Ricin

[JudgeNutmeg]

As for asking for a refund, any expression of disgust at our services would be best voiced by voting with one's feet.

...which is why i shall be leaving these hallowed shores to work abroad come springtime :yabba:

 

[Anonymous]

which is why i shall be leaving these hallowed shores to work abroad come springtime

I remember hearing somewhere that these buggers get paid £2000 if they volunteer to go back home again......jeez thats more money than some of these people see in a lifetime!!
and half the resident population would leave these shores for that too i guess?:headbutt:

 

[Anonymous]

I remember hearing somewhere that these buggers get paid £2000 if they volunteer to go back home again

AND they get £400 for a telly AND their telly licence paid for as well - oops, sorry, wrong urban legend. Thought you were talking about dole scroungers.

 

[Anonymous]

Bit of a private joke here, but I was interested to see that the Wyevale garden centre chain has pulled all sales of castor beans in the light of the ricin story.

A year or so ago I started work on a story which contained the following exchange:

“Listen,” he panted. “The man you want is called Clive West. He works at B&Q at Kingsway. He’s worked as an MI5 informant in the past, and is now in Home and Garden.”
“That’s a bit of a come down, from international espionage to DIY".
“MI5 routinely recruits from hardware stores,” the man said matter-of-factly. “Most terrorists get their chemicals from DIY stores, so all purchases are screened for particular combinations of chemicals. Things that can be used to produce incendiary devices, explosives, what have you. Anyway, that’s not important..."

And I thought I'd just made it all up...

 

[Beakmoo]

DD, are you sure he wasn't talking about MFI?

 

[Anonymous]

Bit of a private joke here, but I was interested to see that the Wyevale garden centre chain has pulled all sales of castor beans in the light of the ricin story

Gosh a semi sensible knee jerk reaction for once
Only 17,381 poisons and explosives left available to terrorists now then
Still stops the amateur chemists from killing themselves and their families.
Out of intrest what would you use castor beans for normally?

 

[gyrtrash]

Out of intrest what would you use castor beans for normally?

Growing castor oil plants?


The ones with red tinges to the seed heads are particularly striking architectural bedding plants - they tend to suffer with the first frosts though...

 

[Anonymous]

Growing castor oil plants

Oh yeah :headbutt:
Dime bar of the day award goes to........ ME

 

[gyrtrash]

I was surprised to find they were grown here too!

They are still pretty uncommon...seeds are expensive (7 in a pack for £3 or so if I remember)...
But they do have a 'poison' warning on them...

 

[Novena]

...and now Paris

Ricin traces found in Paris railway

PARIS (Reuters) - The French Interior Ministry says traces of the deadly toxin ricin have been found in the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris.

A spokesman told Reuters on Thursday that two small flasks containing traces of the poison were discovered in a left luggage depot at the mainline railway station which serves the south of France.

In January, British anti-terrorist police arrested several people in connection with the alleged discovery of ricin in a tiny north London flat.

Ricin, one of the deadliest naturally occurring poisons, is derived from castor plant beans, which are grown worldwide to produce castor oil.

The chemical, which is many times more deadly than cyanide, is considered a likely bio-warfare agent and is on the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's "B" list of agents -- considered a moderate threat.

 

[ogopogo3]

In breaking news, Jacques Chirac announces the ricin producers will receive a free nuclear reactor in return for lucrative oil contracts and exclusive military hardware parts.

 

[Anonymous]

If the UN tried to do something about Ricin in the french subway the french parliament would only disturb the process and threaten to pull out.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Ricin fear at US Senate building

Police fear that a white powder found at the Washington office of a senior US politician could be the poison ricin.

Field tests conducted on Monday indicated the substance found in Senate Majority leader Bill Frist's office was hazardous.

More tests will now be carried out to see if it is ricin, which can kill victims within days.

Seven men were arrested in London a year ago after traces of ricin were found in a flat.

Ricin was also found in a package at a post office in South Carolina in October.

The suspect powder was found in an envelope in Mr Frist's office in the Dirksen building, where a number of senators and their staff have offices.

It is not known how the envelope got there.

"In preliminary tests, the substance tested positive for a hazardous substance. Further tests are now being conducted," said Capitol Police Sergeant Contricia Sellers-Ford.

Terror link

In 2001, the poison anthrax was sent to a number of addresses in the eastern United States, including two senators on Capitol Hill.

Five people died in those anthrax attacks.

Ricin is made from the castor bean plant, and can be injected, inhaled or ingested.

The substance has been linked with al-Qaeda and with weapons programmes of the former Iraqi regime.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3453651.stm

Published: 2004/02/03 04:11:47 GMT

© BBC MMIV

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Interesting angle on the story:

Ricin Letter Found In Anti-Gay Senate Leader's Mail

by Paul Johnson
365Gay.com Newscenter
Washington Bureau Chief


Posted: February 2, 2004 8:50 p.m. ET

(Washington, D.C.) A letter showing traces of the deadly chemical ricin was found Monday night n the mail room of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

The biological agent was discovered in a test given all mail going into the senator's mail room. The "field test" is not conclusive. Capitol Police put the letter in a biohazard container and have sent it to the FBI lab for further study. Some field tests that showed mail was contaminated with other chemicals in the past were later disproved by the FBI.

Neither the senator nor his staff are said to have come in contact with the envelope.

Ricin was developed to be used as an agent of biological warfare and as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). It is widely available, easily produced, and derived from the beans of the castor plant.

In 1991 in Minnesota, 4 members of the Patriots Council, an extremist group that held antigovernment and antitax ideals and advocated the overthrow of the US government, were arrested for plotting to kill a US marshal with ricin. The ricin was produced in a home laboratory. It was also used to kill a Bulgarian broadcster in London by putting a small amount on the tip of an umbrella. He was poked with the umbrella as he walked across London Bridge and died within seconds. British Intelligence believed it was the work of Soviet spies but were never able to prove it.

Frist has been one of the most vocal opponents to LGBT rights in the Senate, and is a supporter of a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.

Last month, in a speech to a conservative lobby group, Frist said that marriage is under attack by 'activist judges'.

Calling heterosexual marriage a "God-ordained institution" Frist said, "we will do whatever it takes to protect, preserve, and strengthen the institution of marriage against activist judges. If that means we must amend the Constitution, we will do it."

http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/02/020204fristRicin.htm

So it could be someone trying to give him a scare for his anti-gay position (there is a joke in there somewhere) or it could be US anti-government nutcases or it could be al Qeada or it could be a false alarm or it might be none of the above

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Good overviews:

Terror weapon from a humble bean

The background: Ricin

Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday January 8, 2003
The Guardian

In 1978 an exiled Bulgarian broadcaster was jabbed in the lower leg by an umbrella while waiting for a London bus. Georgi Markov developed severe gastroenteritis and a high fever and died three days later. Doctors dug a tiny hollow metal sphere with two openings from the wound: it was empty, but it could have held 0.28 cubic millimetres of toxic material. Experts decided that there was only one agent that could have killed in such a way, in such a small quantity.

Markov was to become the world's most famous case of assassination by ricin, a poison derived from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis.

Ricin has no known antidote, and one thousandth of a gram is enough to kill an adult. There are more poisonous substances, but ricin is easy to get hold of: any graduate chemist could make it from castor oil beans, available in quantities almost anywhere in the world. Almost immediately after Markov's death, ricin joined the list of potential weapons for bioterrorism - and terrorists took the hint.

In 1991, four members of an extremist group called the Patriots Council were arrested in Minnesota, on a charge of plotting to kill a US marshal by smearing homemade ricin on the handle of his car door. In 1995, a man entered Canada from Alaska carrying guns, ,000 and a tin of white powder later identified as ricin. In 1997, US agents investigated a shooting and found a makeshift laboratory in a US basement, complete with agents such as ricin and nicotine sulphate.

Besides being a commercial crop, the castor oil plant is an occasional conservatory favourite. The polished seeds are sometimes made into necklaces to be sold to tourists, and could turn up anywhere. There are plenty of cases of accidental poisoning with ricin: one accidentally chewed bean could kill a small child; eight seeds might kill an adult.

But in the last decade, bioterrorism experts have become more worried about the deliberate use of the refined protein. It is highly toxic, it can be used in aerosol form, and there is no antidote and no vaccine.

The US centres for disease control have ranked it as a "B" weapon - one of only moderate threat. This is because it would be a clumsy tool for mass destruction. One expert has calculated that it would take four tons of the stuff to cover a 100 square kilometre area, whereas the same damage could be done by a kilogram of anthrax spores. But once it got into food or water supplies, it would devastate a community and overwhelm any medical resources.

