U.K. Lab Botched Notification in Ricin Investigation

British scientists at Porton Down failed for 51 days to tell law enforcement authorities or government officials that no ricin had been found at a suspect’s London apartment despite reports that the material had been discovered, the Evening Standard reported today (see GSN, April 14).

During the lapse, British Prime Minister Tony Blair referred to the incident in the House of Commons and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell used it in making his case to the United Nations for invading Iraq, according to the Evening Standard.

Lawyers and police also spent weeks preparing prosecutions of suspects for possessing the toxin. 

Journalists were told shortly after the Jan. 7, 2003, raid that samples taken from the apartment tested positive for ricin. However, scientists at Porton Down determined by Jan. 28 that the initial test was a false positive. Word was passed on to authorities on March 20, but the public did not learn that there was no ricin until the trial of nine suspects earlier this year.

Only one of the nine suspects was convicted in connection with the alleged ricin plot.

British Defense Science and Technology Laboratory “procedures are such that the antiterrorist branch is immediately informed of confirmatory results relating to samples submitted to [the laboratory] for urgent analysis,” said Porton Down official Marie Jones. “In the case of the sample in question, confirmatory analysis was complete on 28 Jan. 2003. Results of this analysis should have been reported by [the laboratory] on, or as soon as practicable after, 28 Jan. 2003. However, a breakdown in procedures meant that the antiterrorist branch did not become aware of the confirmatory results until 20 March 2003.”

According to the Evening Standard, the error suggests Blair and Powell did not know the tests were negative when they spoke about them publicly (Ben Leapman, Evening Standard, Sept. 15).

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