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Hijackers' bodies set Bush grisly ethical question
The Times (U.K.) ^ | 10/06/2001 | DAMIAN WHITWORTH

Posted on 10/05/2001 4:51:32 PM PDT by Pokey78

IN carefully numbered plastic bags in refrigerated trucks parked at the mortuary at Dover Air Force base in Delaware sit human remains that have presented the Bush Adminstration with an ethical problem.

US investigators told The Times that they had certainly recovered, if not yet identified, the bodies of several of the suicide hijackers, prompting a debate over how to dispose of what is left of the most hated men in America.

The excavation of the Pentagon and Pennsylvania crash sites was completed this week after forensics experts concluded that they had removed all body parts from both scenes. Officials said that although many of the remains were fragmented and charred, DNA tests would eventually identify all of the victims. The bodies of the men who killed them would also be identified, if only by a process of elimination.

The Administration is worried that if it gives the bodies to their families to bury there will be a public outcry. There are also concerns that other Islamic extremists would regard their graves as shrines.

The remains from the plans that crash into Pentagon and in Pennsylvania are being organised at the mortuary at Dover. Some have been identified by traditional methods, such as fingerprints, dental records and other distinguishing features.

Already hundreds of fragments have been taken in test tubes to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) laboratories in Rockville, Maryland, for DNA testing. The institute identified all 230 victims of TWA 800 flight, after that aircraft exploded and the fragments plunged into Long Island Sound in 1996.

Paul Sledzik, the forensic anthropologist who led the search for the 44 passengers, crew and hijackers on board Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, said that he was confident “we are likely to get 44 unique DNA profiles”. Scientists will use genetic material taken from the victims’ possessions, including razors and toothbrushes, or from their relatives, to make DNA matches that reveal the identities of the victims.

The FBI is believed to be extremely anxious to identify the bodies of the hijackers, especially as there are still doubts about some of their identities and there could be trials of other conspirators.

If relatives are persuaded to co-operate in providing reference samples, or the hijackers have left behind genetic material on possessions, the FBI believes that they could be identified.

Even if the identities are not clarified, the authorities will be left with the remains of nine hijackers from the two sites.

There is a precedent for handing over the remains of even the most notorious figures in American life. The body of Gamil el-Batouty, the co-pilot of EgyptAir Flight 990, who apparently committed suicide by crashing the aircraft into the Atlantic in 1999, was quietly returned to his family in Egypt last year for a private burial.

Even the nation’s most loathed murderers are allowed burial after execution.

Chris Kelly of the AFIP indicated that the authorities were reluctant to consider releasing the hijackers’ bodies. “We are not quite sure what will happen to them,” he said, but “we doubt very much we are going to be making an effort to reach family members over there.”

A source close to the investigation said: “There is this idea that if America is a country of justice it should not be seen to stop the mothers of even the worst monsters from burying their sons, but people would be outraged if these men were handed over for a Muslim burial.”

The Justice Department declined to return calls requesting comment on what it planned to do with the hijackers’ bodies. In the short term the remains are likely to be held for several years, in case of legal proceedings.

Mohammed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the hijackers who died in the first plane to hit the World Trade Centre, laid out strict instructions for his funeral in his will, revealed this week.

