Suspicious white powder found in Navy mailroom near Pentagon

About 800 U.S. Navy personnel have been evacuated from a building in Arlington, Va., after a letter was found to contain a suspicious white powder on Thursday morning.   The letter was found at Commander Naval Personnel, the Navy’s office for personnel matters, near the Court House district of Arlington, just a few miles from ...

About 800 U.S. Navy personnel have been evacuated from a building in Arlington, Va., after a letter was found to contain a suspicious white powder on Thursday morning.  

About 800 U.S. Navy personnel have been evacuated from a building in Arlington, Va., after a letter was found to contain a suspicious white powder on Thursday morning.  

The letter was found at Commander Naval Personnel, the Navy’s office for personnel matters, near the Court House district of Arlington, just a few miles from the Pentagon.

According to a military official, about 800 people were evacuated after a "white powder" was found in an envelope. Arlington country officials are on the scene.

"A suspicious substance was found in the mailroom of Building #12 at Naval Support Facility – Arlington, Va. As a precaution, all personnel are currently being evacuated. The situation is ongoing and currently under investigation and we will provide additional details as they become available," a Navy statement said.

UPDATE: The suspicious substance tested "negative for hazardous material," the Navy said, following multiple test by Arlington County Hazmat Response Team.  "The situation has been cleared and the suspicious letter has been turned over to the Navy authorities and evacuated personnel have been let back into the building."

 

Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron

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