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BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of an organization of former Russian spies was quoted as saying on Thursday Moscow abandoned its policy of assassinating enemies long ago, and that Alexander Litvinenko was probably murdered by criminals. Former KGB agent Valentin Velichko said fellow former agent Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23 from radiation poisoning, was a traitor but was not killed by Moscow. "That was long ago. It belonged to the days of Stalin," Velichko, head of the Veterans of Foreign Intelligence, told Die Welt newspaper in an interview. Millions died under the rule of dictator Josef Stalin.

The cupboard above the stove in Betty Miller's retirement apartment contained bottles labeled "apple seed," "cherry seed," "castor beans," and "ricin," the FBI says. The potentially deadly ricin, federal agents allege, was homemade by the 70-year-old to go into the food and drink of her neighbors at a Vermont continuing care retirement community. Earlier this week, the FBI was asked to come to the Wake Robin life care community in Shelburne, Vermont, to investigate a potentially toxic substance. When an agent interviewed Miller, she allegedly told him she was making ricin in her home and testing its effectiveness on other...

[H]undreds of Ohio emergency responders were exposed to a potentially fatal toxin while training at a FEMA facility in Alabama. The federal agency released a statement Wednesday saying that they have received no reports of illness as a result of the ricin exposure. Ricin is a poison found naturally in castor beans that kills cells by preventing them from creating protein. Exposure to the toxin can lead to death.

WHEN THE IRAQI REGIME collapsed in April 2003, few observers saw reason to mourn the loss of Saddam's brutal dictatorship. While a great deal of information about the former Iraqi regime's assorted atrocities has been uncovered since the invasion, newly-released documents go even further in demonstrating its manifest depravity. One such document is CMPC-2003-012666, a letter from Qusay Hussein that directs as follows: Transfer all Kuwaiti POW's / a total of 448 captured Kuwaitis who are located at the Al-Nida Al-Agher Prison and the Intelligence / General Center and Kazema Prison in Al-Kazema, to make them human shields at all...

Al-Afari And Away: Ignoring the Saddam-ISIS link by Daniel Clark During two Republican primary debates, presidential frontrunner Donald Trump claimed that Saddam Hussein had been an enemy of Islamic terrorism, and argued that he should have been left in power to kill terrorists, so that our soldiers didn't have to. Considering that, one might think a reminder of Saddam's moustache-deep involvement in terrorism, along with the fact that he'd retained an active chemical weapons program between wars, would be a major news story. One might even expect that a story about a former member of Saddam’s regime helping ISIS to...

A 16-year-old boy has admitted trying to buy a biological toxin that is 30 times more deadly than ricin from undercover police on the 'dark web'. The teenager from Mossley, Greater Manchester, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wanted to obtain abrin online. He was caught after an investigation was launched by the North West counter-terrorism unit in January. Today he pleaded guilty to trying to buy the toxin at Manchester Youth Court. He will be sentenced later this month for the offence, which is contrary to the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and Section 1 of the Biological Weapons...

Ryan Kelly Chamberlain II, the subject of a nationwide manhunt after explosive materials were allegedly found in his San Francisco apartment, was taken into custody by the San Francisco Police Department and the FBI, an FBI spokesman said today. A law enforcement source briefed on the case told ABC News that Chamberlain was taken into custody "right under the Golden Gate Bridge," but he was not certain if he was in a car or on foot at the time. The capture came after a day of dramatic and cinematic cat-and-mouse with the hunted man. "We had been close to him...

FBI, Hazmat Crew Outside SF Building FBI agents, San Francisco police and fire crews, and a hazardous materials team converged on an apartment building between Jackson and Polk streets Saturday morning. FBI agents, San Francisco police and fire crews, and a hazardous materials team converged on an apartment building between Jackson and Polk streets in the Russian Hill neighborhood Saturday morning, according to San Francisco police. The San Francisco FBI office told NBC Bay Area that the agency is executing a search warrant as part of a criminal investigation. The FBI said that the investigation poses "no threat to...

The FBI is looking for a man who lives in the San Francisco apartment where agents found a large stash of what appears to be the deadly poison ricin. On Saturday, FBI agents searched the apartment, which belongs to Ryan Chamberlain, according to KGO, an ABC affiliate. The FBI said Chamberlain could be armed and dangerous. The apartment search was expected to resume Sunday. Chamberlain owns a Nissan that reportedly could be rigged with explosives. The FBI did not evacuate apartments during the search, and FBI spokeswoman Alice Heller said there was “no threat to public safety.” She said agents...

