Posted on 08/30/2007 9:26:05 AM PDT by farlander
Edited on 08/30/2007 9:46:09 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
United Nations weapons inspectors discovered six to eight vials of a dangerous nerve gas, phosgene, as they were cleaning out offices at a U.N. building in New York this morning, federal authorities tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
The federal authorities said the office, in a U.N. building near headquarters, was being evacuated and the White House had been notified at 10 a.m.
New York police and fire officials reported to the scene around 12:15 this afternoon.
A U.N. spokesperson said a statement would be issued shortly.
Authorities said the phosgene was believed to have been discovered in Iraq and manufactured prior to 1991.
Former U.N. weapons inspectors told ABCNews.com that vials of phosgene had also been used by inspectors in Iraq to help calibrate air sampling instruments.
The old Iraq offices?
The old Iraq offices?
Did Hans Brix find them?
Let’s see. Office equipment:
pencils
yellow legal tablets
shredder
phosgene
.
.
.
Nothing on the cable news stations. I’ve got the local ABC affiliate on now and haven’t heard anything.
Well if they couldn’t find it in Iraq how are we suppose to believe they found it in their own building.
Phosgene isn't a nerve gas. It works by combining with water in your lungs and forming hydrochloric acid which damages lung tissue. It does not work on neurotransmitter chemicals.
I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for why someone had vials of nerve gas in his/her office.
I once worked in a chemical plant that made that stuff for industrial use.
Yep CNBC isn’t reporting anything ye teither but the market sold of in a hurry. Bouncing back now.
Richard Jewell’s final revenge.
Why isn’t this all over the cable stations?
Seems a newsworthy tidbit of info..
Had to look the stuff up. Sounds VERY common for industrial purposes meaning the stuff could have come from anywhere.
Bingo. When I worked in swimming pool supplies, we were warned never to mix pool chlorine with pool acid because it would create mustard gas. Phosgene has a similar composition. Both mustard gas and phosgene were used in WWI.
Maybe it’s just an exterminator ... I hear the United Nothings has a RAT infestation
And why were weapons inspectors cleaning out offices?
Update from abcnews.com:
The federal authorities said the office, in a U.N. building near headquarters, was being evacuated and the White House had been notified at 10 a.m.
New York police and fire officials reported to the scene around 12:15 this afternoon.
A U.N. spokesperson said a statement would be issued shortly.
Authorities said the phosgene was believed to have been discovered in Iraq and manufactured prior to 1991.
Former U.N. weapons inspectors told ABCNews.com that vials of phosgene had also been used by inspectors in Iraq to help calibrate air sampling instruments.
The former inspectors said the remaining vials were supposed to have been destroyed.
“If it is properly sealed, it should not pose much of a threat unless it is dropped,” said former New York City emergency services director Jerry Hauer, an ABC News consultant.
“They need to get it out of there and put it in a safe canister,” Hauer said. “It shows immense stupidity to have that kind of thing sitting around as a souvenir.”
I think you meant to ask the opposite question:
If they couldn't find them in their own building, how could we expect them to find them in Iraq?
Careful, some poster named Buffalo Head is sending FReep mails to those with a sense of dark humor. See below sent to me a few minutes ago based on the duplicate thread now locked by the admin/mods.
(I posted ‘Rove sure gets around....”
Re: Nerve Gas Scare at U.N. Headquarters
From Buffalo Head | 08/30/2007 9:36:46 AM PDT new
How do you think that your inane post helps the purpose of this forum?
It’s official- It’s a FOX NEWS ALERT now...
What the heck is going on with this thread? This is on FOX right now.
Yeah, I’d say they’ve got a lot of nerve at the UN...but they also have gas too? Typical...
I’d make a joke in the poorest of tastes, but Marxocrats and the dinosaur media are in overdrive trawling for “proof” that FR is a hate site.
“It works by combining with water in your lungs and forming hydrochloric acid which damages lung tissue.”
Kind of like the gas chamber?
Phosgene was found in Iraq. The UN allowed Iraq to import phosgene as a dual use item, along with hydrogen cyanide and sodium cyanide. Kind of made the inspections useless if you ask me.
The UN has a GRL (Goods Review List) for Iraq on their website that lists all the stuff Iraq was allowed to have.
“Phosgene isn’t a nerve gas. It works by combining with water in your lungs and forming hydrochloric acid which damages lung tissue. It does not work on neurotransmitter chemicals.”
Doesn’t really matter. The UN lost their nerve years ago.
Was this found in a closet in Koffi’s old office?
The one he had the black box in, the black box from the plane crash that killed an opponent of his.
I wonder what else is stored in the UN building?
It was found in 1996 in Iraq. I thought Saddam had no WMD after the first gulf war? CNN is spinning now.
keeping book on how long before some tool says “But it is only a few vials, no real danger was present”.
Aww... Let the poor journalist have his fun. "Nerve Gas" just has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Journalism is all about entertainment and shock value, after all. Never let it be said that accuracy stood in the way of a good journalistic fiction!
ping
This was widely used in WWI, wasn’t it? (and rather effective from what I read).
Agreed, it’s not a nerve agent.
(*Repeated from previous thread strictly because Buff Head didn't like it.)
Nerve gas at the UN Headquarters?
Sounds like a good start...
Nerve gas at the UN Headquarters?
Sounds like a good start...
It turned out to be flatulence, as it was discovered that Senator Ted Kennedy was in the building.
Thank you. I thought that this was a BS claim - phosgene was a weapon in WW1, and it took the Germans until WW2 to invent (and use, on Jews and others) nerve gasses like Sarin.
I looked this up on Wikipedia in about 5 seconds - but I guess that my expectations are a bit too high that ABC or any other media outlet would actually get their facts right.
Reading up a bit on what it takes to produce mustard gas, I find no reference to combining pool acid (normally hydrochloric acid) and pool chlorine (normally a solid compound of chlorine).
It would, most likely, "just" release chlorine gas, which was also used as a chemical weapon in The Great War, and thus also undesirable.
btt
Mixing pool chlorine and acid will yield chlorine gas, not mustard. Mustard and phosgene are entirely different compounds. At room temperature, mustard is a liquid, phosgene is a vapor.
Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639673/posts
U.N. “Disarming” Iraq from WMD while allowing them WMD???
Phosgene is on the list of Chemicals that was allowed by the UN to be imported by Saddam regime and these chemicals can be used for manufacturing Chemical Weapons.
Impossible. There are no Iraqi WMD. /s
Time for the US to kick the UN out now since we don’t know what other chemicals they have stored in there from Iraq and just a tiny bit of some agents can kill hundreds of people.
Didn’t Hans Brix die in the shark tank?
Gas chambers usually use hydrogen cyanide, which screws up the ability of cells to metabolize. Phosgene causes physical damage to the lungs so the victim suffocates.
(I'm probably going to end up on some Homeland Security list for this. My knowlege comes from reading a long article on chemical warfare in a wargaming magazine plus quick use of the web. Honest.)
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