Nobody knew what else to do, apparently — and they were absolutely unwilling to take any initiative other than to bring vials of Iraqi chemical weapons to NYC. They stored them in a drawer at UNHQ/NY. Some people knew about this, and talked about it in scandalized tones with family and friends. But they did not do anything about it. That’s what UN officials normally think is proper, diplomatic behavior. NEVER rock the boat — at least not in a way that would reflect upon oneself. There have been rumors about vials of viral and biological agents, too.
Let us not forget the many thousands of U.S. dollars stored in a UN office safe in Somalia — the officials had no instructions from UNHQ/NY, and they couldn’t think of what else to do. The safe was stolen. The employees were punished for their decision.
Let us not forget the video recordings of Hezbollah’s seizure of several Israeli soldiers at the Shebaa Farms area — also hidden in a drawer in a UN office, and it took the exposure of a number of news stories to push the UN to screen the films for the soldiers’ families.
Today, the UN News Centre is reporting the latest absolutely absurd and ridiculous story:
“Last Friday, UNMOVIC staff discovered two small plastic packages with metal and glass containers — ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen — holding unknown liquid substances, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters. The find was made during the process of archiving UNMOVIC’s offices in New York, near the UN Headquarters building, as the Commission winds down after the Security Council terminated its mandate in June. Ms. Okabe said an initial probe revealed that the packages were recovered in 1996 from Al Muthanna, a former Iraqi chemical weapons facility, by inspectors with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), the predecessor of UNMOVIC…
The UN News Centre story continued: “Yesterday, however, the relevant inspection report was found, and it contained an inventory of items recovered that shows one of the items may contain phosgene suspended in oil –“ an old-generation chemical warfare agent. Phosgene is a chemical weapon that was used widely in World War I, and in both its gaseous and liquid forms can be potentially life-threatening, causing the lungs to collapse and damaging the eyes, nose, throat and skin. It is also an industrial chemical that can be used in the production of plastics. The inventory also indicated that the other package contains nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) reference standards in sealed glass tubes. These standards are used to calibrate chemical analytical equipment. Such items would normally be transported directly to laboratories for analysis and not to UNMOVIC or UNSCOM headquarters, and the Commission said it is unaware of how the materials came to be in New York. UNMOVIC chemical weapons experts sealed the packages and placed them in a safe that was then isolated in a secured room at the headquarters. They also tested the environment surrounding the packages and found no concentration of toxic vapours in the air. The Commission has stated that it believes the packages are properly secured and the materials pose no immediate risk or danger to the public, while a subsequent sweep of the entire office revealed no further potentially dangerous materials. UNMOVIC was established by the Security Council in December 1999 to replace UNSCOM and continue the work — begun in 1991 in the aftermath of the war that followed the invasion of Kuwait — of verifying Iraq’s compliance with its obligations to be rid of weapons of mass destruction, whether chemical, biological or long-range missiles. It was also tasked with ensuring that Iraq did not reacquire these weapons.”
Read the UN News Centre story here.
However, Reuters’ Evelyn Leopold, a veteran correspondent at UNHQ/NY, reported that: “Phosgene was used extensively during World War I as a choking agent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The vials in a small sealed metal container were discovered last Friday but only on Wednesday did the inspectors find a list of what the items were as they were cleaning out 125 filing cabinets. The chemicals are being taken to the U.S. Army laboratory in Edgewood, Maryland, the inspectors said. The materials were taken in 1996 by inspectors from a former Iraqi chemical weapons plant at Al Muthanna, Marie Okabe, a U.N. spokeswoman said. Okabe, who announced the news at her regular U.N. briefing. said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been informed and ‘there will be an investigation although I can’t tell you right now who will be in charge of that’. The inspectors, who have ended their operation in Iraq, were cleaning out their offices. They discovered two small plastic packages with metal and glass containers, ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen with liquid substances, the inspectors’ spokesman, Ewen Buchanan, said. The experts, from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Unit, known as UNMOVIC, believe ‘the packages are properly secured and pose no immediate risk or danger to the immediate public’, Buchanan said. But Svetlana Utkina, a Russian expert with UNMOVIC, said that if the container, the size of a Coca-Cola can, had evaporated it could have been lethal and ‘a couple of people will be dead’. The inspectors were sifting through 125 five-drawer cabinets, containing 16 years of inspection reports, much of it sensitive material, said Brian Mullady, an UNMOVIC expert. ‘And we have artifacts in Baghdad still, these are the actual remnants of the weapons including pieces of a Scud missile that was taken a decade ago by the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), which dismantled Iraq’s weapons of destruction, he said.”
Read the Reuters report here.