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Whilst the media has had something of a field day with arrest of six men in London and the confirmation of Ricin being found early on Sunday at a location. A many of you will already have heard, what is crucial now is the amount of the toxin - and whether it represents all they had in their possession or the remainder.
If it is the sole amount then we can breathe a sigh of relief, but if it is the remainder then there are two implications;
1) Where is the rest ?
2) Where did it come from ? Large scale production is not easy, it may well have originated from a nation state....
Time will tell.
It does raise an interesting point though.
How far, and what actions, can be used to protect the country ? Luckily these people appear to have been caught in time. But say they were in the later stages, and the only way to stop them was force ? Or, what if only part of the group were captured whilst the rest were setting the plan in motion ? How far could we go to learn that information if we knew that failure to get it would result in a devestating attack ?
This new war on terror has basically opened a book most people thought closed when the Cold War ended. Wars were supposed to be about clear enemies, swathes of armoured units and air support...you get the picture. But instead we find a new enemy, who doesn't play by our rules or those of warfare, or international laws. Sure, nations may occasionally break them, but not constantly - in most cases.
Do we need to change our morality to win ? Or is that handing over victory ?
~~Belldandy~~
If it is the sole amount then we can breathe a sigh of relief, but if it is the remainder then there are two implications;
1) Where is the rest ?
2) Where did it come from ? Large scale production is not easy, it may well have originated from a nation state....
Time will tell.
It does raise an interesting point though.
How far, and what actions, can be used to protect the country ? Luckily these people appear to have been caught in time. But say they were in the later stages, and the only way to stop them was force ? Or, what if only part of the group were captured whilst the rest were setting the plan in motion ? How far could we go to learn that information if we knew that failure to get it would result in a devestating attack ?
This new war on terror has basically opened a book most people thought closed when the Cold War ended. Wars were supposed to be about clear enemies, swathes of armoured units and air support...you get the picture. But instead we find a new enemy, who doesn't play by our rules or those of warfare, or international laws. Sure, nations may occasionally break them, but not constantly - in most cases.
Do we need to change our morality to win ? Or is that handing over victory ?
~~Belldandy~~
The sagacious one wrote:
> I can't believe how much they (special advisers on the news) went on
> about making it (Ricin) from Castor beans and then giving advice on
> how to best deploy the lethal toxin for maximum effect.
>
> Cheers for that numbnuts. Though in truth, I'm sure that many such
> acts are well known.
>
> These are worrying times.
Reminds me of a programme I saw about the Columbine high school killers - a bit about the pipebombs they used. One man said "You can go onto any internet search engine, type in 'pipebomb', and you'll get anything from 500 to 5000 pages telling you how to create them." It then proceeded to show some of these website, pictures and all, and even showing the man typing in "pipebomb", just in case you didn't get the message.
But anyway, these deadly chemicals are quite scary. You'd have to get masses to kill a large amount of people, but when you have the stuff the killing is easy. Radio 4 covered it a few days ago - some form of expert (they're always experts, so that means nothing, I know) was saying that if this ricin stuff was casually rubbed onto a turnstyle in the London underground (and presumably anywhere else), all it would take is someone else to touch it and then put their fingers in their mouth, and they'd probably die. Now, although this may be exaggerated, I don't doubt it would at least make you seriously ill. Think of all the people who touch the turnstyle, and to use the example the woman used, eat a sandwich with their fingers. Have you seen the Food Standards Agency ads with the pink germs being spread everywhere? Not only would the people who touch it kill themselves, they'd rub it off everywhere. So if this stuff was rubbed onto a few turnstyles you'd have a disaster on your hands overnight. Not to mention thousands dead or in hospital. And we're already short of NHS beds.
> I can't believe how much they (special advisers on the news) went on
> about making it (Ricin) from Castor beans and then giving advice on
> how to best deploy the lethal toxin for maximum effect.