The likelihood of any sort of burial of his body is, however, vastly diminished by the difficulties of retrieving remains at the World Trade Centre. Of the more than 5,000 who died there, fewer than 400 bodies have been identified.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 10/05/2001 4:51:32 PM PDT by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
How about cremation, followed by mixing their ashes into the porcelain used for special toilets to be installed in the women's restrooms at Yankee Stadium.
2 posted on 10/05/2001 4:55:30 PM PDT by william clark
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To: Pokey78
Stuff them down Osama's throat.
3 posted on 10/05/2001 4:55:36 PM PDT by Cool Guy
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To: Pokey78
Smother the remains in pig fat, mutilate whatever genitalia can be found, and then cremate them.
4 posted on 10/05/2001 4:56:04 PM PDT by Heisenburger
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To: Pokey78
How about burying their remains in a pig pen....
5 posted on 10/05/2001 4:57:26 PM PDT by Dog
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To: Pokey78
Preseve them in lard. We'll figure out what to do with them later...
6 posted on 10/05/2001 4:58:16 PM PDT by null and void
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To: Pokey78
Entomb them in a concrete bin with a dead pig carcus and dump it at the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean.
7 posted on 10/05/2001 4:58:59 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Pokey78
preserve them in the urine of pregnant sows and ship 'em back via air drop -- taping 'em to a gas-air device sounds about right. and in that we cannot be sure where they're from, let's split the difference and drop 'em, one after another, on baghdad.

dep

8 posted on 10/05/2001 4:59:07 PM PDT by dep
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To: Pokey78
send their mothers a pig carcass for their burials.
9 posted on 10/05/2001 5:00:12 PM PDT by GoreIsLove
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To: william clark
I like the way you think william.
10 posted on 10/05/2001 5:00:16 PM PDT by LisaFab
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To: null and void
Preserve them in lard.

I was going to suggest packing them in bacon.

Look at the bright side -- we won't have to decide whether to give the remains to their relatives until some relatives come forward to identify them... That would be a lead to our investigations.

11 posted on 10/05/2001 5:01:14 PM PDT by Dan Day
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To: Pokey78
Pig fodder.
12 posted on 10/05/2001 5:02:48 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
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To: Pokey78
I urge either of the BWB strategies, "Bury With Bacon," or "Burn With Bacon." If the remains are buried with bacon, it probably would be a could idea to toss in a Crucifix. These poor heathens will rot in hell for all eternity and certainly, a little Christian prayer couldn't hurt. The Jews don't believe in life after death, but, what the heck, toss in a Star of David just so the Devil will get a heads up that some folks deserving of special treatment have arrived.
13 posted on 10/05/2001 5:03:01 PM PDT by Tacis
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To: Pokey78
They can't eat pork, but I can't find one passage in the Koran that prevents THEM being fed TO pigs.
14 posted on 10/05/2001 5:03:36 PM PDT by lds23
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To: Pokey78
Feed 'em to the goddamn pigs. I can't believe there is even a question.
15 posted on 10/05/2001 5:03:57 PM PDT by jammer
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To: null and void
They nedd to be reverently buried... in pig fat.
16 posted on 10/05/2001 5:04:05 PM PDT by Quietly
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To: william clark
I like the toilet idea the best. Maybe metered toilets conntected to a digital readout installed over the entrance to the UN: Atta has been pissed on 5,163,702 times, and still counting!

But I'm more worried about the live terrorists than the dead ones. Time to send the ones still living in the USA (mostly on taxpayer subsidy) home to their mommies.

They hate our civilization. Their own culture is deeply and incurably barbaric. We must get them out of our country.

17 posted on 10/05/2001 5:04:11 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: Pokey78
The only problem with abusing their remains is that we would seem to be ackowledging that what happens to a body after death has some bearing on the afterlife. Not a concept I believe has any validity.
18 posted on 10/05/2001 5:04:34 PM PDT by Free the USA
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To: Pokey78
I don't see the ethical question here at all. The hijackers chose of their own demented free wills to commit murder-suicide. Their remains are the property of the victims - meaning all of us U.S. citizens - to do with as we please. They deserve no decent burial, Moslem or otherwise.
19 posted on 10/05/2001 5:04:36 PM PDT by Gordian Blade
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To: Pokey78
The remains should just be dumped into a pig pen somewhere in the midwest (undisclosed) Then 6 months later everyone in the US should have a go to breakfast and order bacon, sausage, and ham with thier eggs!

We eat our enemies for breakfast....who's for lunch?

20 posted on 10/05/2001 5:05:10 PM PDT by Politically Correct
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