- Jeff - In light of recent publicity about ricin let's
recall that in Jan 2003 ricin was alleged to have been discovered in London
amid a firestorm of publicity here in Britain. Ten months later it was
quietly admitted to have been a pack of lies.
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- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-842694,00.html
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- New Government Setback As Ricin Plot Claims
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- By David Leppard
- The Sunday Times - Britain
- October 05, 2003
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- The government is facing an embarrassing climbdown over
its war on terror after prosecutors privately agreed to drop claims that
the deadly poison ricin was found in London. Scientists at the Porton Down
germ warfare laboratory have told the Crown Prosecution Service that toxicological
tests on material recovered from a flat in north London mean they cannot
prove ricin was present.
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- The alleged discovery of the ricin plot in January was
reported by Downing Street, government officials and police as a significant
escalation of the terrorist threat to Britain and appeared to bolster the
case for war against Iraq.
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- Tony Blair cited it as "powerful evidence of the
continued terrorist threat" during a Commons statement on the danger
posed to the West by Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, and his alleged
arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
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- However, critics are now expected to seize on the admission
over the alleged ricin plot as further evidence that the government was
engaged in a "spin offensive" in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
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- One source close to the case said: "The government
said at the time that chemical weapons had been found in Britain for the
first time. Defence lawyers have been told that they can no longer substantiate
this statement. The case appears to be crumbling."
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- The disclosure comes only days after the Iraq Survey
Group, hunting for evidence of Saddam's weapons, confirmed that it had
found no biological or chemical weapons.
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- The latest blow relates to the dramatic claims made by
the authorities over the arrest of seven suspected terrorists in London.
Scotland Yard issued a statement saying that "a small amount of the
material recovered . . . had tested positive for the presence of ricin
poison".
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- It warned that ingesting the toxin would damage body
organs, adding: "Pulmonary, liver, renal and immunological failure
may lead to death. No antidote is known: treatment can only be supportive."
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- The significance of the "find" was underlined
when Blair's official spokesman confirmed the "presence of ricin poison"
later that day. The spokesman added: "This was a toxic material which,
if ingested, inhaled or injected, could prove fatal."
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- Those public statements prompted widespread media coverage.
They sparked intense public alarm about imminent threats from Al-Qaeda
terrorists as well as concerns about Iraq's supposed links to Al-Qaeda.
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- The official claims were made in a series of co-ordinated
government announcements on January 7 - as speculation that Britain was
about to join America in the war on Saddam reached fever pitch. Thirteen
days later Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, announced the first large-scale
deployment of British troops to fight in Iraq.
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- Although details of the case cannot be reported for legal
reasons, insiders say a current prosecution involving several men charged
with conspiracy to produce chemical weapons is unlikely to be affected.
But they accept that there will be fresh questions about the way the threat
was originally presented by the government.
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- Prosecution sources say the original public statements
were all issued in good faith after initial work at the Defence Science
and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down.
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