Stockpiles of ricin have been identified in a number of Middle East countries. Iraq is believed to have made ricin as part of its biological weapons programme. At least one group linked to al-Qaida is thought to have experimented with ricin as a weapon, according to researchers at the University of Texas in Dallas.

But the US, Europe and most of the developed nations also have access to quantities of ricin. The US chemical warfare service considered it as a lethal weapon during the first world war. According to US military experts, American and British scientists collabo rated on a ricin bomb. It was tested, but never used.

Ricin also has medical potential. Cancer researchers have been studying it for more than 50 years as a possible tumour killing weapon; Aids researchers have looked at ricin as a possible agent against HIV; the Texans have been experimenting with potential vaccines against the toxin.

The parent plant also has a long industrial history. The ancient Egyptians used castor oil as a lubricant and a laxative. The oil also served as a lubricant for aeroengines during the first and second world wars, and the toxic protein derived from the bean has been known to chemists for more than 100 years

The poison can be spread as an aerosol; it can be injected; it can contaminate food and water; it can even be absorbed through the skin if mixed with a powerful solvent. If breathed in, it can cause acute lung injury and progressive respiratory failure; if ingested, it can lead rapidly to gastrointestinal haemorrhage, severe dehydration and death within three days.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukresponse/story/0,11017,870494,00.html

Ricin as a weapon

Thursday, October 23, 2003 Posted: 2:28 AM EDT (0628 GMT)



LONDON, England -- Ricin has been developed as a weapon for the best part of 100 years.

The U.S. Chemical Warfare Service began studying the poison as a potential weapon of war during World War I.

During World War II, a ricin bomb was developed by the British military at the top-secret Porton Down biological weapons establishment in Wiltshire, western England.

Ricin was then code-named Compound W. The weapon, dubbed the W-bomb, was tested but never used on soldiers or civilians.

More recently, the toxin has found its way into the arsenals of extremist individuals, groups and governments.

Plans by the al Qaeda terror network to produce ricin were found in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in November 2001.

Iraq is also known to have included ricin in its biological weapons programme.

Experts point out that ricin has mainly been used in the past as a biological weapon for assassination purposes, and it has never been deployed as a weapon for mass destruction.

However, Andy Oppenheimer, a chemical and biological weapons expert at Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, said terrorists could potentially kill large numbers of people with ricin if they put it into aerosol -- a job he described as tricky but not impossible.

A crowded, enclosed environment like the London subway would probably be the most appealing target, he added.

"It's just one of these horror scenarios which people are very frightened of at the moment," he said. "You only need milligrams to kill somebody."

In 1978 it was used to assassinate Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London. The killer was never caught but the Russian KGB was suspected. (Full story)

In the United States, four members of the Patriots Council, an extremist and anti-government group, were arrested in 1991 for allegedly plotting to kill a U.S. marshal with ricin.

They planned to mix the agent with a solvent and then smear it on the door handles of the victim's vehicles.

Customs officials stopped a man entering Canada from Alaska in 1995 who was carrying the poison in a container as well as several guns.

Two years later, U.S. investigators found ricin in a makeshift basement laboratory belonging to a man who had shot his stepson.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/01/07/terror.poison.extremists/index.html

On the Markov murder:

Ricin and the umbrella murder

Thursday, October 23, 2003 Posted: 0627 GMT ( 2:27 PM HKT)



Markov was hit by the dart after walking across Waterloo Bridge



LONDON, England -- It was one of the most notorious acts of assassination carried out during the Cold War.

Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed by poison dart filled with ricin and fired from an umbrella in London in 1978.

Markov, a communist defector working for the BBC World Service, left his office at Bush House in the UK capital on September 11 and walked across Waterloo Bridge to take the train home to Clapham in south-west London.

As he waited at a bus stop moments into his journey home, he felt a sharp jab in his thigh and saw a man picking up an umbrella.

He developed a high temperature and in four days was dead.

A post mortem, conducted with the help of scientists from the UK government's germ warfare centre at Porton Down, established that he had been killed by a tiny pellet containing a 0.2 milligram dose of the poison ricin.

Markov's assassination was detected only because the pellet carrying the poison had not dissolved as expected.

His assassin has never been captured despite close cooperation between British and Bulgarian authorities, including Interpol.

Markov, a playwright and satirist who had broadcast scathing accounts of Communist high life to Bulgaria, was the subject of two failed assassination attempts before he was killed.

And in the years following his death efforts were made to reveal the chain of command which led to the order for his assassination being given.
KGB suspected in assassination

It is believed that the operation was supported by the technical staff of the Soviet KGB and seems to have involved many senior members of the Bulgarian secret police.

In June 1992 General Vladimir Todorov, the former intelligence chief, was sentenced to 16 months in jail for destroying 10 volumes of material on the case.

A second suspect, General Stoyan Savov, the deputy interior minister, committed suicide rather than face trial for destroying the files.

Another Bulgarian spy, Vasil Kotsev, who was widely believed to have been the operational commander of the Markov assassination plot, died in an unexplained car accident.

Scotland Yard says the case remains open.

Extracted from the seeds of the castor bean plant Ricinus communis, ricin is one of the most feared substances with the potential to be used as a bio-terror agent or weapon of mass destruction.

It is widely available, easy to produce, and a tiny amount is enough to kill an adult.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/01/07/terror.poison.bulgarian/index.html

This has more details on the previous US incidents invovling ricin:

Extremists and Chemical or Biological Weapons

The number of criminal incidents over the past several decades involving right-wing extremists and the use or planned use of firearms or explosives far outnumbers the very few incidents that have emerged in which right-wing extremists have been caught using, attempting to use, or in possession of chemical or biological agents.

Indeed, extremists have exhibited far more interest in conventional weaponry - legal and illegal firearms and explosives - than in chemical or biological warfare.

As for anthrax, there is only one documented instance - albeit very dubious - where right-wing extremists considered using the agent (see the Republic of Texas case below). Still there have been enough incidents involving biological or chemical agents that the possibility of their use cannot be dismissed, even if it should not be exaggerated:

Two members of one South Texas faction of the sovereign citizen group known as the Republic of Texas, Johnie Wise and Jack Abbott Grebe, received 24-year prison sentences in 1999 for sending threatening e-mails to various federal agencies. They were acquitted of charges of planning to develop weapons of mass destruction (a third person was acquitted on all counts). This charge centered on discussions by the two men to modify a cigarette lighter to eject a cactus needle that would be coated with some sort of biological agent such as HIV, rabies, botulism-or anthrax. According to an informant, the device would be used against the families of government employees. Although the Republic of Texas members had discussed developing rabies or anthrax for use in this fashion, they never actually made the device, nor is it clear that they would have proceeded with the rather far-fetched idea.

In 1993, Thomas Lavy was arrested along the Alaskan-Canadian border, apparently driving back to his home in Arkansas. Canadian customs officials discovered racist literature, several weapons, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, a lot of cash, and 130 grams of what was later found to be ricin (one gram could kill well over a thousand people). When, some time later, federal authorities came to arrest Lavy at his Arkansas home they found castor beans along with books that included The Poisoner's Handbook and Silent Death. What Lavy's intentions might have been will never be known, because he killed himself in his jail cell several days after his arrest.

Members of an anti-government group known as the Minnesota Patriots Council produced a quantity of ricin in 1992 to possibly use against a U.S. deputy marshal and a deputy sheriff they disliked (they also talked about committing other crimes, such as blowing up a federal building). Three years later, four members-Leroy Wheeler, Douglas Baker, Dennis Henderson, and Richard Oelrich-were arrested and later convicted for possession of ricin (for use as a weapon) and given short sentences. They had learned about the poison from Maynard Campbell's Silent Tools of Justice (and in fact referred to ricin as "Maynard"). Although the Minnesota Patriots Council episode has been considerably publicized, the fact that three years elapsed between when authorities learned about the ricin and when the extremists were arrested suggest that the extremists' use of the substance was not imminent.

