'Poison plan' unearthed

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, NOV. 16. Yet another document confirming the terror plans of the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, and his Al-Qaeda network is reported to have been found, and it contains instructions for preparing the deadly biological chemical `Ricin' which was exploited by British scientists in the Second World War to develop a `W Bomb', and used by the Bulgarian secret service in 1978 to kill a dissident exile in London.

The discovery was reported by The Times today, a day after it published details of Al-Qaeda's nuclear preparations found in an abandoned house in Kabul. The latest `find' - a rough manual explaining the manufacturing process of `Ricin' and its fatal effects - was buried amid a pile of dummy bombs and propaganda documents scattered in the cellar of a house in Afghan capital. The newspaper said the place was once used as a terrorist training centre and two Arab doctors, killed by a mob on Monday as they tried to flee, were believed to be the brains behind the `Ricin' poison manual.

It said the document made `chilling' reading in describing the doses required to kill a child or an adult, and the agonising symptoms which the victim would develop before dying a slow death - the period of death varying from three days to 14 days. ``A certain amount, equal to a strong dose, will be able to kill an adult, and a dose equal to seven seeds (of castor oil plant from which `Ricin' is made) will kill a child,'' the instructions said prescribing the precautions which must be observed while making `Ricin', such as using gloves and a mask. The symptoms to look for the effect of `Ricin', it explained, were vomiting, stomach cramps, extreme thirst, throat irritation, respiratory collapse and death.

The cellar where the manual was found was littered with syringes, ampules, a variety of pills, and chemical formulae, mostly in Arabic. What caught the eye of The Times' reporter, Mr. Anthony Loyd, was a ``single English word.....Ricin'' and his first reaction was: ``The men of science had been doing more than just teach fledgling terrorists how to make and use explosive devices: they were familiarising them with a deadly chemical weapon.''

Experts said `Ricin' was one of the most toxic chemical agents, ``ideal for assassination but harder to spread on a wide scale''. ``It is difficult to treat victims because the poison acts quickly and irreversibly, but doctors have recently developed a vaccine that can help if given after exposure,'' The Times said in another report and pointed out that `Ricin' was a favourite of extremist groups but had not been used on a `mass scale'. The only sensational case was that of the Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov, who was stabbed in the thigh with an umbrella tip containing a `Ricin' pellet. He developed all the symptoms listed in the Al-Qaeda manual and died a few days later.

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