Subject: Re: Desperate Bu$h Mails Ricin to Sen. Bill Frist
From: "Acharya"

"--= Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñ0ßí =--" <abuse@anarchy.gov> wrote in message
news:OBK94842385FE8C0001138@r2-dv8.anarchy.gov...

Ain't gonna work this time, Dumbya. We know you like faking wars and
terrorist attacks in order to divert attention away from your crimes and
failed policies. Not that you even made any attempt at an honest policy,
it's all been to plunder Amerika on behalf of your international ring of
corporate crooks. From Texas, to Kuwait, to Saudi Arabia, you and your
scumbag friends had your greedy eyes set on Iraq's oil and Amerika's

taxes.

Next stop for you is the electric chair. For treason, war crimes, and

being

an all-around *****...

Toxin Ricin Possibly Found on Capitol Hill
By Richard Simon and Mary Curtius
LA Times

WASHINGTON - A powdery substance suspected to be the poison ricin was
discovered Monday in a Capitol Hill mailroom near the office of Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, raising new fears of bioterrorism.

Several tests found the white powder to be ricin, a potentially deadly
toxin derived from castor beans, and additional tests were being

conducted.

The sight of workers in protective clothing sealing off a Senate office
building brought back memories of the anthrax-laced letter sent to then-
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) in October 2001.

At a late-night Capitol Hill news conference, Frist (R-Tenn.) said the
incident was being investigated as a crime.

Frist, a physician who has written about bioterrorism, sought to reassure
Capitol Hill staffers that all precautions were being taken.

There was no evidence that any of the powder had been inhaled, he said,
noting that the symptoms of exposure typically would appear in four to
eight hours.

"We're beyond the eight hours of exposure, and everybody is just fine,"
Frist said. He encouraged anyone who was on the fourth floor of the

Dirksen

Senate Office Building and had developed shortness of breath or chest
tightness or a cough in the previous few hours to notify the Capitol
physician.

"There is no cause for alarm," he said.

The chief of the Capitol Police, Terrance W. Gainer, said his officers

were

called to the office - "a large room used to handle mail" - about 3 p.m.
Monday. It was not clear where the powder came from, he said.

Two preliminary field tests, which are frequently inaccurate, gave split
results - one positive for ricin, one negative. The substance was then
taken to another facility on Capitol Hill, where three additional tests
were positive. Finally, it was taken to another laboratory off Capitol
Hill, where two of three tests were positive for ricin.

Gainer said the results of a definitive test would be available early this
morning.

Sixteen people in the room where the powder was found have been
decontaminated, Gainer said. Until the final test results come back,

"we're

in a wait-and-see position," he added.

Ricin is a deadly substance made from the mash left over from processing
castor beans.

If injected, a dose the size of a head of a pin can kill an adult. The
American military studied ricin for use as a weapon near the end of World
War I, and with British help made a ricin bomb during World War II. The
bomb was never used in battle.

Ricin is a large protein that can be inhaled, ingested or injected. In an
infamous use of the poison, Bulgarian agents in 1978 shot a ricin pellet
hidden in the tip of an umbrella into the leg of a dissident, Georgi I.
Markov, as he strolled across London's Waterloo Bridge. He died three days
after the attack.

Ricin is hard to disperse, and is therefore not a particularly effective
bioterrorism weapon if the goal is to kill large numbers of people.
However, it is easy to make and to store, and Al Qaeda manuals found in
Afghanistan in November 2001 reportedly described how to manufacture the
toxin.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ricin can be
dropped into water supplies, food or liquids. Once inside the body, ricin
invades cells, blocking them from making the proteins they need to

survive.

Mild poisoning by ricin can induce nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and

abdominal

pain, the CDC said. Severe poisoning can damage the liver and cause death.

Someone who has breathed in ricin can begin to show symptoms within eight
hours of exposure, according to the CDC. The victim would have trouble
breathing, run a fever, cough, feel nauseated and have a tightness in the
chest. Someone who swallows the poison could begin showing symptoms,
including vomiting and bloody diarrhea, in as little as six hours after
exposure.

The agent is not contagious, and the only way to be poisoned by ricin is

to

come in contact with it.

There is no treatment for ricin poisoning.

In January, British anti-terrorist forces arrested six Algerian men in a
London apartment, where small quantities of ricin were seized. The men

were

believed to be linked to Al Qaeda.

An envelope containing ricin also was discovered in October in a postal
distribution facility in Greenville, S.C. A note threatening to poison
water supplies if demands were not met was found with the envelope. No one
was injured in the incident.

The substance found on Capitol Hill on Monday was not the first poison to
have turned up in senators' offices. In October 2001, shortly after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, envelopes containing anthrax were mailed to
Daschle and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).

The Hart Senate Office Building was evacuated after the anthrax-tainted
letter was opened in Daschle's office; the Leahy letter was found in a
search of quarantined mail. The building was closed until Jan. 22, 2002,
for decontamination. Since then all mail sent to Capitol Hill has been
irradiated.

However, Frist said irradiation would likely have no effect on ricin
because the substance is neither a virus nor a bacterium.

The anthrax-by-mail attacks occurred over several weeks in September and
October of 2001, targeting media outlets in Florida and New York as well

as

the senators' offices.

Five people contracted anthrax and died. Thousands of people were tested
for anthrax, and 19 became ill but recovered. No one has been arrested in
connection with the mailings.


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Emma, again you have no proof for what you write. It belongs in
alt.books.purefiction