Mr Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Mr Doolittle, according to an FBI statement.

“Anytime somebody’s out there threatening offices and public servants, it’s unnerving to say the least,” Doolittle spokeswoman Laura Blackann said.

Spokesmen for the Secret Service declined comment.

A federal affidavit said that Braun has sent a total of 51 threatening letters since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The letters are said to have threatened the lives of the president, Mr Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the affidavit said.