Feds arrest 4 in alleged Ga. ricin attack plot
#1
These geezer's have been busy. Laughing

Quote:ATLANTA (AP) -- Federal agents arrested four suspected members of a Georgia militia on charges of plotting attacks with toxins and explosives in Atlanta and against unnamed government officials.

The four, who authorities arrested Tuesday, were expected to appear in federal court in Gainesville, Ga., on Wednesday afternoon.

They were part of a group that also tried to obtain an unregistered explosive device and sought out the complex formula to produce ricin, a biological toxin that can be lethal in small doses, according to a federal complaint.

One suspect discussed ways of dispersing ricin from an airplane in the sky over Washington, court records state. Another suspected member of the group intended to use the plot of an online novel as a model for plans to attack U.S. federal law officers and others, authorities said. Court documents state that 73-year-old Frederick Thomas told others he intended to model their actions on the online novel "Absolved," which involves small groups of citizens attacking U.S. officials.

The four listed in the indictment are Thomas; Dan Roberts, 67; Ray Adams, 65; and Samuel Crump, 68. The men live in the north Georgia towns of Cleveland and Toccoa.

More: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/U...TE=DEFAULT
Reply
#2
I didn't know it took a "complex formula" to manufacture Ricin. As most know it comes from the Castor Bean plant. Wikipedia says this:

"Manufacture

Ricin is easily purified from castor-oil manufacturing waste. The aqueous phase left over from the oil extraction process is called waste mash. It contains about 5-10% ricin by weight. Separation requires only simple chromatographic techniques.
[edit] Patented extraction process

A process for extracting ricin has been described in a patent.[33] The described extraction method is very similar to that used for the preparation of soy protein isolates.

The patent was removed from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database sometime in 2004, but it is still available online through international patent databases.[34][35] Modern theories of protein chemistry cast doubt on the effectiveness of the methods disclosed in the patent.[36]

...Despite ricin's extreme toxicity and utility as an agent of chemical/biological warfare, it is extremely difficult to limit the production of the toxin. The castor bean plant from which ricin is derived is a common ornamental and can be grown at home without any special care, and the major reason ricin is a public health threat is that it is easy to obtain. Under both the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, ricin is listed as a schedule 1 controlled substance. Despite this, more than 1 million tonnes of castor beans are processed each year, and approximately 5% of the total is rendered into a waste containing high concentrations of ricin toxin.[45]

Ricin is several orders of magnitude less toxic than botulinum or tetanus toxin, but the latter are harder to come by. Compared to botulinum or anthrax as biological weapons or chemical weapons, the quantity of ricin required to achieve LD50 over a large geographic area is significantly more than an agent such as anthrax (tons of ricin vs. only kilogram quantities of anthrax).[46] Ricin is easy to produce, but is not as practical nor likely to cause as many casualties as other agents.[2] Ricin is inactivated (the protein changes structure and becomes less dangerous) much more readily than anthrax spores, which may remain lethal for decades. Jan van Aken, a Dutch expert on biological weapons, explained in a report for The Sunshine Project that Al Qaeda's experiments with ricin suggest their inability to produce botulin or anthrax.[47]

...In 2011 the United States government discovered information that terrorist groups were attempting to obtain large amounts of castor beans for weaponized ricin use. [48]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricin
Reply
#3
(11-02-2011, 09:52 AM)PonderThis Wrote: I didn't know it took a "complex formula" to manufacture Ricin. As most know it comes from the Castor Bean plant. Wikipedia says this:

"Manufacture

Ricin is easily purified from castor-oil manufacturing waste...

Now you did it - You Googled how to make ricin.

The next door knock you hear will be the Feds...

LaughingLaughingConfused


Reply
#4
Well, maybe, but this is basic farmer stuff anyway. Farmers want to avoid baling up castor beans if they show up wild in a field, because it doesn't take eating much of them to kill livestock. And, I do seem to have a fascination with knowing and sharing what they don't really want us to know. Smiling
Reply
#5
So where can I get castor beans?

coffee filter work well for chromatographic.
Reply
#6
https://www.google.com/search?q=castor+b...=firefox-a
Reply
#7
(11-02-2011, 01:04 PM)PonderThis Wrote: https://www.google.com/search?q=castor+b...=firefox-a

Quote:Castor oil is the primary raw material for the production of sebacic acid, which is the basic ingredient in the production of nylon and other synthetic resins and fibers. Approximately three tons of castor oil are necessary to produce one ton of nylon.

I didn't know that.
The Castor bean is very interesting.

I've seen that five leaf structure somewhere before.....?
Reply
#8
I'm not that far from you, and a farmer friend found what he claimed was a close castor bean relative growing on my property.
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)