the story is very vague about details, whether this was brought back by insepctors from iraq, whether it's from iraq, but was brought here by other means, or whether it has an entirely different provenance. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5619175 [rquoter] Nerve gas found at United Nations building Six to eight vials discovered WABC Eyewitness News (New York - ABCNews, August 30, 2007) - ABCNews has learned that 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 Thursday morning. 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 said federal authorities had not notified them of any problem at the U.N. building, as of 11 a.m. 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." According to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control, phosgene at room temperature is a poisonous, colorless gas with a suffocating odor like newly mown hay. According to an article in Foreign Affairs, the chemical was allegedly used by Iran in the Iran-Iraq war in 1987. Phosgene was used extensively during World War I as a "choking agent" and, according to the CDC Web site, among the chemicals used in the war, it was responsible for the large majority of deaths. The chemical also has numerous commercial applications in the manufacture of plastics and pesticides.[/rquoter]
I'm not sure what the point of this post really is. Are you now advocating invading the UN for its illicit stockpiles of WMDs, basso?
you mean Sodom-on-Hudson? i can understand why some of you think this is no big deal, but it's less than a mile from where I type, and from where my two young kids play, so pardon me if I momentarily freak out about the incredible stupidity of the folks who where charged with making sure iRaq was "clean."
Not that it really matters but the title of the original article is misleading. Phosgene is not a nerve gas; it is more like mustard gas - it is a chlorine compound reacts with body fluids to make hydrochloric acid, which in turn causes blisters and burning in the respratory tract as well as they eyes. Nerve gasses are much more toxic than this stuff.
It doesn't matter - a subsequent Bloomberg report I read today stated that the vial came from 1996 inspections. The Republicans + neocons owe President Clinton a debt of gratitude for dismantling Saddam's weapons industry once and for all. This thread reminds of the good old days when basso would trump every single bottle of half empty rubbing alcohol found in Iraq as a Level 5 Biohazard and definitive proof, only to have Lucy Brown yank the football away.
Or not. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/06/un.solvent/index.html Nerve gas... or non-toxic commercial cleaning solvent.
