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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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To: Pokey78
One word:

SCRAPPLE

61 posted on 10/05/2001 5:38:54 PM PDT by AlaninSA
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To: fnord
Yes, but a memorial spitoon could travel all 50 states.
62 posted on 10/05/2001 5:39:22 PM PDT by cyberwatcher
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To: Pokey78
Wait 'til their families ask for the remains ... then make sure their mommas see the evidence (bar room carousing, gambling, lap dancing) that their "good little martyrs" were religious frauds.
63 posted on 10/05/2001 5:40:53 PM PDT by AngrySpud
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To: Redcloak
(Extra credit: Booby-trap the containers so that they explode when opened.)

Double extra credit: Put the explosives under the corpses, so not only do the containers explode, but they spray bits of hijacker and pig fat everywhere.

64 posted on 10/05/2001 5:41:15 PM PDT by xm177e2
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Comment #65 Removed by Moderator

To: Free the USA
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

The stuff we're discussing is more for the psychological effect on their living buddies.

Plus, knowing what we did with their remains could be just one more annoying thing about being in Hell

66 posted on 10/05/2001 5:42:18 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor
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To: fnord
Ari Fleischer should call old Wolf Blitzenidiot down and release a statement for immediate distribution:

The terrorists bodies will be disposed of by groudning their ashes into pig feed. The pig feed shall be fed to the diritest swine Arkansas can produce. We will return the bodies of the hijackers to their famiies shortly after their remains are confirmed to be pig $##t. Your terrorists are coming home as pig terds, the same way they were when they got here.

67 posted on 10/05/2001 5:42:34 PM PDT by ChinaThreat
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To: Pokey78
I suggested to my hubby that we stuff pigs' feet in their coffins. He suggested we deliver them to bin Laden, strapped to a laser guided missle!
68 posted on 10/05/2001 5:43:30 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: Heisenburger
Smother the remains in pig fat, mutilate whatever genitalia can be found, and then cremate them.

You got the first two steps right - Then just feed them to the hogs...

69 posted on 10/05/2001 5:44:22 PM PDT by LouD
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To: Criminal Number 18F
Although most folks seemingly are seeking to "top" each other for grossness, spite or nastiness, yours is the most ethical and moral.

Kudos to you.

Sursum Corda

70 posted on 10/05/2001 5:45:51 PM PDT by Sursum Corda
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To: SauronOfMordor
see reply 52
71 posted on 10/05/2001 5:46:06 PM PDT by Free the USA
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To: SauronOfMordor
If the USA follows history in these matters then I would point out that a similiar problem arose with what the country should do with the body of John Wilkes Booth after he killed President Lincoln. Fearing his body would be a shrine to the south, the Army dumped him into a river so that his remains would be lost forever. I suggest we should dump the terrorists bodies into the same river in Virginia.
72 posted on 10/05/2001 5:46:46 PM PDT by johnnyjumpstart
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To: Pokey78
Why not follow the hijackers' requests for burial to the letter?

We don't wanna offend the Moslem community or anything.

73 posted on 10/05/2001 5:47:17 PM PDT by WDG55513
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To: Messianic_Zionist
Put the matter to a vote of the families of the rest of the victims.
74 posted on 10/05/2001 5:48:24 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: Free the USA
"Not a concept I believe has any validity."

Ah, but what matters is what THEY (and their leaders) believe. They should be treated exactly as fits the worst nightmares of their "religion".

75 posted on 10/05/2001 5:48:29 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: TADSLOS
Bury 'em in the graveyard of history's abandoned and forgotten lies...

I'll second this one.

76 posted on 10/05/2001 5:48:34 PM PDT by zbogwan2
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To: Pokey78
Find some hungry pigs....
77 posted on 10/05/2001 5:48:59 PM PDT by isthisnickcool
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To: Pokey78
Ship them back where they came from. When the big party starts and everyone is toteing the coffins around Kabul and screaming "Death to America" drop a big ass bomb right dead center of the crowd. Then send them some shovels, brooms and more body bags with the American Flag sewn on each one.
78 posted on 10/05/2001 5:49:13 PM PDT by Flint
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To: soccergirl
Isn't it possible that some form of publicize ritual COULD actually deter future suicide attacks? That is if there is a ritual which will deny the terrorist perceived entrance into paradise?

I've read that the gates of Paradise are denied to any buried with animals...
That's why the idea of being buried with pigs or dumping them into a hog lagoon on a moonless night is soooo delicious!
Would work as a deterrent too!
79 posted on 10/05/2001 5:50:50 PM PDT by hypatia
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To: Sursum Corda
If we go this route, I say burial at sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Don't even give them a river.
80 posted on 10/05/2001 5:51:39 PM PDT by drlevy88
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