NEW YORK, Aug. 30, 2007
Chemical Agents Found Near U.N. HQ
Potentially Dangerous Chemicals Removed From Iraq A Decade Ago Found At U.N. Office In NYC
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Weapons inspectors discovered vials of potentially hazardous chemicals taken from Iraq 11 years ago at a U.N. office near the world body's New York headquarters. (AP)
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"There is no immediate risk or danger," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
She said there was no evacuation of the office of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, about a block north of U.N. headquarters on New York's east side, and U.S. authorities were called in to dispose of the material.
Okabe said one of the substances, identified Wednesday, was phosgene suspended in oil, "whose present state is unknown but which could be potentially hazardous."
Phosgene can be used as a chemical weapon - and was used extensively in World War I - as a choking agent. Both phosgene gas and liquid can damage skin, eyes, nose, throat and lungs.
UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan said the phosgene was in liquid form, suspended in the oil, in a soda-can-sized container. It was found in a sealed plastic bag that included "unknown liquid substances contained in metal and glass containers ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen," she said.
"The only information we have of the contents of that bag is from an inventory of a 1996 inspection, which indicates that one of the items may contain phosgene, an old generation chemical warfare agent," Okabe said.
Okabe said the material was immediately secured by UNMOVIC experts and the U.N. sought assistance from U.S. authorities in having the material safely removed. The U.N. was informed that the FBI was going to the office Thursday to remove and dispose of the material, she said.
"The office area was screened using UNOMVIC's chemical weapons detection equipment. No toxic vapors were found. There is no immediate risk or danger. UNMOVIC staff are still working on the premises," Okabe said.
Buchanan said a second sealed package contained tiny samples of chemical agents in sealed glass tubes shaped like pens that are used by inspectors to identify chemical agents. Each of these reference standards contained less than a gram of chemical material, he said.
Buchanan said the material was discovered Aug. 24, put in double zip-locked bags, and locked in a safe in a room that is double-locked. The only marking on the material was an inventory number, he said.
UNMOVIC has 1,400 linear feet of files, and it took until Wednesday to find the inventory the number matched which indicated that the material was from Iraq's main chemical weapons facility at Muthana, near Samarra.
The State Department said it had learned of the discovery late Wednesday and had immediately contacted the FBI to deal with the disposal.
Deputy spokesman Tom Casey also said a joint U.S.-U.N. investigation would be made into why the samples had been stored in the office but stressed that the chemicals had been there for at least a decade and did not pose any health risk.
"One of the things we want to do is make sure that the U.N., working with the FBI, does conduct a full investigation of this, so we're absolutely certain how they in fact got there, how long they were there, and the kind of exact nature of how this came about," he told reporters.
"There is no threat that these items currently or in the past have posed to public health and safety in the area," Casey said.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said the chemical agents "were brought over as a result of U.N. weapons inspections during the UNMOVIC era" and had been at the UNMOVIC facility for over a decade.
"They've done some testing of the air, and there's no danger to the folks involved," Snow said.
The agents should have been transported to an appropriately equipped lab for analysis, he said, adding: "I'm sure that there are going to be a lot of red-faced people over at the U.N. trying to figure out how they got there."
U.N. inspectors pulled out of Iraq just before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and were barred by the U.S. from returning. The U.S. and Britain said they were taking over responsibility for Iraq's disarmament. In June 2003, the Security Council voted to shut down UNMOVIC and the U.N. nuclear inspection operation in Iraq.
Okabe said the United Nations has launched an investigation to determine how and why the material was in UNMOVIC files.
Brian Mullady, a senior UNMOVIC official, told reporters that the staff did an immediate sweep of the rest of its archives to see if there was any more material but there was none.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 217 CommentsWho was responsible for it? WHY WAS IT IN THE U.S.??
Posted by roger_inkart at 01:43 PM : Aug 30, 2007
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ROFLMAO Yeah you can almost feel them WISHING can''t you? ROFLMAO
Posted by roger_inkart at 01:43 PM : Aug 30, 2007
These don''t count remember they are more than 10 years old. Old WMDs are not legitimate just ask John Kerry or T Kennedy. They are just like the 500 artilary shells with gas in them which were found in Iraq. Doesn''t matter if they will kill anyone.
Iraq and Saddam were evil for having WMD''s IN THE PAST, but we aren''t evil for giving them to him and actually helping IRaq use them against Iran.
Makes sense, right?
Posted by MCVet at 01:50 PM : Aug 30, 2007
You forgot your usual Sieg Heil Nazi salute MCVet, you sick or summin''?
Makes sense, right?
Posted by DaveGF at 01:53 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Actually Germany, Russia and France facilitated their WMD manufacturing. Same group who traded illegally with Sadaam under the table while their was a UN embargo.
