Mystery continues over how ricin got to Frist's office

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.baynews9.com/site/content/33044.html



(Capitol Hill-AP) -- Officials say they still don't know for sure how ricin powder got into the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist but three Senate buildings closed after the discovery are going to be reopened. snip

Frist called it "a terrorist attack on my life." He says he assumes the lethal poison came in the mail. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer says officials have collected most of the material they wanted from Frist's office for their criminal investigation.

Gainer also says he knows of no links with ricin-laden letters found last fall in mail facilities serving the White House and the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina.

more

[qanda]

1. What's strange is that

The person who discovered it said they noticed the powder on the machine after returning from lunch. Wouldn't powder stand out when you're opening something?

Who benefits from Frist's office being closed while an investigation is going on concerning the leaking of classified information? Hmmmmmm... I wonder.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Let me think for a while.......OK, I got it. Frist benefits from this BS

[NewYorkerfromMass]

22. "a terrorist attack on my life"

Sure. Whatever. But he gets to say that in his 15 minutes as a drama queen. :eyes:

[notadmblnd]

9. theres a couple of things that have me going hmmmmm

One is that I was under the impression all mail was screened before arriving at it's final destination and two it was said on FAUX news on their early morning show FAUX and FIENDS, that Frist, being a Dr. knew right away what the substance was. I certainly got the impression he was down in the mailroom himself. I haven't heard who actually found this very convienent envelope of WMD's. Does anyone know the name of the person who claims they found this?

[UpInArms]

26. it reminded me of this

http://www.hannibal.net/stories/050200/hap_0502000041.html

At Scott's second trial, in April 1998, a tape of his confession was played for the jury. It was made to police officer Neal Baker and Marion County Sheriff Dan Campbell, and Scott said he had "pulled off three or four sandbags." He said he did it because he saw seepage and wanted somebody to notice the problem.

At his first trial, in 1994, Scott had been sentenced to life in prison after conviction of the same charge, creating a catastrophe. His trial was in Kirksville on a change of venue from Marion County.

makes me go - hmmmmm.....

[tom_paine]

36. Whoever was stealing Democratic computer documents for more than a year

I have no doubt dsome very qualified Bushevik Computer scrubbers were mixed in with the HazMat crews and performed their tasks very well.

Now watch the investigation into Watergate II fall down into the Memory Hole.

[Just Me]

2. Officials believe the ricin was "home-grown",...

,...and are calling it a criminal act rather than an act of domestic terrorism.

[htuttle]

21. It was 'domestic terrorism' by any definition....

ABC carried a story about it earlier in the week. There was a note with the ricin stating that unless a trucking-related law that had been passed a few months ago was repealed, there would be more attacks. It was signed 'Fallen Angel'. They received similiar letters last November addressed to Bush they never told us about until now.

Isn't 'threatening or committing violence to effect political change' precisely what 'terrorism' is defined as? Since they are coming to the conclusion that it was sent by a white guy in the US -- possibly even a former Republican (a hunch I have, primarily due to the choice of names the letters were signed with), does that somehow preclude the possibility of it being called 'terrorism'?

Can only Arabs commit terrorism, otherwise it's merely a 'criminal act'? Is that how it works?

[chelsea0011]

32. Homegrown Terror or How Can I Invade My Own Country?

Maybe what's left of the National Guard can start knocking on everyone's door to get to the bottom of this. Does the government actually believe that an admission that there might be terrorists of an American kind therby diminishing our Middle East assault?

[R Hickey]

4. Arn't some of Frist's staffers suspects in a Watergate type investigation?

Could this be some sort of a cover-up effort by one of Frist's staffers? Were those the same offices where Frist's suspected staffers work?

I would never suspect Senator Frist of doing it himself, but to have access to sprinkle some ricine around, one would think it would have to be someone on his staff. I'm sure the area isn't open to the general public.

[papau]

6. BINGO - you win - when a GOP cover-up is obvious, they yell "terror"

and the media forgets a year long "Watergate" break-in by the GOP into Dem Staff documents..


Of course the only reason they broke in was because they could -

so it is the fault of the Dems for letting them


So of like women wearing dresses asking to be raped.

Or at least the media will see the GOP logic and now drop the scandal - do we have anyone who wants to bet the media will chase the scandal?

:-)

[Pale_Rider]

29. Could be related to the Democratic Memo-gate ...

... where one of Frist's aides has resigned over stealing memos from the Judiciary file server. Nothing more than a distraction from Memo-gate.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Wonder if it turns out to be anti-abortion nuts who bomb clinics...

...and are pissed off about the hospitals Frist owns that do abortions, if it will still be considered terrorism?

Don

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Well Senator Frist, perhaps you know now how your colleagues,

the gentlemen from South Dakota and Vermont, Sens. Daschle and Leahy, felt when they received anthrax in the mail.

[Ruby Romaine]

8. Texas Terraists?

The Sunshine Project
News Release
23 October 2003

Ricin breeding and production projects
at Texas Tech University raise questions

(Austin and Hamburg) – Since the mid-1990s, researchers at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock have conducted several projects to produce ricin, a toxin found in the seeds of the castor bean plant. Ricin is deadly in very small quantities and is subject to tight restrictions under both the Chemical and the Biological Weapons Conventions. At TTU, agriculture researchers bred castor to create high-ricin yielding plants specifically adapted for toxin production.
(snip)

http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr231003.html

[R Hickey]

33. Did Frist's ricin come from this Texas Tech Ricin Plantation?

What is the genetic connection between the ricin found in Frist's office and the ricin grown in the Texas Tech Ricin Plantation?

