- (AFP) - Toxic ricin powder found in the US Senate may
have been sent by an angry trucker, who last year also sent letters to
the White House and the Department of Transportation, officials said.
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- The deadly poison, which has no known antidote or cure,
was found Monday in the mailroom of the the head of the Republican majority
in the Senate, Bill Frist.
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- Officials said Tuesday that parcels containing ricin
also were sent to the White House and the Department of Transportation
last year, but those cases were not disclosed at the time.
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- The White House letter was sent in November, but was
intercepted at a military screening facility.
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- The letter to the Department of Transportation was sent
one month before that, and was found at a mail facility in South Carolina.
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- That letter was sent by someone who called himself "Fallen
Angel," claiming to be to the owner of a trucking company and demanding
a change in rules regulating truck drivers.
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- "I have easy access to castor pulp," which
is used to make ricin, the author wrote. "If my demand is dismissed,
I'm capable of making ricin."
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- The FBI is investistigating whether these letters are
linked to the ricin powder found in Frist's office, which forced the closure
of three buildings Tuesday, law enforcement officials said.
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- In all, 50 people, including 10 police officers, went
through decontamination procedures but none were believed to be harmed
by the powder, officials said. There is no known antidote to ricin poison,
which normally kills within 72 hours.
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- Ricin is not contagious but is relatively easy to make
and can be spread as a powder, mist or dissolved in water.
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- "Somebody, in all likelihood, manufactured this
with an intent to harm, and this is a criminal investigation," Frist
told the Senate.
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- Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said:
"I believe that it is an act of terrorism. The question is, who is
responsible? How widespread is this act? And to what extent will be the
repercussions, the implications of another act such as this?"
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- But he added: "Terrorist acts, criminal acts of
this kind will not stop the work of the Senate."
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- Congress was the target of anthrax mail attacks in 2001.
Letters laced with the deadly bacteria were sent to the offices of Daschle
and fellow Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy shortly after the September
11 attacks on New York and Washington.
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- Other letters containing anthrax were received by US
news organizations, and anthrax was also detected at a Washington post
office.
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- Five of the 22 people who became ill with anthrax died.
No arrests have ever been made.
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- The main Senate building remained open Tuesday but the
ricin sparked a renewed bio-terrorism alert in the US capital.
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- The office where the ricin was found remained sealed
off Tuesday and nothing has been removed, said Terry Gainer, the police
chief for the district which takes in the US Congress buildings. The building
may remain closed for up to a week, he added.
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- President George W. Bush was briefed about the find and
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Department of Homeland Security,
the health department, the government Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the White House were involved in
the investigation with police.
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- Ricin is a toxin which occurs naturally in castor beans
and is 6,000 times more powerful than cyanide. Experts say a speck no bigger
than a grain of salt is enough to kill an adult. Symptoms include chest
pain, nausea, fever, muscle aches and organ failure.
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- >http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040203/1/3hqoc.html
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