Wood Green ricin plot

File:Powell UN Iraq presentation, alleged Terrorist Network.jpg

According to a barrister for one of the men who was eventually acquitted, Prime Minister Tony Blair referred to the arrests shortly after they were made in a speech to diplomats.{{cite news |url=https://bylinetimes.com/2023/03/30/ricin-and-the-red-tops-how-a-made-up-terror-plot-helped-the-media-build-the-case-for-the-iraq-war/ |title=Ricin and the Red Tops: How a Made-Up Terror Plot Helped the Media Build the Case for the Iraq War |last=Mortimer |first=Josiah |website=Byline Times |location=London |date=30 March 2023 |access-date=31 March 2023 |archive-date=31 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331110258/https://bylinetimes.com/2023/03/30/ricin-and-the-red-tops-how-a-made-up-terror-plot-helped-the-media-build-the-case-for-the-iraq-war/ |url-status=live }}{{Better source needed|date=January 2024}} Blair told parliament's Liaison Committee on 21 January that

{{Blockquote

|I think it is important that we do everything we can to try to show people the link between the issue of weapons of mass destruction and these international terrorist groups, mainly linked to al-Qaeda, who will do literally anything they possibly can in order to destroy and disrupt the lives of ordinary people.{{cite web |title=Select Committee on Liaison Minutes of Evidence: Examination of Witness(Questions 1-19) |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmliaisn/334-i/3012102.htm |website=Parliament.UK |access-date=25 March 2025 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250325140617/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmliaisn/334-i/3012102.htm |archive-date=25 March 2025 |date=21 January 2003}}}}

Physicians throughout the United Kingdom were warned to watch for signs that patients had been poisoned by ricin,{{cite web |url=http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/embroadcast.nsf/0/dcf1983af19b8fc880256ca9004f720e?OpenDocument |date=9 January 2003 |author=Dr Pat Troop — Deputy Chief Medical Officer |title=Interim guidelines for health professionals on the response to suspected ricin exposure |publisher=Department of Health (CEM/CMO/2003/2) |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516190628/http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/embroadcast.nsf/0/dcf1983af19b8fc880256ca9004f720e?OpenDocument |archive-date=16 May 2011 |url-status=dead}} and the public health director for London urged the public not to be alarmed following some media reports. Britain's largest circulation tabloid newspaper, The Sun, reported the discovery of a "factory of death",{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/seventh-man-arrested-in-london-ricin-case |title=Seventh Man Arrested in London Ricin Case |date=8 January 2003 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=Fox News |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=1 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301105221/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,74968,00.html |url-status=live }} and other newspapers warned on their front pages "250,000 of us could have died", "Poison gang on the loose" and "Killer with no antidote".{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/more-plotters-with-ricin-may-be-on-the-loose-london-police-say |title=More Plotters With Ricin May Be on the Loose, London Police Say |date=8 January 2003 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=Fox News |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=23 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523020822/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75028,00.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2003/1/9/142910.html |title=The sober truth about ricin |date=9 January 2003 |publisher=The Argus |access-date=20 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929105625/http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2003/1/9/142910.html |archive-date=29 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}

The fact that no ricin had been found was known to some government departments very early on, but this information was not revealed to the public until after Bourgass's trial two years later, although in the interim it was cited in support of further terrorism laws. The "UK poison cell" featured in a slide used with the US Secretary of State Colin Powell's 5 February 2003 speech to the UN to build the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As late as February 2006, Chancellor Gordon Brown described it as a significant terrorism plot spanning 26 countries.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4708816.stm |date=13 February 2006 |title=Full text of Gordon Brown's speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London |author=Gordon Brown |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=24 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060224024013/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4708816.stm |url-status=live }}

