 |
A total of 184 people wee killed at the Pentagon
on September 11, 2001 |
Partial remains of some victims of
the 11 September attacks ended up in landfill, a Pentagon report has found.
Some small portions of unidentifiable remains from the Pentagon, and from the
Pennsylvania field where a hijacked plane crashed in 2001, were given to a
private contractor for disposal.
The fragments "could not be tested or identified,"
the
review said.
The disposal came to light as the US defence department probed practices at
the military's Dover Port mortuary.
The air base at Dover, in the state of Delaware, is the main point of entry
to the US for the bodies of troops killed while serving overseas.
However, an investigation by the Washington Post newspaper uncovered evidence
that unidentified body parts were being cremated and disposed of in a
landfill. The practice of putting partial unidentified remains in landfill was stopped
in 2008.
COMMAND WEAKNESSES
The official report into the Dover mortuary found that this practice began
shortly after the September 11 attacks, when "several portions of remains from
the Pentagon attack and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site could not be
tested or identified".
"Every step will be taken to protect the honour and respect
that their loved ones richly deserve”
Leon Panetta US Secretary of Defense
It confirmed that the base's mortuary cremated
unidentified fragments, then gave them to a biomedical waste disposal
contractor. This contractor incinerated the remains and then put any material left over
in a landfill site.
Officials at the Dover mortuary assumed that "after final incineration
nothing remained", the report says. There is no suggestion that remains of victims who died in New York were
handled in this way.
Speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon, retired General John Abizaid
said: "We don't think it should have happened."
A total of 184 people died when a hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon on
September 11, 2001. Forty people were killed when another plane crashed in a
field in Pennsylvania, after passengers overpowered the hijackers.
The Pentagon review of the Dover practices, chaired by retired US Army
General John Abizaid, was hailed by US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
It "highlights weaknesses in the overall command and oversight structure at
the Dover Port Mortuary", Mr Panetta conceded.
In a statement, he promised "the families of our fallen heroes... that every
step will be taken to protect the honour and respect that their loved ones
richly deserve".
BBC New US & Canada
