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Subscribe to RSSThe disclosure that unidentified remains from the 9/11 attack were buried in a landfill was a small part of a larger report on problems at the military's mortuary at Dover, Del. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
Updated at 8:38 p.m ET: For the first time, the Defense Department acknowledged Tuesday that some cremated remains of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were dumped in a landfill, conduct the White House called "unacceptable."
The disclosure is just two paragraphs in an 86-page report released Tuesday by an independent task force reviewing operations at the military's mortuary at Dover, Del.
 M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. |
In a contentious briefing for reporters at the Pentagon, retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the panel, tried to keep the focus on steps the military was taking going forward, saying the 9/11 findings were only a minor part of the task force's work.
Asked repeatedly for more information, he said, "We did not spend a great deal of time and effort and energy" on the matter, adding forcefully: "It's my report, but it's not the focus of the report."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta formed the task force in December after an investigation by the Air Force, which runs the facility, found that some remains of U.S. military personnel weren't handled "in accordance with procedures."
The Air Force acknowledged that it had disposed of the incinerated remains of at least 274 service members in the landfill before it ended the practice in 2008. At the time, officials said records went back only to 2003.
But the independent panel found that the practice went back at least to 2001, and it discovered that "several portions of remains" recovered from the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon and at Shanksville, Pa., also ended up in a landfill:
Prior to 2008, portions of remains that could neither be tested nor identified, and portions of remains later identified that the [family or other representative] requested not to be notified of (requesting that they be appropriately disposed of) were cremated under contract at a civilian crematory and returned to [Dover]. This policy began shortly after September 11, 2001, when several portions of remains from the Pentagon attack and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site could not be tested or identified.
These cremated portions were then placed in sealed containers that were provided to a biomedical waste disposal contractor. Per the biomedical waste contract at that time, the contractor then transported these containers and incinerated them. The assumption on the part of [Dover] was that after final incineration nothing remained. A [Dover] management query found that there was some residual material following incineration and that the contractor was disposing of it in a landfill. The landfill disposition was not disclosed in the contractual disposal agreement.
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said they hadn't yet had a chance to review the entire report.
Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/Defense Department
'It's my report, but it's not the focus of the report,' retired Gen. John Abizaid, chairman of the review panel, insisted.
"This is new information to me," Donley acknowledged when asked about the 9/11 victims by NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski. Schwartz, asked the same question, replied, "That's what I'm saying."
In a statement Tuesday night, the White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the findings and was determined that "these types of incidents never happen again."
Calling the report's details "unacceptable," the White House said, "The United States has a solemn obligation to compassionately and professionally care for fallen service members and their families, and those we tragically lost on 9/11."
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who has sought answers to what happened at Dover since last year, said the report bore out what he believed all along.
"I suspected, as Gen. Abizaid's panel has now confirmed, that these practices had been going on for many years. Even remains from the 9/11 terrorist attacks were treated in this way," Holt said in a statement to msnbc.com.
"The Department of Defense needs to engage in some real soul-searching," Holt said. "How is it possible that, for years or even decades, no one at Dover recognized how profoundly inappropriate these practices were?"
'Commanders in name only'
Abizaid told reporters that the Air Force's complex command structure led to the problems by creating "commanders in name only."
But "this was not just an Air Force problem," he said, adding that the entire U.S. military "needs to understand this is a 100 percent no-fail mission."
For one thing, he said, the Dover facility should no longer cremate fallen troops, because "we think it's a bad idea for DoD to be in the cremation business" in the first place.
The Dover facility is the first point of entry for U.S. service members who are killed or die overseas. It first came under investigation in 2010 after employees complained about how some cases were handled.
Investigators said last year that they had found no evidence that anyone intentionally mishandled the remains, but they concluded that the mortuary staff failed to "maintain accountability" with some remains.
"The standard is 100 percent accountability in every instance of this important mission," Schwartz said at the time.
"We can, and will, do better, and as a result of the allegations and investigation, our ability to care for our fallen warriors is now stronger,” he said.
