Webloggin » WWI Era Choking Agent From Iraq Found at U.N. After Being Misplaced for 11 Years

It appears that U.N. inspectors found vials of weapons grade chemical choking agents in Iraq as late as 1996. The chemical is known as Phosgene. It was the most widely used chemical weapon during WWI and was responsible for most deaths.

Somehow the vials ended up in U.N. diplomatic offices in New York instead of labs for analysis. They sat there for 11 years until someone came across them recently. The vials were suspended in glass containers and oil as characteristic of packaging for use as a chemical weapon.

A chemical warfare agent recovered from an Iraqi munitions factory in 1996 was accidentally shipped to the United Nations, instead of the Army laboratory in Maryland where it was supposed to end up, officials announced today.

The toxic substance, known as phosgene, remained for more than a decade in the East 48th Street offices of the United Nations agency that was responsible for overseeing the removal of weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. Today, a joint hazardous-materials team from the F.B.I. and the New York City Police Department went in to remove the substance. The authorities said there was no threat to the public.

According to the United Nations, the materials were discovered on Friday, as employees at the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission were archiving files of the United Nations special commission that had been set up in 1991 to monitor the cease-fire that followed the first Persian Gulf War.

While filing the materials, the U.N. employees found two small plastic packages, with metal and glass containers — ranging in size from small vials to the length of a pen. Inside the containers were “unknown liquid substances.”

An initial investigation determined that U.N. inspectors had recovered the items from the Al Muthanna chemical weapons plant in 1996. Chemical weapons experts sealed the packages and placed them in a safe on the sixth floor of the monitoring commission’s headquarters, at 866 East 48th Street. Experts tested the air around the package and “found no concentration of toxic vapors.”

Only today did United Nations officials locate the inspection reporting containing an inventory of the items. The inventory showed that one of the items “may have contained” phosgene and that one package contained nuclear magnetic resonance reference standards in sealed glass tubes.

The CDC details its toxicity and use:

* Phosgene is a major industrial chemical used to make plastics and pesticides.
* At room temperature (70°F), phosgene is a poisonous gas.
* With cooling and pressure, phosgene gas can be converted into a liquid so that it can be shipped and stored. When liquid phosgene is released, it quickly turns into a gas that stays close to the ground and spreads rapidly.
* Phosgene gas may appear colorless or as a white to pale yellow cloud. At low concentrations, it has a pleasant odor of newly mown hay or green corn, but its odor may not be noticed by all people exposed. At high concentrations, the odor may be strong and unpleasant.
* Phosgene itself is nonflammable (not easily ignited and burned).
* Phosgene is also known by its military designation, “CG.”

Where phosgene is found and how it is used

* Phosgene was used extensively during World War I as a choking (pulmonary) agent. Among the chemicals used in the war, phosgene was responsible for the large majority of deaths.
* Phosgene is not found naturally in the environment.
* Phosgene is used in industry to produce many other chemicals such as pesticides.
* Phosgene can be formed when chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds are exposed to high temperatures. Chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds are substances sometimes used or created in industry that contain the elements chlorine, hydrogen, and carbon.
* The vapors of chlorinated solvents exposed to high temperatures have been known to produce phosgene. Chlorinated solvents are chlorine-containing chemicals that are typically used in industrial processes to dissolve or clean other materials, such as in paint stripping, metal cleaning, and dry cleaning.
* Phosgene gas is heavier than air, so it would be more likely found in low-lying areas.

Another blow to the life was peachy keen under Saddam Hussein narrative? I doubt it, someone will come up with some bogus excuse. How long until they blame the U.S.?