Posted on 11/16/2001 1:20:37 PM PST by Pokey78
Nov. 16 — A British newspaper reported Friday that detailed instructions on how to make the deadly biological poison ricin were found in an abandoned Kabul house that had been used by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. Papers describing how to build a nuclear bomb were also found in the house, although it was not clear whether the documents contained data not already in the public domain.
THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR making ricin were found in the cellar among scattered documents listing the formulas for manufacturing explosives, fuses and detonation circuits, The Times of London reported Friday.
Ricin is produced from a toxin protein in castor oil seed. It was famously used by Bulgarian secret police to kill Bulgarian refugee Georgi Markov in London in 1978.
The instructions read: “A certain amount, equal to a strong dose, will be able to kill an adult and a dose equal to seven seeds will kill a child.
“Gloves and face masks are essential for the preparation of ricin. Period of death varies from 3-5 days minimum, 4-14 days maximum.”
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Ricin (pronounced "rise-in") is every bit as deadly as the Special Alert made it out to be. It's a derivative of the castor bean and it truly is 6,000 times more toxic than cyanide. Just touching it or breathing it in can prove fatal. The FBI lists ricin as third in toxicity behind only plutonium and the botulism toxin. It has no known antidote -- if you get poisoned with this stuff, there is no magic bullet to save you.
From snopes. There are several instances of 'sudden-death syndrome' attributed to ricin, especially by CIA operatives.
Ricin: As already mentioned, derived from castor - bean plants, ricin is a powerful toxin. When inhaled, it causes immediate breakdown of the lung tissue, resulting in haemorrhagic pneumonia and death.
From infowar.
Ricin Poisoning Fact Sheet - Wisconsin Dept of Health & Family Svcs
RICIN TOXIN FROM CASTOR BEAN PLANT (Ricinus communis) - Animal Science Dept. at Cornell University. For those who really care, this site contains a good "Ricin-For-Dummies" diagram explaining the biosynthesis of ricin, among other things.
Ricin Summary - Medical NBC Online - website published by the US Army/Office of Surgeon General
No vaccine? No antidote?
Suggestions please...
Stay home and grow your own food. Shoot anyone who comes that you don't know.
1995
"Larry Harris, a white supremacist from Ohio, obtains three vials of deadly plague bacteria by mail order from a laboratory supply house. Alleged white supremacist Thomas Lewis Lavy is apprehended while trying to smuggle the toxin ricin across the Canadian border."
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