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Florida Congresswoman's E-Mail Cracked

The woman's e-mail account was used to send inflammatory messages about the president.

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A cracker broke into a congresswoman's e-mail account Wednesday and used it to send a message condemning President Bush and the war in Iraq, her office said.

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite drew attention last month when she proposed legislation to let families of Americans buried in France during the world wars bring home the remains if they are offended by France's stance against the war in Iraq.

It wasn't known if the cracker's motives involved that bill.

The freshman Republican's press secretary, Caryn McLeod, said in Washington that the FBI was trying to track the cracker. She said the message called Bush a terrorist and said he, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld deserved the death penalty.

She added that the message used bad grammar.

The e-mail went to everyone in the account's e-mail address book, as well as to everyone in the Florida Legislature, McLeod said.

"The idea that someone would make these kinds of incendiary statements and attribute them to me is appalling," Brown-Waite said in a statement.

In apparent response to the bill Brown-Waite filed last month, her Florida office recently received a package of rotting chicken bones from Germany. That prank came after a German magazine encouraged its readers to send bones to Brown-Waite with the message: "The boys are coming home."

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