Possible Terrorist Action in California

Over the past years I have been, as always observant of my surroundings and changes that occur therein. Many months ago along a strech of the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles, California, I noticed that a large number of plants had begun growing on a formerly empty area of ground. These plants were also growing on a hillside behind a hotel and further up the canyons behind a fenced-off area. The total number of fully grown plants numbers in the hundreds, quit a significant crop.

To make a point of a possibility I have linked to a recent story regarding the discovery of "Al Qaeda terrorists" in Lodi, California. Considering either of two possible scenarios we could wonder if:
1) Real terrorists are planning an attack in California.
2) "Real" terrorists (Special Operatives) are planning an attack in California.

Back to the plants... the specific species of plants in question were Castor Bean plants, from which the Ricin poison is extracted. In one Article there is discussion on knowledge identified regarding the manufacture of the poison and critical of most of the information on the Web. The second Link has reports on the Lodi, California men with a small amount of information that could relate to a possible plan of attack.

As of Monday morning, someone has harvested all of the Castor Bean plants, and only the Castor Bean plants. By Wednesday afternoon almost every Castor Bean plant along a five mile stretch of the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass had been harvested. Who the harvesters were, no one seems to know, why they targetted only the Castor Bean plants, no one seems to know.

Now we begin to wait with vigilance.




This has been posted in 'Other Current Events' because no Terrorist action has taken place and the harvesting of the plants is a 'Current Event' that bears watching.

[edit on 18-6-2005 by Chuck Stevenson]

Hey Chuck I live about 10 mi south of lodi. This will hopefully wake some
people up in the congress and maybe just maybe they'll change the way
homeland defense dollars are spent. I mean currently funds are distributed
equally to each state rather than proportional by population which the
people in Idaho are alot better protected than people here in California!

im going to take a guess at the disappearance of the said plants.

By harvested, do you mean cut down, as in, no more plant, or harvested as taking the product and leaving the plant behind.

im not familiar with the plants, but are they not considered a weed?

Could the city or whoever cut them down?

Just a thought.

Who would grow them along a freeway? Makes no sense.

There could be other reasons, but i highly doubt its some form of terrorism.

Castor beans are used to make castor oil, and various derivatives thereof.

There's some informative stuff here

Think yourselves lucky your parents didn't feed you castor oil when you were a kid.

Mine did (I still haven't quite forgiven them....it has to be one of the vilest tasting substances known to man!)

Well even if it turns out to be nothing, it still doesn't sound good.

I've noticed that ricin plants grow all over SoCal. Haven't noticed any being harvested though, I haven't been up the Sepulveda pass very often lately.

Have you considered reporting the missing plants to the FBI? They are well qualified to find out if CalTrans or AlQaeda has been harvesting your plants. Seriously, I personally reported a suspicious guy to the FBI and the Harbor Police. They both got back to me, although the Harbor Police were really on top of it, within the hour. The FBI took a few weeks.

The guy I reported was filming the Vincent Thomas Bridge, the LA harbor container facilities and the Coast Guard facility. My friend was so freaked out she photographed him. Homeland Security has stated that people videotaping could be suspicious. I wouldn't say anything if he was videotaping his buddies and then the bridge, but they were just too weird. I've seen people taping the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica too, I thought that was kinda strange too, but not strange enough to report.

Still it makes me kinda nervous to see ricin harvested and filming at public places. Might have to do my shopping on the internet, besides it beats finding parking...

Ricin isn't the plant. It's a biproduct of the plant (the plant being the castor bean plant). We get castor oil (nontoxic) from the plant, too.

In the same way, belladonna can be lethal. But we also obtain atropine from belladonna; and atropine is one of the most useful medicinal substances known to man.

