This story is bothering me a bit.
U.S. Considers Domestic Terrorism in Ricin Case
Mostly because there seems to be some sort of distinction that isn't supported by the publicly known facts.
The ricin sent to top government agencies -- including the White House -- is probably coming from inside the United States and from a homegrown criminal rather than foreign terrorists, investigators and outside experts believe.
"It does not bear the mark of an international terrorist attack," said an official at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "This is a criminal issue. It is not a weapon of mass destruction."
There's two problems here.
One, it seems to me that officials are being VERY reluctant to label Americans, in America, delivering poison, or threatening to blow up a truck, etc., as terrorists. Foreigners are terrorists. Americans? They are criminals.
Two, we're declaring ricin as not being a weapon of mass destruction. Yet, a look at such sites as Terrorismfiles shows ricin as a biological weapon. Slide 39 of Colin Powell's favorite slide show for the UN Security Council talks about Ricin as a danger requiring the invasion of Iraq:
The network is teaching its operatives how to produce ricin and other poisons. Let me remind you how ricin works. Less than a pinch--image a pinch of salt--less than a pinch of ricin, eating just this amount in your food, would cause shock followed by circulatory failure. Death comes within 72 hours and there is no antidote, there is no cure. It is fatal.
It was convenient to claim that Iraq was harboring terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction, and use that as a reason to attack Iraq. It's inconvenient to state that the United States has domestic citizen terrorists that actually DO have WMDs. The definition of terrorism and WMD completely depend on location and country of citizenship.
Russert, you should ask whether WMDs have been found in the U.S. on Sunday, and if Bush says no, ask about the ricin (and the plot in Texas).