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CNN Live At Daybreak

New Terror Scare: Deadly Toxin Found

Aired January 08, 2003 - 06:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to London, we're going to talk about that terror scare involving that deadly poison ricin. Six men are in custody today. They're facing questions after a trace amount of ricin was found in one suspect's home.
CNN's Jim Boulden is in London. He joins us now with more.

Good morning -- Jim.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

The big question here in London this morning is because they found traces of ricin, where is the rest of it? And that's the big question people here are asking -- John.

VAUSE: That is very difficult to spread.

BOULDEN: Yes, the thing is it's not a weapon of mass destruction as some people might have been thinking. This is a -- ricin is something that is distributed maybe one person at a time. There is some talk that maybe it can be distributed in a spray, but it is probably deliverable through needles, through inhaling, through injection.

And the question is was this ricin already distributed from this flat you see behind me where the six men were arrested on Sunday and is it on the streets of London? And that's why there is a medical alert today. A lot of the NHS, the National Health Service, is on alert to see if anybody might have traces of ricin. Nobody's been found yet, of course. The problem with the ricin is that it looks like the flu. If you do get -- if you do get injected with ricin, you might think you have flu symptoms, and that's the worry here this morning in London -- John.

VAUSE: And it's been used once before in an assassination attempt of a journalist.

BOULDEN: Yes, interestingly enough, it was used here in London in 1978, a Bulgarian journalist who was an immigrant. He was walking across Waterloo Bridge, and it's believed that the -- that some secret service from the eastern European country of either Bulgaria or maybe the Soviet Union assassinated him by sticking it on the end of an umbrella, sticking it into his leg. He was found dead and all they found was a small capsule in his leg, no ricin was found. And they only think -- they assume that that's what's used.

That's the problem with this deadly toxin is that it masks itself and it does absorb itself and it's something that isn't too unusual to get a hold of. And as I say, ricin was found in this flat and they're very concerned that some of this might already have been distributed in and around in London. And they're looking very carefully now and of course talking to those six men to see if they can find out what happened to any other ricin.

VAUSE: Yes, this seems to be like a poison of choice for terrorism groups. There's some reports that Iraq has been trying to stockpile this as well. Not (ph) even for years the Britain -- British government has been looking at the use of this poison.

BOULDEN: Yes, exactly right. It has been tested before. There was talk that some of it was found in Afghanistan, maybe in a cave.

And I wanted to show you a headline that says in this newspaper said "It's Here." And the point of this is that before this attack, before this arrest, there had been a number of arrests here post September 11 but nothing on this scale. Most people arrested were either for false passports, for fake driver's license, some people who had been released, some people extradited to the U.S. But this is the first real evidence that there might have been a biological terrorist attack in London, something similar to the anthrax attacks in the U.S. around the September 11 time -- John.

VAUSE: OK. CNN's Jim Boulden reporting for us live from London on that discovery of ricin poison.

Thank you, Jim, for that this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 8, 2003 - 06:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to London, we're going to talk about that terror scare involving that deadly poison ricin. Six men are in custody today. They're facing questions after a trace amount of ricin was found in one suspect's home.
CNN's Jim Boulden is in London. He joins us now with more.

Good morning -- Jim.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

The big question here in London this morning is because they found traces of ricin, where is the rest of it? And that's the big question people here are asking -- John.

VAUSE: That is very difficult to spread.

BOULDEN: Yes, the thing is it's not a weapon of mass destruction as some people might have been thinking. This is a -- ricin is something that is distributed maybe one person at a time. There is some talk that maybe it can be distributed in a spray, but it is probably deliverable through needles, through inhaling, through injection.

And the question is was this ricin already distributed from this flat you see behind me where the six men were arrested on Sunday and is it on the streets of London? And that's why there is a medical alert today. A lot of the NHS, the National Health Service, is on alert to see if anybody might have traces of ricin. Nobody's been found yet, of course. The problem with the ricin is that it looks like the flu. If you do get -- if you do get injected with ricin, you might think you have flu symptoms, and that's the worry here this morning in London -- John.

VAUSE: And it's been used once before in an assassination attempt of a journalist.

BOULDEN: Yes, interestingly enough, it was used here in London in 1978, a Bulgarian journalist who was an immigrant. He was walking across Waterloo Bridge, and it's believed that the -- that some secret service from the eastern European country of either Bulgaria or maybe the Soviet Union assassinated him by sticking it on the end of an umbrella, sticking it into his leg. He was found dead and all they found was a small capsule in his leg, no ricin was found. And they only think -- they assume that that's what's used.

That's the problem with this deadly toxin is that it masks itself and it does absorb itself and it's something that isn't too unusual to get a hold of. And as I say, ricin was found in this flat and they're very concerned that some of this might already have been distributed in and around in London. And they're looking very carefully now and of course talking to those six men to see if they can find out what happened to any other ricin.

VAUSE: Yes, this seems to be like a poison of choice for terrorism groups. There's some reports that Iraq has been trying to stockpile this as well. Not (ph) even for years the Britain -- British government has been looking at the use of this poison.

BOULDEN: Yes, exactly right. It has been tested before. There was talk that some of it was found in Afghanistan, maybe in a cave.

And I wanted to show you a headline that says in this newspaper said "It's Here." And the point of this is that before this attack, before this arrest, there had been a number of arrests here post September 11 but nothing on this scale. Most people arrested were either for false passports, for fake driver's license, some people who had been released, some people extradited to the U.S. But this is the first real evidence that there might have been a biological terrorist attack in London, something similar to the anthrax attacks in the U.S. around the September 11 time -- John.

VAUSE: OK. CNN's Jim Boulden reporting for us live from London on that discovery of ricin poison.

Thank you, Jim, for that this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com