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are you learning? >> wolf, a law enforcement official told me today that authorities are preparing for a long and slow investigation here and it starts with pieces of the explosive devices scattered along an enormous crime scene. even before the dust started to settle, authorities were asking what kind of explosive device created this. the picture of the bombs now starting to emerge is that they were deadly but crude. a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the boston bomb investigation tells cnn the bombs were hidden in bags inside a metal pressure cooker. a law enforcement source also told cnn that it's likely but not certain that a timing device was used to detonate the bomb. emergency room doctors said they believed the bombs contained bbs and nails intended by the bomber to kill or maim as many people as possible. >> there were a variety of sharp objects that we found in their bodies, probably this bomb had multiple metallic fragments in them and we removed them. >> mike bouchard is a former top official with the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. >> it cou
me give you. mike brooks is our law enforcement analyst, he is being told that senator wicker now has protective detail, meaning he has security around him, because of the fact that he received this letter which was tested positive for the poison ricin. let me just go back and tell you what we learned, and that is that what happened was this envelope came addressed to senator wicker, it tested once positive for riciricin, they te it two more times, so three times positive for ricin, so as we speak, this envelope has been sent to a facility in suburban washington, in maryland to get yet another test on ricin. this is something that we learned very quickly, actually as and even before most u.s. senators learned, they were briefed not too long ago earlier this evening from the senator sergeant at arms and they were told that this certainly is essentially very harmful, but they were also calmed a bit by reminding them that this is the reason why they have a facility that's offsite where they sort your mail, it doesn't come directly to their offices. >> it's offsite because of the anthrax
to the perpetrators, we are learning more about just how the explosives were made. law enforcement officials familiar with the case say they appear to have consisted of an explosive and shrapnel backed inside a pressure cooker, probably triggered by some kind of timer. if that is the case, we have seen this before. one of the three devices used in the 2010 attack in times square incorporated a pressure cooker containing approximately 120 fire crackers. a soldier, nazir abdul, convicted last year of plotting an attack at ft. hood, texas, was using a bomb-making recipe from an al qaeda-linked online magazine that used a pressure cooker. in july of 2006, more than 130 died in a series of attacks on the mumbai transit system with pressure cooker explosives placed on the trains. the department of homeland security has warned of the potential terrorist use of pressure cookers saying "as a common cooking utensil, the pressure cooker is often overlooked when searching vehicles, residences, or merchandise crossing the u.s. borders." now, of course, there's still much more that authorities want to know about t
for two or three days while the testing goes on, while law enforcement continues to investigate. so this is something that is very, very important to senators, as you can imagine, and they got a briefing earlier tonight about everything that has gone on. >> we should also point out that mail at the capitol doesn't go directly to congressional ofrsz anymore. >> it doesn't. the first stop for capitol mail right now is for off-site facilities like the one we just showed you. it doesn't come directly to the capitol complex and there is a specific reason for that, exactly what we're seeing tonight, the concern that people will send things that are toxic or poisonous. and that is because of what happened back in 2001. a couple senate offices received letters that were laced with anthrax. senators say tonight that they're happy that this process changed all those years ago, because in this case, the process worked. >> dana, i appreciate the reporting. thank you very much. joining me right now live is former new york city mayor rudy giuliani. mayor, i appreciate you being with us. you obvio