One group that considered the use of chemical warfare was the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), a white supremacist survivalist group from Missouri whose members belonged to a Christian Identity cult led by James Ellison. Ellison's group dated back to the early 1970s, but it became increasingly violent and radical in the 1980s as a result of its visions of apocalypse and race war. People associated with the group planned and occasionally committed a variety of hate crimes and murders. When federal law enforcement agents finally broke up the group in 1985, they discovered-among the many automatic weapons, grenades, and even rockets-a 30-gallon drum of cyanide. According to Kerry Noble, the second-in-command of the CSA who later abandoned his extremism, the barrel was obtained from Klan leader Robert Miles and its purpose was to allow the CSA "in the future, when the judgment time had arrived…[to] dump the cyanide into the water supply systems of major cities." However, the judgment time never arrived and the CSA never used it.

Many people in the extreme right believe that the government is using aircraft to spread unknown chemicals on the American people (the popular "chemtrails" or "contrails" conspiracy theory). Many members of right-wing extremist groups have also been very active in attempting to convince American servicemen and servicewomen to refuse to be vaccinated for anthrax, under the impression that either the vaccine is dangerous or the vaccinations malign in purpose. And among those hardcore extremists on the far right who are willing to commit violent acts against the government or other targets, conventional weapons and explosives remain a much more popular choice.

http://www.adl.org/learn/Anthrax/ext_chem.asp?xpicked=2&item=2

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

There are a umber of publications that come up in these things (mentioned above) and there is a good page on them:

Weapons of Destruction: The Far-Right Obsession

The extreme right in the U.S. is a world in which guns and explosives are discussed nearly as often as political issues or concerns. The fixation of the extreme right on weapons and destructive devices, along with a general survivalist interest in hardware and equipment has created a subculture in which knowledge of conventional and unconventional weaponry and warfare is admired and respected.

One can go to virtually any good-sized gun show in the country and find dealers selling Army manuals on improvised munitions as well as a host of manuals and publications by private publishers that form a virtual literary subgenre catering to a paranoid audience. Books providing guidance on manufacturing false identification lie next to "revenge" manuals that provide suggestions on how to maliciously retaliate against one's enemies. The old Anarchist's Cookbook has been supplanted by a variety of works outlining the manufacture of booby traps and kitchen explosives.

These books are often sold with the label "for entertainment purposes only." And indeed, for many on the extreme right, such books and manuals are nothing more than a form of asexual pornography, a way to fantasize about violence and mayhem without actually engaging in it. For others, however, the books may take on a more practical tone.

Formerly available only at gun shows, survivalist expositions, and through obscure catalogs, such books and manuals can now easily be purchased through the Internet, including from mainstream sources. Ragnar Benson, for example, has written works such as Ragnar's Action Encyclopedia of Practical Knowledge and Proven Techniques, a manual whose descriptive copy suggests "may be the most valuable weapon you have in your Y2K arsenal." According to the description, Benson's Encyclopedia includes "precise instructions, diagrams and photographs" showing readers how to "build, choose, store and use weapons, explosives and incendiaries," as well as many other "proven techniques."

A number of similar texts are currently widely available on the Internet and even from some mainstream booksellers:

Survivalist guru Kurt Saxon is the author of The Poor Man’s James Bond, a work similar to Benson’s Encyclopedia. As Saxon describes it an online bookseller’s Web site: "This book is the best of its kind…it is perfect for anarchists, terrorists, and revenge-seeking psychos alike, this book should never fall into the wrong hands…oh wait, that would be me and the people whom [sic] would want it." Such books not only explain how to build bombs and explosives; they also often discuss the manufacture of chemical and biological agents. Saxon, for example, has explained the manufacture of ricin in his books and videotapes.

Silent Death, a book written by "Uncle Fester," provides even more detail. "Uncle Fester" – actually Green Bay chemist Steve Preisler, a convicted criminal who wrote one of his books while in prison – describes himself as the "world’s foremost clandestine chemist." His book is for the "home or clandestine manufacture of poisonous materials, with an emphasis on guerrilla war applications. Topics covered [in Silent Death] in detail include nerve gases, ricin, botulin toxin, and much more." The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, who launched a poison gas attack in Tokyo’s subways in 1995, had copies of Preisler’s book.

Maynard Campbell, an Oregon writer and author of Catalogue of Silent Tools of Justice, a guide to creating biological poisons such as ricin, was a long time white supremacist and anti-government activist whose second book, Kingdoms at War, included suggested tactics for the "Second North American Revolution." In fact, Campbell was eventually arrested for threatening the lives of federal officials during a 1992 standoff (he was murdered in prison in 1997 by another inmate).

Another writer, Maxwell Hutchkinson, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook, suggests the poisoning of IRS workers by sending in tax return forms laced with ricin.

Timothy Tobiason, a self-taught Nebraska chemist and author of Advanced Biological Weapons Design and Manufacture, claims that the government has harassed him and tried to kill him. “If the government continues to do this to people,” he told a reporter from The New York Times, “they’re going to have a whole lot more Tim McVeighs and Tim Tobiasons.” Tobiason lives in a van and sells his book, which includes instructions on manufacturing anthrax, at gun shows across the country.

http://www.adl.org/learn/Anthrax/wod.asp?xpicked=2&item=1

To be honest the Anarchist's Cookbook is a bit dated now (although it still has some scarey stuff).

Its quite funny - you can order a lot of these books online from Amazon (the page is in Danish but the links are about halfway down):

http://www.liberator.dk/art-detail.asp?A_id=311

Emps

 

[Vitrius]

Ricin is an impractical weapon. It looks impressive when it annihilates lab rats, but it basically has to be injected to have lethal impact in humans. Oral absoprtion of it is particularly slow and inefficient. Were this not the case, drinking a whole bottle of that delightful oil could kill you instead of just confining you to the little boy's and girl's room for...a few days.

That makes ricin alot like prions. It looks a hell of alot scarier than it can actually be in effect.

This just shows me Britain can have some of the same styles of impressionistic, hysterical media as the U.S.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

It appears there were two ricin attacks last year which were never dsicussed - it appears to be a disgruntled trucker named "Fallen Angel":

'Fallen Angel' Focus of Ricin Probe


Wednesday February 4, 2004 11:46 PM

By CURT ANDERSON

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Investigators are trying to determine if a mysterious ``Fallen Angel'' who sent two threatening letters containing ricin last fall is responsible for the deadly poison that turned up in the Senate this week.

The earlier typewritten letters addressed to the White House and Transportation Department warned that more ricin would be used unless new federal trucking regulations were scrapped. The change in 60-year-old rules governing how often truck drivers must rest went into effect Jan. 4.

Three senior federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity Wednesday, said the FBI and Capitol Police Department were investigating the possibility that the same person or persons sent ricin-laced mail to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Hazardous materials teams from the FBI and Capitol police searched for a letter or parcel that might have carried the ricin powder, which was found Monday in a mail-sorting room in Frist's personal office. The ricin appeared limited to Frist's office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. No one has been sickened by the poison.

Although three Senate buildings were closed for a second day, Frist announced that they would begin opening on Thursday and the Dirksen building on Monday.

Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said investigators have found ``no obvious direct connection'' between the Frist incident and the letters signed ``Fallen Angel.'' Those letters were discovered in mail facilities that serve the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina and the White House. They were found Oct. 15 and Nov. 6, respectively, though the existence of the White House letter was not disclosed by the Bush administration until Tuesday.

The letters, described as nearly identical, claimed that the author owned a tanker truck fleet company and demanded that hours of service rules for drivers remain unchanged, according to the FBI.

The FBI said the South Carolina letter was contained in an envelope with a typewritten warning ``Caution RICIN POISON.'' The letter included claims that the author could make much more ricin and would ``start dumping'' if the new regulations weren't abolished.

The envelope contained no delivery address and no postmark.

No one has fallen ill as a result of any of the letters. Ricin is a highly toxic substance that is relatively easy to make from castor beans. There is no known antidote but ricin is considered a less effective weapon for causing mass casualties than anthrax, which was mailed to Senate offices in late 2001, because it is more difficult to make airborne and requires inhalation of large quantities to be fatal.

The FBI focused on ricin in its weekly intelligence bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. The confidential bulletin, obtained by The Associated Press, said no threat of any kind had been received in the Frist case. It concentrated mostly on the dangers of ricin and how police should respond to potential contamination.

The trucking industry has been working with the FBI and Transportation Department inspector general's office on the investigation. The American Trucking Association has sent several bulletins to its members urging them to be on the lookout for people ``displaying aggressive behavior'' or engaging in suspicious activity.

One association bulletin asked that members ``be alert for either a potential disgruntled trucking company, trucking company employee or person purporting to be from the trucking industry'' who has made threats in the past against government agencies.

