Ricin Discovered in Texas Dormitory

[GeorgeGist]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RICIN_DORM?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[AndyA]

1. Were either of the Bush Twins spotted in the area recently?

Doing Daddy's work?

TERRA! TERRA! TERRA!

[IsItJustMe]

11. That's funny now and I don't care what ya say. Thats funny.

[babylonsister]

2. Weird; where did it come from? And what inspired the students'

curiosity?

[Greylyn58]

7. That was my question

after reading the story. What made this girl take the quarters to be tested?

Something smells highly suspicious about this little blurb.

Distraction from the evil that is *? I think so.

[DenaliDemocrat]

20. Anyone with de minimus botany and chemistry skills can make ricin

and the castor bean plant grows everywhere as a weed. My guess would be some kids made it just to see if they could

[leesa]

3. Oh how very convenient.

[ama]

4. remember this?

Terrorist plot: Exaggerated threats

Guardian, 14 April 2005

The acquittal of four suspects this week - and the dropping of charges against another four - in the " ricin " terrorist plot raises wider issues than just the effectiveness of our current terrorist investigating processes. Two years ago the arrests of the suspects were used by Tony Blair and Colin Powell - just weeks before the Iraq invasion - to suggest that al-Qaida had established a cell in London. The prime minister said the ricin arrests showed "this danger is present and real and with us now and its potential is huge". Colin Powell included the January 2003 arrests as evidence in his presentation to the UN in February 2003 that Iraq and Osama bin Laden were supporting and directing terrorist poison cells throughout Europe.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/TAY504A.html

[hedgehog]

5. Sounds like typical food service offerings

My son noted that the food is left sitting out under heat lamps for hours and won't touch the meat at school. I asked him what he eats. "Peas and carrots" He figures those are pretty safe. Fortunately, he visits his grandmother on weekends and she loves to cook!

[gmaki]

6. "tested positive for ricin"

Note the carefully worded "found a substance that has tested positive for ricin"

I doubt it will turn out to be ricin. I bet that there are other substances with castor in them that will also "test positive for ricin" yet not be ricin.

[Bozita]

8. "chunky powder" is likely laundry detergent

Keeping a roll of quarters in the box of detergent seems like a smart idea for a student living in a dorm.

Could this scare simply be a partial roll of quarters forgotten and left behind?

[Mithras61]

12. I googled ""laundry detergent" castor" and got 1420 hits...

It's not absolutely certain, but it appears that sulphated castor oil is used in some "XFree" laundry products...

[drm604]

15. I posted about this in another thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=517158&mesg_id=517759

[rateyes]

9. As Rumsfeld turns to his deputy and says:

"Quick find a way to pin this on Iran!"

[IsItJustMe]

10. And the Boogie man rises once again and says, come out, come out, its time

to play.

They don't know what it is for sure; but, as usual, CNN has got it covered. Had to turn it off. The damn media has lost all perspective of 'what' and 'what is not' news anymore.

They are like lab rats running on their tread mill.

WARNING WARNING

NEWS ALERT

[LiberalHeart]

13. MSNBC report today says...

The student had brought the roll of quartters from her hometown; got them at a bank. She had noticed white powder fall out when she opened the roll when she was needing the coins while doing her laundry. When she saw the powder, she went to someone in an official capacity at the dorm. They had it tested. Initial reports said it was ricin (this happened Thursday, I think) ... then further testing confirmed it. Maybe all this is in the news link. If so, sorry. My computer froze when I tried to follow the link.

[LiberalHeart]

14. oops...

Now MSNBC says the substance is being tested by the CDC and Homeland Security to confirm it's ricin, so apparently it's not fully confirmed -- just initially. Students have shown no ill effects.

[rainbow4321]

16. It was my daughter's dorm building

Just spoke w/ her..here is what she said

The girl was doing her laundry, the powder fell out of the quarter roll.
The building was evacuated, FBI/hazmat/emergency service people showed up. All of the RA's (student residents who "head" each floor) were seen running to an emergency meeting to explain what was happening.

Residents were evac'd to another dorm's meeting room. They shut the heat and a/c off at the dorm that was exposed (Moore-Hill Dorm) so the powder would not get into the vent system.

The school had an assembly for the kids, reporters/media were were there. The kids were getting all antsy cuz the assembly went on and on as the newspeople kept asking questions. One reporter approached my daughter and asked her if she knew the girl. My daughter refused to tell him, saying she didn't think the girl would want her name in the paper right now, the reporter got pissed at my daughter for not giving up the name but later came back and apologized to her for getting mad. Between the media swarming the dorm area and other students/kids taking their own pictures and all, the kids in the dorm are kind of overwhelmed.

They were allowed back in the dorm but had to take the long way around the building to their rooms, etc.. as parts of the dorm were off limits until further decontaminating was done.

Hell of a weekend for my kid's cell phone battery to die..took us forever to touch base w/ each other. She saw that it made national news and assumed (correctly) that I was probably freaking out..we finally reached
each other a few minutes ago.

-----------

More details at the University newspaper:

http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/paper410/news/2006/02/24/TopStories/Ricin.Found.In.MooreHill.Dorm-1637566.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

[VegasWolf]

17. With everyone laughing at Bush over his latest stupidity, I've been

thinking that it is about time for an Anthrax attack to take people's minds off Bush.

:sarcasm:

[rainbow4321]

18. Update: 2nd test doesn't confirm ricin

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022506dnnatut.60474597.html

Secondary tests show substance at UT dorm not ricin


AUSTIN, Texas — A powdery substance found in a University of Texas at Austin dormitory initially tested positive for the potentially deadly poison ricin, but secondary tests did not confirm the initial finding, officials said Saturday afternoon.

The dormitory's roughly 400 residents were evacuated Friday night while hazardous materials crews cleaned and sanitized the dorm room and laundry room where the substance was found. They were back in their rooms by Saturday morning.


“We feel like we have taken every precaution possible to assure the safety and health of our students,” university spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.


The substance was sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing, Spalding said. The incident was being investigated by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. An FBI spokesman did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

[pinniped]

19. Every white powder is ricin, got it.

Good thing I don't have to patronize public laundry facilities.