Snap Judgment and Ricin

Oops. Last Thursday I wrote a post which assumed that an Elvis impersonator had sent poison letters to U. S. government officials. The letters really did contain ricin, but the fellow's house didn't.

That may be why charges were dropped against him.¹

Meanwhile, law enforcement is searching someone else's house. Eventually, I suppose they'll find a house with ricin, and someone living there who might plausibly have sent those letters.

Then again, maybe not. Some crimes don't get solved.

It's possible that Paul Kevin Curtis really did send those letters, and had the good sense not to leave evidence lying around. Not everyone who commits crimes is sloppy, and that's another topic.

Due Process and Embarrassment

If Mr. Curtis is guilty, and if new evidence points to him, I'm fairly confident that he'll be arrested again and tried for sending potentially-lethal substances to offices in Washington. I'm no great fan of the current administration, and do no hold members of Congress in awe. However, trying to poison whoever opens letters for an elected official is at best a daft way to make a point: and is ethically unsupportable.

If Mr. Curtis is innocent, which the current lack of evidence suggests, I hope that he's able to recover from this accusation.

I'm more than a bit embarrassed about simply assuming that an accusation is true. It's not that I don't trust law enforcement: rather, I know why we have the occasionally-frustrating legal processes we do. 'Guilty until proven dead' may feel good, and is certainly easier to manage than the American judicial system: but if I'm ever accused of a crime, I won't mind having a chance to demonstrate that I am innocent.

Another, and very serious, accusation has been made against a young man who was videotaped planting explosives at the Boston Marathon. I'm more confident that he actually is guilty. In that case, there's a video recording of what he and his deceased brother did, and their anything-but-innocent behavior while killing a police officer and exchanging fire with others.

I'm quite confident that the surviving brother arranged for death and destruction at a public event. However, I also think that it's a good idea to go through the usual judicial process: even when the case seems obvious.

Related posts:

• "Ricin Letters, Elvis Impersonators, and Lizard Men"
  (April 18, 2013)
• "Air France 447: Part of a Black (Orange, Really) Box Found "
  (April 28, 2011)
• "Anthrax, the FBI, and Absolute Certainty "
  (February 15, 2011)
• "Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India, and the Lizard People "
  (January 14, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Someone to Blame
• "Assumptions; the Ames Anthrax Strain; Ames, Iowa, and Fort Deterick"
  (August 15, 2008)

In the news:

• "Charges dropped against Mississippi man in ricin letters case"
  Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (April 23, 2013)
• "U.S. drops charges against Mississippi man in ricin letters case"
  Robbie Ward, Reuters (April 23, 2013)

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¹ Excerpts from the news:

"Charges were dropped Tuesday against the Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others, while authorities searched at another man's home in connection with the case.

"The surprising move was announced in a brief document filed in federal court in Oxford hours after Paul Kevin Curtis was released from custody. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be re-instated if prosecutors so choose.

"Attorneys for Curtis have suggested he was framed, and an FBI agent testified in court this week that no evidence of ricin was found in searches of his home. At a news conference Tuesday, they declined to discuss whether they were told what new information the government had uncovered...."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)

---

"U.S. prosecutors dropped charges on Tuesday against a Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a state judge, according to court documents.

"The surprise decision came hours after Paul Kevin Curtis was released from a Mississippi jail on bond.

"Prosecutors said the 'ongoing investigation has revealed new information,' but provided no additional details, according to the court order dismissing the charges.

"Curtis told reporters he respected Obama. 'I would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official,' he said. 'I love this country.'

"He said he had no idea what ricin was. 'I thought they said "rice," I told them I don't eat rice,' he said...."
(Robbie Ward, Reuters)

Ricin Letters, Elvis Impersonators, and Lizard Men

Ricin was in letters sent to the American president and a member of Congress. It was sent by an Elvis impersonator who apparently thought he was battling a government conspiracy to bootleg human organs.¹

I think it's quite likely that he did see human organs stored in a hospital where he had worked. Diseased organs are sometimes removed in operations, and they don't just vanish. They're stored and - I'm told and believe - either buried or incinerated. The presence of human organs in a hospital doesn't mean that there's a conspiracy afoot: any more than an Elvis impersonator being arrested means that all Elvis impersonators are a risk to honest citizens.

Of course, I also believe that the explosion which devastated a Texas town a few hours ago was quite likely caused by the a fire and the tons of anhydrous ammonia stored there. For folks that believe conspiracy theories, that may show that I am either a fool, a dupe: or part of the conspiracy.

