GAINESVILLE, Ga., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Bioterrorism experts say the four Georgia men accused of plotting domestic terror by making and distributing the toxin ricin in U.S. cities would have failed.
The experts said the men may have been able to produce a product that has some ricin, but not at the level needed to harm large numbers of people, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.
"It wouldn't have worked," said Raymond Zilinskas, a microbiologist and program director at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif. "No one that we know has done it."
The men -- Frederick W. Thomas, 73, of Cleveland; and Samuel J. Crump, 68; Ray H. Adams, 55; and Dan Roberts, 67, all of Toccoa -- are scheduled for bond hearings Wednesday in Gainesville. Federal prosecutors said the men's use of ricin was part of a larger scheme that included killing government figures and blowing up federal buildings.
Even if the men didn't kill a large number of people, they could have tried to kill a few and taken responsibility for the act, which could create psychological terror, Zilinskas told the Journal-Constitution.
Trina von Waldner, who teaches at the pharmacy school at the University of Georgia, said the men might have been able to produce something dangerous, even if only for a few people.
"People have made this in their homes in a form that is deadly," she said. "But it's not considered doable for a large population."
George Smith, a bioterrorism threat analyst for GlobalSecurity.org, told the Journal-Constitution the "poison lore" was accessible on the Internet.
"What is absurd about it is how this lore has become so solidified in a certain subculture," Smith said. "People are utterly convinced of the realness of it."