The regulations at the heart of the ``Fallen Angel'' letters were four years in the making and drew some 53,000 comments when first proposed, trucking association spokesman Mike Russell said. Many truckers and companies were concerned about lost pay and productivity because of stricter rest requirements.

``It was controversial,'' Russell said.

While the South Carolina letter's existence was made public shortly after it was found, the Bush administration delayed acknowledgment of the White House letter by nearly three months. It was intercepted Nov. 6 by the Secret Service at an offsite mail facility.

Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman said that after the letter tested probable for ricin on Nov. 12, the FBI and other agencies were notified. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush administration Homeland Security officials held a Nov. 13 conference call with the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Postal Service and other agencies to discuss what to do.

Ultimately, the ricin in that letter was deemed to be of a low grade and not a threat to public health, so no announcement was made. President Bush was not immediately informed, McClellan said.

``We share information appropriately, if there is a public health risk,'' McClellan told reporters.

The al-Qaida terror group has threatened to use ricin, but officials have found no indication that the two ``Fallen Angel'' letters or the Frist incident are connected to international terrorism.

The FBI has offered a 0,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the ``Fallen Angel'' case.

^---

On the Net:

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov

American Trucking Association: http://www.truckline.com

There is a 0k reward for information leading to their capture:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan04/ricin010804.htm

Press release:

Press Release

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of Inspector General are offering a reward of up to 0,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for introducing a threatening letter addressed to DOT and containing the poison ricin into a U.S. Postal facility located in Greenville, South Carolina on October 15, 2003.

The author(s) of this typewritten letter claimed that he or she was a fleet owner of a tanker company and demanded that the present laws regarding truck driver hours of service regulations remain unchanged. On January 4, 2004, significant new federal regulations went into effect mandating more rest and orienting drivers toward a 24-hour work/rest cycle. A type-written message on the exterior of the envelope indicated "caution RICIN POISON Enclosed in sealed container Do not open without proper protection". Inside the envelope was a small, metal vial which contained ricin, a white, granular, potentially deadly poison.

The author(s) of this letter claimed to have the ability to make large quantities of ricin and to use this poison if the new hours of service regulations were not repealed by January 4, 2004. The letter was signed "Fallen Angel".

Anyone with information concerning the identity of the individual(s) responsible for authoring this threatening letter is requested to contact the FBI toll free at 1?866?839?6241.

http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/january04/ncin010804.htm

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

White House Letter With Ricin Released

FBI Releases Text of Ricin-Laced Letter Sent to White House

The Associated Press



WASHINGTON Feb. 23 — A letter containing ricin sent last year to the White House threatened to turn Washington into a "ghost town" if new trucking safety regulations went into effect, according to a copy of the letter released Monday by the FBI.

The letter, one of two intercepted last year that were signed "Fallen Angel," bore an Oct. 17 postmark from Chattanooga, Tenn. It was addressed to the White House and was discovered by the Secret Service at a Washington offsite mail processing facility in early November.


The White House letter was typewritten on what appears to be yellow legal paper. Although it was addressed to the White House, the letter begins with "department of transportation" and then says:

"If you change the hours of service on January 4, 2004, I will turn D.C. into a ghost town. The powder on the letter is RICIN. Have a nice day. Fallen Angel."

A similar ricin-laced letter was found Oct. 15 at a mail processing facility in Greenville, S.C. In both cases, the author complained about new regulations that mandate more periods of rest for long-haul truckers.

Many truckers and companies have raised concerns about lost pay and productivity because of stricter rest requirements.

The South Carolina letter also claimed that the author was the owner of a tanker fleet compnay and had access to large amounts of pulp from castor plants, which are the source of the poison ricin.

Investigators are also trying to determine the source of a small amount of ricin found earlier this month on a mail-opening machine in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. No envelope or threatening letter has been found in that case.

No one has been sickened in any of the cases, but on Capitol Hill three Senate office buildings were closed for several days after the ricin was discovered there.

The FBI, Postal Inspection Service and Transportation Department are offering a 0,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the author of the threatening letters. The FBI is also operating a toll-free tipline in the case at 1-866-839-6241.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040223_999.html

White House- bound ricin letter posted on Web

From Kevin Bohn and Kelli Arena
CNN Washington Bureau
Monday, February 23, 2004 Posted: 2156 GMT ( 5:56 AM HKT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI is posting a letter on its Web site in hopes that someone will recognize the handwriting and phrases the writer used and help authorities find whoever is sending ricin through the mail.

Ricin is a deadly poison with no known antidote, derived from the castor bean.

One letter was addressed to the White House but intercepted at an off-site processing facility. That letter and the accompanying envelope is now readable on the FBI's Internet site.

Authorities say the envelope is the first example of handwriting from the perpetrator. On the envelope the Zip code is scratched out and "20500" is written above it.

The FBI has also made public some of the contents of an October 17 typewritten letter in which the writer threatens to "turn D.C. into a ghost town The powder on the letter is RICIN" if changes in how truckers' hours are regulated were not changed.

The wording on the letter is similar to that of a different typewritten letter dated October 15 that was discovered at a mail facility in Greenville, South Carolina. That letter, which was not mailed but was believed to have been carried in, also demanded a reversal of new regulations that required longer rest periods for truck drivers.

Both letters were signed "Fallen Angel."

Officials say the FBI is hoping the presentation of the new evidence, especially the handwriting on the envelope, will generate new leads. The bureau previously offered a 0,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for the letters.

The FBI hopes someone recognizes the handwriting on this envelope.


As part of its investigation, government sources confirm a federal grand jury in November subpoenaed records from the company Mail Contractors of America. Among the information requested were driver logs and time sheets for nine truckers, several of whom made deliveries to the Greenville processing facility where one of the ricin letters was found.

Mail Contractors handles a large portion of the nation's mail transportation.

Ricin discovered in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's officer earlier this month shut down three Senate buildings for several days until they could be examined and tested. No one became ill.

Authorities are examining whether there is any link between the toxin found in Frist's office and that mailed in two letters signed "Fallen Angel."

Jonathan Tucker, a chemical and biological weapons expert from the U.S. Institute of Peace, said ricin is 200 times as potent as cyanide although not as deadly as anthrax. It cannot penetrate the skin unless the skin is broken, and heat is deadly to the toxin.

But if inhaled or injected, according to the Centers for Disease and Prevention, one milligram of ricin can kill an adult.

If inhaled, ricin can cause death in 36 to 48 hours from failure of the respiratory and circulatory systems. If ingested, it causes nausea, vomiting and bleeding of the stomach and intestines, followed by failure of the liver, spleen and kidneys, and death by collapse of the circulatory system.

Injected ricin immediately kills the muscles and lymph nodes near the site of the injection. Failure of the major organs and death usually follows, the CDC says.

In one of the most notorious Cold War assassinations, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed by a poison dart filled with ricin and fired from an umbrella in London in 1978.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/02/23/ricin.probe/index.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Explosives, biological agents found in con's home

By Jennifer Rosinski and Tom Farmer

Thursday, June 24, 2004A cache of biological agents and bomb-making materials were found in an Agawam felon's apartment during an ATF raid yesterday morning, law enforcement sources said.

``It's unclear at this point what he's up to,'' a source said of Michael Crooker. ``We didn't have him on our radar screen.''

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found possible chemical agents and explosive devices in Crooker's Springfield Street apartment, prompting authorities to evacuate the building as well as nearby homes and businesses in the Feeding Hills neighborhood.

``They came across all this stuff to make bombs and castor beans to make ricin,'' another source said.

Ricin is the waste product of castor oil, and can be fatal in small doses if ingested, inhaled or injected, according the Centers for Disease Control. Symptoms of poisoning include difficulty breathing, fever, vomiting and diarrhea. There is no antidote.

Investigators also found a pipe bomb in Crooker's car during a search at the police department.

Air quality tests of the apartment by a regional hazardous materials team turned up negative, ATF spokesman Jim McNally said.

ATF agents showed up at the apartment around 7 a.m. to serve Crooker, 50, with federal search and arrest warrants.

Crooker first came under scrutiny by the U.S. Postal Service for shipping guns through the mail to several states, a source said. Details of those transactions were unavailable last night.

Crooker, who McNally said has ``a significant record,'' is charged with being a felon in possession of firearms and shipping firearms in interstate commerce.

Crooker was sentenced in 1987 to up to five years in prison on a fraud convictionand admitting to illegally possessing a machine gun.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are also working in the investigation.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=33146

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Ricin in baby food

Gerber Baby Food Found Laced with Ricin in Calif.

