According to Gainer, the first of the tests on the powder came back positive for ricin; the second was negative. Three more tests were all positive. After that, three more tests were conducted at an outside laboratory. Two of those three turned out positive, Gainer said.

mred - ok - so now we have 8 ricin tests

The FBI said the South Carolina letter was contained in an envelope with a typewritten warning "Caution RICIN POISON."

In all candor, as Americans we found it difficult to be as objectively critical of statements from Washington as we would have been of ones from Baghdad or, say, Paris. Consequently, most of us were inclined to give you and other administration spokesmen the benefit of the doubt.

The writer was Hossam Amin, director of the key Iraqi office overseeing UN inspectors. The letter was essentially a damage report warning that after Kamel's defection the cover stories masking forbidden weapons were no longer sustainable.