CNN.com - Justice: Officials kept 9/11 souvenirs - Mar 12, 2004: The Justice Department investigation that criticized FBI agents for taking souvenirs from the World Trade Center site also found that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a high-ranking FBI official kept items from the September 11 attack scenes.
The final investigatory report said the Justice Department inspector general confirmed Rumsfeld "has a piece of the airplane that flew into the Pentagon." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report Friday. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday night that Rumsfeld has a shard of metal from the jetliner that struck the Pentagon on a table in his office and shows it to people as a reminder of the tragedy Pentagon workers shared on September 11, 2001. "He doesn't consider it his own," Di Rita said, adding the piece is on display for the Pentagon. "We are mindful of the fact that if somebody has an evidentiary requirement to have this shard of metal, we will provide it to them."
The Pentagon is a building. I can't imagine that it wants a piece of the plane to display.
Facetiousness aside ... what the hell was he thinking? what sort of person is he that he would want that as a souvenir? What sort of person is he that he would want a souvenir of that? He needs a reminder? Go to New York and look at the big hole in the ground. Better yet, go around the corner in his own damn building and look at that shiny new section that ought not to be there.
...The Justice Department investigation also collected testimony that Pasquale D'Amuro, FBI Director Robert Mueller's executive assistant director for terrorism until last summer, asked a supervisory agent to "obtain a half dozen items from the WTC debris so the items could be given to dignitaries." Six items -- none needed as evidence -- were gathered and sent to D'Amuro, the report said.
One can but imagine the private thoughts of said dignitaries as they receive a piece of a building with bits of plane and blood and other matter as a "memento". (And if they're sick enough to ask for such things, why on earth would we indulge them?)
The report also divulged that FBI agents' removal of items like a Tiffany crystal globe from the World Trade Center rubble gutted a criminal case the bureau was building against a Minnesota contractor that had taken a fire truck door from the same rubble. Prosecutors told the FBI they "might not indict the crime regarding the fire truck door due to government misconduct involving the Tiffany globe," the report said. [...] The Justice Department's report has not been officially released, but heavily deleted versions of the report began circulating around Washington last month showing 13 FBI agents had taken rubble, debris and items such as flags and a Tiffany crystal globe paperweight. The bureau announced it was banning agents from taking items from crimes scenes, but no agents were being charged with crimes because the bureau did not have such a policy during the September 11 investigation.
You know ... you would not think that a criminal investigation agency would need to tell its agents not to remove items from what is, functionally, one really big crime scene. You just wouldn't think that at all. Clearly, you would be wrong.
The report stated FBI agents who worked in New York repeatedly expressed their disgust that visiting agents and supervisors would seek souvenirs from the terrorist attacks. Many interviewed regarded the debris as sacred, the report stated, "and were disgusted by the fact that anyone would want to take items, including pieces of the building which were contaminated with blood and human body parts." The report discloses that among the items taken, agents had cut World Trade Center security patches from the sleeves of shirt pieces found in the rubble.
Even if I could understand the desire to have a piece of the buildings or of the planes -- which I can't, really -- why in the name of heaven would you want pieces of clothing from the people who had died?
Posted by iain at March 15, 2004 12:40 PM
