The Department of Homeland security has confirmed that they are looking into a “credible threat” that terrorists may be planning to strike buffets and salad bars with poisons including ricin and cyanide en masse over a brief period in the United States.
The DHS’ Janet Napolitano said “individuals are prepared to carry out” the trough-dining attacks, and CBS elaborates :
A key Intelligence source has confirmed the threat as “credible.” Department of Homeland Security officials, along with members of the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, have briefed a small group of corporate security officers from the hotel and restaurant industries about it.
The group who is thought to be behind the threat are the same ones linked with the October plot to sabotage cargo planes, part of a larger terrorist scheme called “Operation Hemorrhage.” CBS spoke with a pharmaceutical professor who demonstrated how the attack could be carried out in a terrifyingly simple way:
“Initially it would look very much like food poisoning,” said St. John’s University professor of pharmaceutical sciences Dr. Susan Ford… She showed how little of each poison could be fatal by putting a small amount of poison in cups.
Experts also say the attacks could initially appear to be food poisoning, and that government and hospitality industry leaders are “on alert.”
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