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Its not like entire bodies are missing. Small bits and pieces recovered from sites long after the main parts are recovered. pieces used for DNA testing or from the Autopsy. Mostly bits and pieces.
Care to guess how often that happens in virtually every Hospital and mortuary in the country every single day?
charges going off? really people? WTC two planes crash into it and its a cover up.
Get on prozac now. PA field...what did that cover up? wishfully speaking OBAMA...but no such luck.
Yes, many people reported hearing charges and multiple explosions after the planes hit. It was on the news for days after the event because they were interviewing people that escaped.
what are you talking about...this all happen under Bush...the caring president...the president of the little people...yada...yada...yada...
William Rodriguez, "the last man out", hero. honored at the White House, told everyone that would listen that bombs were going off in the subfloors of the North Tower, BEFORE the plane hit the 97 th floor. No jet fuel got below the second sky-lobby, so you can forget about trying to use that as a timing excuse.
looks like the GOP does know how to cut cost...
After having read a majority of the posts on this article I can say that the bulk of you make me sick. You have become so focused on who should be blamed, this president, that president or some other government agency you have lost sight of the real tragedy here. Human remains both military and civilian were mishandled and shuttled off to a landfill for the sake of expediency. It was part of a giant coverup and needs to be revealed and not allowed to ever happen again.
"No deliberate acts, just poor acountabiliy". Talk-about spin jobs!
For once, some of you hypocrites on here can NOT blame Obama for this!!!
Why would anyone blame any President? Its the government employees and military personnel who's responsibility it was to properly handle these remains who should be fired, and I mean Immediately!
Hey, when is America going to get up from in front of their TV sets and take a stand?
Let's stop our bitchen' and start a revolution!!!!
@!$%# the crony crooks only out to line their own pockets at the world's expense!!!
I was coming out of my local grocery store last week - got in my car and drove to the light to make my turn. There sat a veteran, in a wheelchair with no legs, holding a sign that he was hungry. Taped to the sign was his Military ID. I'm an Army Brat and familiar with the ID Cards. I decided to turn around, park my car, and go talk to him. I sat with him for about 30 minutes, while he told me his story and how he was immediately cast out when he returned from Vietnam. My father is a retired Vietnam Veteran. He served our country for 30 years. I held this man's hands and told him how much I appreciated what he has done for me. He cried, I cried and he was glad to have someone to talk to. I offered to buy him lunch. He let me "take his order" and I went to pick up some food for him. I am ashamed that we treat our veterans with such disrespect after ALL they have given. Our veterans should not be homeless and begging for food and they certainly deserve proper burials. This just sickens me and I am embarrassed for us that this is how we treat them.
The treatment of Vietnam vets really bothers me. I think back to the news on TV and in newspapers that I managed to catch a glimpse of. While I was only in elementary school and kept in the dark about most of it, I can remember not getting an answer when I asked why people were so mean and angry with soldiers getting off the plane.
As an adult many years later, I couldn't understand what was making me so sad watching returning soldiers being treated like hero's they are. I understood after a time that it was the treatment of soldiers from Vietnam. The majority of the boys who went to Vietnam were drafted. Boys expected to go to war like men, boys who couldn't vote or drink in America because they were too young. And even now so many of them have no trust or faith in anybody because of the treatment they received back then on American soil. Those who came back home came home as men who deserved all the honor and respect soldiers of today do. Instead they had people spit on them. And the didn't have the resources and support available now.
I have a couple friends several years older who are Vietnam vets and are complete opposite. One made it mentally and mostly physically. The other became an alcoholic, mentally and emotionally scarred. Once drunk enough he'd have the dt's and relive moments from his time in Vietnam, hearing and seeing things nobody else could, hiding from soldiers, thinking a cluster of parked cars were setup as a bomb, warning people to bug out. He's been sober now for 4 years and still counts the time by days.
So thank your father for me. And when you see that soldier again thank him too. You're right, they deserve so much better.
when two planes crash in and about an office building the size of the WTC I'm pretty dang sure there is going to be some noise...wow...maybe even a lot of noise...ITS PLANES! Would it be sorta easy to maybe think that with all the utilities involved in a structure that size and THE PLANES going in the building that might be what people heard or saw? Aftermath....good grief.