Wed Jul 28, 2004 07:51 PM ET

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two jars of Gerber baby food sold in Southern California tested positive for traces of the highly toxic poison ricin on Wednesday, prompting police to warn parents to check for tampering before serving prepared food to their children.

Tests conducted at a Food and Drug Administration laboratory showed that the ricin found in the jars was not highly concentrated but a less toxic form that would not likely have been fatal, police said.

"We feel it is imperative to alert our community and ask parents to insure they are feeding their children baby food that comes in tamper-resistant containers," Irvine police Chief David Maggard said at a Wednesday news conference.

Ricin is part of the waste product from making castor oil from castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In two separate incidents in May and June, parents in Irvine discovered notes inside jars of Gerber banana yogurt warning that the food was contaminated, Maggard said.

Both jars were purchased at the same Ralphs grocery store in Irvine. No other contamination threats have been reported since the last incident on June 16, Maggard said.

No arrests have been made in the case, but Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said investigators would like to speak with 47-year-old Charles Dewey Cage.

"I wouldn't characterize him as a suspect or a person of interest but he is somebody who was in the area at a relevant time and we believe Mr. Cage has information that would be important to us related to these incidents," Rackauckas said.

Rackauckas said the Gerber Products Company had been "very cooperative" in helping trace the origin of the poison.

In a statement on Wednesday, Gerber said it had been told by police that the tampering did not occur at its facilities, and that the company was not a target.

Gerber said that although the tampering appeared to be limited to one store, it had removed jars of the product, Banana Yogurt Desert, from all Southern California stores.

-----------------
The company advised parents to "listen for the pop on the lid seal" when opening jars and to empty baby food into a dish before feeding it to children,

Gerber Products Company is a unit of pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG. NVS.N> .

On May 31, a couple brought their 9-month-old girl to an Irvine hospital after she ate from a jar that contained the first note, police said.

Three weeks later, an Irvine man called police to report finding a similar note inside a jar of Gerber banana yogurt that he had been feeding his 1-year-old son. Neither child was harmed by the food, police said.

Both notes also mentioned an Irvine police officer, but authorities were unsure whether the person who tampered with the baby food meant to retaliate against the officer.

Neither of the families who purchased the tainted food had any connection to the officer, police said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5805258

 

[lopaka]

Exhibit #938,724 of 'Our Home-Grown Nutters Are the Real Threats to the Rest of Us'

Man Arrested After Ricin Seen in Fla. Home


OCALA, Fla. (AP) - A man was arrested after authorities allegedly found the deadly toxin ricin stashed in a cardboard box at his home along with a small cache of weapons, officials said Thursday.

Steven Michael Ekberg, 22, faces up to 10 years if convicted of possession of a biological agent. FBI agents said they didn't believe Ekberg, arrested Wednesday, had any connection with terrorist groups.

There was no explanation for how or why he obtained the ricin.

``The chemical substance is derived from the castor bean and that's a natural substance. I don't think castor beans are difficult to obtain,'' said FBI Special Agent Jeff Westcott in Jacksonville.

The suspect's mother, Theresa Ekberg, who lives with her son, declined to comment.

The sheriff's office was tipped off last week by an informant who alleged Ekberg had been carrying concealed weapons into clubs - and boasted of having ricin in one of several vials and glass tubes he allegedly showed off.

``Ekberg had stated that if the government ever did anything to him, he would take some sort of action,'' according to a federal criminal complaint.

Ekberg was arrested and released last week for alleged possession of cocaine and violating the concealed weapons law. A search of his home then revealed a cardboard box with ricin inside, as well as an Uzi-type submachine gun and two semiautomatic rifles, a sheriff's report said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as little as 500 micrograms of ricin, roughly the amount that fits on the head of a straight pin, is enough to kill an adult.


01/13/05 19:27

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/st ... 234534.htm

 

[moley2222]

ahh! too much to read!

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

The ricin ring that never was

greets

The ricin ring that never was

esterday's trial collapse has exposed the deception behind attempts to link al-Qaida to a 'poison attack' on London
Duncan Campbell

04/14/05 "The Guardian" - - Colin Powell does not need more humiliation over the manifold errors in his February 2003 presentation to the UN. But yesterday a London jury brought down another section of the case he made for war - that Iraq and Osama bin Laden were supporting and directing terrorist poison cells throughout Europe, including a London ricin ring.

Yesterday's verdicts on five defendants and the dropping of charges against four others make clear there was no ricin ring. Nor did the "ricin ring" make or have ricin. Not that the government shared that news with us. Until today, the public record for the past three fear-inducing years has been that ricin was found in the Wood Green flat occupied by some of yesterday's acquitted defendants. It wasn't.

The third plank of the al-Qaida-Iraq poison theory was the link between what Powell labelled the "UK poison cell" and training camps in Afghanistan. The evidence the government wanted to use to connect the defendants to Afghanistan and al-Qaida was never put to the jury. That was because last autumn a trial within a trial was secretly taking place. This was a private contest between a group of scientists from the Porton Down military research centre and myself. The issue was: where had the information on poisons and chemicals come from? The information - five pages in Arabic, containing amateur instructions for making ricin, cyanide and botulinum, and a list of chemicals used in explosives - was at the heart of the case. The notes had been made by Kamel Bourgass, the sole convicted defendant. His co-defendants believed that he had copied the information from the internet. The prosecution claimed it had come from Afghanistan.

I was asked to look for the original source on the internet. This meant exploring Islamist websites that publish Bin Laden and his sympathisers, and plumbing the most prolific source of information on how to do harm: the writings of the American survivalist right and the gun lobby.
The experience of being an expert witness on these issues has made me feel a great deal safer on the streets of London. These were the internal documents of the supposed al-Qaida cell planning the "big one" in Britain. But the recipes were untested and unoriginal, borrowed from US sources. Moreover, ricin is not a weapon of mass destruction. It is a poison which has only ever been used for one-on-one killings and attempted killings.
If this was the measure of the destructive wrath that Bin Laden's followers were about to wreak on London, it was impotent. Yet it was the discovery of a copy of Bourgass's notes in Thetford in 2002 that inspired the wave of horror stories and government announcements and preparations for poison gas attacks.

It is true that when the team from Porton Down entered the Wood Green flat in January 2003, their field equipment registered the presence of ricin. But these were high sensitivity field detectors, for use where a false negative result could be fatal. A few days later in the lab, Dr Martin Pearce, head of the Biological Weapons Identification Group, found that there was no ricin. But when this result was passed to London, the message reportedly said the opposite.

The planned government case on links to Afghanistan was based only on papers that a freelance journalist working for the Times had scooped up after the US invasion of Kabul. Some were in Arabic, some in Russian. They were far more detailed than Bourgass's notes. Nevertheless, claimed Porton Down chemistry chief Dr Chris Timperley, they showed a "common origin and progression" in the methods, thus linking the London group of north Africans to Afghanistan and Bin Laden.

The weakness of Timperley's case was that neither he nor the intelligence services had examined any other documents that could have been the source. We were told Porton Down and its intelligence advisers had never previously heard of the "Mujahideen Poisons Handbook, containing recipes for ricin and much more". The document, written by veterans of the 1980s Afghan war, has been on the net since 1998.

All the information roads led west, not to Kabul but to California and the US midwest. The recipes for ricin now seen on the internet were invented 20 years ago by survivalist Kurt Saxon. He advertises videos and books on the internet. Before the ricin ring trial started, I phoned him in Arizona. For $110, he sent me a fistful of CDs and videos on how to make bombs, missiles, booby traps - and ricin. We handed a copy of the ricin video to the police.

When, in October, I showed that the chemical lists found in London were an exact copy of pages on an internet site in Palo Alto, California, the prosecution gave up on the Kabul and al-Qaida link claims. But it seems this information was not shared with the then home secretary, David Blunkett, who was still whipping up fear two weeks later. "Al-Qaida and the international network is seen to be, and will be demonstrated through the courts over months to come, actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives," he said on November 14.

The most ironic twist was an attempt to introduce an "al-Qaida manual" into the case. The manual - called the Manual of the Afghan Jihad - had been found on a raid in Manchester in 2000. It was given to the FBI to produce in the 2001 New York trial for the first attack on the World Trade Centre. But it wasn't an al-Qaida manual. The name was invented by the US department of justice in 2001, and the contents were rushed on to the net to aid a presentation to the Senate by the then attorney general, John Ashcroft, supporting the US Patriot Act.

