Why Were Iraq Chemical WMD Stored At The United Nations?

Chemical Weapons Scare at U.N. Headquarters

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.

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.

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 Iraq 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.

Story Here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gee, I wonder what else the United Nations has hidden from us from Iraq? And what all do they have stashed or stored from Iraq, Iran and God knows from where else?

Gonzales Quits/This Is Crap

This is bulls***! Congress ran this man through the mud over 8 fired US Attorney's? Asked him questions he couldnt possibly answer because most of it was classified, and Congress made him look like he was lying, and a bungling fool. When President Clinton fired all 93 US Attorney's!! And all this crap over Bush firing 8? These Attorney's served at the pleasure of the President. Why oh why is it alright for President Clinton to fire 93 US Attorney's and not this President? And Alberto Gonzales went through absolute hell with Congress who now think they run the entire Country, and the Iraqi Government.



Instead of Alberto Gonzales stepping down, we should have DEMANDED the Democrats in Congress step down.

Condradulations Democrats, you turned a NOTHING into SOMETHING and got what you wanted, a good man who did NOTHING wrong to step down. Friggen Morons

Where is the outrage over William Jefferson still in office, caught with $90,000 dollars in bribe money in his freezer? Where the hell are the investigations? Where the hell is the OUTRAGE?

Story Here

UPDATE:
President Bush Remarks:

This morning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that he will leave the Department of Justice after two and a half years of service to the department.

Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle, and I have reluctantly accepted his resignation with great appreciation for the service that he has provided for our country.

As attorney general and before that as White House counsel, Al Gonzales has played a critical role in shaping our policies in the war on terror and has worked tirelessly to make this country safer. The Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and other important laws bear his imprint.

Under his leadership, the Justice Department has made a priority of protecting children from Internet predators, made enforcement of civil rights laws a top priority. He aggressively and successfully pursued public corruption and effectively combated gang violence.

As attorney general, he played an important role in helping to confirm two fine jurists in Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

He did an outstanding job as White House counsel, identifying and recommending the best nominees to fill critically important federal court vacancies.

Alberto Gonzales' tenure as attorney general and White House counsel is only part of a long history of distinguished public service that began as a young man when after high school he enlisted in the United States Air Force.

When I became governor of Texas in 1995, I recruited him from one of Texas' prestigious law firms to be my general counsel. He went on to become Texas' 100th secretary of state and to serve on our state's supreme court.

In the long course of our work together this trusted adviser became a close friend.

These various positions have required sacrifice from Al, his wife Becky, their sons Jared, Graham and Gabriel. And I thank them for their service to the country.

After months of unfair treatment, that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision.

It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.

Full Text Of President Bush's Message

Democrats Try To Refocus Message On Iraq After Military Gains

Democrats Refocus Message On Iraq After Military Gains

Well we all knew this was coming. The party of retreat and defeat is trying to change it's position AGAIN!!! Sorry fools, you are the party that said "The War Is Lost", we MUST leave Iraq NOW, and a Victory in Iraq would be very (Bad) for us. You arent going to have it both way's. You retreated, you will be defeated! There is NOTHING you can say that the American people will believe. Here's a *snip* of the Democrats new position!?!?!?!

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.

And now the Democrats, along with wavering Republicans, will face an advertising blitz from Bush supporters determined to remain on offense. A new pressure group, Freedom's Watch, will unveil a month-long, $15 million television, radio and grass-roots campaign today designed to shore up support for Bush's policies before the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, lays out a White House assessment of the war's progress. The first installment of Petraeus's testimony is scheduled to be delivered before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a fact both the administration and congressional Democrats say is simply a scheduling coincidence.

The leading Democratic candidates for the White House have fallen into line with the campaign to praise military progress while excoriating Iraqi leaders for their unwillingness to reach political accommodations that could end the sectarian warfare.



"We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Anbar province, it's working," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday.

"My assessment is that if we put an additional 30,000 of our troops into Baghdad, that's going to quell some of the violence in the short term," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) echoed in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "I don't think there's any doubt that as long as U.S. troops are present that they are going to be doing outstanding work."

Advisers to both said theirs were political as well as substantive statements, part of a broader Democratic effort to frame Petraeus's report before it is released next month by preemptively acknowledging some military success in the region. Aides to several Senate Democrats said they expect that to be a recurring theme in the coming weeks, as lawmakers return to hear Petraeus's testimony and to possibly take up a defense authorization bill and related amendments on the war.

Story Here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not a chance! You Democrats will have your retreat-in-defeat remarks and stance's shoved right down your throats!! Those of us that have stood by the Troops and the President through all this never let our Troops nor our Country down. You Democrats are fake as fake can be. We arent going to let you forget how you let down the Troops, The American People, and Our Country!

Also Blogging:

Captain America

What's This? Hillary Admitting The Surge Is Working?

