Health Dept. Urges NYC Hospitals To Prepare for Imminent Cyanide/Nerve Gas Attacks

NY Channel 7 ^ | Feb 13. 2003 | Jeff Rossen

[ewing]

If city cops are on edge, they have got good reason. Law Enforcement and city hosptials have been told that the thread of a cynaide attack or something similar is an immediate danger here in New York City.

Hospitals across the city are keeping an eye on this new terror warning because of the specific language that the city health department is using. They are talking about a possible cynaide gas attack. All the hospitals in the city are now on 'Code Red' high alert.

George Tenet CIA Director: [This Threat] 'It points to a plot to occur at the end of the Hajj, which occurs late this week.'

The Hajj runs through Saturday and so the NYPD has increased the number of officers on counterterrorism assignments from 1,000 to more than 1,400.The health department notified hospitals it has mass antidotes on hand for cynanide and nerve gas poisining.

[Libertina]

Thnaks Ewing. I just noticed the difference in wording between what you posted and what was written on the linked article. I'd certainly like to know.

[Grampa Dave]

Not just the mosques, but the rat politicians who have give aid and comfort to the Islamofacists in this country and other countries will be held responsible.

If and when the money trail from Soddomite the Insane and other rich Opecker Islamofacist thugs ever becomes public, there are a lot of traitors in America who will be in real trouble. Many will have left a paper and computer trail with their articles and postings on the internet. They will be hunted down like rabid dogs.

[Julliardsux]

The sealing makes sense for bio - I had never thought of that! They can't let smallpox people all over.

[ghostkatz]

Nah, won't happen. If it were going to happen it would have happened right after 9/11. No one does anything until it happens to them, and even then probably not much. It's like famous Hollywood actors getting some terrible disease, they want the whole world to find a cure for them. But until they themselves were stricken they could care less. Blow up Bubba's beer, boat and remote control, then maybe....

[ewing]

I think we can figure out what the portable missile lauchers were doing in DC yesterday..

[aristeides]

So Saddam has officially thrown in with the terrorists now?

I thought that happened on Saturday, when Ansar al-Islam killed those Kurdish leaders.

[honway]

Florida plant linked to poison gas
United Press International
September 16, 1990, Sunday, BC cycle
DALLAS
A deceased Iraqi architect linked to a Libyan chemical weapons complex invested $5 million in a Florida cherry flavoring plant as a front to collect and export cyanide compounds that could be used for toxic weapons, a Dallas newspaper reported Sunday.

---

''Shipments have left the U.S.,'' Kawaja said, ''and technology has left the U.S. We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States.''

---

Ihsan Barbouti's former associates said the Iraqi financier used his investment in an apparent effort to export deadly hydrogen cyanide -- and the technology to produce it -- to Middle East countries identified by the U.S. government as supporters of terrorism, The Dallas Morning News reported in a copyright story.

A chemical weapons expert said hydrogen cyanide is an odorless, colorless gas easily converted into use as a chemical weapon.

Louis Champon, president of the plant, Product Ingredient Technology Inc., in Boca Raton, Fla., said he had no role in the diversion of any toxic material from the facility.

He acknowledged, however, that at least five barrels, or 150 gallons, of a cyanide complex were unaccounted for and could have been taken from the site without his knowledge, the newspaper said.

Champon said he has filed a lawsuit to sever his business relatonship with the Barbouti family. Barbouti died July 1 in London of pneumonia at age 63, authorities said.

Another of Barbouti's former associates, Peter Kawaja, whose company installed a $1 million security system at the plant, said the cyanide was taken from the production facility during ''night trips'' to another site in Florida that he declined to identify.

''Shipments have left the U.S.,'' Kawaja said, ''and technology has left the U.S. We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States.''

Kawaja declined to identify the purported final destination of the potentially lethal chemical.

Barbouti, who had a doctorate in architecture, has been identified in several criminal court cases in Europe as the architect of Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi's chemical weapons plant in Rabta, about 40 miles from Tripoli.

Champon, who was interviewed by The Morning News Sept. 7 at the office of his attorney, Anthony Pucillo, in West Palm Beach, Fla., said it was his feeling that Barbouti's intention was ''to ship out (the gas) to overseas.''
An executive order by President Ronald Reagan in February 1986, after an outbreak of hostilities between Libya and the United States, made it illegal tosend any U.S.-manufactured goods or technology to Libya. That executive order was extended last year by President Bush.

