Here is some info I put together on ricin and Hussein crimes. Please note that neither orgs are known as bastions of conservative right wing politics.
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/42387-1.asp
Ricin
Overview
In attempting to evaluate and discuss substances that could be used as an agent of biological warfare or as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD), the question, "What can cause a maximum credible event?" is hopefully answered, as such: a maximum credible event is one that could cause a large loss of life, in addition to disruption, panic, and overwhelming use of civilian health care resources.
For an agent to be considered capable of causing a maximum credible event, it should be highly lethal, inexpensively and easily produced in large quantities, stable in aerosol form, and have the ability to be dispersed. The ideal agent is also communicable from person to person and has no treatment or vaccine.
Ricin is one potent toxin that could potentially be used as an agent of biological warfare or as a WMD. Derived from the beans of the castor plant (Ricinus communis), ricin is widely available. Ricin is also easily and inexpensively produced, is highly toxic, and is stable in aerosolized form. Ricin has no treatment or vaccine, but it is not communicable from person to person.
Although a large amount of ricin would be necessary to produce the desired effect of a WMD, it would be highly effective as a disabling agent. Ricin can be disseminated as an aerosol, by injection, or as a food and water contaminant. Its use as a food and water contaminant is a major concern because of its ease of availability. If used as a food and water contaminant, ricin could easily incapacitate many people and overwhelm local health care resources.
In the
On February 4, 2004, as part of the ongoing investigation as to the source of this most recent ricin attack, the Secret Service acknowledged that ricin had also been found at a White House mail-processing center in early November 2003.
Based on another published report, a vial containing ricin was found at a post office in , in October 2003. The envelope, addressed to the federal Transportation Department, was labeled ?caution RICIN POISON.? The letter, protesting a proposed federal limit on the number of truckers? hours behind the wheel to go into effect in January 2004, was signed ?Fallen Angel.?
Officials suspect that the attacks in October 2003 and November 2003 are related because both letters were signed ?Fallen Angel? and contained ricin of poor quality. The FBI is currently investigating whether these two earlier attacks are at all related to the ricin found in the Senate mailroom in February 2004.
Previously in the , from 1991-1997, 3 cases have been related to ricin.
In 1991 in , 4 members of the Patriots Council, an extremist group that held antigovernment and antitax ideals and advocated the overthrow of the government, were arrested for plotting to kill a marshal with ricin. The ricin was produced in a home laboratory. They planned to mix the ricin with the solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and then smear it on the door handles of the marshal's vehicle. The plan was discovered, and the 4 men were convicted.
In 1995, a man entered from on his way to . Canadian custom officials stopped the man and found him in possession of several guns, $98,000, and a container of white powder, which was identified as ricin.
In 1997, a man shot his stepson in the face. Investigators discovered a makeshift laboratory in his basement and found agents such as ricin and nicotine sulfate.
The use of ricin is not limited to the ; cases have been reported elsewhere.
In December 2002, 6 terrorist suspects were arrested in ; their apartment was serving as a "ricin laboratory." Among them was a 27-year-old chemist who was producing the toxin.
Later, on , British police raided 2 residences around and found traces of ricin, which led to an investigation of a possible Chechen separatist plan to attack the Russian embassy with the toxin. Several arrests were made.
Last updated:
A Human Rights Watch Policy Paper
December 2002 (Farsi)
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iraq1217bg.htm
HRW policy on
Needs to Screen Iraqi Opposition Allies
Genocide in : The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds
Endless Torment
The 1991 Uprising in And Its Aftermath
Human Rights Watch Reports on Military Actions
Needless Deaths in The Gulf War
More...
The Arab Ba?ath Socialist Party has been in power in since 1968. Under the leadership of President Saddam Hussein, who seized power in 1979, the Iraqi government has committed a vast number of crimes against the Iraqi people and others, using terror through various levels of police, military, and intelligence agencies to control and intimidate large segments of the Iraqi population.
Two Iraqi groups in particular have suffered horrific abuses?the Kurds in the north, and Shi`a populations in the south. Two decades of oppression against ?s Kurds and Kurdish resistance culminated in 1988 with a genocidal campaign, and the use of chemical weapons, against Kurdish civilians, resulting in over 100,000 deaths. After the 1991 Gulf War, in the aftermath of a popular uprising in the South, Iraq drained the marsh regions and sent in the military with tanks to shell and burn villages, causing tens of thousands of Marsh Arabs, who are Shi`a, to flee to Iran. The Iraqi military has also used chemical weapons in its war against Iran, committed serious human rights violations during its occupation of Kuwait, and committed other crimes????Saddam Hussein and others, including, but not limited to, members of Hussein's inner circle, members of the Revolutionary Command Council, and senior and upper-middle level members of the Iraqi military, security, and intelligence forces are responsible for a vast number of crimes that constitute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The victims of such crimes include up to 290,000 persons who have been ?disappeared? since the late 1970s, many of whom are believed to have been killed. ?????..Attacks against the Iraqi Kurds. The government?s notorious attacks on the Iraqi Kurds have come in phases. Between 1977 and 1987, some 4,500-5,000 Kurdish villages were systematically destroyed and their inhabitants forcibly removed and made to live in ?resettlement camps.? ??.Commencing in the spring of 1987, thousands of Iraqi Kurds were killed during chemical and conventional bombardments.
From February to September 1988, the Iraqi government launched the official ?Anfal? campaign, during which Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared ?prohibited zones.? More than 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed.3
The use of chemical weapons reached a peak in March 1988; in the town of alone, where a documented 3,200 people are believed to have died from chemical gas attacks, and the actual number may be more than 5,000.
The killings constitute acts of genocide. The killings, forcible and arbitrary transfer of populations, and chemical weapons attacks amount to crimes against humanity??Repression of the Marsh Arabs and other Shi`a. During the early years of the Iran-Iraq war, the Iraqi government arrested thousands of Shi`a Muslims on the charge of supporting the 1979 revolution in . Many have ?disappeared? or remain unaccounted for; others died under torture or were executed. This campaign was followed by the forced expulsion of over half a million Shi`a during the 1980s to , after the separation out of many male family members. These men and boys, estimated to number between 50,000-70,000, were arrested and imprisoned indefinitely without charge; most remain unaccounted for.
????There have also been a staggering number of ?disappearances??believed to range between 250,000-290,000. In addition to the 50,000-70,000 Shi?a cases described above, and the 100,000 Kurdish victims, ?disappearances? have included:
An estimated 8,000 Barzani males removed from resettlement camps in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1983;
10,000 or more males said to have been separated from Feyli Kurdish families deported to during the 1980s;
Shi`a Muslim clerics and their students from al-Najaf and ;
Over 600 Kuwaitis and third country nationals who disappeared after their arrest during the occupation of ........
you can easily find all the info you ever wanted to know thru google.