Jes trying to clarify the difference

The plants were completely removed just after the Pods for the seeds had turned color, the optimum time for bean harvesting. All of the plants were completely removed, yet other pernicious flammable/poisonous plants were left such as Poison Sumac and Laurel. It is a fire prone area. Only the Castor Bean plants were removed from multiple private and public properties. The plants were cut at the base leaving the roots, which is the fastest way to remove a plant. All of the plants were street accesable.

I would estimate that the number of bean carrying pods were in the low thousands (4 beans per pod). A poison such as Ricin could be easily distributed in powder form through any large crowd, inhaled it is always fatal within 24 hours. Consumed via food it kills within 36 hours. All it takes is the amount that fits on the head of a standard sewing pin (50 micro grams).

I can see your concern. but I think you're being a little paranoid. I can think of a lot better places to grow castor bean plants than on the side of a freeway in California.

But still, having said that, I applaud your vigillence. That is exactly what we need to win the war on terrorism. In Europe, if you sit down a brown paper bag and run away, everyone around will run as well, fearing a bomb. If you do that in the US people will run to the bag, hoping to find money or something else good that was left behind. We need to wake up and pay attention to our surroundings.

In Europe, if you sit down a brown paper bag and run away, everyone around will run as well, fearing a bomb. If you do that in the US people will run to the bag, hoping to find money or something else good that was left behind. We need to wake up and pay attention to our surroundings.

Umm...not where I come from, they won't...maybe it's just the mid-west.

They'd assume it was a bag of vomit or dog poo. Which actually makes me wonder about possible uses of such substances to spread bacteria or chemical weaponry, now I think about it.

When I lived on the east coast, you'd be more likely to hear under-the-breath chuntering about "those idiots who litter all the time". No money-searching or "hoping to find goodies" in Philly, believe me!

In England....they'd go with the "Oh, it's probably dog poo. Best leave it alone". Like you do. Oh, I get homesick for Blighty sometimes...

Well looks like some odd things are happening in Los Angeles.

The week of June 12-18 unknown persons harvest/remove easily accesable Castor Bean plants from areas of West Los Angeles.

The week of 19-25 unknown persons have harvested/removed Castor Bean plants from locations in the San Fernando Valley.

On the US holiday 'Fathers Day' this happens.

There are some large public displays that happen on July 4th in the greater Los Angeles area... could they all be connected?

Originally posted by Chuck Stevenson
I would estimate that the number of bean carrying pods were in the low thousands (4 beans per pod). A poison such as Ricin could be easily distributed in powder form through any large crowd, inhaled it is always fatal within 24 hours. Consumed via food it kills within 36 hours. All it takes is the amount that fits on the head of a standard sewing pin (50 micro grams).

Actually, you need around 1 milligram and dispersing it in the air is not a good idea.

en.wikipedia.org...
To put ricin used as weapon into perspective, it is worth noting that as a biological weapon or chemical weapon, ricin may be considered as not very powerful, if only in comparison with other poisons such as botulinum or anthrax. Hence, a military willing to use biological weapons and having advanced resources would rather use either of the latter than ricin. That is, though easy to produce, it is not as practical nor likely to cause as high casualities as other agents. Ricin degrades (ie, the protein changes structure and becomes less dangerous) much more readily than, for example, anthrax spores. (Jan van Aken, an expert on biological weapons explained in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel that he judges it rather reassuring that Al Qaeda experimented with ricin as it suggests their inability to produce botulin or anthrax.)

Pure ricin could be dispersed through the air, however it would tend to be oxidized and rendered harmless by ozone, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants in a matter of minutes. Since it acts as an enzyme, catalyzing destruction of ribosomes, even a single oxidation is likely to render the ricin molecule harmless. Presumably it could be sealed inside some sort of dust particle that would dissolve in water, but this would be difficult.

The major reason it is dangerous is that there is no specific antidote, and that it is very easy to obtain (the castor bean plant is a common ornamental, and can be grown at home without any special care). Ricin is actually several orders of magnitude less toxic than botulinum or tetanus toxins, but those are more difficult to obtain.