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Chemical Weapons Scare at U.N. Headquarters
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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.
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.
The vials were discovered at the headquarters of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which led the inspections of possible chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. The items were recovered from a former Iraqi chemical weapons facility, Al Muthanna, back in 1996, but just noticed on an inventory list yesterday, according to UNMOVIC.
A WMD investigative team and hazmat units are responding to the incident, according to a law enforcement source.
The FBI New York Field Office will be disposing of these vials.
New York police and fire officials reported to the scene around 12:15 this afternoon.
The Department of Homeland Security notified the New York City police commissioner later this morning.
The United Nations said today that following the discovery of the items, "UNMOVIC chemical weapons experts sealed the packages and placed them in a safe, which was then isolated in a secured room."
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.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
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."
UNMOVIC said today that normally such items would have been transported directly to a laboratory, not sent to headquarters in New York, but that now they believe the items "are properly secured and pose no immediate risk or danger to the immediate public."
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.
This post has been updated.
Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?
August 30, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (50)
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So that's where Saddam hid them!
Posted by: TomBob | Aug 30, 2007 12:13:58 PM
ABC please don't scare everyone with this story. This isn't terrorism but just some samples that were stored there from nearly two decades ago. Please reflect that in your headlines before you cause panic.
Posted by: chicaqopoetry | Aug 30, 2007 12:20:13 PM
Your headline represents a significant factual error. Phosgene is a choking agent that interferes with lung function (as the article gets to eventually), not a nerve agent.
Perhaps 'nerve gas' and 'chemical warfare agent' have become synonymous in some people's minds, but ABC News should collectively know better.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 30, 2007 12:30:54 PM
This is obviously a plot by Carl Rove to discredit the UN (sarcasm off)
Posted by: Bill H | Aug 30, 2007 12:31:34 PM
Hey, the media gotta make sure there is no way anyone could possibly say it is a WMD, hence the "believed to have been discovered in Iraq and manufactured prior to 1991" reference. Way to go there ABC.
Posted by: Bill | Aug 30, 2007 12:32:08 PM
It's not a nerve agent...it's a blister agent
Posted by: Jon | Aug 30, 2007 12:32:27 PM
phosgene is a choking agent. Not a nerve agent.
Posted by: Jon | Aug 30, 2007 12:35:14 PM
Phosgene is not a nerve gas, it’s a pulmonary agent. Phosgene combines with water in the tissues of the respiratory tract to form hydrochloric acid and has nothing to do with the nervous system. Maybe you’ve confused it with Sarin or something similar.
Posted by: mickbonton | Aug 30, 2007 12:35:37 PM
"the phosgene was believed to have been discovered in Iraq"
How can this be true? There are no WMD's in Iraq. Don't you people watch your own newscasts?
Posted by: Si Vis Pacem | Aug 30, 2007 12:38:34 PM
So apparently how can we could have expected iraq to dispose of the wmd when the UN never disposed of it nearly 15 years later.....
Also why would they bring it INSIDE the HQ?
Posted by: nedm | Aug 30, 2007 12:41:26 PM
"It shows immense stupidity to have that kind of thing sitting around as a souvenir."
Agreed. Should we expect nothing less from the UN though?
Posted by: Brendan | Aug 30, 2007 12:45:19 PM
It would seem that it would have been illegal for the UN to bring that kind of dangerous weapon to the US, how do we know that a terrorist doesn't have any of that chemical? I wonder if any of those vials could be dumped into an after shave bottle and brought onto a plane.
Posted by: Patriot 2007 | Aug 30, 2007 12:47:08 PM
I guess we found where Saddam's WMD's went.
Posted by: Not Surprised | Aug 30, 2007 12:50:23 PM
"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"
Oh .. the vials were just "souvenirs" ok fine, nothing to see here, move along people ..
Posted by: zardah | Aug 30, 2007 12:51:57 PM
So the UN was planning an attack on the US? "interesting"
Posted by: airmanc5 | Aug 30, 2007 12:55:42 PM
I can't control my laughter.
Maybe Bush got it wrong.. these chemicals (WMD) that he was accusing Saddam of having was actually at the UN. DUH! Imagine that we bomb and kill hundreds and thousands of Iraqis and we found not WMD Oor chemicals there, but we send a janitor to a UN office and he finds 8 vials of it. LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!
I bet George Bush is blushing now!!!
Posted by: KILROY WAS HERE | Aug 30, 2007 12:59:29 PM
I can't believe someone would have that sitting in their office.. I'll be interested to hear who's office it was and where exactly they found it.
Posted by: wow | Aug 30, 2007 1:03:22 PM
Impossible, their is not one individual in the UN with any nerve
Posted by: Sam | Aug 30, 2007 1:04:24 PM
The United Nations you say? And we are worried about this because...?
Posted by: Mitch | Aug 30, 2007 1:05:44 PM
Classic karl rove tactics.
Posted by: goblin juice | Aug 30, 2007 1:07:05 PM
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