Rumsfeld Kept 9-11 Souvenir (ZOT!!! Staff to troll: your name fooled no one)

Associated Press ^ | Fri, Mar 12, 2004 | JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer

[ClintonHater]

WASHINGTON - 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.

Investigators learned Rumsfeld had the airplane part after an FBI agent saw a television interview in which the defense secretary was "holding up pieces of building from the WTC and the Pentagon, saying he kept those items on his desk to remember the terrorist attacks."

A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond Friday afternoon for comment.

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 that weren't evidence were gathered and sent to D'Amuro, the report said.

D'Amuro, now the head of the FBI's New York office, said 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.

He said he got a piece of the building in June 2003 but denied asking for items for dignitaries. D'Amuro left the following month from FBI headquarters as Mueller's top terrorism official to become an assistant director in charge of the New York office.

Joe Valiquette, a spokesman for the New York FBI office, declined to comment Friday.

Surviving family members were surprised by the news.

"Unbelievable," said William Doyle, whose son died in the World Trade Center.

A New York woman suing local authorities for alleged negligence in the Sept. 11 attacks said any souvenir-taking by officials was part of a larger failure to keep enough items, like steel beams, as evidence.

"Everybody has things that they probably should not have from the World Trade Center site," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the towers. "I'm sure there's probably all kinds of people that have all kinds of artifacts."

[Ichneumon]

Rumsfeld earned it the hard way. He was in the Pentagon when it was hit, and could easily have been one of the dead. He was also one of the first rescuers.

[EggsAckley]

*YAWN*

welcome to FR

[billorites]

I hope I don't sound insensitive when I suggest that these "survivor families" need to STFU.

[_Jim]

Since this is an AP story and they won't say it (they, it seems, are out to distort the news via misleading headlines) -

- I'll first cite what they wrote "he kept those items on his desk to remember the terrorist attacks" and then surmise that this is in an official capacity and not something he's going to sell later on e-bay for beer money ...

[WinOne4TheGipper]

If they're going to go after Rumsfeld, can I turn my brother in for having pieces of the Murrah Building? Please?

[Republicus2001]

The poetry of d.h. rumsfeld

reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me,
because as we know
there are known knowns
there are things we know we know
we also know there are known unknowns
that is to say we know there are some things we do not know
but there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know

-Department of Defense briefing, 12 Feb 2002

[pogo101]

Boy, if THIS is the best caliber of stuff the DUmmies can troll with ...

I'd be a lot more concerned with a leadership that DIDN'T keep 9/11 in its mind at all times, than with one that strives to with such momentoes as are described in the story.

[pogo101]

these "survivor families"

... are innnnnnnnterestingly, disproportionately (even allowing for the NYC-area's heavily Democratic bias) anti-Bush, eh?

[martin_fierro]

I'll bet you were similarly outraged when Clintoon staffers hawked rare presidential souvenirs taken from the White House on eBay.

[Lion in Winter]

I think it's great that a man whose job it is to help save this country from terrorists, has a reminder right there in front of him daily of just how evil terrorist are! KEEPS THE FOCUS on saving us from tyranny and despots like saddam insane.

kerry is such a wuss that all he ever did in the "service" to this country was to MURDER a wounded Viet Cong soldier... a war crime by the way... you do know shooting wounded foes is illegal... don't you?

kerry IS the only man to run for the office of President of the U.S.A. who is an ADMITTED... and under oath to boot... MURDERER AND A WAR CRIMINAL.

BUSH is my choice and I stand with him.

As for the cowardly democRats... they lie down in the cesspool with kerry.

[Darksheare]

Umm.. *yawn*
Would you be the previous troll who used the name clintonhtr/h8r?

[Darksheare]

You're too stupid to flame.
Perhaps if you showed more LIFE to you and more WORTH at flaming, I'd be HALF-BOTHERED to flame you properly.
As it sits, I'll merely say nasty things about your mother and how well she put the quarter I gave her last night to use.

[Fiddlstix]

LOL! Nothing beats a good ZOT!

[OldFriend]

May this insensitive person join in your sentiment.......

[Spruce]

Run dog!

[TADSLOS]

I guess this means Kerry will 'fess up on his VC ear collection now.

[mware]

I have a little container of the ash from Mt. St. Helens, and a ashtray made from the lava when Mt. Vesuvus erupted in 1944.

I also remember hearing the story that a fan of John Waynes gave him a piece of the USS Arizona. His dad was stationed on her when she was attacked.After his dad's death, he told John Wayne he wanted him to have it. Wayne said he prized it more than any other gift he ever got from a fan.

[visualops]

The Clintons' IRS returns showed she took tax deductions during the 1980s for donating her husband's used underwear to charity.

LOL maybe she should have sold them on ebay!

[is_is]

So what....i am sitting here lookong at 3 pieces of granite from the federal bldg in OKC...