Some of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction have been found in New York – in the offices of the U.N. inspectors who went to Iraq looking for them more than a decade ago.
The ensuing chemical-weapons scare yesterday emptied out the sixth floor of 866 U.N. Plaza, not far from the world body’s headquarters.
But the tiny vials of potentially deadly phosgene posed no serious threat, authorities insisted.
U.N. workers archiving the files of UNMOVIC, whose inspectors searched for chemical weapons in Iraq, found the vials last Friday, authorities said. After finding the chemicals, U.N. workers sealed them in a safe, which they isolated in a secure room.
But it wasn’t until Wednesday that workers found inventory records stating that one of the tiny containers held phosgene, which, in gas form, was used as a weapon in World War I and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.
Officials declined to explain why they waited until yesterday afternoon to remove the chemicals, which apparently were mistakenly shipped to the UNMOVIC office in 1996.
The liquid chemical was in two small metal and glass containers “ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen,” police said. Air testing uncovered no danger, cops said.
A police vehicle transported the containers to a helicopter, which flew them out of the city, cops said. Authorities said the chemicals were to be taken to a military facility, but they would not be more specific.
The United Nations says it’s investigating how the chemical wound up in Manhattan 11 years ago instead of at an appropriate testing lab.
Phosgene is used to make plastics, pesticides, dyes and drugs. It gained infamy in World War I as a chemical weapon that killed more troops than mustard gas.
In gas or liquid form, phosgene is an irritant that can damage the skin, eyes, nose, throat or lungs, and has a smell like musty hay. It kills by causing the lungs to collapse.
The vials found yesterday were taken in 1996 from al Muthanna, a former Iraqi chemical weapons facility, the United Nations said. bill.sanderson@nypost.com