U.S. Customs Service agents last Thursday interviewed Champon at the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Customs and the FBI's foreign counterintelligence services have accelerated their investigation of Barbouti's role in the flavoring plant since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2.

They also are examining his vast holdings in the United States, including high-tech and real estate interests in Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York.

Barbouti's American business associates told The Morning News the international broker also acknowledged ongoing contracts with Iraq and Iran.

Control of his American holdings has been assumed by his son, Haidar Barbouti, who also was in the financing and operation of the Florida flavoring plant, said Champon and Kawaja.

Haidar Barbouti could not be reached for comment at his Manhattan condominium in New York, the newspaper said.

The manufacturing facility produced a cherry flavoring -- known in the industry as natural bitter almond oil -- using a process developed by Champon. The flavoring is used in such commercial products as soft drinks, candies, gum and doughnut icing.

The process involves the distillation of crushed apricot pits and produces not only bitter almond oil, or concentrate for cherry flavoring, but also sugar and hydrogen cyanide byproducts.

Champon said his process neutralizes the hydrogen cyanide gas to a safe liquid form known as ferric ferrocyanide, a common chemical used widely in cleaning solvents. He acknowledged that the ferric ferrocyanide ''easily'' can be reconverted to hydrogen cyanide.

One chemist, a senior university researcher who has been a consultant in the analysis, research and development of chemical warfare for the U.S. Army, said the Boca Raton plant was capable of producing ''significant'' quantities of hydrogen cyanide.

The chemist, who requested anonymity, said that hydrogen cyanide -- in the hands of terrorists -- offers a potential security threat of ''immense'' proportion.

[ewing]

Could be. Although some of the tinfoil hatters will claim that Iraqi soldiers were involved in the OKC tradegy in 1995, and that angle was never really pursued.

[ewing]

That advise is good enough for me..

[ewing]

Time to spring to action, like Ben Affleck in the 'Daredevil' movie with Jennifer Garner!

[Rome2000]

Hysterical BS

[Jamten]

Do they speak English? Or maybe FBI speaks arabic?

[colette_g]

Just saw this reported on the "headline ticker" on Fox News

[lawyamike]

I understand that the source might be reputable and the threat genuine, but there is something about that warning that appears to make little sense. If there were a biological attack in the subway system, I doubt the problem could be identified and assessed in time to seal off the entrances. Different story for a chemical attack, but is there really cause for preventing persons subjected to, for example, VX from reaching fresh air? With decontamination, the chemicals would not be contagious in the way that a biological weapon would.

[SunnyUsa]

"You may want to (and tell loved ones to) take cabs or walk instead of taking the subways for a little while..."

I just spoke to my niece today, she works in NYC (commutes from NJ everyday) She told me she stopped taking the subways after 9/11 and walks 22 blocks everyday to her office.

She's really scared, but she has to work to pay the bills - she asked me what I thought about all of these warnings on TV.

I told her to get her resume updated, and start looking for a job closer to home - but walking and not riding subways was a great idea while she has to work in the City.

She keeps thinking about 9/11 - and the shock of that day (though she was uptown of all of that)

[diotima]

ON NOW! UNSPUN with AnnaZ and Mercuria!
6pm pdt/9pm edt

We'll be speaking with Freedom Alliance's FRED GEDRICH about Kofi & Krew (and Saddam, too!). PLUS... Boneheaded Lie-beral Quotes Commie Rat Bastard of the Week Anna's NEW Waste Of Ink Award

Click HERE to LISTEN LIVE while you FReep!

Click HERE for the RadioFR Chat Room!

Miss a show? Click HERE for the RadioFR Archives!

[Tony in Hawaii]

Where the hell is BobJ?

[RecentConvert]

If city cops are on edge, they have got good reason. Law Enforcement and city hosptials have been told that the thread of a cynaide attack or something similar is an immediate danger here in New York City.

Was likely was typed by poster. Notice bolds above.

[Colonel Jim]

We must remember that the threat of terror is indeed Terrorism. It's very effective, inexpensive and quite cowardly!