A white powder found Tuesday in a Georgetown University dorm room tested positive for ricin, but the university said Wednesday that there was no immediate threat to the community. Law enforcement officials said they believed there was no connection to terrorism. In an email to the campus community Wednesday afternoon, school officials said a substance that was removed from a room in the McCarthy Hall dormitory tested positive for ricin. The white powder can cause respiratory distress, respiratory failure, and multi-organ dysfunction, according to the Centers for Disease Control. SNIP FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire said no arrests had been made...

I have a couple of questions about Breaking Bad.

(CNN) -- A Texas actress in a troubled marriage was arrested and charged Friday in connection with ricin-tainted letters that were mailed last month to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, authorities said. Shannon Richardson, 35, also known as Shannon Rogers and Shannon Guess, initially told the FBI that her husband, Nathaniel, sent the ricin-laced letters, but a polygraph exam found her to be "deceptive" on the matter, court papers said. Investigators found that her computer storage devices contained the text of threatening letters sent to the president, but the couple's computer records show her husband...

A high-tech computer system that captures images of “every mail piece that is processed” by the United State Postal Service was critical in helping federal agents track the Texas woman arrested today for allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In a U.S. District Court complaint filed today against Shannon Guess Richardson, an FBI agent details how investigators traced the ricin letters back to New Boston, Texas, where the 35-year-old Richardson (seen below) lives with her husband.

FBI agents arrested Shannon Elizabeth Guess Richardson (pictured) this morning in connection with the ricin-tainted letters sent to the White House and the offices of Michael Bloomberg and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. According to NPR (yes, that NPR) her husband and original person of interest Nathan Richardson has been cleared of suspicion. The FBI now believes that Shannon sent the poison letters as part of a plot to frame her husband and divorce him, and that the letters’ rants about gun control were a red herring. That’s right: guns, racism and gun control had nothing to do with the poisoned letters....

A Texas woman has been arrested in connection with the mailing of three letters containing a form of the poison ricin to President Obama, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, federal authorities said. Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson of New Boston, Texas, originally called the Federal Bureau of Investigation claiming that her husband had sent the letters, officials said. The investigators found that she had sent the letters herself, they said. The woman was arrested in Arkansas on charges that will be filed Friday afternoon, the authorities said.

From Julie Banderas Twitter: The White House receives a letter similar to Mayor Bloomberg's. I'm on Fox Business Network at 12:22pm with the latest

Federal investigators are trying to figure out who sent two threatening letters laced with the deadly poison ricin to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his gun-control group in Washington. CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano reports that authorities say responding officers who came into contact with the letter in New York suffered some minor symptoms. No one was seriously hurt, but now a joint terrorism task force, including the FBI and the NYPD, is investigating. Bloomberg spoke with reporters shortly after the threats against him became public Wednesday evening. "No, I'm not angry," said Bloomberg. "There are people who,...

DEVELOPING: Anonymous letters sent to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the director of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns in Washington, DC contained material that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne. According to a statement released on Wednesday, the letters potentially containing the deadly poison were sent to Mayor Bloomberg on Friday and to the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns on Sunday. It is believed that the letters threatened Mayor Bloomberg and made reference to the gun control debate...

The FBI said Monday that no one has been arrested after last week’s discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin in Spokane, but the agency remained tight-lipped about the investigation and a weekend raid at a downtown apartment building. … The letters were postmarked last Tuesday in Spokane and addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building. They were intercepted by the Postal Service, and no one was injured. … Witnesses have said a man was escorted from the building by law enforcement officers Saturday morning. Sandalo Dietrich declined to say if anyone...

Did the FBI get it right this time? Wall Street Journal: J. Everett Dutschke, 41 years old, of Tupelo, Miss., was charged with possessing a toxin for use as a weapon, among other charges, the U.S. attorney's office said. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Oxford, Miss. on Monday. Mr. Dutschke was taken into custody without incident, according to an FBI spokeswoman. The arrest follows a tumultuous week in which the man initially charged with sending the letters, Paul Kevin Curtis, a 45 year-old Elvis impersonator who had quarreled with Mr. Dutschke, was released after evidence and...