Posted by mudrose
I heard on dailykookz that Rove planted them on Coffee Anon! And I believe it! :)
Posted by infidel_us
Posted by jowand at 01:52 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Those couldn''t kill people., they had degraded for too long. pepper spray is more deadly than what they found.
Posted by nggr at 02:03 PM : Aug 30, 2007
You don''t know that any more than that moron Hans Blix didn''t know it.
Posted by roger_inkart at 01:43 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Actually, I was hoping they would cause the UN to relocate to Haiti. LOL
Posted by infidel_us at 02:09 PM : Aug 30, 2007
The only way to get the UN to move is for New York City to outlaw prostitution.
They found the weapons of mass destruction in the U.N.
Posted by jowand at 01:58 PM : Aug 30, 2007
nope, you''re wrong. unless you like to ignore facts.
"British government dossier released to justify the war on Iraq says that %u201DSaddam has used chemical weapons, not only against an enemy state, but against his own people.%u201D An inquiry report in 1996 by Lord Justice Scott in what came to be known as the arms-to-Iraq affair gave dramatic pointers to what followed after Halabja. After the use of poison gas in 1988 both the United States and Britain began to supply Saddam Hussein with even more chemical weapons."
Posted by jowand at 02:08 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Ha, he was right about Saddam''s WMDs and you were wrong. If he''s a ''moron'' what does that make you?
Posted by nggr at 02:12 PM : Aug 30, 2007
We never gave anyone CHEMICAL weapons, the Germans and Russians sold chemical processing equipment to Iraq to make the stuff. You''re making it up as you go along.
Hopefully they will declare martial law in America to control this menace.
Posted by roger_inkart at 02:13 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Blix admitted he was wrong about Saddaam''s weapons, first time he said he though Saddaam had got rid of them but hadn''t, then said he though Saddaam had not got rid of them then had. Kind of like your hero John Kerry, he voted for the 50 billion before he voted against the 50 billion. It make me right and you wrong Ace.
But, who am I kidding? The left-wingers never let *facts* get in the way of their mind-numbing delusional rants...
Posted by jowand at 02:11 PM : Aug 30, 2007
LOL....it''s that bad, huh? I knew it was a useless organization.
Posted by jowand at 02:08 PM : Aug 30, 2007
mabey not. but lets see what the FACTS have to say
"Tests conducted by the Iraqi Survey Group %u2014 a U.S. organization searching for weapons of mass destruction %u2014 and others concluded the mustard gas was ''stored improperly,'' which made the gas ''ineffective.''"
"Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.
''This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991,'' the official said, adding the munitions ''are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war.''"
Dang, if we had known that they were sitting in some schmuck''s desk all this time, we never would have had to go to war!
Oh well, as the administration likes to say..."mistakes were made".
Posted by jowand at 02:15 PM : Aug 30, 2007
no that would be the conservative WASHINGTON POST, making things up.
They were classified as degraded not useless
Posted by briannorwood at 02:25 PM : Aug 30, 2007
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Hey clueless, they were UN inspectors, not US inspectors.
Posted by jowand at 02:20 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Perhaps being able to adjust one''s opinion when new evidence is made available is considered weakness by some of the more jingoistic war supporters, but for many it''s considered common sense.
Posted by jowand at 02:15 PM : Aug 30, 2007
no that would be the conservative WASHINGTON POST, making things up.
Posted by nggr at 02:26 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Read my post and not what you want it to say.
We didn''t give CHEMICAL WEAPONS to Iraq. A weapon is something which is ready to use like the bullet you shot yourself in the foot with.
Posted by One_American at 02:21 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Unbelieveable. You people are so desperate you have to actually make up positions that no one ever held, and attack that.
Saddam used the weapons on the Kurds - everyone knows that. What _was_ said is that the administration''s claims about the size and scope of Saddam''s WMD in 2003 were greatly exagerrated. Which they were as we all now know.
Posted by roger_inkart at 02:30 PM : Aug 30, 2007
All of your boys in Congress voted to go to war right? Their is no new evidence it''s what is missing. Democrats adjusted their opinions when it appeared there might be votes in trashing Bush and war in Iraq.
Posted by badaxmofo at 02:27 PM : Aug 30, 2007
its a fact that he had and used chemical weapons. its also a fact that the reagan and bush 1 administrations sold him chemical weapons and chemical weapon manuf. equip.
other countries did too, nut that does not change the FACTS that so did we.
the question was "is saddam reconstituting his WMD
programs and stockpiling NEW weapons?" the 500 shells is NOT evidence of this, as it is well known. those WMD''s were from before 91, produced in the early eighties, they were not recorded in any log foung in iraq, so iy was uncertain saddam even knew about them. they were stored improperly, which made them degrade to a point as to be ineffective. not meaning that it couldb''t be lethal, nut not neccessarily a weapon od MASS destruction any more. pound for pound, it was found that pepper spray was more deadly than an eaqual quantity of the mustard gas found. no one ever suggested that saddam bever had WMD''s. not the demopcrats, republicans, noone. that is a non-issue. the problem was the flawes and cherry-picked evidence that the bush admin. used to justify a war based on saddam RECONSTITUTING his programs, and there is NO evidence of that.
be fair
No, Dems adjusted their opinion when it was shown there were no WMD in Iraq (contrary to Bush''s purposeful lies, e.g., the yellowcake story) and when the American bodies piled up based on a lie.