>
> Cheers for that numbnuts. Though in truth, I'm sure that many such
> acts are well known.
>
> These are worrying times.
Reminds me of a programme I saw about the Columbine high school killers - a bit about the pipebombs they used. One man said "You can go onto any internet search engine, type in 'pipebomb', and you'll get anything from 500 to 5000 pages telling you how to create them." It then proceeded to show some of these website, pictures and all, and even showing the man typing in "pipebomb", just in case you didn't get the message.
But anyway, these deadly chemicals are quite scary. You'd have to get masses to kill a large amount of people, but when you have the stuff the killing is easy. Radio 4 covered it a few days ago - some form of expert (they're always experts, so that means nothing, I know) was saying that if this ricin stuff was casually rubbed onto a turnstyle in the London underground (and presumably anywhere else), all it would take is someone else to touch it and then put their fingers in their mouth, and they'd probably die. Now, although this may be exaggerated, I don't doubt it would at least make you seriously ill. Think of all the people who touch the turnstyle, and to use the example the woman used, eat a sandwich with their fingers. Have you seen the Food Standards Agency ads with the pink germs being spread everywhere? Not only would the people who touch it kill themselves, they'd rub it off everywhere. So if this stuff was rubbed onto a few turnstyles you'd have a disaster on your hands overnight. Not to mention thousands dead or in hospital. And we're already short of NHS beds.
Yep, Superman. Not Batman though: that guy has no respect for due process.
We need Superman. Now more than ever.
I can't believe how much they (special advisers on the news) went on about making it (Ricin) from Castor beans and then giving advice on how to best deploy the lethal toxin for maximum effect.
Cheers for that numbnuts. Though in truth, I'm sure that many such acts are well known.
These are worrying times.
Cheers for that numbnuts. Though in truth, I'm sure that many such acts are well known.
These are worrying times.
Whilst the media has had something of a field day with arrest of six men in London and the confirmation of Ricin being found early on Sunday at a location. A many of you will already have heard, what is crucial now is the amount of the toxin - and whether it represents all they had in their possession or the remainder.
If it is the sole amount then we can breathe a sigh of relief, but if it is the remainder then there are two implications;
1) Where is the rest ?
2) Where did it come from ? Large scale production is not easy, it may well have originated from a nation state....
Time will tell.
It does raise an interesting point though.
How far, and what actions, can be used to protect the country ? Luckily these people appear to have been caught in time. But say they were in the later stages, and the only way to stop them was force ? Or, what if only part of the group were captured whilst the rest were setting the plan in motion ? How far could we go to learn that information if we knew that failure to get it would result in a devestating attack ?
This new war on terror has basically opened a book most people thought closed when the Cold War ended. Wars were supposed to be about clear enemies, swathes of armoured units and air support...you get the picture. But instead we find a new enemy, who doesn't play by our rules or those of warfare, or international laws. Sure, nations may occasionally break them, but not constantly - in most cases.
Do we need to change our morality to win ? Or is that handing over victory ?
~~Belldandy~~
If it is the sole amount then we can breathe a sigh of relief, but if it is the remainder then there are two implications;
1) Where is the rest ?
2) Where did it come from ? Large scale production is not easy, it may well have originated from a nation state....
Time will tell.
It does raise an interesting point though.
How far, and what actions, can be used to protect the country ? Luckily these people appear to have been caught in time. But say they were in the later stages, and the only way to stop them was force ? Or, what if only part of the group were captured whilst the rest were setting the plan in motion ? How far could we go to learn that information if we knew that failure to get it would result in a devestating attack ?
This new war on terror has basically opened a book most people thought closed when the Cold War ended. Wars were supposed to be about clear enemies, swathes of armoured units and air support...you get the picture. But instead we find a new enemy, who doesn't play by our rules or those of warfare, or international laws. Sure, nations may occasionally break them, but not constantly - in most cases.
Do we need to change our morality to win ? Or is that handing over victory ?
~~Belldandy~~