Terrorism Weekly: Ricin: An Unlikely Weapon of Mass Destruction

A 57-year-old graphic designer and pizza deliveryman, Roger Von Bergendorff, remained in a coma in a Las Vegas-area hospital March 5, nearly two weeks after he apparently inhaled ricin powder, a biological toxin that later was found among his belongings. The FBI is investigating the case to determine how the potentially deadly substance came into Von Bergendorff’s possession —and, more important, what he planned to do with it....

Excerpts:
What Von Bergendorff was doing with ricin and the syringes — and whether he manufactured the substance himself or acquired it — is unknown at this time. Because he remains in a coma, he is unable to answer questions. His respiratory condition is the likely result of inhaling ricin powder, though doctors have yet to confirm the cause. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there is no cure for ricin poisoning, but victims who do not die in the first five days after poisoning normally recover and survive.
Due to its ease of manufacture and its potency, ricin often is cited as an ideal terrorist weapon. But we take issue with that point of view, given that militants generally are looking for the biggest bang for their buck. This is not to say that recipes for making ricin and directions for deploying the agent have not appeared in al Qaeda training manuals. They have — specifically in Afghanistan. In addition, in 2003 several suspected Islamist militants were arrested in North London, where traces of ricin were found in their apartment.
However, in our experience, ricin most often has come into play as a method of targeted killings.
Suspects in the North London case were believed to have been planning to use ricin for assassination, possibly of the prime minister.
In the early 1990s, several members of the Minnesota Patriots Council, a radical antitaxation group, acquired ricin and were accused of plotting to use it against federal officials. 1998, three members of the North American Militia in Michigan, who were indicted on weapons and conspiracy charges, were found in possession of videotapes explaining the process of extracting ricin from castor beans.
There is the question of how to administer it. We have heard that thought has been given to soaking shrapnel from conventional explosives in ricin to add to the lethality of fragments, but the explosion itself would likely cause more damage than the ricin. If Von Bergendorff was preparing ricin for use as a weapon in a lone-wolf attack — and there is no confirmation that he was — he likely would have had better success using the four firearms he had in his hotel room.
However, ricin’s effectiveness as a discrete weapon of targeted assassination does raise potential concern for highly visible individuals such as political leaders, businesspeople and celebrities. As demonstrated in the Markov case, a handheld device such as an umbrella, a needle or a modified ring can be used to inject a small pellet of ricin into a target. This could be done in any number of situations, including in a receiving line or while the target is “pressing the flesh” on the campaign trail.
There is a great deal of concern about the potential for a biological attack inside the United States. However, although it is possible for nonstate actors to develop and deploy biological agents and toxins, they are more likely to employ relatively simple and proven methods of attack — using firearms and explosives — than some exotic weapon.
There is, however, the psychological component to consider — and biological agents indeed are effective weapons of mass disruption. The 2001 anthrax letters exemplify that point. Although the death toll from those letters was very small, the impact on the postal service and on government and corporate mail-handling procedures was massive.
One of the most successful biological weapons attacks in the United States in recent history occurred in Oregon in 1984, when members of the Bhagwan Shri Rashneesh cult sprinkled salmonella bacteria on produce in grocery stores, on salad bars in local restaurants and on door handles around town. The attack, which left 751 people ill, was intended to prevent certain citizens from getting to the polls to vote for the competitor of a cult follower who was running for a judgeship.
The train bombings in Madrid and London, as compared with the attempted sarin attack by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Tokyo, clearly demonstrate that conventional explosives have been more effective than homemade biological or chemical agents.
Full Report: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ricin_unlikely_weapon_mass_destruction

The Patriots Council was most famous for an early-1990s plot to unleash attacks against federal officials and government targets using the biological toxin ricin, approximately six thousand times more powerful than cyanide. Patriots Council members Doug Baker, LeRoy Wheeler, Dennis Henderson, and Richard Oelrich ordered a ricin “starter-kit” from an advertisement in a right-wing magazine. From the castor beans included in the kit, the men were able to extract .7 grams of ricin before the plot was foiled.
According to officials, this amount of ricin, if deployed correctly, was capable of killing more than one hundred people. With the help of an FBI informant inside the organization, the four men were arrested and charged with possession of a deadly biological substance, representing the first people to be charged and convicted under the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. It appears that this plot was more an independent effort of four extreme individuals rather than an attack planned with the knowledge and consent of the Patriots Council.
Current Goals: Since the arrest of four of its members following the ricin plot, the Patriots Council has not publicly surfaced again. It is assumed that moderate members distanced themselves from the group, which has now been forever associated with plotting biological terrorist attacks, and that extreme members left the group once the FBI was able to successfully penetrate the organization.

Patriots Council
Aliases: Minnesota Patriot Council
Base of Operation: United States
http://www.tkb.org

A case like his pops up just about once or twice a year. The older cases the govt. seems to easily use the words “weapons of mass distruction”.

On May 24, 2007, a British lab confirmed that traces of ricin had been found in an Irish prison cell. The ricin was smuggled into Ireland from the US in a contact lens case, to be used in an assassination plot

On October 3, 2006, Denys Ray Hughes of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced to seven years in prison for the attempted manufacture of ricin.

On January 14, 2005, Steven Michael Ekberg, of Ocala, Florida, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for possession of a biological weapon after agents found ricin in the home he shares with his mother. Ekberg had castor beans and other products in his possession. Ekberg later pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of a biological weapon.

On February 3, 2004, ricin was found on an automatic mail sorter in the mailroom of the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington, D.C. A specialized Marine unit trained to handle chemical and biological incidents responded to the event, and 16 employees went through decontamination procedures. The mailroom handled mail addressed to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. According to Frist, no one became sick

On October 2003, a metallic container was discovered at a Greenville, South Carolina postal facility with ricin in it. The small container was in an envelope along with a threatening note. Authorities did not believe this was a terrorism related incident.

On 3 March 2003, FBI agents arrested Bertier Ray Riddle in Omaha, Arkansas on suspicion that he sent an envelope to the FBI field office in Little Rock that claimed to contain ricin. On 12 March 2003, Riddle was indicted on two charges, one of mailing a threatening communication and the other of insulting a federal law enforcement officer and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction.

http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/ricin_chron.htm

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.