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American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States. For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream. Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are...

16 Burning Questions About The Oil Spill That We Deserve To Have Answered Published in June 17th, 2010 Posted by TMH in Politics Hat Tip: Glenn Beck From: Business Insider 1. What are those 17,000 National Guard troops actually doing? Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of more than 17,000 National Guard members along the Gulf coast to be used “as needed” by state governors. So what are all of these National Guard troops going to be doing exactly? Are the troops going to be used to stop the oil or to control the public? 2. Is appointing an Oil...

Complete title too long for the form. Here's the total title: Lake in the Hills man charged with pufferfish toxin purchase had a $5 million life insurance policy on his wife, authorities say Federal prosecutors also say she was the intended target in 2005, when her husband sought a hit man A Lake in the Hills man arrested after ordering a deadly pufferfish toxin had a cache of weapons in his home and was named as the beneficiary of a $5 million life insurance policy on his wife, prosecutors said Monday. Federal prosecutors also said that the wife, Rebecca Bachner,...

The CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists, according to a military and intelligence expert. Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, provided new details about the weapons search and Iraqi insurgency in a report released Friday. It was based on briefings over the past two weeks in Iraq from David Kay, the CIA representative who is directing the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq; L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator...

Protecting People from a Terrifying Toxin: Vaccine stimulates immune response against ricin Ben Harder In its first test in people, a vaccine against the toxin ricin appears safe and generates antibodies that are expected to be protective against the potential bioterrorism agent. Ricin comes from castor seeds and can cause lethal damage to the gut if swallowed or to the lungs if inhaled. Murderers and assassins have used it for centuries. The vaccine might be used to protect soldiers and first responders in advance of possible ricin exposure, says immunologist and study leader Ellen S. Vitetta of the University of...

Poisons may pass down generations Chemicals can change the way genes work Toxic chemicals that poisoned your great-grandparents may also damage your health, US research suggests. A team from Washington State University has produced evidence that some inherited diseases may be caused by poisons polluting the womb. Research on rats indicates man-made environmental poisons may alter genetic activity, giving rise to diseases that pass down at least four generations. The research is published in the journal Science. Poisons may pass down generations Toxic chemicals that poisoned your great-grandparents may also damage your health, US research suggests. A team from Washington...

SANTA MONICA — Three dead sea lions washed ashore on several beaches Monday after getting sick from a natural toxin released by algae. That brings the total number of sea lions washing ashore in recent days to eight, though the previous five were still alive. Those animals, some of whom were pregnant, were being nursed back to health by the nonprofit group Whale Rescue Team after they were found ashore in Playa Del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica and Will Rogers State beaches in recent weeks. The dead sea lions washed up at Cabrillo and White Point beaches in San Pedro....

A SUPERFIT Royal Marine collapsed and died within days of scratching his leg on a bush while on a training run — victim of a mutated superbug one doctor described as the worst she had ever seen. Richard Campbell-Smith, 18, fell victim to pneumonia caused by a rare strain of bacteria that produces a lethal toxin that kills white blood cells. A microbiologist who gave evidence at the inquest into his death yesterday said that she had come across two such cases since December but none in the previous 15 years. Marina Morgan, of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital,...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW) Money that has been contaminated with a virus; it’s a whole new possible direction for bioterrorism. It is a case that the FBI terrorism unit has taken over from state police that involves several cities, including Philadelphia. As CBS 3’s Tamsen Fadal reports, the unit is trying to determine whether or not a virus was actually placed over money to protect the interest of the Russian mob. In an exclusive investigation, CBS 3 has obtained documents detailing a bizarre criminal plot involving a virus, suspected drug money, and the Russian mob in Northeast Philadelphia. Earlier this month, Pennsylvania...

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 5:50 a.m. ET DARTMOUTH, Mass. (AP) -- The war on terror could have an unlikely ally in a modest mollusk known as the quahog. Researchers who injected the clams with enough botulism toxin to kill 1,000 people found the shellfish somehow neutralized the enzyme, which is considered a potential bioterror agent. ``Botulism activity was cut in half by the blood of the quahog,'' Dr. Bal Ram Singh told The Standard Times of New Bedford in Wednesday's editions. ``So we think there is some sort of antidote in this blood. If we are able to...

