05.31.13
Bean Pounding: Family member alarms
Blobs of castor powder containing ricin and some oil stains on Bloomberg letter.
Bigger.
UPDATED: FBI detains man in Texas. See post footer.
From yesterday at GlobaSecurity.Org:
[The ricin mailers] also must have at least vague recognition that the FBI’s WMD unit is now well-prepared to track such cases and there is a good chance they will be arrested.
When ricin mail arrives and a determination is made that active poison is present, one can imagine the FBI and other federal agencies immediately using Internet search, as well as their own tools, to scour the web for language similar to the messaging in the ricin mail.
This can be one Achilles’ Heel of the ricin mailer. Another vulnerability is the existence of confidants.
It is one thing to listen to a loony acquaintance rail about the president, or Mayor Bloomberg, and how they will make a poison powder. It is quite another to read in the newspaper that such a thing has been done, that castor beans have been pounded, the words are nationwide, and you might have an idea who did it.
“Authorities, including the FBI, questioned a New Boston, Texas, man Thursday night in connection with an investigation of ricin-laced letters sent to government officials, including President Barack Obama,” KSLA-TV in Shreveport, La., reports.
According to ABC News, a source familiar with the case says investigators consider the man to be a person of interest at this time. The network writes that the source says the man’s wife “called authorities after she noticed strange material in her refrigerator, and noticed computer searches for ricin.”
Possible hit or blind alley? Time will tell.
But bean pounding, the making of poison powder in this country in 2013, hardly ever occurs in a perfect vacuum.
Texarkana Gazette breaking story on man in connection with new ricin letters.
“FBI agents secure the home [of Nathan D. Richardson] at 111 Maple in New Boston, Texas, where ricin is believed to be found,” it reads.
Maj Variola said,
May 31, 2013 at 12:50 pm
What gets me is that they crudely smear hostile letters. With oily crap! What part of “water soluable protein” is hard to understand? Oh right, to the knuckleheads, protein is beef.
Whass an enzyme, like cheeze an shit?
Hurr, why dey no show my letter to dere boss? He no wants to reads his konstitucency?
Seems to me you’d want to less conspicuously dust glowing letters of approval seemingly from elderly grandmothers requesting signed photos.
Also, though its rarer, the abrin bean is much worse, same principle (your ribosomes are your friends).
Check out
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131768/Jo-Wollacott-toxic-bracelet-Woman-sectioned-hallucinations-caused-jewellery.html
George Smith said,
June 1, 2013 at 10:42 am
Even more bizarre than imagined.
http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articles/130601906-ricin-bean-pounding-welcome-to.htm
George Smith said,
June 1, 2013 at 2:50 pm
Hard to know what precisely in those beans was giving the woman fits. Abrin jumped to everyone’s mind but I’d bet that, as in castor seeds, there are other antigens that may really be irritating to sensitive individuals.