• 5 January 2003 – Police raided a flat above a pharmacy at 352 High Road, Wood Green, north London, and arrested six men on suspicion of manufacturing ricin intended for use in a terrorist poison attack on the London Underground.{{Cite journal |title=Britain faces fresh peril from the 'clean-skinned' terrorists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jan/12/terrorism.alqaida |journal=The Observer |date=12 January 2003 |first1=Jason |last1=Burke |first2=Martin |last2=Bright |access-date=13 December 2016 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308023557/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jan/12/terrorism.alqaida |url-status=live }}
• 7 January – A seventh man was arrested.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2640987.stm |date=10 January 2003 |title=Police question seven over ricin find |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=6 December 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031206135804/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2640987.stm |url-status=live }}
• 12 January – Five men and a woman were arrested in the Bournemouth area for terrorism involving ricin,{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2652773.stm |date=14 January 2003 |title=Six questioned in ricin investigation |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=16 December 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051216085524/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2652773.stm |url-status=live }} but released without charge several days later.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2657657.stm |date=14 January 2003 |title=Five released after terror raids |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=18 January 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030118131927/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2657657.stm |url-status=live }}
• 14 January – Three men were arrested in Crumpsall, north Manchester, in a raid to detain a man who had been certified under part 4 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.{{cite web |url=https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2003-01-16a.64.3 |date=16 January 2003 |publisher=Hansard |work=House of Lords |title=Death of Detective Constable Stephen Oake: Inquiry |author=Lord Filkin |author-link=Geoffrey Filkin, Baron Filkin |access-date=26 October 2017 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081813/http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2003-01-16a.64.3 |url-status=live }} Detective Constable Stephen Oake died after being stabbed eight times with a kitchen knife by Kamel Bourgass who was also there.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4440953.stm |date=13 April 2005 |title=Mystery still surrounds killer |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=1 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101085742/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4440953.stm |url-status=live }}
• 20 January – Police raided and closed the Finsbury Park mosque for several days as part of the investigation. Seven men were arrested; another was arrested in London the next day.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2689991.stm |date=24 January 2003 |title=Mosque closed to worshippers |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=25 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625051612/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2689991.stm |url-status=live }}
• 5 February – Colin Powell, the United States Secretary of State, referred to those arrested as the "UK poison cell" of a global terrorist network in making a case for military intervention in Iraq to the United Nations Security Council.{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/photos/2003/17356.htm |date=5 February 2003 |author=Colin Powell |title=Al-Zarqawi's Iraq-Linked Terrorist Network |publisher=US Department of State |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=6 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206114546/http://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/photos/2003/17356.htm |url-status=live }} A week later he testified to the Committee on International Relations of the United States House of Representatives that this ricin had originated in Iraq,{{cite web |url=http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa84944.000/hfa84944_0f.htm |date=14 February 2006 |author=Colin Powell |author-link=Colin Powell |publisher=House of Representatives |title=The President's international affairs budget request for fiscal year 2004; hearing before the Committee on International Relations; 108th Congress |access-date=31 October 2006 |archive-date=26 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026192245/http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa84944.000/hfa84944_0f.htm |url-status=live }} though this was disputed immediately.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/12/sprj.irq.powell.ricin/ |date=12 February 2006 |title=Europe skeptical of Iraq-ricin link |publisher=CNN |access-date=31 October 2006 |archive-date=31 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231211245/http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/12/sprj.irq.powell.ricin/ |url-status=live }}
• 11 March – The Home Secretary issued control orders against ten terrorist suspects just released from detention connecting them to the ricin plot, even though it was alleged to have occurred while they were in custody. Letters of apology were sent two weeks later explaining that it was a "clerical error", but that they were still terrorist suspects.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4450863.stm |date=16 April 2005 |title=Apology over control orders error |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=9 March 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060309024422/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4450863.stm |url-status=live }}
• 21 March – Two vials falsely testing positive as ricin are found in a train station in Paris.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2870567.stm |date=21 March 2003 |title=Ricin found in Paris |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=14 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060414062946/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2870567.stm |url-status=live }} These were said to be connected to an attack on the Russian embassy,{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2872359.stm |date=21 March 2003 |title=Ricin 'linked to militants' |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=22 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622173657/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2872359.stm |url-status=live }} until further tests proved that they were jars of wheat germ.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2940805.stm |date=11 April 2003 |title=Paris 'ricin' find is harmless |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=20 June 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040620055821/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2940805.stm |url-status=live }}
• 15 September 2005 – Two of the men tried with Bourgass were arrested in 2005 to face deportation on for national security reasons.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4251442.stm |date=16 September 2005 |title=Algerian detainees 'face torture' |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=24 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061224164248/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4251442.stm |url-status=live }} Two of the jurors who found them not guilty at the ricin trial expressed their sense of anger and betrayal at this.{{cite news |title=Our verdict was ignored: Two jurors from last year's ricin trial explain why they feel betrayed by a decision to deport men they found not guilty |url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/19/comment.terrorism |access-date=24 April 2022 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324133841/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/19/comment.terrorism |archive-date=2016-03-24 |url-status=dead}} One of them, 'Y', who in 1997 and 1998 was sentenced in absentia to death and life imprisonment for terrorist offences by an Algerian court, appealed his deportation in 2006.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5012880.stm |date=24 May 2006 |title=Questions over terror informant |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=7 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107103924/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5012880.stm |url-status=live }}

On 30 June 2004, Kamel Bourgass was convicted for the murder of DC Stephen Oake during his arrest and was jailed for life with a minimum tariff of 22 years. During periods of his imprisonment, Bourgass has been placed in segregation after he was accused by prison authorities of involvement in attacks on other prisoners and attempts to force other inmates to convert to Islam.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12502772 |title=Terrorists Bourgass and Hussain denied court challenge |work=BBC News |date=18 February 2011 |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-date=27 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127133458/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12502772 |url-status=live }}

A second trial of five defendants, including Bourgass, for conspiracy to commit murder and other charges, began in September and lasted until 8 April 2005. Bourgass alone was convicted and sentenced to 17 years for conspiring to cause a public nuisance by "plotting to spread ricin and other poisons on the UK's streets".{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4433709.stm |date=13 April 2005 |title=Killer jailed over poison plot |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=9 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109160035/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4433709.stm |url-status=live }} Mouloud Sihali and David Khalef were convicted of possessing false passports.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4433459.stm |date=13 April 2005 |title=The ricin case timeline |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=5 March 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060305003457/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4433459.stm |url-status=live }}

On 12 April 2005 the jury was dismissed after failing to reach a verdict on the charge of conspiring to commit murder, and a third trial of four further defendants was abandoned before it started.

