| Author |
Message |
    
Jurgnz
Citizen
Username: Jurgnz
Post Number: 8
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:11 am: |     |
Tests of a white powder found in a mail room near the offices of Tennessee Senator Bill Frist tested positive for the deadly poison ricin. Three Senate buildings will be closed today while the substance is sent to Fort Detrick in Maryland for more testing. According to Senator Frist, "this is a terrorist activity." Damn right it is.
In fact it was just last January that police found traces of ricin in a north London apartment and arrested seven men of North African origin. The substance has also been linked to Al-Qaeda and Iraq. That's right ... IRAQ. But, hey ... Saddam wasn't a threat to the United States, right?
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tjohn
Citizen
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 2178
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:19 am: | |
Stop it. Anybody with chemistry degree as well as lots of otherwise bright people can extract ricin. It might have something to do with Al Qaeda or it might be some discontented white male U.S. citizen. It would be helpful if we had the slightest idea of who was behind the anthrax scare. |
Addy
Citizen
Username: Addy
Post Number: 34
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:28 am: | |
Jurgnz,
That was just silly to post. As of now the powder tested both positive and negative. |
JJC
Citizen
Username: Mercury
Post Number: 200
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:33 am: | |
Let's not jump to any conclusions - wait for the facts. The last chemical scare (Anthrax) appears to have been from a domestic source. |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4516
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:34 am: | |
Jur, got a new screen name, huh?  |
Elmwoodian
Citizen
Username: Java_drinker
Post Number: 302
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:36 am: | |
Not to mention that after interviewing dozens of Iraqi scientists, the US inspectors found out that Iraq stopped their Ricin experimentation in the 90’s because 1) they couldn’t produce a pure enough extract and 2) because it wasn’t nearly deadly enough in the powder form.
On the other hand Ricin is extreamly deadly and has no antidote when injected, but that’s a whole ‘nother story and has nothing to do with what might (or might not) be in DC.
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Insite
Citizen
Username: Insite
Post Number: 223
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:57 am: | |
Al Gore invented Ricin. |
Dave
Citizen
Username: Dave
Post Number: 6291
Registered: 4-1998
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 10:59 am: | |
quote: "This does not have the earmarks of international terrorism," the official said. Assuming the substance was ricin, he said, "this is more of a criminal issue and is likely to be handled by the FBI."
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Duncan
Citizen
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 1501
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 11:18 am: | |
Cmon Dave.. let Jur have his..um..fun. Dont let the facts get in the way of his truth
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
Wayne Gretzky |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 1907
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 12:24 pm: | |
If you look around Maplewood any late summer day, you'll see plenty of people growing ornamental castor bean plants. Nobody needs to go to Iraq for it. |
Grateful Straw
Citizen
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 1911
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 1:19 pm: | |
Daschle:"THIS IS AN ACT OF TERRORISM."
Look for awhile at the China Cat Sunflower proud-walking jingle in the midnight sun Copper-dome Bodhi drip a silver kimono like a crazy-quilt stargown through a dream night wind.
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tjohn
Citizen
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 2185
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 1:38 pm: | |
Indeed it is. But who are the terrorists? |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 1911
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 1:57 pm: | |
Logic is a terrible thing to waste, so use it sparingly. |
dave23
Citizen
Username: Dave23
Post Number: 116
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2004 - 3:16 pm: | |
A story from Jan. 9:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/23/national/main579600.shtml
Feds Plead For Ricin Leads
GREENVILLE, S.C., Jan. 9, 2004
The FBI on Thursday offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to an arrest of anyone responsible for leaving a package containing the deadly poison ricin at a post office in October.
A letter inside the package said the author could make much more ricin and will "start dumping" large quantities of the poison if new federal trucking rules went in effect, according to information released by the FBI and other federal agencies Thursday.
The rules, which require more rest hours for truck drivers, took effect Sunday.
The letter, signed "Fallen Angel," said the author was "a fleet owner of a tanker company."
No suspects have been arrested and no illnesses have been reported since the package was found Oct. 15 at the postal facility serving Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. The postal center was temporarily closed while health officials tested it. No signs of contamination were found.
The FBI and other federal agencies set up a toll-free number, (866) 839-6241, for information about the incident.
The FBI has yet to make an arrest or identify a suspect in a similar investigation, the probe of the 2001 anthrax letters that killed five people and sickened 17 others..
Ricin, derived from the castor bean plant, can be deadly. When inhaled or ingested, fever, cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness and low blood pressure can occur within eight hours. Death can come between 36 and 72 hours after exposure. There is no antidote.
The FBI has previously warned that some chemical and biological weapons could be improvised by terrorists using readily available materials. Examples include ricin.
Last year, traces of the deadly poison ricin were found in a London apartment. Reports have indicated a suspicion that the ricin was going to be used to poison food at a nearby military installation.
In 1978, ricin was used by Bulgarian intelligence agents in London to assassinate dissident Georgi Markov, whom they pricked with a poisoned umbrella tip.
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DrFalomar
Citizen
Username: Drfalomar
Post Number: 144
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 9:15 am: | |
actually ricin is remarkably easy to create and can occur naturally if grain stays damp for a long time. one would hardly need a conspiracy of seven in a london apartment to create it. and america hardly lacks for grain.
btw, ricin was used by the kgb's department 13 to assassinate someone using an umbrella as an injector. so maybe they're behind this. |
mfpark
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 191
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 10:24 am: | |
Tom:
My goodness, you might be onto something. Castor bean plants in Maplewood! Is Ashcroft looking into this? Do we need legislation banning all castor plants???? Who knows whose hands these can fall into? Will there be a preemptive strike on Maplewood (and if so, could they take out the Post Office so we can have more parking downtown?)? |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 4529
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 10:31 am: | |
Dr. Falomar, I believe it was the Bulgarians who used ricin. During the last few years of the Soviet Union the KGB did, however, tend to contract out their "wet work" to the Bulgarians in return for an unlimited supply of steroids for their Olympic weightlifters. |
notehead
Citizen
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 917
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 1:59 pm: | |
This toxic substance was originally derived from a dish that is a staple in the latino world. However, it was found that legumes containing the poisonous agent could not be made to penetrate the skin, even with high-powered guns. Thus, ricin was created from ricinbeans. |
joso
Citizen
Username: Joso
Post Number: 162
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 2:27 pm: | |
If UPS delivered it, we should invade them now. The link is clear. |
wharfrat
Citizen
Username: Wharfrat
Post Number: 957
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 2:56 pm: | |
And to pay for the cost of it, we should pay enormous sums of money to Fed-ex for containment and clean-up! |
Waldo
Citizen
Username: Discowaldo
Post Number: 37
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 3:36 pm: | |
I think it is clearly a plot by the US Post office to discredit other delivery services so they can eventually take over all shipping around the world. |
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