To show that the Jihad manual was written in the 1980s and the period of the US-supported war against the Soviet occupation was easy. The ricin recipe it contained was a direct translation from a 1988 US book called the Poisoner's Handbook, by Maxwell Hutchkinson.

We have all been victims of this mass deception. I do not doubt that Bourgass would have contemplated causing harm if he was competent to do so. But he was an Islamist yobbo on his own, not an Al Qaida-trained superterrorist. An Asbo might be appropriate. --------

Duncan Campbell is an investigative writer and a scientific expert witness on computers and telecommunications. He is author of War Plan UK and is not the Guardian journalist of the same name - [email protected]

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8537.htm

(funny this wasn't now the bbc reported it!!!!)

mal

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

three more ricin stories

greets

bumper bundle

*Doubts grow over al-Qaida link in ricin plot*

Inconsistencies put credibility of supergrass in question

*Vikram Dodd
Saturday April 16, 2005
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

Fresh doubt emerged yesterday about the claim that the ricin plot against Britain was linked to al-Qaida and was hatched in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

The Guardian has obtained extensive details of the testimony given by the Algerian "supergrass" Mohammed Meguerba which put his credibility in question.

He is the only one to have suggested that the plot was linked to al-Qaida, rather than being the result of a plan by himself and Kamel Bourgass, who was convicted this week for his part in the conspiracy.

Various questions about the accuracy of Mr Meguerba's account have arisen.

*·* He claimed to have been trained at camps in Afghanistan in the summer of 2002, months after the US invaded, ousted the Taliban and disrupted terrorist facilities.

*·* In one account he admitted being involved in making poisons intended to terrorise London; in a second account he denied being involved.

*·* Questioned in Algeria by British counter-terrorism officers, he denied seeing or touching clear plastic wrappers used in the plot, despite his fingerprints being on them.

*·* He gave contradictory accounts about when he handled photocopies of the poison recipes, and who handed them to him and whom he passed the recipes to.

*·* He refused to talk in front of British officials about his time in Afghanistan.

Last night the Crown Prosecution Service refused to comment on a claim that one prosecution lawyer had called Mr Meguerba unreliable.

Mr Meguerba's evidence was not put to the jury, but supported claims that ricin had actually been produced, despite scientific evidence that it had not.

Leaks to the media by counter-terrorism officials of selected pieces of his evidence purported to show that the ricin plot was extensive and hatched by al-Qaida-trained operatives. But others say it was hatched by Mr Meguerba and Bourgass, who was a loner, trying to use recipes in a harebrained scheme they got off the internet.

Mr Meguerba, a one-timer sweet-seller in south London, was arrested in Britain in September 2002. He was released on bail because, the police say, they did not realise how dangerous he was.

The next month he flew from Liverpool to Spain on a false passport. He then travelled to Morocco, before being detained in December 2002 and interrogated in his native Algeria, where the authorities are accused of torturing suspects.

According to accounts of his interrogation there, he said Bourgass was "an affiliate of al-Qaida". One account says: "Meguerba prepared the poisons from castor oil and other industrial alcohols... The poison prepared by Meguerba is colourless. It acts on contact with the skin."

But Mr Meguerba had a different story by the time British counter-terrorism officers interviewed him, denying his involvement. "I did sell chocolates and sweets and did not make poisons," he said.

He denied reading the poison recipes closely, saying he only photocopied them.

At one stage, he said, a man at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, whom he names, gave him the formulas to photocopy. Later, he said it was Bourgass who gave him the poison recipes on their first meeting.

In October 2003 Britain finally got access to Mr Meguerba, who was still in Algerian custody.

Three anti-terrorism officers and an MI5 agent interviewed him, but only in the presence of three Algerian security officers and an Algerian investigating magistrate.

Britain had to give advance notice of the questions it wanted to ask. Mr Meguerba refused to answer several supplementary questions put to him, leading to a suspicion that he had been coached by the Algerians in what answers to give.

Interrogated by the Algerians, he alleged that he and Bourgass, whose real surname is Nadir, trained at al-Qaida camps: "To the end of summer 2002, Meguerba was training with the previously named Nadir in the preparation of poisons, from documents that had come from Afghanistan," says an account of his testimony. "He learned this chemistry in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, as did Nadir."

But interviewed by the British police, he refused to give any details about Afghanistan, saying: "My replies will be limited to Britain only."

For both Mr Meguerba and Bourgass to have been in Afghanistan in the summer of 2002 seems unlikely. Not only had the US overrun the country and bombed terror camps, but documents show that Mr Meguerba had only a five-month window to travel to and from Afghanistan undetected and receive training.

This week the British police said that information from Mr Meguerba was accurate in almost every case.

Lawyers for those accused of involvement in the plot say this was because the supergrass was not only involved but was an instigator of the conspiracy.

Mr Meguerba correctly said there were two Nivea cream pots in the flat in Wood Green, north London, but claimed there was ricin in them. No ricin was found, and tests by government scientists found that none had been produced.

He gave the wrong address in a north London suburb for the alleged "poison factory", but anti-terrorism officers were able to find the right one in January 2003.

The most significant British terrorism trial since the attacks on America in 2001 ended with eight people being acquitted of conspiracy to murder and the jury deadlocked on the ninth, Bourgass.

Curiously, while being interviewed by British officers, Mr Meguerba said of his co-conspirator: "I did not say he wanted to kill people."

Bourgass was already serving life for murdering a police officer and was sentenced to 17 years this week for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.

David Blunkett said about the ricin trial last November, when he was home secretary: "Al-Qaida is seen to be, and will be demonstrated through the courts over the months to come to be, actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives. I am talking about people who are and about to go through the court system."

Julian Hayes, solicitor for Sidali Feddag, one of those acquitted, said the prosecution had itself described Mr Meguerba as unreliable in legal argument when the jury was not present.

Last night the Crown Prosecution Service refused to comment, other than to say: "There was lengthy and complex legal argument on all manner of topics in this case, including Mohammed Meguerba. To condense and paraphrase what counsel for the prosecution said into one line would not be an accurate reflection of this discussion."

Mr Meguerba is still in custody in Algeria, although his fate there remains unclear.

The Algerian embassy in London refused to comment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1461010,00.html

and then

*Revealed: how secret papers led to ricin raid*

An informer told Algerian interrogators that Britain is facing an al-Qaeda threat. Jason Burke analyses the evidence

*Sunday April 17, 2005
The Observer <http://www.observer.co.uk>*

The Algerian secret service intelligence reports that arrived at Scotland Yard in January 2003 still make frightening reading. Based on interrogations of a senior Islamic militant, they gave details of a plot to poison Britons, and contained information on scores of individuals in the UK who appeared to be deeply engaged in hardline, violent Islamic radicalism. Worse, they suggested a number of shadowy cells in Britain beyond the poisoners. They were not disclosed to the terrorist trial at the Old Bailey last week and are still classified 'secret'.

Kamel Bourgass, a 31-year-old Algerian, was convicted of murdering a policeman and conspiring to cause a public nuisance by using poisons and explosives. That gained the headlines. But four of his co-accused were acquitted of terrorist offences, and the trial of four others was abandoned, unravelling the so-called poison network described in the report.

So, where are we now? Was the case a farrago, the threats of al-Qaeda cells imagined by one informant egged on by over-enthusiastic intelligence officers? Should we be more, or less, scared?

That may depend on the reliability of Mohammed Meguerba, the captured militant who fingered Bourgass from a cell in Algiers. Open on my desk are secret intelligence documents describing Meguerba's interrogation. They allow what he said to be revealed for the first time. Meguerba told his story after being arrested in Algeria in late 2002 after jumping bail for immigration offences in Britain.

An epileptic, Meguerba left his homeland in 1995 and travelled through Europe, ending up as a waiter in Ireland where he married, divorced, remarried and, 'by pure chance or cultural void', said the Algerian secret service, 'allowed himself to be recruited by fundamentalists' at a Belfast mosque in 2000. Activists in London sent him to training camps in Afghanistan. Then Osama bin Laden himself gave him a mission in the UK, with a false passport and $600.

A wealth of detail in Meguerba's testimony confirms he was, at least until this point, largely truthful about himself. The names of some activists he supplied are corroborated by information from other militants. Meguerba gave details of two training camps, Khaldan and Darunta, which I inspected after their evacuation by al-Qaeda in 2001. His descriptions tally exactly with my own notes.

Another telling fact is a disclosure of a warning by bin Laden to recruits to prepare for a US response to the 9/11 attacks. This was not public knowledge until last year.

