Headline News is reporting this is old nerve gas from the first World War, that the half-dozen or so vials are all sealed, and that they pose no immediate danger.

From Reuters:
United Nations officials found vials of dangerous chemicals, which had been removed from Iraq a decade ago, in a U.N. building in New York, but U.N. officials said Thursday there was no danger.

I’m writing from the building from which they were removed, and it has not been evacuated. All is well, but there are a lot of news trucks outside.

But remember the mantra:  There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq ...

Md Brian

But remember, my dear MD Brian, this was a sample taken from an Iraqi plant in 1990, just after the first Gulf War.

Is that what the MD stands for MD Brian?  Mass Destruction?

It’s for Maryland, not Brian from T19 - all of which would be very confusing ...

Kevin,

Yes, we must not forget that even the UN believed there were stockpiles of nerve gas still in Iraq in the run-up to the war ...

Md Brian

So, I guess Iraq DID have WMDs, they just kept them in the UN building.  Maybe Kofi gave the green light as part of the “Oil for Food” debacle…

Maybe it was “Oil for Food, Nerve Gas for bribes for my son”

Well now that Iraq’s “Weapons Of Mass Destruction” have been found, can we leave?

Rolling Eyes ...

... and some were even found in Iraq after the second war!  Gosh!  and what happened to all the rest the UN believed he still had during the run-up to the war?  Maybe it was “oil for bribes” and “wmd’s for planting.” 

http://www.iraqwatch.org/profiles/chemical.html

And to think the UN had samples from Iraq after the first war.  Wherever did they find them?  Hmmm ... And then there were those old shells found by the US Army:

http://www.nysun.com/article/34929

But I go back to Kevin’s insight, what was the UN doing with those samples and why did the UN itself believe they had not found everything left behind from that war?

Md Brian

UNMOVIC headquarters is about 4 blocks from 815 Second Avenue.  Are Iraqi phosgene gas chemical weapons part of the MDGs?  Hope KJS is upwind.

This is the UNMOVIC news release:
http://www.wnbc.com/download/2007/0830/14013181.pdf
The building has most certainly not been evacuated.

Phosgene is not even nerve gas.  It is a choking agent, as ABC explains later, but muffed in the headline.

I’m sure a lot of people think that “nerve gas” and “chemical warfare agent” are synonyms, but ABC News ought to know better.

The UN has been passing gas for decades.  It does get on your nerves.