What Republican Congressman's district is the Texas Ricin grown? Does Senator Frist know that congressman? Does President Bush, Poppy or Cheney?

It sounds like Lubbock, Texas is where the missing 'weapons of mass distruction' programs are going on.

[Sufi Marmot]

35. Probably no way to tell...

Ricin is a protein (not a living organism) - most likely what ever was found in Frist's mailroom is chemically indistinguishable from the ricin being studied at Texas Tech. If I was a betting man I would doubt that the ricin from Frist's office came from Lubbock - at least there's no reason a priori to suspect Lubbock as a source over any number of other potential domestic sources. Ricin is supposed to be relatively easy to make, and the starting materials are easy to obtain.

-SM

[flamingpie2500]

10. This whole thing smells like a diversion.

Just a little something to keep the Primaries out of the news.

If I see Frist's face on CNN one more time I will puke.
Who says that this (supposed attack) was directed at HIM?
Maybe I missed something.

[oneighty]

11. Dear Doctor Frist Senator Sir.

Are you suffering terminal ego attack? Do you fear someone stupid enough to think you are worth attacking?

Perhaps ghosts of cats past?

Take two aspirins, call me in the morning.

180

[vanityfair]

17. oneighty...

I knew it was the cats!

[DemonFighterLives]

12. The way I saw this

We can't have only Democrats as targets of terrorism ala anthrax. Now we have a Repuke supposedly threatened, so it kind of justifies and balances the other attacks. The search for the anthrax mailer can stop, because now we have Ricin. They have only been talking about Ricin for a year of so and Whalla!, here it is. Buy some duct tape and plastic and let Homeland Security do it's job.:scared:

[Sinistrous]

16. Ka Ching! And the winner is DemonFighterLives!

"Now we have a Repuke supposedly threatened, so it kind of justifies and balances the other attacks."

Exactly! No more. No less.

[loftycity]

13. Maybe Frist brougnt it into his office? ....

If he was adopting cats from the Humane Society to bring home and dissect while in Medical School.
This guy could do anything strange and evil.

[Fovea]

31. Your point is well taken

Frist is not a well unit.

[MrBenchley]

14. Mystery continues of Tom Ridge's employment

Really, how much more does Ridge have to fuck up to get his sorry ass fired?

Are we going to have to wait until he gets a wedgie from Al Qaeda members during a televised news conference before anybody admits what an incompetent and worthless idiot he is?

[yellowcanine]

15. Have they questioned the spy in Frist's office?

That's where I would start. He certainly had motive. Any distraction has to be good for him.

[Drifter]

18. Glad to hear ...

I was glad and surprised to even hear mention of the Ricin being planted. Of course they said it was not, but at least it may be investigated.

I believe this was nothing more than a "safe" way to bring sympathy to the majority party (since they were unable to get any during the Antrax attack). I'm willing to bet that the workers that may have exposed were NOT in on it, and were used as pawns for the right.

Sorry, foreign Terrorists are not going to send poison to Frist. They don't give a fuck about our elected leaders. They would much rather kill 2 civilians than 1 elected official. This is quite evident when looking at 9/11.

This was a carefully planned inside job, that had no intentions of causing harm, other than driving up the fear.

Cheers
Drifter

[Norquist Nemesis]

19. Who did Frist piss off?

Has he broken ranks with anything lately, maybe the huge highway spending bill? Anytime anything is linked with Texas, I immediately think DeLay...an evil man for sure.

[yellowcanine]

20. Has the FBI checked out Carl Rove's garden?

See if there are any old castor bean plants there?

[banana republican]

23. Frist Planted it????

Mail should be opened in a "secure" location that is prepared for these types of incidents. I can't believe that Frist is so careless with security. Should be fired over this..

[notadmblnd]

27. I know it is at the company I work for

All mail and packages are received at a central location (a seperate building from all the workers) It is up to an individual employee to go and pick up their mail which must be opened onsite before taking it out of the building.

[The Sushi Bandit]

24. HE PLANTED IT HIMSELF!

TO GET ATTENTION AND TO KEEP THE FEAR GOING IN AMERICA

[R Hickey]

34. Texas Tech Ricin Plantation - May be where it came from

Why are they trying to produce ricin at Texas Tech University? Who's program is that? What are they going to do with all that ricin?

I think this is the GOP pretending to poison themselves, so they will have plausable deniability when they poison a bunch of Democrats.

Now they can say that the 'terrorists' first tried to poison Senator Frist.

[enki23]

25. and why does it say "return to sender?"

.

[many a good man]

28. Frist's book

Frist says he wrote a book a few months ago about bioterror and that ricin wasn't even in it. Does that make any sense to you? I thought ricin was a widely known agent for chem/bio terror. My brother is a doctor and he had a little book from the CDC and ricin was featured prominently.

I question Frist's credentials as a bioterror expert and as a doctor...

[teryang]

30. I question his credentials as a Senator

No mention at all of the constitutional significance of repeated attacks (simulated or real) on the office of the Senate Majority Leader.

Only stupid lectures on ricin.

He is the perfect leader for a powerless legislature in a fascist regime.