Nevada Guard base in Reno received suspicious package

RENO -- The Nevada Air National Guard base in Reno received one of the suspicious packages that were sent to National Guard and Reserve facilities in 36 states, a local guard spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

The 51 packages included anti-war compact discs and began arriving at locations around the country last Friday, National Guard spokesman Mark Allen said in Washington, D.C.

Initial reports from the Guard that one of the packages contained a powdery substance turned out to be incorrect, officials said.

A mailroom worker at the Reno base noticed that a package that arrived Tuesday resembled the kind base officials had been alerted about during a briefing earlier in the week, said Capt. April Conway, public information officer for the Nevada National Guard.

"It just looked funny," she said. "There was no return address. It had more postage than was needed and the postage was on the left-hand side."

The Guard's local civil support team examined the package, determined it was harmless and turned it over to the U.S. postal inspector, Conway said.

"They realized there was no powder residue or anything like that," she said.

From what little Conway saw inside the package, she said there was a CD and some pamphlets similar to packages in other states. "They said 'Repeal the Patriot Act,' things like that," she said.

A classified meeting about the mailings was under way Wednesday afternoon at the Guard's joint operation center, which monitors deployments of teams sent out to investigate such incidents, Guard spokesman Randy Noller said.

Some of the packages were postmarked from Tennessee and Oklahoma, Allen said.

"It doesn't appear that we have a problem," Allen said Wednesday.