Who knows, I might be one of the shape-shifting space-alien lizard-men who rule the world. Or, not.

Related posts:

• "Boston Marathon Bombs"
  (April 15, 2013)
• "Air France 447: Part of a Black (Orange, Really) Box Found "
  (April 28, 2011)
• "Anthrax, the FBI, and Absolute Certainty "
  (February 15, 2011)
• "Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India, and the Lizard People "
  (January 14, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Someone to Blame
• "Assumptions; the Ames Anthrax Strain; Ames, Iowa, and Fort Deterick"
  (August 15, 2008)

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¹ From the news:

"Suspect arrested in connection with poison letters, tests show substance 'absolutely' ricin"
FoxNews.com (April 18, 2013)

"A Mississippi man has been arrested in connection with the mailing of three letters sent to President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and a Mississippi official that tested positive for ricin....

"...The testing was apparently conclusive enough to charge the suspect. The Department of Justice said Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was arrested at his Corinth, Miss., home Wednesday afternoon following an investigation conducted by an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and several other agencies....

"...Curtis believed he had uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and sometimes performed as an Elvis Presley impersonator, the Associated Press reported.

"The letters to Obama and Wicker said: 'To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.' Both were signed, 'I am KC and I approve this message.'

"Ricky Curtis, who said he was Kevin Curtis' cousin, said the family was shocked by the news of the arrest. He described his cousin as a 'super entertainer' who impersonated Elvis and numerous other singers.

"'We're all in shock. I don't think anybody had a clue that this kind of stuff was weighing on his mind,' Ricky Curtis said in a telephone interview...."

---

"Texas Waco fertiliser plant blast causes many casualties"
BBC News (April 18, 2013)

"Between five and 15 people are thought to have been killed by a huge explosion at a US fertiliser plant that witnesses said was "like a tornado".

"More than 160 people were injured as dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed in the evening blast near Waco in the state of Texas.

"Emergency services are still going from home to home trying to find survivors.

"Three or four firefighters who had been tackling an earlier blaze at the site are still missing, police say....

"...Emergency services officials said ammonia may have caused the explosion.

"It has been reported the company had 54,000lbs (20 tonnes) of anhydrous ammonia on site...."

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Pakistani Politics, Iranian Nukes, Iranian Dress Code: And it's Only Wednesday!

It's been a busy week, and it's only half over.

Pakistan's ruling President / General has suspended that country's constitution, and, instead of locking up Pakistanis who support the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Pervez Musharraf is having his police round up people who don't agree with him, and have said so publicly.

One-time Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, defied a ban on protests of Musharraf's 'emergency rule. She and her supporters are planning a rally in Rawalpindi, and then marching the 186 miles from Rawalpindi to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, early next week.

Bhutto said, "I request my brothers and sisters to reach Rawalpindi at all costs," preparing for a confrontation with authorities. There's a ban on rallys, and the mayor of Rawalpindi says police would keep everyone away from the park where Bhutto intends to address supporters Friday.

Meanwhile, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran has 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, all presumably in good working order. That's enough, and more, to make nuclear weapons for Iran. Ahmadinejad says Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei encouraged Iranian police to maintain a crackdown on "social vice," which seems to include "un-Islamic dress."

Iranian police started the crackdown on "thugs" in April this year. They're arresting the "thugs," raiding underground parties, and seizing satellite dishes. And, of course, making street checks of improperly dressed individuals.

To keep Iran safe from unislamic clothing, thousands of women have been warned because they wore tight, short coats and skimpy headscarves. They're violating Iran's leaders' notion of the Islamic dress code, where every post-pubescent women must cover hair and body contours.

Back in America, the FBI has made a report, "Terrorism 2002-2005," 68 pages of information and trends in what America could be looking forward to.

No surprise: apparently the terrorists are more likely to go for attacks on civilians that kill a lot of people, and attract a lot of attention.

And, since the international organization of Al Qaeda isn't what it used to be, the report says that there's been a "dispersal of its multi-national trainees to pursue their own regional agendas."

Finally, it looks like ricin and anthrax are front-runners for weapons we're likely to see in the next big attack. This isn't idle speculation. There's been a series of arrests involving ricin in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Well, it could be worse. At least quite a few people in decision-making positions in America and other nations seem to be twigging to the uncomfortable fact that Islamic terrorists aren't safe to have around.