Date Written   : Jan 08, 2003
Date Modified : Apr 13, 2005

The "Tiny terror weapon" manufacturing plant of Al-Qaida. 
Apr 13, 2005: Kamel Bourgass aged 31, an al-Qaida terrorist who stabbed to death a policeman has been jailed for 17 years for plotting to spread ricin and other poisons on the UK's streets. Anti-terrorist squad officers found a suspected chemical weapons laboratory when they raided a flat in Wood Green, north London, in January 2003. The BBC's Home Editor Mark Easton says the authorities in Britain believe there was a plan to co-ordinate chemical and biological attacks across Europe. In London targets were to include the underground tube stations and in Paris the authorities suspected the Metro and Eiffel Tower could have been attacked.

British anti-terrorist police had arrested six men and one woman in London and found traces of the toxic material Ricin, Scotland Yard announced on the afternoon of 08 Jan 2003. After this incidence, Ricin was found in Russia in the month of Jan 2003 and most recently in France on 20 Mar 2003. Ricin is a substance extracted from the Castor Bean plant and is twice as deadly as Cobra venom. If ingested or inhaled, Ricin can be fatal in 36 to 48 hours. Ricin is also a likely biowarfare or bioterrorist agent. It was first developed during World War II by the United States and its allies and has a long history of use in international espionage.

After the US-led forces entered Afghanistan, they had found documents in reference to making ricin and dirty bombs in Kabul which were published by the Islamic terrorist network of Al-Qaida. References to ricin were part of the Al-Qaida training course and in a manual that was spread worldwide. That gives us a clear picture of how the Islamic terrorists were/are planning to use ricin as a weapon. These terrorists may put ricin into aerosol. They may even use it like a injection or some way by which it gets into human body like was done way back on September 11 1978 in London. Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed by poison dart filled with ricin and fired from an umbrella during the cold war. He had been killed by a tiny pellet containing a 0.2 milligram dose of the poison ricin.

Mar 21 2003: The French Interior Ministry said on Thursday that traces of the highly toxic poison ricin have been found in the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris. A spokesman told Reuters that two small flasks containing traces of the poison were discovered in a left luggage depot at the mainline railway station which serves the south of France.
Jan 15 2003: Russian special forces fighting the Islamic terrorists in Chechnya have said that they have found instructions for making poisons, including ricin, in the possession of a terrorist they killed, Russian presidential aide Sergei Yaztrzhembsky said Monday. Interfax news agency, quoting an unnamed military source, said the terrorist was part of a group killed by special forces last week. The terrorists had also planned an attack on Russian facilities in Paris, including its embassy, foreign media reports state. Georgia's State Security Ministry Jan 14 confirmed allegations that there had been a training base in Georgia for Chechen and Arab terrorists until February 2002. The base was situated in the Pankisi gorge, ministry spokesman Nika Laliashvili told a briefing. He said a military hospital and several firing ranges had been built in the gorge with money from the Al Qaida Islamic terrorist network. He also said terrorist based in the gorge had been trying to develop ways to make explosives and poisonous substances, including the powerful toxin ricin. Earlier British authorities found traces of the toxin ricin, for which there is no antidote, in a raid on a London apartment last week. A group arrested as terrorism suspects in that raid had training in Afghanistan, Georgia's Pankisi Gorge and Chechnya.

Such "Tiny terror weapon" manufacturing plants of Al-Qaida may be spread across the globe. These plants might be countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Islamic countries in North Africa, Indonesia and several other Islamic countries. The UNSCOM inspectors in 1997 had found Iraqis having a ricin production capability which was never destroyed. So the chances are they still have got it. It may be even the case that since UN inspectors have not found it this time, Iraq may have transferred it to other terrorist states like Syria.

Although ricin is not a Weapon of Mass Destruction like a nuclear, biological or Chemical weapon but can be used by Islamic terrorist to kill people "one by one" or mix the agent with a solvent or in crowded places by releasing it with aerosol. It can be used as a targeted weapon to be used in a limited space, like subways, supermarkets, or in elevatars in a building etc. This new weapon of terror, if used by Islamic terrorist could also create enough terror in the minds of people who are already terorized after Sep 11 attacks on US.

Also read :
The "Dirty bomb" manufacturing plant of Al-Qaida.
The Islamic Bomb and Jihad against Non-Muslims

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