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.
It was UNMOVIC’s storage facility and just left in ordinary cardboard boxes after UNMOVIC moved out. They are logged as samples coming from an Iraqi WMD factory in 1996.
It would be interesting to find out if these vials were ever officially declared on a UNMOVIC weapons report and whose office they were found in!
The media is spinning fast and now claiming even though it was 1996 it was prior to our invasion in Iraq.
“It was UNMOVIC’s storage facility and just left in ordinary cardboard boxes after UNMOVIC moved out. They are logged as samples coming from an Iraqi WMD factory in 1996.”
Considering the fact that Hans Blix stated that the greatest threat to the world was global warming, I can see why this material was disregarded...
No kidding. They’re busted. 1996 was long after the end of the first Gulf War.
With any luck, one of the (msnbc?) reporters will open a vile and tell us what it smells like. That would make the story even more “sensational”.
O.K. that’s it......for everyone’s safety let’s tear down the U.N. building and relocate it abroad.
“Exactly, why worry about a few chems when the world will be ending in a few weeks due to Global Warming unless a Democrat is elected. /s”
God help us all.
Good one. And isnt she headed to Iraq/Syria soon? OJT perhaps.
She’s going to give it back to them.
Give it to Kofi!!
Yes and it was planted by Sec Powell at the request of GWB
She is dating that CIA woman now?
So that is where Saddam’s WMDS went! Guess it was Oil and Gas for Food!
New York - Former United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq have discovered traces of chemical substances, including the poisonous gas phosgene, in their office in New York and have called on US authorities to investigate, a spokeswoman said Thursday. "There is no immediate risk or dangers and the UNMOVIC staff is still working on the premise," UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
She said the liquid substances were found suspended in oil in a small container in the office's inventory and weapons inspectors screened the area and found no toxic vapour.
Phosgene is a poisonous gas and major industrial chemical used to make plastics and pesticides. It is converted into liquid for shipping and storage.
Inspectors of the UN monitoring agency known as UNMOVIC were charged with finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the US-led military invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and compiled a huge archive of materials found in Iraq and brought back to New York for study.
Okabe said the UN informed the US Federal Bureau of Investigation of the discovery and the FBI sent agents to investigate.
United Nations weapons inspectors discovered six to eight vials of a dangerous chemical warfare agent, phosgene, as they were cleaning out offices at a U.N. building in New York, federal authorities tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.I don't know which is worse...the MSM jumping to conclusions or the FReepers who kneejerk that the presence of this material is a major horror (and believe that it's not reasonable to have small quantities of hazardous materials for analytical and calibration purposes).
“No kidding. They’re busted. 1996 was long after the end of the first Gulf War”
Here is the link to the 1996 UNMOVIC report if you are interested. No mention of these vials.
http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/technical_documents/s-2006-701-munitions.pdf
hehehe... I'm scared to even guess at what the knee-jerk side of FR would think if they heard about the chemicals and devices I've had to use (often to calibrate instruments) for hazardous material investigations!
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