Return of the ricin plot so secret, it doesn't exist posted by Meaders

Charles Clarke has ordered the deportation of a further seven foreign nationals, all from Algeria, some of whom were earlier acquitted of involvement in an alleged "ricin plot". This caused quite a stir at the time; a Special Branch officer was stabbed during a raid in Manchester, whilst in Wood Green, North London, powdery substances were obtained from equipment allegedly used to mix poisons.

Four of those the police originally claimed were involved in a terrorist conspiracy were released without charge. Another four were acquitted at the Old Bailey. Despite this, the sole convictions obtained - on one man, Kemal Bourgass, who is now serving a life sentence for the murder of a policeman - were taken as carte blanche by the media to assume the existence of a terrible conspiracy. Such misapprehensions were not entirely discouraged by the government, Charlie the Safety Elephant evidently thinking this was the ideal time to push ID cards. The presumed plot even played its own small part in launching the war on Iraq. In his absurd presentation to the UN, Colin Powell citing the British "ricin ring" as further proof of the terrorist threat.

None of the allegations, hints and whispers lead anywhere. None of the alleged al-Qaida connections connect. When any detail of the supposed "plot" is examined, the whole conspiracy disappears.

Some of the background on Kemal Bourgass' alleged relationship with al-Qaida were supplied by Mohammad Meguerba, who helpfully told his Algerian captors an inventive story involving Afghan training camps and Nivea cream. This fancy tale was then passed over to UK intelligence, and used by the prosecution at the trial. Of course, information supplied by the Algerian security services is always reliable and accurate and never, ever obtained under torture; except, apparently, in this case.

A recipe for ricin, in Bourgass' handwriting, was discovered in his Wood Green flat during a raid. Bourgass was not there, and turned up only later, by accident, in Manchester, where he murdered a policeman. The claim was made by the prosecution at the original trial that Bourgass' ricin recipe matches that found in what they allege was an al-Qaida handbook, the "Manual of the Afghan Jihad". In fact, it differed substantially, matching instead the recipe given in Maxwell Hutchkinson's The Poisoner's Handbook, widely available on the internet.

On January 5, 2003, a few days after the Wood Green raid, Martin Pearce, leader of the Biological Weapons Inspection Group at the UK government's weapons research lab, Porton Down, concluded the lab's research on substances found at the flat. He wrote that, "Subsequent confirmatory tests on the material from the pestle and mortar did not detect the presence of ricin. It is my opinion therefore that toxins are not detectable in the pestle and mortar." He rejected an earlier, cruder test's claim that ricin could be deteced, citing this as a "false positive". Incredibly, this finding was subsequently reported to the outside world as confirming the presence of ricin in the Bourgass' flat.

Duncan Campell, an expert witness called to the "ricin ring" trial, wrote much of this story up in a piece for the Guardian:

When, in October, I showed that the chemical lists found in London were an exact copy of pages on an internet site in Palo Alto, California, the prosecution gave up on the Kabul and al-Qaida link claims. But it seems this information was not shared with the then home secretary, David Blunkett, who was still whipping up fear two weeks later. "Al-Qaida and the international network is seen to be, and will be demonstrated through the courts over months to come, actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives," he said on November 14.

He concludes that Bourgass' attempts to manufacture ricin were cack-handed and based on widely-circulated recipes, originating in the US amongst the far-right survivalist fringe. Bourgass was not "competent" enough to cause harm, much as he might have wanted to do so. Far from being a trained "al-Qaida operative", Bourgass was a murderous crank, an "Islamist yobbo" in Campbell's words, for whom an ASBO "might be appropriate." There was no "ricin ring". There was no "al-Qaida plot".

You'll have noticed that the link to the Campbell story above doesn't work. (The complete story is mirrored here.)A few days after it appeared, the government slapped a Public Interest Immunity certificate on the piece, and it was pulled from the Guardian site. The reason given was to protect the "identity of Porton Down experts who appeared as witnesses in the trial." But, as the Register notes, the identity of Porton Down scientists is not a secret. Still, The Register continues,

The removal of the article does however mean that one of the very few correctives to widespread 'UK 911 poison terror scare' hysteria no longer exists in the mainstream press.

The entire sorry episode has been marked by an ill-restrained hysteria, on one side, and a wilfully obtuse government on the other. That Charles Clarke now deems it fit to round up those previously acquitted of involvement any conspiracy and threaten them with deportation is, on the murderously farcical basis presented above, deeply worrying.

Jurors who acquitted four Algerians involved in the ricin plot trial told the Guardian they were angry their verdicts were ignored and were concerned the men would face torture or death if deported. "If anyone has grounds for asylum in this country, it is these men," one said.