There was a blanket ban on media reporting until the trials ended.

In October 2005, Eliza Manningham-Buller, the Director General of MI5, revealed that the evidence which uncovered the so-called ricin plot came from Mohamed Meguerba, a man who jumped bail and fled to Algeria where he was detained.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4363254.stm |date=21 October 2005 |title=MI5's 'torture' evidence revealed |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=23 October 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051023041602/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4363254.stm |url-status=live }} There was press speculation that Meguerba had been tortured.

In the investigation spurred by the plot, dozens of houses were raided and over 100 people were arrested.

{{Events leading to the Iraq War}}

On 13 April 2005, Jon Silverman, a legal affairs correspondent for the BBC wrote:

[I]s this case... notable for the way in which criminal investigations are shamelessly exploited for political purposes by governments in the UK and United States, whether to justify the invasion of Iraq or the introduction of new legislation to restrict civil liberties?

A key unexplained issue is why the Porton Down laboratory, which analysed the material and equipment seized from a flat in Wood Green, said that a residue of ricin had been found when it had not.{{cite news |date=13 April 2005 |title=Comment: Questions unanswered |first=Jon |last=Silverman |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4442479.stm |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 October 2006 |archive-date=1 January 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060101055219/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4442479.stm |url-status=live }}

On 11 April 2005, George Smith, of GlobalSecurity.org summed up:

It is no longer a surprise when one finds that many claims from the alleged best of American government intelligence in the war on terror are bogus. It is still dismaying, though, to see intelligence derived from materials submitted in the alleged trial of the "UK poison cell" that is so patently rotten. Who was informing Colin Powell on the nonsense before his date with the UN Security Council?

There was no UK poison cell linked to al Qaida or Muhamad al Zarqawi. There was no ricin with which to poison London, only notes and 22 castor seeds. There was no one who even knew how to purify ricin.

On 17 August 2006, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray summed up:

I spoke at the annual Stop the War conference a couple of months ago [and] referred to the famous ricin plot... It was alleged that a flat in North London inhabited by Muslims was a "Ricin" factory, manufacturing the deadly toxin which could kill "hundreds of thousands of people". Police tipped off the authorities that traces of ricin had been discovered. In the end, all those accused were found not guilty by the court. The "traces of ricin" were revealed to be the atmospheric norm.

The "intelligence" on that plot had been extracted under torture in Algeria. Another police tip-off to the media was that the intelligence said that the ricin had been stored in plastic jars, and they had indeed found plastic jars containing a suspicious substance. It turned out the containers in question were two Brylcreem tubs. What was in them? In the first, paper clips. In the second, Brylcreem.{{cite web |url=https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2006/08/hitting_a_nerve/ |title=Hitting a nerve |website=Craig Murray |date=17 August 2006 |access-date=3 January 2022 |archive-date=3 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103130257/https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2006/08/hitting_a_nerve/ |url-status=live }}

The Wood Green conspiracy allegations were also depicted critically in the 2007 documentary Taking Liberties.

In 2023, Julian Hayes, a barrister who represented one of the acquitted defendants, said the plot investigation stemmed from Algerian intelligence given to Britain about an alleged UK mass poisoning plot, from information obtained from Mohamed Meguerber which Hayes believes was obtained through torture.

• Murder of Stephen Oake
• List of incidents involving ricin
• 2003 ricin letters
• List of terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom
• Casey Cutler
• Pankisi Gorge crisis

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |title=Ricin!: The Inside Story of the Terror Plot That Never Was |author1=Lawrence Archer |author2=Fiona Bawdon |author3=Michael Mansfield |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0745329277}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080308083126/http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6046185336532561824 Dispatches: Spinning Terror] The 'ricin plot'
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4433649.stm List of suspects involved] from the BBC
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4433459.stm Ricin case timeline] from the BBC
• [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/wood_green_ricin_case/ Critical view] from The Register
• [http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/nsn/nsn-050411.htm GlobalSecurity.org report] assesses the entire case and all the allegations

{{Al-Muhajiroun}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood Green Ricin Plot}}

Category:2003 in London

Category:Bioterrorism

Category:Ricin

Category:Failed terrorist attempts in the United Kingdom

Category:Saddam–al-Qaeda conspiracy theory

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Category:Islamic terrorism in London

Category:Terrorist incidents in London in the 2000s

Category:Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 2003

Category:January 2003 in the United Kingdom