Is Hillary admitting the Surge in Iraq is working? Is she admitting we are in a much bigger war? The War On Terror? Or is this her stand on this issue this week?

You be the judge:

And I Thought I had Seen It All In Oklahoma

A Hurricane, In Oklahoma?

This was an unusual event to say the least. Evidently Tropical Storm "Erin" was just passing through Oklahoma until it got caught up in our jetstream and what happened next was stunning. Weather forecasters were going crazy trying to keep up with this event and on every channel they were all saying "I dont know how to describe this to everyone but we have a Hurricane in Oklahoma!!" They couldnt send out the storm chasers because they had no idea where or when a Tornado might touch down. Get a load of this:

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Erin Over Oklahoma



Here is a snip of what the weather forecasters were saying:

It is hard to believe but the remnants of Erin have strengthened a bit and it is now classified as Tropical Depression Erin. The area of low pressure is currently over Oklahoma. With the low to our south and moisture being drawn into the area we are looking at a day with more clouds than sun and also on and off showers and thunderstorms. Some of the rain may be heavy in spots. Already this morning heavy downpours have been occurring over parts of Lafayette, Ray, and Carroll Counties in Missouri.

From Gary: "Below are two pictures of Erin showing the radar ehoes from around 6:40 AM this morning. Erin had, what appeared to be an eye. Look at this, it is really amazing! And, even more so that Kansas City is being left high and dry so far. It still makes no sense to me. Hopefully later today we will get some rain. We certainly have the influence from the clouds of this tropical system"



What a night in Oklahoma! This has got to be one for the record books.

Story Here

Barack Obama Owes Our Troops An Apology

Obama's Comments On Afghanistan Draw Sharp Rebuke From Romney Campaign

Democratic presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen Barack Obama, D-Il., listens to citizens' concerns during a campaign stop in Hanover, N.H., Monday, Aug. 13. His comments on the U.S. role in Afghanistan drew a sharp rebuke from Mitt Romney's campaign.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire Tuesday for saying that U.S. troops in Afghanistan are "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians." The junior senator from Illinois made the comment Monday at a campaign stop in Nashua, New Hampshire.

"We've got to get the job done there," he said of Afghanistan. "And that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there."

The comment drew a rebuke Tuesday from the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"That is a very troubling remark on so many levels," said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. "Most importantly, it's emblematic of Senator Obama's lack of experience for the job of commander-in-chief. But it's also an entirely inaccurate condemnation of the efforts of the men and women of the United States military who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."




A spokesman for Obama, who will speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Missouri next week, did not immediately respond to Madden's criticism.

The flap comes three weeks after Obama promised that if elected president, he would meet without pre-conditions with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. That pledge was called "irresponsible and frankly naive" by rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Eight days later, eager to rebut Clinton's charge, Obama said that as president, he might send U.S. troops into Pakistan to fight terrorists not targeted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," he vowed.

Critics called this overly hawkish, prompting Obama to modulate again the next day by ruling out the use of nuclear weapons to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance," he told the AP before pausing.

"Involving civilians," he added. "Let me scratch that. There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table."

The gaffe was criticized by Clinton, who said: "I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons."

Clinton has been criticized for a statement about Iran last year in which she said "I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table."

On Tuesday, Clinton's campaign declined to comment on Obama's remark about U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Story Here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How DARE Barack Obama accuse our Troops of Air Raiding Villages and Killing Innocent Civilians and then want to be the Commander-In-Cheif of our armed forces!! This is beginning to sound alot like Senator Kerry and John Murtha. This idiot wants to have tea with our enemies and bomb our allies, is he insane? Obama Owes Our Troops an Apology!

Democrat's Steal Votes: House Goes Bizzerk

House erupts in chaos


In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and a distinct low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber because members of one party have rarely, if ever, walked off the floor without casting a vote.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.



Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

One GOP aide saw McNulty gavel the vote to a close after receiving a signal from his leaders – but before reading the official tally. And votes continued to shift even after he closed the roll call - a strange development in itself.

Whatever the final tally, acrimony quickly exploded between lawmakers on either side of the aisle as Democratic leaders tried to plot a solution, while parliamentarians on either side argued over protocol.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) eventually offered a motion to reconsider, according to floor staff on either side, ostensibly giving members a chance to recast their votes. But the maneuver sparked a chorus of angry protests from the Republicans, yelling “shame” on Democrats, while they returned fire with angry volleys of their own.

When Democrats finally moved to consider the spending bill as the last vote of the night, furious Republicans left the chamber en masse to protest the maneuver. The House eventually recessed at 11:18 p.m. But Republicans quickly discovered that there was no longer any record of the controversial vote and immediately charged Democrats with erasing the bad result.

