Ricin Mystery Man Awake, Talking To FBI

Man Exposed To Toxin At Las Vegas Motel Remains In Critical Condition

(AP)  A man who may have been exposed to toxic ricin in his Las Vegas motel room has regained consciousness and is speaking with investigators, authorities said Friday.

Officials said Roger Bergendorff, 57, remained in critical condition at a Las Vegas hospital.

An FBI agent in Las Vegas told The Associated Press that investigators are speaking with Bergendorff for the first time since he was hospitalized on Valentine's Day and several vials of ricin powder were later found in his motel room.

"We are in the process of speaking with him," said Special Agent David Staretz, spokesman for the FBI office in Las Vegas.

Authorities hope Bergendorff can provide information about the Feb. 28 discovery of the deadly powder, along with castor beans from which it is derived, at an extended stay motel where he had been living several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip.

Officials insist they've found no contamination anywhere, and no link to terrorism. But they consider ricin a "biological weapon," and are trying to determine where it came from.

Authorities suspect Bergendorff was exposed to ricin, and experts have said his symptoms appeared consistent with ricin exposure. But no one said they could be sure, because the poison breaks down in the body within days and Bergendorff was hospitalized for two weeks before the ricin was discovered at the motel.

A younger brother, Erich Bergendorff of Escondido, Calif., said Roger Bergendorff was moved Wednesday from intensive to intermediate care in the critical ward of Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Erich Bergendorff said his brother was receiving dialysis for failing kidneys, and might still be on a ventilator to help him breathe.

Hospital spokeswoman Naomi Jones said Friday that Bergendorff remained in critical condition.

[watcher269-2009]

Torture this Terrorist - make him TALK!

[juwboy]

RGMiron:

Extracting ricin from castor beans (available at health food stores) is EASY.

Several years ago, 60 MINUTES showed that pure ricin can be obtained in a matter of hours, using a method that is openly available.

[rgmiron]

We had better find out where the heck he got it!!!!! I can not believe he producted it. This sounds like bad Poo-Poo

[ranger1948]

hungry1968
Thank you for mbcsniths address. I will add him to my christmas card list and wish him well as i would you. I hope someday we can learn to live in peace together with all mankind.

[ranger1948]

I am not worried about alquaida finding my home address. I stay unlisted and on the no call list to avoid those annoying people who randomly call to sell you something over the phone or want a donation. If i choose to donate i will do so without being asked.

[ranger1948]

Torture is inhumane and many countries will look down on us for it, but if we have to torture some enemy to keep our country safe then i approveof it. I still do not think we should be in Iraq. I believe in defending this country against anyone who attacks us. Iraq is a war the Iraq people should be fighting, not us. If they wanted Sadaam out of poowerthey should have taken him out. When he invaded Kuwait Bush sr should have finished the job then.

[ranger1948]

After reading the comments on this board i can''t help but wonder, why would any American give any information to our enemies ? If we disagree about something, isn''t that what our countries principles were based on ? The right to disagree with one another yet respect each other. As long as we do not harm one another then disagreement should be what keeps our country going. Hopefully the disagreements weeds out any errors we might make and corrects them before we make a mistake.

[duffyn]

Well you can thank bush for giving the terrorist movement some real legs. Nothing going for the few there were until he got on a never ending quest to create world war iii.

[petefromnz]

"Officials insist they''ve found no contamination anywhere, and no link to terrorism."

Of course not. He is just someone whose hobby is collecting castor beans.

[hungry1968]

well either YOUR THE FOOL and you just refuse to accept that we are not fighting a specific country..what we are fighting IS WHAT POISONS THESE COUNTRIES (tattoo that to your think forhead).
this war AGAINST RADICAL ISLAM would take us to the farthest corners of the planet. the people who are poisoned by this ideology ARE HOLED UP IN THE MOST REMOTE PART OF ASIA..THE MOST DENSE MUSLIM POPULATION OF EUROPE..and HIDING AMONGST US HERE AS TERRORIST CELLS..(btw..*** are being hanged in ultra conservative iran). By containing that war outside of our borders KEEPS YOU SAFE..capturing them is MADE HARDER by relentless protection from the liberal masses (soon enough you guys would decree that shooting them violates this rights). Honestly..were you not bit ching about waterboarding?? can

Posted by libsrweak at 06:56 PM : Mar 14, 2008





Withdrawing ALL support for Israel would keep us SAFER than any form of torture ever would. THE REASON we were attacked on 9/11 is BECAUSE of our support of Israel. We''re not fighting an ideology - were defending ourselves against those people, that are defending the Palestinian people.

When will you idiots ever realize this?