Brits Arrest 6 In Poison Probe

Anti-terrorist police said Tuesday they had arrested six men of North African origin after finding traces of the deadly poison ricin in a London property.

Ricin, one of the world's deadliest toxins, has been linked in the past to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network and Iraq.

There's no word on why the suspects may have had the poison, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair says it's a stark illustration of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Holt.

"This danger is present and real and with us now and its potential is huge," he told a gathering of British ambassadors in London.

Blair's spokesman said, "I don't believe there is any specific intelligence about how this small quantity, this small amount of material, was to have been used."

"We have no specific intelligence of any direct threat, including to the Tube (subway system)," he added, briefing reporters on customary condition of anonymity.

Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch arrested the six at properties in north and east London on Sunday after officers received intelligence information. Police are holding the men under Britain's anti-terrorism laws reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips.

Police said traces of the poison, which is derived from the castor bean plant, had been found on equipment and materials found at an address in Wood Green where one of the men was arrested. A woman who was also arrested had been released, a police statement said. None of those arrested have been charged.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, anti-terrorist branch chief David Veness and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Pat Troop said material found at the address was analyzed at the British government's chemical weapons research facility in Porton Down, southern England and tested positive for the presence of ricin poison. Police did not disclose what the material was.

"Tests were carried out on the material and it was confirmed this morning that toxic material was present," said the statement. "If any new developments have implications for public safety we will ensure that the public is informed immediately."

Scotland Yard said it had worked with health officials throughout the investigation. Public health workers have been told to look out for symptoms of ricin exposure, including fever, stomach ache, diarrhea and vomiting.

The government's Public Health Laboratory Service said it posted guidance on ricin on its web site in September 2002 as part of general preparation for possible terrorist attacks rather than in response to a specific threat.

U.S. officials said in August that the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam tested ricin along with other chemical and biological agents in northern Iraq, territory controlled by Kurds, not Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The group is allegedly linked to al Qaeda.

United Nations weapons inspectors who left Iraq in 1998 listed ricin among the poisons they believed Saddam produced and later failed to account for.

Andy Oppenheimer, a chemical and biological weapons expert at Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, said that because ricin was relatively easy to produce, its presence in London did not necessarily indicate a connection to Iraq or al Qaeda.

"It is significan that it shows that al Qaeda or some sort of terorist organization is planning to try and have some attack of some sort possibly to achieve mass affect, rather than mass casualties," said terrorist expert Dr. John Gearson.

Ricin needs to be swallowed or injected or inladed to kill - and there's no known vaccine. But it's difficult to deliver in mass quantities.

Oppenheimer said terrorists could kill large numbers of people with ricin if they managed to put it into aerosol, a job which was tricky but not impossible. A crowded, enclosed environment like the London Underground would probably be the most appealing target, he added.

"You only need milligrams to kill somebody," he said.

Blair's government has issued several general warnings that Britain could be the target of terrorist attacks. The prime minister told Parliament last month that "barely a day goes by" without some new piece of intelligence warning of threats to British interests.

In November the government issued — and then hurriedly withdrew
— a statement warning that al Qaeda might be prepared to use a radiological device known as a "dirty bomb," or some kind of poison gas. It was replaced with a more general warning of terrorist threats.

In very small doses, ricin causes the human digestive tract to convulse — hence the laxative effect of castor oil. But in larger doses, ricin causes diarrhea so severe that victims can die of shock from massive fluid and electrolyte loss.

Castor beans are grown all over the world and the toxin is relatively easy to produce. Traces of ricin have been found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan at suspected al Qaeda biological weapons sites.

Ricin is more of an assassin's weapon. It was ruthlessly used by communist agents to kill Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov in London in 1978. Scotland Yard said the poison was in a pinhead-sized pellet injected into Markov's thigh, but it couldn't confirm the widely reported theory that Markov was jabbed by a rigged umbrella.