The lethal toxins produced by cone snails are in hot demand for neuroscience research, and are being developed as potent drugs. Laura Nelson visits a would-be snail ‘farmer’, for whom milking time is fraught with danger. 24 June 2004 LAURA NELSON This article is from the news section of the journal Nature Marine cone snails are among the most venomous beasts on the planet. © Nature Jon-Paul Bingham fumbles around for a condom. Big Bertha is waiting. There’s an awkward pause. “It has to be the non-lubricated kind,” he says. Bingham rips open the packet and slips the prophylactic over...

Toxin Ricin Found in Wash. Man's Apartment ASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE (AP) - A 37-year-old man is in FBI custody for allegedly possessing the deadly toxin ricin. Robert M. Alberg of Kirkland, Wash., was arrested at his apartment Friday for investigation of one count of possession of a biological agent or toxin. "It is enough that it could cause concern that it could harm someone - could kill someone," FBI spokeswoman Roberta Burroughs told KING-TV on Monday. Agents said they believe Alberg was making the ricin in his apartment but won't disclose how much was found. They also would not say...

Yahoo! News   Sat, Feb 07, 2004 Search for Senate Ricin Source Widens Fri Feb 6, 3:29 PM ET By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Searches of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's offices in Tennessee have uncovered no ricin or other evidence that might explain how the poison wound up in his Capitol Hill mailroom, officials said Friday. The senator's six offices in Tennessee reopened Thursday after being closed for two days while the FBI (news - web sites) and other investigators checked the mail and searched for other evidence. Nothing was found, said a federal law enforcement...

Media's Focus After Interim Report Surprises Top Arms Inspector By John D. Banusiewicz American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2003 – The man leading the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq expressed surprise here today that media reports focused mainly on what his team has yet to find and not on what it has turned up so far after his Oct. 2 interim report to Congress. David Kay, chief U.S. arms inspector, told host Tony Snow on the "Fox News Sunday" that while his team indeed has yet to find illicit weapons, "I'm sort of amazed that...

 OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOMBotulinum 'is WMD' State Department spokesman: Lethal bio-toxin 'kills people, it kills people in large quantities' Posted: October 4, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com The vial of botulinum bacteria discovered in Iraq by U.S. arms inspectors – which experts call the most poisonous substance known to man – is "a weapon of mass destruction," the State Department's top spokesman announced yesterday. "Botulinum kills people, it kills people in large quantities. Botulinum is a weapon of mass destruction, yes," said State spokesman Richard Boucher," according to an Agence France-Presse report. "Anything that destroys on a massive scale is a weapon...

7 more cases of mystery illness Military trying to identify malady that killed lake area soldier By Marsha Paxson Lake Sun LAKE OF THE OZARKS -- Seven more soldiers in Iraq have contracted the same puzzling illness that has killed two soldiers, including one from the lake area. The latest cases bring the number of affected troops to 19. All have been evacuated to the same Landstuhl, Germany, hospital where Spec. Josh Neusche, 20, of Montreal was treated before he died July 12. It is believed Neusche contracted the illness, first thought to be pneumonia, while conducting cleanup operations with...

Mystery illness kills Missouri soldierJosh Neusche died Saturday; his family waits for answers.By Eric EckertNews-Leader Staff July 16, 2003   Montreal, Mo. — Seventeen-year-old Jacob Neusche spent Tuesday morning packing up his big brother's belongings — books, a high school letterman's jacket and a Class A uniform.  "That's what Josh will be buried in," the teenager said, referring to the uniform.   Missouri National Guard Spc. Josh Neusche, 20, died Saturday at the Homburg Hospital in Germany from a mysterious illness. A member of the 203rd Engineer Battalion, he is the only Missouri National Guardsman on the Department of Defense's...

<p>U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer on Monday called on the federal government to investigate perchlorate contamination in produce following the release of a study that found elevated levels of the toxic rocket fuel component in some winter lettuce grown in the United States.</p>

SARGAT, Iraq, April 4 — Preliminary tests conducted by MSNBC.com indicate that the deadly toxins ricin and botulinum were present on two items found at a camp in a remote mountain region of northern Iraq allegedly used as a terrorist training center by Islamic militants with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The field tests used by MSNBC.com are only a first step in the evidentiary process and are typically followed by more precise laboratory testing that MSNBC.com has not conducted. U.S. intelligence agents were conducting their own tests in the same area and had not yet released their results,...

Oreilly just this on FOX!!!!!!!!