President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

Federal authorities are investigating letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that contained a suspicious substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a lethal biological warfare agent.

The U.S. Secret Service immediately quarantined the letter to Obama that was received at a mail screening facility offsite from the White House, the front of which was cordoned off by yellow tape Tuesday, officials said. Lab test results will take 24-48 hours to confirm if the substance is Ricin.

“The investigation into these letters remains ongoing, and more letters may still be received,” the FBI said in a statement that did not indicate if there was a written message in the envelope. “There is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.”

The mail case broke a day after the Boston Marathon bombings that left three dead and nearly 200 wounded. The FBI has said at least one of the two bombs was built out of a pressure cooker filled with projectiles.

The apparent Ricin mailings are similar to letters containing Anthrax that were mailed to two U.S. Senators and several New York City-based news outlets for weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Five people died and 17 were hospitalized for exposure and the FBI’s suspect killed himself.

U.S. Capitol Police, which responded with its HAZMAT crew, described the powder in the latest case as a “white granular substance.”

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, referred most questions about the case to the FBI and said Obama is scheduled to travel Thursday to Boston, where he will speak at an interfaith service.

“Any time a suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, it is tested,” Carney told reporters Wednesday.

Operations at the White House and the Capitol Complex have not been affected as a result of the investigation, authorities said, but other cases of suspicious packages have been reported Wednesday.

“On the House side, at least, it’s business as usual,” Samantha Slater, spokeswoman for Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), told the Press. “What they’ve found so far is on the Senate side.”

She added that she noticed the garbage cans were dismantled Wednesday outside the U.S. Capitol Building.

Internet hacktivist group Anonymous plans to disrupt the 2013 State of the Union Address Feb. 12. (Long Island Press)

Internet hacktivist collective Anonymous is planning to disrupt the online broadcast of President Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address, according to a communiqué received by grassroots activism publicity agency The Sparrow Project.

The message was sent to an email address assigned to a Sparrow Project volunteer Tuesday morning, says a posting on The Sparrow Project’s homepage, and “details a planned effort by the group’s affiliates online to disrupt the online streaming and syndication of the President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, scheduled for 9pm EST.”

“The communiqué goes on to elaborate that this action is in response to a proposed executive order that would reinstate the most protested elements of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Information Act (CISPA),” the publicity grooup writes. “In 2012 a synergistic movement of progressives, legislative reformers, online activists, and autonomous hackers successfully defeated CISPA and another controversial bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Many credit Aaron Swartz and the group which he cofounded, Demand Progress, with coordinating the successful campaign to stop these bills.”

Previous Anonymous DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service] attacks have targeted the White House, U.S. Department of Justice, Internet pedophiles, the Church of Scientology, PayPal and the New York Stock Exchange, among many others. Members are known to don Guy Fawkes masks when appearing in public, as they’ve done throughout the Occupy Wall Street Movement and related protests.

“We are Anonymous,” reads the introduction on cyber chat room AnonSet. “We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”

“Welcome to Operation State of the Union,” it continues, additionally directing users to #SOTU Twitter feed, which was trending. “POST NOW — ENGAGE ALL MEMES — FULL TROLL AHEAD.”

The following is the text from Anonymous’ communiqué sent to The Sparrow Project:

“Article II, Sector 3 of the US Constitution, says the President ‘shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.’

“At 9PM Eastern Standard Time, February [12], 2013 President Obama has planned to address a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address. The following day, President Obama will be introducing an executive order, purportedly aimed at bolstering U.S. cybersecurity, after repeated failed attempts to pass legislation through Congress.

“Anonymous has reached a verdict of NO CONFIDENCE in this executive order and the plans to reintroduce the CISPA bill to Congress on the same day. As such, President Obama and the State of the Union Address will be BANISHED from the Internet for the duration of live delivery. So as not to infringe upon the President’s free speech, subsequent broadcasts will be allowed to pass unhindered. This action is being taken to underline a fact that appears to be sorely unrecognized by the Obama Administration — that the Internet is a sovereign territory, and does not fall under the jurisdiction of any nation state.

“We are the natives of this space, and its guardians, and we will fight until death to protect it as a neutral grounds for the unhindered interaction of all members of the human race, so long as they themselves act in harmony with this inviolable principle. Our determination is that President Obama is acting in direct contravention of this principle, and his brief exclusion is an educational, rather than a punitive measure. We hope that its lesson will be learnt. Punitive measures have not been ruled out. — Anonymous”