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U.S. Says 13 FBI Agents Stole From Ground Zero
By Michael Powell and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 27, 2004; Page A10
NEW YORK -- Thirteen FBI agents have been accused of grabbing items
including uniform patches, chunks of marble and a Tiffany globe from the
World Trade Center's wreckage, the latest in a two-year line of contractors,
firefighters and even Mafia gangs accused of ghoulish thefts from Ground
Zero and the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island.
A confidential report by the Justice Department's inspector general
highlights the alleged pilferage by FBI agents. It prompted FBI officials to
announce a new policy this week banning agents from taking anything from
crime or evidence scenes.
The FBI has disciplined just one agent so far -- an Oklahoma-based agent who
hauled away about 80 pounds of World Trade Center detritus, including
clothing patches and rubble, according to FBI and congressional sources who
have seen a report by the Justice Department's inspector general. The agent
was suspended for 10 days and has returned to the job, these sources said.
The inspector general's findings were first reported Wednesday by NBC News.
Many Americans view Ground Zero, and the Staten Island landfill where so
many officers sifted debris for human remains, as hallowed sites akin to
graveyards.
In the 21/2 years since the World Trade Center towers were destroyed,
however, dozens of civilians and a handful of uniformed employees have been
prosecuted for stealing items from the site. Mafia gangs are accused of
stealing tons of steel while helping to truck it to the Fresh Kills
landfill.
"The FBI agents are not the only ones accused of this," said Sally
Regenhard, who lost a son in the twin towers and now directs the Skyscraper
Safety Campaign. "We lost 85 percent of the steel -- there was a gross
mishandling of the material from the World Trade Center."
In a particularly ghoulish recent example of theft, a retired city
firefighter is on trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on 11 counts of petty
larceny for allegedly taking IDs, a wedding photo and a mangled radio.
Samuel Brandon, a Ground Zero cleanup volunteer, bragged to undercover cops
that he had discovered a human head, according to tapes played in court. He
subsequently said he turned the head over to investigators. On the wall of
his home, Brandon displayed a photo of himself holding a human hip bone.
Brandon also acknowledged possessing two IDs from victims whose remains were
never identified by forensic investigators. "It makes me feel bad," Brandon
told an investigator on a tape played in court.
More prosaic accounts of human foibles have also emerged. Local newspapers
have offered stories of firefighters -- 343 of whom died that day -- who
befriended the wives of fallen comrades and then fell in love. The New York
Post cited cases in which firefighters left their families to be with the
widows.
This week's report is the second time in the past two years that FBI agents
have been accused of acting improperly at the World Trade Center cleanup. In
August 2002, FBI agent Jane Turner discovered that a member of the FBI's
elite evidence response team had taken a Tiffany globe valued at $350 from
the complex's wreckage. She put the globe in an evidence bag and turned it
over to the Justice Department's inspector general.
Turner, a 25-year veteran, was later accused of tarnishing the image of the
FBI and the agency moved to dismiss her for poor performance. The case is
mentioned in this week's inspector general's report, according to sources.
In a letter yesterday to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Sen. Charles E.
Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded
criminal prosecution of FBI agents who took items from Ground Zero or Fresh
Kills.
"Many . . . agents, including supervisors, participated in or condoned what
I can only describe as graverobbing," Grassley wrote to Mueller. "This
ghoulish practice by a few agents tarnishes the integrity of the FBI in the
eyes of the public."
Grassley noted that private contractors had been prosecuted for such thefts.
A judge sentenced one man, caught stealing watches, cameras and credit
cards, to 10 years in prison. "You were down there at Ground Zero at a time
of great stress in this country," New York State Judge Lewis Stone declared
at the sentencing. "And you were there for stealing things."
The FBI said in a statement that more than 400 FBI agents worked on recovery
operations in the World Trade Center case and that "there was no indication
that anything was taken for personal gain" or use. FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell
said it appeared the items were intended as harmless mementos.
--
"We should not march into Baghdad. To occupy Iraq would
instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab
world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-
day Arab hero. Assigning young soldiers to a fruitless
hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning
them to fight in what would be an unwinable urban guerilla
war, it could only plunge that part of the world into ever
greater instability."
-George H. W. Bush in his 1998
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Brian Wickham wrote:
On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 14:07:25 GMT, Agent_C <Agent-C-hates-spam@nyc.rr.com> wrote: I agree. It's just human nature to want to save something to commemorate an historic event in which one has participated. People have been doing it since the beginning of time. Anyone who thinks those agents don't have an emotional stake in the sifting of the WTC debris must be disconnected from the rest of humanity.
of your life/home should it suffer tragedy and burn to the ground:
***IDs, a wedding photo and a mangled radio.
*** bragged to undercover cops that he had taken a human head,
*** On the wall of his home,*** a photo of himself holding a human hip bone.
--
To put it in perspective, here are 9 ways Bush got favored treatment in the
service due to his political connections (he
was then son of a Congressman and grandson of a former Senator):
1) He got into the Guard by pulling strings, avoiding the year and a half
waiting list;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#got in
2) He took a 2-month vacation in Florida after just 8 weeks, (1 of 3 leaves), to
work on a political campaign;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#firstleave
3) Bush skipped Officer Candidate School and got a special commission as a 2nd
Lieutenant, without qualifications;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#2ndLt
4) He was assigned to a safe plane (being phased out of active service), the
F-102 ;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#f102
5) During flight school, he was flown on a government jet to Washington for a
date with President Nixon's daughter Tricia ;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#date
6) Bush got an illegal transfer (later overruled) to a base with no work;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#moreleave
7) He simply didn't show up for a YEAR, AWOL with no penalty;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#AWOL
8) George W. skipped all his medical exams after they started drug tests, and
was removed from flight status;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#drugtest
9) He ended his service 10 months early to go to Harvard Business School;
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#discharge
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