[sixgun_symphony]

TERROR LAB RAIDED - BUT POISON IS MISSING
By Jeff Edwards, Chief Crime Correspondent
http://www.mirror.co.uk/



POLICE who raided an al-Qaeda poison factory in London fear most of the deadly ricin is missing and in the hands of terrorists.

Britain was on alert last night for an attack, possibly by aerosol spray or by smearing the substance on door handles at busy public buildings or shopping centres.

Confined spaces such as a com-muter train carriage, a Tube station or a lunchtime restaurant were thought to be possible targets of the original plot.

Six men and one woman were arrested on Sunday in swoops on the ricin "plant" - a flat in Wood Green, North London - and other addresses in the north and east of the capital.

The males - in their late teens, 20s and 30s - are all said to be Algerians linked to Osama bin Laden's network. The woman has been freed.

Up to 20 more confederates are feared to be operating in Britain, most of them living in London.


*Full Story* (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12511232&method=full&siteid=50143)
http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/mirror/jan2003/3/2/0001B524-D842-1E1B-907480C328EC0000.jpg

[Pendragon]

My understanding of Ricin is that it is not very effective as a mass weapon. I believe it is more appropriate as a tool of assassination.

[jmbg29]

Seems a simple matter. Just ban poison. Problem solved.:evil: :uhoh: :rolleyes: :D

[denfoote]

Where's the proof that Osuma Max Headroom is connected to this?? It just as easily could have been Mossad, CIA, IRA or someone else!!!

In all of this, we have yet to see any of this "proof" that this poor arab, whose likeness may just have been digitalized into a super computer somewhere, is responsible for anything!!

I mean, all we have is a few videos, at least one of which was proven to be fraudulent, and some scratchy audio feeds from an obscure arabic transmitter, somewhere presumably, in the middle east!!! OBL may be a latter day Max Headroom!!!

[Marko Kloos]

Moved to Legal & Political.

[Ledbetter]

Ricin is the gas that was used in the Tokyo subway "attack." It is highly lethal in confined spaces and very concentrated. Do a search and you will be amazed at the reports of the toxicity of this stuff.

[Master Blaster]

Sarin was used in the Tokyo subway attack.

Ricin is not a gas.

[ArmsAkimber]

Ricin is derived from castor beans. It is not oil-soluble, which is why castor oil, in small doses, is not lethal, just nasty. I believe ricin is the most toxic vegetable-derived naturally occuring substance known. It has no known antidote. The most doctors can do for you is keep you hopped-up on morphine while you die a slow, painful death. :eek:

[Mikul]

Castor Beans contain Ricin?!?! They're such pretty looking plants.

Deadly and beautiful. They must all be female.

http://www.rmru.org/images/castorbean.jpg

[M67]

I think ricin can be delivered as a gas. Lethal when inhaled, injected or absorbed through the skin. Supposedly 6000 times "more lethal" than cyanide. No antidote. Yep, probably female... :p

[tyme]

Don't confuse gas with aerosol. Ricin would surely decompose into other compounds before you could heat it enough to even turn it to liquid.

ArmsAkimber, I think that distinction belongs to Abrin, from the rosary pea. LD50 in mice is .04 micrograms/kg compared to 3 micrograms/kg for ricin. Or at least that's what the military says.

[Kevlarman]

Ricin was used to assassinate Georgi Markov in London, 1978. Somebody walked up and poked him with an umbrella, the tip of which contained a tiny pellet filled with ricin. He died in three days.

[M67]

Don't confuse gas with aerosol. :banghead:

That smiley is an attempt at saying: Yes, I know better, it's just that the brain sometimes slips into neutral. I think this is caused by caffeine deficiency, I'm only on my seventh cup or so, with another four hours at work before I can go home :eek:

[Wombat]

"It just as easily could have been Mossad, CIA, IRA or someone else!!! "

Yeah, that's it.... the CIA and Mossad contract their poison production to a half-dozen twenty-something Algerians working out of a London apartment....
:rolleyes:

Pass me the tinfoil please.

[Ledbetter]

:banghead:

Me too.

Also, sarin is correct for the Tokyo subway.

[rock jock]

It just as easily could have been Mossad, CIA, IRA or someone else!!!
Or you, for that matter.

[Coltdriver]

Ricin is so deadly that it usually kills the people making it before they get to put it to use.

Putting it to use is also a problem because the delivery mechanisms usually provide the perpetrator some potential for exposure.

The symptoms are flu, fever and finally heart congestion that is fatal. Takes about three days although a large enough dose will kill in minutes.

[PATH]

There are just so many things that can be made at home that can kill thousands that it staggers the mind. Ricin is just one of them. I read in the Readers Digest a couple of years ago that some kid was tring to make some nuclear reactor in hios back yard. He collected enough material such that the NRC was brough tin along with the feds and locals. Readings of radioactivity were very high.

In the end we find ourselves living in a target rich environment.
Ricin might be the least of our worries!

[4v50 Gary]

If they're there, they're here. Don't think this is isolated.

[ArmsAkimber]

Yow! I stand corrected. This thread has prompted me to do some light reading on Abrin and Ricin. Very scary stuff. :uhoh:

I have a book on poisons and antidotes, written for laymen. Abrin is not mentioned, which I attribute to its relative scarcity. Much is said of ricin, which is probably due to the popularity of castor bean plants as ornamentals.