Check out this report from Reuters (specifically the last paragraph). I completely missed the news of the October ricin find. (Source:
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=451284§ion=news )
A white powder found in a U.S. Senate office building on Monday was shown in early tests to be the deadly poison ricin, police say, disrupting work in Congress and stirring memories of a 2001 anthrax attack.
Also on Monday a suspicious powder was found at a postal facility in Wallingford, Connecticut, where anthrax spores were found in the 2001 anthrax-mailings, which killed five people in different parts of the eastern United States.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with either of Monday's incidents.
Preliminary tests showed the substance found in a Senate mail handling room on Monday was ricin and a federal law enforcement official said definitive testing results from the Army's Fort Detrick were expected this afternoon.
The official said the Capitol Police and the FBI were investigating in the belief that a potential crime may have been committed, but awaited the definitive test results.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrence Gainer said late on Monday, "We have had several confirmations that it is ricin."
U.S. security services are on alert for possible attacks in America by extremists as President George W. Bush pursues a war on terrorism, but there was no immediate indication who was behind this incident.
Several airlines cancelled flights to the United States, including to Washington, over the weekend due to security concerns.
CONGRESS DISRUPTED
Congressional testimony by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was cancelled on Monday as some Senate buildings were closed, Pentagon officials said. Some other hearings were also put off.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a physician, joined Gainer at the late night news conference and urged calm.
He said that the powder that was found could theoretically have been inhaled but there was no evidence of that by any of the people who had been in the office or on the floor where the substance was found.
The three U.S. Senate office buildings, the Hart, Dirksen and Russell buildings, remained closed while unopened mail was collected and removed. The Capitol was open on Tuesday, but all tours were cancelled, said Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Frist.
In 2001 letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to the Washington offices of two senators and to news media offices in New York and Florida. Five people died, including two postal workers. The culprit has not been found.
The discovery caused ripples on world financial markets, with the euro gaining overnight against the dollar after news of the discovery and U.S. Treasury prices gaining in Asia on safe-haven dealing after the poison rekindled worries about indiscriminate attacks on U.S. institutions.
"The ricin story is definitely helping Treasuries at a time when the dollar is suffering a bit but ... no one is going to want to overdo their reaction to this news," said a trader in Helsinki.
Gainer said the U.S. Capitol Police department was notified a suspicious white powder in a mailroom shortly after 3 p.m. (8 p.m. British time) on Monday. He said it was not immediately clear what package or what letter may have held the powder.
Ricin is a poison derived from the pulp left over when castor beans are processed to make castor oil. There is no antidote for ricin, which can kill within 36 to 72 hours of exposure to significant amounts, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
A vial of ricin was delivered to a postal distribution centre in Greenville, South Carolina on October 15 in an envelope with a letter threatening to widely release the deadly poison unless new rules for commercial truck drivers were changed. U.S. authorities in January offered a $100,000 (54,500 pounds) reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever sent the toxin.