Ricin

LAS VEGAS - A motel patron hospitalized after possible exposure to the toxin ricin is "holding his own" in intensive care, his cousin said yesterday as investigators puzzled over why the strictly controlled poison was in the man's room. Thomas Tholen told the Associated Press that he didn't immediately want to say more about Roger Von Bergendorff or the discovery Thursday of several vials of ricin at his extended-stay motel room. "He's a cousin, and he's holding his own," Tholen, 53, of Riverton, Utah, said in a brief telephone interview.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - In the violent underground novel "Absolved," right-wing militia members upset about gun control make war against the US government. This week, federal prosecutors accused four Georgia men of plotting to use the book as a script for a real-life wave of terror and assassination involving explosives and the highly lethal poison ricin. The four suspected militia members allegedly boasted of a bucket list of government officials who needed to be "taken out"; talked about scattering ricin from a plane or a car speeding down a highway past major US cities;...

WASHINGTON - US 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.

WASHINGTON - US 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.

LAS VEGAS - Authorities yesterday confirmed that the deadly toxin ricin was found in a motel room most recently occupied by a man who has been in critical condition with breathing problems at a hospital for more than two weeks. Las Vegas police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity and no indication that the deadly substance spread beyond the several vials of powder that were found in a plastic bag in the man's room Thursday. But what the ricin was doing there remained a mystery.

WASHINGTON -- Initial tests indicate that an experimental vaccine for ricin works and is safe, raising the possibility that it might one day offer protection from a poison that authorities fear could be a weapon for terrorists. Deadly and easy to produce, ricin is extracted from castor beans. It can be added to food or water, injected, or sprayed as an aerosol. It has a long history of use in espionage. The FBI is investigating two incidents involving the poison in 2003. In one, a threatening letter containing ricin was found at a...

WASHINGTON -- Postal Service workers weren't told they may have been exposed to the poison ricin last year in a letter intercepted before reaching the White House, the head of the largest postal union said yesterday, accusing the government of a double standard that favors politicians. Workers "will not be treated like a canary in the mining industry," said William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 366,000 employees. Burrus was testifying at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on...

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- The Williamstown Post Office was reopened yesterday after tests for a powdery substance found in the building came up negative for dangerous substances such as anthrax or ricin, officials said. The material has been sent to a state lab for further testing, said Nick Manetto, a spokesman for US Representative Chris H. Smith. Workers were allowed back into the building at about 4:30 p.m. after a hazardous-materials squad and FBI and Postal Service investigators examined the work area where the substance was found.

A 57-year-old Agawam man was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison by a US District Court judge for threatening a federal prosecutor and illegally possessing ricin. Michael Crooker had pleaded guilty to mailing a letter with a threat to injure an officer or employee of the United States and to possessing ricin, which is considered “a weapon of mass destruction’’ under federal law, without the required registration, according to a statement from US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

IRVINE, Calif. -- A man identified as a possible witness in a case of baby-food tampering refused to answer questions, authorities said yesterday. The man's lawyer said he has no information to help police. "They kind of ruined this man's life with all this publicity that they showered on him," said Mark H. Williams, the lawyer for Charles Dewey Cage. Susan Schroeder, Orange County deputy district attorney, said prosecutors, police, and the FBI tried to interview Cage on Thursday about the placement of ground castor beans containing trace amounts of the poison ricin in two jars of baby food.

A 57-year-old Agawam man was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison by a US District Court judge for threatening a federal prosecutor and illegally possessing ricin. Michael Crooker had pleaded guilty to mailing a letter with a threat to injure an officer or employee of the United States and to possessing ricin, which is considered “a weapon of mass destruction’’ under federal law, without the required registration, according to a statement from US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

A former Agawam man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for illegally possessing the toxin ricin and threatening a prosecutor. Michael Crooker pleaded guilty to the charges in March. He has been in federal custody since 2004, when he was arrested on charges of using the mail to transport a firearm. Agents who searched his apartment discovered what appeared to be a weapons lab along with castor and abrus seeds — the sources of ricin and abrin poisons. Prosecutors say Crooker later sent a letter to an assistant U.S. attorney in which he invoked the name of Oklahoma...

RIVERTON, Utah - FBI agents wearing protective suits searched yesterday for ricin at a suburban home where a man possibly sickened by the deadly poison had once lived. Authorities believed they had found all the ricin in several vials recovered Thursday from a Las Vegas motel where Roger Von Bergendorff had been staying, but they wanted to also check the home in Riverton, outside Salt Lake City. "We are taking all the precautions necessary to ensure public safety," Timothy Fuhrman, an FBI agent, said at a news conference.

LAS VEGAS - A motel patron hospitalized after possible exposure to the toxin ricin is "holding his own" in intensive care, his cousin said yesterday as investigators puzzled over why the strictly controlled poison was in the man's room. Thomas Tholen told the Associated Press that he didn't immediately want to say more about Roger Von Bergendorff or the discovery Thursday of several vials of ricin at his extended-stay motel room. "He's a cousin, and he's holding his own," Tholen, 53, of Riverton, Utah, said in a brief telephone interview.

LAS VEGAS - Authorities yesterday confirmed that the deadly toxin ricin was found in a motel room most recently occupied by a man who has been in critical condition with breathing problems at a hospital for more than two weeks. Las Vegas police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity and no indication that the deadly substance spread beyond the several vials of powder that were found in a plastic bag in the man's room Thursday. But what the ricin was doing there remained a mystery.

AUSTIN, Texas -- A University of Texas student found a substance in a roll of quarters that tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, but more tests were planned, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old student, who said she unwrapped the chunky powder in her dormitory laundry room Thursday, and her roommate were checked at a hospital for potential exposure to the poison, although neither had any symptoms, officials said. Preliminary tests for ricin came back positive Friday.

AUSTIN, Texas -- A University of Texas student found a substance in a roll of quarters that tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, but more tests were planned, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old student, who said she unwrapped the chunky powder in her dormitory laundry room Thursday, and her roommate were checked at a hospital for potential exposure to the poison, although neither had any symptoms, officials said. Preliminary tests for ricin came back positive Friday.

WASHINGTON -- The discovery of sarin gas in Iraq and the use of anthrax and ricin against Congress spurred the Senate yesterday to approve $5.6 billion to help prepare for possible germ or chemical attacks on American soil. The Senate, on a 99-0 vote, approved legislation to pay for research, production, and stockpiling of vaccines and antidotes for bioterrorism agents. The House already has approved the so-called Project BioShield legislation, and lawmakers on both sides say they hope to soon have it to President Bush for his signature.

WASHINGTON -- Initial tests indicate that an experimental vaccine for ricin works and is safe, raising the possibility that it might one day offer protection from a poison that authorities fear could be a weapon for terrorists. Deadly and easy to produce, ricin is extracted from castor beans. It can be added to food or water, injected, or sprayed as an aerosol. It has a long history of use in espionage. The FBI is investigating two incidents involving the poison in 2003. In one, a threatening letter containing ricin was found at a South Carolina postal...

LONDON -- A jury found an alleged Al Qaeda operative guilty of murdering a policeman trying to arrest him for a plot to spread the deadly toxin ricin, officials said yesterday. Eight other suspects were cleared. Algerian militant Kamel Bourgass was sentenced to life in prison last June, but a judge lifted reporting restrictions only yesterday, after prosecutors dropped charges against four more suspects whose trial had been due to start soon. A jury last week acquitted four other men alleged to have been involved in the plot.