Keeping A Piece of 9/11: Ethics?
By Karl-Thomas Musselman
The AP is reporting that Secretary of Defence Rumsfled and FBI officials, kept pieces of debris from the 9/11 attacks.
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 Sept. 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 Sept. 11, 2001.
...
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."
...
D'Amuro, now the head of the FBI's New York office, told investigators that "he asked for a piece of the building as a memento" and that he was aware that agents had taken such items from other terrorist crime scenes over the years.
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.
Yeah, sure, it must be pretty cool to have a piece of 9/11. Too bad we all can't have something, you know, like twisted metal or dead bodies. This is just a tad bit sickening. Yeah, just a tad.
Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at March 12, 2004 10:28 PM
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It is a small example, but one nonetheless of why these Rpublicans think they are "above" everyone else. They think, sure, there are laws against pilfering these pieces, but why should they apply to "us."
WhomMe?, you mean like:
"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
- George W. Bush, Washington Post, 11-19-02
This one got me: "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."
"Ghoulish" indeed.
I am no psychiatrist, but here goes. Most of these Republicans are chickenhawks. (Who can name one prominent Republican who was a Vietnam combat veteran?) Every bully (which they definitely are) is a coward deep down within. These tokens of disaster are a way for them to vicariously experience disaster and, in their own mind, display an ersatz sense of courage.
They exhibit the same kinds of psychoses of those twisted people that rent the "Faces of Death" videos. Ghoulish indeed.
