An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison Ricin was intercepted at the US Capitol’s off mail facility in Washington DC. Law enforcement authorities are telling CNN and other news outlets that the envelope first tested positive in a routine test, and then came up positive with the ensuing retests. It’s been sent to a Maryland lab for further analysis, and no other information has been released about the contents of the envelope.
Ricin is a highly toxic, and naturally occurring. It is poisonous if inhaled or injected into the bloodstream, and a reported dose that is equivalent to a few grains of salt is said to be able to kill a human being. There’s a long, sad history to Ricin, and the US military was rumored to have invested in it for biological warfare during World War I, but it seems as if the tables have been turned against us. The last time Ricin came in the national news was when the FBI arrested four men in 2011 in connection with trying to manufacture a biological toxin with Ricin.
According to reports, the envelope was addressed to a US senator, although there’s no details on which particular senator was the target. This is frightening news, coming just a day after the Boston Marathon bombings that rocked the nation and the world. Although there’s absolutely nothing to suggest that the two incidents are related, it’s just a massive coincidence that these type of attacks are being carried out in such quick succession.
Although we know that the Al-Qaeda and Taliban didn’t take responsibility for the Boston attacks, it just makes them all the more terrifying because we don’t even know if it’s a homegrown terror of foreign terror, so it just makes us that much more vulnerable to threats. Again – nothing is linking this with the bombings, but it is becoming a sad trend of the nation that this type of news is becoming commonplace.
