Qaeda Trying to Harness Toxin for Bombs, U.S. Officials Fear

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States.

For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream.

Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are trying to move castor beans and processing agents to a hideaway in Shabwa Province, in one of Yemen’s rugged tribal areas controlled by insurgents. The officials say the evidence points to efforts to secretly concoct batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces, like a shopping mall, an airport or a subway station.

President Obama and his top national security aides were first briefed on the threat last year and have received periodic updates since then, top aides said. Senior American officials say there is no indication that a ricin attack is imminent, and some experts say the Qaeda affiliate is still struggling with how to deploy ricin as an effective weapon.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/world/middleeast/13terror.html?pagewanted=all

[Renew Deal]

1. How would the ricin bombs get to the US from Yemen?

And wouldn't the ricin burn up in an explosion?

[Newsjock]

2. In the Winnebagos of doom, of course

n/t

[Downwinder]

3. There are enough Oleanders in Southern California

to take out the whole country, and their smoke is toxic.

[TheMadMonk]

8. Very easily. And not necessarily if packed appropriately.

Same way coke, heroin and other drugs move into the country. And off the top of my head, in the hole of small metal craft beads would do it.

The simple truth is, that terrorists could carry out attacks against soft targets worldwide pretty much any time they wished. However, after 9/11 (and even Bali) they discovered the price of too much success. Too much attention in return.

AND in the process, they discovered that they don't need to actually DO very much to achieve their ends, just give the APPEARANCE of being able to DO it with near impunity, with an occasional success to prove that ability.

So: binary liquid bombs, shoe bombs, underwear bombs, bombs up the jacksey, implanted bombs, bombs in prothesies and mobility aids or other medical appliances, sarin, VX, ricin, dirty bombs, suitcase nukes.

[Downwinder]

4. Will this drive up the cost of Caster Oil futures?

[placton]

5. EEEEKKK!!

I am clutching my pearls! Let's give up some more civil liberties against this horrid threat!!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. They would probably Fedex it to Ft Detrick

[larwdem]

7. bull shit

let the fear begin

[Odin2005]

9. FEAR FEAR TERRA TERRA!!!

[patrick t. cakes]

19. Yep, "U.S. Officials FEAR"

Why are our "officials" such pussies?

[Populist_Prole]

10. Budget debate shedding light on MIC cost, Republicans fear n/t

[jmowreader]

11. Notice: making EFFORTS to acquire the beans

I don't see anything about them actually buying[/i[ any castor beans. In America's All Terra, All The Time defensive posture, they don't actually need to DO anything, they just have to make it look like they're getting ready to do something. Right now, Ulrike Meinhof and Abu Nidal are sitting in the hell terrorists go to, muttering to themselves "now why didn't we think of that?"

[Botany]

12. Operation Castor Bean Plant must start ASAP

[placton]

13. pretty plant!

let's have a WAR ON CASTOR BEANS!

[Downwinder]

14. The sap blisters.

[EFerrari]

15. Al Qaida or Monsanto?

[killbotfactory]

16. The article doesn't seem very alarmist or controversial to me.

I don't understand the reaction to it.

[sudopod]

17. oh, killbotfactory, you silly goose. nt

[Divernan]

18. So Yemen is getting pride of place on the Pentagon's Send in the Drones list?

Sounds like the administration is leaking classified intelligence reports pushing this story in anticipation of increased attacks on Yemen.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2033511,00.html

The WikiLeaks revelation making the rounds in the Yemeni capital Sana'a is the one where President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in an apparently jovial conversation with U.S. General David Petraeus, offers to lie to his countrymen about the perpetrators of drone strikes in the Yemeni countryside. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh said at the January meeting, according to a cable sent by the American ambassador at the time, Stephen Seche. The cable also reports that Saleh complained of drugs and weapons smuggling from Djibouti across the Red Sea, but stated he was content to have whiskey bootlegged in, "provided it's good whiskey."

The consensus seems to be that the President is more likely to be hurt by his flippant quote about whiskey smuggling than his discussion about covering up U.S. drone attacks against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Yemeni soil. First, because whiskey, like all alcoholic beverages, is forbidden by Islam; and, secondly, because most Yemenis have long since assumed that the U.S. has a direct role in counter-terrorism efforts in their country than Saleh's government was letting on. That U.S. drones are abuzz over parts of the country "is well known to al-Qaeda and to the tribes that shelter them," says Mohammed Aish, a researcher on extremist groups in Yemen.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2033511,00.html#ixzz1V1nShSmY