Why is Dover AFB cremating bodies instead of turning the bodies over to the families?
Yeah! Just like the people sacrificed in the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah building to cover up indiscretions by the FBI and ATF, at the behest of the Justice Department, in the massacre of innocents at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
The demolition of the Murrah building burned, blew up and buried documents that would have otherwise incriminated Janet Reno and many others for those crimes.
The monsters who control our government don't give one hoot about human lives....they only aspire to gain power and dominion and to rob us of our hard earned money.
If anyone thinks 911 was a cover up they are crazy. And Jlew911 your right Obama cannot be blamed..he's not smart enough to pull off that type of stunt.
AMEN!
Crazy like a fox!
"where they were put by a contractor" That says it all. The government keeps shuffling off its responsibilites to contractors in an effort to save money. But these contractors are often paid more than government workers or military personnel. Often, no one checks up on them to keep them accountable for their actions until something like this comes out.
Un-freaking believable. I don't know what is more disturbing-this article or the conspiracy theories associated with 9/11. God bless the USA
Just what were they supposed to do with them? Body parts are disposed of every day.
WTF?!!!!
Damn, I could make a FORTUNE selling tin foil hats to the conspiracy nuts in this blog.
The conspirators have made a fortune selling their snake oil to believers in their side show!
I wish i could say the same thing about all the Bush-butt-lickers here. But they already have their tinfoil hats!
They had to get rid of the evidence quick...
How does bin Laden get a private burial at sea if this is done with our own troops?
I sure hope I don't get dumped into a land fill when I die... it's almost like a scene out of a murder movie. Whoever let this happen should not be in command. What a horrible place to be sent to rest.
I'm shocked!!!
BENF13
if you need a partner making those hats let me know. LOL
I'm sure it is a monumental task but the government got us into the war they should do a better job of taking care of the remains.
Wonder if there were any copies of the Qur'an in the stuff they dumped. That would be ironic considering who brought the buildings down.
Ok, enough friggin idiocy. Can't many of you think before you opine and make a fool of youself? Chinese gold??Screwed up military? Republican plots? Democrat attacks? What total, BS? The fact of the matter is that with over 3000 people killed on 9/11 AND most of them obliterated beyond human recognition - THINK vaporized flesh, hundreds of thousands of bone fragments million of pieces of flesh? Can your minds comprehend that it might be improbable to leave a piece of skin the size of a postage stamp or a chunk of bone charred into a lump of carbon in Dover or ANYWHERE for the next 10,000 years. You people that are so fast to judge have most likely NEVER been in a mass-casualty situation where not only immediate death, but perhaps death from disease etc. is also a threat. The only people that are screwed UP JR are the ones that hold the military or government or ANYONE at a level of human response that is inconcievably stupid, and the only reason we have to hear this crap over and over again is because of the media and people that are so scared of losing their jobs and positions that they have to "reveal' new information. Give me a break. All this does is open wounds again for people that have probably come to grips with their grief over losing loved ones, further traumatize first and second responders who did their best to deal with the situation, and give IDIOTS and MORONS a forum once again to run off at the mouth. One last comment, what do you think hospitals do with bits of flesh they remove during debridement, and what do you think police officers do with cars where people have been splattered all over the upholstery in motor vehicle accidents. I'll TELL you - if its not on the body or a complete limb or part of the torso it goes with the car to the dump or in the hazardous substances bin in the hospital for eventual incineration. Enough said!!!
JP-345944
Thanks. I feel better now! Well said.
JP-you are so right. People don't have a clue of what happens to organs taken during surgery, teeth pulled by dentist. what really is in that expensive urn they invested in. This story doesn't even state enough facts to Read between the lines and come up with a story. This story doesnothing but harm those that lost their loved ones. Seriously did people think the people ash was separated from the building ash? What did people really think happened to all of that 100,000 tons of debris? I some how suspect Bin's body was not necessarily buried at sea as people believe. I would be real surprised if pieces-DNA and such doesn't show up in a few decades from now. No real story here except some one trying to make a buck and politics as usual.