Roy Blunt Gives Democrats Hell


“Obviously, the Democrats don’t want to stand up against illegal immigration – so much so that they’re willing to cheat in order to win a vote,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said in an e-mail. “They’re desperate – and it shows.”

The official House website did not show a record of the vote as of 1 a.m. Friday.

Story Here

UPDATE:

Dems resort to paper-ballot voting (c. 1938) as House electronic system undergoes mysterious 'engineering problems'...'The tally board is broken. Members can't see how colleagues voted or how much time is left,' says source... Drudge Is Reporting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would pay to see a real good brawl in the House or Senate at this point.

Pakistan Pissed: "Obama Ignorant"

Pakistan Slams Obama's 'Ignorant' Attack Warning

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan accused Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama of "sheer ignorance" on Thursday for threatening to launch US military strikes against Al-Qaida on Pakistani soil.

Obama warned on Wednesday that if he is elected president, he would order US forces to hit extremist targets on Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan if embattled military ruler President Pervez Musharraf failed to act.

"Such statements are being made out of sheer ignorance," Pakistan's Minister of State for Information, Tariq Azeem, said.

"They are not fully apprised about the ground realities and not aware of the efforts by Pakistan."



Islamabad has bristled against a string of similar threats in recent weeks by the administration of US President George W. Bush, whose top counter-terror official in July refused to rule out US strikes in Pakistan.

Musharraf, struggling to contain a wave of Islamist violence unleashed by the army's bloody storming of the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad three weeks ago, last week firmly rejected any US action.

"We have said before that we will not allow anyone to infringe our sovereignty," Azeem said.

"If there is any actionable intelligence they should tell us, and only our forces will take action on it and they are quite capable of it."

The Minister suggested that Obama's comments were prompted by Washington's inability to curb the ongoing Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan, where US-led forces toppled the hardline regime in late 2001.

"This seems to be a reaction to their own failure in Afghanistan to control the US casualties and instead of addressing the situation there, they are finding scapegoats and damaging their own cause," Azeem added.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam on Wednesday warned against "point-scoring" by US presidential candidates on vital security issues.

Musharraf abandoned Islamabad's support for the Taliban in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

He has said that a top US official warned that Pakistan would be bombed back to the "stone age" if it failed to join Washington's "war on terror".

Story Here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Way to go Obama! Way to treat an ally! At the rate he's going we will be at war with Pakistan before we are out of Iraq. Can anyone shut this Lunatic up?

Is This Crap Really Necessary?

Hat Tip To RJay For The Photo Of Hilldabeast

A President Obama Would INVADE PAKISTAN!

Obama Might Send Troops Into Pakistan

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists, an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive.

The Illinois senator warned Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that he must do more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters under an Obama presidency, or Pakistan will risk a U.S. troop invasion and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

"Let me make this clear," Obama said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."



The excerpts were provided by the Obama campaign in advance of the speech.

Obama's speech comes the week after his rivalry with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton erupted into a public fight over their diplomatic intentions.

Obama said he would be willing to meet leaders of rogue states like Cuba, North Korea and Iran without conditions, an idea that Clinton criticized as irresponsible and naive. Obama responded by using the same words to describe Clinton's vote to authorize the Iraq war and called her "Bush-Cheney lite."

The speech was a condemnation of President Bush's leadership in the war on terror. He said the focus on Iraq has left Americans in more danger than before Sept. 11, 2001, and that Bush has misrepresented the enemy as Iraqis who are fighting a civil war instead of the terrorists responsible for the attacks six years ago.

"He confuses our mission," Obama said, then he spread responsibility to lawmakers like Clinton who voted for the invasion. "By refusing to end the war in Iraq, President Bush is giving the terrorists what they really want, and what the Congress voted to give them in 2002: a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences."

Obama said that as commander in chief he would remove troops from Iraq and putting them "on the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan." He said he would send at least two more brigades to Afghanistan and increase nonmilitary aid to the country by $1 billion.

He also said he would create a three-year, $5 billion program to share intelligence with allies worldwide to take out terrorist networks from Indonesia to Africa.

Story Here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next to John Edwards, Obama is the most inept politician I have ever seen. Can you imagine being Pervez Musharraf waking up to this news today? We NEED this guy! Not to mention Pakistan is a sovereign nation who is an ally as best as he can be and at great peril to his own life in the Global War On Terror. Does Obama truly believe that catching Usama (Who I think is dead and has been for some time) and dragging he and his cohorts out of a cave somewhere in Waziristan (If they are really even there) that Al-Qaeda will stop attacking us? Is Obama really that stupid? Obama does NOT have the foreign policy expertise, lacks all sense of Military operations completely, and has no clue how to run a war. Maybe if President CLINTON had of gotten Usama Bin Laden in the '90's when HE had a clear shot to take him out, we wouldnt be in this mess today!!