Bushie, you''re doing a heck of a job.
be fair
Posted by nggr at 02:37 PM : Aug 30, 2007
You are starting to sound like Bill Clinton on the witness stand being cross examined by John Edwards (in the spirit of cause)
Posted by Rafterman1 at 02:38 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Bush said the same things the Clintons, Gore, Kennedy, Kerry , Reid, Blix, French, Germans, Italians...etc said; plus that big time Democrat George Tennant head of the CIA. Iraq was trying to buy yellow cake, see the Brits report.
Posted by jowand at 02:35 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Not all. My only ''boys'' in the (D) party are those that had the courage to vote against the war. The Dems were spineless and were more concerned for their careers then the people they represent. For this are they to be heavily criticized.
That being said, much of the ''evidence'' congress saw came from a special office set up by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Naturally, these two men twisted and warped all the intel to fit their pre-conceived conclusions, along with ditching every caveat and doubt the intelligence community had. They relied heavily upon discredited sources like Iraqi defector code-named ''Curveball'' who told them what they wanted to hear.
Bushie, you''''re doing a heck of a job.
Posted by marcodele at 02:40 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Looks like you plagerized that one of the dailykookfest web site.
Posted by jowand at 02:40 PM : Aug 30, 2007
I dont know exactly what this means.
there was no evidence he was reconstituting his efforts to obtain chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and technology. all "evidence" that the bush administration used to justify the war was proven false, as most of it came from an iraqui defector with his eye''s on the seat of power once saddam was gone. he was proven a liar.
are you saying you have evidence that saddam was doing this? you have evidence that th USA did''t dell iraq any functioning weapons? you have evidence that RUMSFELD never shook SADDAMS hand AFTER the use of mustard and serin gas on KURDS?
let us know, if you can make a convincing argument, i''ll consider the info.
or you can keep calling me bill clinton, who, as we all know, is in league with the bushes.
Posted by roger_inkart
Now you''re talkin'' you got it you finally got it about the DEMs, YAHOO, they are doing the same thing again only from the other end of the rectal thermometer.
or you can keep calling me bill clinton, who, as we all know, is in league with the bushes.
Posted by nggr at 02:49 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Perception is what counts, and the perception among among Democrats and Republicans was that Saddaam had them and was making them again. Your crowd is just trying to back track and in doing so they are on AL Jizeera every night feeding the Islamists.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 02:38 PM : Aug 30, 2007
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funny..only you and a few handfull of radical left winged nuts are still sticking with the "no WMD" allegations. After an overwhelming items came out after that..and not to mention the damaging UN scandal with Saddam. AND NOW..it seems like the UN cannot find thier own arse in thier own body if nobody points it out to them.
Time to invest on a new conspiracy buddy boy!..too bad Micheal Moore is defunct in that category
Wrong. One example, Bush said in the SOTU that Iran had tried to purchase yellowcake from Niger. But the CIA told him before that it was not true but Bush used it anyways. He lied. Accept it instead of trying to cover for it.
Posted by jowand at 02:51 PM : Aug 30, 2007
Typical. Here I thought you might actually be a decent person to discuss this with, but it turns out you''re just another right-wing nut with a fixation on things a.nal. You''ll forgive me if you''re ignored from now on.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 03:00 PM : Aug 30, 2007
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The report Bush used was prepared by the Brits and they still stand by it.
Posted by jowand at 02:54 PM : Aug 30, 2007
this type of generalization is one of the things keeping our democracy from functioning properly.
not neccesarily the public generalizing, but the parties encourage generalization. it helps them win votes, but its not conducive to an atmosphere where the right thing may be done. we should fight all types of tyranny, the correct way. if correct research of the intelligence available would have been done AT THE TIME of our worries, it would have been shown that the popular OPINION was wrong, and we could have dealt with saddam in a way that didn''t strain our country as much as this war. I''m sure that saddam was dangerous, there are a lot of dangerous people in the world, but what we have found is that he wasn''t as dangerous as we were lead to believe. although our response might have seen to be balanced by the perceived threat, it was actually greatly out of balance with the ACTUAL threat. and because of the failings of our gov. on BOTH sides of the isle, we all suffer greatly for it.
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