Details about Britain also largely stack up. Meguerba was given money by a senior militant already in the UK to get a new identity and start trading sweets in a London market. The Algerians say he started practising the manufacture of poison, 'as he had been shown in the Afghan camps'. This again checks out: I found a basic chemical laboratory in Darunta camp and a stack of documents downloaded from rightwing American survivalist websites detailing recipes for chemical and biological 'nasties'.

The information that sent police to a flat in Wood Green, north London, came from Meguerba. 'Better still,' he told Special Branch, 'the London group to which he belonged has ... an amount of poison they are prepared to use ... According to MG [Meguerba], the poison is hidden in two tubs of beauty cream carrying the Nivea label.' Meguerba gave the flat's address and said it was occupied by 'an Algerian affiliated with al-Qaeda'. This same man, now known as Bourgass, was convicted last week, though no jars of ricin have ever been found. This is where a question mark appears over Meguerba's truthfulness.

Another reason to doubt Meguerba is the possibility he was tortured in Algeria. However, transcripts of a Scotland Yard interview with him show him as confident, not a broken victim. And his story is often unhelpful to the police.

But there are signs the Algerians made more of his words than was justified. They had received information on suspects in Algeria from the UK and wanted to reciprocate.

Then bigger issues came into play. The 'ricin cell' bust was trumpeted by the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister and by Colin Powell, then the US Secretary of State, in his speech to the United Nations justifying the Iraq war. At each stage, the cell's threat was amplified. Soon its members were global superterrorists connected to al-Qaeda and, fortuitously, based in Iraq. Yet no ricin was found, let alone a link to Saddam Hussein.

In fact, some of Meguerba's testimony accurately describes a world of amateurism familiar to anyone who has studied Islamic militancy. Bourgass's plan to smear ricin on door handles on the Holloway Road was a dud. Even if he could have made it, ricin will not penetrate skin.

Last week's acquittals followed the vastly inflated expectations, raised by inflammatory statements by politicians who know that, post-9/11, a constant and massive threat is a philosophical given. Bourgass is a violent, unstable man full of hate, but not a skilled terrorist. Normal legal procedure has put him in jail.

Of the other eight men cleared of terror charges, six have been detained over fake documents, including passports. Our legal system worked. But what of the ongoing threat in the UK that the Algerians say was revealed by Meguerba?

In a sense, it doesn't matter who is telling the truth. There will be a terrorist threat to the UK, from a variety of sources, for the foreseeable future. It is as Meguerba said: nowhere near as grave as our politicians and tabloids say, but it is there none the less. And we must learn to live with it.

*·* Jason Burke's 'Al-Qaeda: The True story of Radical Islam' is published by Penguin.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1461715,00.html

and finally:

*Home Office says sorry to suspects for ricin blunder*

*Audrey Gillan
Saturday April 16, 2005
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

The Home Office has been forced to apologise to 10 men placed under controversial anti-terrorist control orders after it linked them to the ricin plot in London, the Guardian has discovered.

In an embarrassing letter to the men, the government claims that it made a "clerical error" when it said the grounds for emergency restriction imposed on each of the alleged international terrorists was that they "belonged to and have provided support for a network of north African extremists directly involved in terrorist planning in the UK, including the use of toxic chemicals".

Article continues <http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1461202,00.html#article_continue>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Wednesday, Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian who stabbed a policeman to death and planned poison attacks across Britain, was jailed for 17 years. But in a blow to the police and security services, four co-defendants were acquitted and a second trial was abandoned. Defence lawyers said the case was a massive conspiracy tapestry woven by the prosecution and that it had been used by the government to justify the war in Iraq and detention without trial in the UK.

The fact that the control orders attempted to connect the 10 men - who were detained without charge and trial for more than two years before being released under stringent conditions - to the ricin plot, will cast further doubt on the validity of the secret evidence the government claims it has on them.

Last night a Home Office spokesman said: "Basically there was a clerical error in the initial order in that the same basis for issue was given in all of the orders. This was noticed shortly afterwards and acted on immediately. It did not affect the validity of the order.

"The home secretary made the decision to issue the control orders on the basis of information given to him by the security services. The clerical error did not change the validity of the order in any way."

Control orders were rushed through parliament last month amid stormy debates during which the home secretary, Charles Clarke, promised that they would be scrutinised by a judge before they were issued. But the existing 10 orders against the former Belmarsh detainees were issued under an emergency clause which allowed him to impose them before detention without trial powers expired.

Last night the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, said: "If ever there was a case for making sure defendants can hear the allegations against them then this must be it. While this may have been a clerical error, it raises the appalling possibility that ministers are wielding these powers without paying full attention to the detail."

Mark Neale, the director general of the Home Office's security, international and organised crime unit, wrote to each of the men to change the terms of the control order through which they are held under partial house arrest.

The Guardian has seen the letter sent to Mahmoud Abu Rideh, a Palestinian refugee who was released last month from Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital and is subject to a control order. The other detainees include the Islamist preacher Abu Qatada and eight who can not be named.

The letter to Mr Abu Rideh tells him that "the basis for the decision to make the control order" is that he is an active supporter of international terrorist groups with links to Osama bin Laden, including two Algerian groups, the Armed Islamic Group and the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, as well as Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Mr Abu Rideh is a stateless Palestinian who, his lawyer says, has never been to Algeria.

The letter continues: "Your activities on their behalf include the raising and distribution of funds, the procurement of false documents and helping to facilitate the movement of jihad volunteers to training camps in Afghanistan. You are closely involved with senior extremists and associates of Bin Laden both in the UK and overseas."

In the original control order, he was accused of being involved in the ricin plot as well as being "a key UK-based contact and provider of financial and logistical support to extreme Islamists in the UK and overseas, belonging to networks linked to al-Qaida. Your contacts are senior figures and cross a range in international terrorist networks. The type of support which you offered significantly increases the capabilities of these networks, without which they would be unable to function as effectively. These networks pose a direct threat to the UK." This has also been removed from his order.

Mr Abu Rideh's solicitor, Nicky Shiner, said: "I couldn't believe an organisation such as the Home Office could make that mistake. It's obviously someone sitting there doing a cut and paste job."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, which campaigns against the orders, said: "Clerical error or false accusation - how are we ever to know in this world where fair trials are now replaced with secret intelligence and endless suspicion?"

The credibility of the Algerian supergrass at the centre of claims that al-Qaida was linked to the plot to attack Britain with ricin was last night undermined.

Details of the testimony given by Mohammed Meguerba first to Algerian, then British police and intelligence, have been learned by the Guardian. They show him lying to British police about his involvement in the plot, and other inconsistencies in his account.

He claimed that he and Bourgass had learned to make poisons in an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan in 2002, after the US had invaded and similar camps had been bombed.

Meguerba is the only source for the continuing police belief that the London-based terror gang produced ricin, despite scientific tests showing it did not.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1461202,00.html

mal

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

British Government Ordered Shutdown Of Fake Ricin Story

greets

wondered why you can't find duncan campbell's article i=on the guardian website anymore?

British Government Ordered Shutdown Of Fake Ricin Story

Prison Planet | April 22 2005

The British government has ordered a D-notice clampdown on details relating to the ricin terror ring story which was exposed as being fake last week.

Inside sources from the Guardian newspaper in London have confirmed that the reason the Guardian article 'The ricin ring that never was,' was removed from its website was due to a direct order from the government. Several other websites worldwide have also removed the article but it is still available on numerous websites, Rense.com being one.

What's next? Are the government going to create a Ministry of Truth and employ Winston Smith to change past newspaper articles and dispose of unflattering truths down the memory hole?

"Government pressure" forced the Guardian to pull the article says the source, and that a Ministry of Defence directive was in order that forbade naming of any Porton Down scientists.

Porton Down is a secretive government chemical weapons centre and military base in Wiltshire, England. It has been at the center of a scandal involving testing of sarin nerve gas on British soldiers after World War Two.

Porton Down was also responsible for the Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001. A phial of the virus was released from Porton Down before the outbreak. This was blamed on 'animal rights protesters' who had somehow managed to sneak into a biosafety level four underground facility guarded by armed troops.

The British government knew of the outbreak weeks before they told the public, allowing the disease to spread so it could devastate the British farming community who were providing a bulwark of opposition to Tony Blair on numerous different political issues at the time.

