Still looking for WMDs? Found ‘em!

You know how when you’re desperately looking for something and it ends up being right under your nose? Well, those pesky weapons of mass destruction that were the rallying cry for entering Iraq may have been easier to find than we originally thought.

Reuters is reporting that the U.N. found vials of a chemical agent, which was removed from Iraq in 1996, in a U.N. building near its headquarters in New York. Maybe our search should have started on the East River instead of the Euphrates?

Among the agents stumbled upon was Phosgene, which was actually used in World War I, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Chemical warfare and all its grandeur — minus the dreaded, foreboding acronym WMD — was introduced to the world well before our current collection of Middle East madmen.

However, in this case, we all can breathe easy (no pun intended) — officials said there was no danger from the recently discovered vials.

-FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor