Man accused of 'bomb bag' threat at IRS office

On August 17, 2009 a man threatened an IRS employee when he handed her a note that read, “Bomb bag,” and gestured to his back pack during his visit to a San Jose IRS office. Today that man was charged in federal court.

The day of the scare, the IRS employee is said to have quickly hit a panic alarm and then special agents evacuated the building and detained the suspect. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the suspect was taken into custody for psychiatric evaluation that day. However, a bomb was not found.

Read the full article here and tell me what you think.

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IRS Investigates Flurry of Threats Against its Workers and Facilities

According to the Washington Post, the number of threats being made against Internal Revenue Service employees has been rapidly climbing since the incident last month when a plane flew into an IRS office. The pilot and one IRS employee died in the crash, and since then the IRS has investigated more then 70 reported instances of a threats being made by taxpayers to IRS workers.

Workers have received a mix of inappropriate verbal comments -- including jokes or statements of support for pilot A. Joseph Stack -- and more serious threats, claimed National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley.

Kelley said she learned of the threats from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which tracks threats against IRS workers. Neither TIGTA nor the IRS would confirm the number of threats or share details of the probe.

"TIGTA is actively and aggressively investigating all threats made against IRS employees, infrastructure and property," said J. Russell George, the treasury inspector general for tax administration. His office and the IRS have instructed workers to report threats immediately. "It would be a little naive to think that we don't get some threats over the course of doing business," said IRS Communications Director Terry Lemons.

Attacks and threats against IRS workers and facilities are nothing new and are not confined to the annual spring tax filing season, Lemons said. People have rammed cars into offices as well as set them on fire. And some people have taken out hits on agency employees, he said.

Threats Against IRS Employees on the Rise

From the Wall Street Journal:

The federal agency charged with ensuring the safety of IRS employees said it has seen an increase within the past several years in threats against agency personnel.

In the past four years, there appears to have been a "steady, upward trend" in the number of threats against IRS employees, said an official with the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration. That assessment, offered in response to an inquiry from Dow Jones Newswires, is based on preliminary data, the official cautioned.

On Thursday, 53-year old Andrew Joseph Stack crashed his private plane into an Austin, Texas, office building that housed IRS workers, killing himself and one IRS employee and injuring 13 others.

Following the attack, Inspector General J. Russell George said his agency will consider whether changes to security policies are necessary to improve safety.

"There's no question that in the wake of this tragedy, we will be directing attention to that very issue," Mr. George said in an interview. "There are limitations, however, on what you can anticipate about what a disturbed, troubled person can do."