Porton Down (pictured above) was also the birthplace of Operation Cauldron, a program which led to the testing of lethal plague bombs on the Scottish coast. It has also been linked with the development of race-specific bioweapons. The place is a haven for Mengele-like mad scientists with no moral fibre. It should be shut down immediately and charges brought against those found to have engaged in this barbaric pseudo-research.

The Guardian article is set to go back online with the scientists' names omitted. These Nazis dare not let their names see the light of day as hey skulk around like vampires in the shadows cooking up more death and misery for future generations at home and abhorrent chemical weapons to be rained down on broken-backed third world countries abroad.

The BBC, otherwise known as the Blair Broadcasting Corporation, is also complicit in the cover-up.

A Guardian article (which hasn't yet been removed and can be read here) entitled 'Row as BBC cuts Bafta speech' - explains how Adam Curtis, who won the factual series award for BBC2's The Power of Nightmares, was censored after he criticized the sensationalized threat of the fake ricin plot.

The acceptance speech was removed from BBC1's Bafta coverage when it aired two hours later because it "touched a nerve" according to Curtis.

"Reporting of the whole terrorist threat has either become exaggerated, distorted or in some cases a complete fabrication and they are beginning to realise this. They know they have to sort it out. It has touched a nerve and the fact they cut it shows that."

Curtis went on to add that reports of an "al-Qaida plot to poison Britain" that could have consequences "equal or greater to 9/ 11" were "massively exaggerated or a complete fantasy".

The British government doesn't want you to know that of the 500+ suspects it has arrested on grounds of terrorism, only two have been charged and only then on immigration fraud. Prime Sinister Phony Tony B-Liar needs to maintain the fallacy that there are terrorists running around everyone's back garden waiting to kill them. That way he can promise to 'protect' us and ensure a 3rd term of neo-liberal Straussian warmongering.

And anyone that rocks the boat in the process, like Dr. David Kelly, will be murdered.

Not that Transylvanian Dracula-man Michael Howard (pictured) and the pro-war, pro national ID card Tories can even pretend to offer anything different.

However, this scrambling to cover-up the leaks betrays desperation in the establishment and a chink of light for freedom of the press that the Guardian would put this story out in the first place.

E mail the Guardian at [email protected] and get them to put the story back up!

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2005/220405orderedshutdown.htm

this might prove to the answer

mal

 

[Anonymous]

Re: British Government Ordered Shutdown Of Fake Ricin Story

British Government Ordered Shutdown Of Fake Ricin Story

Prison Planet | April 22 2005
.
.

Porton Down was also responsible for the Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001. A phial of the virus was released from Porton Down before the outbreak. This was blamed on 'animal rights protesters' who had somehow managed to sneak into a biosafety level four underground facility guarded by armed troops.

The British government knew of the outbreak weeks before they told the public, allowing the disease to spread so it could devastate the British farming community who were providing a bulwark of opposition to Tony Blair on numerous different political issues at the time.
.
.
.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2005/220405orderedshutdown.htm
Any evidence for this other bit of information that the site is claiming as fact? Any of it? (I've never even heard of the alleged animal rights protesters story, so that seems to have been a poorly implemented cover-up.) If not, how much confidence do you have in the main part of the story presented on the website?

As an aside, even if true, I can see people being a bit concerned about the safety of the any of the scientists named in the original article, but I can't see the removal of the names particularly affecting the real content of the story, so it isn't really a cover-up.

 

[Min Bannister]

Hmm, smells of mooshty kippers to me Fortis! Why would foot and mouth be kept under level 4 containment anyway as it isn't even a human pathogen? :? Also if there are working level 4 facilities at Porton Down now they must be quite recent.

Edited-Cut off mid post by stoopid internet coonection.

 

[ramonmercado]

wasn't Markov some kind of dissident, killed by the Bulgarian KGB. (apparently it was the same wet work squad (can't get enough of those cold war spy novels) that set up the hit on the Pope)

Many believe that he was killed by Bulgarian agents, but feel the techology used came from the Soviets.

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-63664/Web Site 6.htm

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1996/09/F.RU.960918155306.html

The Bulgarians are closing the investigation and are reluctant to accept that Markov was killed with a poison tipped umbrella.

Bulgaria casts doubt on London "poisoned umbrella" killing
By Anna MudevaPosted 2008/09/08 at 10:23 am EDT

SOFIA, Sep. 8, 2008 (Reuters) — Bulgaria is closing its probe into a Cold War killing, the murder of dissident Georgi Markov in London, but an investigator said no evidence existed to back up the theory that he was stabbed with a poison-tipped umbrella.

Under Bulgarian law, the 30-year statute of limitations on the case expires on Thursday, the anniversary of Markov's death, but Sofia will continue to work with British police on their investigation into the case.

Markov, a writer, journalist and opponent of Bulgaria's then communist regime, died on September 11, 1978 after a stranger shot a ricin-laced pellet into his leg on London's Waterloo Bridge.

Luchezar Penev, head of Bulgaria's Serious Crimes Investigation unit, told Reuters that the popular story that an umbrella was used to inject the poison had not been confirmed.

"The famous umbrella is for someone who is writing a book... there is no evidence for such a thing," he said.

"The pellet's size was several times smaller to contain the necessary quantity of ricin, if we accept it's ricin, needed to kill a man," he added but declined to give any other details.

According to accounts of the incident, Markov, who defected to the West in 1969, was waiting for a bus when he felt a sharp sting in his thigh. A stranger fumbled behind him with an umbrella he had dropped and mumbled "sorry" before walking away.

Markov died four days later of what is believed to be ricin poisoning, for which there is no antidote.

British police are still eager to solve the murder.

Bulgaria's closure of the case coincides with the release of communist-era secret police files by Bulgarian daily Dnevnik on Monday that identified Markov's suspected assassin as agent code-named "Picadilly."

The files show how the agent underwent "special training" from Bulgaria's notorious secret police, Darzhavna Sigurnost, and received two medals, several free holidays and $30,000 after Markov's death, Dnevnik said.

The files, which Dnevnik said were incomplete, unveiled that Markov's case was discussed with the KGB in Moscow.

In the archives, Dnevnik said it had also found a secret agreement between Sofia and Moscow signed in 1972, under which the KGB was due to provide fast-acting poisons and devices for their delivery to the Bulgarian intelligence.

Dnevnik journalist Hristo Hristov obtained the files after winning a court battle with the intelligence services, which had blocked his access to the archives. He said it was not clear whether Bulgaria had provided the files to British police.

Bulgaria has been among the last former Soviet bloc countries to deal with its painful past and in late 2006 passed a law to open the files of the much feared Darzhavna Sigurnost.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/l86672 ... r-markov/#

 

[ramonmercado]

'Ricin' found in letter to US Senator Roger Wicker
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22178517

Roger Wicker, a Republican senator in Mississippi, was the intended recipient of the letter

A letter containing the lethal toxin ricin or another poisonous substance has been posted to a US senator, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said.

The letter was intended for Roger Wicker, a Republican senator representing Mississippi, Mr Reid told the Associated Press news agency.

It was intercepted at a centre handling post for the Capitol in Washington DC, US media report.

Ricin, extracted from castor beans, is 1,000 times more toxic than cyanide.

It can be fatal when inhaled, swallowed or injected, although it is possible to recover from exposure.

The letter was detected during a routine inspection of mail and did not reach the US Capitol or Senator Wicker's office, a Senate leadership aide was quoted as saying.

Senators were informed of the letter at a closed-door briefing by FBI Director Robert Mueller and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the Boston Marathon bombings, the aide added.

Continue reading the main story
Ricin
Can be fatal when inhaled, ingested or - most dangerously - injected
One to three castor beans chewed by a child, or just eight seeds chewed by an adult, can be fatal
The toxin is part of the waste produced when castor oil is made
The letter has since been sent to a laboratory for further analysis.

It is not clear whether there is a connection between the letter and the bomb attacks.

It is also not clear why the letter was sent to Senator Wicker.

The Senate's chief security office told Reuters: "The exterior marking on the envelope in this case was not outwardly suspicious, but it was postmarked from Memphis, Tennessee."

All mail sent to members of Congress has been screened off-site since letters laced with anthrax were sent to Capitol Hill in 2001.

In 2004, three Senate office buildings were shut after tests found ricin in letters that had been sent to the Senate majority leader's office.

Ricin was the poison used for the infamous murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in September 1978.

He was waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge, London, when a stranger jabbed him in the leg with an umbrella.

The umbrella injected a tiny ricin-filled pellet into Mr Markov's leg and he died three days later in hospital.