Pig & a poke: Rep. King threat racist, too
By S.A. MILLERNew York Post
April 6, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The threatening package containing a bloody pig's foot sent to Rep. Pete King (R-LI) was as much a racist assault as it was religious hate mail, The Post has learned.
The rambling note accompanying the porcine parcel proclaimed that "white bitches" would soon be naming their sons Mohammed, said a Capitol Hill source.
The note contained anti-Semitic slurs, called the pig's foot a "Jew foot," taunted "kiss my black Muslim ass," and said King -- who is Catholic -- was targeted because of hearings he held on the radicalization of Muslim Americans.
King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, received numerous threats over the hearings and has been getting additional security.
The congressman's office would not comment on the threatening package other than to say it was cooperating with the investigation and referred questions to the Capitol Police.
US Postal Service screeners intercepted the package Monday at a postal facility before it reached King's office at the Capitol.
King is slated to testify at a mini version of the radicalization hearing Friday in Manhattan, despite claims by some Democrats that the discussion will spread bigotry.
The hearing was called by state Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Chairman Gregory Ball (R-Putnam) to examine security threats facing New York 10 years after 9/11.
The hearing was blasted yesterday in a letter by 11 Senate Democrats who claimed some witnesses "seek only to inflame hysteria and place an entire faith under suspicion."
Ball called the witnesses, including Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, experts on terrorism.
Additional reporting by Fredric U. Dicker in Albany