NP - Ricin

[David Morris]

http://www.e-topics.com/index.asp?userid=20010917102113379223&layout=intraday_story&doc_id=111796&desk=crsh%5FAmerica+Under+Attack

Report: Al-Qaida Had Poison Formula
Nov 16, 2001 8:03AM    [AP Online]

LONDON (AP)  Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network had a formula
for making ricin, one of the deadliest known poisons, The Times newspaper 
reported Friday.

The Times said it found instructions for making the biological chemical 
ricin  an untraceable poison that is twice as deadly as cobra venom  in an 
al-Qaida safehouse in Kabul.

Ricin, a powder produced from the seeds and pods of the castor bean plant, 
kills by inhalation or ingestion. It is regarded as the third-most toxic 
substance, and there is no known antidote.

One page of 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."

Another page listed the properties of ricin, including the pain it causes 
and the time it takes for its lethal properties to take effect.

"Period of death varies from three to five days minimum, four to 14 days 
maximum," The Times reported the documents as reading.

The instructions listed the symptoms of ricin poisoning in chronological 
order: vomiting, stomach cramps, extreme thirst, bloody diarrhea, throat 
irritation and respiratory collapse.



_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp