Letter sent to Obama tests positive for ricin, officials say

[one_voice]

A letter addressed to President Barack Obama tested positive for the poison ricin and was from the same sender who mailed a letter to a senator that also tested positive, officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

The letter to Obama was received at an off-site White House mail facility and was being tested further, a Secret Service official told NBC News. A federal law enforcement official said that the letter was “very similar” to one addressed to a senator that tested positive in preliminary screening for ricin.

Authorities cleared the atrium of a Senate office building Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear why. Capitol police were also investigating a suspicious package at the office of Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. Shelby’s staff had not been evacuated.

Ricin is made from castor beans and can kill within 36 hours. There is no antidote. Some threatening letters simply contain ground castor beans, resulting in a positive field test for ricin without the concentrated poison.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/17/17794663-letter-sent-to-obama-tests-positive-for-ricin-officials-say?lite

[graham4anything]

1. God be with President Obama.

Is this a poison by touch?

[alsame]

2. MSNBC just said the definitive results will be

available later today, after they do a culture. Apparently, false positives on preliminary tests are not uncommon.

[Drale]

3. Is it sad that this doesn't shock me anymore?

Honestly with all the racists and tea baggers out their, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. You know, I'd just started using envelopes when mailing to politicians again.

I guess it's time to go back to tri-folded pieces of paper.

I'm so tired of these nuts and their crazy freaking hate.

[one_voice]

7. I'm tired of it too.

[SummerSnow]

5. so much hate in the world

[BlueCaliDem]

6. One sent to a inconsequential Republican Senator and one the President of the United States . . .

And this will give Corporate Media cover and allow them to report that it's happening to "both sides of the aisle", and then blow it off.

But I do hope that the president will be as merciful and compassionate to the person who'll undoubtedly be found, as s/he was when s/he sent out that ricin-laced piece of mail.

[murray hill farm]

8. Remember after 911...

The scare of anthrax via many mailed suspicious letters...and some with anthrax inside. I don't know if this means anything...maybe some sicko copy cat..who knows. At least Anthrax had a treatment, Ricin does not.

[whatchamacallit]

9. Huh, must be time to ram Patriot Act II down our throats...

[one_voice]

10. .

[MzShellG]

11. It's the anthrax saga all over again.....

God please protect this country and our president.

[AsahinaKimi]

12. "What is ricin?"

Ricin is a poison that is naturally found in castor beans, produced by the pervasive castor bean weed. It can be formed into a powder, mist or pellet, or even added to water, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Castor beans are processed throughout the world to make castor oil. Ricin is the part of the waste "mash" produced when castor oil is made.

The symptoms of ricin poisoning might not raise an alarm until it's too late. They begin benignly enough -- respiratory distress, followed by nausea, coughing, fever and, ultimately perhaps, death.

Ricin-associated illness cannot be spread from person to person through casual contact. However, if you come into contact with someone who has ricin on their body or clothes, you could become exposed to it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-what-is-ricin-20130417,0,7845729.story